Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
You may get a little excited when you shop at Burlington. Oh, what a low price! Ha ha! Did you see that? They have my face! It's like a whole new item! I like to! Woo! I'm saving so much! Burlington saves you up to 60% off other retailers' prices every day. Will it be the low prices or the great brands? Burlington. Deals. Brands. Wow! I told you so. Styles and selections vary by store. She's made up her mind. Get pretty smart.
Boring money moves make kinda lame songs, but they sound pretty sweet to your wallet. BNC Bank. Brilliantly boring since 1865.
It's Tuesday, May 20th, and here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. President Trump about to confront the ugly truth about his big beautiful bill on Capitol Hill. Hardliners from his own party could hold the whole thing up. Plus, chilling new testimony from the Sean Diddy Combs trial. One witness claims that years ago, Diddy warned her people go missing if they talk. Then later. It sounded like a freight train coming through our house. It seemed like a longer time, but it was probably seconds.
It's peak tornado season and things can be even more dangerous after dark. But are we seeing an increase in nighttime twisters? Also, this the former president who made fighting cancer his life's work now facing his own cancer battle and the lifesaving research he's championed also faces an uncertain future. It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Good morning, New York. And good morning to you. I'm Audie Cornish.
Thank you for waking up with me. Now, President Donald Trump is going to be waking up, going to Capitol Hill today, hoping to rally House Republicans around that legislation that he wants to get his agenda rolling. But the road ahead is actually pretty complicated. Basically, his party's locked in this battle between moderates and hardliners, and losing just a handful of votes could sink it.
Late last night, House Speaker Mike Johnson met with a group of moderate Republicans who are lobbying for tax breaks for their voters. So far, House leaders have not given them a firm promise on those cuts. The fact is, we wouldn't even be in this position right now if you didn't have members in seats like mine who won. And so if they think we're going to throw our constituents under the bus to appease them, it's not happening.
All right. On the other side, you have hardline conservative members of the Freedom Caucus. They say the bill doesn't go far enough to cut spending on programs like Medicaid and other social programs. So they're holding out for what they want. You can't keep spending like this country's spending. We're insolvent as it is. We're not bankrupt yet, but that's where it's at. Caught in the middle, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who's trying to wrangle one of the slimmest House majorities in history to vote on the bill in less than a week.
We are continuing to work on it. It's not a final resolution yet, but I think we're getting there. Joining me now in the group chat, Jerusalem Dempsis, contributing writer at The Atlantic, Michael Warren, senior editor at The Dispatch, and Lulu Garcia Navarro, CNN contributor and New York Times journalist. Just watching the Capitol Hill reporters take the stairs for an interview is bringing me flashbacks of the dangers.
of doing something like that. Okay, so this is the day that Trump, he's back from his international trips, he gets to come back and just lean on these folks. So far, when he goes on Truth Social, he'll say something like they're grandstanders. Can you talk about the return of the fiscal hawk? I kind of thought that person went the way of the dodo. That was a bird joke. - Yeah, no, no, I picked up where you're putting it. - Thank you.
They're always around, right? But the question is, how much pressure are they going to be able to withstand? Yes, they get some pressure from their moderate colleagues, from the speaker. But when the president comes in and sort of weighs down, whether it's a truth social post, or I think actually going to Capitol Hill is going to do a lot to put a lot of pressure on them. They want to be a part of a team. They also are...
afraid of Donald Trump's political power within primaries. I think there's one more group here that we should consider more important maybe in the Senate than in the House in getting this through. And those are the sort of populist Republicans, people like Josh Hawley from Missouri, who are actually sort of taking the side of the more moderates and saying, are these cuts to Medicaid really what we want to do as a party? We're supposed to be the party of the working class now. So you're saying moderates. I think they're just in purple states. Like Josh Hawley's not.
No, exactly. That's what I'm saying. Josh Hawley is not a moderate at all, but yet he is aligned with the party's moderates in these blue and purple districts. The Medicaid cuts are a major sticking point. Let me just play this one clip of tape from Don Bacon. He's a congressman, actually, talking about why this is an issue.
