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It's Monday, May 19th, and here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. Former President Joe Biden diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. What does a diagnosis like this mean? And what are his treatment options? Plus this. Nothing's going to happen until Putin and I get together. President Trump says there won't be peace in Ukraine until he and Vladimir Putin talk. So will they get anywhere on a phone call today? Also this.
It was just like swangling around from like back and forth. It was a terrifying scene. A Mexican naval ship with more than 270 people on board crashes into the Brooklyn Bridge. So how did this happen? We'll have more later. And it's tech we use every day, Apple, Facebook, Google. But in the race for relevance, will they soon be a thing of the past?
It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, and here's a live look at Capitol Hill. And it was a late night for a lot of lawmakers because they were working on President Trump's budget. We're going to get into that in a moment. Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. And we're going to begin with that news about the former president. Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. His office revealed the diagnosis yesterday, saying that it had spread to his bones.
It was found after a nodule was discovered. The statement goes on to say that while this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone sensitive, which allows for effective management. The news has led to an outpouring of support from leaders across the political spectrum. President Donald Trump saying, quote, he's wishing Biden a fast and successful recovery. And Biden's old boss, former President Barack Obama, praised his ability to fight this challenge
with his trademark resolve and grace. Joining me now to discuss Dr. Jamin Brahmabhat, urologist at Orlando Health Medical Group Urology. Good morning to you. Welcome to CNN This Morning. - Good morning, happy Monday.
So I want to start with what we heard there that this cancer is hormone sensitive. I think prostate cancer is extremely common for older men. Can you talk about what it means for treatment, this aspect of the hormone sensitivity?
So we diagnose over 300,000 men with prostate cancer a year. Out of those, only about 5 or 7% we will diagnose like President Biden's diagnosis where they already have metastases through the rest of their body.
So this, we do have lots of treatment options, but because it's already metastasized, because it's already elsewhere, the options are also very limited. So we can't do anything that's curative. You can't cure it. So I saw some of these statements where recovery, we support, but the reality is that cancer is always going to stay with him. So the treatments that are out there are more medical based, either hormone treatments, steroid treatments, radiation treatments. They're all there to stabilize the cancer or slow down its progression.
So I'm hearing you saying this movement to his bones, this is really the development that is remarkable here and what will make it so difficult. Absolutely. Like if it wasn't in his bones and it was localized, the life expectancy is almost 100% over five years. But in individuals like him, it would be about 37% over the next five years.
We have been seeing the former president doing interviews. He attended the funeral for the Pope. Can you talk about from a practical standpoint, what kind of impact treatment or even dealing with the disease can have on a person's day-to-day life? To be honest with you, this week alone, I've diagnosed like four men with prostate cancer. Two of them were just like President Biden. Majority of men can live normal lives. They can and they can be functional.
But it just all depends on how these treatments are doing and how the body's reacting to them. So these treatments are great. They can definitely control the cancer, but they're also very high risk in terms of some of the side effects. So I think he can be normal. I see a lot of my patients that are normal, that can function, can drive, can do the things they want to do, continue on with their jobs.
But if the cancer progresses and there is pain in the bones, there is excessive fatigue or hot flashes, other side effects, then they may be limited. For President Biden, I think it's just way too early. Like everyone's being very positive. We should, but we won't know how these treatments are working. We don't even know how many of these treatments him and the family are going to choose to move forward with. And I understand that's part of the difficult decision making, right? You talked about diagnosing people. I can't imagine what those conversations are like.
Yeah, and they can be very, very tough. I know when I have to diagnose cancer in the office, like it's a very sensitive, emotional conversation. So I think the best thing that we can do as a public is give them their time, give them their space, and then let's see what happens over time. I think love and support goes a long way. And this is what I tell all family members, not just the patients in my office, but I would say the public right now as well for former President Biden.
