Presidential Debate Set, Trump's Crowd-Size Obsession, Pelosi on Biden Legacy
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For every life-saving treatment. For every next step. For every care in the world. Cleveland Clinic. It's Friday, August 9th, right now on CNN This Morning. Well, I'm glad that he's finally agreed to a debate. It's official. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will meet on the debate stage. Will this debate be as consequential to the race as the last? Plus... In history...

For any country, nobody's had crowds like I have. Across all of history, Donald Trump's obsession with crowd size hits a new peak. And this. His legacy will go right down the drain if that what's-his-name ever got in the White House.

Nancy Pelosi weighing in on Joe Biden's legacy and how a Trump second term could impact that. Plus, a little later, she won gold in Tahiti. Caroline Marks is here to reflect on her Olympic journey. All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington, a live look at the White House on this Friday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. It's Friday. We made it.

Donald Trump, accustomed to a life in the tabloids and a presidency that completely dominated almost every news cycle, he's clearly feeling a little left out of the spotlight. With Kamala Harris securing the Democratic nomination in a whirlwind process, Tim Walz making a fiery entrance as her VP pick, even J.D. Vance, Trump's running mate, has been making plenty of his own headlines.

So what is a former president and reality TV star to do? Throw a press conference, naturally, and talk about, well, everything.

We're very close to a world war. Listen, I had 107,000 people in New Jersey. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter. Even heard of heavy into the transgender world. Everybody's going to be forced to buy an electric car. He's not happy with Obama and he's not happy with Nancy Pelosi. Crazy Nancy. She is crazy, too. Even insane. That's a...

It's a mental institution on steroids. That's what it is. Elon is a very different kind of a guy. You have millions and millions of dead people, and you have people dying financially because they can't buy bacon.

That press conference lasted over an hour. It also included a striking moment, which Trump compared his crowd size to Martin Luther King Jr.'s. We're going to have a whole separate segment on that. It wasn't all bluster and insults, though. Yesterday, both candidates did agree to a debate now set for September 10th. I think it's very important to have debates. The other side has to agree to the terms. I'm glad that he's finally agreed to a debate. I'm looking forward to it and...

Hope he shows up. The debate will be hosted by ABC. They will allow other networks to simulcast it. That's what CNN also did in June. You may remember that that debate changed everything. After Biden's disastrous debate performance, CNN poll of polls found Donald Trump had a five-point lead over him nationally. The latest CNN poll of polls has Trump and Harris tied less than three months out from Election Day.

I keep talking about November 5th, but the election really starts on September 6th. That's when it starts because it's early voting. Think about this. 89 wake-ups. I've been saying this. 89 days. We can do anything for 89 days. Telling people, sleep when you're dead. We got work to do. Right now...

Joining me now to discuss Toluse Olorunnipa, White House bureau chief for The Washington Post, Karen Finney, CNN political commentator, former senior advisor to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, and Matt Gorman, former senior advisor to Tim Scott's presidential campaign. Welcome to all of you. Yesterday, quite a show, Matt Gorman, in terms of what we saw from Donald Trump. But I think the thing that I was struck by, a couple things. I mean, one,

it seemed like he is still acting like he is running against Joe Biden. That's sort of the posture. And second, like the contrast, the energy contrast on display between Trump and Biden really worked in Trump's favor, but between Trump and Harris, it doesn't. - Couple things, I mean, yeah, I think,

Republicans are going into this day saying, look, how do we find a way to arrest Harris's momentum? How do we find a way to kind of staunch that a little bit? And also, how do we find a way to get her out of her bubble, right? Throw her off a little bit in a way to, you know, we believe that she's best in unscripted, possibly more politically vulnerable scenarios as opposed to the event. So that was going into this day.

And I think there was the news at the top, as you started with here, was, okay, the plan is we're going to talk and do these three debates, one of which that we know she will agree to. The other two we think we can at least try and jam her in a little bit. And then it kind of veered off into a bunch of different topics. And then, look, I think the challenge now is, you know, with days like this where kind of the topics veered off into everything, we have a very clear playbook.

Trump earned media is doing it, actually Trump paid media is doing it with TV ads, talking about the back and forth, Kamala going back and forth on tons of different issues. JD Vance is pushing a very clear message, whether it's against Kamala at first or Tim Walls.

