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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
Trump Speaks At Mt. Rushmore Tonight, Vows "Really Long" Speech On National Mall For July 4 Despite Extreme Temps; Prominent Democrats Offer Contrasts To Trump's Vision Of America In Events Around Nation's 250th Birthday; Now: Multiday Swift-Kelce Wedding Celebration Underway. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired July 03, 2026 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:02]
ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: All right, Don, good to see you. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Thanks to all of you for joining us this afternoon.
THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT starts right now.
(MUSIC)
DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. Kasie Hunt is off. I'm Dana Bash, and welcome to THE ARENA.
It is great to have you with us on this Friday. The heat is on, quite literally, here in the nation's capital, really up and down the Eastern seaboard. The bigger question is, will the political temperature cool down? Even a little bit for the nation's 250th birthday,
President Trump is set to leave the White House next hour, bound for one of the nation's most iconic spots, Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. The president will speak there tonight and usher in the July 4th holiday. White House officials call it a major address focused on American strength and how the U.S. is, quote, "most exceptional nation in history".
And that word, exceptional, is something one of the most recognizable figures in the Democratic Party right now also used in a prebuttal of sorts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK: We are told that America is exceptional because we are richer, stronger, more powerful than everyone else. The truth, my friends, is that America is exceptional because here, nothing is fixed into place. The frontier may be closed, we may have walked on the moon, But the work of fulfilling the values first enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, that work endures, and it belongs to us all.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BASH: Other Democrats are planning their own events to contrast the president and show off their vision for America at 250. Maryland Governor Wes Moore will speak from Annapolis tomorrow morning.
He joined me earlier on "INSIDE POLITICS" with a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. WES MOORE (D), MARYLAND: Our message is not partisan. Our message is patriotic. And I do think there is a difference between America 250 and Freedom 250. I think America 250 is a patriotic exercise of the journey of this country and why we want to celebrate this great experiment called America. Freedom 250 and what we are seeing from the President of the United States, that really is, that is nationalism. And that is an expression where he is making it about himself, but tomorrow's not about him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Let's get off the sidelines and head into THE ARENA. My panel is here, along with CNN's Jeff Zeleny at Mount Rushmore and CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam on the National Mall.
Derek, I'm going to start with you. It looks very quiet where you are because the Great American State Fair closed earlier because of this extreme temperature. It's going to reopen, I believe, in the next hour.
But will the heat let up at all by then?
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's the big question, Dana.
I don't believe that the heat is going to give any kind of sign of relaxing in the next couple of hours. I would be very surprised if they allowed people back into the fairgrounds because the temperature now was hotter than when they canceled it around 1:00 p.m. earlier today.
This is the National Mall. This is supposed to be filled with thousands of people. It was this morning, the Great American Fair celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country, birthday of our country. There's the Capitol building behind us, but it was at just after the moment when the flyovers took place here that an announcement came on, the loudspeakers here, rushing people out the door because the heat was too extreme. They postponed until 5:00 p.m. and for good reason, too. The heat index, where I'm standing right now is 113 degrees, the actual air temperature 101.
You see the shade that we're in? This is the proposed Trump arch, right? And people were jockeying for space around this area earlier today because this is quite literally the only shade that is available within the Great American State Fair on the National Mall.
So, let's walk this way. I've been using this as a kind of a diagram of what is experienced here on the ground. This is a digital thermometer, and we can point it at various things. Look at that reading there. It's tough to see that maybe on television, but the black tar surface, 127 degrees, that is miserable.
In fact, we have seen fire department here in DC ushering away people that have succumbed to heat exhaustion. There were reports of people fainting. There were medical emergencies being taken care of on the sidelines of the State Fair because of the excessive heat, and we can feel it.
I mean, just anything that's dark to the touch is almost too hot to put your hands on, bars around the risers that we were standing on earlier. Our cameraman having to use a cloth just to hold his black camera. That's why we're all wearing the lightest clothing that we possibly can. Anything that we can do to potentially get some relief from the excessive heat.
I'm going to take my photojournalist around here. Maybe he can follow me. If not, we'll take it from here.
This is the main attraction, OK, Dana, and this is the Ferris wheel.
[16:05:03]
It's empty. There's no one in the line anymore, but this is a closed cabin that has these kind of plexiglass surrounding it, right? And if we take this thermal -- this temperature gauge and just get a little bit of a reading in here. It too is nearing 100 degrees, and you get it up into the open baked sun.