But when you work hard to get an agreement and the committee's passed stuff out, and then people come in and want to undo them, it makes us mad. So yeah, there's, you've got an angry group of folks out there, and they're going to be very vigilant in what these changes are. And like I said, we're going to dismiss them out of hand, and we should have an open mind and look at them, but we worked hard to protect the most needy in Medicaid, and we're going to make sure we do that.
yeah i mean you know medicaid is popular among people who need it cutting snap which is food assistance for families that require it because you know they're actually there are work requirements for snap but they just can't make ends meet that also hugely popular helping the most needy in society so
When you look at it, of course what Democrats argue is that this is all about tax cuts. The reason they're having trouble with the math is because they're trying to extend these tax cuts for people and that they're going to benefit the wealthiest in society.
You can parse that out, you can argue it, but at the end of the day, this is the real problem that the GOP faces, which is they're trying to say we're going to cut these programs, spending is out of control, and yet what they're actually trying to do is extend tax cuts for people who may not actually need it.
problem is that for every person that wants you to make it easier for people in blue, we just heard from Mike Lawler from New York. In New York and California, you have these Republicans who have just won and helped get this very slim majority for Republicans in the House. And while those folks are asking you to make it easier for their constituents to deduct taxes on their bill, the SALT caucus there, you have on the other side the deficit hawk.
who are saying, actually, no, we need to be raising taxes or at least not extending more taxes or reducing spending in order to make the math work out. And then the Medicaid is like another area where, I mean, the goal ostensibly is to lower the shockingly high debt burden that this bill is coming in at. But at the same time, doing so is not actually getting these exact Republicans who just want in these really marginal districts
better politically in the future. And so right now, it's hard to see how the math is going to work out. Usually-- - The math is not working out. - The math is not working out. - Okay, that's why they're fighting. Is it weird, is it just my like ex-congressional reporter conspiracy hat that these bills are like, let's discuss it on Sunday, let's discuss it Wednesday at one in the morning. Like these conversations are happening where we can't see them, the public.
And I just used to remember lawmakers always complaining about things being passed in the middle of the night and that being nefarious I'm oddly sort of okay with things being passed in them in the middle of the night of these conversations Exactly pay attention to it, but actually it's probably where these things actually need to get worked out when it happens in front of the cameras Yes, there's transparency, but there's also a lot of grandstanding. I do think the fiscal Hawks in this situation are
Maybe I'll be proven wrong. I think there's a lot of grandstanding, a lot of slamming the table and saying, we're not going to allow all this spending. Donald Trump comes in the room. I think you're going to see enough of them. Donald Trump is like a wild spender. I mean, this is the fact of the matter is, is that he has never been a fiscal. They've been quiet about that for a long time. So I think the question was, was there going to be an actual stand this time around?
and it seems like it's a little bit for show. Okay, great chat. Stay with us. We've got a lot to talk about today. In fact, coming up on CNN this morning, another immigration win for the Trump administration, leaving potentially hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans caught in the middle. Plus, there's an urgent manhunt still underway for six escaped inmates in New Orleans. Staff members from the DA's office
are fleeing the city. And is President Trump ready to step away from Russia-Ukraine talks? How far we've come from this campaign promise. That is a war that's dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president. I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours.
This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Not everyone is careful with your personal information, which might explain why there's a victim of identity theft every five seconds in the U.S. Fortunately, there's LifeLock. LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity. If your identity is stolen, a U.S.-based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year by visiting LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.
PMS, pregnancy, menopause. Being a woman is a lot. Oli supports you and yours with expert solutions for every age and life stage. They just launched two new products exclusively at Walmart. Period Hero combats flow, mood swings, and more during PMS. And Balance Perimeno to support hormonal balance, mood, and metabolism during perimenopause. Grab yours at Oli.com. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Okay, if you're getting ready, it's about 15 minutes past the hour and here's your morning roundup. The Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to end temporary deportation protections for potentially thousands of Venezuelan migrants. Those protections had been renewed for Venezuelans under the Biden administration. The key issue was whether Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem could get rid of those before they were scheduled to expire.
And the FAA is investigating a close call from earlier this month at New York's LaGuardia Airport. On May 6th, an air traffic controller canceled the takeoff clearance for an American Airlines flight because a United flight was on the same runway. The FAA is also looking into another radio outage involving air traffic control for Newark's airport.
Whoa.
