welcome to second hour of "360," coming up in the hour ahead, two leading experts on the field of breaking news tonight, nearly 310,000 covid fatalities projected in modeling by december 1st. tonight the death toll crossed 175,000 mark. that only adds to schools reopening concerns and college students falling ill, and the choice millions may face shortly about whether to risk their health by voting in person. risk that mail-in ballots won't

be delivered. today after several weeks of growing controversy over cut backs. the postal service for mail-in voting, the postmaster general went before the senate committee one senator was not persuaded by the answers he gave. set the stage. >> this will be a disaster like never before. >> embattled postmaster general louis dejoy telling members of congress he wholly supports vote by mail. >> i want to vote by mail. >> you do support voting by mail? >> i do. i think the american public should be able to vote by mail, and the postal service will support. so i guess that's yes. >> dejoy also promising a senate committee the u.s. postal service will prioritize election mail so it arrives as quickly as possible. a change from an earlier plan outlined in these internal documents obtained by cnn, showing the postal service

planning to treat election mail differently this year, no longer giving them the priority of first class mail. >> we will deploy processes and procedures that advance any election mail in some cases ahead of first class mail. >> if people vote within 7 days of election, are you confident highly confident, that those ballots would be received. >> extremely confident. >> his assurances and support of vote by mail, stand in stark contrast to president trump, who has repeatedly railed against universal mail-in photoing, falsely claiming it's ripe for fraud and saying he wants to block funding to prevent mail in voting. >> they want $25 billion for the post office. now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. you can't have universal mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it. >> reporter: earlier in the week dejoy reversed course, said his planned changes to the

postal service which democrats claim would interfere with mail-in voting would wait until after the election. but boxes removed will not return. >> will any of those come back? >> there's no intention to do that, they're not needed, sir. >> reporter: wasn't just the election that had lawmakers upset. >> 80% of veterans prescriptions are filled by the united states post office. i have 225,000 veterans in nevada, many of them relying on this for their timely delivery of life saving medication. >> reporter: to which dejoy responded. >> the only change i made was that the trucks leave on time. theoretically, everyone should have gotten their mail faster. >> reporter: pamela brown, cnn, washington. >> joining us now, the senator you heard from, the democrat from nevada, were you satisfied with dejoy's answers to your questions today? he couldn't really commit to a number of things you asked. >> no, no, anderson.

thank you for having me on, this is really important. i was not satisfied with the answers today. postmaster general did not commit to transparency. he did not clearly understand what he did, the consequences intended or unintended. he was not willing or able or understood the data that helped him make these decisions or how these decisions were made, so we have to hold his feet to the fire to be sure that our postal service continues to deliver the mail, the prescriptions, the checks, all of it in a timely manner as the american people expect. >> to your point of the lack of transparency, i want to play another exchange between you and the postmaster general. >> we need transparency, and the changes you've been making and in everything you've discussed here today, will you commit to providing this committee with any and all transcripts or minutes of all closed, nonpublic board of governor meetings for

this year by this sunday? can you commit to that, sir? >> no. >> you will not commit to provide minutes? >> i don't have the authority to do some of those things, and that is something that i would need to discuss with counsel, the board's counsel, so i can't commit to that. >> it does seem like to find out what was going on, you would need those minutes. is that something that you can get, do you think? >> well, i'm a member of the united states senate, and my job on the homeland security and oversight committee is to do that oversight. we should be privy to those minutes. this isn't classified material, this is our postal service, it's not national security. it's our postal service. he needs to let us know what they've been talking about. how they came to these decision, i get thousands of emails over the past few weeks, past few months since he's been there

outlining every single day how people are not getting their prescriptions, how they're getting late fees because their mail, the bills they put in the mail aren't being delivered on time. people who get social security checks are not getting them. small businesses not getting what they need, and he's the postmaster general, he needs to respond to the american people. >> i don't understand, though, letters went out to various states from -- as far as i understand, from the postal service warning of delays possibly with mail-in voting, and yet today he says that the postal service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation's election mail securely and on time. and it's his number one priority between now and election day. >> i think he clearly walked into this room not having done his homework. i think he clearly walked into this job not having done his homework. he claims to be a businessman.

