Trump's Immigration Plans, Abortion on the Ballot, Astronauts Still Stuck
49:13 Share

Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. And one thing I've learned is that you buy a house, but you make it a home. Because with every fix, update, and renovation, it becomes a little more your own. So you need all your jobs done well. For nearly 30 years, Angie has helped millions of homeowners hire skilled pros for the projects that matter. From

From plumbing to electrical, roof repair to deck upgrades. So leave it to the pros who will get your jobs 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. It's Wednesday, August 14th, right now on CNN This Morning. I know I'm preaching to the choir a little bit today, but the choir needs to sing. Tim Walz makes his first solo campaign stop a week after joining the Democratic Ticket Plus. We have, it could be 20 million people in here, and we have to get them out of here. We're going to get them out fast, Tim.

Donald Trump touting his immigration plans to Univision as calls for his campaign to stick to policy get louder. And two more states place abortion on the ballot in November as abortion rights solidify as a cornerstone issue this election cycle. Plus, what was supposed to be an eight-day mission now leaves two astronauts stuck in space for more than 70 days. That's months, and there is no end in sight.

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington, a live look at the White House on this Wednesday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. This morning, with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both largely off the campaign trail yesterday, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz took the spotlight in his first solo campaign appearance as the Democrats' vice presidential nominee. ♪♪

That's John Mellencamp's small town, for those who are listening closely. On stage, Walls defending his service record after Republicans criticized him for once saying he carried weapons in war, even though he didn't see combat. I'm going to say it again as clearly as I can. I am damn proud of my service to this country. And I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person's service record.

Anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country, including my opponent, I just have a few simple words. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. Trump's vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, has criticized Walz for leaving the military after 24 years to run for Congress. Vance replying on social media, quote, Hi, Tim. I thank you for your service, but you shouldn't have lied about it. You shouldn't have said you went to war when you didn't, nor should you have said you didn't know your unit was going to Iraq. Happy to discuss more in a debate.

Vance does seem to be a bit more on message than the top of the ticket that he's running on in an interview with Univision, Donald Trump continuing his personal attacks against Kamala Harris.

We're going to get rid of inflation. Inflation has hurt the Hispanic population so badly, but it's hurt everybody. She's never going to do anything about inflation. She has no idea. She doesn't even know what it means, the word means. And she is forced to go with my policies. You know, I came out a long time ago with no taxes on tips. And two days ago, she said no taxes on tips. She doesn't even know what it means.

Doesn't even know what it means. It's that piece of the approach that many Republicans do not want to see Trump take in this reset race that has clearly moved in Kamala Harris's favor.

And the one thing Republicans have to stop, don't quit whining about her. We knew it was going to be her, but the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes, about what race Kamala Harris is. It's not going to win talking about whether she's dumb. It's not. You can't win on those things. The American people are smart. Treat them like they're smart.

All right, joining us now, our panel's here. Isaac Dever, CNN senior reporter. David Frum, staff writer at The Atlantic. Maya Wiley, president of the Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights. And Matt Gorman, former senior advisor to Tim Scott's presidential campaign. Welcome to all of you. Wonderful to have you here. Isaac, that sound bite from Nikki Haley really stuck out to me, honestly. Like, get over this. Like, stop whining was the word that she used. What do you make of what she had to say there?

I mean, how many times are we going to have Republican officials go on the air and say, please, Donald Trump, we focus on policy. Stop talking about all the things you're talking about. We go through this over and over again. Every couple of weeks, it feels like...

And it seems like Donald Trump feels very clear of the kind of campaign he wants to run here. It's the kind of campaign that worked for him in 2016. It is not, at least according to the most recent polls, working as well for him at this moment against Kamala Harris. We'll see what happens here with it. But it is the way that Republican

official seem to have resigned themselves to deal with Donald Trump. Well, and David Frum, you capture it this way in your latest piece in The Atlantic. You say that Trump's campaign, you call it the Trump campaign's please shut up phase. You write this, this is Trump's problem. For all his jibes at her intellect, Harris is managing the mystery appeal effectively, whereas Trump

who endlessly congratulates himself on his MIT professor uncle's brains as fast arriving at the, will you please shut up phase of his political descent. - Mike Murphy, the Republican campaign consultant, a decade ago, or nearly a decade ago, said that asking Donald Trump to talk about policy is like teaching Charles Manson to foxtrot.