That's why I wouldn't imagine there's any world where they're going to allow people back into this one of the main attractions here at the State Fair. It is dangerous and extremely difficult to cope with here.
BASH: Derek, I'm so grateful that you're there. Thank you for giving us that reporting. But I have to be honest, I'm worried about you and our crew.
So, I mean, this is what you do for a living. You are a meteorologist, you know, but I hope that you can go back under that arch and get the shade that you need. Appreciate it.
VAN DAM: Thank you.
BASH: Jeff, I'm going to go to you. It looks a little bit less hot there, certainly absolutely stunning at Mount Rushmore. What are you hearing about what the president will say there tonight?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, this is a picture perfect moment here at Mount Rushmore. You can see the presidents behind me there. President Washington, of course, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln.
And President Trump clearly loves this national park. He came here in 2020 during the height of the pandemic. having fireworks there for the first time in years. And he's not been back since, but he'll be coming back here tonight, I'm told, to really have a bit of a prelude to his finale speech tomorrow on the National Mall, which we're told is still going on. But he'll be talking tonight, as you said, about American
exceptionalism, but also about his accomplishments in office. And that is what sort of differentiates him from other presidents at big moments in time. We're thinking back to the bicentennial when President Ford in 1976 talked about unifying and healing the country.
President Trump does not have any plans to do speeches like that. Of course, we have not seen him do that. type of a speech, but he is going to talk about America exceptionalism and his own priorities as well as taking a shot at Democrats. So, a speech that we've likely heard many thieves from before, but a backdrop that we have seldom seen him before. And we know that Mount Rushmore holds a special place in his own mind.
I mean, look at these images from a truth social when he posts pictures of himself literally right next to these presidents. He's had open conversations over the years in the Oval Office talking about wanting his likeness carved into the stone here.
Secretary Burgum, the interior secretary, has said it is possible. He said there is room up there. Others are not so sure about that. There is a bill in Congress to do that. That, of course, has not advanced at all.
But the bottom line here tonight, President Trump knows a backdrop. He wants to use this backdrop to sort of cascade him into a bigger moment of history. But, Dan, my question is, how much will he actually talk about this moment in American history? versus this moment in Trump's presidency.
So that is something that we'll have an eye on here. But there's no doubt this is a beautiful setting. And as for a quick weather report, it is in the mid-70s here.
BASH: Oh, my gosh.
ZELENY: So apologies to Derek on the mall there. I can tell you it is just a picture-perfect, fantastic day. Some clouds in the sky here, so it could rain a bit as the day goes on, but you couldn't ask for a nicer 3rd of July.
BASH: Keep rubbing it in. Keep rubbing it in. All of us, the red, white, and blue, it's all turning into green with envy.
Enjoy it. You deserve it. Thanks, Jeff.
And my panel is here in THE ARENA. CNN chief national correspondent John King; CNN political commentator Jonah Goldberg; former DNC communications director, Xochitl Hinojosa; and former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, Marc Short.
John King, 250, what's your kind of sense of how you would describe the moment that America is in?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Age sometimes does have its advantages. I was 12 years old. BASH: America's age or your age?
KING: My age. My age. I was 12 years old when Gerald Ford came to Lexington and Concord in 1975 to begin the bicentennial celebrations. President Ford traveled the country for a year, giving speeches in all the key historic places.
Jeff is right, I went back and read those speeches over the last few days. He didn't talk about himself. He talked about the dream of America, the ideal of America, the sometimes failings of America, and how America always got up every day trying to make itself better. That's what President Ford did.
He started Lexington and Concord. He went to Philadelphia. He went to New York when the tall ships came through. He spent the year traveling the country celebrating an idea and an ideal, and the dream of America. Their speech is worth reading, actually.
And here's the piece of it that even makes it more interesting, more fascinating, and gives you more respect for President Ford. That was the beginning of a presidential cycle. It was post-Watergate. The Vietnam War was winding down.
In my city, Boston, there were horrible racial forced busing and racial violence and racial hatred and animosity. It actually was a unifying event, the bicentennial. And he didn't make it about politics. He lost the election in 1976. He could have used it maybe to promote himself more, but he didn't because that's not what he viewed the American president's role at that moment to be.
BASH: I want to look at some data that really, I think, is telling us to where we are right now. And this is a Gallup poll asking about people's pride in America. And it breaks it down by generation.
And it just, I think this really says it all. The silent generation is the highest in terms of pride. Then comes baby boomers, then comes Gen. X, millennial, and it kind of goes down. The younger you get, the less pride you report to these pollsters that you have.