he's taking over as ceo of a company. you wouldn't start your first day saying, i don't know what they did before me. you would do your due diligence. walk into that room knowing the history, the logistics. he's a logistics expert, he would have walked in, doing his homework, and then he would be going from there. it's no secret the election is november 3rd, we've known that all along. he acts surprised. he's suddenly forming a committee to look at it. this doesn't seem acceptable to me. he clearly hasn't done his homework, he clearly doesn't know what's going on at the post office. and he clearly doesn't have a plan. if he does, for some reason, he's not willing to share it. that's the most troubling. >> how do you actually -- i mean on camera, he said he's not the person -- he can't say that he'll give you those -- the minutes of closed director meetings. what is the next step on getting those? >> we're working my team with the committee staff and others

in the senate to see what recourse we have to compel him to give us those. we're assembling that now. providing a comprehensive list of all the questions, all the data we want to get from him, by sunday so that we can see it, so the house can look at that next week. we're entitled to know that. the data tells the story, if you're smart enough to listen to it, he obviously wasn't listening to it he clearly didn't know that veterans would be impacted, senior citizens, rural communities and small businesses. we're going to find the tools we have in the united states senate to compel him to give us that information. >> the president is now saying he's going to send law enforcement officials to polling locations. sheriffs, police. what is the -- what's your take on that? >> well, i don't understand where the president would have the authority to do that. why we would even need him to do

that, you know, typically an all polling locations, there's always poll watchers, there are people there to make sure the elections are safe and secure and delivered. we've never had problems in our polling stations before. at least not here in nevada and i don't think around the country. i'm not sure where the president is suddenly finding this new authority to send police to our voting booth. the right for every individual to vote, we're in a pandemic, whether it's by mail, early voting, day of voting, we need to guarantee that in a safe secure way. >> i appreciate your time, thank you very much. >> thank you. more on how this is actually playing out on the front lines, we're joined by kimberly carroll. president of iowa postal service union, she works in waterloo, iowa. thanks for being with us. we heard from the postmaster general dejoy today, he says there's no intention to bring back any mail sorting machines that have been removed. they're not needed. is that how you see it? are they needed?

>> it's disappointing that the mail processing equipment that we have been using until the moment it was removed is suddenly no longer necessary. no, we don't see it, i guess i see this as possibly more of his actions speaking louder than his words. >> why -- what have you actually seen were machines removed from the area where you work? and if so, why? >> well, we did lose a machine, and we were told that it was part of the cost saving measure, it was part of becoming more efficient. the end result, though, was that we're not able to get all the mail processed. we were seeing mail being left behind.

that was also part of what the postmaster general said was acceptable. and for a postal employee, that is not acceptable. we've grown up in a culture of every piece delivered every day, you don't leave mail behind. and that's what happens when we lose our processing abilities. so it's more about his actions than it is his words right now. they don't ring true for us. >> i want to play something else the postmaster general said today. >> as we head into the election season, i want to assure this committee and the american public that the postal service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation's election mail securely and on time. this sacred duty is my number one priority between now and election day. >> are you confident the postal

service will be able to handle all the election mail on time? >> well, i find it funny, because that's part of our postal regulations, we have always treated the mail this way, it was his suggestion that we were not going to do that this election, that has caused many of our -- many of the american public to get upset about this. it's part of our regulation. he's only doing what is already in place. >> and dejoy said that there's been -- what he said was no changes in any policies with regard to election mail. for the 2020 election. is that your understanding as well? >> that wasn't initially my understanding, so the result of him going on record today saying that is very encouraging. and the fact that he finally admitted that we needed covid

funding -- covid relief funding is also encouraging. but that wasn't the case a few days ago. that wasn't what we were being told a few days ago. >> kimberly karol, i appreciate all the work you do. people in the postal service don't get enough thanks. i want to thank you and everyone you work with. thank you, i appreciate talking to you. >> thank you. coming up next, what we know about what's next for the republican convention, what we don't know, how much of it is being developed by the president himself. also steve bannon, now member of the president's i barely knew him club, and we'll have the latest on how involved the president and people close to him have been with the former top strategist when we continue.