The difference is now, can Trump kind of support that? - But yesterday felt more like Donald Trump said, "Okay, I know better than you all how to fix this, right? I'm not getting the press I want. Why am I not on the front page?

I got this. I'm just going to go out. - He's saying that to his own campaign team, basically? - Exactly. He says to his team, you know, no, I'm going to do it. I know what to do. I'm going to do a press conference. I mean, you heard Stephanie Grisham actually yesterday said, this is the playbook. This is what he does. He thinks he can fix it, fix it, right? So he went out.

And I think they did have an agenda to say, okay, we're going to put three debates on the table. And that probably was the news that they wanted to make. However, when you have Donald Trump, and as you pointed out, Donald Trump in comparison to Joe Biden, different than Donald Trump in comparison to Kamala Harris, where he then goes veering off into all kinds, there was just lots on his mind. He felt like he needed to weigh in on

And this is the problem or a challenge when you have a candidate like that because, yeah, on paid media, absolutely, they're driving their messages and some of the things, the charges that we're hearing from J.D. Vance, we know that is also sort of underground what they're pushing as well. But when they said three debates, I sort of thought, well, I don't know, maybe it would be bad for Kamala. Let him just do that. Three debates, I don't know, maybe not so bad. Both.

sides can agree on one thing. They want their opponent having unscripted moments. They want Donald Trump out there, Democrats do, talking off the cuff, exploring the insides of his mind in a public fashion. Republicans also want to hear Kamala Harris speaking off the teleprompter because they think a lot of the viral clips of her just sort of doing word salads and doing things that

Republicans have clipped and disseminated our times where she's not on the teleprompter. She has done quite well, and I was at her rally in Michigan. She's done quite well when she's giving a set speech to an adoring crowd of thousands of people. And I think that shocked a number of Republicans, including Donald Trump, that she's done so well. And so they're trying to find another way to get her in front of the public in a way that she's not as comfortable maybe in an interview, in a press conference, and they're hoping that those unscripted moments will reveal something that will help them

Yeah, let's show everybody what, because this is a point that Donald Trump made in his news conference yesterday that Kamala Harris is, and look, he was there with reporters taking questions. It happens to be Donald Trump's basically favorite venue in which to operate. But this is what he said about Harris and her unwillingness to do the same.

She's not doing any news conference. You know why she's not doing it? Because she can't do a news conference. She doesn't know how to do a news conference. She's not smart enough to do a news conference. She's incompetent. The reason she's not doing what I do and she's not doing what she should be doing, she won't even do interviews with friendly people because she can't do better than Biden.

So look, he's not wrong that it's not her best venue. I mean, I think I take Toulouse point. But here's the thing. I think folks have so underestimated Kamala Harris. I mean, we're so used to not actually seeing her. I'm not surprised she's been doing so well because, you know, while people have been helping her, that people have underestimated her. A hundred percent. So please keep saying how incompetent you think she is.

- The woman is a very effective prosecutor who went after transnational gangs, like human trafficking, gun smuggling. I mean, she's a tough woman, and in an unscripted moment, I think she'll be fine, but the strategy right now, first of all, it's in two and a half weeks, so let's give her that. She had to secure the nomination, then get a VP, and so I do think you're gonna see her in more unscripted moments. I think you are gonna see

But again, I think what they're doing right now is... You might know, just to let our viewers in. You have a lot of inside information. I'm just saying maybe there'll be something. But at the same time, I think part of the strategy is, again, what we were just talking about, keeping

the momentum going, keep the joy and the contrast going. If there's one like not really well kept secret about Kamala Harris in Washington, D.C., is that she really absorbs a lot of the other criticism. She's well known to watch Fox very regularly. And so I think strip away all kind of the puffery and the bluster. What Trump was trying to do was get inside her head and trying to, knowing that she will hear some form of this,

You know, we know, it's an open secret that she's probably agreed to an interview already with one of the major networks. And then the other thing is, yeah. But the other thing is, you know, get her out more wanting to kind of, with Karen, like prove something. Watching kind of the Fox reaction, well, you know what, I'm going to take a couple questions. Strip away at all that. That was the point of it.

