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Pope Leo XIV Celebrates His First Mass As Pontiff; AI Video Of Slain Man Speaks To His Killer In Court; President Trump Calls For 30- Day Unconditional Ceasefire. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired May 09, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:30:10]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning Pope Leo celebrated his first mass in his first full day as the leader of the Catholic Church and unexpectedly started off his homily with a statement in English.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE LEO XIV: I'll begin with a word in English and the rest is in Italian. But I want to repeat the words from the responsorial Psalm. I will sing a new song to the Lord because he has done marvels -- and, indeed, not just with me but with all of us, my brother cardinals. As we celebrate this morning, I invite you to recognize the marvels that the Lord has done. The blessings that the Lord continues to pour out upon all of us.

Through the ministry of Peter you have called me to carry the cross and to be blessed with that mission. And I know I can rely on each and every one of you to walk with me as we continue as a church, as a community of friends of Jesus, as believers, to announce the good news. To announce the gospel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is Father Patrick Mary Briscoe. He's the host of the Godsplaining podcast and editor of the Catholic magazine "Our Sunday Visitor," who has been in Saint Peter's Square and been in Rome for this whole kind of amazing journey. Father, it's good to see you again.

What did you think of Pope Leo's message there with that statement but also his homily this morning?

FATHER PATRICK MARY BRISCOE, HOST, GODSPLAINING PODCAST, EDITOR, OUR SUNDAY VISITOR (via Webex by Cisco): Thanks so much for having me on, Kate. It's great to be with you.

You know, when I first heard the pope beginning his homily, I thought gosh, that's going to have to take some getting used to. The pope speaks English without an accent because, of course, he's an American. And so we're just going to continue to hear these stories about our new pope that are going to I think really to speak to us in a special way in the United States.

BOLDUAN: In an interview with one of his brothers, his brother talked about his -- you know, the man that he knows and his passions and his work.

I want to play you something that he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN PREVOST, POPE LEO XIV'S BROTHER: He had a deep feeling for the disenfranchised, for the poor, for those who were not listened to, and he had a very strong feeling. And I think in that way he will be a second Pope Francis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And this speaks to there are so many people getting to know Pope Leo and wanting to know what kind of leader -- what kind of pope he will and where his focus will be. And when he says that in that way, he'll be a second Pope Francis what is that going to mean if that is the case? And what do you expect that to look like?

BRISCOE: Well, I have no reason to doubt his brother's testimony because we have this amazing record of his missionary spirit. You know, living and governing a diocese in Peru would have been a very difficult task. He's, of course, very accomplished in languages and administration, and all of that has produced an incredible resume.

But as we heard him preaching in the Sistine Chapel today our new pope, Pope Leo, is really someone driven like Pope Francis was to go out to reach out to those who are away from the church and to encourage people to give religion a second chance, and I love this.

Now, but it is very clear though that he's not going to be a copy of Pope Francis. And I think this is very interesting because he did not, in fact, choose to be known as Francis II. It's clear that he's praising Pope Francis' legacy, and I have every reason to believe and expect that he'll continue to embody Pope Francis' great missionary spirit. We heard him talking so passionately about encouraging believers, encouraging people to have religious faith today in his homily in a very moving way.

But he did chose the name Leo. He's sort of stepping back to the tradition and pointing us to -- pointing us to a powerful moment in Catholic history with this statement. He's telling us that he's thinking about Catholic social teaching and he's thinking about engagement with the modern world. But by not taking Francis or even the name of a more recent pope, he's coming at this with his kind of own spirit, giving us really his own take.

And I think that's exciting because we're going to continue to get to know him. We're going to continue to get to know this man who is clearly his own man.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, and as the surprise is kind of settling in of how quickly they -- the cardinals came to consensus and that they had picked an American to be pope.

You talked earlier today that I thought was really interesting about how the position changes a man. What do you see in how Pope Leo is carrying himself today in what we saw now that he has been elevated to this position?

[07:35:00]

BRISCOE: Well, I think there are a lot of ways to interpret how he presented himself.

For example, on the balcony, right from the very beginning, he wore the full traditional -- what's called choir as the full traditional apparel of the pope. Pope Francis famously eschewed some of that.

And there's a kind of humility though that comes with accepting the burden of office and I thought it was very beautiful that he was demonstrating that. But then also the way that he spoke at the end of his little address there on the balcony in Saint Peters about the Synodal project. It was a key project of Pope Francis so an internal reform project of the church.

