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Blinken Urges Senators To Vote On State Dept. Nominees; New Financial Pressures As Govt. Programs Set To End; JPMorgan Bank Accounts Up 10-15% Since 2019, Lowest Pandemic-Era Increase Observed Since April 2020; Alabama Woman Returns Home After 2-Day Search; Eli Lilly: Alzheimer's Drug Could Be Approved This Year; Passenger Crash- Lands Plane After Pilot Had Medical Emergency. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 17, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:32:47]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Secretary of State Antony Blinken wants to light a fire under Senate lawmakers, namely Republican Senators. Moments ago, he urged the Senate to end a month's-long hold on dozens of State Department nominees.

A total of 38 ambassador nominations are awaiting confirmation. Keep in mind, some have been on hold for over a year. And for the first time ever, there could be no confirmed ambassadors in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon by summer's end.

CNN national security correspondent, Kylie Atwood, is standing by at the State Department.

Kylie, Blinken said the holds are hurting national security.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. So what he told reporters today is that he sent a letter to all U.S. Senators urging them to move swiftly on these nominees for critical ambassador posts and critical top State Department official posts that had been held up, as you said, some for months, some over a year.

In total, there are more than 60 nominees from the State Department that are on ice when it comes to congressional approval, their process to move them through and get them out into the field.

And the secretary of state called this unnecessary. He said, as you mentioned, that it is undermining national security.

And he said that this is really hurting Americans traveling abroad, it's hurting American tourists, and it's benefiting American adversaries.

It is Senator Rand Paul who has a blanket hold on all of these nominees because he is demanding more information about U.S. government-funded Covid-19 research from the State Department.

And so that's why the secretary of state said that this hold on these nominees is not actually about their credentials at all.

Listen to what he told reporters just now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: No one is questioning the qualifications of these career diplomats. They're being blocked from leverage on other unrelated issues. It's irresponsible, and it's doing harm to our national security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: And so what the secretary of state is asking Congress to do is move swiftly. He said that the State Department has worked extensively with the office of Senator Rand Paul, but that obviously has not sufficed yet to Paul's depends to the department and to the U.S. government.

[14:35:02]

And so he is now urging all Senators to try and get on board so that they can get these nominees through and onto their posts.

Of course, we should note the Senate is going into recess in august. There's not much time before they're out for about five weeks -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Timing is an important point here.

Kylie Atwood, at the State Department, thank you so much.

Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Coming this fall, something we will welcome, which is dropping temperatures. And something we most definitely will not, which is rising costs. That is when many government protections and programs are ending and millions of Americans could be feeling the pain on this one.

We have CNN's Tom Foreman here to explain.

A lot of people are going to want to know what's happening here. Tell us what programs are set to expire?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There may be nothing in the news today that could affect you and your community more than this news. This is fallout of the pandemic still.

Look at all these programs that are now going to end this fall. Student loan payments are going to restart, pandemic-era funding for childcare expenses, massive expense for many people, those are going to end.

Work requirements for food stamps will restart, and states continue to remove people from Medicaid rolls who are no longer eligible. This is the backwash way of saying we're past the pandemic, many

things are changed. The White House has many plans to try to offset some of this. But nonetheless, the changes are coming. Could affect a lot of people.

KEILAR: As people are looking to not see that help with childcare, there are a lot of providers who are actually going to be increasing the costs. So there's -- like a double-edged sword there.

How much could all of this impact the health of the economy?

FOREMAN: That is a great question. It could affect your economy personally, whoever you are, a great deal.

But if you look at what Mark Zandi, from Moody's Analytics said about this, he basically said that this can affect individual people in their own way. Ending these sources of income and support will be a financial blow to lower-income Americans and be a headwind to overall economic growth.

But, really important here, it won't blow hard enough to push the overall economy into recession.

And then he went on to talk about the Fed handling interest rates, how they have to walk a knife edge to move forward.

So, yes, depending who you are, big impact. In terms of the overall economy, they think right now maybe not.

KEILAR: Lower-income Americans getting hit here.

We're also getting a glimpse into folks who have a cushion, right, who have some savings.

FOREMAN: Yes.

KEILAR: What are we seeing?

FOREMAN: And this is why we're not sure where this will land. Look, right now, from 2019 to 2023, before the pandemic to today, people have 10 percent to 15 percent more in their savings, their median cash balances. That was much higher, but it's still higher than it was.