- This is the other thing I just wanna say. This is a woman who has been a historic first in lots of rooms where you had to prove yourself, where people discounted you or didn't think you were capable.

And she has risen to the occasion time after time, from DA to AG to senator to the White House. So, again, please keep underestimating her. I will just say, as I sort of have covered her rise, she has stepped into these increasingly high-profile situations, senator, presidential candidate, vice president. There has always been a learning curve for her. She has eventually gotten to a place where she's, and we're seeing that as vice president, she got to a much stronger place.

than the one where she started. My question is, has she gotten to a point where, like, how much learning does she have to do in these 90 days, in this crucible? And I think this is going to be one of the critical tests for her. All right, coming up next here on CNN This Morning, President Biden, Nancy Pelosi have not spoken in weeks where the former speaker says their relationship stands today. Plus, six people trapped inside a burning home, the daring rescue to get them out. That's one of the five things you've got to see this morning.

And why Donald Trump compared his crowd on January 6th to this. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know all your jobs will be done well. Roof repair? Done well. Kitchen sink install? Done well. Deck upgrades? Done well. Electrical upgrade? Done well. Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years, so we know the difference between done and done well. Hire high-quality, certified pros at Angie.com.

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This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe. That was former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer the day after Donald Trump's inauguration back in 2021. That now infamous news conference was an early look at Trump's obsession over crowd sizes. And actually, I should correct that. That was back in 2017. It's an interest that has continued over the years.

We had the biggest audience in the history of inaugural speeches. We have 7,000 people outside trying to get in. Look at the people back there. Shoot it. You got to shoot it. Turn around. By the way, they never report the crowd on January 6th. She was here a week ago, lots of empty seats. But the crowd she got was because she had entertainers.

Yesterday, Trump went so far. This is why we're talking about this today. He compared the attendance of the rally that he held on January 6th, 2021, which of course was right before the Capitol insurrection. Many of those people walked down the mall to the Capitol, to one of the most iconic speeches that's been delivered here in America. Look at Martin Luther King when he did his speech, his great speech.

and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people, if not, we had more. - Matt Gorman, this is a whole new level.

MLK. MLK. Yeah, well, like I said, if you're into a lot of topics, a lot of topics. Look, I will say this. I think this is, it's weirdly, this whole thing with crowd sizes, because I often say it was Trump. He didn't kind of change everything as he took what was already happening and put it on steroids. Is, you know, yeah, again, all of that. But then the dirty little secret is,

Politicians, at least the ones I've worked for and seen, are obsessed with the size of crowds because it's one of the few objective measures throughout the course of a campaign. But it's also one of the first things when you're a reporter covering a campaign that you learn not to trust. I will say. We always give you BS numbers on the crowd. 100%. Always. Oh, yeah. But the funny thing is, too, it's money raised.

and it's crowd sizes. And those are the two objective measures of the course of the campaign that pundits, operatives, press always can try and measure with it. And so that is an obsession of politicians, and certainly Donald Trump has taken that to on steroids. - On steroids and also on a scale of falseness that is far beyond the--

anything uh anyone scale of falseness i feel like that's a good phrase i might have to borrow that different gradations of uh of lies um but in terms of comparing to martin luther king's crowd first i think it's important just to say like that's completely wrong and misleading martin luther king had a much larger crowd by several dimensions and also

His crowd was peaceful. Donald Trump's crowd ended up storming the Capitol and injuring police officers. And so that comparison, I'm not sure why he wants to make that comparison. But it's clear that he's obsessed with crowd sizes. It's clear that he's rocked by the fact that Kamala Harris has been having these huge crowds. I was with her in Detroit. She had a situation that was very similar to a Trump rally, where she pulled up in Air Force Two at an airport hangar.

to walk in. - Lots of theatrics. - Yeah, lots of theatrics, music, people excited, people were waiting for hours, fainting in the heat. It felt like a Trump rally, and I think Trump is surprised and shocked by that. - Well, I mean, this I will say, Karen, is, I wonder if part of this is that this is the first time that he really has lost this edge, because I will say, having been at that rally on Tuesday, I wouldn't go so far as to compare it to the 2008 Obama campaign,

