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00:00Let's go out front.
00:04And good evening, I'm Erin Burnett.
00:05Out front tonight, the breaking news, a major Republican stand-up to Trump.
00:09Todd Blanche's nomination for attorney general is indeed in deep trouble tonight.
00:14A top Republican threatening to sink Trump's pick for the job.
00:18Now, the Senate Judiciary Committee was scheduled to vote.
00:21It was a key vote in just a few hours.
00:23But the way things were going, this was going to go through.
00:25Republicans were going to get on board.
00:26It was going to happen.
00:27But that is not what has happened.
00:29And it is no longer clear tonight if that vote will happen.
00:32We'll see.
00:33I mean, at this hour, there's a flurry of activity.
00:35Meetings behind closed doors between Republicans.
00:38Todd Blanche just left the Capitol.
00:39He refused to answer questions.
00:41So there's a lot of drama.
00:42He even went to the White House this afternoon.
00:44So here's what it comes down to.
00:46Republican Senator John Cornyn wants it in writing that Trump's $1.8 billion basically slush fund for his political allies
00:55is dead for good, is over, is not going to happen.
00:58Not get resurrected.
01:00As of now, it does not appear Cornyn is getting the assurance he needs.
01:07Here's the thing.
01:08We know that this slush fund matters a lot to Trump.
01:10And that may be what this is all about.
01:12But Cornyn is correct that it is not a big ask if you actually believe what people tell you under
01:17oath.
01:18And if you believe that people are people of honor.
01:20And when they say they're going to do something, they're going to do it.
01:22I mean, Blanche, in his confirmation hearing, testified that the fund was dead.
01:27But then he admitted it could be brought back by Trump's lawyers.
01:32So Trump's lawyers could bring back the fund, which Trump calls a great idea.
01:37It is a fund that could be used to pay, for example, rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol and
01:43police officers on January 6th.
01:45Now, times of the essence for the Justice Department here, because if this vote in committee does not happen, this
01:51could push Blanche's full confirmation vote into the fall, into September, after the August recess.
01:57Right. So this is a serious delay if it doesn't happen here.
02:00The showdown comes 71 days, of course, after Trump refused to back Cornyn in that ugly Texas Senate runoff, instead
02:09backing his highly controversial and challenged challenger, Ken Paxton, a decision which brought an end to the senator's more than
02:1620 years in Congress.
02:17And one that Trump speculates is the reason Cornyn is putting up such a fight about the fund now.
02:23Yeah, I mean, now can have his have his pride.
02:27All right, Manu, thank you very much.
02:29And just a note, what Manu says after Labor Day, Labor Day is late this year, right?
02:32So you'd be talking September 7, 8, 9 on the Labor Day week before you even got to this.
02:37Everyone's here with me now.
02:38So, Gretchen, John Cornyn, OK, there were so many times when when he would go along with Trump.
02:45And now he's saying, you know, have you noticed?
02:48Have you noticed that I feel a freedom?
02:50Do you think he'll hold firm?
02:51I do.
02:52I actually not because he won't sign the papers.
02:54Number two, this is John Cornyn.
02:57They're not going to call a vote unless John Cornyn simply because of the Epstein files.
03:02Like, suddenly that's all OK.
03:04Ghislaine Maxwell in the prison when she was suddenly moved.
03:07And the fact that half the documents still haven't been put out when they were said they were going to
03:11put them all out.
03:11I mean, Ryan, what does it say to you?
03:14Again, I guess back to the point of somebody being good for their word, which now we live in a
03:17world where it sadly matters much less than it used to.
03:21But you go under oath, you say it's dead, then it may not be dead, and now you won't sign
03:25the paper.
03:25What does it say that he won't sign the paper?
03:28It's astonishing.
03:29And the same thing has actually occurred not just in the Senate, but also in the courts for that, to
03:34guarantee that the case is truly over.
03:36And then the court can dismiss the case.
03:37And that's even putting himself and the judge, as Senator Cornyn said, it should be an easy ask.
03:42It should, because he said under oath that it was dead, right?
03:45I mean, I'm just saying, hey, all you've got to do is say that you said what you said, right?
03:49I mean, Paul, it does come, though, in the form of John Cornyn, who maybe, whatever it was, did I
03:54say 41 days ago, you might not have expected him to be the face of this.
03:58But let me just play some more of the very defiant messages that Cornyn is unafraid to send the White
04:03House today.
04:05So, Ryan, let's just play this out.
04:07Okay, there could be a vote and Cornyn caves and there's a vote tomorrow and there's, you know, some dancing
04:12that goes on.
