Biden in Normandy, Booing in Pennsylvania, Storms in Florida
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Voters 50 and over have the power to decide elections. So candidates who want to win need to talk about the issues they care about. Learn more from our latest polling in Pennsylvania at aarp.org slash PA polling. It's Friday, June 7th. Right now on CNN This Morning, President Biden about to address the world from the hallowed shores of Normandy. Plus...

They defended the Capitol on January 6th. So why were they booed by some Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania? Record-breaking heat and dangerous storms in Central Florida. More severe weather on the way. And truly the end of an era. Pat Sajak's final spin on Wheel of Fortune comes later today.

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington, a live look at the White House on this Friday morning. President Biden, of course, not at home today. He's in France. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us. When President Biden addresses the world from the shores of Normandy later this morning, he'll be standing where Ronald Reagan stood and echoing what Ronald Reagan called for, a comparison the White House is embracing.

The president's mission today, focus American minds on the urgency of protecting democracy and freedom around the world. He offered a preview of this in his remarks from yesterday. The fact that they were heroes here that day does not absolve us from what we have to do today. Democracy is never guaranteed. Every generation must preserve it, defend it and fight for it.

The cliffs that Biden will stand on today were captured from the Germans on D-Day by U.S. Army Rangers, men immortalized by Reagan in his address from that spot in 1984. Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there. These are the boys of Puente Hope.

The boys appoint to hook, he says, a senior administration official telling CNN, quote, there's no way there's not going to be comparisons to Reagan's speech 40 years ago. We in America have learned bitter lessons from two world wars. It is better to be here ready to protect the peace than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost.

We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with expansionist intent. All right, our panel is here. Let's bring in CNN political director David Chalyon, Republican strategist Sarah Longwell is here, and former White House senior policy advisor Ashley Allison. Good morning to all of you. Laying this out this way,

really underscores to me just how much, Sarah, the Republican Party has changed since that time, since it was Ronald Reagan. And now Joe Biden sounds almost exactly like him as a Democrat in this moment. I think I've spent some time over the last 24, 36 hours watching these men who were there on D-Day kind of reflecting on what a turning point moment this feels like for the country.

- Yeah, you know, man, watching clips of Ronald Reagan, right? I was like a Reagan baby. I was born in 1980. He had a tremendous impact on me as I moved into sort of more conservative politics and he was an inspiration and watching him today and thinking about how little the Republican Party today looks like the Republican Party that I was interested in becoming part of 20 years ago. It just, it's always a little bit of a gut punch

still. And, you know, I then in this like upside down world where Joe Biden, he wants to reflect Ronald Reagan like this is on purpose. He is not accidentally sounding like a Republican. He is purposefully trying to echo Ronald Reagan and bring the idea that America's role in the world is extremely important, which is an idea I was raised on and which the Republican Party no longer believes. Which is kind of amazing when you think about Joe Biden's history, you know,

launching his first presidential run in 1987 as a total opponent to Ronald Reagan and all things Ronald Reagan stood for. That was the Joe Biden then. And you are right. It is clearly intentional. You know, I think the White House, when they say the...

the comparisons are inevitable. They want those to be the comparisons on the substance, not necessarily on the oratory or the performance, because those comparisons may not perform as well for Biden. Obviously, Reagan was in a sort of unique tier of a messenger in those and that Peggy Noonan speech. She'd only started at the White House a couple months before then. But but I do think Biden wants to associate himself clearly with Reagan's vision of America's role in the world, because it is such not only is it like

a reach across the aisle, but it is such in complete contrast to Donald Trump, who the White House, I believe, has previewed for us, you know, is not expected to be mentioned, of course, in the president's remarks today, but who will be hanging over the contrast on display. Yeah, and speaking of the contrast, I want to remind everyone what we heard from former President Trump in the wake of the verdict that came down, the language that he used to describe the United States of America, because

It stands in very sharp contrast to all of the imagery that we have been seeing come out of France as this 80th anniversary of D-Day has been marked. Let's watch President Trump talking about America as a fascist state. Watch. We're living in a fascist state. It all comes out of the White House. Crooked Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of our country.