It will be Netflix telling you how to get to Sesame Street. The show will be on that streaming service later this year with a new season, past episodes with all your friends, Big Bird and Elmo. Warner Brothers Discovery, CNN's parent company, chose not to renew that contract to stream the series on HBO Max.
Still ahead on CNN this morning, Sean Diddy Combs, former assistant, back on the stand. What he told the jury about the relationship between his old boss and Cassie Ventura. Plus, how much more dangerous and deadly are the tornadoes that strike in the middle of the night? And we're taking you now to Nashville, one of the cities in the path of severe weather today.
Now, some of the areas hit by deadly storms just a few days ago are once again at risk today as the threat continues for Kentucky, Missouri and further south. All right, that was the moment lightning struck a police car in Oklahoma on Monday. Now, we have seen ferocious storms leading to massive damage across multiple states. New video out of Kentucky shows the moment one family had to take cover.
The family is OK. Their home is gone. Tornadoes in Kentucky ended up killing at least 19 people over the weekend. Some hit in the middle of the night, and if it feels like you are hearing a lot more about deadly storm striking after dark, that's 'cause you are a recent study found that the death rate from nocturnal tornadoes is going up.
They are nearly twice as likely to be deadly when compared to those that hit during the day. And since the start of Trump's second term, the National Weather Service workforce has seen major cuts, at least eight forecast offices needing to reduce overnight shifts. Stephen Strader from Villanova University has actually studied the effects of overnight storms. He joins us now. Welcome to CNN This Morning, Stephen.
Hi, thank you for having me. One of the reasons of why I wanted to talk about this is because there were something like 54 tornado related deaths last year. And here we are, we're barely in May and we have far surpassed that number. What do you think is making storms more deadly this year?
- You know, tornadoes are a rare phenomena. They can occur at just about any time of the year, but this is the time of the year and then spring and specifically May where the number of tornadoes tends to rise because of the atmospheric conditions. And unfortunately, when we have these larger outbreaks that take place in the evening and then move into the overnight,
is where we sort of set the stage for these high fatality disasters and unfortunate impacts on many of the people in Kentucky and others. - It seems wild to think about given that there's weather radios, cell phones, we have so much more technology. What is it about those overnight tornadoes where we have actually been seeing an increase in fatalities?
Yeah, it's really simple that most of us are asleep in these overnight hours and we're caught off guard. And one of the things that we do when we get a tornado warning is we seek secondary confirmation. Essentially, we look for clues that tell us there is, this is real, this is happening. And unfortunately, in the overnight hours when you're asleep, you don't have that time to react and get to your shelter or get to a location where you can be safer.
And when you have violent tornadoes and significant tornadoes that are occurring, the odds of survival is lower when you don't have a chance to take shelter. So, yeah, we're catching people off guard, even though there's tools like NOAA weather radios that help people wake up when there's a warning. It's still hit or miss if the radio is not working or turned on or maybe you just don't have one. And unfortunately, we see people being killed because of that very thing.
- You know, I wanna point out something you just said about secondary confirmation, right? We might wake up and say, oh, how can I figure out if this is real or not? And at the same time, you have like a state like Kentucky, National Weather Service offices are so short staffed that they no longer run a 24/7 operation. I know that thanks to the Doge cuts, there have been a few hundred people that go from the National Weather Service. How does that make a difference in the forecasting and warning systems?
Yeah, we look at a national weather forecast office like the Jackson, Kentucky office that was the one that was issuing the warnings for the deadly tornadoes in Kentucky. And they had to call people in to make sure that their staff was full and that they could manage what we call the warning desk and
And it's a chaotic scene that goes on in these high impact events where there's multiple storms that have to be watched constantly to make sure and understand how they evolve and to get the warnings out in a timely manner. And they did a really, really fantastic job with that.
The issue is, is what does the future hold? And that takes a lot of people to take phone calls from the public and reports and the forecasting side. It takes a team. And when you remove people from that team, you're putting unfortunate citizens at risk and people that are in the path of these storms. So it's dire that they have full staff so they can do their job correctly and serve the public as all of them are, as servants of trying to protect lives and property.
I should mention that the National Weather Service, there was some former leaders who wrote an open letter to the government saying that our worst nightmare is that weather forecast offices will be so understaffed that there will be needless loss of life. Are we already seeing that?
