Vance vs. Walz, 'Lock Him Up', Taylor Swift Terror
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For every life-saving treatment. For every next step. For every care in the world. Cleveland Clinic. It's Thursday, August 8th, right now on CNN This Morning. What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage. J.D. Vance attacking Tim Walz over Walz's military record as the two veterans vie for the same job. Plus... The courts are going to handle that. We're going to beat them in November.

Kamala Harris shutting down lock him up chants from a crowd in Michigan. And the role foreign intelligence played in foiling a terrorist plot that forced Taylor Swift to cancel three shows in Europe. The latest update from authorities ahead. And then later, Dr. Anthony Fauci is here to talk about his new book and this ongoing summer COVID surge.

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington, D.C., a live look at the White House on this Thursday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. The so far high-flying Harris campaign hitting the Midwest amid some of the first signs that perhaps that honeymoon may be coming to a little bit of a close or at least coming down a little bit. I'm here because we believe in democracy. Everyone's voice matters, but I am speaking now.

I am speaking now. And he intends to end the Affordable Care Act. You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that, otherwise I'm speaking. Kamala Harris there, interrupted by what we believe were pro-Palestinian protesters, a reminder, of course, that Harris has some work to do to win over voters who were unhappy with Biden's policies.

J.D. Vance, on the Republican side, also swung through the Midwest, and he is trying to turn one of his opponent's strengths into a weakness. When the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honorably, and I'm very proud of that service. When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him.

Okay. It is important to note that both vice presidential candidates are military veterans. There is no question that both men served with honor. Vance spent four years in the Marine Corps as an enlisted combat correspondent. He deployed to Iraq for roughly six months. Walls served in the Army National Guard for 24 years. He deployed to Italy in 2003, and he retired in 2005. That was the same year that he launched a successful campaign to represent Minnesota in Congress.

Two months after Walls retired, his unit received orders to deploy to Iraq. They did so the following year. Here was Walls explaining this decision in a 2009 interview. I left in April of 2005. And this was, you know, for me, it was just short of 25 years. And it was to run for this office. We were really concerned that we were going to try and do both. There's always the hatchet and some of the things that you have to be very careful of.

Walls, of course, referring there to the Hatch Act. That's the law that limits political activities for federal employees, including those who are in the service. Joining me now to discuss, Isaac Dever, CNN political reporter, Karen Finney, CNN political commentator, and Republican strategist Doug High. Welcome to all of you. So, Isaac, this, of course, has been a high-flying time for Harris and now her newly minted running mate, Tim Walls, that overwhelmingly positive rally rolling him out.

They are, and this is sort of the question that I've been having all the way along. I mean, it is inevitable that this campaign is going to start to kind of hit the ground. There's going to be-- there are going to be bumps in the road, right? And we're starting to see that. She gets interrupted by protesters. We saw first glimpse of how she's going to handle that in this high profile way. And of course, there are going to be attacks from the other side.

What is your view of how they are starting to handle this? What's going on behind the scenes in terms of how they are viewing these issues? Speed bumps, significant, et cetera. Well, look, the heckling incident is different from the stuff about the military records. I think that what you saw out of the Harris campaign was actually a lot of pleasure with how she handled it.

and feeling like she was able to get interrupted and have that moment that seemed to go over well with her supporters. I have been at rallies where Joe Biden has been interrupted. I have been at rallies where Barack Obama has been interrupted. They did not handle it in the same way. Joe Biden would often say, "Look, let me, why don't you come backstage? We'll talk afterwards." Obama would get really angry.

He did not like when people interrupted him. So this is the first time that we saw that happen that way for Harris. The military record stuff, as I said, is different. And I think what we have here is the Republican campaign and J.D. Vance as the carrier for it trying to find a way in on Tim Walz and on the campaign.

I didn't serve at all, I should say. J.D. Banzer, four years, and then six months in Iraq as a public affairs officer. Tim Walz, 24 years, he said, and was mostly not deployed, though he did one deployment to Italy to support the operations in Iraq. In Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, I'm sorry. Operation Enjoy Freedom. You're right. I apologize.