And then there also was this from Donald Trump last night, his first campaign event since that verdict came down. Watch. And I'm telling you, we are in more danger from the enemy from within with these lunatics, these fascists, these communists. And we're going to stop that also.

Ashley Allison, this is not actually new language, at least not about the people from Donald Trump. The idea that America itself is fascist is a little bit of a further step here. But I just think it's important to focus in on what these words actually mean in historic context and point out what former President Trump is doing here.

Yeah, one of the things that Donald Trump and this current Republican Party has done is they appropriate language and then they re-engineer the definition of words. And so for Donald Trump to say that this current administration is fascist or

you didn't say dictator, but to imply that there's a deep state that is kind of controlling and taking on people like him 'cause he's the liberator is contradictory to every factual point that we've seen right now. - Let me stop you actually because there was also a fundraising email. Unfortunately, I don't think I can put it up on the screen, but this went out yesterday as we were covering Biden's speech and the meetings with these D-Day veterans.

it says the headline is biden soviet tactics don't scare me and then it's about restoring power where it belongs to you the people and ending the tyrannical biden regimes reign of terror

let let just review some the language that Donald Trump has also said that he would be the dictator on day one of his presidency that he is the one who deployed a mob of folks to try and overturn an election and overturn our democracy on January 6 these are the actions that Donald Trump has done not too far in the past and that that

irony is that Joe Biden is standing on the shores, memorializing D-Day and saying, that's what we actually fought against. That is what I was telling you when you were talking, Sarah, about Ronald Reagan and being a Republican. I was like, I think it's actually just Joe Biden and Ronald Reagan being Americans that believe in our Constitution and believe that at some point it's not about the difference of policy. Who knew a Democrat would be saying this about Ronald Reagan? I know, I know. Right, right.

But then the final thing I would just say is yesterday I was watching those clips too and I was thinking probably that in every generation we're seeing people who have lost folks because they are of an age where they are passing away. And every generation has to make a choice. Who

Who will we be in the toughest moments? And I think this election is a choice point for us right now. When we become 80 or 90 years old, God willing that we're the age of some of these soldiers standing on the shores today, will we be able to actually say we did stand up against tyranny, we did stand up against fascism? And I think that means not enabling a second Trump term. Not saying not enabling Republicans to win, but not enabling Donald Trump to win this election, because that is actually what he stands for.

Yeah, and Mitch McConnell wrote in an opinion piece yesterday in the New York Times that honestly, David, sounded a lot like Joe Biden. He says, we forget how influential isolationists persuaded millions of Americans that the fate of allies and partners mattered little to our own security and prosperity. We gloss over the powerful political forces that downplayed the growing danger, resisted providing assistance to allies, and tried to limit America's ability to defend its natural interest. Of course,

Americans heard much less from our disgraced isolationists after the attack of Pearl Harbor.

Yeah, and I think what you'll hear from Biden today is this real push against this isolationist trend, not just here in the U.S., but globally as well. Obviously, McConnell aligns himself with that, but also supports the candidacy of Donald Trump, who has these isolationist tendencies, you know, pulling back from NATO and the like, which is totally antithetical to what McConnell states is his vision of democracy.

of America's role in the world. - Yeah, for sure. All right, we gotta pause here. Millions of Americans coping with dangerous storms and record-breaking heat. We'll have your weekend forecast ahead. Plus two Capitol police officers who put their lives on the line on January 6th, booed by Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania. Plus the Boston Celtics drawing first blood in the NBA finals.

I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. What are some of the social service agencies that have supported you and your family growing up? That's Dr. Robert Waldinger. He's a psychiatrist, a professor, and a Zen master. What kind of relationships actually help us maintain happiness? And what should we do in those moments where we have setbacks and things that don't work out? Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts.

all right welcome back former officers who were at the u.s capitol during the january 6 attack booed by pennsylvania state lawmakers officer harry dunn and sergeant aquilino gunnell were both thrust into the spotlight after testifying to the january 6 committee about their harrowing experiences on that day you can see gunnell here in his riot gear while the capitol was being overrun by rioters

They both visited the Pennsylvania State House this week where their introduction caused some Republican state representatives to walk out in protest. They are traveling the nation and sharing their stories to raise awareness to the threats of democracy in our nation. Sergeant Gohnell and Officer Dunn, please stand. Welcome to the floor of the house.

