Kennedy Struggles To Account For His Promise On Vaccine Access

24:41And our politics lead House Speaker Mike Johnson today defended President Trump's calling the Epstein saga a hoax. But Trump called it a hoax yesterday. What Trump is referring to is the hoax that the Democrats are using to try to attack him. He hates the fact that these women were suffered those harms. He hates what Epstein is accused of and who he was. You should note, it's obviously not just Democrats pushing to know who else was wrapped up in Epstein's crimes other than Ghislaine Maxwell, among the Republicans pushing the issue. Congressman Thomas Massey of Kentucky, who's trying to force a full House vote on a bill that would make the Justice Department release all of his Epstein files with the power for the attorney general to redact the names of survivors if she wants.

25:25Let's bring in Lisa Phillips. She was one of the many Epstein survivors who spoke on Capitol Hill yesterday about Epstein's crimes. Lisa, what do you say to this idea of the president calling this a hoax? Because if you go with the interpretation of Speaker Johnson, Democrats are leading this charge to hurt him. What's your response to the whole hoax language thing? Well, that was the first time I'd heard that. I had never thought of what we were doing on Capitol Hill having anything to do with it being a Democratic thing. I thought most of the people that we were standing with were Republicans, and none of us were taking sides.

26:05None of us made it a political thing. We all were just there to get some accountability because, you know, if we're living with this type of abuse and pain for so long and we don't have answers and everything is so confusing, we just kind of want answers. Yeah. Republican Congressman Thomas Massey, who's leading this charge, he says he's 99 % certain he's gonna get the votes needed to force this bill onto the floor of the House, which would release if that passed and then went through the Senate, et cetera, would get these Epstein documents publicly released. He has 215 signatures. He needs three more to force this onto the floor of the House for a vote.

26:46How significant of a moment might that be if that vote actually happens? I mean, it would mean everything to us just to get some answers. A lot of us are very confused of what happened to us and what we saw and have been dealing with this for quite some time. I think when I started speaking out, I thought we would have answers by now. So I think we're just at this stage where we're just getting fed up with it. At yesterday's news conference, you noted that many survivors want to create a list of people who had dealings, shady dealings with Epstein. But also there's fear about what those powerful, wealthy people might do if any of you made those names public.

27:29Obviously, at the very least, defamation lawsuits, which is what happened to Virginia Giuffre. Some members of Congress are willing to go on the floor of the House of Representatives and read the names that the survivors come up with. And just for people who don't know this, they are immune from prosecution for defamation for anything they say on the floor of the House. Would you want to take them up on that offer?

27:58I think people have to understand that, like President Trump, us survivors are in fear of doing that. I think that the people that we would name are just way too powerful. and from knowing Jeffrey as Trump knew him and as a lot of us knew him, we just don't want to get involved in that. So I think it was misinterpreted that we were going to be naming these names. We have all felt collectively that that's not something that we want to do, or that should even be our responsibility. So when we said we were collecting, it's because I'm a podcaster and I speak to survivors and I want to speak to the survivor community and say, Hey, we're here for you.

28:48And any more survivors that want to come out about Epstein or anything having to do with his affiliates or co-conspirators that we're here for you. And we'll start talking more about it. I mean, we've already collected over the last 60 years, many names from our experiences that, you know, that collide with each other, so to speak. and also the attorneys and through meeting with hundreds of survivors themselves, we already have quite a few names that consistently come up that we've seen at events or parties or on the island or at his house. And so we already we already have quite a few names. I was speaking to other survivors that want to come forward to join us as a community.

29:30Yeah, it's not your responsibility. It's what the Justice Department and prosecutors are supposed to do. they're the ones that are supposed to compile evidence and bring charges forward, not just for the ringleaders, Epstein and Maxwell, but also any participants in any trafficking activities. Lisa Phillips, thank you so much. Please come back on the show. We'd love to talk to you more. Exactly. Thank you so much. The price of sending National Guard troops to big U.S. cities, a brand new lawsuit from Washington, D.C., and millions of dollars, according to the California governor. His receipts are next.

30:08In our politics lead, today's D.C. Today, D.C.'s attorney general is suing the Trump administration over National Guard troops deployed in the nation's capital. But the White House is dismissing this move, saying, quote, this lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt at the detriment of D.C. residents and visitors to undermine the president's highly successful operations to stop violent crime in D.C., unquote. The administration is considering deploying troops to other cities. Let's bring in the panel and welcome former ABC News correspondent Terry Moran to the table. It's good to see you. Thanks for being here.

30:37Obviously, Ashley and Jonah here as well today. We should note California Governor Gavin Newsom says the deployment of troops to Los Angeles earlier this year cost taxpayers nearly$120 million. His office breaks down the cost as this$71 million for food and basic necessities,$37 million in payroll, more than$4 million in logistics,$3.5 million in travel and$1.5 million in demobilization costs. and Jonah, a recent Quinnipiac poll found that 56 % of voters oppose sending troops to D.C. in an effort to reduce crime. 41 % approve. The price tag is also an interesting issue. What's your take on all this?

31:17Yeah, look, I mean, the constitutional issue, I think, is different for D.C. because D.C. is a federal territory and all that. I think it is weird. I don't want to get too philosophical, but it's a bit like shadows on the wall of Plato's cave, right? Trump sees this through screens. He sees this as a story about headlines on Fox News and that kind of thing. And the headlines he sees are crime down because my strong manly, strong, like bull kind of interventions. I think that's actually a quote from a Fox headline. It might be. And that's what he cares about. It's more the appearance than the underlying reality.

