[Kim Brunhuber, Cnn Host:] The fallout over reports that President Trump made disparaging comments about fallen U.S. troops, now there are new allegations regarding more controversial remarks. Also ahead
[Unidentified Female:] Oh, my God.
[Unidentified Male:] Holy
[Unidentified Female:] Just keep going.
[Brunhuber:] Fleeing for their lives, these are some of the people trapped by a fast-moving wildfire in California. We'll have more on the extreme weather in the state. And, a powerful typhoon heads toward southern Japan as thousands are told to evacuate. We'll speak to a storm chaser who's there. Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to you, our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Ken Brunhuber and this is CNN NEWSROOM. CNN and other news organizations have now confirmed some of the shocking allegations in "The Atlantic" magazine, that U.S. president Donald Trump privately denigrated American war dead during a trip to Paris in 2018. The president and his allies have insisted the allegations are false. But a former senior Trump official confirms to CNN that the president spoke in crude and derogatory terms of U.S. Marines who had died in World War I and are buried near Paris. We get more from CNN's Jeremy Diamond at the White House.
[Jeremy Diamond, Cnn White House Correspondent:] While the White House is still reeling from this report in "The Atlantic" magazine that President Trump referred to American soldiers who lost lives in a critical battle in World War I as losers and suckers as he was deciding not to attend a ceremony at a cemetery where some of those war dead were buried. And now, a former senior administration official is confirming to my colleague, Jim Acosta, that the president did indeed refer those American war dead in crude and derogatory terms. Now, of course, President Trump and the White House have vehemently denied the story insisting that the president has the utmost respect for veterans and service members. And the president even said what kind of animal would refer to a dead American service members in such a fashion? But nonetheless, a former senior administration official confirms to CNN that the president did indeed make those comments. And another source familiar with his remarks has now told CNN that the president has also repeatedly questioned why Vietnam war veterans would've served in that war, suggesting that those service members did not know how to get out of the draft, how to work the system, much in the way that the president himself. We know that president Trump received multiple educational deferments to avoid serving in the Vietnam War and he ultimately received a medical deferment after he got a doctor's note claiming that the president had bone spurs, making him ineligible for military service Jeremy Diamond CNN, the. White House
[Brunhuber:] James Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence under President Obama, has been a frequent and harsh critic of President Trump. He's also a retired three-star general in the U.S. Air Force, who served two tours of duty during the Vietnam War. Here's what Clapper had to say about those allegations.
[James Clapper, Former U.s. Director Of National Intelligence:] It's insulting, it really is. It never occurred to me to try to avoid it and, in fact, I saw duty in Vietnam because I thought it was the right thing to do as a professional Air Force officer. So I went and served. And I went back for another tour. I'm certainly no exception. I had the good fortune that I wasn't killed or wounded, unlike so many others. And I just can't help but think of the families of those who lost their lives and paid the ultimate price for their service in Vietnam. And then to hear that from the commander in chief, it's very, very troubling.
[Brunhuber:] There were more demonstrations in the U.S. on Saturday against the police killings of Black Americans. Police in Portland, Oregon, declared a riot during the 100th straight night of protests in the city. Police accuse the protesters of throwing Molotov cocktails and engaging in violent conduct. Portland has become an epicenter of the movement against racial injustice and police brutality. CNN's Lucy Kafanov is there for us.