Dr. Jamin Brombad, he's a urologist at Orlando Health Medical Group. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
Coming up on CNN this morning, hope for one big beautiful bill as it clears a key hurdle overnight. But the fight to pass the budget is not over yet for Republicans. Plus, a ship belonging to Mexico's Navy crashes into the Brooklyn Bridge. Families of those on board are now demanding answers. And multiple days of deadly and terrifying twisters leaving behind major damage from Colorado to Kentucky. I got in the hallway and put my hands over everybody.
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Okay, new overnight. President Trump's agenda back on track in the House as key conservative holdouts switch their votes. So here's what happened. Late last night, the sweeping bill squeaks out of the Budget Committee by a single vote. Friday night, four conservative members who want deeper cuts voted no. But House Speaker Mike Johnson says a weekend of negotiations eventually got the bill over the first hurdle.
Look, these are men of great conviction. I share their conviction. The government is too large, it does too many things, and it does very little well. And we have to cut spending. And that's what our party stands for. That's what we're going to do in this bill. It will be historic in the scope. Congressman Chip Roy was among the four conservative holdouts who ultimately voted present, allowing the bill to proceed. But after Sunday's vote, he hinted that there may be some uncertainty with what happens next.
I'm not going to talk about all that stuff publicly. That's for the speaker to sort out. We made progress this weekend, but as you'll see in my statement, we didn't get nearly far enough.
Joining me now in the group chat, Evan McMorris Santoro, reporter at Notice, Kevin Frey, Washington correspondent for Spectrum News, New York One, and Sabrina Rodriguez, national political reporter for The Washington Post. All right, Sabrina, I want to start with you because I feel like I have to translate my entire introduction to English, which is they forced, they pressured these dudes over the weekend to take a stand on this bill. So what happened, so to speak?
Right now, Trump wants to get this done, but more Memorial Day weekend. Republicans, Speaker Johnson and Republicans that are supportive of the bill want to get this done. They want to show that there's progress. We're past Trump's first 100 days. They would have liked to get this done ASAP when Trump came into office. So this is sort of one of those steps
on the road to getting it done. Because Trump has done so much with executive orders, right? So this is the part where you're actually forcing some things into law, but also financing the rest of all the ideas. 100%. I mean, one key piece here, there's several to this bill. I mean, that's sort of why it's the air quotes, big, beautiful bill is because they're trying to get
all the things, all the wish lists that Trump has in his agenda. They want to get it in one bill because they know that they really have in terms of getting the votes together. We see how difficult this is already turning out to be. So they feel like they have one shot this year to get this done. So there's the money for deportation proceedings to ramp up immigration enforcement. There is huge changes to energy policy that they're trying to make through this.
And a big one that Trump wants is, you know, at the end of the year, a lot of the tax breaks that passed in his 2017 law will expire. So they need to find ways to extend that and to be able to finance that. And that's where you get into some of the tensions on the Hill over how do you pay for it and what does spending look like. Okay, gentlemen, you jump in here on tensions. Who's fighting it and why?
So you have basically kind of two factions within the Republican caucus, which I know is not necessarily surprising for those who've been covering Washington for a while. But you have the more moderates who come from these districts that, quite frankly, are the majority makers. And they will make sure to tell you that they're the majority makers. And you cover New York, so I'm often asking you about these moderate New Yorkers. New York moderates, also some from Jersey, also some from California, where, for example, the state and local tax deduction is a really big issue for them. Salt. You'll keep hearing the word salt.
At the same time, you have this more conservative faction that wants deeper cuts. You have one side that wants to protect Medicaid to some extent. They want to
boost this tax deduction, which costs more money. So there's more money that they want to spend. And then you have another faction that wants to reduce spending, that wants to make deeper cuts to Medicaid. And so now these two are on a collision course, and we'll see if there's resolution this week. Last night was really just a big procedural step. I want to play one clip of tape. The ranking member, Brendan Boyle, he's a Democrat on the committee that was involved in this.
And he was saying that I think just because what does he say? I said, I just mean on the bill that's in front of us, making sure all the members know transparently just what the heck is in this thing, because obviously it's changing back in the back room by the minute.