04:13But if there isn't, okay, if this vote, the committee vote is delayed and the confirmation hearing on the floor
04:18goes all the way into the fall, right?
04:20We're talking about now, you know, maybe second week of September, if everything goes well in that case.
04:25But Blanche is acting attorney general right now.
04:27So what does that actually mean in practice if this is delayed?
04:30So I do know that there are some Senate Republicans who think it doesn't really matter if they confirm him
04:35because he'll otherwise be an acting attorney general or the confirmed attorney general.
04:39But it is very different if you're an acting.
04:41He can that doesn't have the trust of the Senate behind it.
04:44And if the Senate is behind it, then he actually has congressional endorsement, I would say, for everything that he's
04:48been doing.
04:48So the Republicans are lining up behind what Blanche has been doing with tomorrow.
04:53There was a court case in the Epstein Transparency Act in which the judge has already said that Blanche acted
04:58in defiance of the...
04:59It will now come down to the fund when it comes to Cornyn, right?
05:02So you're either going to make this fund go away or you don't have my vote.
05:04But before there was the fund issue, right?
05:06It was there.
05:07But before it was the main issue, the actual issue was meeting with the Epstein survivors, right?
05:12They had asked Blanche to do that, especially in the context of the meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell that resulted in
05:17her being moved to that minimum security prison in an unprecedented way.
05:20Okay, but so finally then he met with the Epstein survivors after that last meeting when there was like, this
05:26or not.
05:27And he does a quick meeting with them.
05:29They've now spoken out, said he behaved with no integrity during that meeting.
05:33Senator Tillis, who had said, you don't have my vote unless you do that.
05:37Here's what some of the Epstein survivors are saying now about Blanche in the meeting.
05:42Our viewers know Danielle Bensky because she has been indefatigable in speaking out on this issue.
05:48So why are we not hearing Senator Tillis, who is not afraid of speaking out to Trump, continue to pound
05:53the table on this?
05:54He's not.
05:54I was very disappointed that he refused until Tillis said, do it or you don't have my vote.
06:00I mean, it couldn't be more obvious.
06:02It couldn't be more obvious.
06:03And then he apparently wasn't even nice in the particular meeting that he was based on.
06:07What's really interesting is the slush fund must be more important than all of those other court cases you talked
06:13about in Trump's mind.
06:15Because this is what he is saying that he will ultimately controls this.
06:19You know, Paul, in this issue where Trump wants this vote and he's not getting it from the Senate,
06:24he gets asked about the majority leader in the Senate, right?
06:27John Thune, who has done all these things for Trump, gotten things over the finish line.
06:33So Trump's asked about him and he says this.
06:36All right.
06:37Thank you all very much.
06:38Paul, I got to say one correction, though, which is that he cares about approval ratings when they're good.
06:42When they're good, they're great.
06:44And he talks about them a lot, right?
06:46His poll numbers.
06:47All right.
06:48Thank you all.
06:48I appreciate you.
06:49And next, a bitter showdown between Anthony Fauci and Republicans on Capitol Hill.
06:53This was really epic.
06:54An incredible moment.
06:55Fauci repeatedly pleading the fifth.
06:58Could Fauci find himself in trouble after doing that again and again and again?
07:02And breaking news, Elon Musk jumping into the midterms.
07:06New reporting from Axios this hour says the billionaire is about to sink a massive amount of money into the
07:12midterms to help Republicans.
07:13And more breaking news this hour.
07:15The Middle East bracing for what Trump is now saying will be a massive hit on Iran after last night's
07:20surprise attack.
07:21As we have new reporting on the state of America's arsenal.
07:25Seth Jones in Spence.
07:26Breaking news bracing for payback.
07:29President Trump is threatening to hit Iran hard after Iran launched what the Trump administration calls a surprise ballistic missile
07:35attack against U.S. forces in Jordan.
07:39Which actually is very calm, composed, and diplomatic compared to what Trump had threatened just a few hours ago, telling
07:45Fox News.
07:47And Iran is glad about it.
07:49Today, releasing a propaganda video showing what it claims was the attack.
07:53The missile, they say, was inscribed with a warning in blue ink that says, quote,
07:56We are fighting until the full annihilation of the aggressor enemy.
08:00Taking revenge is a separate issue.
08:02Now, Trump has again gone from going from talking about friendly negotiations to, quote,
08:08Oh, I got to say it again.
08:09Beat the effing you know what out of them.
08:11And that has spooked investors.
08:12The price of oil jumped nearly 7 percent.
