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Hollywood Shuts Down; GOP-Led House Adds Controversial Amendments To Defense Bill; AZ Republican Refers To Colored People On House Floor; Russia's War On Ukraine. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 14, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:27]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hollywood's largest union officially on strike. Tens of thousands of actors now joining thousands of writers on the picket line with the entertainment industry now at a halt. Where does this go?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Money for the Military. On the line on Capitol Hill, political battles over abortion, trans rights and diversity are now standing in the way of getting a critical defense spending bill through Congress.

BOLDUAN: President Biden's new moves to wipe out $39 billion in student loan debt. How the administration is pulling this off after the Supreme Court put the brakes on their last effort. I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

So, Hollywood is effectively shut down. For the first time in 63 years, two major unions are now on strike at the same time, movie and TV actors now joining writers and heading for picket lines coast to coast. Overnight, Hollywood's largest union comprised of roughly 160,000 actors made the big decision after talks with the major studios and streaming services fell apart. They now join the 11,000 members of the Writers Guild who have been on strike since May.

These fights are now hitting very hard, and hitting very far and wide. Upcoming film releases, new TV shows, they won't be coming soon. Releases and premieres will be delayed and the stars of those shows will not be out promoting their work. Perfect example is what just happened. The stars of the new movie, "Oppenheimer," met with the likes of Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, actually walked out of the UK premiere for their film last night just after the strike was called scenes CNN's Chloe Melas has more on this for us. So, Chloe, where do things stand today?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Look, it's a tough situation and you're going to see people picketing later on today in New York and Los Angeles. But, Kate, I want to also point out that it's not just actors that are being affected, it's the security, it's the craft services. It's all of the people behind the scenes that are making these productions work. And they're all going to be out of jobs now and I've been hearing from a lot of them. So what's at stake here? The actors and the writers are asking for better pay. They're asking for streaming residuals. And artificial intelligence is a major sticking point here. One of the major issues was AI proposal. And this was something that we heard about yesterday, that we know that the negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers were going back and forth on.

So what they're offering when it comes to AI is background performers, so the extra. So, you know, when you see those scenes, like for instance in "Game of Thrones" where you have all of these actors in the background. What they want to do is they want to scan these actors and get one day's pay, and then they would use their likeness in perpetuity without paying them any more, right? So that is a sticking point.

And we heard from Fran Drescher, who is the president of SAG-AFTRA, at a press conference yesterday, really come out strong about why they did not come to any sort of agreement and why it has now led to a full on strike. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRAN DRESCHER, PRESIDENT, SAG-AFTRA: You cannot change the business model as much as it has changed, and not expect the contract to change too. We're not going to keep doing incremental changes on a contract that no longer honors what is happening right now with this business model that was foisted upon us. What are we doing? Moving around furniture on the Titanic? It's crazy.

So the jig is up AMPTP, we stand tall. You have to wake up and smell the coffee. We are labor and we stand tall. And we demand respect and to be honored for our contribution. You share the wealth because you cannot exist without us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MELAS: So, look, I mean, that's Fran Drescher, the president of SAG- AFTRA, coming out strong at the press conference yesterday, Kate. And today, you're going to see picketing in front of studios in Los Angeles and in New York, and you might see some famous faces on those frontlines.

[09:05:07]

BOLDUAN: How are the studios responding to it this morning?

MELAS: I mean, look, the Alliance in Motion Picture and Television Producers, this is what they're saying. They're saying that AMPTP presented a deal that offered historic pay and a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors' digital likenesses. The union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.

So, they are strong. The actors are staying strong on their stance the writers are staying strong. I mean, look, we've seen strikes in the past go on for months and we could see this go well into the fall, Kate, if neither side is willing to meet in the middle.

BOLDUAN: Chloe, thank you very much. We're going to see all of this really starting to pick up today, really appreciate it. And, Sara, this is really all just getting underway now.

SIDNER: It's unprecedented. We haven't seen this in 60 plus years, all right,. So, what exactly does this mean to you, the viewer. The options are getting very slim when it comes to what you can watch. September usually brings a brand new season of the shows you watch, but don't count on that this fall.

What you can expect, more reality shows and maybe game shows, in other words things that are not scripted. When the writer strike was looming, services like Netflix prepare. CEO Ted Sarandos said back in April, we had to make plans for the worst. We do have a pretty robust slate of releases to take us into a long time.

But network productions for daytime soap operas, for example, they can still happen. So writers are typically not members of the union and the actors have a different contract than the one that has expired. As for movies, any remaining production will stop. Meaning the release of next year's big summer blockbusters like "Gladiator 2" and "Mortal Kombat 2" could get drastically pushed.