He can manage a step or two, but then he's going to put a pencil in your eye because he's Charles Manson. And Donald Trump is Donald Trump. And as you just said a minute ago, I mean, it's astonishing. Of course, he's an insult comic. That's what he is. He doesn't know. He knows less about policy than anybody else.

probably ever run for high office ever but what he does know is how to abuse and denigrate humiliate and demean that's what he does if you don't like that he's not your guy and if he is your guy don't pretend he's not like that because he's like that Matt Gorman I mean it's

I know we've talked about this on Monday. We're talking about Monday, yeah. Here on this, around this table. Is it just a pipe dream for these Republicans who are trying to say this, trying to convince them to do this? And what impact does that ultimately have on Trump's ability to win? I think there's a difference between, say, Kevin McCarthy saying it and Nikki Haley saying it. Nikki Haley might be the imperfect messenger, since for all the baggage and running against him like that. But you're right. Kevin McCarthy has came out with this on Fox on Monday. And so this has been a consistent kind of

theme throughout many sectors of the Republican Party. There was some more policy in there, but you're right. It's like, oh, and she's not smart enough. So you get there just a little further than it was, say, a week ago, but then you still get that overarching message. You're right. He's 78 years old. There's a wonder of how much he's really going to change. Well, and he was quoted, Maya, in the big Haberman-Swan New York Times opus over the weekend as telling donors at an event, I am who I am, right? Like, what you see is what you get.

Well, and we've known this since he ran for president in 2015. This is not really news that Donald Trump Donald Trump's. And an insult comment is actually being very generous to him, David, I think. I mean, he is offensive and he has been extremely willing to personally attack people from mocking people with disabilities.

to hurling, you know, racial, suggestive racial epithets, one I would consider to be racial epithets, and none of that is new. So when we turn now to what we're hearing from him, including calling a highly qualified black woman incompetent, that actually reads a certain way to a large number of the electorate.

which suggests that he can't put himself forward as a qualified candidate, frankly, not because he hasn't been president, but because he hasn't been able to articulate what he is gonna do for the American people. I agree, I think that's what people are looking for, and that's never who he has been. - It's certainly become a core democratic argument that Trump is about himself, right? I mean, that is something we hear from them. Isaac, I know you hear it, I'm sure, on numerous phone calls every day as you go about doing your job.

Can we talk for a second to touch on the service question? This was the first time walls has addressed this on camera He just pushed back and said, you know, I don't denigrate anybody's service record Do you see this as something that's actually going to stick and hook in with the electorate or what are the kind of the early signs on this or is the way they're dealing with it effective like it is working for certainly the Republican

Trump leaning voters to have something to attack walls on it doesn't it's not clear whether it's resonated in a deeper way I do think what's interesting about the response to it is on the one hand walls took until now to really speak about it himself So that's a week of this almost but on the other hand even from what the campaign was putting out and it reflected what he said yesterday it is this

attempt to say we are the patriots here, right? To have it be not the way this has been played out in past elections where the Republicans have said they're the patriotic ones. Walz is not going back on the attack. He says I'm proud of what I did and thank you, J.D. Vance, for your service.

that's that is something that it seems like we're going to get more of in the convention next week in Chicago Democrats saying we're the party of America and of unity and it's the Republicans who are on the attack of what we're what this country is supposed to be I mean David from you were a big part of Republican politics as this exact dichotomy was kind of at the center John Kerry George W Bush all of that how do you look at this I think these guys are they don't understand what the machine is and why it

how it operates, so they can't make it work again. The reason these debates in 2004 were so powerful with John Kerry, this country ripped itself apart over the Vietnam War. It was a trauma for the support, the opposition. John Kerry had come to national prominence at a young age as a vehement opponent of the Vietnam War, which he criticized not just as a mistake but as a crime. He accused Americans of committing atrocities. People remember in 2004, that was a memory.

Then in 2004, he campaigned as a war hero. And so the question he asks is, wait a minute, you have denounced this war as equivalent to Genghis Khan's, literally, Genghis Khan's depredations against humanity. And now you say, but elect me because I was a hero in Genghis Khan's army. How does that make sense? What J.D. Vance is doing, it's just pedantic.

