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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt

Will Gerrymandering Sway Control Of The House?; Jeffries On FL GOP Redistricting Push: "F Around And Find Out"; Bush: We Are An Imperfect Nation Trying To Be More Perfect; Can Trump Mend Relationship With Christians & Catholics? Can Trump Mend Relationship With Christians & Catholics?; CNN Reports From Arctic Ocean On 56th Anniversary Of Earth Day; Is 6PM Too Early For Dinner?. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired April 25, 2026 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN ANCHOR: -- the boundless efforts and optimism for a greener future can actually bring results, and that should inspire us all. And that is all we have time for. Don't forget, you can find all of our shows online as podcasts at CNN.com/audio, and on all other major platforms.

I'm Christiane Amanpour in London, thank you for watching. And I'll see you again next week.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Hi everyone, I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to The Arena Saturday.

So, was it all worth it? Did it accomplish anything? After Democrats' big win in Virginia this week, the fight to redraw congressional maps might end up being basically a wash. Despite immense pressure from President Donald Trump, hundreds of millions of dollars in ads, it now seems Republicans might gain one seat fewer than Democrats in this gerrymandering war. And that has some in the GOP wondering if they might come to regret all of it this November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So you don't think it was a mistake to go down this road this cycle?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R), FLORIDA: I think it was a mistake --

RAJU: Given what happened in Virginia last night?

GIMENEZ: I think it was a mistake by everybody to start it, okay?

REP. TROY NEHIS (R), TEXAS: There's a lot of people saying, you know, what the hell, were we asleep at the wheel? Can't disagree with that.

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R), TENNESSEE: We need to start playing hardball in this redistricting stuff. It's ridiculous. We're going to lose everything because we don't have any guts to fight it.

REP. DON BACON (R), NEBRASKA: I think in the end, the Republicans may end up losing in the long run here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, my panel's here in The Arena. CNN Political Analyst, National Political Reporter for Axios Alex Thompson, CNN Special Correspondent Jamie Gangel, DNC Senior Adviser, Former Communications Director Xochitl Hinojosa, and Republican Strategist Shermichael Singleton, both CNN Political Commentators.

Welcome to all of you. Thanks for being here.

Tim Burchett, not missing any words --

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Not at all.

HUNT: -- there basically saying, well, none of it matters, we're going to lose it all. Alex Thompson, do you think that when all the dust settles, Republicans will regret kicking off this redistricting fight with the Texas situation?

THOMPSON: I mean, you're already seeing they're already regretting it.

HUNT: We don't have to wait until November.

THOMPSON: Well, and this has been like a very expensive trench warfare, and it was completely started by Donald Trump and this immense pressure campaign. Some of the pressure campaigns didn't even work. I mean, you have to remember, JD Vance flew out to Indiana.

There was a lot of pressure for them to do it. They just rebuffed him completely. And now Democrats have responded in kind, and it actually looks like, you know, if the Virginia thing goes through, that they're actually going to have an edge come this midterms. And Republicans, if they lose the majority, they may regret this.

HUNT: Well, and I mean, Jamie, if anything, this has given Democrats, like, the only opportunity they needed someone to create an opportunity for them, I guess, to show that they're fighting. Xochitl, you can weigh in and tell me I'm wrong if you want to. But, I mean, this is the one area where Democrats have had a real opportunity to show the base that they're fighting.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: No question about it. I spoke to Nancy Pelosi about this about six months ago, and she said, in effect, we're going to go fight for fight. If this is what they want, we will do it and match them. This is when they were raising money for the California ballot.

I would say to Republicans, be careful what you wish for. I mean, remember back in the day when we would say when it gets close to the midterms, the Republicans in Congress are going to stand up to Donald Trump to do whatever they need to do to get reelected. Redistricting was not it. XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, and I also think Republicans were likely counting on Democrats not responding. And if they were responding in a place like Texas, OK, there -- Republicans have the majority of everything. And if they were going to be successful there. But I don't think they ever expected Democrats to actually show a little bit of muscle and some balls, frankly, and to go out and do what they're doing now. I think it caught them a little off guard.