I don't think we're seeing that yet, but we're starting to see the effects of fewer balloon launches that feed into our weather models that help us predict these events. And we've seen some impacts about events that we just don't have a good handle on as we would have if we would have launched the balloons proper. And then as the weather forecast office
starts cutting forecasters, I think we're going to start seeing the impacts of less accurate forecast, less timely, and then ultimately trickle down into greater impact. So it's really hard to see how a singular event is affected by these cuts, but it's going to be the whole season. And then as we move out of severe weather season and into hurricane season, it gets even more testing with a lot of our Gulf Coast and Atlantic Coast offices. So it's a challenge.
And remember that $4 of your tax, federal tax dollars, go to the National Weather Service every year. And that's a really good return on investment, if you ask me. That's Stephen Strader, assistant professor with the Department of Geography and the Environment. That's at Villanova University. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Still ahead on CNN this morning, a closer look at the health research programs facing cuts from Doge, what it could mean for the fight against cancer. Plus, inmates break out of jail and now members of the DA's staff are skipping town too.
Hi, this is Joe from Vanta. In today's digital world, compliance regulations are changing constantly, and earning customer trust has never mattered more. Vanta helps companies get compliant fast and stay secure with the most advanced AI, automation, and continuous monitoring out there. So whether you're a startup going for your first SOC 2 or ISO 27001, or a growing enterprise managing vendor RIST, Vanta makes it quick, easy, and scalable. And I'm not just saying that because I work here. Get started at Vanta.com.
Oh, it's such a clutch pickup, Dave. I was worried we'd bring back the same team. I meant those blackout motorized shades. Blinds.com made it crazy affordable to replace our old blinds. Hard to install? No, it's easy. I installed these and then got some for my mom, too. She talked to a design consultant for free and scheduled a professional measure and install. Hall of Fame son. They're the number one online retailer of custom window coverings in the world. Blinds.com is the GOAT. The GOAT. Save up to 50% with minimum purchase at Blinds.com.
Rules and restrictions may apply. We're almost there, and I'm very optimistic. We're almost there, and I'm very optimistic. We will find the right equilibrium point to get this bill delivered. The budget battle continues as House Republicans still have not reached a resolution on a few sticking points, but House Speaker Johnson expects it to be done by Memorial Day. Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It's now half past the hour, and here's what's happening right now.
The president is ready to rally members of his party on Capitol Hill to get behind his agenda. He's expected to meet with them in the coming hours and to turn up the pressure to get them to pass his legislation. Also, in just a few hours, Sean Diddy Combs, former assistant, will be back on the stand to testify against Diddy. He told the court about a conversation with Cassie Ventura, Combs' ex-girlfriend, where she allegedly told him she could not get out of the relationship.
Later today, her mother will also take the stand. And the Justice Department filing charges against Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver of New Jersey. She's accused of assault and interference with law enforcement during a scuffle with Homeland Security officers outside an ICE detention center. McIver called the charges purely political.
And on to another DOJ investigation. They're actually now looking into the Chicago mayor's hiring process. It comes after Mayor Brandon Johnson made this statement emphasizing the race of the officials in his administration. Budget director is a black woman. Senior advisor is a black man. And I'm laying that out because when you ask how do we ensure that our people get a chance to grow their business,
Having people in my administration that will look out for the interest of everyone, and everyone means you have to look out for the interest of black folks because that hasn't happened. That's how we ensure long-term sustainable growth.
An assistant attorney general says, in part, if this is happening at the top level, the mayor's administration, then what's happening at the lower levels? The group chat is back to talk about this. This is a very interesting case because this mayor is running for reelection. So like sitting at a church is not an unusual place to be.
He's also a former labor organizer, and he comes from that background, right? A very left progressive background. But what does it say that he is the target for the Justice Department? Yeah, I mean, this is a mayor who has struggled to have
approval from the city I mean he's 6.6 percent approval and that's like the bottom I'm pretty sure most unpopular a elected official in America and I don't think he's vulnerable already very vulnerable and I think from both the right and the left from a perspective of you know can you actually get priorities done when you are not able to rally people around your cause and for him this is another situation where these comments that can seem very normal within a very left progressive space and you know I think you could take it both ways one is
I could understand why someone hearing, "Oh, our people have to look out for our people," would be kind of concerned, is that how you're doing your hiring practices?