So this is, I guess, we're weighing one service against the other. It's also true that Donald Trump did not go to Vietnam, very famously, and skipped out on that service. There is a reminiscent feeling for a lot of Democrats and other people I've talked to of the swift-moving stuff from the 2004 campaign with John Kerry. And Walls has, within that,

He's been coming onto the campaign trail here very quickly, and the campaign has been trying to catch up with his record, I can tell you, from talking to the campaign yesterday about this. They are trying to figure out what to say, and there are some issues with the timeline that they have to sort out here. That interview that you played helped

them make the case that he was thinking about this for a long time. - Well, but also, I mean, so there was, my understanding is there were allegations made that suggested that somehow he ditched his unit when actually you look at the timeline, that's not the case. He had already filed the paperwork

for separation, these orders come later, and then later the next year they deploy. They're basically saying that it looks like he bailed out of service just in time to avoid getting sent to a combat zone. Exactly. Which is, A, that's not true. B, the other thing that J.D. Vance has taken issue with is a comment that Tim Walz made. It was actually about gun safety, and he was talking about carrying weapons of war in war.

He didn't say he was in combat. He was talking, you know, and he actually was a munitions expert, if I'm not mistaken. Let me play those comments that he made, and then we'll play what Vance said, just so we can read our viewers in here. Let's start with Walls here talking about weapons of war and gun control watch.

I'll take my kick in the butt for the NRA. I spent 25 years in the army and I hunt. And I gave the money back and I'll tell you what I have been doing. I've been voting for common sense legislation that protects the Second Amendment, but we can do background checks. We can do CDC research. We can make sure we don't have reciprocal carry among states. And we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at. And then this is how Vance characterized what we heard there from Tim Walsh. Watch.

He was making a point about gun control. He said we shouldn't allow weapons that I used in war to be on America's streets. Well, I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? What was this weapon that you carried into war given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq and he has not spent a day in a combat zone? What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage.

- So Karen, I mean, Walz did say that I carried in war and we do know that that doesn't seem to be the case, but he did would have trained extensively in preparation for it with these types of weapons. - Exactly, and so my read of it is, you know, he was, I think talking about the training, you know, he did deploy in support of, I suppose, my understanding is they could have been deployed further into the war zone, but more importantly,

I think, again, two things. Number one, the top of the Republican ticket not only didn't get out of, you know, got himself out of Vietnam, got himself out of any kind of service, never wore the uniform in the United States, called John McCain a loser, has a pretty wretched record when it comes to treatment of veterans and our men and women in uniform, particularly those who have been captured or injured. But here's the last thing I want to say.

Wall served honorably for over 20 years. So few, well less than 1% of Americans ever served in our armed services. So more importantly, we should honor that service, but we should not lose the thread of what he was actually talking about in terms of gun safety and the idea that you can be a hunter and support the Second Amendment

and believe in common sense gun safety measures. - Certainly part of what the Harris campaign I'm sure wants to bring to the table. Doug High, bottom line here, do you have a view of who you think is right in this? But also, kind of more importantly, how much does it matter? - Well, a few things. One, Tim Walz, welcome to the Major Leaks.

You know, you're no longer a governor of Minnesota who nobody's really ever heard of. You are in the spotlight right now. And after three weeks of nothing but the most positive coverage of, oh my God, Kamala Harris is the greatest person ever to walk the earth, has never done anything wrong, and should be celebrated and honored, and won't get one word of critical, any criticism, and by the way, won't sit down for an interview to get tough questions.

We're now in the major leagues. And what's J.D. Vance's role here on this campaign? It's to throw sand in the campaign's eyes, and that's what he's done. And they're reacting to this. We'll find out exactly what's true, what's not. I don't love questioning people's service. I want to honor those who've served. I think we want to encourage people for military service, for any kind of public service. But we're in a political campaign right here. We know that Donald Trump fights dirty. If you want to say this is a dirty fight, fine. Bring it. Here's where we are.