So we'll continue to see some of these signs.

I think it will be interesting to see where Pope Leo will live, for example. We don't know if he'll live in the casa Santa Marta where Pope Francis lived or if he'll return to the Apostolic Palace, or if he'll live somewhere else on the Vatican grounds.

So we'll be looking to these decisions to continue to kind of see as he reveals his approach to this new ministry to us.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, much more to be revealed.

Father Patrick Mark Briscoe, it is wonderful to see you again. Thank you so much -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. This morning an unprecedented moment in a courtroom. An Arizona man killed in a road rage incident spoke to his killer. Christopher Pelkey's family used AI to give him a voice at the sentencing. This is the first time this has ever happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER PELKEY, KILLED IN ROAD RAGE INCIDENT (AI-GENERATED VIDEO): This here is a true representation of who I was -- you know, not how the courtroom portrayed me. So I would like to make my own impact statement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, what you just saw was AI.

CNN's Clare Duffy is with us now. She is the host of the CNN podcast "Terms of Service with Clare Duffy." Pretty remarkable. CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH WRITER, HOST CNN PODCAST "TERMS OF SERVICE WITH CLARE DUFFY": It is pretty remarkable. This man, Christopher Pelkey, was killed in a road rage incident in 2021.

And I spoke with his sister Stacey Wales who said she spent two years writing and planning for her victim impact statement, but when it came down to it, she felt like she just couldn't capture Christopher's humanity. She said they'd seen pictures of his autopsy. They'd seen the video footage of his shooting in court. And she really wanted to humanize him and allow him to address the killer with what she thought he would say, which is forgiveness. And she said she wasn't ready to give that to the killer herself just yet.

Let's listen to another part of that video -- that AI video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELKEY: It's a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances. In another life we probably could have been friends. I believe in forgiveness and in God who forgives. I always have and I still do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: And the judge in this case actually commented after seeing that AI video, saying, "I loved seeing that AI" and that he felt the forgiveness from the family.

The government had asked for 9 1/2 years for manslaughter for the killer in this case, and the judge ended up giving him 10 1/2 years. So it appears he really was impacted by that AI statement.

This is the first time, as you said, that we've seen AI used in this way in the courtroom. But experts tell me that increasingly, judges are going to have to decide whether and how to allow AI evidence, AI victim impact statements as this technology gets better and better.

BERMAN: And again, this came from the family itself because, you know, first blush you might think this is -- this would be jarring. This would be emotional. This would be something that would trouble them. But this is what they wanted.

DUFFY: Yeah. The family actually said that this was really healing to get to see their brother, their uncle one last time in this way and get to have him express forgiveness, which is what they all felt he really would have done if he were still alive.

BERMAN: It really is something to see. Clare Duffy, thank you very much.

And we will speak to the sister who wanted that -- who put it together -- a little bit later -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The Minnesota Timberwolves took advantage of a Curry-less Golden State Warriors and won game two, tying up the Western Conference. The Warriors will have to face another game against the Timberwolves without their star player Steph Curry who is still recovering from a hamstring strain.

CNN's Andy Scholes with us now. It just shows you the power of Curry, man.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah. And Sara, you know, you just hate it when injuries play a huge role in a playoff series. The Warriors look like they're not going to have Steph until game five at the earliest.

The Timberwolves, meanwhile -- I mean, they had their own huge scare in game two. Their superstar Anthony Edwards -- he was driving to the basket here. He's going to get his ankle stepped on by Trayce Jackson- Davis and he stayed down for a while and had to be helped to the locker room. But he was actually able to come back after halftime. He scored 20 in the Timberwolves' 117-93 win.

Now, earlier in the game, Draymond Green -- well, he was at it again. After being fouled by Naz Reid he flails his arm, smacking Reid in the face. He did the exact same thing against the Rockets. Now, Draymond was given a technical. It was his fifth of the playoffs. He's now two away from a suspension. He also had two flagrant fouls, which is also two away from a suspension.

But after the game Draymond says he's the victim and he's tired of the agenda against him.