But from other perspectives, it's like, you know, he's trying to make a claim that diversifying the Chicago workforce and diversifying the people who get into positions of power is important. And they released the statistics of people who work in the mayor's office and only roughly 35 percent are African-American. So it doesn't seem like Chicago in a city like Chicago. So you guys, how do you see this? Because this is not just about Chicago. It's also about this Justice Department and how it approaches the idea of civil rights.
Look, I think the mayor shouldn't have, shouldn't be talking about it sort of, sort of so casually in this way, no matter who's in charge of the justice department. That's because of the political atmosphere right now, like five in 2022. Maybe it wouldn't have been remarkable in 2022 or would have been sort of normal, but, uh,
I think just as a normative matter, it's probably not a good way for the chief executive of the city to be talking about hiring practices in that way. But regardless of who's in charge at DOJ, I think he's going to bring a lot of heat from exactly what we're seeing like this from DOJ. But the important point I want to make is that
I think this Justice Department is looking for moments like this to jump onto. They're looking for moments that are getting, going viral online and trying to make-- - On the right, and this is part of the problem. I mean, part of the problem is that this DOJ is looking for these moments to make these cause celebs to talk about
its main priority, which is DEI. Let's not forget that a civil rights investigation used to be about empowering minority groups, people that were discriminated against, and now what we're seeing is exactly the opposite. If someone actually says, "I've hired black people," a black mayor saying, "I've hired black people," 35%, I think it's 25% is white. It reflects actually the demographics of the city, his administration. - Both things can be true though, Lou. - I just think that we should be worried about that.
that. That is a political... I think both things can be true. It's clearly the case that this is, the DOJ is trying to weaponize this because it's a political priority to make this more salient, to make this DEI thing more salient. But at the same time, when you ask and you poll African Americans even about affirmative action, they don't like this kind of rhetoric. They don't like the idea that what's happening is they're being handed jobs because of their race. Not saying that's exactly what the mayor was implying, but it does
It does kind of... I agree, but then punish him politically. I mean, it looks like he's going to be voted out. Why are you opening an investigation from the federal government? That's my point. I mean, at the end of the day, politicians are responsible to their constituents. And if people don't like it, you can vote them out. If he's ham-fisted and is saying things that are offensive to people, then you have an actual...
you know, you can actually just vote them out, then why is the federal government getting involved? And that, I think, is the more important question as opposed to whether or not we agree with his comments or how he staffs his administration. It's also interesting to see where the anti-DEI efforts of the administration rear their heads more specifically.
You guys, thank you for talking about this. I want you to stick around. We're going to talk about more in a bit. But first, from hands-on to hands-off, President Trump seems to be prepared to back away if progress stalls in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. So the president spoke to Russia's Vladimir Putin on the phone for almost two hours on Monday.
I think something's going to happen. It's a very, very big ego's involved, I tell you. Big ego's involved. But I think something's going to happen. And if it doesn't, I just back away and they're going to have to keep going. Again, this was a European situation. It should have remained a European situation. The thing is, that's a bit of a shift from what we heard on the campaign trail.
Before I even arrive at the Oval Office shortly after we win the presidency, I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled. That is a war that's dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president. We're stuck in that war unless I'm president. I'll get it done.
All right. To help us understand the context here, CNN's Nick Payton-Walls joins me live from Kyiv. So, Nick, no breakthroughs when it comes to yesterday's call between Trump and Putin. What does that mean on the battlefield? I think the last time we spoke, there was an escalation from Russia.
Yeah, I mean, it's exceptionally bleak for the months ahead here. Certainly, we had a weekend of record drone strikes, nine civilians killed near the Russian border, Ukrainians by a Russian drone strike, and a sense that Russia is amassing forces near the Eastern Front, potentially for a summer offensive. The situation we've seen unfold in the past 10 days is relatively simple to understand, and it is perhaps a clarification of exactly where the Kremlin sits in all of this.
President Trump wants a peace deal. That's something he sought. It's something Ukraine was reluctant to sign on to unless the peace was durable and permitted it to hold on to the remnants of its territory, a sustained peace. And the Kremlin didn't want to sign up to it because they simply don't like the conditions at this point and potentially feel they can be more victorious in the months ahead. That's what we've seen exposed in the past 10 days.
