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Blue Origin's First All-Female Crew Returns From Edge Of Space; Harvard Professors Sue Trump Admin Over Threat To $9B In Funding; Rory McIlroy Captures Career Grand Slam With Masters Win. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired April 14, 2025 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:32:26]
JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Blue Origin taking star power to new heights. In the skies above west Texas this morning, the space tourism company sending its first all-female crew to the edge of space and back.
Among the six women on board, pop star, Katy Perry, TV anchor, Gayle King, and Lauren Sanchez, the fiancee -- the fiancee of Blue Origin owner, Jeff Bezos.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes. They traveled about 62 miles above sea level, where they experienced weightlessness for a few precious minutes, as you can see right there.
The booster that got them there came back to earth, landing separately, and then the New Shepard capsule carrying the crew parachuted down safely as well.
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LAUREN SANCHEZ, HELICOPTER PILOT: It was like, quiet. But then also really alive.
AMANDA NGUYEN, BIOASTRONAUTICS RESEARCH SCIENTIST: I just want all survivors to know. That you can heal. No dream is too wild.
KERIANNE FLYNN, INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER: I just hope that these types of experiences, no clear path for everyone to be able to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Now, Gayle King, you are officially an astronaut. How do you feel?
GAYLE KING, BROADCAST JOURNALIST: I still can't accept that word.
AISHA BOWE, FORMER NASA ROCKET SCIENTIST: I just feel a renewed connection to everything in life and where we are. And I can't wait to go back out there.
KATY PERRY, SINGER & SONGWRITER: It is the highest high. And it is surrender to the unknown, trust.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: Clearly, a transcendent experience.
DEAN: Definitely.
SANCHEZ: Joining us now, CNN aviation analyst, Miles O'Brien. He's a science correspondent for "PBS Newshour."
Miles, great to see you as always.
There's a big debate about Blue Origin, at least during the first flights, about whether they were actually in space or not. They try to approach the Karman line, again, 62 miles above sea level. In your opinion, were they in space?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yes, I'll give them space, 62 miles, give or take. They were up there. They saw the curvature of the earth. They saw the blackness of the deep void.
But I will tell you, the smartest sound byte in all of those that you just played was Gayle King, saying, "I will not accept the title astronaut."
They're not astronauts. Just like you and I are not the pilots of the airplane we fly to Cleveland. We sit in the back and we have a drink and eat some peanuts. And that does not make us the captain of the aircraft.
So, you know, I think it's a -- it's a spectacular event. Some beautiful people in space, an amazing four-minute joyride. But beyond that, I wouldn't give them astronaut status.
DEAN: Miles, when you and I talked yesterday, it was more about actual space tourism that they are on this. And I asked you, like, what kind of preparation that they would have had to undergo and training. And you said it really is just about kind of buckling in and going for the ride here.
[13:35:05]
O'BRIEN: Yes. And I guess that's the point, right? And that's why careful about how we describe this. You know, they're not astronauts. They're participants in a cool adventure. There's no question.
They are tourists who have deep pockets or, in this case, good connections, maybe a little bit of both.
And that's good. That means that more and more people, eventually (TECH PROBLEM). You know, a lot of people like to talk about aviation in the 1920s. And it was only rich people who flew on airplanes. And now we all fly.
I'm not sure this is a perfect analogy, because it's not like we need to go visit somebody in low-earth orbit.
But it is possible to imagine many more people having access to it for whatever reason they like, if nothing else, to go up there and look at the world below, and as Katy Perry was singing the Louis Armstrong song, "What a Wonderful World It Is."
You know, all the astronauts I've ever spoken to say, when they go to space, the most interesting thing they look at is earth.
SANCHEZ: Yes, 100 percent. And as you heard them speak, it's clearly emotional. And a lot of folks want that kind of experience.
I do wonder, if you could talk to us, miles, about Launch Site One, this area where Jeff Bezos has designated these landings. What do you make of the entire operation, top to bottom?
