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Intel Chief Tulsi Gabbard "Off Message" and Out of Favor; Study Links Screen Addiction in Kids to Risk of Suicidal Behavior; Rare, Urgent Safety Alert Issued for Boeing 737 Max Engines. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 19, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: As the conflict in the Middle East escalates and President Trump considers using military action against Iran, we're beginning to see some cracks form in the Trump administration. Sources tell CNN that President Trump's top intelligence advisor, Tulsi Gabbard, is out of favor and that the president sees her as, quote, off message when it comes to the Middle East conflict.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: CNN's Kristen Holmes is joining us live now from the White House with more details on her new reporting. Kristen, administration officials have said they were giving Gabbard time to settle into her new role. Is that grace period over?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna and Boris, I mean, what we've seen is a real evolution in the last several weeks. We started this story on Tulsi Gabbard. We heard a lot from the White House saying that Donald Trump had a lot of faith in Tulsi Gabbard, that he liked having her as part of the administration.

But that's really changed over the last several weeks, particularly as we've seen this escalation between Israel and Iran. And we were told that this really peaked for the president when Tulsi Gabbard posted a video on Twitter. It was a three minute video on Twitter.

And I want to read you some of the things that she mentions in this video. She says the world is closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before. She blames political elites and warmongers for, quote, stoking fears between nuclear powers.

And the president believed, and so did a lot of officials around him, that this was a veiled criticism at him for this consideration he was giving to potentially green light strikes against Iran by Israel. And that led to President Trump believing that she was, quote, off message.

This is what one White House official told me, said, When the president thinks you're off message, he doesn't want you in the room.

Now, two days before she posted that video, we know that there was a meeting at Camp David in which several of his top security advisers were invited to be there. And Tulsi Gabbard was not there. Now, she was also serving the National Guard, her National Guard duty that weekend.

So you have conflicting viewpoints. People close to to Gabbard say that it was because she was serving. The people who were talking to us from the administration say that she was never invited to that event intentionally.

Now, one of the things to keep in mind here is that Tulsi Gabbard was not a diehard MAGA person. She was a former Democratic congresswoman. And she really came into the fold because of the campaign and because of their rhetoric around this anti interventionist dialogue that they had been saying.

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Donald Trump saying he wanted no more wars. That has really been her viewpoint for years. Now, we did get pushback from her office saying that the president and Gabbard's statements on Iran are congruent.

They also say just because Iran is not building a nuclear weapon right now doesn't mean they aren't very close, as President Trump said. They also just said that the director had remains focused on her mission of providing accurate and actionable intelligence to the president.

Just to be very clear here, we have no indication that she's going anywhere. We specifically asked, do we think that she's going to get fired or relieved of her duties? And this person said -- one of the officials told us, no, we don't think that that's going to happen now. President doesn't want to fire anyone.

But right now, there is a lot of second guessing about whether or not her viewpoint has value.

KEILAR: All right, great reporting. Kristen Holmes live for us from the White House. Thank you for that.

Still ahead, a new study warning that some kids are in danger of getting addicted to their screens. We know this, right? But you can see the cold, hard data and it is fascinating. So what parents should be watching for next?

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KEILAR: It is a question that a lot of parents ask themselves, how much screen time is too much when it comes to our kids. But is that the question that we should be asking? A new study suggests that we should focus not just on overuse of screens, but on whether our kids are actually addicted to using the technology.

The study, which was published in the medical journal JAMA, found that children with a higher increasing use of social media and cell phones were at two to three times greater risk for suicidal behavior.

The kids participating in this, there were thousands of them. They were nine to 10 years old when this study started.

With us now is Dr. Victoria Dunckley. She is a child psychiatrist and she's also the author of the book "Reset Your Child's Brain, a four week plan to end meltdowns, raise grades and boost social skills by reversing the effects of electronic screen time."

Dr. Dunkley, when you look at these kids here, and by the end of it, when they go from nine to 10 up to age 14, there were significant minorities of them addicted to social media or just to their phone entirely or to video games, almost half in some of those categories. What is your reaction to these findings?

VICTORIA DUNCKLEY, CHILD PSYCHIATRIST: That pretty much matches what we see about one in three kids will either be addicted or have some kind of side effect from screen time. Even within the same family, if they have more than one or two kids, they often parents will say, you know, this child is OK, but my other child has a problem with it. So those are really high odds that we shouldn't be gambling with.