You served as a command sergeant major, but you didn't retire as a command. If you're interested in the federal pension schedules, that's interesting. If not, you think, that's just boring and tedious and nitpicky. And everyone is going to say, look, a

Iraq did not tear the country apart the way Vietnam did. And by the way-- It was divisive, but I absolutely take it for a hint. And by the way, J.D. Vance used to support the Iraq War, and now he says he opposed it, which he has done only after he became a Trumpist. So what is your point, except to say, yeah, I'm looking at the federal pension schedule, and the rank you had in service you did not retire with because you didn't complete enough paperwork to retire with that rank and that pension? I think the other thing here, though,

Walls was 24 years in the National Guard, J.D. Vance was the years he spent in the Marines. Let's not forget, Donald Trump did not go to Vietnam, right? And so it is... He went to Studio 54, which is every bit as tough. They made jokes about that being like going to the Vietnam War. Well, and if the issue is lying as well, there are questions about why Donald Trump did not serve in Vietnam, right? It just seems to me strange to take that shot at the bottom of the ticket when your own top of the ticket has this vulnerability. Yeah.

Well, it also goes back to the underlying point. If you're not pressing a set of policies for the American people about the future, you're left to simply attacking, which frankly looks a little weak, not only for all these reasons I agree with Isaac and David, but also because, I'm sorry, the vast majority of Americans are going to look at the coach who's standing up and saying 24 years. I mean, he was 44 years old. Yeah.

And this is a ticket, and J.D. Vann is a candidate, who want to abandon allies in Ukraine, who want to destroy NATO, who stopped aid to Israel and Ukraine for six months, which cost the lives of hundreds, maybe thousands of brave Ukrainian soldiers and many Israelis. And you want to talk about patriotism? We have never, ever gotten to the bottom of this mystery of what exactly is it that makes Donald Trump so infatuated with Vladimir Putin. You're going to talk about patriotism? This ticket? It's not.

Last word. Look, I think there's legitimate questions about the exaggeration of his rank and how we talk about weapons in war. But look, this was allowed to metastasize over the last week because they haven't addressed it. That's kind of my thing. That's the thing, right? They're finally realizing now. They could have put it to bed. Exactly. They've been changing bios and things like that over the last week. But when you allow it to metastasize, there's still no signs of it really ending anytime soon, especially if they're addressing it now. They're just going to add another new cycle or two to the fire.

It just seems to me that he could have made these on-camera comments like a week ago, and it would have been a little bit easier for them to deal with. All right, coming up here on CNN this morning, Hunter Biden's business dealings are back under the microscope. The new report that says he asked the State Department for help for a Ukrainian gas company. Plus...

Abortion access is officially on November ballots for Arizona and Missouri as the fight for abortion rights hangs over the race for the White House. And Donald Trump doubles down on his messaging around immigration policy. I was looking in New York today, they have attacks all over New York from illegal immigrants who are being attacked. It's a new form of crime in the U.S., it's called migrant crime. And it's caused because of Harris.

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.

Donald Trump criticizing Kamala Harris on immigration. In an interview with Univision, Trump accused Harris of flip-flopping on the issue.

They come from prisons, they come from mental institutions, and they come from all over the place. They're drug dealers, and they're now in our country. We're like a dumping ground. And now she's saying, oh, she was tough on the border. Before, she just had open borders. And that's what they want. They want open borders. And then there was this, a tweet from an official Trump campaign Twitter account sharing this image with the captions,

your neighborhood under Donald Trump and your neighborhood under Kamala Harris. Just sit for a second and look at what those pictures show. There was another message, quote, "Import the third world, become the third world."

I want to give this one to you initially. There's a lot there, obviously. It's like impossible to miss. Look, there's just a lot of racism there. I mean, we just have to call it what it is. It is offensive. I think so many of us remember the Donald Trump who called Mexicans criminals literally as a group.

not about any individual conduct of any individual person, questioned and was reportedly talking and calling Haiti and African countries expletive whole countries. I won't say it on CNN, but we all know the reference. I mean, this is a longstanding racializing immigration. First of all, immigrants come from all over the world.

there are European immigrants in this country who didn't come with documentation all he talks about her people of color and what he does and what he did in that was simply doing a Willie Horton on immigrants of color as a group now we have real issues that we should deal with on immigration but that is not a debate on policy that's an attack on people that's what I was going to say Matt Gorman like there is

there is a crisis at the border. Now everyone agrees on that. It did take Democrats a while to come around to that. New York City, I mean, it's on the cover of the, it's the New York Post, it's Murdoch owns, we'll take that for what it is, but it is a real problem, right? It's a real problem. They can talk about it as a real problem without doing what they

did there. You're right. I mean, it's one of those things where we're winning on the issue. I believe we've been doing this for a long time. The Overton window has shifted on this. We always talked about how, you know, with border security had to come some sort of legal status, as we saw that was not a part of any time of the recent stuff on Capitol Hill. It's always been kind of border security focus. So look, the question is, how do you kind of keep the focus on that and not drift into kind of these other tertiary things where you can lead yourself down rabbit holes? I think that's the key on this. And I think it goes to kind of the discipline of not just Trump,