And here's what I would say. I mean, I think one of the tactics we see, right, so J.D. Vance will throw something like that out. We'll have this conversation sort of in mainstream media, but really it's about what's going on underneath, sort of online in the dark corners of the internet. This is the way lies get perpetuated. And I do think that the campaign was quick. I mean, I was asking for information. They were able to get it pretty quickly in terms of what the actual timeline was. And I think they recognized, to your point, Isaac, about, you

they needed to push back and get the clarity out there as quickly as possible. And I think the question for all of us is, does this story go away in two or three days? As far as a mainstream story, not just certain talk radio hosts or online trolls or whatever talking about it.

And to your ultimate question, do the people care? We'll see. On Saturday, the news broke about Doug Emhoff's affair and his first marriage. The response to it was that Emhoff came to me with a statement about it very quickly on Saturday morning. We are now almost 24 hours into Vance making this attack, and we haven't heard from Wallace directly. We've got campaign aides trying to answer it that don't know about his record. I think that this is going to end up being whatever Vance himself, sorry, whatever Wallace himself has to say about this.

about this. Right. I mean, when you have to vet a vice president in two weeks or less, you're going to run into this kind of problem. All right. Coming up next here on CNN this morning with just five months left in the Oval Office, Joe Biden still has an agenda. We're going to take a look at the president's priorities. He's done a new interview ahead.

Plus, incredible video shows the moment that a missing boy was rescued from a pond. That's one of our five things you have to see this morning. And if there is one word to describe the race to the White House in 2024, it just might be weird.

we're not weird that's for sure i think it's pretty weird his band of right-wing weirdos really really really weird dudes it's kind of a weird insult well it's just plain weird i mean on the other side they're just weird nobody's ever called me weird

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.

From all over the world, people turn to Cleveland Clinic for our expertise and our compassionate care. As leaders in heart, neurology, and cancer, the future of specialty care is happening right now at Cleveland Clinic. For every life-saving treatment, for every next step, for every care in the world, Cleveland Clinic.

I know we are all deeply, deeply grateful to Joe for his lifetime of service to our nation. And we thank you, Joe Biden, each and every day for all you are and all you still have yet to do.

A crowd of Democrats chanting his name and his own vice president thanking him publicly. Joe Biden's decision to exit the race, making him a hero to many of his party, taking the spotlight off of his presidency with just five months left in office. In a new interview with CBS, Biden is expressing concerns over what Donald Trump might do if Trump loses in November. Are you confident

that there will be a peaceful transfer of power in January 2025? -If Trump wins, no, I'm not confident at all. I mean, if Trump loses, I'm not confident at all. He means what he says. We don't take him seriously. He means it. All the stuff about if we lose, there'll be a bloodbath.

uh panels back isaac i mean you could see sort of the mistake that he made there part of why we ended up where where we are however there's also kind of this this darkness to what he was saying that's that's not been front and center as harris has campaigned here um but there does seem

I mean, this is going to be a close election, right? What is the view and how much preparation is going on behind the scenes among the newly minted Harris campaign about the possibility that Biden has put out there? Well, look, this is not new from Biden. He's been warning about this before all the drama politically over the summer so far. This was something he kept coming back to.

I don't think that so far this has been a major focus of the Harris campaign. It's been a campaign for about 17 days now. They've had a lot of things to do. They've had a lot of things to worry about. A lot of places. But it has been a focus of Democratic lawyers who've been gearing up for this. And look, a lot of what the Harris campaign is, is the Biden campaign. There were people on staff themselves who were working on this who are still on staff now with the Harris campaign.

- Doug, how worried should the country be about the possibility that Biden raises there? - Oh, look, the possibility is absolutely there. And what we've seen is, you know, it's interesting to me that as we talk about stolen valor and all that and how it can go in different directions with either campaign,

The Trump campaign and Republicans are really pushing, look at what happened in Minneapolis. And the images there are very stark. Fair points. And did Governor Walz respond in time and so forth? Trump praised him, but Trump says things and all of this. You're now talking about when we saw the George Floyd protest riots. Well, if you're a Republican and you think that's bad, I remember a day called January 6th.

where people were engaged in violent acts. It was inspired by Donald Trump. So there's so much politically that can spill back in either direction on this. I think the country should be concerned. But when we look at polling that says, where voters say, I'm concerned about the state of democracy. I think when we watch the media, more often than not, it's Donald Trump bad.