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with a history of these disorders. protect him with all your heart. simparica trio. whatever you took away from this week's democratic national convention we're going to get a different take on how to nominate a presidential ticket. during a pandemic at least. the two conventions will be different in ideology and likely in temperament, because of what each party stands for and who's at the top of the ticket. beyond that, we don't know about what may go on next week. that is a function of the man at the top, too. cnn's kaitlan collins has been doing her best to try to find out. what is the latest you're

hearing about the republican convention? >> it's not going to look like any republican convention you've seen in the past. it's going to mirror the democratic convention a little bit, they have the same covid-19 restrictions that the democrats were dealing with, one thing that's different, the president and his campaign and his white house officials have been able to watch the dnc and see what they like and don't like, and try to learn and apply that to next week. one of the biggest takeaways is the president doesn't want taped programming. we are told there will be taped programming in the earlier hours, during those big prime time speeches, seeing the main speakers, we are not expecting it right now to be taped programming. that means the first lady, melania trump, vice president mike pence, ivanka trump and of course, president trump on thursday night, also, look for the themes that they're going to have here. they're going to focus on the economy than what you saw from the democrats, it was this indictment of the president and his time in office so far. also, they're going to try to look at those culture wars they've had, which the president has focused on, the mccluskey's, remember that st. louis couple

who had the guns in front of their house when protesters were coming through, they are expected to be speaking at this, you're going to see them as well as several other white house officials and some figures that you may recognize from some of the president's tweets in the past. >> do we know how much time the president and the party plan to focus on discussing the pandemic? i mean it seems like we obviously know what the president's line on it is, came from china. we've done a great job, amazing testing, you know, vaccines just around the corner. >> he may mention some of those lines in his speech, but what i've heard from several of the people i've spoken with, it doesn't seem to be like it's going to be a big focus. vice president is expected to speak about it on wednesday night at ft. henry, but other than that, that has

not been something that has revolved around the discussions. it will be notable, because that's what democrats hammered away these last four nights, that's what biden closed out with last night, saying the president fails his number one job to americans, which was to protect them. and it was disqualifying the way the president has responded on the coronavirus. the president himself is not expected to focus largely on coronavirus. and another thing to watch is the audience here. they want to have the crowd factor. at president's speeches, we know that he wants to have a crowd, that's why he's having it here outside on the south lawn, also the other speeches are expected to be held at the mellon auditorium, indoors in wakz. but they're still trying to get some kind of an audience, if it's going to be a live focused convention like they're planning right now, they want to have some kind of reaction. they don't want it to be this awkward flat event that they feerks that fear, that they think they've seen with the democrats. that's something to keep an eye on as well next week. >> it's obvious the president wouldn't want to talk too much about the coronavirus, because it's hard to talk about it without acknowledging the horrific death toll thus far that is only by all estimates

going to be growing. >> right, these why he's strayed so far from it. basically said, if there's no positive news, why should you focus on it that much. it's notable, that's what people are going to be thinking about when they do go to the polls in november, that's something that's affected everyone, it's something that democrats roundly criticized the president on. but the question of whether or not he's going to defend his response so far, he's talked about other countries and surges they've seen. it doesn't compare to what you've seen in the united states. one of the glaring factors of all of this being wrapped into one, he criticized michelle obama for taping her speech, and only 150,000 americans had died at that point, by the time it aired, it jumped 20,000 more. something people in the white house realize it didn't reflect well on president trump either. >> because it's one of the few times he mentioned how many of our fellow americans have died. it's not a number he uses very

often. kaitlan collins, appreciate it, thank you. more of this convention next year, in contrast to the democrats, joining us is valerie jarrett, former obama senior adviser and author of "finding my voice." it's really interesting, because often times when we talk about what do we think is going to happen in this convention, people focus on policy issues and health care, whatever it may be, i'm not sure that for this white house it makes any sense to be thinking that they're going to be focusing on a lot of -- they're not going to be focusing on health care, there is no health care plan, despite promising it for years and years, it seems like it's going to be painting a picture of a dystopian america with carnage in the streets, even though they're the ones that have overseen this alleged carnage. >> i think that's exactly right. if we can judge from what they've done so far, it's a very negative divisive campaign