But really, the last time I was at an event for a Democratic nominee with a crowd that big and that excited was when I covered President Obama running for re-election in 2012. Yeah, I actually, when I did advance back in the olden days, I was a crowd person. And there is a person that's whole job is to get the crowd there.

built 50,000 person crowd. - I was gonna say, another reason why we're saying we don't always trust this, because they're not always organic, right? They can be built. - No, no, you build, yes. - But I will say, Trump had organic crowds, and what's going on with Harris feels like there is genuine, like an organicness to it. - The thing about his obsession with crowds is, you know, my mother always taught me when a man is arguing about size,

of anything, in this case crowds, where there's an obsession. - This is a family morning show. - It is, I'm just saying. And all I'm gonna say is he's probably insecure. I'll just leave it there. I think women know what I'm talking about. Whether it's your car, it's your crowd, it's your, you know, whatever. - Matt, you look deeply uncomfortable. - 6:20 in the morning, let's go.

She said it, not me. I'm just putting it out there. Okay, still to come on CNN This Morning, more legal questions for the former president as Donald Trump's 2020 election case in Georgia nears another critical deadline, plus an unwelcome back-to-school visitor in a California classroom. Oh my goodness, it is one of the five things you have to see this morning. All right, 25 minutes past the hour, five things you have to see this morning.

I need everyone just to get out of the house. A dramatic house fire rescue all caught on body cam video. Police in New York helped rescue six people trapped on the second floor of this burning house. The fire may have been sparked by a cigarette.

American sprinter Noah Lyles capturing a bronze medal in the 200 meter dash after testing positive for COVID. He says he woke up Tuesday morning feeling horrible, quarantined and hydrated. He says he never considered dropping and that he's never been more proud of himself. This was a scary moment.

The world's largest community of 3D printed homes is almost complete in Texas. The first completed house was just unveiled. The walls are printed using a concrete-based material. Look at that. The homes cost up to $599,000.

People in Denmark partying on a boat to celebrate the return of spicy noodles. In June, the Danish government banned three products for being too spicy. But the ban has been lifted for two of the three products. As you can see here, people appear to be thrilled.

One student showed up early to a Southern California classroom. A teacher says she went to her class Tuesday night to get ready for the upcoming school year, only to find this little guy. It's a bear. I mean, I think he's rather cute, honestly. Look! See? Thankfully, no damage was done. See? Actually cute. The bear was safely released.

All right, time now for weather. Debbie, no longer a tropical storm, but the storm's deadly impact still being felt up and down the East Coast. North Carolina dealing with a string of tornadoes spawned by Debbie. One man was killed when his house was hit by the storm. A tornado also hit a middle school, ripping off the roof, causing extensive damage there. Thankfully, nobody was in the building at the time. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper touring the damage with a warning for residents that this still isn't over.

This system is still not out. There's still tornado watches out. We've seen this devastation that a tornado can cause, so we're still concerned about that. We want people to be on alert. All right, let's get straight to our meteorologist, Elisa Rafa. Elisa, good morning.

Good morning. We are still seeing some of that damage out of North Carolina this morning. I mean look at the flooding, you know, multifaceted heavy rain and then tornadoes like you were mentioning, some of that wind damage in those communities in North Carolina. It is post-tropical right now meaning it's losing some of the skeleton that it used to have as a hurricane

but it still is posing a flood threat and a tornado threat. We have some tornado warnings there just south of DC because in some of these kind of what used to be outer bands you can still get some little cells to spin. A new tornado watch was just issued until 2 p.m. and includes places

like Philadelphia, some of these suburbs there in Jersey and the parts of eastern Pennsylvania as we continue to see some of these little again nubs that continue to spin. We do still have some flash flood warnings north of the Charleston area for considerable flood damage. Again where we have found

10 to 20 inches of rain parts of South Carolina and North Carolina. The flood watch is now stretched all the way up to the Canadian border. We're talking through Pennsylvania, upstate New York, parts of New England where we could still continue to see three to six inches of rain. You could see what's left of Debbie will continue to swirl through New England, but we are finally getting rid of this thing probably by tonight. Casey. All right. Elisa Rafa for us this morning. Elisa, thanks very much.