But others around him, how can we kind of keep the focus on that? Yeah, I mean, look, Isaac DeVere, we have talked a lot about how Trump's personal attacks on Harris ultimately work against him with swing voters. This is going to be a really ugly and a really nasty campaign. And this is an issue where voters trust Republicans and not Democrats. And the reality is we have sometimes seen when campaigns touch these ugly things, it can be effective for them. Do you think...

think that the and I know you spend all your time talking to democratic sources and can get a sense of how they think about this mean what is the Harris campaign on this kinda thing how are they thinking about working against him and do they think it it works to just say this is clearly racist and move on or do they see a potential threat from this line attack well they're not

uh... so far saying this is clearly racist themselves i think that's number one but they've avoided getting into that kind of fight about it we'll see how this goes if you go back to twenty twenty two in the midterms in new york there were so many uh... fears about what had happened with crime in new york city that it led to

depending on how you count, five or six House seats in the New York area, the New York City area, going to Republicans, and Kathy Hochul facing a much tougher race than she thought she was going to face. There are real fears about what's going on. There are a lot of people who have arrived. In New York City, the number was over 100,000 last September. I don't remember exactly what we're up to now, but it's more than that. And how you deal with this issue is a big question.

But we shouldn't forget the larger political argument that Donald Trump has made here, which is that when the immigration bill, the bipartisan immigration bill came forward at the beginning of this year, he said he wanted this to be a political issue and he urged Republicans not to support it. The question that Democrats are trying to figure out is whether they can say, hey, we had a solution and Donald Trump torpedoed it.

It's not clear that voters are connecting with that. I wrote in The Atlantic in the first month of the Biden administration that relaxing border controls was going to be the biggest mistake they ever made, and it was going to be costly, costly, costly. That said, there are two things that I think everyone needs to understand.

Why did this crisis happen? Two most important reasons. First, the U.S. economy is the hottest job market on the planet. And while Americans deny it, everyone else on Earth knows it, that there is a giant we're hiring sign in the United States. If you can get here, there is work, work, work, and well-paid work. And that is a point that needs to be drilled home. This is a booming

economy, a thriving job market. That's why they're coming. And the second reason they're coming is because the brutal socialist regime in Venezuela has collapsed and eight million Venezuelans are fleeing what Chavez and Maduro did to their country. And that is something that you would think that the party of enterprise and markets would say, "Venezuela is a disaster. People are fleeing and the world needs a solution. They need a transformation in Venezuela, but in the short term there are people who have to eat."

And that means they have to work. And that means they're going to go to places where they're looking for work because socialism has failed again. And that's a message that Americans of all parties should be able to emphasize, that the American economy works. Other ways of organizing society don't. And the world wants what America has. Of course, we had Donald Trump talking to Elon Musk about going and having dinner in Venezuela because it would be safer there if Kamala Harris wins the election. Well, it's a dictatorship, and he likes those.

All right, coming up next here on CNN This Morning, Tropical Storm Ernesto is gaining strength as it nears hurricane force, leaving people in the Caribbean at risk. Also, how states with abortion on the ballot this November could impact other races. We'll look at that. All right, 27 minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning. Watch. One of our returns is kiss my a**.

You know what? No, no, no. I'm gonna tell you what. You don't come in here, you don't. Okay, that's contempt. That's 93. Keep going. That's another 93. That's another 93. Some free legal advice. Don't curse at the judge. A Michigan judge is going viral after holding a defendant in contempt for his cursing rant. That man now faces 558 days in jail, 93 days for each of his outbursts.

A house in New Jersey blasted with water after contractors apparently made a mistake and struck a water main, soaking the home. Oh my goodness. Look at that. New body cam video shows the moment a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri was struck by a man. It happened during protests marking the 10-year anniversary of Michael Brown's killing. The suspect was arrested and the officer still in the hospital with a brain injury.

A convicted murderer on the loose in North Carolina. Police say 30-year-old Ramon Alston escaped Tuesday while he was being transported to receive care at a local hospital. Homes and businesses destroyed in Greece's worst wildfire of the year. The wildfire impacted 156 square miles of land. Firefighters still working to try to put out some hot spots.