Vladimir Putin is not interested in the peace deal that Donald Trump is offering. He is able to continue to talk about peace. He wants Donald Trump to be interested in the idea that he's interested in peace, but ultimately he doesn't want to give concessions that actually bring a peace deal to the fore. And that's what we saw after the long-heralded call
between Putin and Trump, Putin essentially emerging with old talking points about the root causes of the war being needed to be fixed. That's a false Russian narrative about NATO expansion being the reason for Russia's unprovoked invasion over three years ago. And they're willing to exchange documents about a potential ceasefire. And the interesting change we've seen though came after that phone call.
No longer is this Donald Trump who was saying let me be the personal intermediary between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Instead he said maybe these guys should meet in the Vatican, maybe this is something they sort out amongst themselves alone and importantly this is a European problem and it should stay a European problem. This is the United States no longer saying it will broker the peace, saying it will step back and let someone else take the lead.
Perhaps forgetting the fact that the Europeans have been very clear they don't think they can do this without U.S. backing, it's a very rocky months ahead, if not years here. That's Nick, Peyton Walsh and Keith, thank you. So with President Biden's prostate cancer announcement, he's now one of the millions of Americans battling some form of cancer. In a post, he thanked his supporters and said cancer touches us all. He had vowed to tackle this issue as president with his cancer moonshot plan, which tried to boost funding for research.
Of course, early in President Trump's second term, we are getting a clearer picture about how sweeping cuts are already impacting programs that include cancer research. An earlier analysis released by Senate Democrats accused the Trump administration of slashing medical research funding at the National Institutes of Health by $2.7 billion over the first three months of just this year. So this includes a 31% cut to cancer research programs compared to the same time a year ago.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rejected the report's findings and defended proposed budget cuts to his department during a recent Senate hearing. All that money that was supposed to cure those diseases or revert them, none of it worked. All we need is leadership and a new vision, and I'm bringing that to my agency. And I'm realigning my agency.
Dr. Dhruv Kular wrote in the New Yorker quote, "An oncologist told me about the patient with stage four cancer who until recently had three options for experimental trials. She now has none." Dr. Dhruv Kular joins us this morning. Thank you for being here. When we talk about these cuts to the NIH,
It's about research in a bunch of different areas. Do we have a clearer picture now of just how far that is starting to change the community that is offering care?
Well, that's right, Adi. We know that there have been hundreds of grant terminations since this administration took office. By some estimates, there's been $2 to $3 billion less in NIH funding that's gone out to researchers this year as compared to prior years. And that includes a cut in cancer funding of about one-third over the past three months. But it's also not just cancer funding. These grants go to things like people who are studying Alzheimer's disease, cardiovascular disease, infectious threats,
mental health. And so it could mean that we have fewer breakthroughs in the coming years, and not just that we have fewer breakthroughs, but also that fewer young people decide to go into science, people who otherwise might have wanted to go in to help cure cancer, to improve mental health. Those things might not happen in the same way that they would otherwise have happened. And the reason that these cuts are so misguided, I think, is that federal investments in research
are some of the best investments that we can make, both in terms of returns to the economy, but also in terms of lives saved. We know that nearly every drug that has been approved by the federal government over the past two decades can trace its roots back to the NIH. And so the end result of these cuts could be to weaken our ability to respond to disease and to improve the health and the lives of Americans.
I want to play a clip from the former president when he was announcing that cancer moonshot initiative. Here's what he said at that time. It's not just because it's personal, this, but because it's possible. When I became president, we reignited our cancer moonshot with an ambitious goal. Cut the cancer rate by at least 50% over the next 25 years. Our goal is to team up and cancer around the world and start starting with cervical cancer. I know it may sound unrealistic, but it's not.
Can you talk about those goals now? I mean, earlier I played that clip of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sort of saying, hey, all that money we put in, they didn't come up with any cures. So help me square this. Where are we with that? And again, how that's affected by these cuts?