All right, coming up next here on CNN This Morning, counting down to the convention, the strategy being deployed by the Harris-Walls campaign in the next 10 days plus. I think history will honor him as a selfless person. Nancy Pelosi speaking out about her feelings for Joe Biden and his decision to exit the race.

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$45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details. It's about the collective. It's about understanding no one should ever be made to fight alone. That we are all in this together. We know, we know that unions built the middle class. The rest of America has to. You know who doesn't believe that? Donald Trump. This guy doesn't know the first thing about unity or service.

He's too busy serving himself. Kamala Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, at a union hall there in the Midwest as they try to shore up critical support in blue wall states. Joining me now to discuss how that project is going so far, Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow. She's live in Royal Oak, Michigan. Mallory, thank you so much for being here. Thank you.

So let's start here in Michigan. And I spoke to Debbie Dingell on the show this week as well, who, of course, knows the state so well. You are one of the younger leaders there. You kind of have emerged as a face of

of that. And I'm interested in your sense of how the Harris-Walls ticket has changed what's going on on the ground, especially among young voters, considering how much trouble President Biden had, not just because of all of these sort of national issues around his age, but especially because of how the war in Gaza was playing in your state. What is the difference today?

I think it has changed the race dramatically. You know, a few weeks ago, there was an older woman who stopped me in the grocery store and held my arm and asked if we were going to be okay. She was so nervous, out of deep respect for the president, that we were going to lose, that all of his accomplishments were going to be erased. And then you look at the rally that we had in Detroit this week,

15,000 plus people. There was a Whitney Houston sing-along. I think as it relates to young people when it comes to reproductive rights, when it comes to the economy, and even when it comes to the approach in the Middle East, I think young people are excited and fired up. And it is a whole new ballgame here in Michigan, and it feels good.

We have been sort of asking this question. There has been this honeymoon period in the wake of Biden dropping out. The Harris campaign has been really flying high. I think the question is inevitably this campaign is going to get tough. We saw this question about Governor Walz's service in the military that Republicans have been trying to raise, pointing to comments he made where he said he carried a gun in war when he had not deployed to a combat zone. Do you think that kind of attack is effective? And how would you respond

specifically to what they have said about Governor Walz? - You know, I don't think it's effective at all. And frankly, it's really disrespectful. I have deep respect for somebody like Jason Kander. And in his last book, he talked about this idea that among certain folks, there's this attack that your service is not enough, this comparative service. So, you know, what I say is I'm grateful for Governor Walz's service. I'm grateful for J.D. Vance's service. Anybody who steps up to serve this country

We owe them a debt of our gratitude. And I think that that's just such a disingenuous line of attack that sends a message to veterans that if you didn't serve the right way, your service is not enough to this country. And that is completely unacceptable and un-American.

We learned yesterday that there will be a debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump scheduled for September 10th on ABC. The last time that we saw Donald Trump debate a woman, of course, was Hillary Clinton back in 2016. And there was one instance where he seemed to sort of follow her around the stage. It's more complicated to debate a woman.

What do you expect from the debate? How do you think voters should be taking this in? And what are the risks for Donald Trump in taking on? McConnell Harris would be the first woman president if elected.

You know, it's been interesting to see his selection of J.D. Vance because this is somebody who is following Kamala around in the same way that Trump followed Hillary around, you know, stalking her airplane on the jet bridge and things like that. But I think that it is a big risk to Donald Trump. And you see that.

I watched his press conference yesterday, which was just a rambling, incoherent string of supposed attacks where he spent more time than anything else on crowd size, as you pointed out, you know, comparing himself to Martin Luther King Jr. I think he's lost. And I think

Voters are going to see a very clear contrast between a young, dynamic, competent woman prosecutor and a rambling old man who is just trying to keep power for himself so he stays out of prison.

One thing we have seen Donald Trump do is have built significant advantages with male voters over female voters. The gender gap has grown in the Trump era. Do you think male voters in Michigan are ready to vote for Kamala Harris?