intended to instill fear. polarize us in sharp contrast to the week the democratic party had led by vice president biden and senator harris. which was an optimistic hopeful message, one that appeals to the best of us, shows what we have in common. if you looked at the inclusive and diverse group of people who participated, sharing their stories, we could all see ourselves in those stories, and that's a connection that i think is so important not just for the party, but to govern our country. >> i wonder how much too -- so much of what president trump's been trying to do is raise doubt about vice president biden's acuity. i think he certainly did very well at the convention, and i think it seems like they now are going to try to figure out something else. i wonder if they're going to focus more on kamala harris and raise fears and concerns about

her that -- if that's going to be a focus. >> well, of course it is, and we've already seen the sexist and racist tropes comes her way. that's not something that started yesterday, it's something that started even before she was selected. part of why a group of women wrote a letter, look at how we're treating women, we're sick and tired of a double standard. that's kind of business as usual for the republican party, yes, i think they're going to come after with personal attacks, and i think what the american people want to hear anderson is, how are you going to improve my life. and that's what you heard from the democrats this week, vice president biden had this opportunity to speak directly to the american people, 122 million people tuned in to say, this is what i want to do for you. that you want to know what drives me, and i want to make sure that when we build back better, that means that nobody gets left behind.

and so i think both the affirmative hopeful optimistic message which isn't to say, hope and optimism isn't something that's easy, it's hard. and those are the stories we heard this week of people with grit and determination who fought to make this country a better place, to build something for their families. i think that optimism and that hopefulness, that goodness is reflective of the majority of the american people, i think that's what vice president biden tapped into this week. >> it's interesting, when you see the democratic convention and you think about conventions in the past and presidents in the past, republican and democrat, they've all been capable of great empathy, and the ability to step out of the role of the political role and embrace people in the broken places and speak to people in the language of loss, and that is something that this president is wholly incapable and

uninterested in doing, and i think if he -- they cannot try to do what biden did in this last week, to kind of humanize him, it just -- he's not capable of that. >> i think the authenticity that vice president biden and senator harris came through loud and clearly. people can tell whether you get them, whether you can connect with them. often it's done through stories or acts of kindness, the young boy who had a challenge with stuttering, who we all were rooting for last night, hoping he could finish it, and you know he had rehearsed it, gabby giffords who has come back from a horrendous being a victim of gunshot wound to her head. you could tell she practiced so hard. that's part of what vice president biden was trying to show, we should be rooting for one another. you can't root for somebody if you can't put yourself in their shoes. if you can't empathize with

their pain. i think part of what vice president biden wanted to do by retelling his story, is to open up and be honest, and say, this is who i am, this is how i've become the leader i am today. this is why i will care for you. in the end, the american people want a leader who is going to have a hopeful vision for our country, who cares about them, understands their joy and pain. and gets up every morning fighting on their behalf, not thinking about himself, but thinking about them. >> valerie jarrett, i appreciate your time, thank you. >> thank you. >> we have more on the breaking news. the u.s. death toll topping 175,000. a key model now projecting 310,000 american deaths by december. two scientists break down those numbers for us, and what they mean going forward. how maybe we can improve on that. plus new reports on cases across three states linked back to the huge biker rally in sturgis,

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as you heard earlier in the program, the death toll has surpassed 175,000, there's the new projection from the university of washington tonight. 310,000 deaths by december 1st. a toll that could be lowered if 95% of the country would commit to wearing masks. only about 55% of the country wear masks. meanwhile more than a dozen covid cases in three states have been linked to that motorcycle rally in suturgis, south dakota last week, where few wore masks. you don't thinker of a back-to-school guide and dr. hotez, certainly no surprise there would be cases connected to the sturgis motorcycle rally.