Well, this is the normal sort of D.C. thing, right? It is, actually. These massive bills that get pushed through and people don't read them before they vote on them. You know, this whole process is kind of both the easiest and hardest thing Republicans could do and kind of all they had to do. Before this whole thing started, I talked to a bunch of
of conservative activists right after Trump was elected, right? What do they want to do legislatively? And a lot of them told me, look, we have to do this one bill. We only have this, we have a very short period of time. Cram everything in there because we have this divided caucus, very narrow margins. So the thing is, if we can push this forward by having enough stuff that these people want, that these people want, we can get this done as opposed to if we break it up, we'll have a lot of inter-scene fights about like other stuff that we don't want to do.
So this is sort of their plan, but of course what goes with that plan is how impossible it can be because anything that changes or shifts could turn someone off. So really what it comes down to in the end will be Trump coming in and saying, "I really want you to do this the way it is." We've seen repeatedly Republicans kind of backing away from some of their own principles to sort of be like, "Well, we're with MAGA now. We're going to do what Trump says."
It's unclear at this point how powerful that will be in this case, but I do think that Trump being back from his foreign trip and here now is sort of what Mike Johnson and the rest of these leadership really want, because they're going to see him say, look, all this fighting amongst you, you
you guys, it's over now. I'm back, we're passing my big bill, we're signing it, we're moving on. - And already it feels like a test of the speaker's leadership, how he's been able to hold things together so far. We're gonna talk about this more this week because apparently it goes through another committee and some of the holdouts are on that committee. So we're gonna be hearing more from them. But still ahead on CNN this morning, more testimony today in the trial of music mogul Sean Diddy Combs. What did one of the former contestants
on Diddy's making the band have to tell the jury. Plus, we're gonna take a closer look at the decline of social media in the age of AI and chat bots. Here's a live look at New Orleans as a frantic search is underway for seven inmates who busted out of jail, see the moment they broke free, and the message they left behind. That's ahead. - I deleted my Facebook account, top of 2025. And when I tell you I've never felt so much relief, like I cannot explain it. - I'm most likely never coming back.
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All right, I'm going to go off script for a second and talk about how some of the big tech CEOs all but admitted that we're not posting or friending as much as we used to. We're even buying as many smartphones or even Googling. The companies that reshaped how we use the Internet say that they are seeing the real-time effects of people using AI tools and chatbots. So what does that mean for how we all connect, the platforms we rely on every day? Joining me now to discuss is CNN business tech editor Lisa Edichiko.
So Lisa, let's start. We heard those people on TikTok basically being like, sorry, sorry, unsubscribe. But do we have a sense from the companies themselves about what's going on? So we do have a little bit of a sense, and it's not that these companies are going away. It's just that some of the things that these services were designed for originally, like sharing with friends or searching on Google, there's a little bit less interest in those tasks now than there was before. So let's start with Facebook.
Basically, in courtroom testimony, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that people aren't sharing with friends as much on Facebook anymore. And I think that's part of this bigger shift in how people use social media. It's not as much about sharing and posting with other people or friending other people. It's really about kind of following creators and personalities and things like that online. And I think that's why we've seen
such a big increase in TikTok usage. And we've seen this kind of shift in social media, not just being something that you're posting to, but where you're actually going to consume content as well. Right. They're leaning so much into videos. You could see that when Meta was trying to compete with TikTok and they came up with Reels. I can't imagine any reason why this company or any other, though, would admit that in court. What's going on? Why they would say, look, certain things we do are not as popular as it used to be.
Well, I think it's actually in their interest to admit this in court because you have to remember these are antitrust cases that they're on trial for. So one of the big things that these CEOs are trying to prove in the courtroom is that they do have a lot of competition and that they're not a monopoly. So I think that's part of the big motivation here. You know, Mark Zuckerberg highlighting that, yes, there is a lot of competition from places like TikTok.
Even YouTube, people don't think of YouTube really as a social network, but it is a really popular platform for teenagers. Actually, Pew Research had a study that showed that YouTube is actually their platform of choice. So I think that really is the motivation there. What are you keeping an eye on next? I know that each one of these companies has some sort of AI wearable that they're pushing. Is that about the next version of the web?