The only exception to movie making right now is independent films. They are not tied -- that, excuse me, are not tied to any major production studio. Live theater will continue. Actors who are also union members can participate in live theatrical productions. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And add all of that up, they double Hollywood strikes. It could be very costly. The Milken Institute estimates the pair of strikes could cost $4 billion or more in losses. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has more on this. She's joining us now.

Vanessa, can you break down who and what, and how this is going to impact financially?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's rare to have one Hollywood strike, now we have two happening at the same time. So, you have 160,000 actors joining the 11,000 writers that have already been on strike for more than 10 weeks. And we've already seen the impacts of the writer strike economically.

It's not just the studios that are going to be losing money, and it's not just the income for the actors and the writers, which of course is something that nobody wants to see. It is the ripple effect. And Chloe spoke about this a little bit. It's the impact to janitors. It's the impact of craft services. It's the impact to Uber drivers, deli owners in the area where these productions happen. And also prop companies who supply so much for these productions.

And then, this is now no longer just a US economic impact. This is going to have impacts on other places internationally. Because US production studios, they film abroad, so we could see impacts in the UK, New Zealand, Australia,. And then, Kate, anywhere that we see studios doing post production work. And we heard from Bob Iger, Disney's CEO, yesterday on CNBC and he says that this strike is going to have collateral damage on other industries.

Kate, just to put this into perspective, the last writer strike we saw was in 2007, lasted 15 weeks. That's on economic impact of $2 billion. If this doesn't get wrapped up very soon, Milken Institute saying we're looking at $4 billion and potentially much more to come, Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right. Vanessa, thank you for that. Sara?

SIDNER: Now to the battle concerning military spending. On Capitol Hill, the House will debate more amendments to a must pass defense spending bill. For nearly six decades, Congress has approved the National Defense Authorization Act in a largely bipartisan fashion. But last night, Republican hardliners tacked on anti-abortion, anti- trans and anti-diversity amendments, threatening pay raises for service members and future investments in military infrastructure.

CNN's Lauren Fox is live on the Hill for us. Lauren, what has been the response of all this?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Democrats are furious, Sara, arguing that this is supposed to be a bipartisan effort to support men and women in uniform across this country, to ensure that the US military has everything it needs at home and abroad. Instead, they say this has devolved into a culture war. And what you can expect to see today in this final vote, Sara, is the fact that Democrats are expected to peel off in math.

[09:10:07]

There might be a handful of five to seven Democrats who ultimately vote with Republicans on this legislation. But Democrats and Republicans were united as it came out of committee. This was a bipartisan bill. But Kevin McCarthy, the House Speaker, leaned into those hardline conservatives who were asking for votes on a series of controversial amendments, including one that would reverse the Department of Defense's policy of reimbursing travel for individual servicemen and women who have to travel across state lines in order to seek abortion care if the state that they're stationed in does not provide that care, or if the state that they're stationed in does not have legal access to that care.

That is a major turning point in this negotiation with Democrats, because that is when Democrats argued they could no longer support this bill. But it's a difficult calculation, Sara, in part, because you have so many Democrats who have military installations in their districts. And they say, this is really deciding between supporting men and women in the military, pay raises for the military, more money in future promises of infrastructure projects for the military versus having to decide on the basis of some of these social issues. But they say they just can't violate their conscience.

Again, there could be a handful of Democrats who support this, but all eyes are on whether or not Kevin McCarthy can keep his conference together. He said he's still very confident that he's going to have the votes he needs. And the House Freedom Caucus is having a press conference right now. At the start of that press conference there, they sounded very positive about the direction this bill is moving in, indicating that Republicans are going to carry this across the finish line on their own, at least here in the house.

SIDNER: There was a stunning moment that caused a fiery response during debate yesterday, where an Arizona Republican use the term colored people for black Americans. What happened there?

FOX: Yes. I want to play this clip for you. It was sort of this stunning moment on the House floor, part of this long debate that happened late into the evening yesterday. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELI CRANE (R-AZ): My amendment has nothing to do with whether or not colored people or black people or anybody can serve, OK? It has nothing to do with the color of your skin --

REP. JOYCE BEATTY (R-OH): Mr. Speaker, I'd like to be recognized to have the words colored people stricken from the record. I find it offensive and very inappropriate.

CRANE: Can I amend my comments to people of color?

CHAIRMAN: The gentleman wishes to amend his comments. Is the gentleman asking to consent --

BEATTY: Mr. Speaker, to have the word stricken. I didn't ask for an amendment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And you see there, that part of that debate last night over in the House of Representatives. And it just goes to show you sort of how much this debate has devolved over the last several days as they have moved forward with debating the National Defense Authorization Act. And we should just say again, Sara, this was a bill that passed out of committee with bipartisan support. Obviously, it's changed immensely over the last five days. Sara?