I think so. And I think her selection of Tim Walls as a running mate was a perfect choice. We saw white dudes for Kamala Harris, one of these Zoom calls, get organized. And I've seen some really smart commentary that Tim Walls presents finally a counter to this GOP hyper-masculinity that they've presented as what it means to be a man. And what Tim Walls presents—

is another version where you can be fun and joyful. You can love your daughter. You can be a family man. You can be a veteran. You can love football. And all of these things are acceptable as what it means to be a man. And frankly, this is the Midwest dad vibes that we desperately need versus the very weird vibes coming from J.D. Vance.

It's an interesting way that you put it that way. I mean, one of the sort of themes of the RNC was most definitely testosterone. So the idea that there is an alternative vision being presented through walls is an interesting one. Mallory McMorrow, so grateful to have you. I hope you'll come back soon. Hope to see you at the DNC. Thanks.

All right, now this. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shedding new light on President Biden's departure from the 2024 race and her involvement and feelings around the process. Pelosi is denying reports that she pushed Biden out, but she's making this pretty significant admission about concerns she had about the president's team. This is part of her interview with The New Yorker. I've never been that impressed with his political operation.

Biden's operation. Yeah, I'm not. I mean, it just happened. They won the White House. Bravo. So my concern was this ain't happening and we have to make a decision for this to happen. And the president has to make the decision for that to happen. So people were calling. I never called one person. I kept true to my word. Any conversation I had with it.

was just going to be with him. I never made one call to him. They said I was burning up the lines. I was talking to Chuck. I didn't talk to Chuck at all. Pelosi told CNN this week that she's not spoken with Biden since he announced his exit from the race.

TULU, VERY INTERESTING, IT WOULD EXPLAIN WHY NOTHING LEAKED. SHE SAID I DIDN'T MAKE A CALL, I DIDN'T TALK TO CHUCK. SHE DID GO ON MORNING JOE AND SAY, HEY, YOU MADE THAT DECISION, MAYBE YOU SHOULD THINK AGAIN ABOUT THAT DECISION AND LET US KNOW. YEAH, AND THAT OPENED THE FLOODGATES FOR A NUMBER OF DEMOCRATS TO COME OUT AND CALL FOR BIDEN TO GET OUT OF THE RACE. THERE IS CLEARLY SOME BAD BLOOD BETWEEN THESE LONGTIME ALLIES WHO HAVE SPENT A LOT OF TIME TOGETHER, THEY'RE AGE MATES, THEY

are really important partners in terms of Biden's legacy because they worked together on a number of key things that were part of his administration in terms of the major legislative wins. Now they're not speaking and that is a major break and it's clear that she feels offended, Biden feels offended,

they're sort of behind the scenes. They have been sort of putting the knife in one another's back, and now she's going out publicly and doing so. And it's very clear that there's a lot of bad blood in this relationship. It remains to be seen how they're going to be able to get things back together. It is quite the...

the knife from Pelosi to say, "Hey, your political operation's no good." - Yeah. Pretty clear statement there. I mean, look, Speaker Meredith Pelosi, she knows, she's a very good communicator. So she knows what it meant to say that in an interview in the same way as you point out when she went on Morning Joe.

in the same way that she knew that that would send a signal to others who are seen as being allied with her to then come out and make those statements and what that would mean in sort of the political zeitgeist here in Washington. It was harsh. I don't have another word for that. Yeah, we'll just leave it there.

Okay, coming up next here on CNN This Morning, who better to talk about the Olympics with than a gold medalist? I'm so excited about this. Surfing champion Caroline Marks is going to join us live. Plus, the latest on Trump's claims he was on a helicopter that had to make an emergency landing. I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing.

All right, 48 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis arguing in a new filing her office should be allowed to proceed with its election interference case against Donald Trump. Trump and his co-defendants argue Willis should be removed due to the romantic relationship she had with one of her prosecutors. An appeals court is expected to rule on the issue by March.

Delta lashes out at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, calling its apology for the outage that left travelers stranded for days as vastly inadequate. The airline claiming CrowdStrike was, quote, "grossly negligent" and was solely responsible for the more than 7,000 flights that were canceled.

An 18-year-old Iraqi national detained in Vienna in connection with the alleged plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert. The suspect reportedly comes from the same circle as the main suspect, who is a 19-year-old Austrian with ties to ISIS. All right, let's turn now to the Olympic Games. While most of the world's greatest athletes have been performing in Paris, one US Olympian was competing 10,000 miles away in Tahiti.