i talked to sanjay earlier who pointed out it's been five days, so the chance that there will be even more is greater as the next week progresses. how much of events like this can be super spreader events? and spur the virus? >> they certainly can be, right? i mean i would now expect to start seeing an uptick in cases in the great plains states. the great plains states have been doing well up until now. i'm going to see if these become new hotspots, new areas of transmission similar to the southeastern united states. it's a -- remember there are 250,000 people who came in from all over the country including areas where transmission was so high in the southeastern united states. and then now they're going back to their various homes, so this is a big one. and this is the reason why we're continuing to see deaths daily, where 1,000 deaths per day will be at 200,000 deaths,

the grim milestone by the middle of september. and then we'll be up to 310,000 as the metrics say by december 1st. it's beyond tragic. >> it's remarkable to me that -- with this new model that's out, they say that if 95% of the people wear masks in this country, up from 55%, you can save 69,000 lives over the next several months. to be able to quantify it and then not wear a mask. to be able to actually say, you know what, if everybody in my community wears a mask, x number of people would be alive, i don't understand why somebody who's a citizen and lives in a community wouldn't just do that. >> you're exactly right. it's a real puzzlement, and i think it has to do with leadership.

what people wlef believe, it has to do with a false idea of machismo. it's a very deep problem at this point. but that report cite from the university of washington has three curves, what happens if you wear a mask. what is the expected which is what you described 300,000 plus people dead by the end of the year, but another curve, which was even worse, which is, what happens if we loosen up even more, then the number goes up as high as 600,000. it is truly frightening. even if everybody wore masks, we stay about where we are. that's not good. that's not pushing it very far down. it's just preventing it from shooting up. >> so we have a long way to go. >> when professor hazeltine points it out like that, it's true.

the estimate is 6,000 could be dying a day as opposed to 1,000 dying a day if states loosen up more than they currently are. i mean, that's a terrifying prospect. >> it is, and remember what's going to also fuel this, the nice fall weather will be coming soon, people will be engaged in more events. the other thing that's happening, the cdc pushed hard about going back to school, whether or not there was high levels of transmission and that's going to happen, that's going to create new cases as well, and new outbreaks, that's going to fuel this lack of respect for schoolteachers. that's also going to accelerate us toward 310,000 deaths. and you know, i've spoken to some of the people for health metrics. they point out, one of the other big failings, beyond the testing is, we've never geared up for contact tracing. contact tracing has never really caught up, because the level of transmission has been so high, it's been impossible.

it exceeded the capacity, this is going to accelerate us toward 310,000 deaths by december 1. let's remember, this current administration is still in power until the end of january. so what do those numbers look like? >> possibly four more years. >> possibly 400,000, 500,000 deaths. >> professor hazeltine, when you look at countries, we're all in this, and feel like, oh, my god, it's crushing, and there's an inevitability to it, there's nothing we can do, we have to wait for this vaccine, and you realize, we're the outlier here, we're not south korea. south korea, taiwan, they've handled this completely differently and human behavior, i mean, they've monitored, you know, they've -- they have contact tracing, and citizens are wearing masks. they're actually changing the course of the pandemic here, which is something we could have

done and still could do, even without a vaccine. >> right, there's something we can do right away that can slow this epidemic very dramatically, and that is, introduce very rapid antigen tests that are cheap, that can be used at home, that cost perhaps a dollar, 50 cents, that are like pregnancy tests, you use a little bit of saliva. that technology exists, and i'm waiting for the moment when we decide to ramp it up. to catch people when they're contagious. the tests we use are medical tests. you don't need that kind of sensitivity, you don't need that kind of -- it's sort of like using a p.e.t. scan to diagnose skin cancer. can you see with your eyes but expensive p.e.t. scan can find it. in answer to your second issue, which is what do other countries do. i know it's a bugaboo not to talk about china. but china has controlled this epidemic, and yes i believe

chinese numbers. i don't necessarily believe all of ours. i have friends in china who are going to movie theaters, flying from one part of china to another. >> they just had a pool party in wuhan for a music festival. thousands of people in a pool in wuhan. the epicenter of the virus. >> right, and it's no longer there. so when we have 1,500 people a day die, they have none. a day when we have 50,000 people infected, they have 30 people infected. and those have come from outside of china. it is possible to do this, and we can do it too. i know that peter knows we can do it. we can do it by identifying people who are infectious and removing them from the population by mandatory isolation. that's how you do it, it's no mystery. >> appreciate your time. we now know, that this coronavirus can cause serious side effects.

and some -- lingering illnesses, serious illnesses for survivors. a woman in miami who has been hospitalized for months. note before we bring you this report by "360"'s randi kaye, some images may be disturbing. it's important for you to see. >> rosa, nice to see you. >> nice so see you too. >> this is the only way we could see rosa felipe. the 41-year-old mother of two young boys has been hospitalized at jackson memorial hospital in miami since early march after testing positive for covid-19. she's fighting to survive inside the very same hospital where she worked for more than 15 years as electroenreceive la graph, an eeg technician, testing brain activity in patients. >> i do all of the eeg's wherever they're needed. whether it's in the emergency room or trauma or on a separate floor.