Trump voters are concerned about the state of democracy too. Rightly or wrongly, wrongly, they think the election was stolen from them. But that erosion in trust, which didn't happen just when Donald Trump took an escalator down in New York, this has been going on for years, if not generations, and it affects all of us. - But that's not, I think that's not fair, only because Donald Trump has been perpetrating this lie for years now, not campaigning on it, raising money on it, and we now know the actions that he also took

in 2016 to hide what was going on with Stormy Daniels to have an impact on the election. And now we know about the fake electors. Hold on, we know about fake electors. We know about all sorts of things he was doing in 2020 to hold onto power. It's not unfair to say,

Yeah, we should be concerned. But again, if we look at polling, Republicans are concerned about the state of democracy too. And I think Stormy Daniels is so extraneous to this because that would then say that- But I'm not talking about polling, I'm talking about what somebody actually did to try to impact the outcome of an election.

If you want to be then critical of what the Bill Clinton campaign did and how they went after and targeted women and how they denied rape allegations and all of those things, I think we can have that conversation. And I say that as a Republican who was the first Republican to say, "I'm never gonna support Donald Trump. "I don't like Trump, I think his messaging is bad, "I think a lot of his actions are bad." But I think we have to realize that

This erosion of trust in the country goes in a lot of different directions. And when Hillary Clinton questioned whether or not she won or lost, when Stacey Abrams, St. Stacey of Abrams, how she's been treated in the media, did the same thing. Yeah, Donald Trump's microphone is a lot louder. Yeah, he's more pernicious with it. But this erosion of trust didn't come from just one person. Well, I think we should also just note that the actual violence that was perpetrated, the first time we've had a non-peaceful transfer of power was with Donald Trump. I think that's just an important thing to remember. All right.

Coming up on CNN this morning, flooding across the Carolinas and a large, extremely dangerous tornado. Tropical Storm Debbie is still causing all sorts of damage. Plus, what Conor Ramirez is telling supporters who want to see Donald Trump behind bars.

All right, 26 minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning. A missing five-year-old boy with autism rescued from a pond by a Florida deputy. The child left his home through a second-story window and wandered off before his family called 911. He is okay and back at home.

Careful out there. Yikes. Oh my goodness.

Okay, Alaska's capital city is dealing with an unprecedented flood. A melting glacier near Juneau burst into a nearby river, swamping more than 100 homes in up to four feet of water in just hours. Yikes.

Nothing says state fair like butter and cheese. Check out this display on the left. The great American cheese sculpture crafted from nearly a ton of yellow and white cheese in Indiana. On the right, the cholesterol special, a cow made from 500 pounds of butter in Illinois. I will say the only one I've ever seen of these in person is in Iowa, so it's fun to get some video of Indiana. Why not?

All right, a woman in South Carolina said she had to do a double take when she saw this in her yard. An alligator just floating by after flooding in her home, outside her home in Charleston. The city has seen a foot of rain from Tropical Storm Debbie. Can you imagine like looking out your window and there's just chilling in the backyard is an alligator. Oh my dear Lord. Okay.

Overnight, a quote, large, extremely dangerous tornado touching down in North Carolina. This is the 10th tornado that Tropical Storm Debbie has produced. A new tornado watch was issued early this morning by the Storm Prediction Center for parts of eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia. Let's get straight to our meteorologist, Allison Chinchar, with the latest. Allison, good morning.

And good morning to you. Yes, this video from yesterday near the Pender Sampson County's line. You can see that tornado in the distance back there again. This was one of perhaps a couple of tornadoes yesterday, not just in North Carolina, but spread out over the country. And we still have a tornado watch for today. This valid until 1.

Eastern time today, again, encompassing portions of North Carolina as well as Virginia. We do still have some active tornado warnings. They've been off and on throughout much of the morning. That's likely going to continue throughout the day. And it's not just tornadoes, but also the flooding component of this. You can see a lot of that really heavy rain spreading now into cities like Raleigh as well as Charlotte, North Carolina. And look at all of these red shaded areas. Those are flash flood warnings.

taking place in this one with the white outline that is a flash flood emergency they've had already up to eight inches of rainfall in that area and even more is expected not just in North Carolina but you can see pretty much up and down the eastern seaboard widespread four inches of rain. All right Allison Chinchar for us this morning. Allison thank you very much.