Now, perhaps this is just the story of America. And if you go back to the beginning, I mean, that's the younger generation always is sort of itching for change, but it just feels different now.
JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it does feel different. But I think you're on to something that as you get older, you realize how grateful and how much gratitude you should have for this country. And you get more nostalgic about what a great country it is. And so that's going to show up in the polls.
I also think one of the things that's sort of tragic about the 250 celebration, including stuff like Mamdani's prebuttal, is it's all being done through the prism of either the Trump cult of personality or partisan politics in general. And so, people see this stuff, the sort of -- whether they think it's corny or whether they think it's partisan, they see it as not really clicking about being authentic and sincere about America. The upside is the reaction to the World Cup and the World Cup
tourists, who -- it's this weird sort of, like, reacting agent, where I think one of the reasons why so many Americans love to see how much tourists like Buc ee's and that kind of thing, right?
And like free refills. And I think we're just a neat, fun, decent country with nice people in it, is you can't fold it into any -- you can't fold it into any partisanship, right? You can't make it into a sort of either corny or fake or insincere thing. It's just like, we're nice people, we're good people, and the politics stuff, meh.
XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, and I think part of it also has to do with the fact that people like rooting for a team. They like rooting -- they love rooting for America. Everybody has been watching the World Cup. It's bringing our country together.
And you don't have necessarily politicians playing politics with the World Cup. What you have is, with 250, tonight there will be a lot of attacks on Democrats. There -- I'm sure tomorrow there will be, too. He's talking about how he's -- Trump is talking about how he's giving a speech because he wants to prove a point that-- a point of endurance, a point that he can physically get it done, not about celebrating America not about bringing us together.
And so, this entire sort of celebration has really been about him versus the World Cup and other things. It has been about our country. And I think our country could really use some of the unity around it that we have seen around the World Cup.
BASH: You know who actually gave a speech that sort of reached what you were going for, maybe not surprising, the American-born pope. Let's listen to what he said in his message today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POPE LEO, CATHOLIC CHURCH: And the principles we have reflected upon today, a shared human dignity, equality, and the rights laid out in the Declaration of Independence, ever be a source of such unity and a guiding light for the present moment and for the years to come.
In accepting this award, I therefore pray that this, the 250th anniversary of the founding of this great nation, may be the occasion of a solemn recommitment to these ideals that have made America a country that values peace and prosperity, a country characterized by generosity and nobility of heart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: And he mentioned an award. He was accepting the Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center.
MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Well, I mean, amen. The pope said it best, and I think that the reality is that there's so much right now focus on our current moment as opposed to the pope reflecting on how remarkable our founders were 250 years ago and what they set afoot and the freedoms that we enjoy. And I think that's why, you know, you see, as Jonah says, so much celebration around the World Cup because people recognize how special we are, but in this moment here, we're politically divisive.
And I -- yes, I'm sure there will be partisan attacks from the president, but it's not as if there aren't partisan attacks from Democrats in this moment, too. We're just living an incredibly divisive time.
HINOJOSA: But the president sets the tone for the rest of the country, and I think that is something, is that in every moment where he has had the opportunity to unite our country, he has not. And there have been other presidents, Democrats and Republicans, that have used special occasions to really bring our country together. But I have yet to see one speech from the President of the United States where he has tried to bring our country together. And that's sad.
SHORT: And I think -- I agree with you that it's not it's going to be too partisan, but there are plenty of prebuttals today.
BASH: Well, speaking of --
SHORT: It's not as if they were waiting for the President's remarks.
BASH: Speaking of prebuttals, you mentioned Mamdani's speech this morning.
[16:15:01]
Let's listen to part of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAMDANI: Hold a special power, the power to determine what America means. The powerful have always known their answer. America, in their view, is an arena of supremacy where only a select few are allowed freedom, where not all are created equal. America, if you ask them, becomes less the more people it welcomes. America, they will tell you, belongs only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin. At every moment in our past, those who led through exclusion and isolation have tried to win power and enrich themselves by turning us against one another. Division is the oldest trick in politics and the cheapest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Jonah?
GOLDBERG: I think he's full of crap, flat out. Look, this is a guy who fuels these people, who are dividing New Yorkers about AIPAC and Jews. Constantly, he defends the people who does it.