31:52I do think crime has dropped. I do think there's a weird disconnect. Go back and look at what Pete Hegseth said during his confirmation stuff for Secretary of Defense, talking about, we want an army that is all about lethality. We want warriors. This is not war fighting. They're picking up a lot of trash, right? It's like there is a disconnect here, but I don't think - They're picking people up off mopeds. Yeah, yeah. Fair enough. The city of - Yeah. So, no, I would just say, I think that's absolutely spot on here. But I think what's also missing is, you know, this D.C. was low hanging fruit for the president.

32:26I mean, it was a precursor to go into all these other cities. What I can't wrap my head around, though, is why the mayor sold out D.C. so quickly and folded so quickly without a fight. I mean, she compromised the position of other Democratic mayors. In addition to that, she sealed her fate. Now you've got the congressional Republicans who've been chomping at the bit. I've spent a lot of time in that body chomping at the bit to now take over Washington, D.C. So this is going to be a situation where the infringement of the rights of the D.C. voters is going to be on full display. But in addition to that, D.C.

32:57may not look the same a year from now. And Terry, some Democrats, such as Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, have suggested this isn't about fighting crime itself. Take a listen to what he told CBS Face the Nation. He'd like to stop the elections in 2026 or, frankly, take control of those elections. He'll just claim that there's some problem with an election, and then he's got troops on the ground that can take control, if, in fact, he's allowed to do this. And the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has said similar things. You just spoke to the attorney general of California. What does he think?

33:31Well, he's filing a lawsuit to stop the extension of the original 300 National Guard troop presence in Los Angeles past Election Day, because he's suspicious, because there's a shadow in all of this. whether it's for the screens, it is also to prime the American people to see military forces on the streets of our cities when there is no justification. There's no disaster. There's no riot burning down square miles of any city. There was one car on fire in Los Angeles. And that's clearly what this is. Trump wanted to send the military. He talked about it in 2020. In December of 2020, he said we could have the military hold elections in the swing states.

34:11He's talked about it here. He says, I'm the president. They get to do what I want. And they're already talking about the emergency around the voting machines. And let's not forget, this is also about what expansion of the authority of the presidency. This is what Steve Bannon and Steve Miller said that the purpose of this next administration is. And that's what we're seeing play out on the streets of American cities. I want to note also just on the Epstein issue we were just talking about. We just heard a victim of Jeffrey Epstein responding to Speaker Johnson and President Trump calling the Epstein saga a hoax.

34:41Not all of MAGA is in agreement, even if Johnson and Trump are there. Take a listen to this exchange between Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and Eric Bolling on his podcast. He can prove it's a hoax by releasing it. Let us let us decide if it's a hoax or not. I mean, I love everything they're doing. You know, I'm MAGA through and through before. I don't know. I'm original OG. Bannon calls me original gangster MAGA. I am. But you got to give MAGA this. I mean, the calls are coming from inside the house. The MAGA folks are the ones who want this more than anyone other than the survivors. Epstein is an issue unusual in our time.

35:22It's bipartisan. It's a bipartisan populist issue. It's about rich men getting away with it again. getting away with the worst kind of evil. And it does unite elements of the populist right and a lot of people, not just the people who want to bring down Trump or stop him or block him, people who are genuinely horrified to people. Like, there are a lot of major Democrats who are on that island or on that plane. And there's something deep in the American people right now that want that kind of privilege stopped. All right, thanks one and all for being here. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is back with his special project on pain and innovative ways to treat the problem that so many people deal with.

35:57Stay with us. Uncovered windows can make your home feel up to 20 degrees hotter. Stay cool and save up to 45 % off custom window treatments during the Summer Black Friday Mega Sale at blinds.com. From outdoor shades to room darkening blinds, finding the perfect fit is easy. Get free samples, expert design help, and professional measure and install services, or DIY with confidence and support every step of the way. Shop up to 45 % off site-wide, plus huge savings on doorbusters right now during the Summer Black Friday Megasale at Blinds.com. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify.

36:36They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website, to marketing, to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer. In our health lead, we are paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who's joining us to talk about innovative and unexpected ways to treat and manage pain. Sanjay has spent more than three years researching these methods for his new book, It Doesn't Have to Hurt, as well as for a documentary.

37:15Here's an excerpt that, among other things, looks at how a man named Ed found relief without using drugs. In the fall of 2024, Ed had electrodes implanted deep into his brain. You're seeing here Ed's brain, and all of these little colors represent probes. And there are as many neurons in your brain, if not more, than there are stars in the sky. Yeah, exactly. It's like throwing a telescope up at the sky and just seeing what you see or hearing what you hear. Yeah, that's exactly it. It's quite a daunting task. We're actually recording activity from each one of those 140 contacts to try to identify where to stimulate, but identify what is the signal, the biomarker, that tracks his pain.

38:01And for the first time ever, they obtained a real-time pain map. What you're looking at is Ed's brain in pain. And then they pass an electrical current into Ed's pain centers. And watch what happened. Both drop to zero. You don't feel pain right now. I don't feel nothing. I feel my feet like I can, but the pain's gone. The pain's done. You're not kidding me. I believe you. I'm not kidding. It dropped. I mean, it's barely hooking at a one on both of them. That's incredible. It was like a veil lifting. It was like a ton of bricks falling off your shoulders. It was all at once, all that all at once.

38:46And it was euphoric. But that was the first time in a long time, Ed, that you had not been in pain. Yeah. It's like the best drug I ever did, and I didn't do any drugs. And Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now. Sanjay, how would this translate Ed's experience to a more mainstream group of people in pain? Well, no one's suggesting that open brain surgery is going to be the answer for people with refractory pain. But I think there was a couple of lessons there which are going to be directly relevant. One is they could find where pain was residing in the brain for Ed. They could measure it. That's been a holy grail when it comes to pain research.