08:14So we're now $90 a barrel.
08:17It's back up there again.
08:19With one top analyst now predicting that Americans are, quote, going to seem sobering.
08:24Okay.
08:25Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week blames Biden for ammunition shortages.
08:29Now, ammunition is obviously perhaps a specific word choice.
08:33You know, we're talking here about missiles and interceptors, and these are going down in the Iran war.
08:37So there's someone to blame for that.
08:39That's not Joe Biden.
08:40But a month ago, Hegseth insisted that stockpiles, quote, are great, and they're only getting stronger.
08:46Now, if a 60 percent depletion in THAAD missile defense is great and only getting stronger, I don't want to
08:51know what bad is to Pete Hegseth.
08:54What's going on here?
08:55Well, I think clearly, as a result of what Epic Fear, the actual figures are classified.
09:02So theirs is an estimation.
09:04I was going to go back and say we're short.
09:06So I can't understand if you're going to be making an effort to build those up.
09:12But you've got a cycle of depletion, and then how much time is it going to take for you to
09:17build them back up?
09:17So you have this kind of this Venn diagram.
09:20But what do you make of a defense secretary who says they're great and they're only getting stronger, you know,
09:25when it just defies reality?
09:27What does that do in terms of the generals in the field, you know, belief or confidence in the defense
09:33secretary?
09:34The generals in the field, all the immediate concern that we have right now.
09:37Which is deeply concerning.
09:38I mean, Seth, there's also this.
09:40Trump said the other day that the Chinese president assured him that China, quote,
09:45would not under any circumstances give or sell weapons to Iran.
09:49I guess this is back to what we were talking about earlier in the show.
09:51People say whatever they want to say now.
09:53Words don't mean a whole lot.
09:55And Trump said, I take him at his word.
09:58OK, so that was the back and forth.
09:59But then Trump was asked today about new reporting that specifically contradicts this, right,
10:03about exactly how much China is sending to Iran.
10:07Let me play the exchange.
10:08Yeah, well, it's pretty incredible that China will go and tell him, you know, that they're not doing it.
10:12And he says, I take them at their word.
10:14They continue to do it.
10:15In a sense, it's a mockery of the U.S. president.
10:17Thank you both very much.
10:18I appreciate it.
10:19And next, Anthony Fauci pleading the fifth.
10:21He was grilled by Republicans about the government handling of COVID.
10:26Could that backfire on Fauci?
10:29And breaking news.
10:30A major economy in free fall.
10:32A stock market shedding trillions of dollars in two days.
10:35Half of its value just wiped out.
10:38A national emergency.
10:40Einstein and Ives are here.
10:44Breaking news on Capitol Hill tonight.
10:46Republican Senator Rand Paul says there will be a vote to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress.
10:52After Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment 112 times during his testimony about the COVID pandemic.
10:58Yes, you heard me correctly there.
11:00112 times.
11:01He said the hearing was a perjury trap by Republicans who have openly said they want him behind bars.
11:06So, the hearing quickly turned into a dramatic spectacle.
11:10One GOP senator shouted at Fauci, who the F do you think you were?
11:15Lauren Fox is out front.
11:16And I will note that we did not censor the vulgar language that senators chose to use today.
11:24All right.
11:25Thank you very much, Lauren.
11:26And Ryan Goodman is back with me 112 times to invoke the Fifth Amendment.
11:31I mean, you can't even string all that together.
11:33That obviously, it sends a message.
11:37Will that strategy work?
11:39Because he says, well, I had to do that because, you know, they're looking for perjury traps.
11:42Or does that just make it worse?
11:44And is he in real trouble?
11:45I think it's a criminal liability.
11:47What we're going to ask you about.
11:49So, then to plead the Fifth is actually for not answering when he is not really facing that criminal charge.
11:55Yeah, and also when the reason put out is perjury traps, then, of course, again, to the layperson, it's saying,
11:59well, why wouldn't you just say the truth?
12:00What would be the problem in that?
12:02So, you know, I understand that's a layperson thing, but it doesn't sound good.
12:06Trump has repeatedly dismissed Biden's pardons.
12:08When you talk about the pardon and everything before January of 2025, I'm sorry.
12:13Let me just play Trump here.
12:17So, okay.
12:17Now, he's also saying of Fauci later today, he said he was pardoned by Biden, and I respect that.
12:23So, it's unclear where he'd really come out on all of this.
12:26But what does that rhetoric indicate?
12:30That's the strongest argument that Fauci's lawyers have.
12:33So, Fauci's lawyers can try this one path.