I don't think it's -- I mean, I could be really puckish and say it's not an irony that the guy is talking about American exceptionalism in that earlier quote, a coin actually coined by Joseph Stalin. But the fact is that I think American exceptionalism is real. And the way he describes America there, I think, is divisive it's
playing into class -- classic class war nonsense and this whole idea -- look, I think -- I think dissent is good. It's an important right, free speech is important right, the right to petition government, all that kind of stuff. But there is this logic from the DSA left that makes this thing that says, you know, hatred -- dissent is the highest form of patriotism. Therefore, treason is the highest form of dissent.
It makes no sense. It's garbage. He is playing into all these code words about how this is a bad country, that it's ruled by elites that keep people down. And I just -- I think he gets a lot of free press because he's charming and a good politician.
KING: I think, whatever you think of him, There's a lot of ambition in politics. He has ambition right now. He has a moment right now. He's an ascendant voice in the Democratic Party.
Whether you like it or not, we should debate about that. He's not a fan of the Democratic Socialist. She might have a different opinion. My job is to study and watch it.
What I see when I see that and in the conversation about President Trump is something that I think that we could desperately use but we have horribly lost, which is the ability to take a timeout from all of this and say this is July 4th. Can we just be Americans for 72 hours? Is that too much to ask? It apparently is.
Now we're in a campaign year. We're in a highly contested campaign year. But I think I can tell you from my travels from the most AOC/Bernie voter to -- I had a conversation the other day with a bunch of Latino voters, some Democrats, some independents, some Trumpy.
Guess what they would all like? To just say amen. Happy birthday, America. How you doing? I don't care what your political party is. I don't care -- I don't care what you think. I don't care. How you doing?
You want to have a beer? You want to watch a soccer game? The American people would take that for 72 hours. They gladly would.
BASH: Well, there are different visions for America, that is for sure. And up next, Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna will be here live in THE ARENA to talk about his.
Plus, the social event of the season, maybe the year, the decade. It's happening, apparently, as we speak in New York City. We're going to go live outside Madison Square Garden with new details of the wedding of an American power couple. That is for sure.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:22:40]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MOORE: I'm very proud of being an American. That's not saying that -- and I'm saying it because I know the history of this country. I know its unevenness.
But I also believe that loving your country doesn't mean lying about its history. And I also believe that loving your country doesn't mean agreeing with everything that has happened in it. But truly loving this country and loving the ideals means, are you willing to be part of the solution?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: That was Maryland's Democratic governor, Wes Moore, whom I spoke with earlier today, ahead of a speech he's going to give tomorrow to mark America's 250th birthday. The governor was responding to this poll that we're showing ahead of this weekend's celebration, and in it, just 14 percent of Democrats say they feel extremely proud to be an American.
Joining me now is a Democratic member of Congress, Ro Khanna of California.
Thank you so much for being here.
You wrote an op-ed today for "The Boston Herald". Interesting. You know where that's read, right?
REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): I do. Well, no, it was syndicated in different places, including Seattle.
BASH: OK. And in it, or the headline is, "I'm a Democrat. Here's why I love America."
What is your explanation for why you love America?
KHANNA: Well, I'm extremely proud of being American. I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I was born in Philadelphia in 1976, or bicentenary. And I saw a community that gave me every chance. Teachers who believed in me, Little League coaches who believed in me, as an Indian-American of Hindu faith.
I have had so many opportunities. I feel such gratitude to the country, love for the country. And we're an extraordinary nation, not just with the Declaration of Independence, but our struggles of progress on racial issues, our defeat of communism, of Nazism, our force of being a moral light around the world. Of course, we have work to do, but we should celebrate the 250 years.
BASH: I want to read something that one of the primary winners from the progressive movement who has won recently, somebody the movement, certainly you're championing, has said. Darializa Avila Chevalier, who will almost certainly join you in Congress, said in a 2019 tweet that she had since deleted. I forgot to get napkins, so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.
Is that something you agree with? KHANNA: Well, I don't agree with that. We have flags every town hall.
We start with the Pledge of Allegiance.
But I do believe in the First Amendment. I mean, what makes this country so exceptional is that we have freedom of speech, that we have a diverse nation, that the same country who produced Donald Trump can produce Mamdani and Darializa, and that that is part of a fabric of America, which is not possible anywhere else in the world.
Other places, let alone she getting to Congress, she would have been disciplined or penalized. And here we have a robust First Amendment for speech.
BASH: Yeah, I mean, I think you can support free speech and oppose the sentiment in what people are saying in said free speech.