KEILAR: Yes, that's a really interesting point, because I have heard some parents say, oh, yes, my kids, you know, they can just put the tablet down and then they go off and do other things.

I personally have not found that in my house, right? The tablet might as well be super glued to their hands. So we have put them away. But what makes some kids get more addicted than other kids?

DUNCKLEY: That's a great question, I think some kids are just going to have an underlying vulnerability. So they might be, you know, have mild attention issues that makes them more prone to being attracted to something that's highly attractive. That's very stimulating. Other kids might be shy, so they're drawn to screens because it helps -- it's more satisfying or it helps them get out of awkward situations.

So whatever the child's vulnerability is, screen time tends to make that worse. So if they have attention issues, that'll be worse. If they have mood issues, they're going to be more irritable or depressed.

If they have, you know, obsessive compulsive tendencies, that'll come out. If they have tics, that'll come out. So kind of across the board, what we see is those symptoms or dysfunction are magnified by screen time.

So some kids are more resilient and you may not see it. Other kids, you know, just a little bit of screen time can make everything worse. And you don't actually know for that individual child until you remove them completely and see what happens.

KEILAR: Yes, and when we look at this study, I mean, this is alarm bells for so many parents. If you're talking about mental health issues and suicidality caused by these kinds of addictions, your book is a how-to on implementing a screen time fast in a household. I used it.

How do parents support kids as they are doing this, as they are doing a screen time fast? Because it's a really intimidating thing in this day and age. DUNCKLEY: Yes, I think the first thing to start with is just education about how screen time impacts the brain and how it impacts the sense of self and development over time. So what we know is that screen time triggers a stress response. The brain, the arousal system becomes activated.

So the child becomes more aroused, but at the same time, they're sedentary. So we have this kind of mismatch between fight or flight hormones and being still. So all of that kind of gets pent up and can either manifest in aggression or internalize and manifest as depression and anxiety.

As that worsens, the child may report that nothing feels good. You know, their dopamine pathways are desensitized, so they can't find pleasure in things anymore.

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And then the other thing we know is light at night from screen time desynchronizes the body clock, and that may impact serotonin and other chemicals that lead to that suicidal thinking. So in my experience, it's very hard to treat these kids without addressing screen time. And even though most parents just want to cut back, it really works so much better to just get rid of it completely for at least three to four weeks, and then we go from there.

Some kids might be able to tolerate a little bit, you know, if it's very dialed back, and other kids, they just can't. So we try to continue to continue relative abstinence for as long as possible. The longer the child is without screens as they age, the more resilient they will be.

KEILAR: So you're kind of approaching it like removing an ingredient from a diet that someone might be allergic to.

DUNCKLEY: Exactly.

KEILAR: OK, and so --

DUNCKLEY: Some kids are just going to be more sensitive.

KEILAR: Yes, and we've had guests on who they talk about they're potting up with other families to go screen free because they know there's so much peer pressure about it, right? What do you say to parents who they worry -- they might worry about keeping their kids from doing what all the other kids are doing? Or also, they have kids who are a little older and they have to do homework on a computer.

DUNCKLEY: Yes, I think for when kids are younger, it's easier, obviously. Most, I think there's the pendulum is swinging the other way now, so I really encourage to talk to other parents and see who's on board. Some people might be open to it, but you never know until you ask.

It is obviously easier if you have other people who are like minded. And even if they're not doing the same thing you're doing, if they'll respect what you're doing, that goes a long way. As kids get older, it is more difficult, but you can still find those parents.

And one thing that I think is happening now is parents are kind of banding together and saying, OK, we're just not going to do social media at all, you know, as my child, as a teenager, or we're not going to do any gaming or, you know, things like that. So if you kind of get rid of the worst culprits, that helps.

As far as homework at night, I feel like this is a huge issue. It's very hard to re-regulate the nervous system if they're being forced to use the computer at night for homework. Obviously, they're doing other things, too, you know, while they're doing their homework. So I think one tip is to have them do it in a common area so that they're not multitasking and things like that.

You can also ask the school to cut down on that screen-related homework. I had one family who just simply told the school, hey, if my kid doesn't get their work done during the day while they're at school, that's it. We're not doing any homework.