Well, we have many, many more treatments today, many options for the millions of Americans who are contending with a cancer diagnosis or have a loved one with a cancer diagnosis that we didn't have years or decades ago. And that is because of the investments that we have made, bipartisan investments by both our
Republicans and by Democrats over the past few decades to treat things like cancer, but also things like obesity and other chronic diseases that this administration says that it is so concerned about. I mean, if you think about things like the GLP-1 drugs, like Ozempic, that research can trace its roots back to the NIH. And so this idea that we haven't gotten anything for the investments that we've made in basic science research and clinical research over the past few decades just doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
If you are a family dealing with a cancer diagnosis, what have you learned from the people in your reporting? Should you be asking about the state of your clinical trial? Should you be asking your doctor and raise these concerns?
Well, we know that these cuts have been variable across the country. They have affected people in all sorts of states, both Republican states and Democratic-led states. But if you are concerned that your clinical trial could be at risk, that is something to talk to with your doctor as well as the clinical trial leader.
uh at the hospital at which you're getting that clinical trial hopefully we won't see further clinical trial terminations that people will still be able to get the experimental treatments that we need but this is all hampered not only by grant terminations but also by mass firings across the department of health and human services so people at the nih who review and administer grants many of those people have been fired employees at the fda have been fired those are people that often help
gain patients access to experimental treatments. And then workers at the CDC have been fired. And those are people that are often trying to mitigate the health risks, things like environmental pollutants, things like exposure to lead and other toxins that may actually contribute to your risk of both cancer but also other health diseases. And so there has been this widespread kind of purging of expertise in the Department of Health and Human Services that we need to respond to some of the threats that Americans face.
That's Dr. Dhruv Kular. Thanks for being here this morning. Thank you for having me. Next on CNN This Morning, is it a gift if you ask for it? Turns out the White House may have been the one to approach Qatar about that luxury jet, not the other way around. Plus, more from the group chat after this.
Okay, the trial resumes in the case of Sean Diddy Combs. Monday, his former assistant testified that he didn't think Cassie Ventura, Diddy's ex-girlfriend, could easily leave him. She's been at the center of the case, even though she's already wrapped up her testimony. Now, former Danity Kane band member Don Richard testified that she witnessed Combs hit Ventura several times. She alleges that Combs told her to keep quiet because, quote, where he comes from, people go missing if they talk.
Joining me now is criminal defense attorney Nicole DeBoerde from Houston, Texas. Nicole, good morning. Thank you for being with us. I want to ask you about the testimony from these assistants. How significant is it, this idea that she could not leave? What was it that they were trying to elicit from this testimony?
I think what the testimony shows is that there was a pattern of abuse that several people observed made it impossible for Ventura to leave. And that is what the prosecution is really trying to show, that this was a situation where she was not there by choice, but was instead compelled to be there and to participate in the acts that she participated in.
And also, I think several people noted that security for Combs did not intervene. There seems to be some question there about the support network around him. That's right. And some of the testimony even made it sound like perhaps some of the security around Combs made it even harder for Ventura to leave because they were armed. And some of the witnesses noted that they observed this on multiple occasions.
- All right, before I let you go, what do you think the defense, what kind of steps they'll take to combat these allegations in this area? - Well, the defense has already done an excellent job through cross-examination of pointing out evolving stories, information that has never been discussed before, even though these witnesses have all talked to the prosecution on multiple occasions, and that some of these witnesses may have a motivation, including financial motivation, to say the things that they're saying on the stand.
So it's really going to be a tough one, I think, for the jury. They have a lot of difficult testimony to hear and then ultimately have to decide whether or not the witnesses who are testifying about really what are some horrific events have a motivation to be saying the things they're saying. That's Nicole DeBoer, criminal defense attorney. Thank you for checking in with us. Thanks for having me.
Okay, one more thing. Remember that plane from Qatar that the Trump administration said was a gift? Sources tell CNN that it actually was the Trump administration which approached the country about a new Boeing 747 that could be used as Air Force One. So those sources say immediately after President Trump took office in January, the Pentagon contacted Boeing and was told it wouldn't be able to produce a new presidential jet for at least another two years.
A senior White House official says that's when President Trump asked Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to put together a list of viable planes. The group chat is back. What happened next is eventually... Are you into this? I am so glad that the priorities of this administration, they came in and were like, we got to have Air Force One planes, you know, back on the tarmac and the ones that we had ordered in the first administration.