39:25How bad is your pain? That's a question that's often asked. They could predict it, Jake. So even before it would reach conscious awareness for Ed, they already saw the energy changes happening in the brain. And then importantly, as you just heard, they could interrupt it. So what this, again, we're not saying people are going to have brain surgery, But the idea that you could find these specific pain areas in the brain and address them, hopefully in non-invasive ways, sometimes medications, sometimes things like meditation, even things like focused ultrasound, all those might have a role now that they've been able to sort of prove these things with this trial.

39:57So you've spent the last three plus years working on this new book and now a documentary about pain. It Doesn't Have to Hurt by Sanjay Gupta, your smart guide to a pain-free life. What's the key message you want readers and viewers to take away from these projects? I think acute pain serves a purpose. You touch a hot pan, hurts, don't touch that again. There's lessons to be learned from pain. Those are important lessons. Chronic pain, Jake, I think in some ways is almost like a glitch in the nervous system. It's like a pain memory that just keeps getting replayed over and over again. Addressing that, addressing that component, trying to figure out how to keep acute pain from turning into chronic pain is something that I I think is well within our reach.

40:39I don't think we can eliminate pain altogether. I don't want to give people that impression. But to turn that into a pain-free life so it's not hijacking your entire identity, I think that's much more within our reach than it was before. Sanjay, thanks so much. Be sure to watch Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports. It Doesn't Have to Hurt. It airs this Sunday, September 7th at 9 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN. And don't forget to send us your questions about preventing and treating pain. Sanjay will answer them tomorrow. Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, it was not just Democrats piling on Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr.

41:14today. A number of Republican senators also with some tough questions for RFK about his false claims about vaccines and massive layoffs of the government's health care experts. I'm going to speak to one of the senators who questioned Kennedy today in just moments. Plus, President Trump is hosting a slew of tech executives for dinner at the White House tonight. The list includes Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook and Bill Gates. Elon Musk says he's not going. Why is the former first buddy skipping out on the festivities? And The Lead is taking a field trip for an up-close look at some of the exhibits at the Smithsonian Museum that President Trump wants changed or removed.

41:50What do those exhibits really show? Well, we're going to bring you along our field trip to find out.

41:59Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper, the lead tonight. Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. undercoing a bipartisan beating during a hearing today. Senator is pressing Kennedy on his stance on vaccines, his overall of public health policies, and his questionable firing of the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I've grown deeply concerned. The public has seen measles outbreaks. Leadership of the National Institute of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines. The recently confirmed director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired.

42:38Americans don't know who to rely on. You just changed the classification of the COVID vaccine. I'm not taking them away from people, Senator. It takes it away if you can't get it from your pharmacist. Most Americans are going to be able to get it from their pharmacy for free. dollars. Most Americans will be able to get it from their pharmacy. The question is everyone who wants it. That was your promise. I never promised that I was going to recommend products with which there is no indication. You don't have any idea how many Americans died from COVID? I don't think anybody knows that because there was so much data chaos coming out of the CDC and there were so many perverse incentives.

43:22And these are models. You don't know the answer of how many Americans from COVID. This is the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Sir, you're a charlatan. That's what you are. You're the ones who conflate chronic disease with the need for vaccines. I'm going to talk to the senator who called RFK Jr. a charlatan in just a moment. But first, let's go straight to CNN's Manu Raju on Capitol Hill. Manu, what are lawmakers saying after this heated hearing? Well, a lot of Republicans, Jake, simply will not offer any support for RFK Jr. at this moment. In fact, Republicans who voted just earlier this year won't see if they even have confidence in him continuing on in this very important public health role, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who I caught up with this afternoon.

44:10I asked him, do you have confidence in RFK Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary? He said, it's not exactly what I think. It's what the president ultimately to whom he answers. So the president has confidence. And then others, including Senator Tom Tillis, I asked him if he regretted his vote. He said, not yet. He said, I want specific answers to management decisions. If you say scientists lied, then give me the science to refute it and demonstrate. He went on to say, I mean, words matter. And he was raising concerns about some of those words, too. who said some of the rhetoric coming out of HHS was, quote, dangerous and could become very deadly to people who don't have access to quality information about vaccines.

44:54And then there's Bill Cassidy, another medical doctor, someone who chairs a key health committee and provided that pivotal vote to confirm RFK Jr. He would not say if he regretted that vote. He also would not say if he had confidence, Jake. He just simply referred to, he said, I'll let my exchange today They speak for itself. And he was referring to that exchange that was rather heated when he was pressing Kennedy about rolling back the COVID vaccine and efforts to do just that. That went back and forth. But he would not say one way or the other, Jacob. He has confidence or he regrets the vote.

45:29But it just shows you the unease that Kennedy and his actions have caused Republicans who just supported his nomination a few months ago. So, Manu, as you know, RFK Jr. made some very strong and rather questionable assertions about the ousted CDC director, Dr. Susan Menares. Is the Senate planning on calling her in to testify or any of the top CDC officials who resigned in protest? You know, it's a bit unclear exactly the next steps of this ongoing oversight. It's unclear if they're going to do a full-fledged investigation. Of course, Republicans lead the Senate. They would have to decide to move in that direction.

46:04I did ask Bill Cassidy whether or not he plans to investigate everything that happened in the CDC and whether he plans how he plans to move ahead here. He simply said they would provide oversight about what happened. So it's unclear if Monterey or those CDC officials will come testify. But undoubtedly, Jake, the pressure is going to build from Democrats in particular who want to see them come testify in a public setting about everything that happened here, Jake. And Manu, just to break out my Senate to English, English to Senate dictionary here, when you ask the Senate majority leader, do you have confidence in RFK Jr.?