Yeah, so I do think AI is a big thing to keep an eye on right now. Actually, this week Google is having its developers conference where we're probably going to hear a lot about Google's ambitions in the space. And we do know that Google, along with Samsung, is working on smart glasses that will have AI built into them, which
I think some of these companies think this could be the next evolution of the personal computer, kind of like the smartphone, with the idea being that you have these glasses on your face that can kind of see what you're looking at in the world around you and answer questions about it so that you don't have to take out your phone. And Meta is kind of also on this bandwagon. They have the Meta Ray Bands, which also do exactly that.
All right, Lisa Edichiko, tech editor with CNN Business. Thank you for being with us. Thanks for having me. Next on CNN this morning, a crucial phone call. Today, President Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin scheduled to talk. Will they be able to make a deal on Ukraine? Plus, too easy, LOL. That was the message left behind when 10 inmates in New Orleans broke out of jail. The urgent search for those still on the run this morning.
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Extensive damage this morning from Colorado to Kentucky after violent storms spawned massive twisters. Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish, and thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It is half past the hour. Here's what's happening right now.
At least two tornadoes were reported in Colorado Sunday. They flipped mobile homes, snapped large trees in half and dozens of buildings are damaged this morning. And here's what storms left behind in Kansas. The Midwest is in the crosshairs today and it could see more tornadoes and baseball-size hail.
Today, Don Richard, former member of the musical group Danity Kane, will be back on the stand to testify in the case against Sean Combs. She began working with Diddy in 2004 while competing on the show Making the Band. On Friday, she testified that she saw Combs attack his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura in 2009.
And former President Joe Biden is resting at his new home in Delaware following a prostate cancer diagnosis. His office says it's an aggressive form which is now spread to his bones. The 82-year-old and his family are now weighing treatment options. And in just a few hours, President Trump expected to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone. President Trump says the focus will be how to stop the war and on trade. Here's his top negotiator, Steve Wyckoff.
The president has a force of personality that is unmatched. I think it's important. His sensibilities are that he's got to get on the phone with President Putin, and that is going to clear up some of the logjam and get us to the place that we need to get to.
Now, these talks come as Russia unleashed its largest drone attack against Ukraine since the war began. Ukraine's Air Force says Russia launched more than 270 drones Saturday night alone. Last week, Ukrainian and Russian officials met for the first time since the beginning of the war, a meeting which Putin skipped, leading Ukraine's President Zelensky not to go as well.
I'm going to bring in CNN national security analyst and vice president for global studies and fellows at New America, Peter Bergen. Peter, thanks for being here this morning. Thank you, Audrey. So we're watching Putin basically put in place this kind of negotiate while escalate strategy, right? This is a record drone attack. How does that set the stage going into this phone call?
Well, I think Putin has pretty much indicated that he doesn't really particularly want to negotiate. We'll see how this phone call goes. But 273 drone strikes overnight, as you point out, speaks for itself. A no-show in the Istanbul peace conference, the first time that Russia and Ukraine got to the negotiating table in years, also speaks for itself.
The Russians actually continue to push in eastern Ukraine. They have pushed the Ukrainian military pretty much out of all the part of Russia they once had. So he has the military advantage. It's not a surprise the Ukrainians are seeking a ceasefire. He's basically ignoring them. I don't think it's, you know, from Putin's point of view, surprising.
he has no particular interest in stopping when he appears to be at least not going to be winning. But certainly the Ukrainians are not winning. And so, you know, Trump, of course, is a, you know, a force of personality. He does have this close relationship with Putin. It seems to be mostly the relationship of somebody who is prepared to take Putin's word. You know, he famously told his wife,
His own intelligence agencies were wrong about the interference in the 2016 presidential election, which the Russians did interfere with. So it remains to be seen. But as you probably know, there was discussions over the weekend with European allies, with President Trump.