>> you would travel around the hospital quite a bit and possibly got exposed? >> quite a bit. >> you were seeing a lot of patients? >> yes. >> rosa has two underlying conditions that put her at greater risk, asthma and diabetes. it got so bad, doctors put her on a ventilator to help her breathe. >> i actually asked the doctors for a piece of paper before being intubated. i wrote on the paper for my children, i wanted them to not give up and not be upset with god. if something were to happen to me, this was his will, and i didn't want them to be upset with god, i wanted them to be loving and happy that god allowed us to have the time i did have. after that, i gave it up to god. >> rosa spent two months on the ventilator, it saved her life. >> i'm still grateful i'm alive. i'm grateful i made it. but now, rosa has another problem. while on the ventilator she may have been developed blood clots. her hands were likely starved of circulation and oxygenation.

her fingers turned black. >> my fingers are going to fall off. let me see if i can show you my hands. >> and that's because they weren't getting any blood? >> exactly. left hand is in better shape. >> rosa's hands may have to be amputated. at the very least, she will lose many of her fingers. rosa's family wasn't sure she'd even survive. her sister told me she was already planning her funeral. what keeps rosa going is the thought of seeing her children again. who she hasn't seen since she was hospitalized in march. >> when do you think you'll be able to see your children again? >> for me it can't be soon enough. can't be soon enough. but i know. i know in the end i'm going to be with them, i know that. that's what keeps me focused and

it keeps me wanting to heal and wanting to get out of here fully restored. >> alone in her hospital room for more than five months now. she admits she's had some dark thoughts. so more than ever, she treasure's life's sweet joys. >> could you please congratulate anderson cooper on his baby? >> i certainly will. these are the things you think about when you're laying in the hospital bed? >> he's so cool. yeah. i'm happy that he has a baby, and he's so cute. >> well, i will share your blessings with anderson and wyatt. >> thank you so much. >> all right. >> have a great day. >> be well. >> brought me tears. >> so sweet, right? >> i mean, wow! what she has been through. >> and what she's still going through, anderson, and yet, that was the only time in our whole interview that she smiled was talking about you and wyatt.

she's been in this dark place, she was on a ventilator for a few months. she's possibly losing her hands. she hasn't seen her children in a couple of months. she was in this dream like state where she was watching her life go by on the ventilator, she remembers, it's been a scary time for her. hasn't had visitors. when we started talking about you, she's really lit up. i think she's clung to that as this bright spot in all of this. see what the pandemic has done for her and her family and others. it was just really sweet, ander song, and all she wanted to do was talk about you and baby wyatt. >> i want to talk to her. thank you, randi. appreciate it, and we wish her the best, and we hope she gets to be reunited with her kids really soon. thank you, we'll be right back. e for a strategy gut check? what's that? you run it by an expert, you talk about the risk and potential profit and loss. could've used that before i hired my interior decorator. voila!

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free on bail, steve bannon accused federal prosecutors with a hit job. the fraud he was charged with was to divert millions from a private group to pay for a section of the border wall. instead the government says a lot of the money that was

donated, hundreds of thousands of dollars went to the organizers, including bannon. cnn's senior investigator drew griffin now with a look into that group and its founders. >> reporter: the president seemed to have amnesia over his once close relationship to steve bannon and the president's own support for the project called we build the wall. >> i know nothing about the project, other than i didn't like when i read about it -- >> reporter: that doesn't seem to line up with what kris kobach, former kansas secretary of state and former board member of we build the wall organization. >> i've spoken tod the presiden about this on three occasions, now. >> trump expressed clear enthusiasm for it. he wants it known that he stands behind this. >> and he went further, and he said i want the media to know that this project has my blessing. he was really making a point that he was behind this.