46:38And he says it doesn't matter what I think. It's what the president thinks. That seems to me like that's a no. Yeah, that's one interpretation of it, Jake. He didn't want to say he didn't have confidence there, but he could have easily said, yes, I do. Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, thanks so much. Let's bring in Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington State. Senator, thanks so much for being here. So you called HHS Secretary Arfka Jr. a charlatan because you said he is conflating issues and trying to confuse people instead of presenting accurate information. Do you think that he is purposefully trying to muddy the waters on vaccines and other medical necessities so that people lose confidence in medical professionals?

47:19I mean, like a charlatan is a strong charge. I'm not saying I disagree with it, but do you think that's his goal? I don't know if it's his goal, but that's exactly what it's doing. I mean, when you look up the definition online, it doesn't say you decided a purpose. Oh, yes, maybe you're doing it for personal gain. But somebody who misinforms people, and obviously he's misinforming people, and he's misinforming people even about the first Trump administration's warp speed success in getting a vaccine to the marketplace. Since Seattle was the case of the first COVID cases in the United States of America, I followed this very closely.

47:57And the fact that we were able to get a vaccine out there so quickly did save millions of lives. He's refuting that, ignoring it, and then saying, I don't want to invest in this continued science. And so that is why I think you had a response, not just from me, but two Republican doctors who were saying you are throwing cold water on hard evidence science on vaccines. They may not have said those words, but that is the implication of what both Cassidy and Barrasso said today. Yeah, and I think if you put truth serum in their arms, and also maybe Tom Tillis and John Thune, they would say that they regret voting for him.

48:36But as of now, not one of them has said so publicly. What do they say privately? You don't have to name names, but I mean, are Republicans saying, wow, that was a mistake, we shouldn't have confirmed him? What are they saying? I'm not going to disclose my private conversation. Well, you don't give me names, but you can give me general ideas for Republican senators. Look, I'm actually surprised that today that both those senators were so strong in their advocacy. Advocacy for vaccines. For vaccines, for 100 years of history, for the craziness that he's instilling into the measles discussion, putting families at risk.

49:10They literally went down, Senator Brasso specifically, a litany of things. So when you go back to the confirmation hearing, he basically said Kennedy, Secretary Kennedy, I'm going to be the guy for science. I'm going to be for the gold standard. And now we've seen actions that say you're not for the gold standard. You are not for upholding 100 plus years of vaccination history and minimizing the effects to individuals. you're basically throwing this whole thing open and leaving us as a nation maybe playing second fiddle just let's pretend let's pretend even in a military perspective that somebody does want to inflict the united states with an influence or a harm and what are we going to do call up europe or call up some other country and say hey what is your vaccination that could help the united states of america just because he doesn't want to make this investment yeah no i agree i mean i also I think there's 20 years of him spouting non-facts, lies about vaccines and such that would lead anybody to know that when he was testifying that he was not telling the truth.

50:14The governor of your home state, Washington State, along with Oregon and California, so a West Coast sweep there, you're now forming the so-called West Coast Health Alliance as a way to coordinate public health guidelines separate from the CDC. Do you support them doing that? Yes. We have to have a strong voice. And if we're not going to get that from the CDC, although I applaud the individuals who've tried to stand up and say, this is what this should look like. But when COVID hit, as I mentioned, and we were the first place. Yeah, I remember that nursing home. Yeah, in that Kirkland nursing home.

50:46Guess who we depended on? First and foremost, the University of Washington. We had to get the rules changed, actually, so that the University of Washington didn't have to send every case down to the CDC and then find out the results and send it back. We all had to adopt, adapt and move quickly. And that's what we did. So in this instance now, and the University of Washington is probably one of the highest NIH recipients in the country. And so they do know a lot about health and the whole, I think the whole West Coast has a lot of institutions. And if they want to speak to what science really represents, then yes, I think people are going to listen to that science information because it's not being provided through Secretary Kennedy.

51:25Are you worried at all about repercussions from the Trump administration pulling NIH funding from UW and the idea that maybe there'll be some sort of punishment? I think what the president's choices are now, he can change course. He could direct Secretary Kennedy to restore the$550 million that should go to the next mRNA vaccination program. He could tell him to restore that. He could discuss with my colleagues, even the Republicans, the ones that are now vocally saying they have concerns about this lack of science approach to the healthcare delivery system and listen to what their suggestions are.

52:00He has he has options, but pretending like this secretary is delivering on science when he can't even say that your accomplishments in the first Trump administration, when your own surgeon general said it saved 2 million lives and you can't even confirm that, you can't even praise that effort. I think it was a sad day for his estimates about what science has done for our nation. It's so odd because, and I said it at the time, Operation Warp Speed was one of the greatest achievements in American medical history, period. President Trump gets the credit for that. Biden gets the credit for putting the shots in the arms.

52:39And you have a Health and Human Services Secretary who has literally called it, falsely, the deadliest vaccine in history. It doesn't make any sense to me. Well, Jake, maybe you should go back and do a little bit of history revision on that so people understand. But it's not like we just pulled something off the shelf. We had to make a scientific discovery to make this happen as people were affected and dying. And so the fact that that scientific achievement was made, the question is, why would you want to stop? And I think, you know, Bill Gates is great on this subject because he's done so much internationally with the Gates Foundation.

53:15But you've got to be ready for the next one. You've got to be ready for. So you can't just rest on your laurels. And that's what he's taking away. He's taking away the apparatus to do the work to be prepared for the next major flu outbreak, the next major, you know, something that could happen internationally. And why should we do that? Why should we disarm? Are we going to call Europe up and ask them for help? Is that what we're going to do? Because we didn't make this investment. Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington State, thanks so much. Good to see you. The Trump administration is demanding information about voters, including partial Social Security numbers from dozens of states.