Clearly, the Europeans want to try and solve this. We're now at almost a million casualties on the Russian side, which Russia does have some kind of constraints. He can't wage this war forever unless he's going to go into conscription, which he's proven that he doesn't want to do. So I'm glad it's good that they're speaking.
Now that Trump has his minerals deal, right, more or less, what is it that do you think the U.S. is trying to get out of this situation? What does it mean for sort of the position of the government in this negotiation? One thing I do think that Trump sincerely does not like war. I mean, there's something about him that does not. I think he does want to make peace. And he famously said he could solve this in 24 hours. Obviously, that didn't happen.
On the minerals deal, you know, I mean, it's one thing to have a minerals deal on paper. You know, that could take years, if not decades, to actually put it. You've got to basically locate the minerals. You've got to mine them. You've got to have the deals. You've got to have the transportation. You've got to, you know, that's not going to happen overnight. It's good that the Ukrainians have been able to offer something to President Trump, who's, after all, very transactional.
And clearly, Trump's patience with Putin has begun to evaporate. After Trump met with Zelensky back in Rome, you know, he made some comments about Putin, which were for the first time somewhat negative. And I, you know, I don't think Trump would like to do this. The question is, what is it? And the Russians have made it pretty clear that they
Their red lines are not red lines that the Crimeans are going to go along with, which is basically take much of eastern Ukraine, retain Crimea and make sure that Ukraine could never become part of NATO. On the other hand, Zelensky himself, he is taking huge casualties. The public mood in Ukraine is that peace would be a good thing.
So, you know, both sides are, you know, in any peace negotiation order, there's something called a mutually hurting stalemate. And that is the point where people will begin to say, OK, maybe peace makes sense. And we are, you know, the Russians have a slight advantage, but this is ground out on that for so many, for so long. And both sides have taken so many casualties. Hopefully the time is ripe for some kind of peace agreement. In action, by the way, it doesn't need to be a peace agreement. It could be an armistice. I mean, think about...
the situation in Korea right now. There was never a formal peace agreement. There was just a cessation of hostilities. And that may be the best we can get. Peter Bergen, CNN national security analyst. He's also the host of the podcast In the Room with Peter Bergen.
Okay, we want to move on to President Trump's plans to cut taxes and move forward with his tariffs because that could face a new complication. The U.S. lost its last perfect credit rating over the weekend when Moody's downgraded it a notch and not because of tariffs but because of the growing deficit. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson is saying that a downgrade doesn't really matter.
The history of rating agencies, by the time they get to a downgrade, everything's already in the market. Larry Summers and I don't agree on everything, but in 2011, the last time, or two times ago when he had a downgrade, he pooh-poohed it. What I think is important is that President Trump has just come back from this historic Mideast trip.
and there's trillions of dollars coming into the US. So we are seeing competence from investors. So I don't put much credence in the Moody's. It's worth noting that stock futures are down ahead of the market opening this morning. So what does this all mean for you? The group chat is back. I feel like every week I'm showing downward arrows potentially, but credit rating is significant.
I don't know if it's politically significant the way it used to be. I remember us coming up as reporters, it was very like, oh my gosh, what's going on with the credit rating? And it feels like their stature is diminished. How are you guys sort of thinking about this moment for our economy? - I mean, I think,
I will say on the political front, as we are watching over the next week, not to go back to the topic we were talking about before. No, it is. It's about money and spending. But part of what they're citing is, one, the big, beautiful bill and the trillions it's expected to add to the national debt. Wait, to underscore that, it's expected to add. So you're saying the credit rating agency is looking at that bill and not seeing less spending. And the credit agency...
took into account both Democratic and Republican administrations across the board, but they're dealing with the here and the now with this bill. And then on top of that, you have these conservatives, these hard right conservatives in the House that have been saying we need to cut spending, cut spending, cut spending. This will give them more fodder as they make this argument over the next couple days as negotiations play out. You know, I'll tell you, the most interesting thing to me since January that we've learned is that the only people with
shorter memories than political people are finance people, right? Like we've seen the market go all over the place, right? And then kind of stabilize. We still have a president who is very sort of uncertainty building when it comes to everything having to do with the economy. And political people are the same, right? They, you know, they look back and like, oh, well, you know, that was the last administration. Prices, you know, supposedly destroyed Biden's presidency. We're looking at prices still going up now. All the kind of core
things to make a really tough economy still exist there. But we're seeing now sort of the economic pressure kind of back off a bit from the president. We've seen the markets, I mean, you have those numbers down, but they kind of have shifted back, right? We've even seen the president's poll numbers shift up a little bit.
