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Pence Campaigns in Iowa; Biden Officials Blocked from Social Media Companies; King Charles in Scotland; Post-Holiday Travel Rush; Changing Cancer Treatments. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 05, 2023 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:32:27]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, former vice president and now presidential hopeful Mike Pence is continuing his three-day campaign blitz through western Iowa. Pence spent the Fourth of July holiday meeting with voters and even walking in the Urbandale Fourth of July Parade. He's set to make campaign stops today.

CNN's Kyung Lah has been following the Pence campaign. She's joining us now.

Kyung, he's hitting, what is it, three more counties today, including the one where - including where you are in Sioux City. What did -- from what you've seen and what you're seeing, what does it tell you about his Iowa strategy?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the campaign seeks to try to reach all 99 counties. They want to do what's known in presidential politics here in Iowa, the full Grassley, Chuck Grassley referencing, and trying to get to every single county, every single cafe, try to do that hand-to-hand retail politics in order to get them across the finish line and to make a mark in Iowa.

Mike Pence says in his own word that he is known well, but he is not well known. Of course, he's well known as Trump's vice president. And what he wants Iowa caucus goers to think of him is as his own person. So, he's at a breakfast meet and greet today.

Yesterday we saw him almost running through a July 4th parade as he tried to shake hands and kiss babies and do what you would expect on the Independence Day. And then he also spoke to a rural community about energy. So, much of that.

He's going to be at an ice cream shop. He is trying to get at the ground level. It is something that he's committing himself to, and something that he says his former president, his former running mate, Donald Trump, is just not because he's not here this week. And he was specifically asked about Trump's lack of presence here (INAUDIBLE).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MIKE PENCE (R), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I can't account for what other campaigns decided, but for me it was vitally important to be here where the journey to the White House always begins and to spend two miles, at times jogging uphill, to take our case to the people of Iowa. And I promise you, we're going to keep running that hard all the way to the finish.

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BOLDUAN: All right, Kyung Lah for us there in Iowa. We'll get back to Kyung. Thank you so much.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new this morning, a federal judge has blocked certain White House officials from reaching out to social media companies when they see potentially untrue information circulating online. The ruling is seen as a win for the attorney generals from some Republican states who accuse the government of going too far in the fight against Covid misinformation.

[09:35:06]

CNN White House reporter Priscilla Alvarez joins us at the White House.

There's a lot going on here that has to do with regulation and online speech and private companies, but how does the White House see this, Priscilla.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, John. And it really comes as a blow to the administration, especially amid concerns about misinformation circulating online. Now, as you mentioned, this was a lawsuit brought by Republican states. It's one of many legal challenges that Republicans have launched against the Biden administration. And in this case, what the ruling does, is it keeps a slew of federal agencies and top officials from communicating with social media companies about taking down, quote, content containing protected free speech.

Now, what it doesn't do is it doesn't keep the administration from curbing illegal activity or addressing national security threats, but, of course, this is a top concern for this administration, as it sees the use of - well, all these social media companies and sometimes in a way that can spread misinformation.

Now, the White House addressed this in a statement saying, quote, our consistent view remains that social media platforms have a critical responsibility to take account of the efforts their platforms are having on the American people but make independent choices about the information they present. So, there you hear the White House saying it is important for the social media companies to take responsibility for this, but it still affects those federal agencies, just some of them for awareness. The White House press secretary, as well as HHS, CDC, DOJ, FBI. So you can see that just by naming some of those agencies why this would be a concern for the administration moving forward. The Justice Department is reviewing the ruling. So, we'll see what

follows in the hours and days to come. But certainly a blow to the admin.

BERMAN: Yes, absolutely. And, of course, some of the legal questions involve how much protection for free speech is there on a private platform, but for now, at least, that's a separate issue.

Priscilla Alvarez, thanks so much for being with us.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, historic ceremony happening right now in Scotland. Coronation number two for King Charles. We will take you there.

The holiday weekend may be over, but the travel delays and cancellations, they're sticking around. The FAA is warning of possible ground stops at airports today. What to expect. That's coming up.