53:51Coming up next, I'm going to talk to a Republican elections official who is rejecting that request.

53:59And our politics lead, President Trump's Justice Department asked two Missouri counties for access to their voting equipment used in the 2020 election. That equipment was made by Dominion Voting Systems, which has been a frequent target of wildly false conspiracy theories claiming Trump actually won in 2020. And, you know, that Dominion machines then changed the votes. All that nonsense coming out of Fox resulted in a$787.5 million settlement to Dominion because of all the lies. Anyway, the news today coming just days after CNN learned that the White House has stepped up efforts to obtain personal information about tens of millions of voters across the country, including sensitive data such as partial social security numbers.

54:45Joining us now to discuss is Pennsylvania's top election official, the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Al Schmidt, who we should note is a Republican. Mr. Secretary, you rejected this request from the Trump DOJ instead of offering to give DOJ officials access to the state's voter export. What is the voter export and why are you offering that instead? Well, there really wasn't much of a decision to make. Our laws in Pennsylvania and our constitution in Pennsylvania prevent us from sharing voters' personal information, like Social Security numbers and like driver's license numbers. So we very respectfully declined the request from the Department of Justice to provide the personal information of 8.8 million registered voters in Pennsylvania.

55:33I'm not sure that the Justice Department or President Trump are familiar with the fact that in this country, states run their elections, not the federal government. Have you heard back from the Justice Department about your offer? We have not yet heard back. I expect we will. But I really want to stress, this is not a partisan issue. This is a question of our Constitution entrusting states to run elections, federal or non-federal, in our country. And I don't think you're going to see much of a difference between red states and blue states, as has been reported from South Carolina to Utah. This isn't just Maine and California here.

56:18This is a question of states protecting their voters' information as they're required to by law. Why do you think the Justice Department wanted this sensitive information about the voters of the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania? I don't know. But what I do know is that it seems to be a somewhat unprecedented attempt to consolidate election administration at the federal level, which is concerning. And one thing that I think Pennsylvanians should be very encouraged by is that Governor Shapiro has made clear that nothing and no one are going to in any way interfere with election integrity in Pennsylvania.

57:02If the Justice Department asked Pennsylvania county clerks for access to their voting equipment, as they did with two counties in Missouri, I assume they would ask you what they should do for guidance. What would you tell them to do? Well, we've had issues in Pennsylvania, as you've reported in other jurisdictions, where third parties have sought access to election systems. Every voter in Pennsylvania votes using a paper ballot, whether it's a hand-marked paper ballot or whether it's a ballot-marking device. We have a voter-verifiable paper ballot record of every vote that's cast that's used in two audits after every election.

57:42And elections in Pennsylvania have never been more free, fair, safe, and secure than they are now. The Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Al Schmidt, thank you so much. Good to see you again, sir. Likewise. Top tech leaders are heading to the White House this evening. Elon Musk will not be there. We'll tell you his reason why, and we'll also tell you who's attending. That's next.

58:08In our tech lead, it's raining on President Trump's parade, or rather the debut event in his newly renovated Rose Garden. Trump's dinner for tech leaders has been moved inside due to bad weather here in Washington, D.C. That's too bad. Dinner is a bit of a tech bro reunion. Some were also at Trump's inauguration in January. CNN's Caitlin Collins is here. And Caitlin, we should note the tech bro of bros is not going to be there. But he was invited. Elon Musk. Elon Musk is who you are referring to for those who aren't paying attention. It is notable that he was even invited, though. He wrote today that he had been invited.

58:43But my understanding is this was kind of put together at the last minute. It was because the first lady, Melania Trump, hosted an AI event at the White House earlier. That's why so many of these leaders are in town. Elon Musk says he's not coming, but he is sending a representative. But you're going to basically see everyone there who was there at the White House today, but also who was in attendance at Trump's inauguration, who was sitting around him, The head of Google, Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, all of those figures are going to be at the White House tonight. We may actually see them because Trump often has a fondness for calling the press in when he's hosting a group of tech leaders like this one.

59:14One interesting name that I just heard that is going is Jared Isaacman. And he is the tech billionaire who had actually been nominated to run NASA. He was a huge ally of Elon Musk. And then it turned out he had given donations to Democrats in the past. And Trump pulled his nomination, citing that, even though we had been told that he had disclosed that, so the White House actually was aware of it whenever they were nominating him because he knew it would come up at his confirmation hearing. They pulled it, though, still regardless. But he is going to be there tonight, which I thought was interesting.

59:43So Elon Musk on the list and Jared Isaacman as well. Very interesting. And we should note there's this, the rose garden-ness of it all is also interesting. The rose garden is really not what it was. Yeah, rose patio. This renovation, there it is, look right there. I mean, that's not what, it used to be a lawn there. I think Jackie O set that up and now it's completely different. This renovation's a big deal to Trump. I gotta imagine he's a little bummed that they had to move it inside. Well, and also remember, Melania Trump did a huge undertaking of renovating the Rose Garden when he was in office the last time.

1:00:20There were serious issues from all the events that they hosted out there with irrigation and whatnot. She put a lot of effort to it, but obviously Trump has transformed it. It looks a lot like the Mar-a-Lago patio for people who have not been. This is what it looks like. And I had been told a few weeks ago that the president wanted to host a huge event out there when it was a beautiful sunny day here in Washington. Obviously, they thought that would be today, but it rained here, so they're changing it. But the president has been getting good use out of the patio. One thing he does at Mar-a-Lago, we know when he was out of office, is he has this iPad and he'll basically play his favorite songs on it very loud.