All right, time now for weather. More than 100,000 customers without power in Puerto Rico as Tropical Storm Ernesto makes its way across the region. The storm is just shy of a hurricane. It's getting stronger and it has the potential to hit Bermuda later on this week. Let's get to our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam. Derek, good morning.

Yeah, good morning, Casey. Even though it's still a tropical storm, officially it's behaving like a hurricane. Look at this latest satellite loop starting to get its act together. The eye of Ernesto just north of Puerto Rico. But there was a lot of rain associated with the system. So here is the latest radar. There's the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. And then I want you to focus your attention on this band of heavy rainfall over East

eastern sections of Puerto Rico. It's now edging closer to San Juan. That's why the National Weather Service office within this area has included San Juan within a flash flood warning just issued here moments ago for an additional three to five inches of rain. We've already had one to two inches per hour being recorded out of some of these heavier bands that move over the same location. So where's the storm going? Well it's going to move over the open waters of the western Atlantic for the next several days but it's warm.

And that is the key word here, the operative word, because it's going to help fuel a stronger storm. It is going to get larger as it approaches Bermuda this weekend. And a lot of wave action along the east coast of the U.S. could cause rip currents. So that's the indirect impacts from this storm here in the mainland of the U.S. But Bermuda needs to keep close eye on this storm system because the potential here for a major hurricane is certainly in the cards as it approaches the island nation by early this weekend. Casey.

All right, Derek Van Dam, Forrest this morning. Derek, thanks very much. All right, still ahead here on CNN this morning, the fight for abortion rights now looming larger over the 2024 election. Two more states are adding ballot measures about abortion in November. Could they tip key races? Plus, a new report reviving the controversy over Hunter Biden's relationship with a Ukrainian energy company. It's a new ghost burger from Carl's Jr. It's a juicy char-boiled Angus beef burger. Yeah.

I don't have any teeth.

Jack in the Box knows sometimes you're in the mood for a burger and sometimes a bigger burger. Starting at $3.99, the bonus Jack combo at Jack in the Box gets you fries, a drink, and a burger with your choice of one, two, or three patties. At Jack, every bite's a big deal. Order now at Jack in the Box.

All right, welcome back. This morning we have some new information about just how many American women feel they're impacted by abortion bans across the country. According to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, most women in the U.S. worry that abortion bans across the country could put them or a loved one in danger. And among women of reproductive age, about 1 in 7, 14% of Democrats and 12% of Republicans, say they themselves have had an abortion.

This data comes as two more states, Missouri and Arizona, announced that voters there will be able to decide this November whether to establish a right to abortion in their state's constitution. That brings the total number of states with abortion ballot measures this fall from to eight, potentially influencing turnout in some key battleground states. Our panel is back. Isaac, when

When you look at that map, how do you see this kind of impacting the presidential race overall? Because we have seen that voters, when they've had a chance to weigh in on this, they have come down almost universally on the side of expanding or protecting, depending on the state.

abortion access. I think just about everybody has underestimated how potent an issue abortion remains politically. It was true in 2022. It has remained true. When you look at that map, Nevada and Arizona, those are obviously presidential battleground states, also Senate races there. Democrats were quite happy with the Arizona abortion ballot measure coming on earlier this week because of the effects there. Florida, maybe.

In New York also, it's not obviously a presidential battleground, but there are a lot of House races there, enough House races that could decide the majority in the House. The reason why that ballot measure is there is pure politics, is Democrats in New York trying to gin up turnout. Because there's no real threat to abortion access in New York. In New York, right. In these other states, it is an issue. But over and over again, we have seen that...

not not just women and not just Democrats respond really strongly to the possibility have preserving abortion rights just go back to that Kansas ballot measure which is the first one to kick this off in my in Kansas not a place for Democrats look to even though there's a democratic governor is a yeah place but there was a huge turnout in favor of preserving abortion right well David seven states that voted on this mean it's

it's pretty universal. Montana, Kansas, Kentucky all voted against restricting abortion access. There you can see they're the ones in white. The ones in blue went farther in that they went to actively protect or expand abortion rights access. And here's how this

shapes other party politics. In 2022, Democrats gained four state legislatures and picked up net two governorships. The party of the president has not made that kind of gain in state races since the New Deal era. Almost always in the midterm election, the party of the president loses state legislatures and

you almost always lose those governorships. But to pick up four legislatures out of the 99 and two governorships, that's amazing. And a lot of that was driven by abortion concern. And in the Roe v. Wade era, abortion politics were for the Republicans

you could write that would never be cashed. So there you were, you were someone who'd entered politics because you wanted to accelerate the depreciation schedule. And the pro-life groups would ask you, here, sign this crazy thing. Sure, I'll sign it. This is never going to be done. Because you were going to never be held accountable.