[Lucy Kafanov, Cnn Correspondent:] It's the 100th night of protests here in downtown Portland. We're near Ventura Park, where sort of the largest gathering took place in the evening. There were two, maybe 300 people, some demonstrators throwing Molotov cocktails. That prompted the police to declare the gathering a riot. They came in with flashbangs and tear gas; the crowd dispersed. Now we're seeing a different group here, trying to march back down possibly towards the park, possibly towards the police precinct. It's a repeat of what we've seen night after night, although with this being the 100th night, it's somewhat of a larger gathering than what we have seen in previous evenings. There have been smaller gatherings across the city. Those have been largely peaceful, including a car caravan of folks supporting Black Lives Matter that rolled through the streets. The demands of the protesters fairly consistent. They want change to the policing system here. They want racial justice and racial equality. They also want things like $50 million to be diverted from the police budget and reinvested into community programs, housing, education, things of that sort. We also saw on Saturday a rally in memorial of Aaron Jay Danielson, the far right supporter of President Trump, killed by an activist who supported anti-fascism. That activist, Michael Reinoehl, was killed in a confrontation with police on Thursday when authorities moved in to arrest him. Again, the 100th night of protests here. The clashes, the gatherings still continuing Lucy Kafanov, CNN, Portland.
[Brunhuber:] And another night of unrest has been gripping the city of Rochester, New York. Hours of peaceful protests, demonstrators and law enforcement clashed for a fourth straight night. Police deploying pepper balls and tear gas on the crowd. Thousands had flooded the streets, demanding accountability for Daniel Prude, a Black man who died in police custody in March. Earlier on Saturday the New York attorney general announced her office will call a grand jury to investigate Prude's death. The man who was the subject of massive racial justice protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has released a new video message to his supporters. Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by police officers and is unable to walk. In the video he talks about the devastating effects of his injuries.
[Jacob Blake, Police Shooting Victim:] I just want to say, man, to all the young cats out there and even the older ones older than me, there is a lot more life to live out here, man. Your life and not only just your life, your legs, something that you need to move around and move forward in life can be taken from you like this, man. And I promise you, the type of shit that you will go through, staples, I got staples into my back, staples into my damn stomach, you do not want to have to deal with this shit, man. Every 24 hours, it's pain. It's nothing but pain. It hurts to breathe. It hurts to sleep. It hurts to move from side to side. It hurts to eat. Please, I'm telling you, change your lives out there. We can stick together, make some money, make everything easier for our people out there, man, because there is so much time that has been wasted.
[Brunhuber:] And in Louisville, Kentucky, activists marched outside Churchill Downs race track during Saturday's running of the Kentucky Derby. They were demanding justice for Breonna Taylor. Police killed her in a raid on her home in Louisville in March. Protesters aimed to shift attention from America's most famous horse race to her case. CNN's Jason Carroll was there.
[Jason Carroll, Cnn National Correspondent:] Well, the demonstration ended where it began, at a park had just about a mile away from Churchill Downs. At one point their numbers were in the thousands. As they got to Churchill Downs, marched around the perimeter. And then just as the race got underway, they stood and they shouted and they voiced all of their concerns. They voiced their message, which is trying to get justice for Breonna Taylor. There were some concerns about whether or not this protest would be peaceful, whether or not it would be nonviolent. We spoke to one of the organizers, who said this was a protest that went off just the way it should have.
[Timothy Findley Jr., Protest Organizer:] Me talking to you right now was a part of our plan. We wanted the world to see, we wanted everyone to see and understand that we are not happy, we are not satisfied with what the attorney general is doing, what the mayor is doing. We want justice for Breonna Taylor.
[Findley:] While that race was going on, people were forced to pay attention to what was going on outside of Churchill Downs. We did so nonviolently but we're going to continue to do. This
[Carroll:] The Derby ran without fans so you didn't have the thousands upon thousands of fans who would normally be at the Derby as they were leaving. But no matter to the demonstrators who are out here today. They feel as though their point still got across, which is to make sure that they are not going to let up on the demonstrations until they see justice for Breonna Taylor Jason Carroll, CNN, Louisville, Kentucky.
[Brunhuber:] For more now on how this is playing into the race for the White House, let's bring in Natasha Lindstaedt, professor of government at the University of Essex. Thank you very much for coming on to speak with us about this. The president's reelection campaign is relying in large part on creating anxiety about urban unrest. Does the violence that we're seeing have the transitive properties he is hoping for? That the blame for the violence in Democratic cities will fall sort of indirectly on Biden instead of himself as president in the here and now?