KHANNA: Sure, I don't agree with that. I mean, I, like I said, at every town hall, we have flags. A lot of my videos, we have flags. I've been on the Armed Services Committee for 10 years. There is no sacrifice more than people who enlist or who serve our country. And so, I have tremendous admiration for the nation and the flag, which represents something so profound, particularly for people who've given their life for this country.
BASH: You are enthusiastically supporting a lot of the candidates on the far left. You think that's I know you think that's important change. I've spoken to two Democratic governors recently about the Democratic Socialist and far left wings of your party.
Here's some of their reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOORE: We have got to be able to disrupt the status quo and show --
BASH: Disrupt that much?
MOORE: Well, and I think to show that you're actually able to get things done.
GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D), PENNSYLVANIA: And I think what we've got to focus on, not just as a party, but in politics in general, are real deliverables for people, on getting stuff done for people and shying away from this performative politics that just makes noise but doesn't make anybody's life better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Performative politics.
KHANNA: Well, I've done more in the Trump term than almost any Democratic politician. I got the Epstein files released working with Thomas Massie. I got the War Powers resolution released to stop the war in Iran. I worked with people like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace. So, I would put my record in terms of actually getting things done
with anyone. But what we're seeing on the ground is people don't like the extraordinary income inequality. They say they can't buy a house. They can't afford health care. They can't afford childcare. People in my district in Silicon Valley, 19 billionaires are worth $3 trillion.
I respect their contributions and entrepreneurship, but you can't have a country where you have a few people who have so much wealth and the rest of America feels like the American dream is slipping away.
BASH: One of the undercurrents of the progressive left has been anti- Israel sentiment. And I want to ask you about one of the candidates that you endorse, you rallied with, Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. He was on this program with Kasie yesterday.
I want to play a little bit of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Do you believe Israel has a right to exist?
ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: So Kasie, AIPAC's become a big issue in this election because AIPAC's already spent $30 million in this election. They're by far the biggest spender in the race. Now, the question about a right to exist, it's interesting because nobody's ever asked me whether or not I believe Palestine has a right to exist.
Every single president who served has said that they believe in a two- state solution. Israel exists.
HUNT: You say it exists, but does it have a right to?
EL-SAYED: No, I didn't say that. I just said the question of Israel's existence is not a question.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: What do you think? Does Israel have a right to exist as a Jewish state?
KHANNA: Yes, Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish democratic state, as a secure state, with equal rights.
Now, I've also been very critical of what's happened in the occupied territories, in the West Bank and Gaza. I also believe in Palestinian self-determination in a Palestinian state. And I've said, what happened in Gaza was a genocide like the U.N. And there are people who disagree with me.
But I have visited Israel three times. Of course, I believe that Israel has the right to exist.
BASH: I want to play one other thing for you, and it's largely because he's somebody who is a fellow Californian. And it's Scott Weiner, who is a state senator. He is running for Nancy Pelosi's seat out of San Francisco. He is a high-profile liberal, very openly gay, and he was actually at a trans rights march for Pride Month.
He was forced to leave that march because he was confronted so aggressively. Let's watch some of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, you!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You do not belong here anymore, Scott. It breaks my heart -- it breaks my heart that someone who wrote good legislation for queers is so terrible for Gaza.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: He agrees with you that what happened in Gaza is genocide. He's called for eliminating the funding in Israel, criticizes the government there. Why do you think they were yelling at him?
KHANNA: Well, that was anti-Semitic. I condemned it. I condemned the antisemitism against Dan Goldman when he was denied a cup of coffee at a coffee shop, even though I endorsed Brad Lander.
[16:30:05]
That has no place in America.
But what people want is someone who's going to move things forward, who's going to understand that there has been extraordinary suffering of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, who also understand that Hamas is a terrorist organization, and people who died in October 7th were innocent civilians, and who can really have a roadmap forward.
And look, the previous generation has just failed. They haven't been able to --
BASH: Does it concern you that in the case of Dan Goldman and what you just saw, the common denominator is that they're Jewish, and that that is an undercurrent that is growing in the far left.
KHANNA: I would say it's growing on the right, too. And on --
BASH: I'm not disagreeing with that, but you're on the left.
KHANNA: I think -- but I would argue, well, I'm independent. I'm a proud progressive who builds real coalitions, but I'm very proud of the progressive movement, and I believe it's our job to condemn anti- Semitism where it raises its ugly head, and that doesn't help advance the cause of peace for human rights or dignity.
And what happened to Scott Weiner was clear anti-Semitism. He was harassed. He had aggression against him. If you want to disrupt his town hall, fine. If you want to protest, fine. But you can't go chasing him down. And you can't have someone like Dan Goldman not be given a cup of coffee.