The Democratic Party did feel feel some pressure early on. They weren't ready for another Trump presidency. And I think compared to Trump 1.0, people were prepared. They were marching in the streets. You had a lot of enthusiasm, anti-Trump enthusiasm. Then come Donald Trump 2.0 and Democrats and the grassroots.

They were not prepared for fighting Donald Trump. It took a little bit of time. But finally, Democrats have figured out how to go tit for tat and how to fight with Trump in a way that has been successful.

HUNT: Well, and of course, this war is not over, right, it's still ongoing in Florida --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

HUNT: -- Shermichael. Here's what Hakeem Jeffries had to say this past week to Florida Republicans who looked around, saw what happened in Virginia and are now scrambling to get their act together to gerrymander districts there. And here was Jeffries, and on the other side, we'll watch Ron DeSantis, the governor's response to him. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:05:10]

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Our message to Florida Republicans is F around and find out. The Republicans are dummy mandering their way into the minority before a single vote is cast because they started this war and we're going to finish it.

Go ahead and make our day. We are all in in Florida. We are in an era of maximum warfare everywhere, all the time.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: Please be my guest. I will pay for you to come down to Florida and campaign. I'll put you up in the Florida governor's mansion. We'll take you fishing. We'll do all this stuff. There's nothing that could be better for Republicans in Florida than to see Jeffries, Hakeem Jeffries, everywhere around this state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Who's right, Shermichael?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Nobody's right here. Kasie, look, let's level set for a minute. You look at Texas. It is not guaranteed that my party -- and you and I have talked about this so that you will win all five of those seats. In fact, when you talk to many Texas Republican strategists, they'll tell you we may be lucky if we win three out of the five. So that's not necessarily leading and giving us the advantage that we thought we were going to have.

Number two, I'm also worried about this because we have the Supreme Court ruling that we're expected to get at some point soon on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. And if they decide to restrict that further, I think you're going to have a slew of Republican states in the South that are probably going to go to the extreme measures of Virginia, removing Democratic seats.

There are a lot of people there, specifically a lot of African- Americans who may not vote the way I do, but they still deserve their representation. They may lose that representation. Nobody wins here. And that is my biggest concern.

I heard the minority leader talking about this is warfare. Politics should be about governance. I don't view Xochitl here, my friend, as my enemy. Now, we disagree, but I love Xochitl and we can figure things out.

HINOJOSA: I love you too.

SINGLETON: That's the nature of politics. And unfortunately --

HUNT: We love Xochitl too.

SINGLETON: -- that's not where we are. And so this doesn't make me happy or proud. This makes me worried about the democracy in the long run.

HUNT: Big picture, I mean, this is something -- and we saw this in Virginia because obviously Virginia voters had a chance to weigh in on theirs directly, right? The margin was actually pretty tight in Virginia. And I'm wondering, Xochitl, do you think there's a suggestion there that voters can actually distinguish among these things, right, the difference between two candidates, the way one Democrat versus one Republican might govern the country and how they feel about that. And then the system itself, which is what this is about, because there's a lot of really deep disillusion right now in the electorate in the system?

HINOJOSA: Yes. I think that there is not only distrust for many elected leaders, but then also I agree on the system. They've seen what has happened, you know, what's happening in Texas, California, Virginia, any state, Florida. All of that is attempting to take the voice away of the voters.

Now, I will say, like, Democrats actually put this on the ballot, so the voters had something to say. But I do think that this will end up backfiring in the future. Any President moving forward will try to have a mid district -- mid-year redistricting, and we're going to be going through this every few years now.

I don't see how we escape this precedent about redistricting and based on when it is publicly -- when it's politically necessary. And so that I think is what is scary about all this.

SINGLETON: Kasie, if I can just really quickly think about the signal that this sends to the younger generation. We're basically saying if you don't have your way, just change the rules.

HUNT: Right.