You heard some cheering there that was apparently from Democrats who were cheering them. David Chalyan, it's just sort of stunning to me that this is where we are, that these guys, you know, I've...

I mean, I was in the building. I was in the complex that day. These people protected me and everyone else who was in the building that day. And it's really hard to see them booed. Yeah. Obviously, what they did that day deserves nothing but the respect of all Americans. There is this...

inherent political piece of this, which is why you end up getting a reaction like, I mean, Harry Dunn himself was just running as a Democratic candidate for Congress, lost the primary. They went outside Donald Trump's trial, which got so politicized. And so what happens is once you sort of enter the realm of the political arena, all of this, it's like I

And I don't blame them. They have a mission that they're on and they want to defend democracy and promote that mission. But once you enter the arena, you invite this kind of reaction, which is totally out of bounds because of what they're there to talk about their experience on January 6th and how they did try to defend democracy that day. That seems like you should be able to separate that from just pure partisan politics, but

But this issue of defending democracy, I mean, look at all the polling around this issue. It like evenly splits the country. It's like a high priority issue for voters. Republicans and Democrats see it from two totally different vantage points. And so you end up taking these heroes of that day and now they're sort of mired in the mud of our toxic politics. - I just think it's important to underscore that it's Donald Trump that dragged them there. - Yeah.

just don't have any democracy they were defending the legislators who are at the Capitol that day who had a mob sicked on them and this is where Republicans have completely lost the plot mean it is like the Alito's flag at their house it is completely upside down I in terms of what what

The Republican Party has decided that it is going to side with the insurrectionists actively. And you're going to see a lot of signs and hear a lot of rhetoric about backing the blue. And that is going to exclude people who backed the blue against insurrectionists. Instead, they're going to sing a national anthem to defend the people who attacked the Capitol that day. It's not just...

politics like and this goes back to the conversation we're having about Ronald Reagan and Joe Biden right now. These people with this MAGA Republicans in that movement, they don't like America. Donald Trump doesn't like America. One of the characteristics of the Republican Party that I was attracted to is that it thought America was a good place. We did things right here. We would never do something like storm our own capital. That's third world banana republic stuff. And it's not what happens in the United States of America. And

the MAGA movement and Donald Trump has decided to lionize these people to the point where legislators in a state house think that it is okay to boo the people who defended us actively when they show up. Yeah, and your point about America, I mean, it's built into the message of the Trump campaign, right? That America is not great, right? Fundamentally. And it's gotten darker with this third, I guess, presidential run.

Okay, President Biden on the record about the possibility of pardoning his son Hunter. We'll have that next. And I am really interested to know more about this story. A Texas toddler who almost became lunch for a hungry giraffe. Oh my goodness. All right, 23 minutes past the hour. Five things you've got to see this morning. Severe storms moving through central Florida Thursday night, collapsing the roof of a 7-Eleven and a gas station just north of Orlando. Thankfully, officials say no one was injured. And...

Montreal police in riot gear deploying tear gas to disperse pro-Palestinian protesters at McGill University. Demonstrators lock themselves inside a campus building calling for an end to the war in Gaza. Wow, SpaceX's mega rocket Starship blasting off successfully in its fourth attempt from Texas on Thursday. Flight 4's booster and rocket both splash down in a controlled re-entry about an hour later. And... Ground goes inside!

Oh, what a slam! The Boston Celtics cruising to a dominant 107-89 victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Jaylen Brown leading the way for the Celtics with 22 points. Game 2 scheduled for Sunday night in Boston. Then there's this. Oh, look! Oh, oh! Oh, my God. A two-year-old Texas girl lifted straight out of her family's truck while feeding a hungry giraffe at a drive-thru safari?