O'BRIEN: Just you know, he runs a good, good ship there. It's a -- it's, you know, it's an organization that is a very tight-lipped group.
I've had trouble getting access to do any stories with them over the years. They've kind of operated in secret. Until obviously recently, they've come out more in the public light.
But, you know, when you compare what Blue Origin has done relative to SpaceX, SpaceX has done a lot more and flown several orbital missions and obviously ferrying crews to and from the International Space Station.
Blue Origin is just now getting into the orbital business. That could put them on a more competitive par with SpaceX over time. So it's a slow, steady pace. Maybe it's a hare-and-tortoise story eventually.
But right now, he's definitely behind SpaceX but is running a program that so far is as far as project seems to be up to snuff.
DEAN: All right. Miles O'Brien, good to chat. Thanks so much for being here with us.
O'BRIEN: You're welcome.
DEAN: Up next, a group of Harvard professors sue the Trump administration over its decision to review the university's federal funding. One of the professors behind that lawsuit will join us right after this break.
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DEAN: Professors at Harvard University are suing the Trump administration over its threat to review nearly $9 billion in federal funds.
The lawsuit, coming after the university received a letter from a federal task force reportedly demanding the Ivy League school eliminate its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs and ban masks at campus protests, among other things.
The funding review is the latest effort of a federal task force to combat anti-Semitism on college campuses after a string of protests and high-profile incidents around the country in response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza over the last year.
I'm joined now by Nikolas Bowie. He's a professor at Harvard Law School, and part of this lawsuit.
Professor, thanks so much for being here with us.
I do want to start with some news we're just getting, which is that your -- your president of the university, Harvard, Alan Gerber, announced, just minutes ago, that the school will not comply with the Trump administration's demands.
He said, quote, "The university will not negotiate over its independence or its constitutional rights."
I just want to hear from you. Where does this leave your lawsuit and what are your thoughts on that?
NIKOLAS BOWIE, PROFESSOR, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: Yes. I'm really grateful for President Garber for exercising such leadership here because with the president of the United States is demanding of universities is nothing short of authoritarian.
There's a quote on the building of the Department of Justice, "Where law ends, tyranny begins." And tyranny, frankly, is the only word to describe what the Trump administration is doing with respect to universities.
He's seeking to block funding millions, billions of dollars to university hospitals, to medical research without any legal authority.
He is violating the First Amendment rights of universities and faculty by demanding that if universities want to keep this money, they have to suppress our speech and change what we teach and how we study.
And he's doing all of this and issuing all of these demands in defiance of any kind of legal limit that would prohibit him from making these sorts of demands.
So our lawsuit is contesting the legality of all of this. We're trying to defend the First Amendment in this context.
And we're really grateful that President Garber appears to have gotten the same message, that there's just no complying and no negotiating with an authoritarian -- authoritarian demand like this.
DEAN: The Trump administration says it's doing all of this in an effort to combat anti-Semitism on campus. And they've alleged that Harvard didn't do enough to combat anti-Semitism and protect Jewish students.
Do you think Harvard did enough and have proper changes been made?
BOWIE: Yes. I think the best way of describing what the administration is doing is it's pretext. So this task force calls itself the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism.
[13:45:08]
But the law that governs civil rights, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, includes procedures for how to investigate discrimination and ensure that discrimination is purged from recipients of federal funding.
I think it's the university's responsibility to ensure that all students feel safe and protected. The Civil Rights Act demands that any recipient of federal funding try to eliminate all discrimination.
And yet, the Trump administration is ignoring that law completely. That law does not permit the administration to simply take billions of dollars away from Boston's Children's Hospital.
It doesn't permit the president of the United States to demand, as it most recently did, that Harvard should reduce the power of the faculty or eliminate all DEI programs.
And really, if you look at what the task force is demanding, not just of Harvard, but of Columbia University or Princeton or the University of Pennsylvania, the main thing that unites this attack on universities is that the Trump administration does not like universities.