This is never going to be deposited, and then I can go back to work on the accelerated depreciation schedules. Well, suddenly, all these checks are being presented, and many Republican candidates are saying, well, I never agreed to that. And the question is, well, then why did you sign the checks? Because that's your name. You co-sponsored this bill 20 times. It's been in the Republican platform since 1980. What do you mean you don't know anything about it?

And the day is here. One thing, Maya, I think that really has changed-- David's point is very well taken, that in the post-war era, it's simply dip. The consequences are simply different and higher. But the way the Kaiser Family Foundation presented

that question, will it hurt someone you know, these stories are about so much more than the stereotypes that many people would have you believe about who gets an abortion and why they get an abortion because fundamentally,

there is care involved in taking care of a pregnant woman that a doctor would officially say is abortion care but it could easily be a woman who needs a life-saving treatment someone who desperately wants the baby the the the circumstances are simply not as clear-cut as a lot of politicians would have people believe yeah look abortion is health care and that really fundamentally is what it comes down to and whether or not

a woman is able to have a doctor help her make decisions about her health. We have women in Texas right now who've just brought a lawsuit because they had ectopic pregnancies. That could kill them. - Which you cannot survive, and the baby's not gonna survive either. - Correct. And yet,

They almost, they actually had because of the very highly restrictive anti-abortion law in Texas, the possibility of death. I mean, so one, no one should have any politician telling them whether or not their doctor is right or wrong in whatever that advice is about their healthcare or their own ability

ability to decide when and how they form a family, period. What we're seeing in our politics is folks saying, yeah, we actually think we should be a country of freedoms. And while everyone is entitled to their viewpoints or their own decisions that they make with their own doctors and family members about how and when they form a family, I mean, to watch a 10-year-old girl

pregnant from a rape, not able to actually have an abortion or any of that is simply wrong. And what we're seeing is a country saying, yeah, we actually are for freedom. And it is fundamental to who we want to be as a country. Certainly you're hearing Democrats frame things that way. All right. I want to turn out of this story. Hunter Biden once asked the State Department to help him secure a deal for a Ukrainian gas company that was doing business in Italy.

According to the New York Times, the request came while Hunter's father was vice president in 2016. The report goes on to say that Hunter sent at least one letter to the U.S. ambassador to Italy requesting help for the company, Burisma.

The company was reportedly having difficulty securing regulatory approval for a project in Tuscany. Now, Matt Gorman, one of the other things the New York Times reports here is that this document was suddenly shaken loose from the U.S. bureaucracy the week that President Biden dropped out of the race. Yeah, it doesn't look good, I'll tell you right now. But yeah, you're right. They claim it's a coincidence.

Of course. And we don't have the contents of the letter. The letter itself, the text of what Hunter wrote has not been released, just like the comments from the internal government machinations of it. But you're right. And again, he's still facing trial later this year for tax evasion around Burisma. And look, I think it's one of the many reasons Democrats are probably breathing a big sigh of relief. They don't have to worry about Hunter Biden in terms of presidential campaign trail politics. But you're right. This is in the background of this. And this certainly...

is not going away anytime soon. - Can I promote a reform here that might have helped both in the Trump era and in the Biden era? And this is an idea I've been banging the drum about for a long time. Any presidential relative who accepts Secret Service protection should file a financial disclosure report. - That's interesting. - Because it has been a problem. Every presidential family has a bad apple.

- Jimmy Carter. - There's always a brother, there's always a nephew, there's sometimes a son. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's sons were very problematic. But in the modern era, what we've seen is scales of leveraging a family connection. I mean, never as gross and extreme as in the Trump era, but other candidates too. And Hunter Biden certainly did not behave in a proper way. So if you take the Secret Service protection, let us see your tax return.