12:35Trump's pursuit that he knew he wouldn't win for the DOJ, but I want you just to make their lives
12:39miserable, right?
12:40I mean, that's all out there.
12:41That's right, and that's what the Fifth Amendment is in significant part, trying to protect.
12:44Thank you very much again.
12:45And next, new reporting this hour on the world's richest man, who's about to spend a lot of cash on
12:51the midterms.
12:52And a brutal day on Wall Street, the Dow plunging more than 1,100 points after rare dissent on the
12:59Fed.
12:59Einstein and Ives, the whiteboard.
13:01Breaking news, U.S. stocks plunging after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady.
13:06The Dow tumbling more than 1,100 points.
13:09That was its worst day, actually, in more than a year.
13:12President Trump blamed the decision on a, quote, political Fed board.
13:16And that's interesting, right?
13:17Because, you know, he loves to slam the Fed, but he didn't, you know, as he did with Jerome Powell,
13:21he didn't make it personal to the new chairman, Kevin Warsh.
13:25Okay, well, maybe what he's referring to is the fact that three Fed officials actually voted to raise interest rates
13:31by a quarter point.
13:32Now, that is the largest number of dissenting votes on the Fed in nearly 10 years.
13:36So it's a big deal out front now, Einstein, Ives, and the whiteboard.
13:40Then it's interesting.
13:41Okay, interesting that Trump did not, he didn't go there on Kevin Warsh.
13:46It was almost like he's a little afraid of Kevin Warsh.
13:48But we had a lot of dissenting votes.
13:51Three very serious people dissented.
13:54And that's pretty significant.
13:55And that's also why the market was down.
13:57Because I think the view is, if you start to have more and more dissenting members,
14:02what we're seeing on inflation, in terms of Warsh, as well as what we're seeing.
14:06Interesting, Trump spent a lot of time slamming Jerome Powell.
14:10It was personal, it was nasty, it was vindictive, and it was repeated.
14:14Kevin Warsh has, that has not happened to him at this point.
14:19And Kevin Warsh has said he won't stand for it.
14:21I mean, listen to what he's just said repeatedly.
14:24And by the way, that independence is one of the things holding this country together on the world stage.
14:29It really matters.
14:30Do the markets have confidence that he can hold to that,
14:33given what we've seen Trump do with his predecessor?
14:37You know, that is talking.
14:38And the minute he stopped talking, it was a little bit of a technical reversal, but it reversed.
14:43And all of this is just real fear about where the market and the economy is, right?
14:48We know that.
14:48Americans feel it, the affordability crisis.
14:51So on this front, whiteboard's coming out.
14:53And we're going around the world.
14:55Drum roll.
14:55We're digging a hole all the way to South Korea.
14:58Okay, there's a shocking situation going on there.
15:01An absolute crash.
15:03Emergency meeting by the government of South Korea to deal with this.
15:07Trading halted for two days.
15:09Okay, so the South Korean market, okay, the KOSPI, right?
15:13Down 10% in one day on Monday.
15:1610% in one day.
15:17Okay, okay, now over the past 40 days, 44%.
15:2444%, $2 trillion.
15:27Okay?
15:29Holy cow.
15:31Half of the value.
15:32And by the way, it had surged before that, right?
15:34It had gone from being one of the top 15 stock markets.
15:37It's had some of the most volatile times we've ever seen.
15:38But a plunge like this, I mean, what the heck is going on?
15:41Yeah, look, the reality is that, especially memory stocks, really the brains behind the
15:47AI revolution.
15:48And that is what you've seen.
15:50Yeah, right.
15:51But then that sector, the tech sector, started to break down into software, chips.
15:57Next, brand new reporting from Axios that Elon Musk is going to flood the midterms with
16:01cash for Republicans.
16:06Breaking news, billionaire Elon Musk about to make a massive investment to boost Republican
16:11turnout for the midterms.
16:12It's a big bet, and Axios is breaking this news just now.
16:16Musk's representatives are declining to say just how much Musk is planning to spend, but
16:21they told Axios the number is expected to be high.
16:25Now, obviously, Musk is the richest man in the world, so high could be absolutely anything,
16:31and just the only context we have is that he spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars
16:35in the 2024 election.
16:37Out front now, Alex Eisenstadt, the Axios.
16:39Yeah, yeah, those rallies.
16:41When he himself was a rock star, things have changed.
16:45Alex, thank you so much for sharing all your new reporting with us.
16:47I appreciate it.
16:49And thanks so much to all of you for joining us as well.
16:51AC 360 begins now.