SINGLETON: Now, I have a 15-month-old. I would never want to teach my daughter if you don't have your way, you throw a tipper tantrum, you change everything. No, sometimes you have to deal with the consequences or work a little harder. But that's not the message that our leaders are signaling. This is just terrible in my opinion.

HINOJOSA: You know, you shouldn't make it harder -- we shouldn't make it harder to vote either.

SINGLETON: No, we should not. We should not. I don't disagree.

HINOJOSA: And I think that is a big question, is we are -- we've come so far in the fact that we only have Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act has been gutted. And everything that Republicans have tried to do, have tried to make it harder, that I think is a big concern.

HUNT: Alex, you want the last word?

THOMPSON: And the reason this is happening is the bases of both parties are demanding it, despite what you said. And I thin, you know, there are already operatives that are planning for the next iteration of redistricting right after the midterms.

HUNT: Yes. OK, well, on that cheery note, coming up here in The Arena, did Pope Leo really cancel a trip to the U.S. amid the public back and forth with the President? What the Pope's brother is now saying?

But first, four presidents and one unified message. New insight ahead of the nation's 250th birthday from four men who once led the free world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, 44TH U.S. PRESIDENT: When you look at the sweep of American history, we've gone through rough patches, and we tend to come out on the other side of them stronger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:14:42]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For those who've abandoned hope, we'll restore hope.

JOE BIDEN, 46TH U.S. PRESIDENT: Love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I come back to Boston, Massachusetts, with a stronger feeling of confidence, of hope.

OBAMA: Hope is the bedrock of this nation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We shall light the lamp of hope in millions of homes across this land.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I still believe in a place called hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:15:11]

HUNT: Hope. It's a message virtually every presidential candidate in U.S. history has in some way campaigned on as they sought to convince the American people that something better lies ahead. And the reality is usually the presidential candidate with the message of hope is the candidate who wins the election.

But at this time of deep division and heightened pessimism about the future of the country, all four former living presidents are now speaking out to remind us why they remain hopeful about America's future. Presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton and Biden sat down this week for a rare set of interviews with NBC News ahead of America's 250th birthday.

It brings us to our quote of the week, which comes from former President George Bush. He offered this perspective, quote, "We are an imperfect nation trying to be more perfect."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: When you look at the sweep of American history, we've gone through rough patches and we tend to come out on the other side of them stronger.

GEORGE W. BUSH, 43RD U.S. PRESIDENT: I am not concerned about the long term health of our country because I've studied enough history to know that we've been through the periods of intense anger and intense rivalry of ideas. But the beauty about democracy, Jed (ph), is that it's self-correcting.

BILL CLINTON, 42ND U.S. PRESIDENT: America is bigger than anybody's personal hopes and dreams.

BIDEN: I'm not sure we're as divided as we portray.

BUSH: I would hope people will take a look at our history and realize we're an imperfect nation trying to be more perfect, but be optimistic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, my panel is back. Jamie Gangel, I really -- this was a moment I thought this week that allowed for some reflection in a time that really --

GANGEL: Right.

HUNT: -- otherwise seems to discourage reflection and instead, you know, encourage the frenetic pace of our social media and the division that comes along with it. Although, you know, candidly, it also felt a little, I mean, like some of those men are about to step off the public stage.

GANGEL: Right, right. So they all tried to be optimistic, but I was struck by a couple of things. First of all, there was a headline about these interviews, and it was don't give up on America, which is a pretty, you know, sobering message. The other thing is --

THOMPSON: If you have to say it.

GANGEL: Right. The other thing is there was some subtext. So President Trump is doing a separate program with the History Channel, but he was not a part of this. This was just the formers. And I think you need to take note of it.

Also, in President Obama's interview, he talked about we don't have rulers, we don't have kings. I think we all know what that refers to. And President Bush said, if you don't like what's going on, vote. That's how America heals itself. So I think they were careful, but they got a certain message across.