1:00:51He controls the volume and the playlist. Everything you hear at his rallies. You can't always get what you want. They put speakers out in the Rose Garden, so he's been doing that in the last few days. When we're at the White House, you can hear the music from where we do our live shots in front of the White House. You can hear it being played out in the Rose Garden, but obviously they will not have the opportunity to do so today. I thought I heard some poison in the background. From over here. You were doing a live shot the other day. Some Les Mis. Yeah. Yes, he loves the Les Mis. Anyway, Kaitlin Collins, thanks so much.

1:01:20Always good to see you. Don't miss Kaitlin on her show, The Source with Kaitlin Collins. That's tonight and every weeknight at 9 o 'clock Eastern. and only here on CNN. We visited a Smithsonian museum to look at some of the specific exhibits that the Trump White House deems too woke. We're gonna show you those exhibits from our field trip, and we're gonna talk to the museum's former director to weigh in on what we found.

1:01:49International lead, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, has now responded to President Trump's demands for a complete review of all Smithsonian museum exhibits, according to reports from the New York Times and the Washington Post. Bunch reportedly wrote to staff that he has assembled a small internal team to handle the White House request, but said he told Trump in person, quote, our independence is paramount, unquote. Trump has targeted the Smithsonian, saying, quote, everything discussed is how horrible our country is, how bad slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been. Nothing about success, unquote.

1:02:23Is that an accurate description of the Smithsonian? Well, turn on your permission slips. We're going to take you on a field trip to find out. We're here at the Smithsonian today to go in and see exactly what the White House is talking about. So this exhibit is about Title IX and girls and women's sports. It starts with Naomi Osaka, the tennis star, and Sam Mewis, the soccer star. And then it turns to Leo Baker, the skateboarder. And it says, quote, Baker, who identifies as trans non-binary, decided not to compete and Team USA lost a potential medal winner. Quote, Baker refused to conform to a gender they did not identify with in the Title IX exhibit turns into trans rights or human rights.

1:03:08So this exhibit is called The Electric Dr. Franklin. And the White House issue is not that Benjamin Franklin is noted here, but that there are so many mentions of Franklin enslaved people, perhaps as many as seven. And there's just such an emphasis, the White House says, on the enslaved individuals. Nothing here. But here it says, missing from this image are the people whose labor freed Franklin to conduct his research, the women indentured servants and enslaved people who maintained his household, assisted him, or made or operated equipment. We should note that the Smithsonian has literally thousands of exhibits, and most of them there is absolutely nothing controversial about.

1:03:45We're here in the Hall of the American People, and we're not exactly sure what the White House issue is with this exhibit. It is a statue of liberty replica, except with an agricultural worker holding a tomato. This is from a protest for higher wages from 25 years ago by the Immokalee people, which are the Seminoles. So this is a big exhibit about democracy in America. And the Trump administration has issue with two parts of this. One is this assertion that some individuals, some voting places, changed voter registration requirements and election day rules and attempts to minimize the political power of newly enfranchised groups.

1:04:23By stating that as a fact and not an analysis or interpretation, the Trump White House is saying that this is a leftist narrative. This exhibit on demonstrations also aroused the ire of the White House because they say these historical representations of protests past are only leftist causes. They certainly are mostly, but they're not only. I mean, there's give me liberty or give me debt and forced busing is a no-no and secure our borders now and stop abortion now. We just saw demonstrations of a Klan rally in that television as well as a gun rights rally. So not completely accurate. They're complaining.

1:05:07As the electric doctor Ben Franklin himself once wrote, historians relate not so much what is done as what they would have believed, unquote, out of thousands of Smithsonian exhibits and programs. Some do seem indeed presented with perhaps a more left-leaning framing. And historians should continue evaluating and debating how to tell the stories of our past as fairly as possible. Let's begin that process right now. Joining us now is Brent Glass, who was the director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History from 2002 to 2011. Thanks so much for being here. Let's start with the electric Dr.

1:05:44Franklin. So we see signs in here. We see information about their labor helped to build his fortune, talking about the slaves that Ben Franklin had. And the White House says it's just too much emphasis on Franklin's owning of slaves, not enough on Franklin. What do you think? Well, I think that the independence of the Smithsonian is most important. and I think this internal review that you just referenced will look at all the exhibits within the museum and if more research is needed or a correction is needed that will come out. Well I don't think anyone's saying that what they have here is incorrect.

1:06:26I think it's a question of whether or not it needs to be, this is the Trump view, I don't want anyone to think that this is my view. The idea is like how many times do you need to mention that Ben Franklin had slaves in this exhibit about Ben Franklin. I mean, I think that's their point. Well, and you want to know what I think about this exhibit. I think that the need to inform the public is really important and keep them informed. And the public trusts the museum. That's an important part of all of this. They trust what they see at the Smithsonian. And the Smithsonian trusts the public. And I think that exchange of information is really what's most important.

1:07:09I have not done the research that a curator has done or on the others that you've referenced. These are exhibits that have recently been installed. Right, left in 2011. Right. I can talk about some of the exhibits. Well, for example, the political signage exhibits are something that we regularly, when there was a protest or a march on the National Mall. Our curators went out and collected, as you pointed out, from all different points of view. And I think that's a really important element when people come to the American History Museum to learn about democracy. One of the ways they learn about it is the participation of everyday people on issues that they care about.

1:07:55The White House had said that all the signs in this exhibit it were from the left and that isn't true as we pointed out. Just right here you can see one about somebody concerned with the debt which tends to be a conservative issue. It is true that most, that a majority of them were from the left. On the other hand I don't even know if the protest movement in this country has generally been from the left. I don't know. Well every year there was the annual Roe v. Wade march in January and there were always signs, and I believe you showed one of the signs about... There was an anti-abortion sign.