[Natasha Lindstaedt, Professor, University Of Essex:] I think there's an interesting thing going on here. When we look at some of the most recent polls on how well Trump is handling the protests, how he is handling race relations and whether or not racism is a problem, on one hand, he is actually not doing very well on these questions. There are more Americans that think he's not doing a good job, he's not making the situation better. In fact, only 13 percent of Americans, according to a recent Ipsos poll, say that his rhetoric is actually helping matters. And the poll asks a number of questions, whether or not he's able to make you feel safe, make the country feel safer. And Biden scored better on every single question compared to Trump. But we're also seeing a recent CNN poll that indicated that more Republicans feel that racism is not as big of a problem as it was in June. And more Republicans approve of the way that Trump is handling the situation. I think it's also important to note that, if Trump is able to make the election about protests, about violence, about unrest, about chaos in our cities, that's going to be a lot better for him in the 2020 election than if the focus is on COVID, on the economy, on this recent story about denigrating people who served in battle. So he really wants the narrative of this election to be that the country is so unsafe right now, if Joe Biden takes over, it's going to make it worse and the Democratic leaders and governors are the problem and that he is the only one that can resolve it.
[Brunhuber:] And you know, Trump really seems to be moving the needle in terms of voters' concerns. Law and order seems to have risen quite dramatically in terms of the rankings of people's concerns compared to 2016 and people's favorable views of Black Lives Matter movement has dropped considerably since June. So I'm wondering if painting Joe Biden as a captive to the violence loving Left you know, Joe Biden condemned the violence on both sides. I'm wondering, is it worth the capital for Biden to distance himself further from all of this violence? Or is that just basically a waste of time?
[Lindstaedt:] Well, I think Biden does need to keep coming in and urging for unity and trying to project an image of strength, trying to appear to be presidential and trying to convey to the American public that he is the leader that can heal the nation. And it's important for our morality that we have been lost under Trump. The country has become increasingly polarized and we need a leader to give us messages of unity rather than messages of division. But he doesn't want to focus on this so much that it loses the attention on some of the other things that Democrats want to be emphasizing, which is the COVID-19 situation, of course, and the economy and how Democrats feel that they can get the country out of this mess rather than if Trump is leading.
[Brunhuber:] All right. Thanks to Natasha Lindstaedt. It looks like the Trump tell-all section at the bookstore might need another shelf. The president's former attorney, Michael Cohen's memoir, "Disloyal" is out Tuesday. In it Cohen goes into great detail about Trump's fixation on President Obama, writing Trump was so obsessed, he actually hired a fake Obama for a video, where Trump, quote, "ritualistically belittled the first Black president and then fired him." CNN has reached out to the White House for comment. Now Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to numerous federal crimes, including tax evasion, lying to Congress and campaign finance violations. He's also sharing his concerns about the upcoming presidential election. Take a listen here.
[Michael Cohen, Former Trump Attorney:] So Donald Trump will do anything and everything within which to win. I believe that includes manipulating the ballots. I believe that he would even go far as to start a war in order to prevent himself from being removed from office. My biggest fear is that there will not be a peaceful transition of power in 2020.
[Brunhuber:] And in the next hour, CNN's "NEW DAY" will have much more on Cohen's book for viewers in the U.S. Police in Birmingham, England, have declared a major incident after reports of multiple stabbings in the city center. A witness tells the BBC Radio 5 that it appeared to begin as several people arguing outside a night club. She says they were yelling racial slurs and then the situation escalated into an all-out brawl among a large group of people. At this point we don't know how many people have been injured or how serious those injuries are. Holiday travel in the era of coronavirus. Just ahead we'll take a look at what kind of security changes Americans should expect over the Labor Day weekend. Plus later in the show, California warns it may have to ration electricity as millions suffer through a dangerous heat wave in the middle of a pandemic. Stay with us.