That's a thing? The giraffe quickly dropped the child back into the arms of her mom. Apparently everyone is okay. The Fossil Rim Wildlife Center says it will no longer allow guests to ride through the park in truck beds. Wait, do we have the wide shot of this? Because the wide shot is like totally crazy. Okay, maybe we'll find it in a minute.

In the meantime, time for weather oppressive heat over California and Nevada expanding north and east this morning after shattering records across several states. Our meteorologist Allison Chinchar joins us now. Allison, good morning. Good morning. Yes, and even though it's expanding,

It's also not really going away for a lot of the places that have been dealing with the heat this week. Here you can see where that heat dome has really kind of set up and it's still really focused over much of the southwest. That's where you still have a lot of these excessive heat alerts. That includes Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, even around the Albuquerque area looking at those heat advisories and excessive heat warnings. Now we will get a little

bit of a reprieve as we go into the weekend, meaning the temperatures will come back down, but they're still going to be above average. Take, for example, Palm Springs 107 today down to 102 Sunday. So coming back down, but their average is 101 Phoenix, Las Vegas. Look at that 109 on Friday down to 104 on Sunday, but normally they'd still be about 97. So here's the thing. We will see those temperatures coming back down, still going to be above average, but it's also only going to be a temporary reprieve.

Look at Phoenix, for example, going from 110 down to 105, but then right back up to the 110, 111 as we get into the rest of the week. That average, again, keep in mind, only about 102. Las Vegas, pretty much the same thing, seeing triple-digit temperatures for every single one of the next seven days, even though their average is only 97.

Yikes. All right, Allison Chinchar for us. Allison, thanks very much. Have a great weekend. All right, coming up next here, the NBA commissioner weighing in on the not-so-warm welcome Caitlin Clark's been receiving in the WNBA. Plus, what does comedian Jimmy Fallon think of Trump's criteria for a running mate?

-They're vetting a short list of candidates. Yeah, you got to appreciate the irony of a convicted felon running a background check. My question is, what could they possibly dig up that would be a red flag for Trump? Like, "This person only committed arson, not a deal-breaker."

Listen to this. One source said that Trump's VP pick could be influenced by the fact that he likes people who are rich and have hot wives. Well, at least he's taking this seriously. He really means it. Those are the only two questions on the forum. Look, are you rich? How hot is your wife? Anyway, don't be surprised when you hear, "Please welcome my new VP, Jelly Roll."

All right, Donald Trump has been narrowing down his list of possible VP candidates. He confirmed in an interview last night it seems that he will announce his running mate at the GOP convention next month. His campaign's sending vetting materials to several prospective candidates in recent days, among them North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, also Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio and Marco Rubio of Florida.

CNN reports that Vance and Bergam are accompanying Trump on his West Coast swing this week. So, I mean, David Chalyon, where are we on the Veepstakes speculation? Who's up? Who's down? What do you think? I mean, we are definitely in a new phase. There's no doubt about that. This request for materials, this is amping up and we're in the window where that would make sense. I do kind of love if indeed Trump does reveal the pick at the convention because for decades it's always been like, are the convention

Conventions have any news anyway. They're just messaging vehicles. That would be an actual news event at a Republican National Convention, and that would be kind of great to cover for us. It would be a little Trumpian, right? Like to go ahead and do that. A real dramatic reveal. Yes, exactly. But news nonetheless. I mean, it is interesting. Donald Trump has kind of revealed for us in an interview last month where he said that he really thinks people vote for the top of the ticket and that the VP is not really a major factor. I tend to agree with that analysis. I think he's probably...

uh write about that but nonetheless these are the two oldest men seeking the presidency and so looking at who their number two is a heartbeat away from the presidency is something that i think in this environment it may not be a thing people vote on but i do think it's like information that voters are going to take in as part of their overall calculus yeah so let's just refresh i mean because this is and

Sarah, we can talk about this too, but Donald Trump is obviously choosing among a group of people who, while they have all turned around and become very interested, apparently, in taking on this kind of a role with him, didn't actually start out that way. Let's just play that tape. Would you ever do business with Donald Trump? I don't think so. Why?