1:08:29An anti-abortion sign. So I think that the curators are very conscious of including the story of America from many points of view. Yeah. So this one was an exhibit on Title IX, which is girls and women in sports. And about a third of it was about a trans individual in sports, and it ends with this. And I guess the Trump's issue, the Trump White House's issue was this should be just entirely about girls and women in sports. And also that this wasn't about the controversy or the disagreement about trans women in sports, etc. It was just presenting one political narrative. Again, I think that the work and the deep research that the Smithsonian does on all these subjects needs to be respected and they need to be independent.

1:09:18Let me just ask you, because I was a history major in college, which maybe doesn't mean much, but I don't think it's a secret that a lot of academics lean to the left. It seems that way. And is it possible that there is some correction that could be done for that just for a more universal audience? I think so. But, you know, I was a graduate student in history, and I think we learned to think critically. I don't think that means thinking from the left or right. But very often people will say, well, if you're thinking critically about Benjamin Franklin, that must be a left wing ideology. And I don't subscribe to that at all.

1:09:57No, neither do I. But I think that when we select an exhibition topic, for example, just going back to my time, we, on the 50th anniversary of the polio vaccine, we did an exhibit about Dr. Salk and about the discovery of the polio vaccine. It was an exhibit many people thought, who will be interested in that? And in fact, it was tremendous interest in it. I'll just give you more example because today is the day that Joseph McNeil died. Now, that might not mean anything, but he was one of the Greensboro Four. And we had the Woolworth's lunch counter at the American History Museum. And on the 50th anniversary of that event, we had three of the surviving Greensboro Four members, members of the Greensboro Four, come to a program at the Smithsonian.

1:10:54And it's telling those stories over and over again that I think is the most valuable contribution. And it shows the striving and how this country continues to strive to be what we set out to be. Brent Glass, thank you so much. It's great to have you here. Some breaking news just in on Trump's plans to rename a major cabinet agency. That's next.

1:11:18And we're back with breaking news. There are new details on the president's plans to rename the Department of Defense. Let's get right to CNN's Kristen Holmes at the White House. Kristen, what would the new name be? Well, Jake, it's not surprising. President Trump is going to sign an executive order tomorrow renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War. Now, just to be clear, this is actually a reverting to the original namesake. The Department of War was established by President George Washington when he was creating the army and then later changed under a military reorganization under Truman in 1949.

1:11:51Both President Trump and the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, have hinted that they wanted to do this name change. Now, tomorrow, President Trump will make it official when he signs that executive order. All right, Kristen Holmes, thanks so much. Back with me is the panel. David Axelrod's joining us. It's interesting that this comes as all these National Guard troops are being deployed to major cities, having nothing to do with war, theoretically. Right. No, we have an active military now landing in American cities. Listen, we were just talking about this before we came out here. I think the president is really intent on turning the clock back to the 19th century.

1:12:29Right. So the Department of War and tariffs and spheres of influence where countries just grab their neighbors and and gobble up their territory. And we do away with the civil service and so on. You know, I mean, but I think he likes the sound of it as much as he likes military parades. The whole militarism thing is he thinks is a good reality show. Yeah. And he I mean, he is a big fan of William McKinley. Yeah. Well, who isn't really? I mean, the one place where the 19th century thing kind of breaks down a little bit is, like, in the 19th century, they actually took the posse comitatus law pretty seriously.

1:13:06And about the idea of deploying troops on American cities was kind of frowned upon. I will say, as I was saying in the last hour, a lot of this has more to do with appearances. He wants it. It's like changing, changing the name of the Department of Defense, the Department of War sounds really macho and costs almost nothing. Right. Well, probably actually will cost millions of dollars. But politically, you know, it's just it's easy. It's easy. Right. And I think there's a lot of these things that Trump, what makes it difficult is Trump definitely wants to sound like a dictator and seem like a dictator.

1:13:45but he actually falls short often from actually crossing the lines. Like, he has not betrayed the Supreme Court yet. His flag-burning amendment thing was actually a nothing burger if you actually read the text. But he kind of counts that his biggest fans and his biggest foes will take the bait and take him at his word, and that creates a whole politics that are to his advantage. Something I want to ask you about, Ashley, according to a Justice Department official, the leadership of the Justice Department is considering right now, after the shooting in Minnesota, if they have the authority to, quote, declare that people who are transgender are mentally ill and can lose their Second Amendment rights to possess firearms, unquote.

1:14:26I find that flabbergasting on several different levels, including the fact that that is clearly a violation of the Second Amendment. Well, I mean, to add to that, I mean, it's more flabbergasting, given the fact that the large majority of the people who commit mass murders are white males. So the question is, should we take guns from those individuals as well, if we're really trying to get to the root of the problem? But here's what I think this is all about. It's just additional red meat for his particular base to distract from the fact that his economic agenda is failing, that the tariffs are raising prices, that inflation is up, that there's now more people seeking jobs than there are jobs available.

1:15:05So for me, that's what this gets back to. It's no different than any of these other issues that we're right. I think you're right. I mean, you say you're flabbergasted. He wants you to be flabbergasted and he wants Democrats to react sort of in Pavlovian fashion, take this very seriously. It's, you know, he's targeting transgender people there. He's learned that there's currency, cultural currency in targeting them. But so it has to be seen through that lens. Sure. The president wants these fights because on the things that he actually got elected on, particularly the economy, it's not going very well right now.

1:15:47There's also an aspect to it. I mean, this is not the best example of it. But like if you told somebody from the NRA back in the before times that the federal government could just simply declare a class of people. Forget transgender. That's a manic depressive. Yeah. People diagnosed with PTSD. just any, just random category of people, that they can have preemptively their Second Amendment rights taken away, the NRA would lose its mind. The old NRA would lose its mind. Like 30 years ago. And part of one of the things Trump likes to do is see how much he can force the various sort of ideological constituencies of the right to take one in the neck.