All right, still ahead here on CNN this morning, Taylor Swift fans left disappointed after three ERAs tour shows are canceled. But it's a dramatic reason why. We're gonna have the latest details on the foiled terror plot behind it all. And then yesterday there was this. I just wanted to check out my future play. JD Vance trying to flag down Kamala Harris after crossing paths on the tarmac.

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All right, welcome back. Taylor Swift's concerts in Austria have been canceled. Police questioning three suspects in connection to an alleged terror attack plot against her upcoming Vienna shows. The first concert was set for tonight. You can see that Swifties were already flooding the streets of Vienna. The three suspects, ages 19, 17, and 15, according to Austria's director general for public security.

Authorities said two of the suspects targeting the concert had been radicalized online. One of them recently swore allegiance to ISIS.

Authorities also said suspected explosives were stored at one of the suspect's homes. Joining me now is Danelle Harvin from Georgetown University's Emergency and Disaster Management Program. Danelle, good morning to you. You've also run major operations here in Washington and in New York, looking into exactly the kind of plots that we're seeing play out here. This obviously a different type of target, Taylor Swift,

It's hard not to notice how young the suspects are in this. Why is she a target? What are you looking for in terms of this investigation? - So you mentioned two things that are interesting. One, there's a confluence between the age of the potential suspects, and we've seen ISIS and Al-Qaeda over the last decade or so really try to reach out through the internet to the younger population effectively. The other thing is why this event. You know, after October 7th attack,

of Hamas in Israel, we saw calls for jihadi groups to start launching similar attacks. What we've seen over the last five or six years is they try to target what we call soft targets or vulnerable places, concerts, things like that. Think back to the Bataclan. Think back to 2017 and the Manchester City bombing. And so those are type of events that aren't really often heavily secured that they're looking to attack.

So Taylor Swift has talked publicly about the security preparations for her tour, and she pointed to the Manchester Arena bombing. She also pointed to the shooting that happened in Las Vegas, a concert shooting. She says, I was completely terrified—this is from 2019—to go on tour this time,

because they didn't know how we were going to keep 3 million people safe, fans safe over seven months. There was a tremendous amount of planning, expense and effort put in to keeping my fans safe. She also notes her own fear of violence has continued into her personal life. She says, I carry quick clot army grade bandage dressing for gunshot or stab wounds. Websites and tabloids have taken it upon themselves to post every home address I've ever had online. You get enough stalkers trying to break into your house.

you kind of start prepping for bad things. I mean, so clearly this is something she's thought about. I mean, that's terrifying. - Well, the other thing that's noted is, you know, these concerts had to be canceled. You cannot run a thorough counterterrorism investigation over the course of 48 hours.

And so it's clear that authorities in Vienna, as well as Taylor Swift and her team, placed their safety and the safety of her fans over profit. And so she needs to be lauded for that. But once again, when you have the most popular, iconic artist in the world right now carrying Kwik Klot, it shows where we're coming, where we've come to in terms of violence at these arenas and places that people are supposed to be happy and celebrate. What's the

bigger challenge with an arena like this and a crowd this size? So, you know, I work with a lot of teams across the globe, particularly Interpol has looked at this. The Manchester Arena bombing really opened up a whole Pandora's box for us in the security realm, looking at how do we secure not just the event,

But the queues and the lines, the parking lots, all those things before the event, we call that the last mile. And so a lot of event organizers say, once they come through our magnetometers, then we own them. But they don't worry about the mile-long lines or the venues around the venue. And that's what we're looking to focus on now. So that's very difficult, and that's what they'll be looking at. That's why they probably canceled the event, because they couldn't secure things outside of the venue. Really interesting. All right, Danelle Harvin, thank you very much for being with us this morning. I appreciate it.