HUNT: Yes. Alex, I mean, what do you think? It's -- you are already chronicling 2028 quite wonderfully, honestly, for Axios. What do you see in what these former presidents are bringing to the table that's relevant going forward? But also, do you see anything here that the current crop of our politicians are going to look at and say, like, they don't get it anymore?

THOMPSON: Well, to Jamie's point, first of all, a lot of these people, with the exception of Barack Obama, are about to probably step off the stage. They're all pretty old, and Donald Trump is turning 80 this June. So there is sort of a generational --

HUNT: All of them, except for Obama, were born in the 1940s.

THOMPSON: I didn't --

HUNT: Three of them in the same summer of 1946, I believe.

THOMPSON: That's wild. And so there is like a big generational change, and that's one thing. But also, you know, you said earlier that all those candidates, you know, they talked about hope. There certainly is a crop of candidates that saw Donald Trump's victory, which was less morning in America and more midnight in America, in every campaign, about the American dream is dead.

And we have to -- and there was a little bit less of a hopeful message. And there are definitely some candidates that think you have to -- that the country is angry, voters are angry, you have to find a way to channel that anger. But then there are some people, I think, like Pete Buttigieg, you know, comes to mind, that are a little bit more of that hope, optimistic, we can come back.

HUNT: Yes. I mean, Xochitl, what do you think is -- I mean, I said that usually it's the hopeful message that wins, right? I think that that's been true for a large part of our modern, you know, campaign history. But Donald Trump is in many ways an exception to that, to Alex's point.

You know, here, in fact, why don't I play this? Like, this is what he said in his first inaugural address. Of course, he'd already been elected at this point, but this was in 2017.

[12:20:07]

And, you know, inaugural addresses, especially in a first term for a president just coming into office, often will turn hopeful, even if, you know, the campaign wasn't particularly so. That wasn't the case in 2017. Let's watch.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation. And the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: How do you think about all this?

HINOJOSA: So I think that Democrats face an interesting question in terms of messaging. When it comes to the Democratic primary, the hope message did not necessarily work in the 2020 election. You had -- my Cory Booker friends are about to text me, hating what I'm about to say, but you had people like Cory Booker talk about love.

Democratic primary voters don't want that. They want someone who is going to stand up and fight for them and fight. Donald Trump will be off the stage by the time, well, hopefully, you know, he will be campaigning for JD Vance or Marco Rubio, but he will be gone, essentially, and he will no longer be president. But who can stand up to Republicans? Who can stand up to people like JD Vance or Marco Rubio or whoever is going to run for president?

But I do think the general electorate is different in the sense that, like 2020, they just want to go back to normal. I think that they will want -- they don't want our President picking a fight with the Pope. They don't want our President going on X and, you know, talking about wiping out an entire civilization. They want someone who can lead the country.

And so whoever is going to make it out of the Democratic primary will have to not only be forceful to get that primary electorate, but then we'll have to go and bring the country together and say, you know what, I'm normal and I can lead the country compared to Donald Trump and JD Vance and Marco Rubio.

SINGLETON: Look, I think Trump did recognize something that's been sort of ruminating among a lot of different sectors of the American populace, whether it's black men working class, Hispanic men working class, or white men working class, and that is this economic, I guess, lack of certainty or the lack of autonomy to chart one's financial future, whether that's for their children or beyond.

And Trump said, look, the manufacturing is gone. Let me help return it. A lot of folks in inner cities are living in destitute situations. I am going to solve it. Now, whether you agree with how he's addressed it, that is a fair critique, I think many Democrats have had.

But I think what the American people are simply saying is, look, I have fears. Help calm them. I have dreams. Help make them commonplace. And I think the leader that speaks to those things will ultimately do well.

But Kasie, I go back to what I was saying earlier. This incessant nature of viewing the other side as an enemy is not good. I'm a millennial. I have friends younger than me. We talk about these things often.

And most of my friends don't have the certainty that I'm fortunate to have because of my position to be comfortable about what they believe this country will be 20 years from now. And that bothers me because I don't have the answer to give them that, hey, everything's going to be OK, guys.