This is the dream assignment. Surfer Caroline Marks taking home gold earlier this week, becoming the second consecutive American woman to win the surfing competition that debuted at the Tokyo Games in 2021. And Olympic gold medalist Caroline Marks joins us live now from New York this morning. Caroline, good morning to you. I'm so grateful to have you on the show.

Congratulations, first of all, huge win. Just tell us what was going through your mind as you got on your board and then realized you'd won gold. - Oh, good morning, yeah, thanks for having me. Gosh, it was definitely the most surreal moment of my life and it's pretty cool and just to have that medal around my neck and listen to the national anthem was just so amazing. So yeah, just super surreal moment, craziest moment of my life for sure.

Caroline, you grew up in Melbourne Beach in Florida, and I'm told that you actually used to surf during hurricanes. I spent some time growing up in Florida when I and this was like the last thing that you were ever supposed to do. But clearly it worked for you. What was that like? How did you get where you are?

Yeah, I mean, I just I grew up with a big family. I'm one of six. My older brothers all surfed and they're the reason why I got into surfing. And so kind of whatever they did, I wanted to do. And we kind of just ran wild and would surf in hurricanes and surf anything. We just love to be in the ocean. So, yeah, they're a huge part, my older brothers, of where I am today. And so we had a lot of fun. It worked out.

Indeed, it did work out. What would you say to other little girls who see what you've been able to do? Maybe they don't think of this as a sport that women would do first. Maybe they have friends who are guys who see them doing it. I mean, what's your message to them?

Yeah, I mean, I think dream big, shoot for the stars. You know, I think it's really cool now. Growing up, I feel like there was so many more guys surfing than girls. And now it's you see a lot of a lot of girls in the water. It's almost equal. And sometimes there's even more girls in the water than guys. So it's really cool to see, you know,

that go in that direction. And yeah, I mean, I think make sure whatever you do, whether it's surfing or a different sport or anything in life, just make sure you're having fun doing it and around positive people. And for me, that was my family and my friends. And it was just always so fun to me. And I'm just really grateful to have it as my career as well. So just have fun with it and dream big.

Yeah, for real. Caroline, you've been pretty open about the mental and physical challenges that you've faced as a surfer. This is something that a lot of athletes have very admirably started to talk more openly about. What would you say to people who feel like they're struggling and don't know how to prioritize this piece?

Yeah, look, I think mental health is a super interesting subject. You know, sometimes you feel like you don't, you can't really talk about it or no one can relate to you. And I think vulnerability is really powerful and it's okay to talk about it and it's totally normal. And

You know, I think for me, I really leaned on people that I knew were there for me. And that was my family and my close friends. And sometimes when you're going through a hard time, you know, they know you better than know yourself. So lean on the people that you know are there for you. And it's totally OK to talk about and you will get on the other side and things will get better. So, yeah, things will get better. Caroline Marks, so grateful to have you this morning. Congratulations again. It was really cool to see you win a medal. I really appreciate your time.

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, thank you. All right, now back to politics. Abortion access has been front and center on the campaign trail since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. It has largely been a winning issue for Democrats up and down the ballot. Donald Trump trying to claim not worried about it ahead of November. I think that abortion has become much less of an issue. I think it's actually going to be a very small issue. I think the abortion issue has been...

I don't think it's a big factor anymore, really. - Don't think it's a big factor anymore, really. Matt Gorman, you're the Republican at this table. Does he need to be disabused of that notion? Because I have to say, it seems like it still is a very significant issue. - I mean, I think you talk to campaigns and they realize what a potent issue it's been historically and what it can be. Look, I think what's gonna come down to is you have kind of two sets of single issue voters.

On the left, there's those who are very, very focused on abortion, many on the right, very, very focused on immigration. And each have been proven there's basically a crawl over broken glass component to get to the polls on this, and you have the economy kind of looming above all.

Whoever kind of wins that battle of the single issue voter in the fall I think is going to be very instructive in where this election is going. See, I think that's the miscalculation because Americans, what the data is showing, are looking at reproductive freedom as a much broader issue. For some people it is an economic issue. For some people it is a human rights issue. For some women it is about equality.