It's a very interesting moment in terms of the politics of all this. How the economy is going to shake out, I don't know. If I did know, I'd have a much better balance of budget or whatever. But I will say that what you're looking at, and I've spoken to a lot of folks who do this stuff for a living, deal with economic stuff, obviously with politics stuff.
And you don't hear them talking right now the same way they were like tariff week or the week after the tariff week came out. And that to me is a really fascinating change. Speaking of tariffs, there might be more to come because now there's this conversation about pharma tariffs, right, on drug companies. Help me understand why in this moment or what's significant about approaching that industry in particular. Yeah.
As a former trade reporter, the second I hear Trump and tariffs, I'm like transported back to the first term. Thoughts and prayers. And the reality is Trump has always wanted to pursue tariffs. So it is interesting that, you know, there's the vibes have shifted to, OK, actually, there's, you know, more we're well, we're all more used to it now. We're here. We're more used to it. But the reality is he still wants to pursue more tariffs. You know, he backed off on that, you know, liberation day at
the beginning of April that he had talked about, you know, the sweeping tariffs. He backed off, but it's supposed to be a 90-day pause, and it's supposed to be all these negotiations with different countries. But isn't the average person more price sensitive to something like their drugs? Absolutely. When it comes to the pharmaceutical tariffs and the discussion around it, Trump has talked for a long time about wanting to bring drug production back to the United States. He talks about it as
sort of a national security issue if the United States were to go to war with China and China makes the majority of pharmaceuticals, what that could do to the United States. Most people, you know, you go out and you talk to voters, and I've talked to folks that agree with the concept of tariffs, of oh yes, let's bring production back to the United States, but those aren't things that happen overnight. So if you shoot up tariffs,
you continue to fight with the countries that are producing these drugs, you risk shortages. And that's where we see pharmacists today stockpiling in the event and the fear of that happening. Okay, guys, I want you to stick around. We've got more to talk about. In the meantime, still to come on CNN this morning, we're going to talk about deep fakes and revenge porn. We're going to take a look at how AI is fueling the problem. There's actually a new bill that's going to be signed into law.
And there's a transit strike affecting thousands of commuters in New Jersey that is now over. But it could still take some time to get the trains back on track. More from the group chat after this. Every young person deserves a safe online space to express themselves freely without the looming threat of exploitation or harm.
That was First Lady Melania Trump with her first comments in her husband's second term calling for Congress to pass the Take It Down Act. Now, in just a few hours, President Trump will actually sign that bill into law after it got bipartisan support. The legislation protects victims of deepfake and revenge pornography that gets posted online. One victim spoke out at the White House in March about her struggle to get any help when it happened to her.
I was humiliated, dehumanized, and overwhelmed with shame. But when I sought help, the system failed me. I was victim-blamed and slut-shamed, while the perpetrator faced zero consequences. As more videos spread to hundreds of malicious websites, I nearly lost everything. My dignity, my reputation, and I almost lost my life.
Joining me now to talk about this is Donna Rice-Hughes, president and CEO of Enough Is Enough. Donna Rice-Hughes, thank you for being here. Thank you, Adi. Now, I should note, people probably know you from the Gary Hart scandal, late 80s, and the reason why I bring that up is because women live with scandal differently than men. Yes. Especially anything that has to do with sex and relationships. So for you, how significant is it to be at this bill signing?