I would, I just think that it's important that you're judged by the company you keep. There's a movement to sort of gloat over the fact that the elites were right about Donald Trump, right? I'm a never Trump guy. I never liked him. You all have friends. You all have friends that are thinking about voting for Donald Trump. Friends do not let friends vote for con artists. I mean, Sarah. Well,

Yeah. Look, it's brutal. But this is the world I have watched most Republicans. I don't know what J.D. Vance thinks never Trump means, actually, because it means never. But look, they all bent the knee. And there's nothing Donald Trump loves more than taking these people who once opposed him and making them bow down and beg for a job. I will say it's interesting. I

I really thought Trump was going to pick a woman ultimately, but we have seen multiple of the women who sort of would have been top contenders kind of self-immolate on the tarmac, you know, like Kristi Noem had the unfortunate incident with the dog and Katie Britt had her unfortunate, very strange response after the State of the Union. And so they're no longer on there. At least Stefanik's the only woman sort of still in the mix. You know, Don,

I don't know if Trump does like the theatrics though of some of these things. I always kind of thought he would try to pick somebody who was newsy, but the more I watch this, the more I think Marco Rubio makes sense for him, in part because he'd get to humiliate him just a little bit by making him change, move out of Florida so he could do it. But also, it does bring

normie Republicans on side in a way that Donald Trump has mostly done anyway. But for people who are, it's the equivalent of taking Nikki Haley without taking somebody who actively ran against him hard in the primary. But do you think,

for the normie Republicans, that's your term, not mine. Do you think, though, like if he whoever he picks, their script is going to have to change and fall in line with Donald Trump's script, which then doesn't make them

on sides with the normal Republicans or does he just kind of let them be so minute in the coverage of his campaign? I just, it's also the interesting like arc of the never Trumpers. Like most people started like, okay, I'll vote for Trump and then slowly progressed to never Trumpers. These people reverse engineered it and to JD Vance, like started a never Trumper and the work, the things he continued to do that was worse and worse and worse. He was like, Oh yeah,

okay, I'm good with that, you know? - Yeah, but you have to understand something about the Republican psychology here, which is that many of them are not, like Marco Rubio codes normie. It sort of doesn't matter what he says. He's a pre-Trump politician that for a lot of voters who are really uncomfortable where the Republican party has gone under Trump, is kind of like, okay, that makes me feel better, even when what he says now is very much in line with Trump.

All right, I want to turn out of this because there is a critical group of voters this election cycle that we are constantly talking about and they're the so-called double haters. They say they won't vote for Donald Trump, but they're also not committed to voting for Joe Biden. And Sarah Longwell spoke to nine of these double haters

And this is what she writes about many of them. Quote, "They had familiar stories. They supported Trump in the past as the lesser evil. They couldn't stomach Hillary Clinton in 2016. They were lifelong Republicans who couldn't imagine voting for a Democrat. Some of them remember watching The Apprentice and admiring Trump for his perceived business savvy. But the events of January 6th and general fatigue with Trump's antics have made these voters not very likely or not at all likely

to vote for him again in 2024. Sarah, bring us inside the room here. I mean, what did you hear from these people? - So we talked to these voters the day after Trump's conviction, and we'd specifically screened for people who had voted for Trump twice, but really didn't wanna vote for him again, because I view this as our persuadable group of voters.

The problem is, is that they're out on Trump. They're just like, I can't vote for this guy again. He's too toxic. You know, he's whiny. But then they're like, but also I can't vote for Joe Biden. The reason we talk about the double haters is that these are people who,

And it's different, right? Because we have two functional incumbents. The persuadable set are people who don't want to vote for either person. And right now, it's tough to actually get a good look at them in the polling because for a lot of them, they're like, yeah, third party. They're like third party curious. But then if you ask them anything about RFK,

or tell them something about them, they're like, oh, you know, like maybe I don't like that. And so they're just and they're not that tuned in either. They just know that they don't like them. And so they're not paying that much attention because they know both these guys and they're like, but when push came to shove in that group, five of them went for Biden.

which was really interesting to me. In the wake of the conviction. In the wake of the conviction. And they did say that the conviction mattered to them, although for a lot of them, they also, like, January 6th was a red line for a certain kind of voter who isn't going back to Trump. And it just is.