And one of the things we're seeing is that in young men of color, specifically, concerns that, and younger voters I should say, if the Supreme Court can take away this right, what else could they do? And particularly when we're also then talking about access to IVF, and in some states, I think there's about 20 states now that are on the ballot, we're looking at access to contraception being reined in that is part of the Project 2025, and particularly

Access to abortion care is also part of Project 2025. People are very concerned about it and it is going to be a real motivator for voters. And I think part of what it's gonna do is it's gonna impact turnout. And so if you are a reproductive freedom voter and you're looking at, or if you're a, and again, I think it's a broader swath of what brings you on that issue, you're probably gonna vote for the Democrat.

Interesting. We're obviously about to find out. I also want to talk about another moment from the Trump press conference where it involves Willie Brown and a helicopter crashing, but then it turns out this didn't actually really happen. Let's watch what Trump said. Well, I know Willie Brown very well. In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing there.

This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie was -- he was a little concerned. So I know him pretty well. I mean, I haven't seen him in years. But he told me terrible things about her.

so the new york times reports this there was only one problem with that story or maybe two or maybe three it wasn't the famous former san francisco mayor on the helicopter flight at all it was governor jerry brown the former governor of california who bears little resemblance to willie brown there was also no emergency landing and the helicopter's passengers were never in any danger at all according to governor gavin newsom who was also on the flight jerry brown who left office in january 2019 said through a spokesman quote there was no emergency landing and no discussion

of kamala harris i call complete bs mister newsome said laughing out loud to look at what do you do with that i mean trump often sort of years into sort of non sequiturs and talks about things that maybe didn't happen uh... clear this is this is jerry and william so

Twins, practically. And Trump has had issues with mixing up names. And I do think that when he gets on the debate stage with Kamala Harris, if he does things like that, where he starts veering into things that no one cares about, it's going to look bad for him. And Joe Biden was speaking to reporters yesterday and he said he was confident that Kamala Harris would do great at the debate if she allowed him to talk. And I think Democrats want to see more of Trump doing things like that.

Yeah, because he knows him so well, he doesn't know the difference. I mean, it is striking, I will say, that now, you know, Trump's mistakes, right? There were Democrats who complained people would seize on Biden's mistakes, ignore Trump's mistakes. They're a lot clearer in this setup anyway. All right, on this Friday, I will leave you with this. They avoid taking any responsibility. We do not. Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I'm speaking. Well...

Well, I'm just trying to... But I'm speaking. Yes, but... Yeah, but I'm speaking. See, I'm speaking right now. Estoya, Blondo, Nevada, Arizona, some parts of Texas. I'm speaking. We know Maya Rudolph is returning to play Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday Night Live. But who's going to play her running mate? You might have been thinking, certainly the Internet was, that SNL legend Steve Martin looks a lot like Tim Walz.

Very sadly, you are out of luck. Martin tells the LA Times he was approached about the role this week, but he declined, saying he is not an impressionist. The SNL election season casting is a rite of passage for candidates at this point. You may remember Alec Baldwin famously taking on the role of Donald Trump eight years ago.

This man is clearly unfit to be commander-in-chief. Wrong. He is a bully. Shut up. He started the birther movement. You did. He says climate change is a hoax invented by China. It's pronounced J-I-N-A. This is clearly just an excuse to play all the greatest of this, because let's go back. Remember, the earlier days of the show, we had Dana Carvey as George H.W. Bush.

I'm talking three, four percent tops, no more than five. That's it. So read my lips. No huge new taxes. I love it. Who should play Walls? Or anyone else? I don't know. The current Trump, the one who does Trump now is far better than Alec Baldwin. Alec Baldwin is the worst Trump out of the three they've had in SNL. I mean, the lips were like very long. It was too exaggerated. It wasn't a good impression, that's my opinion.

I don't know. I think that's an unpopular... I'm here for the takes, but yeah. He was, I think, the least funny one. All right. Fair enough. I'm sad, though, that it's not going to be Steve Martin. I'm a huge Steve Martin fan. All right. Thank you guys for spending Friday with us. I really appreciate it. Thanks to all of you for joining us as well. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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