Oh, this is huge. I mean, this is so historic what has happened here. I mean, this bill passed unanimously out of the Senate. Yeah, doing anything bipartisan is sort of shocking. And actually protecting kids on the Internet is a nonpartisan unifying issue that has wide bipartisan support at the federal and at the local level. So, yes, we do process as females.
any type of abuse and anything that has to do with basically being humiliated publicly. And what we've seen with young people, and by the way, deep fake circulating now since 2019 has increased over 500%. 99% of these are of females.
And this is happening to our young people. Even kids themselves, Audie, are actually bullying other youth by creating deep fakes. And it doesn't even have to be AI generated. It can just be non-consensual. Yes, when you started Enough is Enough, it was in the mid-90s, right? You're talking about internet safety. And at the time, I feel like at best it would be about someone sends a nude to someone else. That leaks all over. Right.
With deepfakes, you can be completely not involved in this and be humiliated in the exact same way. How does this legislation force internet companies to act? What's the mechanism? Well, first of all, it has two key parts. It criminalizes the publication, right, at the federal level. Even though there are a lot of state laws, this is going to be the umbrella law.
Then these companies, internet services, platforms, social media, wherever, even a porn site, they've got 48 hours to take it down. And hence the name, Take It Down.
- One of the things that people talk about is the fact that the Federal Trade Commission is gonna be enforcing this. And of course, all the federal agencies are dealing with major cuts with this reduction in government. Just last week, the FTC commissioner told Congress that he was looking to cut the headcount by 10%. And so they're gonna have the smallest staff in a decade. Do you think
that even with this law in the books, it's going to be hard to enforce just given that government resources up against these huge companies. Well, you know, I hope with the Doge effect, this is about government efficiency. So Lord willing that the cuts will actually be the fat and what is left is effective, efficient operating of these agencies.
What is your concern going forward for young women? I mean, this is one piece of legislation, but for young people, they're going to be coming up in a different age of this potential kind of humiliation. What are you going to be keeping an eye on now at Enough is Enough? Well, we're keeping an eye on everything. There are dozens of pieces of legislation that tackle different parts of
protecting kids online and preventing online exploitation. So it's not just this type of exploitation. It's protecting kids from child pornography. There are millions of images out there of children being sexually abused and raped. This is a huge issue. It's a huge law enforcement issue. So we're looking at Earn It that will actually
to remove Section 230 immunity and require these platforms to take that content down, you know, and to be accountable and responsible. So we're looking to rein in big tech. This is really, really key. And I also just want to give a shout out
to the effort of the First Lady here for elevating this issue. She has used her Be Best platform to do this. And we're just really excited because without that leadership, it may not have, this bill may not have been passed as quickly as it has been. This is a great first step. All right. Well, Donna Rice Hughes, congratulations on your work on this bill. Appreciate your time this morning. All right. It is now 53 minutes past the hour. I want to give you your morning roundup.
An NTSB, the FBI identified a 25-year-old man as a suspect in the explosion at a fertility clinic in California. He was the only person killed. The FBI says they are treating this as an act of terrorism. Investigators say they're looking through his social media posts where he criticized IVF and referred to himself as anti-life.
And the search underway now for seven escaped inmates who broke out of a New Orleans jail. Police just increased the reward for information. Friday, 10 of them escaped by busting through a wall behind a toilet when the person watching them stepped away to get food. Some of them are accused of murder. These are violent criminals and they escaped and they have consequences for their actions.
The inmates also left this message saying too easy lol and an arrow above the hole they used to get out. Three inmates have been captured so far. And the New Jersey transit strike may be over but the morning commute could still be impacted. Negotiators reached a tentative agreement and engineers will return to work today. But the New Jersey transit CEO says they need a day to get things back to normal.
And now that former President Joe Biden is diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, this is all adding to what could be a difficult week for his political legacy as a new book dives into his physical and mental state going into last year's election. Over the weekend, Axios published new audio from Biden's interview with Special Counsel Robert Herr in 2023, the time he was investigating the discovery of documents at Biden's home from his time as vice president.