Yeah. David, as we're kind of having this conversation, I do want to bring in, there's some new swing state polling out from Fox News this morning. And as Sarah is suggesting, there might be a lot of voters out there who, after January 6th, just can't do it.

There are some striking numbers in Virginia, which, you know, Biden won, I believe, by 10 points. Yeah. And now it shows it 48-48, obviously registered voters, margin of error 3% there. What is this? Yeah. And, you know, it is not the only poll that has showed Virginia within the margin of error, but it is the most recent and reputable one that we have.

um that's an astonishing number to see and that that is going to send some chills in wilmington down the spine of the folks working uh there because you if you look at where the biden campaign right now is targeting and advertising virginia is not currently on the list uh if there's another poll if this is not a one-off and we see this repeated trust me they're going to start advertising virginia too when you're adding states that you think are already sort of in your corner

The road to 270 is getting a lot more complicated for you. Right now, the thinking in the Biden world is that the easiest path to 270 is repeat the blue wall, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. That's hang on to that Omaha area, single electoral vote, Nebraska. And you're there. I mean, that does it. You can lose Nevada, Arizona, Georgia to Donald Trump if you win that.

But a state like Virginia, if that gets into the real toss-up category, your math to 270 becomes a lot more comfortable. If we're talking about Virginia on election night, I mean, the map has changed, shall we say. All right, coming up here, more financial trouble for right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. And with a six-week abortion ban now in effect in Florida, we're live with a Democratic Senate hopeful who believes reproductive freedom could be her winning issue. ♪

Alright, 46 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. The GameStop craze is back, following a rollercoaster few weeks for the meme stock. Shares were up more than 40% yesterday after the investor best known, this is a ridiculous sentence, as Roaring Kitty scheduled a YouTube livestream for Friday. Okay, so there you have that.

Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows is set to appear virtually for arraignment in an Arizona court today. Meadows is one of several Trump allies to be indicted in that state over the group's efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

Alex Jones agreeing to liquidate his assets. The right-wing conspiracy theorist owes more than $1.5 billion, with a B, in damages to Sandy Hook families for his lies about the 2012 school massacre. The move paves the way for a future in which Jones no longer owns his platform InfoWars.

And the rough treatment Kaitlyn Clark is receiving in the WNBA getting some attention from the NBA commissioner. Adam Silver says Kaitlyn Clark can take care of herself. It's nothing new in basketball that there's sort of welcome to the league moments, especially for heralded rookies.

I mean, Sarah, is he right about that? I think so. I mean, I think kids, look, I think it's so fun that everybody's talking about the WNBA and Kaitlyn Clark, you know, continues to drive this conversation. And look, people are being a little mean to her and they, I don't love it, but it's okay. She can handle it. He seems to say she can take care of herself. Yeah.

Yes, no? I think she can. Stop being too precious about women in basketball. I love this. I love it. I love women's basketball. I just think people should look at the whole arc of women's basketball and they're great athletes. And so is Kaitlyn Clark and I think she can take care of herself. She'll be alright. There's a lot underneath what Ashley's saying. We all know that.

All right, now this. It's been a little over a month since a six-week abortion ban went into effect in Florida, once a swing state, in recent elections, of course, has voted Republican. But nearly two years after the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision that overturned Roe versus Wade, some Democrats there are more hopeful that this can change their electoral fortunes. As the New York Times reports, Democrats...

plan to try to regain a foothold in Florida by championing reproductive freedom with a proposed state constitutional amendment on the ballot this year that would establish a right to abortion before viability, which is known as Amendment 4. One of the women making that case is former Congresswoman Debbie Mucasell Powell. She is the Democratic candidate in Florida hoping to unseat Republican Senator Rick Scott. And she joins me now. Congresswoman, it's wonderful to have you on the show this morning. Thanks for being here. Good morning, Casey. Thank you for having me on.