And so while we have trust and respect in our former presidents, it's hard for the average person to listen to that and say, you know what, everything's going to work its way out because they don't see it. They don't believe it. It doesn't feel tangible.

THOMPSON: Well, what's interesting about what you both just said is both like, you know, Trump's message of the factories have gone, make America great again and also return to normalcy. Both are nostalgic messages.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Right.

THOMPSON: They're both backward looking. And you are seeing a lot of Democrats try to figure out, is there a more forward looking message we can do?

HUNT: Yes, no, it's a great point.

All right. Coming up next here in The Arena, what the current President is doing -- to mend his relationship with Christian voters following the Jesus memes. And what Pope Leo's brother is now saying about the public feud between the pontiff and the President and whether Pope Leo actually canceled a planned visit to the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN PREVOST, POPE LEO'S BROTHER: It's just a different of opinion or a different stance on the way they look at things. My brother's speaking for peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:28:52]

TRUMP: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: President Donald Trump this week reading from the Bible, Second Chronicles specifically. The President is, of course, not exactly known for his religious fervor, although he has happily posed with a Bible. He has encouraged you and your friends and neighbors to purchase one. Low, low price at $59.99 is the one specifically he was selling.

So why publicly embrace the Old Testament right now at this moment? Could it be an atonement for that image that he shared of himself as Jesus? Or is it just the latest salvo in the President's ongoing feud with Pope Leo?

My panel is back. Xochitl, you're a Catholic --

HINOJOSA: Yes.

HUNT: -- at this table.

HINOJOSA: Yes. It's not atonement, I'll tell you that. It is not atonement. I think that -- yes, I think that when I was -- when I saw this, I was shocked. Listen, I don't think anyone thinks that Donald Trump is someone who is a man of faith that goes to church all the time, that reads the Bible, is, you know, I think that he has, his actions over the last few weeks seem to me that he's also trying to double down when it comes to this.

I found it interesting. I think that the White House has also tried to get him to back off of what he has said about the Pope, what he, his means that he has tweeted out, et cetera. Everyone knows that this is not a good strategy.

That video was not authentic. It seemed like Donald Trump was forced to do it, or there was something going on with that strategy, but that is not Donald Trump as Donald Trump.

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: No, I mean, and you could see that, right, like in the cadence, just simply the cadence of the language was almost foreign to him in a way. He did not look happy.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: I do think that the White House, you know, did want to clean up the Jesus post. And I also think that it takes a lot of backlash for Donald Trump to delete a post, and he deleted a post.

HUNT: Well, and some of that backlash you mentioned, let's put up this tweet from Sarah Palin that Jamie very helpfully flagged for us, OK? This was what Sarah Palin said to Donald Trump. All right, that's enough. That's enough. Give me the phone.

GANGEL: Sarah Palin said what every parent was thinking, and, you know, she did it with humor, but it also, I think, spoke to exactly what everyone was thinking. You know you're in trouble when Sarah Palin comes after you on this.

HUNT: I mean, Alex Thompson, religious voters have shown repeatedly that they are willing to vote for and support Donald Trump, even in the absence of any sort of, you know, formal religious familiarity, which, you know, he has over the many years clearly demonstrated he doesn't have.

But his actions have been ones that they've been willing to support. What's the difference here? I mean, why is it that suddenly there are, you know, people that were with him to the hilt willing to explain away whatever sin he had committed that was against their faith pushed up against him now?

ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: I think it speaks to, you know, the ever-growing lame duck status of this President, as that people who had discomfort before but were willing to make the bargain for judges, for other policies, they're looking toward the future as well.

And, you know, if Donald Trump is saying these things, I mean, you're even having people, like very fervent supporters, speculate, you know, even use the word, like, speculate he could be the Antichrist. There's been, like, some of that stuff. And I think it really speaks to the fact that they were willing to make the bargain, but they're looking for the next bargain.