And by the way, look, AIPAC has attacked me 170 times or something. I disagree with them, but I have always said they are American citizens who are advocating their views of what they think is the best policy. Debate them on the merits. I always meet with them.
Don't accuse them of dual loyalty. Don't accuse them of foreign allegiance. I've had seen Indian Americans accused of that. I have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism, racism. I have a different vision of foreign policy, but that's what we should debate on the merit.
BASH: Congressman Ro Khanna, happy Fourth.
KHANNA: Happy Fourth.
BASH: Happy 250th.
KHANNA: Same to you.
BASH: Appreciate it. Have a good holiday.
KHANNA: Thank you.
BASH: Ahead in THE ARENA, live pictures of Madison Square Garden where sources say in, I don't know, an hour or so, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce will tie the knot.
Why aren't you there?
GOLDBERG: Did you get invited?
BASH: No.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: And if you had all the money in the world, would you be getting married at Madison Square Garden?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I would have picked Central Park, or there's other beautiful places in New York that are just better equipped to handle a wedding. I mean, when I didn't think of wedding, I don't think Madison Square Garden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:36:54]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This really is her fairy tale, and I think that she deserves all the happiness in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd do like two, like one for the Kelce guys. Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Are you ready for it? Because it's finally time for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding right now. Cocktail hour has apparently begun at Madison Square Garden, where the couple is set to tie the night knot in about an hour. If you're wondering about that reception, it's expected to go until 4:00 a.m. with about 1,000 guests.
You heard that right, 1,000 guests. It is still unclear what the ceremony will look like inside MSG. CNN did spot a parade of decor and supplies being wheeled into THE ARENA, including knobby tree branches, boxes of alcohol, and lobster meat.
Joining me now to discuss these very famous nuptials, CNN entertainment correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN senior entertainment reporter Lisa France, and CNN contributor Cari Champion.
Elizabeth, let me start with you. What have you been seeing and what are your sources telling you about what's happening inside MSG right now?
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: So, Dana, we are talking at the perfect time. I'm going to move out of frame so you can see what's happening here. It is arrivals. The guests are arriving.
And as you see, there is a long line of black SUVs that are lined up. I have to tell you, cocktail hour has started. According to our sources, it was scheduled to begin at 4:30 PM. So, I have to tell you, these guests are running late because they are in New York City traffic, even though the streets have been shut down.
This right behind me is 7th Avenue, completely shut down. This here 31st Street, completely shut down. I was here yesterday for what we were told was her rehearsal dinner. There were not this level of street closures.
Today, everything is shut down. They have this organized where the black SUVs are coming with the guests.
Then they go right behind me. They pull in under a tent so you can't see anything. It's completely shielded.
But what we can see here is on the other side of the cars, their windows are rolling down and there are people here checking them in. They're showing them something. They have what looks like So, clearly, they are scanning them in and they want to make sure that everyone who is coming in is obviously supposed to be there. The whole reason likely that Taylor is having this wedding at Madison Square Garden is aside from the sentimental value to her Madison Square Garden is somewhere she's performed a number of times over her career.
It's the security. This is a venue that they can completely secure -- Dana.
BASH: Yeah, absolutely. And Lisa, they donated $26 million to charity according to people with
both Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. What can you tell us about where that money went?
LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN SENIOR ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Well, the couple was extremely generous, and since this is our version of an American royal wedding, it made perfect sense that some of that funding went to the Queen of Country music, Dolly Parton, herself to a project that is near and dear to her heart, and she put up a cheeky little video thanking them and had some fun with it. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOLLY PARTON, QUEEN OF COUNTRY MUSIC: Taylor and Travis, it's Dolly.
[16:40:00]
And I was just told that you two are making a donation of $2 million to my Imagination Library. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm blown away and overjoyed with that gratitude.
Now, it's evident that you two have made giving back a key part of your life. So, hey, when you have your firstborn, can I have it? Because that is going to be one special baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: You just -- you got to love Dolly Parton.
Now, someone else who expressed gratitude on social media was Maya Thompson. Back in 2011, she lost her precious three-year-old son, Ronan, to cancer. And when Taylor Swift found out about Ronan's story, she wrote a song that she released as a charity single titled "Ronan" from Maya's perspective.
And Maya posted today a very emotional post in which she expressed her gratitude that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce had donated some of money to a pediatric cancer program at Memorial Sloan Kettering, which is where her son was receiving treatment and also where there's some testing done in a foundation that she started in his name, Dana.