I mean, you know, this plane thing, honestly, is just insane. Why are we still talking about the plane thing? I know it's my fault because I read the introduction, but it feels, I did this to us, but it feels like it's not going away. And this reporting is sort of showing the path from, hey, do you think we can get a plane faster? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think
I think that the reason we're talking about this is because corruption is such a hit that Republicans have made on Democrats for a really long time, whether it's Nancy Pelosi's stock trades or also the defenses of Trump's taking this plane. I've talked about Qatar's general influence in a lot of the Democratic policies making spaces. I believe Ilhan Omar was paid for by Qatar at some point to take a trip to the Middle East.
keep trotting out these arguments. - But it's also the single most kind of ineffective hit against Trump. Like I've just never seen that land a political blow. - Because people believe that everyone is corrupt in DC and if everyone's corrupt, at least with Trump, it's out in the open. It's nakedly available for you to see. I don't really buy this argument, but I think a lot of voters do feel that because Washington is such a swamp, they've bought that argument from Trump. Why would they hit him now? - But conservatives, I think,
are actually uncomfortable with this. I mean, he's been taking a lot of hit from conservatives over this because it is Qatar, because Qatar has a relationship, for example, with Hamas. It has been involved. It has a close relationship with Iran. You know, the actual sort of enemies of the United States, you know, this small emirate has a relationship with them. And so to take a plane from them, it does have this question.
What are you going to get in return? And nobody gets anything for nothing. Lulu's right. You have heard some prominent voices on the right say, what are you doing? Why are you doing it? This feels like an unforced error. I mean, what do you think of how the administration is trying to defend it? I mean, they're not really trying to defend it other than to say, hey, look, this is just a gift. I think the gift story... Or it would be dumb not to take a free plane. Hey, why wouldn't you take it? I mean, the gift storyline seems to be
a classic of the Trump pattern, which is tell a good story, try to make it entertaining. Hey, they're just giving me this gift here. I think it's not going away for all the reasons everybody's mentioned here. It bothers kind of everybody across the political spectrum. It just reeks of favor trading. And even if there's no favor that was offered from Gutter
with this plane, it's gonna come. And I think people have a intuitive understanding that this doesn't feel right. I do think that's a problem for Trump. - It's not a stack of cash, but it's like a flying-- - This is true for people in DC. I am personally bothered by this, but at the same time, I don't think it's true that regular people watching this news story are just,
upset about this kind of corruption because you hear stories about corruption in DC all the time. They kind of all blur together. - This sticks in the mind. This is a play. - I think one of the other problems with this is about the United States and the way that it's seen in the world.
And so when you have the plane of the American president being sort of like a branded gift as if you're a soccer team, you know, with the Qatar emblazoned over your jersey. I mean, there is something about that, that, you know, we're supposed to be the most powerful country in the world, and yet we're getting a plane from a tiny emirate. I mean, this is slightly problematic. Boeing can't build the plane.
it's true is with this just pressure on Boeing or it although I that was my theory at first and now it seems like now they really just want the I think drop by Trump is obsessed with the plane I mean I think it's like the actual plan you love the love the president I would say this added to the point about sort of a cutter being aligned with America's enemies
If I were a journalist on this new Air Force One, I'd watch what I'd say. Like, what sort of things are going on? Although it's supposed to be a defense-to-defense department thing. I guess. And people have talked about the cost of trying to fit it to be secure. And that that cost in and of itself is something that would make things problematic. Can I just say one more thing about the plane? Which is they just, in the Times, showed the sort of
brochure because they've been trying to sell it for a while. It's really nice. I just want to say that it's a really nice place. So you want to get on Air Force One? I just want to say I get it. I get it. It's a nice place. Lulu, Skyron should just say shout out to luxury. Thanks to the group chat. Thank you for waking up with us. I'm Adi Cornish and CNN News Central starts right now.
This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish. The rise of buy now, pay later services or BNPLs. The idea is this. Instead of using traditional credit or debit to pay for your new sweater or TV or even your DoorDash order, you can break it up. And sometimes those payments happen every few weeks, sometimes once a month. And it's clear we're not sure how to feel about it. Is this a dangerous fad or a smarter, healthier form of credit?
Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app.