And, you know, lo and behold, the child was able to get all their work done and not have to deal with that light at night. So there are ways to work around it. Load matters.

So it really just helps to cut back as much as you can.

KEILAR: It's so helpful to talk to you. So many parents are curious about this and concerned about it. And this study certainly drives that home.

Dr. Victoria Dunckley, thank you so much for being with us.

DUNCKLEY: Thank you, Brianna. I appreciate it.

KEILAR: And if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters, please call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988 to connect with a trained counselor or to visit their website at 988lifeline.org. We'll be right back.

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SANCHEZ: Flight safety officials are putting out a rare and urgent warning about possible problems with Boeing 737 Max engines. After two incidents, officials say that smoke from a bird strike could make its way from the engine into the ventilation system and from there to the cockpit. That is considered extremely dangerous because of the risk of smoke overcoming the pilots.

CNN Aviation correspondent Pete Muntean joins us now live. So, Pete, how are they planning to address this? How did they come about this information?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It's pretty interesting. And this is a pretty rare move here by the National Transportation Safety Board. This is what the agency calls an urgent safety recommendation. It has to do with these engines that are on all Boeing 737 Max jets. And it stems from these two cases of commercial flights hitting birds. One of them, this incident back in March of 2023, that was a bird strike on Southwest Airlines Flight 3923.

And you can see the passenger cabin there filled with smoke as this flight had to make an emergency landing back in Havana, Cuba.

Now, the NTSB says incidents like this expose this flaw in 737 Max engines when they're damaged. The engine itself is called a CFM Leap 1B. And investigators say a part that dampens vibration inside the engine when it's damaged can cause oil to burn. And then that burning can produce smoke, which then can enter the plane's ventilation system, ultimately venting into the passenger cabin or the cockpit.

You mentioned the danger of smoke in the cockpit, an extreme danger to commercial pilots. It's something that they train for because it can essentially blind them, make it not able to see the instruments or outside the windshield and potentially cause them to lose consciousness.

Now, here is what the NTSB is calling for. It's demanding that airlines better educate pilots on the risks here so they are aware. This is a quote from the report of actions to take if they encounter smoke in the cockpit or cabin. The agency is also calling on the FAA to require engine software upgrades. The NTSB also wants similar CFM engines to be addressed by regulators -- assessed by regulators for the same problem.

These engines are used -- similar ones are used on Airbuses and other airplanes. Boeing says in a new statement that CFM International, it's part of GE Aerospace and Boeing, have been working on a software design update.

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And Boeing says it supports the NTSB's recommendation. But this is only coming out now after this sort of years long saga. This came as a part of these two investigations that go back to these incidents, both on Southwest Airlines flights back on 2023.

SANCHEZ: Well, I'm glad at least the information is now out there. Pete Muntean, thanks so much for reporting.

MUNTEAN: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, watch out PAW Patrol.

We're going to show you how one poodle overcame his fear of crowds to become the latest member of a Spanish lifeguard team. Don't go anywhere.

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KEILAR: Move over, David Hasselhoff, or should we say Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson. Meet Nilo. He's not just a pretty face with sunblock on his nose and wearing that bright vest there.

He's the newest member of a beach rescue squad in Spain, ready to help lifeguards tow people back to shore.

SANCHEZ: He's the only poodle in a pack. These teams are usually made up of Labradors and Newfoundlands. But Nilo's handler says that the two year old pooch has made great strides during training.

He now has perfect strokes, the trainer says and uses his tail like a rudder to turn and move.

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He's also no longer scared of loud noises and crowds, which is generally helpful for dogs. It's adorable.

I wanted to do this story last week when I first saw it. And I'm so glad that it's airing now.

Shout out to Nilo saving lives out there.

KEILAR: Shout out. Do you think Harley could do that?

SANCHEZ: No, my dog is kind of scared generally of any kind of action. She's a Rottweiler. She weighs a hundred pounds, but she's a scaredy cat.

KEILAR: Listen, there was a first for a poodle and there could be first for a scaredy cat Rottweiler.

SANCHEZ: I do feel like Nilo needs a slow motion running through the beach, curly hair.

KEILAR: Poodle.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: For sure, let's work on that next.

SANCHEZ: Soaking, you know.

KEILAR: "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts now.