[07:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DRAYMOND GREEN, FORWARD, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS: Looked like the angry Black man. I'm not an angry Black man. I am a very successful, educated Black man with a great family, and I am great at basketball and great at what I do. To put the agenda to try to keep making me look like an angry Black man is crazy. I'm sick of it. It's ridiculous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Las Vegas was trying to pull even with Oilers in game two. Down 4-2 in the third, they scored two goals to tie the game at four. We go to overtime in this one and Vegas not happy about this no call. Brayden McNabb gets tripped up by Viktor Arvidsson. It led to the Oilers going into transition and Leon Draisaitl would then win it for Edmonton. They now take a 2-0 lead in the series as it shifts to Canada.

All right. The Capitals, meanwhile, pulling even in their series with the Hurricanes. Connor McMichael scoring here on a breakaway in the second period. Washington gets an empty netter then at the end as well. They take game two 3-1.

And finally, the sports world very excited about the first American pope. Pope Leo XIV is from Chicago. The Cubs putting on their iconic sign outside Wrigley, "Hey, Chicago, He's a Cubs fan."

SIDNER: I love it.

SCHOLES: Well, what does the pope's brother John have to say about that?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PREVOST: That's not true.

REPORTER: It's not? Well, how long has he been a Sox fan? Tell me about that.

PREVOST: I would -- as long as I've known him.

REPORTER: Really?

PREVOST: All along we were both altar boys. So that was one of the rewards that we got was to go to a Sox game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. So the pope is actually a White Sox fan. And the team tweeted, "Well, would you look at that." They responded to the Cubs' proclamation by putting on their scoreboard "Hey Chicago, he's a Sox fan."

And, you know, Sara, the pope went to Villanova. A lot of Knicks fans are taking that as a sign that their going to go all the way because, of course, the Knicks are called the Nova Knicks because Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Mikal Bridges all played at Villanova.

So a lot of people having fun with the fact that the pope is from there.

SIDNER: Look at the pope bringing us all together. I have to say my uncles are White Sox fans and this is the best thing they've done since 2005 when they won the World Series. Hilarious.

SCHOLES: Not bad to have the pope on your side, right?

SIDNER: It doesn't hurt.

Andy Scholes --

SCHOLES: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- thank you so much.

BOLDUAN: Well, that's the joke. I mean, I heard it yesterday. Just like someone I was with said -- someone I was with at physical therapy actually was saying well now the Cubs - who is ever going to be the Cubs if they've got Jesus on their side, right?

SIDNER: I mean, she was there.

BOLDUAN: Like, that's exactly -- every Cubs -- sport is using it.

SIDNER: The pope is rooting for you. You might --

BOLDUAN: Every Chicago sports team is now officially -- that's who you should bet on.

SIDNER: The Cubs, the Bulls -- I mean, they're good. They're good.

BOLDUAN: Just run the table.

SIDNER: And your physical therapy was because you have been pitching, right? You're on a team. You're get -- you're heading towards --

BOLDUAN: I mean, I am -- I am -- I am --

SIDNER: -- a professional.

BOLDUAN: I am a professional athlete, very clearly.

SIDNER: Obviously.

BOLDUAN: She's literally speechless because of that -- yep.

And internal memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth instructing the military to start continuing with his ban and start kicking out transgender troops -- and start next month.

And also this. The latest cuts by the Trump administration. NOAA to end its billion-dollar extreme weather database. What this means for the natural disasters to come.

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[07:4745]

BOLDUAN: This morning the Pentagon is giving active-duty transgender troops a new deadline, June 6, to voluntarily leave the military or be forced out. That is according to a memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

It also comes after the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the green light to continue with his ban on transgender servicemembers in the military.

CNN's Natasha Bertand has more reporting on this for us this morning. And Natasha, what are you learning about what happens now?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Kate.

So Secretary Hegseth -- as you said, he sent a memo to senior Pentagon leaders last night announcing that U.S. troops who are no longer eligible to serve in the military due to diagnoses of gender dysphoria have until June 6 to voluntarily leave the military before they will be forced to do so.

Now, this memo comes just two days after the Supreme Court issued a divided ruling that said that DOD could enforce its ban on transgender servicemembers. And Hegseth has written on social media that "Trans is dead at DOD."

Now, it's worth noting that this ban on transgender troops -- it stems from an executive order that was signed by President Trump in the very early days of his administration, which said that transgender servicemembers are incompatible with military service, something that the thousands of transgender troops currently serving in the military would obviously very strongly disagree with.