All right, let's turn now to this. Kamala Harris dealing with chance aimed at Donald Trump with this new approach, watch. Hold on, hold on, hold on. You know what? Here, hold on. Here's the thing. The courts are gonna handle that. We're gonna beat them in November. You know what? The courts are gonna handle that part of it. What we're gonna do is beat them in November. Hold on, hold on. This campaign, our campaign,

is not just a fight against Donald Trump. Our campaign, this campaign, is a fight for the future. All right, so let's compare what Kamala Harris is doing now, how she's handling this, to what Trump did when supporters chanted about locking up his political opponents in 2019 and 2020. Crooked Hillary. So everybody's having a good time. I'm laughing. We're all having fun.

Lock 'em. Lock 'em all up. So there is a distinct difference there, Isaac DuVere, between what we saw Kamala Harris do yesterday and what Trump does. Yeah, and I can tell you, I was at the rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, as were you, and when there were parts of the crowd that started to do the "lock him up" chant, I watched several aides to the Harris campaign get very uncomfortable and say, "We need to not have this happen."

Harris did not herself address it at the Philadelphia rally like she did yesterday. But this is not where the Democratic campaign wants things to go. They don't like the tone of it. They don't want it to follow that way. And they also don't want it to make that- - It makes them look the same as him. - Yes, they wanna focus on the things that they are focusing on. - And we saw this also in 2020 where their similar chance came up and look,

She is trying to run a positive campaign that focuses, as she said, on the future, that is about joy, that is about excitement and the positive energy. And if you let it become

what we're seeing at the Trump rallies where it's about retribution and it's negative and it's about your enemies. That's a different type of motivation and that's not the kind of campaign you're trying to run. - The trick of course is that she wants to be stressing her prosecutor record, that's how. - Yes. - And she talks about that part of it that she has, she says I know his type,

from the work that she did locking up other people. So it gets into that area, but she wants a strong line. - This is also an opportunity for Harris. If we go back to Joe Biden's State of the Union address, there are a lot of questions of how he would be, and Republicans did him a big favor.

by jeering him and yelling things, Marjorie Taylor Greene and other folks. That can happen when your own supporters are trying to help you and not really helping as well. This is exactly not only how she should have handled it, but the best she could have handled it. And these are opportunities as well. The campaign aides are right to roll their eyes and not want it to happen. But when your candidate handles it that well, that's, if not a home run, a good triple. I want to bring something also new into our conversation this morning, which is some of this new national polling that the Trump

team warned as soon as Harris got into this race, we were going to start to see. They were trying to get ahead of this. This is the Marquette University poll that shows it's a national poll. There's a likely voter screen. Kamala Harris, 53%. Donald Trump, 47%. Isaac, we do not need to put the no clear leader label on the top of this graphic like we often do when we see these national polls.

And then, you know, even when you add in third party candidates, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sits at 6%. They've got Jill Stein, Cornel West. It's Harris at 50, Trump down at 42. Yeah, look, it's one poll. We'll see what happens. I do think it's important to think that this is where she is after two weeks. We haven't even gotten to the Democratic convention yet. That's two weeks from now. The question that keeps coming up is, are they on a sugar high?

But the way that the Harris campaign is continuing to go about this is keeping injecting more sugar into the system, right? And that's what they did on Tuesday with announcing the running mate. - More joy, not sugar, more joy. - But the point is keeping the attention focused on good news for them.

Right? And you see that translating. There were 14,000 people, I believe, in Philadelphia on Tuesday, 12,000 about at each of the rallies. There were people who had to get out of their cars and walk for a mile in Wisconsin to get there. That's what they want. That shot when they landed at the hangar in Detroit with Air Force Two and the big crowd, that is, first of all, Donald Trump-style stage management, but it also is something that I...

never saw in the Biden campaign. Obviously, 2020 was pandemic, but not this time around. It's something that Hillary Clinton never saw in 2016. It goes back to Obama levels of excitement. We'll see whether that lasts and whether it translates. I would argue it's Obama reelect more than Obama OVH. That is fair. Your point is taken. 2012, I think, is where we are about in the calibration so far. All right.