>> a point echoed by the chief financial officer of we build the wall. amanda shay. she is married to one of the men indicted. and posted this photo of her and president trump, last summer, saying she talked with president trump, who had a lot of questions about the wall we, the people, built through we build the wall. he was impressed, she said. donald trump's son, don jr., was apparently impressed, too. brian colefage where don jr. praised the wall effort. >> doing it better, faster, cheaper, than anything else. >> timothy shay and steve bannobannon according to prosecutors, worked together to misappropriate hundreds of thousands of dollars of those funds for their own, personal benefit. payments, allegedly, went toward a boat, a luxury suv, a golf

cart, jewelry, cosmetic surgery. that boat is one colefage used in a pro-trump boat parade. when accused of misspending funds last summer, he and steve joked about it. >> welcome back. this is steven k. bannon. we're off the coast of san tropez in southern france. we're on the million-dollar yacht of brian and brian took all that money from build the wall. >> the joke, not so funny, now. colefage, a triple amputee air force veteran repeatedly claimed he wouldn't take a single penny for running the operation. >> 100% of your money goes towards the wall. it's not going to line someone's pocket. i am taking zero of the salary. >> kolfage told cnn prosecutors lumped every purchase i made in the last two years in the indictment, even before we built the wall. not taking into account the fact that i have other income to pay

for things. like bannon said, kolfage wrote it's a fiasco. by using a second nonprofit and hidden payments. philanthropy expert, doug white, says it's the type of alleged fraud that hurts all charities. >> that's what really breaks my heart. here is an example. if the allegations are true of fraud at its worst, and they were defrauded out of maybe checks of $10, $50. some, many more dollars. but none of that should take place under the guise of having someone, then, take that money, or part of it, to go live a lavish lifestyle. absolutely, has to be stopped. >> reporter: the others indicted. a 56-year-old florida-based investor, who's been close to bannon for more than 20 years. in the early 2000s, they were also directors of a nasal spray company called sinofresh healthcare. executives there pushed to

remove bannon from the board for not investigating improprieties allegedly tied to botalalto. and he's repeatedly filed for bankruptcy, has faced more than a dozen state tax liens. t timothy shay is accused of secretly -- payments to himself. the real estate agent sells a pro-trump energy drink that comes in a can with a picture of trump in a superhero costume. >> joins me now. how serious are the charges? >> the actual charges, anderson, one count, each, of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. conspiracy to commit money laundering. i should say, wire fraud. each carry a maximum sentence of under -- up to 20 years, a piece. so they are serious. steve bannon, of course, pleaded not guilty. the other three men were arrested in their hometowns.

they were not arraigned, so they didn't enter pleas but they all posted bail and are free now. >> but what about the people who gave money? >> that's the sad part. there were lots of people that gave money thinking it was going to build the wall. but i got to think there's hundreds, maybe thousands, of people out there wondering if their money went to the wall or their money actually went to feeding the luxury lifestyles these men were allegedly leading. anderson. >> we'll see what happens. thank you. up next, a double tropical storm threat from florida to texas tonight. not just one storm, possibly two, hitting the same time. we have details when we continue.

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interesting, two tropical systems, yes, two, are headed for the united states. the gulf coast is on alert. both storms could impact the area from florida and texas, this weekend to early next week and possibly at the same time. the first system to watch is tropical storm laura, currently east of an ttigua.

the second threat is tropical depression fourteen off the coast of cozumel, mexico. that system is expected to become tropical storm marco in the next 24 hours. forecasters predict both storms will intensify to category one hurricanes as they move through the gulf. forecasters say if that happens, it would be a first. there have never been two hurricanes in the gulf of mexico, at the same time. and it's been 60 years since two tropical storms have been a double threat in the gulf. be sure to join me sunday night for a special edition of 360 as we preview the republican national convention from 8 to 10:00 p.m. eastern sunday night. and cnn's coverage kicks off monday night, 7:00 p.m. eastern. let's hand it over to don lemon for cnn tonight. have a great weekend. hello, everyone. what a week. this is "cnn tonight" i am don