HUNT: Shermichael, David French in "The New York Times" wrote about the President's spat with Pope Leo, and he put it this way. He writes this, "By putting his disagreement with the Pope at the center of the national conversation, Trump's elevating the Pope's words and demonstrating the profound contrast between these two men. In this contest between a Pope and a President, the President looks weak and erratic. He looks small. Between Trump and Pope Leo, there is only one man who is demonstrating strength and moral consistency on the world stage."

And, you know, I find this noteworthy because strength, the perception of strength has been the thing that has carried Donald Trump in his political career. And to have somebody suggest he looks weak and small, I mean, that's kryptonite.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it has carried him, and it's even been a guiding force in who he decides to select for his cabinet members. You think about Pete Hegseth, and if you look at many of his speeches talking to generals and sort of merging religiosity with military conflict and battle, it's also fascinating. You're seeing a small movement. This may grow over time, but a movement of younger individuals that are becoming Catholic.

A lot of "New York Times," "Washington Post" has written exclusively on this. And there has also been, I would argue, not enough focus from the White House on evangelicals. They've clearly been a strong, ardent base of support for the President. And I think not having them out there, activating them enough, is probably why you see some of this detachment of getting into debates and squabbles with the pope, not realizing, like, hey, this may upset some of my base. Even though they're not Catholic, there is still this respect for religious leaders.

THOMPSON: I mean, Hegseth, to your point about sort of the performance, but then he quoted a Bible verse like just this last week that was actually from the movie Pulp Fiction.

SINGLETON: Yes. I saw that.

HUNT: Yes, we played that here back to back. It was pretty remarkable. Let's watch I mean, one unique reality about this Pope, is he's the first American Pope. So his brother was interviewed about whether it was true that the Pope had canceled a trip to the United States because of this spat with the President. Let's watch what his brother said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:35:09]

JOHN PREVOST, POPE LEO'S BROTHER: I think one thing that has to be made clear is when some newscaster announced that the Pope canceled a trip to the United States. That's not true. At no time was the Pope planning a trip to the United States this year. So that may have been what started some kind of a problem, but it's just a different of opinion or a different stance on the way they look at things. My brother's speaking for peace and peace and equality for all people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So maybe the spat's what she was over nothing.

HINOJOSA: I mean, I think that's right. I also, I think the other issue that's going on here is that Trump's policies, whether it be killing people on the street in Minneapolis or whether it be the war, all of these are not in line with the values of the Catholic church. And you see more and more faith leaders speaking out now than they did in the previous administration.

HUNT: All right, I head here in The Arena, why is CNN reporting from the middle of the Arctic ocean near the top of planet earth?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:40:54] HUNT: This week in history, in 1970, U.S. Senator and environmentalist Gaylord Nelson teamed up with Harvard grad student, Dennis Hayes, to organize the very first Earth Day. Twenty million Americans rallied to raise awareness for environmental conservation, the two largest gatherings happening here in D.C. at the Washington Monument and in New York City. To this day, it is still the largest single-day protest in American history.

This week, 56 years later, CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir spent Earth Day sailing the Arctic Ocean, seeing for himself the impacts of global warming.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Greetings from a most gorgeous corner of the top of the world. Welcome to Svalbard, Norway. We're about 79 degrees north, way high in the Arctic Circle, in this gorgeous fjord that is framed by the Lilliehook Glacier. Albert I of Monaco came here way early in the 1900s, took a picture of this glacier because he was into ice, and he used to go around the corner. He couldn't even see the end of this glacier.

His grandson came back, photographed the same fjord just to show how much ice is disappearing up here as a result of man-made global warming. And this season is emblematic of the changes. When we landed in Longyearbyen, Norway, this is sort of a central town, the melt had come a month earlier than anybody had expected.

So snowmobiles, dog sleds for tourism were all parked in the mud. Best guides could do was offer boat rides, and that's sort of a trend these days. As the landscape melts and changes, as the economies shift, coal mines are shutting down. There's a lot of interest in sort of the precious minerals, rare minerals that exist in this part of the world. And prospectors are talking about that. Of course, when Donald Trump says he wants to take Greenland, that makes the Arctic a geopolitical hotspot.