BASH: So incredibly nice.
Cari, you know, I don't want Travis to get the shaft here on all the attention. So, what's the sports world saying about this?
CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you know what? It's really interesting. A bunch of folks gathered a couple of weeks ago at what we call sport beach and can real tough assignment for us. However, the conversation was very much about this wedding and how Travis is really become otherworldly.
He was just -- not just in that capacity. One of these great, great athletes that we really admire, didn't have the season that he wanted, but he went from being, you know, one of the greats to now this superstar that we weren't really quite prepared for, and I don't think we've seen anything like it in sport.
We've seen a lot of football players marry pop stars or date pop stars. And then Tony Romo, remember he dated Jessica Simpson. We can go down the list.
But this is something that we just haven't seen before, and I've saw some of the athletes that were there. It's a promenade, if you will, of famous quarterbacks. Matthew Stafford with the Rams. Obviously, Patrick Mahomes, who was his really good quarterback. He'll be there.
So, it's really something special and Travis is handling this arguably better than anyone who could, you know?
BASH: Yeah, I mean, he seems to. He's definitely still got his podcast going. He and his brother released an interview with Prince William today, so they're just not stopping.
Lisa, Elizabeth, Cari, thank you so much. Cari's going to be back for CNN's special July 4th coverage. It begins at noon right here on CNN and on the CNN app.
Up next in THE ARENA, as we get set for America 250, our panel is going to look at America 300. What will the next half century look like? What could it be for the next generation, and then some, of Americans?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: Everybody is celebrating.
REPORTER: Uh-huh, what are we celebrating?
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: Oh, it's America's birthday.
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: We want to celebrate our country, and we like America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:47:34]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERALD FORD, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: We begin our third century, there is still so much to be done. We must build a more stable international order, politically, economically, and legally. We must match the great breakthroughs of the past century by improving health and conquering disease. We must continue to unlock the secrets of the universe beyond our planet as well as within ourselves. We must work to enrich the quality of American life at work, at play, and in our homes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: The speech John was talking about earlier in the show, President Ford during the bicentennial, urging America to continue to work, to innovate, discover everything humanity has to offer.
Fifty years ago, "The Washington Post's" science editor, Thomas O'Toole, made some predictions for what the semi-quincentennial, did I get that right?
GOLDBERG: Yeah.
BASH: All right, would look like. So, we thought it would be fun to go back to the future and see how reality stacks up. Here's what he wrote. They talk of extending the lifespan to 80 years instead of 70, check. Obtaining clean energy from coal, of mining copper and manganese from the floor of the sea, of finding cures of cancer and vaccines to prevent others.
They talk of telephone calls carried by laser light through optical. Fibers that will replace the copper cables of today.
My panel is back.
I mean, unfortunately, the cure for cancer did not happen and --
KING: And they did invent the smartphone that makes us stupid.
BASH: And they, right, I don't know if it's through light, I don't really know how it works, but it definitely is different from the hard line.
Jonah, I'm going to start with you. What are your thoughts on where we are today and what we could look like in 25 years?
GOLDBERG: Well, I think 50 years --
BASH: Fifty years.
GOLDBERG: Okay, yeah. I think, first of all, like, we're in better-.
BASH: You can start with 25, and then add another 25.
GOLDBERG: We're in better shape than a lot of people think. Our politics are broken, but the country's actually not in its terrible shape as people want to claim.
First of all, I'm a child of the 1970s. That means I still am betting that the world will be dominated by a race of super intelligent talking apes. And -- but beyond that, I think like -- one thing, America is going to be older.
[16:50:01]
And I don't just mean -- in 50 years.
I mean, American demographics are going to get older. I think with the rise of A.I. and robotics and that kind of technology, that means a lot of people are going to be taken care of more by machines than we can kind of imagine now, both in health care, but in all sorts of other ways. And I think that immigration is going to stay a real issue. I think
there's going to be a regression to the mean. There's going to be a blowback against the sort of Trump era on immigration. But long term, when you don't need just sort of strong back labor the way we have for the last 200 years, that makes the demand for labor that you get through immigration less, and also A.I. will make the demand for high- end skilled immigration less, and that's going to be a real issue going forward.
BASH: And just to kind of again put in perspective what was 50 years ago in the bicentennial, Marc, Apple was invented, not like the Apple, but Apple computers. Rocky opened in theaters, and VHS went on sale in Japan. Big Gulp was invented, and several other very important milestones that year that seems like ancient history, but it was really only 50 years.