SIDNER: Lauren Fox, thank you so much for your reporting. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking out about the Wagner Group really for the first time since its fighters led a rebellion inside the country. Why Putin insists that the group simply doesn't exist? Plus, Jared Kushner has no talk to Grand Jury as the special prosecutors are investigating his father-in- law's attempts and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. What prosecutors want to know from him, that's ahead.

And dangerously high temperatures continue across the country. More than 90 million people up against up against these alerts today. How high could these temperatures be soaring and how long is this heatwave going to last, we'll be right back.

[09:14:10]

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SIDNER: In a new interview with a state-controlled Russian newspaper, President Vladimir Putin says the private mercenary Wagner Group simply does not exist. That's a quote. Putin was referring to the legality of the Wagner Group as he described a meeting with its senior fighters and Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who the public hasn't seen since he led a revolt against Russia's defense leadership.

The Kremlin says that meeting happened just five days after Prigozhin led that failed rebellion against the military. The article further details how Putin is working to put a wedge between Prigozhin and his thousands of fighters.

CNN's Alex Marquardt joins us now live. Alex, you are there in Dnipro, Ukraine, but what are you learning about this really interesting development that we're hearing now from Putin in that state-controlled media article?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it really is very interesting, Sara. It appears that Putin is making two points here. One, that legally there are no mercenary groups allowed in Russia. And the other that Wagner is no longer operating in Ukraine. And that is something that we also heard from the Pentagon last night.

Now, what form Wagner takes beyond Ukraine, that is still very much a question. They have operations in Africa and in the Middle East. And, of course, the fate of their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, that is very much in the balance.

Here's a little bit more of what Putin told that commerce that newspaper, I want to quote. We do not have a law for private military organizations, he said. It simply does not exist. There is no such legal entity. He admits, Sara, that it is not an easy question. And, then he gave some really interesting details about that extraordinary meeting just five days after the Wagner mutiny.

He said he met with 35 commanders from Wagner at the Kremlin. Yevgeny Prigozhin was there. And he said to the commanders, you can join the Russian military and keep fighting under your current commander whose callsign is sodoy (ph), which means gray hair, and continue to stay in this fight. And he says that the men there, the commanders nodded in agreement.

[09:20:17]

But then Yevgeny Prigozhin piped up and said, no, the guys do not agree with this decision. So, Prigozhin at odds there with Putin and we don't know from this article how this ended. But, Sara, it does appear that Putin is trying to divide and weaken Prigozhin while also maintaining the Wagner fighters who are a significant fighting force. Sara?

SIDNER: It's all very, very interesting to see where those thousands of paid fighters go. Alex, you broke the news yesterday that these controversial US supplied cluster munitions are now in Ukraine. You spoke to a general who said that is exactly what happened. What more do you know along those lines? Are they being used yet?

MARQUARDT: Let me just answer your last question, Sara. According the Pentagon, those Wagner fighters are still in Russian-occupied Ukraine. As for the cluster munitions, you're right. That general told me they have not yet been used. The Pentagon did confirm our reporting from this general yesterday that these US highly controversial cluster munitions are indeed in Ukraine, ready to be used.

The Pentagon also said that there is a third country that had already provided cluster munitions. We understand that country is Turkey. And we have to note that Ukraine and Russia have both previously used cluster munitions during this conflict. Now, how did these American cluster munitions get to Ukraine so quickly? We're told that they had been already pre-positioned in Europe.

Now the question is, when will they first be used? And a US official told me that they have decided that the Russians will be the first to know. Sara?

SIDNER: OK. Alex Marquardt, thank you for all your reporting on this. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Thanks so much. Let's get to this and much more. Joining us right now is a Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council at the White House, John Kirby. I do want to start. We're going to get -- I want to get to Ukraine in just a second.

But it all is wrapped up, John, and an important thing that happened overnight, Republicans passing -- getting -- passing several controversial amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act, the NDAA, this massive defense bill's fate now in question. What is the message from the commander in chief, John, after what happened overnight in the House of Representatives?

JOHN KIRBY, COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Well, I mean, he obviously looks forward to one day having the NDAA on his desk so that he can sign a defense bill, and get our troops and our military well-funded and well-resourced for the kinds of missions that they're taking on all around the world. And we'll wait and see what that legislation ends up looking like when it gets to his desk.

So, I mean, we obviously we've seen what some of the House Republicans have tried to do to it. The President firmly believes that the National Defense Authorization Act really should be focused on making sure our troops have the training and the tools, the capabilities that they need to defend this country all around the world. And that's where he wants to focus to be.

He absolutely -- not -- I'm not going to get into debating each of these amendments, but I do want to make this point. He absolutely believes that diversity and inclusion, and equity in the United States military is important. We are a diverse force because we represent and defend all of the United States, all Americans. He absolutely believes that female servicemembers and female family members of service members should be able to get the reproductive care that they need.