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[09:41:46]

BERMAN: The head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog is in Fukushima in Japan today discussing plans to release radioactive water from the 2011 meltdown into the Pacific Ocean. Japan's state-owned electricity firm says it's simply out of room to store the treated water, which is enough to fill more than 500 Olympic pools. Japan's government and the International Atomic Energy Agency say the radioactive elements still present in the water are at low enough levels not to be harmful, and the water will be released slowly over decades.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban have ordered all beauty salons closed by the end of the month. These salons have been one of the last places in the country where women could gather outside their homes. Gyms, parks and most schools have also been closed to women since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

So, the world just set a new record for heat. On Monday the average global temperature was nearly 63 degrees Fahrenheit, which beat out a record set in August of 2016. In the southern U.S., the same temperatures have hovered around 100 degrees. In Mexico, more than 100 people have died in a heat wave there. Even in Antarctica, where it is winter now, there was a new July temperature record. Scientists say climate change, combined with the developing El Nino, they are to blame.

Sara.

SIDNER: Right now King Charles is inside St. Giles Cathedral for the official celebration of his coronation in Edinburgh, Scotland. The royal procession arrived moments ago as he's set to receive a second crown.

CNN anchor and royal correspondent Max Foster joins us now live with more.

Max, it is no secret that Scotland has been trying to leave the U.K. as early -- as late as 2014. That didn't happen, obviously. But how are they receiving the king?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, there were some -- quite a few crowds out. I have to say, as the car pulled outside at this moment where they pulled outside the cathedral, there was quite a lot of booing and "not my king." I think that was kind of an organized campaign there.

It's interesting what you say about Scotland. Scotland, you know, is a separate nation from England, but it's all part of the U.K.

This whole event hasn't been led by the palace, it's been led by the Scottish government, which is the national -- which is the Scottish national party, which is pro-independence. But they're not anti- monarchy. It's interesting that they've taken that strategy. But they've absolutely been behind, you know, the pro-independence group is behind this whole event.

And it's not a coronation. There are a set of Scottish crown jewels, but they effectively became redundant hundreds of years ago, but they are still very closely held by the Scottish as symbols of their history. They're old -- they are the oldest crown jewels in the entire British collection. And they are there and they are representing Scotland and it will be presented, this crown, which goes back to 1540, will be presented to King Charles. But it won't be put on his head because he's already been crowned king of the United Kingdom in that coronation we covered earlier in the year. So, he's not being crowned king of Scotland, because that title doesn't exist, Sara.

SIDNER: Max Foster, heavy is the head that wears the crown, as they say, thank you so much for your reporting.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, around 80 million people are facing severe storm threats today. And the FAA is already forecasting possible ground stops at airports across the country as millions, of course, are heading home from the holiday.

[09:45:03]

And the new research that is prompting some oncologists to now scale back on aggressive cancer treatments. What's going on behind that? We'll tell you.

We'll be right back.

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SIDNER: I'm sorry to inform you, but the holiday is over and now you're being told to pack your patience. It's expected to be a really busy travel day with millions of Americans heading home from their Fourth of July festivities. Airlines are working to recover from a weekend of storm-related delays and cancellations. Over the holiday weekend the TSA broke its record for passengers screened in a single day.

CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is live at Ronald Reagan National Airport with the very latest.

Pete, you are smiling so widely. Things must be going well there then.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Things are going well. You know, I'm happy that the holiday is coming to an end, Sara, maybe that's just it. But now is the big rush home for so many people. And you can see the proof behind me here in Terminal 2, the north checkpoint at Reagan National Airport.

[09:50:02]

It has been really busy all day.

The TSA screened 2 million people yesterday, 2.2 million people the day before that. That is the slump because those days really fell on the holiday.

Think back to last Friday when the TSA screened 2.88 million people at airports nationwide. That's the highest number that TSA has recorded ever. So now is the start of the big test part two for airlines, the sequel, as all of these people begin coming home all at once.