Coming up next here on CNN This Morning, COVID is on the rise in dozens of states. Dr. Anthony Fauci is going to join us to talk about that and so much more in his new book. Plus, the word of the year seems to be weird, this attack that we are hearing over and over again. Plus, we want to check in on those Boeing Starliner astronauts. They are still stuck in space. Might they be there until 2025?

This is Mark Watney and I'm still alive. Obviously. I have no way to contact NASA or my crewmates. But even if I could, it would take four years for another manned mission to reach me.

All right, 49 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. A new accusation in the case against Hunter Biden. In a recent filing in Hunter's tax case, special counsel David Weiss claims that Hunter once agreed to lobby on behalf of a Romanian businessman. Hunter is not facing new charges. Weiss instead wants to introduce the allegations into the tax case. It's set to go to trial next month.

A $50 million wrongful death lawsuit now filed by the family of a French explorer who died in the Titan sub implosion last year. The suit claims the crew suffered terror and mental anguish because of persistent carelessness and negligence by Ocean Gate, the company that owned and operated the submersible. And this.

At some point we need to bring Butch and Sonny home. While they're up there, we have extra crews, we have extra hands. They can do a lot more work, but they're also using up more consumables, more supplies. So we have to maintain that balance.

There is still no clear plan to get two astronauts stuck in space for more than 60 days back home. Their originally 10-day mission has been extended because of issues with the system that is supposed to get them home, made by Boeing. Now SpaceX might have to send another spacecraft. That could take another six months. If that were to unfold, they would be stuck there until 2025.

With Tim Walz now officially Kamala Harris's vice presidential pick, some Republicans are choosing to go after Walz for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic when he was as governor of Minnesota. Walz's former House colleague, Republican Tom Emmer, told the New York Post this, quote, from overseeing the largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the country to asking neighbors to tattle on one another for violating lockdown mandates.

to forcing hospitalized COVID patients back in their nursing home facilities, Tim Walz proved during the pandemic he does not have the competency to lead in times of crisis. Joining me now is Dr. Anthony Fauci. He is the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the author of a new memoir, "On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service." Dr. Fauci, I'm so grateful to have you here.

COVID, of course, is going to be part of attacks that are likely to be leveled by Republicans. The depolitization of this is something that I know that you were deeply affected by, have thought a lot about in your time at the close of your time in public service.

How do you evaluate how Minnesota handled the lockdowns and the questions around how to handle the COVID-19 pandemic as this issue perhaps becomes another issue in our presidential race?

You know, Casey, it's very difficult for someone from the outside to come in and pick apart how any particular state, city or region handled it. But the one thing that was very clear, that Minnesota was trying as best as possible to protect the lives and the safety with regard to exposure to and results from getting infected.

They did what they felt was the correct thing to do, according to recommendations that were coming from the public health authorities, that were coming from the CDC, that were coming from the various groups. So I have no criticism at all of that. I don't know all of the details of it, but from the time that I recall when I was in the White House as part of the coronavirus response team and the Coronavirus Task Force, that we had no issue with what they were doing.

Dr. Fauci, you, of course, are still involved in many of these political conversations about the handling of the coronavirus pandemic. They brought you up to Capitol Hill earlier this summer to testify again about these issues.

Apparently Dr. Deborah Birx was on this program with me in June and she had this to say about this lab leak theory, the Wuhan lab that has been at the center of a lot of these conversations. I want to watch what she told me then and ask you about it. Take a look. Do you think there is any veracity to some of the Republican accusations that there was an effort to discredit the lab leak theory?

I think early on people did take very definitive sides and it did divide along party lines. But on the lab leak specifically you think that happened? I do think it happened. I think people were, if you look at what people said about Bob Redfield and how they disparaged him as a scientist because he wanted to bring forward the lab leak potential and I think the reason he felt he needed to bring it forward to push was to push against this it had to be this way because we didn't know and we knew we would never know.

Is Dr. Birx correct there? How would you respond to that? - Well, she says people. I mean, we gotta be really careful because there were different people that did different things. If you look at the emails and the conversations I had early on, it was completely open-minded. In fact, on the very first suggestion that there may have been a lab leak,

I wrote to colleagues and said, we've got to investigate this fully. If necessary, bring in the FBI or MI5 and go to whatever extent possible to find out the basis of this. Is it possible? So I can't comment on what Debbie Birx meant when she said people. Well, I just can speak for myself.