And if they're stationed in a state where it's not available because of state law, then he fully supports the Pentagon's policy of providing leave, and travel allowances for those folks to go get the reproductive care that they need. One in five of our service members are women, and it's important that we listen to their needs and take care of them appropriately.

BOLDUAN: Well, right now those provisions, those were passed. So those -- were the-- two or three of the amendments that were passed overnight, and will be an on the on the final version of this bill that the House is going to need to vote on at some point. Do you -- does the President want Democrats to vote against the NDAA as you see it today in the House?

KIRBY: Again, I'm not going to speak for the voting inclinations here, and I won't get ahead of the legislative process.

BOLDUAN: I totally understand that. But the President would have ultimately, obviously, he needs to sign this into law. If the bill, as we saw with the amendments coming out of the House overnight, would be the version to come to his desk, would he veto it?

KIRBY: It's a hypothetical, Kate. I'm not going to engage at this point in this legislative process. There's a long way to go before this legislation gets to his desk. What I can assure you is --

BOLDUAN: But do you see -- But John, do you see the President signing a National Defense Authorization Act that limits transgender rights, that rips out diversity training, and does exactly the opposite of what you said the President supports when it comes access to reproductive rights?

[09:25:01]

KIRBY: It's very difficult to see the President supporting legislation that would make it harder for Americans to serve in uniform, and to not be able to do so with dignity, would not be able to do so with the proper care that they need both medical and mental care. It's very difficult to see that the President would ever, ever sign legislation that would put our troops at greater risk or put our readiness at risk.

BOLDUAN: Does this put the administration in a tough position, though, if this is what is you're looking at, and Democrats are looking at in the House right now? Of having to explain why Democrats would vote against pay raises for the military and future investments in military infrastructure, which is a big part of what the NDAA is.

KIRBY: The President is comfortable and confident that he's not going to sign legislation that's not going to affect our military readiness in a negative way or affect our people. He'll leave it to members of Congress to decide how they're going to vote on this for themselves. But obviously, he's not going to support amendments, he's not going to support legislation that's going to put our readiness or our troops at any greater risk. BOLDUAN: I want to ask you -- turning our focus overseas to Ukraine and Russia's war in Ukraine. Just yesterday, the Pentagon spokesperson told reporters that Wagner forces, and the way that that he put it was effectively are no longer contributing as a significant combat capability in Ukraine.

What do you make, and what does the White House administration and the President make the fact that the Prigozhin forces aren't in the fight anymore? Do you assess or think they will return to the fight?

KIRBY: We don't know. We really don't know what the future of Wagner is going to be here, whether it's in Ukraine or anywhere else around the world. We know that they are still conducting malicious activities, particularly in Africa. And just a couple of weeks ago, we launched a few more sanctions on their group and some of their entities, and how -- and folks that are supporting them. But we don't know what the future of the group is going to be.

It's very, very opaque to us right now. What is not opaque and what we do know is that the Russians still have a significant amount of forces in Ukraine, on defense in depth all along from Bakhmut all the way down to Zaporizhzhia. And there are some vicious fighting going on. And they are defending themselves against this Ukrainian counter offensive, which is why we're focused so much on making sure Ukraine has what they need to be successful.

BOLDUAN: When you -- Real quick, one other topic that came up when the President was taking questions from reporters overseas yesterday as he was wrapping up his NATO trip and wrapping up his meetings in Finland. The President yesterday called Senator Tommy Tuberville's hold on military promotions. He called them irresponsible. And Tuberville, after that, Tuberville and Secretary Austin did hold a call. Have you all worked this thing out yet?

KIRBY: I don't believe that there's been a solution, no. Obviously, it's good that the Secretary of Defense and Senator Tuberville had a chance to talk yesterday but his holds are still in place. They're still having an effect on military readiness. And quite frankly, the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of military families here. This whole blanket hold, it needs to end. It needs to end immediately before it has even more --

BOLDUAN: Do you think the President sitting down with him could change that?

KIRBY: That's going to be up to Senator Tuberville. And as you heard the President say, if he thought that a meeting between the two of them would break this impasse and could have any useful impact on him dropping his hold, he would consider doing that. But I just don't know that we're at that point right now.

And we don't need to be at that point. It shouldn't take a meeting with the president of United States and, frankly, shouldn't take a conversation with the Secretary of Defense for the senator to do the right thing for the American people and for the American military. What he's doing now, this hold is not clearly not the right thing for our military readiness.

BOLDUAN: John Kirby from the White House. John, thanks for the time.

KIRBY: You bet.

BOLDUAN: Sara?

SIDNER: Great conversation, Kate. Look, we're learning Jared Kushner testified before the grand jury investigating Donald Trump and his allies 2020 election interference. And he's not the only one from Trump's inner circle. Details on that ahead. Also, tens of millions of Americans in more than a dozen states are facing extreme heat. The latest look at the record setting conditions next.

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