And very importantly, right now, earnings have just started outpacing inflation. So we're really on this knife edge with all this in terms of what it will still mean to our economy, what it might mean to you personally.

But watch all these numbers, keep an eye on it, because this is what's going to come to your pocketbook in a way that news sometimes doesn't. But this time really does.

KEILAR: Yes. You will start feeling this, a lot of folks will.

Tom Foreman, thank you for taking us through that.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: The Alabama woman who went missing after calling 911 about a child walking alone on the interstate is now back home. Some unanswered questions in the case. What we know about her disappearance.

And a passenger had to grab the controls of a small plane, crash- landing it on Martha's Vineyard. We've got the details straight ahead.

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[14:42:53]

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we are watching this hour.

Writers are urging artificial intelligence companies to stop using their work without permission.

Thousands of authors, including romance novelists, Norah Roberts, and Margaret Atwood, who you might know as the author behind "The Handmaid's Tale," signed an open letter to the leaders of companies, like OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft and IBM, arguing that embedding their writings in A.I. systems threatens to damage their profession.

And they're calling on them to obtain consents, credits, and fairly compensate writers for the use of copyrighted material in training A.I.

Also, China's foreign minister has vanished, vanished from public view. He was last seen three weeks ago on June 25th.

And the prolonged absence now driving intense speculation during a busy period of diplomatic activity in Beijing. Today, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said she had, quote, "no information to provide."

And Sir Elton John testifying in court today as a defense witness in the sex offense trial against actor, Kevin Spacey.

According to Press Association reports, he appeared via video link. He was asked to speak about Spacey's presence at a fundraising event at the singer's home in England.

Spacey is accused of aggressively grabbing a man who was driving him to the event, which the actor denies. Spacey is facing 12 sexual offense charges by four different men. He denies all of the allegations.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: A mystery in Alabama. Police are trying to piece together what happened to a woman who returned home after vanishing for two days. This is 25-year-old Carlee Russell. She disappeared Thursday after she called 911 to report that she saw a toddler walking alone on the side of the highway. According to officials, she stopped and then phoned a family member

who lost contact with her during that call. When officers arrived at the scene, they found her car and some of her belongings, but there was no sign of Russell or a child.

CNN's Ryan Young has been following this story for us.

So, Ryan, what more have police learned about what happened here?

[14:45:02]

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, there's so much about this story that we still don't know just yet. What we know, and the good news part of this is that she is home, and she is safe right now.

Hoover police, we've been calling them all day trying to figure out exactly what's going on. But we know they want to sort of give her some time with her family and then, apparently, they will interview her at some point.

Like you talked about, the phone call came in around 9:30. She called 911 to say she saw a toddler. At some point, when police arrived on Interstate 459, they found that car and found her cell phone there.

Then from that point on, there is no details about where she may have been. And of course, on Saturday, she showed up at the family home.

And the family is so relieved that she's home. In fact, her parents released this statement: "We are so grateful to all of you and acts of kindness, generosity, and compassion you have shown. Our baby is safe. Thank you, Father God."

And, Boris, we should stress here, if you think about all the people who helped, not only the police department but family members and the community. They were all out there looking for this young lady.

Right now, we don't have the details about where she was for those hours when people were desperately searching for her -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Ryan Young, keep us posted on the latest in this case.

Thanks so much.

Brianna?

KEILAR: Another big step could be coming in the fight against Alzheimer's disease. A drug to slow its progression may be approved. We'll have details ahead.

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[14:50:49]

SANCHEZ: Some major new developments to share with you in the treatment of Alzheimer's. A second drug to slow the disease's progression could be approved this year.

Alzheimer's erodes memory and thinking, eventually leaving a person unable to perform basic tasks. It effects and estimated 6.7 million Americans over the age of 65.

Let's bring in CNN's Meg Tirrell. She joins us now live.

Meg, what can you tell us about this drug?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, this drug is called Donanemab. It's made by the company Eli Lilly. And they said that they had finished their submission to the FDA for full traditional approval and they expect a decision by the end of the year.

And they also presented fuller phase three trial results at the international conference in Amsterdam today.

What they show is that this medicine, like the one that we just saw get full approval a couple weeks ago, can slow the progress aggression of Alzheimer's disease by 35 percent for this drug in this trial.