The good news right now is that flight cancellations have remained relatively low. I just checked Flight Aware. We just hit 100 cancellations in the U.S. today. Yesterday, for the full day, it was about 450. But think back to the previous Tuesday when airlines canceled 2,200 flights in total. They were really struggling with the weather. United Airlines especially was struggling the most.

I want you to listen now to travel expert Scott Keyes of Going. He says that this week is looking a lot better than last week.

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SCOTT KEYES, FOUNDER OF GOING.COM: Never just assume everything's going to go great. Have a backup plan just in case. But I think that your odds are a lot better of an on-time arrival this week than they were last week.

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MUNTEAN: One caveat to all of this. The FAA says there's a possibility of groundstops as the day goes in some pretty big hubs. We're talking Denver, Charlotte, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando. So, we will see as the thunderstorms build.

There is a bit of good news here in that most people really are drive according to AAA. About 42 million people driving 50 miles or more over the holiday period. They say the best time to leave is now, before 2:00 p.m. The worst time, between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. this evening. So, start to pack your bag, also pack your patience, of course, like

you said, Sara.

SIDNER: I just want to let people know that Pete Muntean is not a hater of holidays, it's just that you have to work every single holiday and be at the airport and not go anywhere. So we understand you, Pete.

Thank you so much for your reporting.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: You're too kind. Pete hates holidays. That's the takeaway from all of this. Pete Muntean, the hater of holidays.

OK, we're going to get -- check back in with Pete throughout the show.

There's also this we want to tell you about, emerging research shows for certain cancer patients scaling back on aggressive treatments could actually provide some benefits without hurting their chances of survival. It's an approach called de-escalation.

Let's get over to CNN's Jacqueline Howard. She has much more on this.

Jacqueline, what are the benefits and what is the research showing about this less is more approach?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Kate, well the benefits are that patients can avoid those serious side effects that can come with some aggressive treatments. And what doctors are doing, they're looking specifically at which therapies may be unnecessary for the less aggressive cancers. And one example of this in one study researchers looked at rectal cancer patients and they looked at those who received only chemotherapy before undergoing surgery and compared them with those who received both chemotherapy and radiation.

The patients who received only chemo still had among them 80 percent of them were disease-free five years later. You see on the screen here, among those who had both chemo and radiation, 78.6 percent of them were disease-free five years later. So, you see, there are still similar outcomes among those who just had chemo but skipped the radiation aspect. And that's one example of where doctors are seeing, as we prepare treatment plan, where can we kind of scale back on the more aggressive therapies that can lead to life-altering side effects but still see positive outcomes for our patients. That's the takeaway here, Kate.

BOLDUAN: That is really interesting. In the research are they saying that there are certain types of patients or certain types of cancers where this kind of scaling back is not recommended?

HOWARD: Absolutely. This is where you really have to personalize your approach. And one example, I spoke with an oncologist who treats head and neck cancer patients and she said those patients whose cancer is associated with HPV, those cancers are more curable than those that are not associated with HPV. So, for an HPV-associated cancer patient, they may be eligible to try out the de-escalation approach but not those who have the more aggressive cancer that's not associated with HPV. So that's one example where you really do have to tease out which patient could benefit and which patient may not qualify.

BOLDUAN: It's really interesting. The nuance in this is a really fascinating thing to continue to look at.

HOWARD: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Thanks for bringing it to us, Jacqueline.

HOWARD: Yes.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: The suspect accused of killing five people in a mass shooting just appearing in a Philadelphia courtroom. We have new information about that case just coming in.

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[09:59:12]

BOLDUAN: The suspect in a mass shooting in Philadelphia just appeared in court. We have new details coming in. And we're also learning of yet another holiday shooting, this time in Maryland.

BERMAN: Stuck upside down for hours. A mechanical failure on a roller coaster at the worst possible moment. The rescue, all on camera.

SIDNER: Elon Musk makes another unpopular change to Twitter. Now Meta's Mark Zuckerberg is swooping in hoping to take some Twitter users away from him. He's offering a new alternative to ticked off Twitter users.

Those major stories and more right here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

This morning, stunning video of Ukraine's intensifying counteroffensive as fears of a nuclear attack are growing.

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