The special counsel later described then President Biden as quote, "an elderly man with a poor memory." The audio shows him struggling with dates. For instance, the first election of Donald Trump. Trump gets elected in November 2017. 2016. 2016. So... 2017. That's when he left office in January. Then.
- But that's what Trump has sworn in. - Right. - Right. - Group chat is back. You guys, I wanna talk about this because Biden has tried to get ahead of this conversation. He's dealing with his legacy in real time. But when I heard that audio, I actually thought back to when Biden came out at the time and he gave a press conference, kind of disputing this description. I wanna play that for people before we continue.
How the hell dare he raise that? Frankly, when I was asked the question, I thought to myself, it wasn't any of their damn business. I don't need anyone. I don't need anyone to remind me when he passed away or passed away. I'm well-meaning, and I'm an elderly man, and I know what the hell I'm doing.
So when we talk about the people around him kind of protecting me, he came out right at the time to be like, no, no, no, this is wrong. This depiction of me. Well, and he also didn't mispronounce like a world leader in that press conference as well. I mean, this really is a story about the people who were around Joe Biden, right? He was old when he was elected.
He was old when he ran for president and he was old when he decided to run again. A lot of these questions are sort of like, okay, a president wants to stay president, right? We're not surprised at that. But we are seeing a conversation now among people, you know, this book, we've seen this book coming out by Alex Thompson and Jay Tapper. And you're seeing so many people who said publicly, he's fine now saying, actually,
We feel terrible about what we did and what we said. This is a very important conversation for Democrats to have. A painful conversation probably, made more painful now with the news about Joe Biden and his personal life. But the
But the actual conversation itself about whether or not this party wants to keep doing this sort of notorious RBG thing where they just stick by these people who are really maybe fading and not where they were when they first started, risking the party's actual legacy, that conversation needs to be, you know, they need to have that conversation to figure out what they want to do. No, it's not going away. I also think something that we can't lose sight of here is the fact that, you know,
When we talk about, oh, the Democrats missed this or that Democrats were saying this, voters weren't. And that is something that I think Democrats have to grapple with. Poll after poll at the time showed that people were concerned that Biden was too old to run for president. People were concerned that they didn't want him to run for reelection. And Democrats were offering full-throated support before that June 27th. So it's interesting that June 27th is sort of this inflection point for the Democratic Party. But for Americans being out on the campaign trail,
last year, I remember people repeatedly saying it's really going to be the two of them running in a rematch. Yeah, I remember that. And also to your point about the people around him, it seems to be there is also this question of when people were reporting on it, how hard the White House would push back. And in light of what we know now,
questioning that pushback. Right, and I mean one of the other dynamics to keep an eye on here is the leaders on Capitol Hill and kind of what role they played in either insulating him or trying to prop him up and back him up, particularly when it comes to Senator Chuck Schumer. He's come under obviously his own scrutiny over the last couple months over his handling of just
of things on Capitol Hill and how much to push back on Trump but at the time he was saying even just weeks before that debate that that Biden was quote in command now the new talking point from Senator Schumer and Congressman Jeffries is essentially we're looking forward whether or not this will still resonate in 2028 is another question not addressing the correct not at all whether it will still resonate in 2028 is a different conversation altogether if it changes the way the party actually operates when it comes to their leaders it's standing by a person
versus a principle, that's the looking forward to have to figure out. - A person versus a principle. I think that is a very, oh, see you're into that too. I mean, I think that's an interesting thing that we're gonna be talking about. The book is actually not officially out yet, just, you know, causing all this conversation. So I feel like we're gonna be talking about this
There have been drips. Yeah, I think we've heard about it. But I like the fact that, as you're saying, people are now having to have a real honest conversation about what it means to them and what does it mean to be in power.
So it'll be interesting to see how Biden talks about this in the coming days and weeks. You guys, thank you so much for waking up with me. We talked about a lot of things today and it's just Monday. I want to thank you. Too easy, LOL. Yeah, too easy, LOL. I want to thank you for waking up with us. Very serious people. I'm Adi Cornish and CNN News Central is going to start right now.
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