It does not like our politics. It's trying to take money away because of policies regarding transgender athletes, or because it's research on climate change is causing anxiety.
So anti-Semitism is really just a pretext for what is really an authoritarian attack on higher education.
DEAN: So you -- and what I'm hearing is you think that enough was done to combat anti-Semitism, that this is about something else.
BOWIE: What I think is that there are laws governing how to investigate discrimination. One of those laws is the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It's an incredibly and important law.
And if the Trump administration were serious about enforcing it, it would start by complying with its basic procedures. No law permits the Trump administration to just seize billions of dollars.
And so, regardless of what the administration says Harvard is doing, what the administration is trying to do is bankrupt universities.
And that's what the chair of the task force has said is his goal on FOX News. He says he thinks that universities have been taken over by leftists and by Marxists. It's not about anti-Semitism at all.
DEAN: All right. Nikolas Bowie, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.
BOWIE: Thank you for having me.
DEAN: He's the brand new owner of a coveted green jacket. But Rory McIlroy says what he -- what he saw after his win yesterday wasn't joy. The latest on his decade-long quest to win the Masters.
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DEAN: It was a long, tough road for Rory McIlroy, but his quest for the career grand slam is finally over.
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(CHEERING)
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DEAN: The winning putt on the first hole of sudden death gave McIlroy his first Masters victory, and the last of four major titles he needed for the career grand slam.
SANCHEZ: Yes, that's something just five other golfers have accomplished. Even President Trump weighed in on this historic achievement.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have to congratulate Rory. That showed tremendous courage. He was -- he was having a hard time, but it showed great guts and stamina and courage.
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SANCHEZ: CNN world sport anchor, Don Riddell, is in Augusta, Georgia, with more on Rory McIlroys big triumph.
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DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Boris and Jessica, what a day. What an extraordinary day! Witnessing Rory McIlroy finally win the green jacket to become Masters champion.
But it was about so much more than that. It was about overcoming so much adversity, so much personal anguish that he had experienced on this course some 14 years ago.
And of course, by winning the green jacket, he now becomes only the sixth player to complete the career grand slam.
And the other five are considered to be titans of the game. We're talking Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. So he's done it. He has finally done it.
And the emotion throughout the entire day, I mean, it really was a rollercoaster, but the emotion on the 18th green, when he finally got it done in a playoff, I mean, it was just primal.
This is how he explained what came out of him in that moment.
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RORY MCILROY, MASTERS CHAMPION: There wasn't much joy in that reaction. It was all relief. And then -- then, you know, the joy came pretty soon after that.
But I've been coming here 17 years and, you know, it was a -- it was a good decade-plus of emotion that came out of me there.
I'm not going to compare it to life moments like a marriage or having a child, but it's the -- the best day of my golfing life.
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RIDDELL: Yes, it was historic. It was epic. It was insanely dramatic. People are already describing it as one of the best days ever seen in all of sports. And I can tell you, it was an absolute treat to be a part of it.
Boris and Jessica, back to you.
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SANCHEZ: Don Riddell, thank you so much.
We're tracking breaking news into CNN. An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.2 has struck southern California.
DEAN: We're told the quake's epicenter was near Julian, California. That's about an hour northeast of San Diego. We're just trying to get more details now.
Again, it was preceded by a 3.3 magnitude foreshock just before 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. Then this larger magnitude quake just a short time ago.
SANCHEZ: Yes. It does not appear that there is widespread, extensive damage. And 5.2 on the grand scheme of things, not a huge earthquake.
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Nevertheless, with situations like these, you never know how damaging it could be, or if there were folks that were affected by it.
We're, of course, going to keep track of this story and bring you updates with the very latest. The 5.2 magnitude earthquake hitting southern California.
Now, despite a unanimous Supreme Court ruling, both President Trump and the president of El Salvador say they are unable to return a Maryland father mistakenly deported to a notorious Salvadoran prison. We'll explain why in just moments. Don't go anywhere.
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