But a senior defense official previously told reporters that there are over 4,000 servicemembers across the active-duty National Guard and military reserve with that diagnosis of gender dysphoria, which is defined as the psychological distress than an individual feels when their gender identity differs from their gender at birth. But not every transgender individual has gender dysphoria.

So it's completely unclear at this point how the Pentagon is actually going to remove any servicemembers who haven't disclosed that diagnosis.

Now, a federal judge also previously ruled that the Pentagon's ban could not move forward before the Supreme Court ruling, and said that its language was "unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizing transgender persons as inherently unfit," and saying that it's "conclusions bear no relation to the facts."

[07:50:00]

But as I said, troops now have until June 6 to voluntarily separate, and they will get that separation pay if they do it by that deadline. If they don't, they're going to be forced to separate, Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, Natasha. Thank you so much for your -- for your reporting. I always appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning President Trump is calling for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire in Russia's war on Ukraine. It comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin held a Victory Day parade. He invited several world leaders, including China's Xi Jinping, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the allied and Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

With us now is the executive director of the McCain Institute and the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, Evelyn Farkas. Thank you so much for being with us.

So the president calling for a 30-day ceasefire and saying there will be undisclosed sanctions if both sides don't agree.

What do you think of this?

EVELYN FARKUS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MCCAIN INSTITUTE, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR RUSSIA, UKRAINE, AND EURASIA (via Webex by Cisco): Well, John, thanks for having me on. I'm actually in Ukraine at the Kyiv Security Forum, so everyone is obviously paying close attention. But nobody expects this to be a big breakthrough. I do think it's helpful what President Trump seems to be hinting at is putting sanctions on Russia if they don't abide by it -- if they don't agree to this 30-day ceasefire. Because, of course, Ukraine has already said yes. So if we do that, that would be actually a really important step towards an ultimate peace deal.

BERMAN: Do you feel, or do you see any signs, or what signs do you see that Russia is feeling any pressure from the United States?

FARKAS: None whatsoever. I mean, as you said, Vladimir Putin is having this big parade in Moscow. He has President Xi at his side. They basically, like, reconfirmed, re -- you know, they took new vows to one another practically saying that their alliance is solid -- rock solid. He's also got, unfortunately, two NATO allies there. Those are more minor countries, Hungary and Slovakia, but obviously not helpful. But Putin is living high on the hog.

Let's not forget he's a war criminal. He is glorifying war. The soldiers that are marching in this parade are ones who conducted this brutal war against Ukraine. So it's really a little bit shocking, actually, that he's so comfortable with this optic.

BERMAN: Yeah, and while he's doing that a couple hundred miles, what, west of where you are in Lviv -- you know, near the border with Poland -- there are European foreign ministers -- and I didn't realize they were doing this. European foreign ministers meeting inside Ukraine to come out with a joint statement in support of a special tribunal to investigate Russian war aggression. That's quite a statement from Europe.

FARKAS: Yeah, it's huge John because remember, right now we're commemorating the end of World War II. So what happened at the end of World War II in addition to the guns being silent was the start of the Nuremberg trials to find justice for all of the people who were murdered -- primarily Jews, but many others who were murdered by the Nazis.

Unfortunately, what didn't happen was a tribunal to also make sure there was accountability in the Soviet Union because, of course, we know Stalin killed actually more people than the Nazis killed.

And that -- the fact that history was never addressed -- that there was never a tribunal there, many argue it means that we are where we are today where the Russians are continuing to commit these kinds of crimes in the name of imperialism in their history.

So --

BERMAN: There's --

FARKAS: -- the Europeans today, in Ukraine, are saying when this war ends, we're also going to have a tribunal because Putin is a war criminal.

BERMAN: You know, there are all kinds of statements and signs out coming from Vice President Vance and to a lesser extent Marco Rubio, and the president himself that they're getting a little tired of Russia or Russia's position. May be getting frustrated with their position.

I do wonder what the United States -- this Trump administration could do and, of course, what they'd be willing to do to put pressure on Russia that would maybe influence their decision.

FARKAS: Yeah. I mean, I think, John, the interesting thing here is that I think the administration is genuinely driving towards peace. The problem is that -- two things.

One, Vladimir Putin doesn't want peace because the minute he has peace -- well, first he has this tribunal, of course, that we just talked about. But he also has the people in Russia -- the veterans, his horrible economy -- all of that then he'll have to deal with. He'll have to contend with. So he doesn't want peace.