What that translates to is four to seven months benefit for people taking the drug compared to placebo in that lack of cognition and the ability to do daily tasks that comes with Alzheimer's over an 18-month trial.

But this does come with some side effects, which we see for all kinds of drugs in the class, including swelling in the brain and brain bleeds. That happened for more than 20 percent for people who are taking the medicine. And there were three deaths in the trial associated with the drug.

And so if this becomes available at the end of the year, similarly to the other one, it will have to be a conversation between patients and doctors between the risks and benefits.

Of course, People are very excited that we're finally seeing some progress here.

SANCHEZ: Definitely. So many people affected by Alzheimer's.

And notably, there's some new data about the geography of its spread. More people in the east and southeast being affected. What can you tell us about that?

TIRRELL: Yes, this is the first time we're seeing county level estimates for the prevalence of Alzheimer's. And that's important because you have to be able to make budgeting decisions, planning, allocation as populations get older.

What we're seeing is that there are counties in the east and southeast, and specifically Miami-Dade County, Baltimore and Bronx County, where we're seeing the highest estimates of prevalence for people over 65 with Alzheimer's. And the reason for that, it's where the highest proportion of people

who are elderly and also where people who are black and Hispanic live. We've seen a higher prevalence in those groups versus others. So important information for planning going forward.

SANCHEZ: Meg Tirrell, thank you so much for the update.

Brianna?

KEILAR: Now to a scary plane emergency over Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. A pilot of a small plane suffering a medical emergency as the aircraft neared the airport on the island.

And a passenger then jumped in, took over the controls, made a crash landing with no landing gear. Both the pilot and the passenger survived. That is the good news here.

We have CNN's Pete Muntean joining us now.

Really unbelievable. Thank goodness they both survived. This could have gone a very different way. What happened here?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The passenger deserves so much credit here. A 68-year-old woman on board, a companion co-pilot maybe was the case. And the 79-year-old pilot, she saved both of their lives in this crash landing.

There's the video at the Martha's Vineyard airport. This airplane is a single-engine turbo prop. It's called a Piper Meridian. A pretty hot little airplane, about $2 million, goes about 300 miles per hour.

What's so interesting is that the FAA and the NTSB are now investigating exactly what went wrong here, how this pilot had a medical emergency and what the nature of the medical emergency was.

We're able to see from the FlightAware track that the plane, as it came in to land initially, went around once and then flew around the airport two more times and then ended up like this.

Although, pretty good. They say any landing you can walk away from, not so bad. Just sheared off one of the wings. Mostly in one piece. That was pretty good.

You can see the track here, though, how they circled the airport after they came from White Plains in New York, only about an hour-long flight.

The investigators will want to know exactly what the nature of this medical emergency was and how this ended up in this way.

This is the type of the airplane. Relatively simple and straightforward to fly if you're trained to do it.

[14:55:03] But the big question is, how much flying experience did this passenger have? Was she regularly with this person on board this airplane? Was she familiar with the airplane enough?

We've seen instances where passengers have swooped in to try to land an airplane when there's been some other medical emergency on board. It's not totally unheard of.

The company, Piper, that makes these now, they make these with an automatic landing system for just this case. The company, named Garman, builds an auto land system so you press a button, it finds the nearest airport, lines it up with the runway and brings in a landing as smooth as glass.

So that's an option on top of the $2 million, $2.5 million price tag for one that is new.

KEILAR: If you knew where the button was to press? Is that right, on that?

MUNTEAN: You have to know where this button is to press. The plane came in with the landing gear up. That's kind of second -

(CROSSTALK)

MUNTEAN: Well, I think you would have to know exactly where it was. We don't know a lot of details here because we've not been able to listen to the air traffic control audio. It's not available there.

So did they try to get someone in the tower to try to talk this person down or were they not in contact with air traffic control and just came in to land, they saw the airport and just went for it, descended?

So, we'll see here. There's a lot of big questions here.

All in all, pretty good. She deserves a ton of credit for making a good landing.

KEILAR: Let's hope a speedy recovery --

MUNTEAN: No doubt.

KEILAR: -- for both of them.

Pete, thank you for that.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: The Kremlin is calling it a terrorist attack after Ukraine unleashed attacks on a critical bridge connecting Russia to Crimea. We have more on the fallout when we come back.

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