But what's interesting is that Russia has been ejected from the Arctic League of Nations for its invasion of Ukraine. Donald Trump has frozen, no pun intended, all climate science funding and research trying to kill anything that has a whiff of climate science. So that's 50 percent of the Arctic. Russia and the U.S. not really at the table these days.

So you've got scientists from other countries, European countries, Japan, South Korea, doing amazing work up here, trying to measure the changes at great discomfort and danger. Luckily, no polar bears up here today. But that's another interesting story about what's happening. Ten years ago, we thought the polar bears would all be starving by now because the sea ice holds rain seals. That's their main prey.

But these bears have adapted to hunting reindeer now or foraging along the seashore, going after duck and goose eggs. And some small barred polar bears are as fat as they've ever been. But there's a limit to how fast they can adapt. And there's fear that this population could crash like the polar bears we're seeing in Canada. But for the human population, the scientists up here that I've been talking to, there's such frustration about the politics, especially in the United States, reversing on climate change, science, adaptation, mitigation, just as this whole landscape really melts beneath their feet. Hopefully, this Earth Day is another chance for a wake-up call to realize that what happens up here connects all of us.

It affects everybody from Texas to Wisconsin to other hemispheres. And if you think the price of oil is high now, oh, as one scientist told me, just wait until the North Pole melts. It's going to be ice-free in our lifetimes. It could absolutely happen.

HUNT: Wow. OK. Our thanks to Bill Weir for that. I mean, Jamie, sometimes we're caught up in, you know, the latest truth social post or, you know, whatever development has got everybody in a tizzy here in Washington. It's nothing compared to this.

[12:45:03]

GANGEL: Yes. You know, I thought Bill said wake-up call. And I think that is a critical point when he talks about maybe not in my lifetime, but in your lifetimes, this will melt.

Look, I just want to say, I'm glad there is still an Earth Day that we are celebrating with Donald Trump in office. And I think that's a critical point. Because it feels as if he might have tried to, you know, do away with this as another woke thing.

But on a serious note, I do wonder, and I'm being optimistic here, whether maybe what's going on in the Strait of Hormuz and with oil may speak of wake-up call, may push some people to look back seriously at developing more alternative energy. Call me an optimist.

THOMPSON: We are seeing a huge shift in the environmental left. You know, they obviously made huge changes in the country over the last few decades, the creation of the EPA, the Clean Air Act, and then all the regulations the EPA has done, and also the growth of E.V.s, I think, have been part of that and the government subsidies for them.

But we are in the middle of probably the biggest shift of the environmental movement in a generation. Because there are no Democrats talking about a Green New Deal now. There are no Democrats mostly really calling for ending fracking or any of these other things. If they talk about energy, it's about bringing down, you know, utility prices.

And so the left is really trying to figure out what its path forward is when it comes to climate change, global warming, and the future of environmental regulations.

HINOJOSA: Well, and I think Democrats have an opportunity with utility costs going up in a lot of the states. And cost of living is the phrase of the year, few years. And that is because there's been attack on cleaner energy and cheaper and cleaner energy.

And at some point, I think Congress and Republicans need to come together with Democrats to figure out that all of this leads to higher prices for Americans. So what do we need to be doing about cleaner and energy moving forward to make sure that we're bringing down prices?

HUNT: Well, and it's a collective action problem that's global. It's not even national. And it's part of why it's just so, so difficult to solve.

All right, coming up next here, something totally different. How early is too early for dinner? We'll discuss.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:52:11]

AMY POEHLER, ACTRESS: What time do you like to eat dinner? I like it at 6:00.

GWYNETH PALTROW, ACTRESS: OK. Me too.

POEHLER: I make my reservations at 6:00 p.m.

PALTROW: So do I.

POEHLER: I love it so much.

PALTROW: It's so great.