Congresswoman, there's been a lot of speculation and focus on this ballot initiative, especially as it comes as women in Florida are grappling with this new reality that abortion is banned after six weeks. Are you seeing evidence that this is making it harder for Republicans in your state to hang on? Is there more money coming in for you on this? How does it feel as you are out there campaigning every day?

Casey, I have been traveling the state now for a few months, and I can tell you that this is a top issue for Republicans, Democrats, independents. It's an issue that really unifies Floridians. Over 60% of Floridians reject such an extreme ban on abortion, a six-week ban, when most women don't know that they're pregnant. Rick Scott has doubled down, saying that he would vote against this abortion amendment. He has said that he would support any anti-abortion bill that comes through.

uh, in front of him. And, you know, just an example, I was having a conversation with a 72 year old man and I asked him what his top issue was. And he said, abortion. I was surprised to hear that, but he said that he had lost his aunt, uh,

before Roe v. Wade had been enacted, and it had completely destroyed his family. He now has two daughters, and he said, you know, for me, we need to make sure that we protect our daughters and women's freedoms here in the state of Florida. It's extremely dangerous, as you know. I come from Latin America, Casey, and we have legalized access to abortion in Colombia, in Venezuela, not Venezuela, sorry, in Colombia, in Argentina, and in Mexico. And

because it's directly linked to high rates of violence against women. I'm a mom, I have two daughters, I'm extremely concerned about this ban, and it won't mean anything if Florida passes this abortion amendment and then Rick Scott gets back to the Senate and then pushes for a national abortion ban. So this race has become much more critical than ever.

Congresswoman, I want to show everyone what Senator Scott has had to say about IVF and then also about the Dobbs decision because they are, of course, linked together. IVF coming into jeopardy in Alabama and potentially elsewhere because of the ramifications of the fall of Dobbs. Let's watch and then I'll ask you about it.

I support IVF. I've got family members going through IVF. It's a way to build a family. So would you support legislation then that would federally protect IVF? Well, I mean, I'll look at anything like that. Do you think the Dobbs decision was correct? Well, yeah. That was a result of it, right? These decisions should go back to the state. That was a good decision.

So he's saying that the Dobbs decision was a good one, but also that he might consider federal legislation to protect IVF. Do you believe he would do that?

Absolutely not. And I think that the majority of Floridians know who Rick Scott is and they don't trust him. You cannot trust him. This is someone who, when he was CEO of a health care company, committed the largest Medicare fraud in the history of this country. They had to pay out almost $1.7 billion back on that fraud. And he's now using that money to lie to Floridians. He has bought a seven-figure ad to say that he supports this, but he stands next to extremists who...

have signed on to the life of conception bill. He actually voted just a couple of days ago against protecting access to contraception. He has become a poster child of extremism in the Senate, and that is why this race really is extremely critical. Not only does he want to go back to the Senate case, but he now wants to become Senate majority leader, and he will absolutely enact an agenda that will attack a woman's right not only to choose, but also to have access to contraception.

Congresswoman, we've been talking today about some new polling that's out this morning in swing states, especially in the state of Virginia, where it is showing that that state, which has voted blue recently by 10 points in the last election, now tied between former President Trump and President Biden. There have, of course, been many national polls that show, if anything, Donald Trump seems to have an edge

in this race. What is President Biden doing wrong that this is the case? Well, look, I've been talking about the disinformation that we've been seeing now for over two years. People are relying on receiving their news on their phones. And we know that social media is filled with conspiracy theories. And we continue to see that.

And I also think that it's extremely important for the president to travel all over the country to make sure people know all the policies, not only that he has enacted, but policies that he wants to continue to work on if he gets reelected. We have an affordability crisis in Florida, Casey. And I can tell you that a lot of the issues that we're facing in Florida are because of the failed policies that have been enacted in the state by the legislature. We have...

the highest property insurance rates that we have seen in the country. And so there are things that we can do at the federal level to make sure that we find relief to the high cost of living for Floridians and for people all over the country. And I think that it's important for us to make sure that we continue to connect not only with voters in these swing states, but voters, young voters all over the country that right now feel disengaged.