SHORT: Well, thanks for mentioning the Big Gulp, because that was important to me.
GOLDBERG: Like Michael Wilberg (ph).
(LAUGHTER)
SHORT: And now we have free refills.
I'm not really qualified to give you much commentary on what we're going to do scientifically. I do think we continue to have amazing advances in cancer. And so, while that may not have happened in the last 50 years, it seems like it's speeding up as to what we're accomplishing there. I think that the foundation that our founders gave us is so remarkable that America is going to continue to be strong.
And I agree with Jonah that, you know, the politics may be broken, but the country is not. I think when you get outside of Washington, D.C., people get along a lot better than often the commentary here. But trying to stay in the political lane, Dana, I do think that it's remarkable as this next generation is.
One thing that we're failing them and one thing they're going to be left with is I do think we're going to have a debt crisis in America in the next 50 years. And I think that --
BASH: Happening now.
SHORT: Well, it's fair we have it now, but you have real consequences to it now. When you actually are getting the point that your deficits and your overall debt is greater than your GDP, and neither party is offering any sort of solution to that equation, I think you're going to have a challenge in the next 50 years to solve that.
BASH: I know you say you're not a scientist, and I believe you, but you did help oversee Operation Warp Speed, which got the vaccine for COVID done in record time. And I think that's a big, a big accomplishment. SHORT: I mean, the reality in that was government getting out of the way and allowing private sector to accomplish what they did. And I think it's a remarkable testament to what our science community could do.
BASH: Your crystal ball?
HINOJOSA: Well, as long as we continue to make those investments in science, et cetera. I do think it's not only about longevity but living well, right? Like having -- right now, cancer is a death sentence in many places, especially with Alzheimer's and all of those things can be death sentences. And hopefully, when our kids and 50 years from now, 53 and 57, that's how my kids will be that that won't necessarily be a death sentence.
I think we'll have, I think self-driving cars. I don't think that we'll be driving or not us, but our children will be driving anymore. We'll have electric vehicles pretty much exclusively.
I do think that we will also be a majority-minority country, which I don't think Trump likes to hear that, but I think that's the reality of given the large, you know, increase in the Hispanic community and other communities. I think that I am -- I feel positive about where we will be in 50 years.
A.I., I think, it's a bit scary, but I do think while people are going to be losing jobs in some places, we'll be getting -- there'll be people gaining jobs in other places and we need to make sure that you know all of that is -- is there's a well-thought-out plan for that.
BASH: And A.I. is definitely going to help with the science.
HINOJOSA: That's right.
BASH: Finding cure.
SHORT: It's interesting living in a country we can't drive around cars.
KING: Amen to that.
I'll be 112 years old operating the A.I. magic wall on election nights here. It's hard for me to fathom this.
Two quick points. Number one, I'm having a hard enough time thinking that our son just turned 15. In 50 years, will Social Security be there for him when he's 65, right? Or what will be there if not Social Security? That, to me, is hard to wrap my mind around.
But to Jonah's point and to Marc's point, this town is broken. The politicians don't want to fix the problems. I've spent the last three years, it's been the best three years of my journalistic life, traveling the country, talking to people completely all over the map when it comes to politics.
If you put them in this room, they would solve 60 percent of the problems in a couple of days. Yes, there'd be some things that are intractable, but they are willing to talk about the things the politicians are not willing to talk about.
So I will say this, I don't know where we'll be in 50 years, but I do believe that the next two presidential cycles are going to be the reset and the reboot in American history, because the people, no matter where they are politically, are disgusted, disaffected, mad, angry at politics, which is why you see the energy on the left with young people, and why you see a lot of Republicans now saying, what's going to happen after Trump?
[16:55:05]
I think both parties are going to go through these cycles. They're either going to reform or they're going to get kicked out of the way by people.
And so, I think we'll see after the next financial cycle and then the one after that, the path toward where we're going to be in 50 years.
And the last thing I will say is by the time we get there, we'll have at least one, probably two women presidents.
BASH: Really?
KING: Yes.
BASH: Okay.
HINOJOSA: Fingers crossed.
BASH: All right. Let's -- let's see.
Happy Fourth.
GOLDBERG: Happy Fourth.
BASH: Happy Fourth.
Thanks so much for coming in.
Happy Fourth to everybody at home. And I want you to stay tuned. After a short break, "THE LEAD" is going to pick up. Abby Phillip is in the chair today. Thank you so much.