Isaac, how do you think there, I mean, does this play? What does Harris do about this? Anything? I mean, it's not Kamala Harris's son. And so there's a little bit more distance than when it was the presidential nominee's son. This isn't great. Hunter Biden, everybody in the White House has known for a long time,

as an issue. The way that his lawyers responded to this disclosure, to say, well, yeah, he sent letters but did nothing wrong. This feels very strange to people, that the vice president's son was sending letters or making requests to other government officials and saying, hey, would you meet with this company? It may have been legal. We don't know anything otherwise at this point. Like Matt said, we haven't seen the contents of the letter.

It doesn't it does look like he was at least making people say you notice my last name though, right? Yeah, see this is signed Biden. All right still ahead here on CNN this morning NASA is still working on a way to get two astronauts home their eight-day test flight this was planned to the International Space Station is actually now lasting months

and could last many months more. We're going to get an update from NASA today. Plus, a look at Tim Walz's finances reveals he is not nearly as wealthy as other top nominees. Does this appeal to middle class voters? Can you simply picture Donald Trump working at a McDonald's trying to make a McFlurry or something?

70 days. That is how long two NASA astronauts have been in space after what was supposed to be an eight-day test flight to the International Space Station. Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore blasted off back in June on the first manned test flight of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft. But a helium leak was detected in the ship, extending their stay on the ISS indefinitely while NASA tries to fix it.

They are staying busy. They are helping out the crew with tests and experiments. They took a break to film a fun Olympics themed video for all of us who are back here on Earth. But the agency is still trying to figure out how they are going to get them 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, and at some point we need to bring those folks home.

We are also expecting another update from NASA on this situation in a couple of hours. Joining me now to discuss how this is unfolding is Keith Cowling. He is editor at nasawatch.com. Keith, wonderful to see you again. Thank you for being here. How on earth, that is not a pun, but it's something, did they allow this to happen?

Well, it reminds me of the Gilligan's Island theme song. They went out for a three hour tour. Here they are. They're still on the island. And you're going to get an update today from NASA. And pretty much I can give you a summary. They're still there. We don't know when they're coming back. You know, I mean, and because they got chided for not giving the media updates. So now there's going to say, yeah, nothing's changed.

How did this happen? Well, the best intentions. I mean, they had planned to go up there, test the spaceship and come home. And they got up there and something didn't work. And then another thing didn't work. And then all the engineers got in on it. And the safety culture says, oh, wait a minute. And here we are.

So Keith, what are the options? I know that they had said before that they might use a SpaceX rocket to try to get them back to Earth, but at that point, we may be into 2025 before they come home?

Yeah, you know, this is sort of like arranging traffic on the Beltway. You know, I live in D.C., so you have to arrange things. And they had planned for these guys to go up, do their thing, come home, then other flights were all lined up ready to go. Well, now that they're up there and they're eating food and they're taking up a seat, that means that

They if they can't come home on the Boeing spacecraft, we'll have to take somebody else's seat. So instead of launching four people soon, that may wait a bit and watch two, two empty seats with the spacesuit. So it throws everything off. And that's assuming that they cannot or will not or don't want to bring them home in the Boeing spacecraft. They may change their mind on that. But right now, it's sort of like we'll get back to you next week.

Yeah, I mean, I have to say, Keith, like considering how I feel about getting on a Boeing airplane, I admire their bravery for getting on a Boeing spacecraft. I mean, Boeing, how much trust have they lost here? Well, you know, in their defense, it's a giant company. But on the other hand, at some point, somebody is in charge of the company and there's a culture there. And, you know, I'm.

The reason we have these two spacecraft goes back to losing Columbia and NASA said, hey, we need two different ways to get up to the space station. We're going to retire the shuttle. We got two companies, SpaceX signed up, got a couple billion dollars and they've done a great job ever since flawless. They got one to get option B, which was Boeing. They needed another billion or so to do it and they've been dragging their feet. So now they're stuck with the option B is not really being an option.

And so they're having to figure this out in real time. And nobody expected this. Add in the fact, you probably ask about the safety culture. It's there. It's real. There are people that wake up every morning worried about the crew coming home, whether they're at Boeing or at NASA. The problem is when you have a culture like that, anybody can raise their hand for any reason. And after a while, you get more reasons why you shouldn't do something than you should. But it's all about crew safety. So NASA kind of builds this whole hornet's nest of, hey, what about...

you know, in the meetings and it just ends up with what we've got now. All right. Keith Cowing for us. Thank you so much. I'm sure we'll be having you back to update on this. I really appreciate it. All right. Let's turn now to this. Money, money, money, always sunny in a rich man's world.