- All right, fair enough. Dr. Fauci, one of the things you write about in your book is the relationship, the fraught relationship that you had with Donald Trump when he was president. And I know you've also dealt with the fallout of the politicization of everything that you dealt with in that you have to have security because there have been so many threats against you and against your family. We're now facing the prospect that Donald Trump could be restored

to the White House and there are questions about, certainly Democrats have raised the prospect of him taking vengeance against people he considers to be his political enemies. I think my question for you is, are you concerned if Donald Trump were to become president again that you or aides to you during this time might be prosecuted or face additional consequences for what happened during the pandemic?

Well, Casey, I don't know what one would prosecute me for. I mean, figure something out. What are we talking about? I mean, as a public health official, a scientist, I played a major role in the development of the vaccine that was responsible for the saving of millions of lives. So if that's what you're accusing me of, then I'm definitely guilty of that.

But I'm not sure what people talk about when they say prosecute. For what? I mean, there was no crime there. There were just public health officials like myself and others who were on the team who were doing our best to save the lives of people in this country and worldwide. So, I mean, I don't want to be cavalier about it, but I don't even know what they're talking about.

All right, fair enough. Dr. Anthony Fauci, I really appreciate your time, sir. It's always great to see you. The new book is On Call, A Doctor's Journey in Public Service. All right, let's turn back now to the 2024 race. This was a rather, shall we say, awkward moment. J.D. Vance approached Kamala Harris's Air Force Two while his plane and her plane were both on the same Wisconsin tarmac yesterday. Here was his explanation of what he was trying to do.

Hey guys, how are you? Good. I just wanted to check out my future plane, but I also wanted to go say hello to the Vice President and ask her why Kamala Harris refuses

Why does she refuse to answer questions from the media? And I also thought that the press gaggle following her might get a little lonely. I at least have enough respect for you all and for the American people you report to to come and talk to you and to answer some questions. And so I thought her reporters might actually benefit from that as well. So had a little bit of fun. I don't think the vice president waved at me as she drove away, but I'm glad to have done it.

So far, I'm never going to question, you know, politicians should talk to the media, as blanket rule. However, I am a little curious, Isaac, what might have happened had he actually encountered Kamala Harris on the tarmac? How that would have gone down? Yeah, we'll never know, I guess. Like, J.D. Vance is obviously trying to have a better week for himself than he had last week, and

has been getting covered for other reasons now. But I guess he saw the opportunity on the tarmac yesterday and decided to try for it.

eight states that we're focusing on. So this could happen again in any of those places anytime. - Well he's kind of following her around, if you look at the schedules. - I would warn the Trump campaign, even though yes, you defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, history is replete with male candidates overstepping their bounds against female candidates and the backfire that that can have, especially if you don't have a real plan or even if you do. - It does feel a little uncomfortable.

Yes. It gets real creepy real quick if you make a mistake. And also, what was his vision? He was just going to roll up on her and Secret Service was not going to be like, dude, what's going on? I mean, it's...

- Bizarre. - Ask Senator Rick Lazio, right? - Right. - Senator Erskine Bowles. - Names it, yes. We have to dig deep. We have to dig deep here on that. - And it touches into, Wall said on Tuesday, not just weird, but creepy, that's what Democrats are gonna wanna try to play this into. And Doug, you're not a Democrat, but you're saying that too. - And immature. It was so childish.

Okay, on that note, thanks to our panel. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now. From all over the world, people turn to Cleveland Clinic for our expertise and our compassionate care. As leaders in heart, neurology, and cancer, the future of specialty care is happening right now at Cleveland Clinic. For every life-saving treatment,

For every next step. For every care in the world. Cleveland Clinic. Don't let CNN's John King have all the fun. Experience the CNN Magic Wall on your mobile device. Get live results, expert insights, and an immersive election experience. Find it at cnn.com slash magic wall or the CNN app today.