POEHLER: And honestly, sometimes I like to be the first person in the restaurant.

PALTROW: I was last night. I did 5:45 last night.

POEHLER: Incredible.

PALTROW: I know.

POEHLER: To be in bed and have eaten by 8 o'clock.

PALTROW: Is there anything better?

POEHLER: No, I think about bedtime all day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Me too. Amy Poehler and Gwyneth Paltrow get it. Apparently not everybody does. There is a debate about how early is too early for dinner? I'm sorry, what? Clearly 6:00 p.m. is not too early for dinner, but I'm going to let the panel weigh in. They can fight with me in a second. There seems to be this growing trend of people that are going to restaurants earlier in the evening. According to the app OpenTable, the 6:00 p.m. hour is becoming the most popular time for dinner.

Reservations for a 5:00 p.m. table are up, and it is not just seniors cashing in on the early bird special. The trend is among most adults, and surprisingly among Gen Zers, with some promoting hashtag early dinner on TikTok. According to Yahoo YouGov poll from late last year, 34 percent of people say they typically eat dinner at 6:00 p.m., 21 percent eat at 5:00 p.m., and only about 14 percent of people say they have dinner at 8:00 p.m. or later. So I said to Alex in the break, he likes later dinner because he's young, but apparently not. Apparently Gen Z is like everything also.

THOMPSON: Listen, I do not take any of my cues right or wrong from Gen Z.

HUNT: All right, so like for the table, is 6:00 p.m. too early for dinner?

SINGLETON: No, 6:00 p.m. I think is perfect, because you can go home, if you have kids, you can take care of the kids.

HINOJOSA: Can I say, three of us have some more aged kids.

SINGLETON: Right, we do. 6:00 p.m.

HINOJOSA: So we really do like the 6:00 p.m. situation, because you also value your evenings. You value quiet time.

SINGLETON: Quiet, that's right, Xochitl.

HINOJOSA: When no one talks to you, not even your spouse. I'm sorry, I love you. But, you know, I mean, that is just the time that you are just like to yourself after a long day.

SINGLETON: I hope my wife doesn't feel that way about me, Xochitl.

HUNT: I cannot imagine waiting until after 6:00 p.m. to feed my son.

HINOJOSA: Oh, I know.

HUNT: It would be such an angry problem. I don't know, Jamie, what do you think?

GANGEL: As a person who spends a lot of time in Florida, we call 6:00 p.m. the second seating.

HUNT: Womp, womp. I don't -- I mean, I think some of this, I wonder if some of it's driven by the pandemic. Right, I don't know if you guys had this experience, but it was like, I felt like, listen, I've always eaten dinner early. I've always had to convince people. It got a lot easier to convince them to do dinner early.

GANGEL: Right.

THOMPSON: I also think like the app wars with restaurant reservations has made it more and more competitive. And I think like, I mean, it's easier. Like, you know, even I remember like Valentine's reservations, I could like easily get a 5:30 one, but so I think that has something to do with it.

SINGLETON: It also helps with keeping some of the pounds off too, eating a little earlier in the day. So that's a benefit.

[12:55:00]

HUNT: There is scientific evidence around --

SINGLETON: There is Kasie.

HUNT: -- eating earlier, actually being better for your health in general --

SINGLETON: Yep, yep.

HUNT: -- not just your weight. Yes, well.

SINGLETON: I'm trying to lose some dad weight here, so I'm trying to slim down a little bit.

HUNT: You look great.

THOMPSON: You look terrific.

HINOJOSA: We love you.

SINGLETON: Thank you, Xochitl.

HUNT: All right. Well, thanks very much to my panel. Thanks to all of you for watching. Don't forget, you can see The Arena every weekday right here on CNN. We're at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, so you can watch us from 4:00 to 5:00, and then you can get a 5:30 or a 6:00 o'clock dinner reservation. Perfect. You can also catch up by listening to The Arena's podcast. You can follow the show on X and Instagram at TheArenaCNN. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. The news continues next right here on CNN.

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