All right, in a political world that is a rich man's world, it's full of multimillionaires, one man is standing out for a different reason. A review of Tim Walz's personal finances indicates the Minnesota governor is by far the least wealthy candidate on either party's ticket this year. Together, Tim and Gwen Walz earned about $166,000 in 2022, with his Republican vice presidential counterpart, J.D. Vance, raking in about $1.3 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Walls' recent financial disclosures show he has no stock holdings, no bonds, no real estate, something that his campaign hopes could give him some credibility with the working class. And Walls made a pitch along these lines to union workers yesterday. Vice President Harrops grew up in a middle class family, picked up shifts at that McDonald's as a student. Can you simply picture Donald Trump working at a McDonald's trying to make a McFlurry or something? It's

Oh, he knows, he knows us, he knows us. He couldn't run that damn McFlurry machine if it cost him anything.

I will say, I don't think I could run a McFlurrie machine either. Matt, how do you think this plays? I think one of the things that the Vance team, when they announced his VP, really hoped to set out was kind of middle class roots. He worked in Ohio, kind of putting himself through loss. Not just middle class roots. Oh, but poor, yeah. He put himself really through. And that was obviously laced all through Hillbilly Elegy, which that 1.213 million, a lot of it was that.

that book I'm curious to see if that is something we hear more about right we've kind of gone a little bit off track with some of his bio I'm curious if they reset and hear more about that in the weeks to come yeah I mean I do think it's it's it's an issue big picture that you know you basically have to often you have to be rich to win elections you know you have to be rich because of money in politics it's actually one of the things we should fix

But the thing that is so important for anyone who's seeking voters' votes is that they be relatable, that people say, I think this is a person who knows what I'm experiencing. So I do think it matters, just like he has been able to use his bio as being a coach, you know, and the fact that people are just calling him coach now and a teacher and have these images of kids hugging him. You know, all of those just are speaking to exactly. Well, it helps when the image lines up with the reality. Yeah.

Yeah, and look, there are many politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, who spend a lot of time in Congress and somehow, despite making just their congressional salaries, end up with a lot of money in their bank accounts. Tim Walz was elected in 2006. He served until 2018 in Washington, then the last six, seven years as governor here. It is...

it is notable that he has not amassed much money right yeah that he it he just was doing the jobs and not taking side things here I it also I assume made the vetting process a little bit easier for the Harris team I did I did but I'm pretty far indeed alright I'll leave you with this in the age of streaming music guess what's making a comeback cassette tapes

Ariana Grande, one of the pop stars cashing in on this cassette tape revival. She's selling a tape of her new song, We Can't Be Friends, for seven bucks online. Both Side B and Side A are the same song, they're different versions. Taylor Swift and Charli XCX also releasing their new album on the classic format from the 80s and 90s. Fans are flocking to the tapes.

And I have to say, I thought we were going to say specifically that these are Gen Z fans, apparently. And they don't really fully know how to use them. One mom told the Wall Street Journal about the trend, saying, quote, I showed my daughter how to wind it back using a finger. And, quote, I told her we used to use a pencil to do this. Best believe I'm still bejeweled when hope they shimmer.

And it may come as no surprise, last year Taylor Swift was among the leaders in cassette tape sales with two of her albums landing in the top five of cassette sales in 2023, according to Billboard. As the journal notes, Swift wasn't even alive when The Walkman debuted. I guess I should also...

admit neither was I although I will say so this is a picture of my cassette tape collection which I I actually owe a lot of people way cooler than me for the list of bands that you can see in that picture they were not all originally mine I did buy that copy of Fearless that you see there from Taylor Swift I use these in my Corvette which is from 1989 has a working cassette player I'll be candid if I didn't have one in this car I don't know where the heck I would get

I want to know where the hell do you get a cassette player nowadays? I mean, according to this story, so this is the A-head in the Wall Street Journal. For those people who are not familiar with the journal and how they do these great little vignette stories every day, it's amazing. And they said that they had to buy one on eBay.

For $40, a Walkman. You had a Walkman. I had a sports Walkman, the other one that would bang your hip when you ran with it beside you. I have to say... The little headphones went over your head. Walkman, definitely superior to the Discman, which the Discman was my childhood. And those things, they skipped like crazy. They have vinyl too. It's come back for 10 years. Yeah, so vinyl's great. Cassettes are great. I don't think CDs should ever come back.

Not worth it. All right, guys, thank you very much. I really appreciate it. 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 in the CNN app today.