1:16:28Surrender there. Surrender and say, well, because Trump wants it, it's okay, like RFK. And we should just note, USA Today recently quoted a researcher who had looked at more than 1 ,000 mass casualty events with firearms and found that, quote, you can count on less than one hand how many of those were perpetrated by a transgender individual. This isn't based on any data. This isn't based on any research. This is just based on cruelty. Well, that, but then in addition to that, I think it's a little of what Axelrod was saying, which is it box in the Democratic Party in an incredible way because he understands, I think Trump understands that this is a tension point within the Democratic Party.

1:17:03But then I think he also understands that this was critical and key to him actually winning this last election. And that is just really a divide within our party on where we should, where we stand on this issue of transgender rights. So I think he's also using it to create this wedge and further this wedge within the Democratic Party. So CBS Sunday Morning is out with a preview clip of their interview with Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who is President Trump's most recent Supreme Court appointment. Here is what Justice Barrett had to say about the court reversing decisions about, for instance, same-sex marriage, which has been hypothesized that maybe they're going to try to take away legal same-sex marriage.

1:17:37Take a listen. You wrote in the book, the court has held that the rights to marry, engage in sexual intimacy, use birth control, and raise children are fundamental, but the rights to do business, commit suicide, and obtain abortion are not. Right. I'm describing the doctrine. I want Americans to understand the law and that it's not just an opinion poll about whether the Supreme Court thinks something is good or whether the Supreme Court thinks something is bad. You know, But what the court is trying to do is see what the American people have decided. So Hillary Clinton has suggested that the court would send same-sex marriage back to the states as they did with abortion if they could.

1:18:18And there is certainly that Justice Thomas footnote that suggests that maybe it would be up for discussion. What do you think? Well, no one joined him in that footnote. Look, I think this is a time when it's hard to discern exactly where the court's going to land. but it's good fodder though and I think it's a fear that is justifiable enough and it will excite and inflame a lot of people in this country. What do you think? I don't think they're the votes. I mean, flat out, I don't think they're the votes. The reliance interest on gay marriage, I don't think they're there. I don't think Kavanaugh has a taste for it.

1:18:50I don't think Amy Coney Barrett has a taste for it. No one joined, Tom. But here's the thing. I mean, I wouldn't put anything past the Supreme Court. I mean, everything's up for grabs. I mean, affirmative action, Roe v. Wade. So, you know, they've sort of plotted this thing out So I can imagine that this could be on the chopping blocks. One and all, thank you so much. Good to see you all. The NFL season kicks off tonight, and all I got to say is go Birds. We're headed to the sidelines in Philly next.

1:19:17Our sports lead. The NFL returns tonight. The reigning Super Bowl champions, my beloved Philadelphia Eagles, are going to take on that other team from Dallas at Lincoln Financial Field. CNN's Koi Weyer, a nine-year NFL veteran, is on the field at the link. Koi, I just had to Google how many teams have won back-to-back Super Bowl. The answer is nine. You've been speaking with fans before kickoff tonight. How excited are my Philadelphia brethren? Oh, they are just bubbling over with excitement. This is a new season, Jake. New hope. Some things never change. We're out here right now. We've got Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, your boys, Saquon Barkley's out there.

1:19:57catching passes, getting all lathered up. And these players, Jake, let me tell you, they're nervous. I've played in big games, NFL playoffs, and no matter how much you want to be calm, use your brain training techniques, smell the flowers, cool the soup. They didn't sleep much last night. Their hearts are racing. It's almost game time. Another thing that hasn't changed, Jake, and that a lot of these Philadelphia fans are upset about, is the Dallas Cowboys keep calling themselves America's team. Well, I went around and asked some of these Philadelphia fans, Shouldn't it be Philly, who is America's team, birthplace of America, all that, defending Super Bowl champions?

1:20:32Maybe they should be. They're like the Philly cheesesteak of teams. They're a little messy, a little greasy, but authentic with layers. It's time to get rowdy. My parents refused to wear my jersey when I was an Atlanta Falcon player in this stadium, Jake. I said, why, Mom and Dad? They said, son, we don't want to have beer spills on our head again. So I have a plan for tonight, Jake. I'm going to go undercover, baby. There you go. Just for you. I'm going to rock this. I got me a Philly cheesesteak in the head. Nice, nice. And I'm going to fit right in. I'm in a good place, buddy. Good luck to you.

1:21:06Good luck to your Eagles tonight. It's going to be a good one. It's very exciting. We should point out, no matter what happens tonight, the Birds were the overwhelming best team winning the Super Bowl handily. At one point, the score was 40-6 or something like that against the Chiefs. but our season started off 3-3. Our season started off 3-3. Yeah, so don't get frustrated, upset, disheveled, and distressed tonight if they get down a little bit. It's okay, Jack. It's a long season. And they are big favorites tonight, more than a touchdown. No, no, no, no, don't say that. Don't say that. Don't say that.

1:21:41No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't say that. Don't say that. I don't want to jinx you. A real Philadelphia fan says, inevitably, we're going to lose tonight. If you really want to blend in, we're going to lose tonight. That's how you do it. All right, Coy. I just ate cheesesteak for like the fourth time today, so I'm winning. All right. Coy, thanks so much. Go, Birds. Aaron Burnett out front starts now.

1:22:03A high-stakes showdown in Michigan's fierce Democratic Senate race. Progressives and moderates battle for power. Who will come out on top? Join CNN for results and analysis. Michigan Primary, August 4th on CNN. And watch on the CNN app.