And then the second part of it is, of course, what kind of peace can we get even if he wanted peace? Because the only peace that he will accept is one that is unjust and doesn't actually bring war to an end because there's no security guarantee for the Ukrainians.

[07:55:05]

So it's very difficult to get a real peace without putting huge pressure on Russia, and that means -- frankly, I think at the end of the day the United States not just doing sanctions but really ramping up military assistance to Ukraine.

BERMAN: Again, it doesn't seem like that's where the Trump administration is headed or at least has been until this point, but we'll see if they change their posture.

Evelyn Farkas, great to see you. Please stay safe and enjoy your time in Ukraine -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. On our radar, this afternoon Erik and Lyle Menendez's attorney will ask a judge to remove the prosecutor from their resentencing case. The brothers are serving life sentences for the brutal killing of their parents in 1989.

Their attorneys filed a motion last month accusing the L.A. district attorney of being biased against them and mistreating the family. But the D.A. says the Menendez brothers are trying to force him out simply because they're unhappy with the prosecution's stance on the resentencing.

All right. The man accused of stalking Jennifer Aniston and crashing a car into her gate appeared for his hearing shirtless and covered in a blue blanket there. The judge put that hearing on hold to evaluate his mental health, and he's expected back in court later this month. He's accused of sending the actress social media, email, and voicemail messages. Jennifer Aniston was home when the crash happened. Police say a security guard held onto the man until officers could get there and take him in. And the White House fired the Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. She is the first woman and first Black person ever to have that job. The reason for her firing not clear but a conservative advocacy group had criticized her book selections and called her woke.

Hayden was sworn in in 2016 and she had just a year and a half left in her 10-year term. When she first got the job, she told CNN that she wanted to bring the contents of the library to people who might not have access to the actual building in Washington, D.C. -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sara, thanks.

A major shakeup happening at FEMA right now. The acting head of the agency was fired and escorted out of FEMA headquarters yesterday. And just a day before he was on Capitol Hill and made a very public break from the Trump administration's position on the agency's future. The president and the DHS secretary have both said that they would like to see FEMA eliminated completely -- the entire agency.

Appearing before a House committee Wednesday, Cameron Hamilton, that now former acting head, said this. "I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency."

Also yesterday the Trump administration ended an extreme weather database that tracks the costs of natural disasters and has been doing so and been in operation since 1980.

The impact of all of this, let's get to it. CNN's Allison Chinchar is looking into this for us. Allison, what does all of this mean for the natural disasters that are -- will inevitably be coming?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Right. Well, you think about. I mean, hurricane season is just around the corner. It starts here in just a few short weeks.

You look at this map. This is of 2024. So last year we had five hurricanes that were billion-dollar disasters. Now these maps obviously help private industry, like insurance companies, to be able to track where these disasters are. But it also helps us as the public because it's nice to be able to look year-over-year to see if there's any patterns or trends that are changing.

Because you take a look at this map. Looking at just last year alone you would say man, the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic -- there was no bad weather that happened there. Again -- but we know in the years before there were several billion-dollar disasters in those regions.

So it's very important to have this information to look at long-term trends. To see if there are areas that are starting to see a tick up in these billion-dollar disasters or even if just overall that number is growing because that is what we are seeing.

Again, they started this in 1980. The average numbers of disasters since they started it -- those billion-dollar disasters -- is over 400. Now -- but when you break it down by the decades, you'll notice they are increasing significantly each decade.

So again, back in the '80s we had a total of 33 of those billion- dollar disaster events. In the '90s it jumped to 57, then 67. In the 2000s, 131 from the last decade. And then the current decade is already at 115. Keep in mind we only have just a few short years of data. We don't have the full decade just yet.

Some of this does come in line with the building costs and things like that that are more expensive. People moving to places where disasters are more likely to happen. But also, too, climate change playing a vital role in this, increasing some of those that may have only been maybe, say, million-dollar disasters now costing billions of dollars.

Again, the average annual event is about 8.8 overall when you start in 1980 and go to 2024. But now the average in just the last five years is about 20.4.

BOLDUAN: All right, Allison Chinchar. Thank you so much.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SIDNER: A historic day for the Catholic Church. The first U.S.-born pope performs his first mass as pontiff in the Sistine Chapel.