Congresswoman, do you think Democrats should go out of their way to label Donald Trump a convicted felon and campaign more aggressively on that?

Well, I don't know if it's going out of our way, Casey. Let's be honest here. It's the reality that the former president is now facing. This was a trial, a fair trial. He had every opportunity to defend himself and 12 jurors, independent jurors. This has nothing to do with party. This has nothing to do with the White House or the Department of Justice. This was an independent trial brought by the state of New York and 12 independent jurors

found the former president guilty on all counts. It was a unanimous decision and it's a fact. And I think that it's important for Americans to realize what happened in New York and the dangers that we're facing if the former president has a chance to get back to the White House. I was in Congress when he was in the White House. And we saw the attacks not only against women,

against families, but we also saw his attacks and demonizing immigrants. We have to make sure that people understand the rise in anti-Semitism right now. It won't stop there. There will be targeted attacks against all groups that don't belong in his MAGA cult. All right. Former Congresswoman Debbie Mucasel-Powell, Congresswoman, thank you very much for your time this morning. I appreciate it. Thank you.

All right, now this. President Biden said in a recent interview from France he would not pardon his son Hunter if Hunter is found guilty in his federal gun trial. Let me ask you, will you accept the jury's outcome, their verdict, no matter what it is? Yes. And have you ruled out a pardon for your son? Yes. You have.

All right. Today marks day five of the trial, which has at times been painful for the Biden family. Court proceedings delving into a difficult period in which Hunter struggled with drug addiction after the passing of his brother, Beau. Beau's widow, Hallie Biden, who had a romantic relationship with Hunter at one point, described how he introduced her to crack cocaine. David Chalyon, I'm

many layers to this trial, but the president's statement about pardoning his son, a remarkable one, not pardoning his son, to be clear. Yes, that he would not pardon his son, which when you think about how for Joe Biden, family above all else, and yet,

And yet he sees that, it seems, in some way untoward for a president, just like he won't go to the trial as president, which is happening in federal court, to pardon his son in this matter.

We'll see if he holds to that and how this all plays out. He clearly also enjoys the contrast for how Trump handles pardons, there's no doubt. I just want to say about the First Lady, though, here. Leaving France, coming back, expected back in court today to go back to France tomorrow in a state visit.

sort of the matriarch of this family i think she gets under noticed in that role because we think of it as such joe biden's clan but what jill biden is doing in in i think standing in for her husband who can't be there uh to try and be the rock for the family at this time is a role we just haven't seen from her on the public stage so really interesting sarah you have talked with focus group participants about hunter biden what do they say about all of this yeah it's so interesting because hunter biden comes up a lot and

The way voters, the voters are very compassionate about it, almost to a surprising degree where they say, man, you know, everybody's got somebody like this in their family. Like, and people talk about their own experiences and dealing with whether it's kids or people in their family. And so they, what they say about is they say, look, if it turns out that Joe Biden is

was somehow involved in hunters activities they will take that into account but like other than that they see it as hunter biden just being sort of a black sheep and uh they feel a certain amount yeah compassion really interesting all right i will leave you with this

It's the end of an era after four decades of hosting the beloved game show Wheel of Fortune. Pat Sajak's farewell episode set to air today. Gosh, look at that. He was so young. Sajak has hosted the show for 41 years alongside Vanna White and his voice. I mean, we've all heard it, right? He has been in all of our houses for decades. Penny glazed ham. Yeah, that's it.

And in a strange coincidence, that was my nickname in high school. Bun Warmer. Yeah, that's it. My nickname in high school. My nickname in high school. With big shoes to fill, Ryan Seacrest set to take over hosting duties. Vanna White will continue as co-host. She had this goodbye for Sajak. 8,000 episodes went by like that.

You're like a brother to me, and I consider you a true lifelong friend who I will always adore. I love you, Pat. I mean, I grew up on Wheel of Fortune. Yes. Can you believe it? I can't believe it. First Jeopardy, now this. Will you be hosting this show 41 days? Absolutely not, David. Absolutely not. Thanks very much to our panel. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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