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ACLU Sues Trump Administration Over Florida Detention Facility; Trump Scores Win as House Passes $9 Billion DOGE Cuts Package; Debunking Common Cancer Myths and Misconceptions. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 18, 2025 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Suicidal and this was very upsetting to this daughter who testified. She was just 20 years old. It is -- you know, it was an incredibly ask for her. And he said that he chose her to do it because she was the most like her own mother, that she was stoic, that she was practical, that she was good at technology. And in the letter he said, according to prosecutors, I love you. I'm sorry to even have to ask you for this help.

So a really -- a really momentous testimony yesterday that prosecutors believe will refute one of James Craig's key defenses. His older -- his oldest daughter, testified as well, Sara, as you mentioned and she testified that James Craig did not want an autopsy of his wife. And she was alarmed by this and said, well, what if she died of an illness that's hereditary? She needed to know how her mother died for her own health concerns. And she said when she brought that concern to James Craig, he was very quiet.

Sara, this is just the beginning of what we expect to be a week's long trial with absolutely gut wrenching testimony -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I mean, the testimony from the two daughters, even though we are not able to see it because the court doesn't allow you to see the witnesses, has just been heartbreaking, with one of the daughters saying her mother was her best friend and now she's having to testify against her father. A horrible case, and they have six children left behind.

Whitney Wild, thank you for your reporting on this. John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. The Coldplay kiss cam controversy. Why, what happened at Foxborough is not staying in Foxborough. The internet speaks.

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[09:36:12]

SIDNER: Immigrants' rights activists backed by the ACLU are suing the Trump administration now over the notorious detention facility dubbed by some as "Alligator Alcatraz." The class action lawsuit alleges the detainees are being denied access to legal counsel and confidential communications, while faced with a lack of clean water and unsanitary conditions.

Joining me now is a co-founder of Sanctuary of the South, one of the organizations that is a part of this lawsuit.

Katie Blankenship, we spoke to you earlier in the week. You were waiting to hear anything from authorities as to why when you showed up at the facility you were unable to see your clients as the law permits. The ACLU has now filed this lawsuit along with your organization over the lack of access.

What are you alleging in this lawsuit, and how do you think it may help you finally get access?

KATIE BLANKENSHIP, CO-FOUNDER, SANCTUARY OF THE SOUTH: Well, what we are alleging is that the lack of access in the Everglades facility violates the United States Constitution, the First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment to due process. And what we're arguing for our client, Michael Borrego, and for Sanctuary of the South, is that our First Amendment rights are being trampled on by this facility, and most importantly, Mr. Borrego's.

He has a right to speak to his counsel, to me, and for us to help him with this case. From the time that I went to the facility last week, from the time I spoke with you earlier this week until this moment, I have yet, I have yet to hear his voice, and he is in a dire, dire medical situation. You know, we believe he is absolutely fighting for his life inside. He is a victim of the medical neglect that is happening inside.

We continue to have reports from his family of the horrific conditions. We continue to have reports from other people inside through their family members of horrific conditions. And so we are hoping with this lawsuit that we're going to get the court to intervene, we've asked for a restraining order actually to be effectuated by July 3rd -- by July 21st. Now, what that means is that we're asking the court to intervene and say, you have to stop these practices that are keeping people in the black hole of this facility and keeping them from their counsel.

So we hope -- you know, we hope the court is going to step in and unfortunately we feel we have no other option but to ask the court to step in at this point.

SIDNER: You said that you have not received any ability to talk with your client, even after you were told earlier this week that you were going to hear something within 48 hours, or get some sort of a response. I'm curious if you can tell me how exactly did you learn of this client. How are attorneys actually finding out about who exactly is inside of this so-called "Alligator Alcatraz," which is in the middle of the Everglades?

BLANKENSHIP: So what's important for people who, in thinking about ICE detention and immigration detention, for those who have not thought about this much or hasn't been on your radar, what's really critical to understand is that this is -- these centers have been highly abusive from their inception. One of the beautiful things that I witnessed is working in these centers day in and day out is that the advocacy and action and protection of people inside happens and starts with people inside.

That's what's happened at the Everglades. You see the individuals inside supporting each other, organizing themselves. We know they've organized into a hunger strike, and that has resulted in a group of mothers and wives who have come together. They have a chat, they organize themselves. They fight for each other. And it is through those women, those family members that we have been contacted and pulled into this.

[09:40:01]

So they reached out to us at the behest of their family. And now we have the great privilege of working alongside them. But the organization, the organizing of people, the supporting of people always starts from inside and goes out. And that's what we're seeing at this facility to people desperate, desperate for assistance and doing everything they can to get it and helping each other get it. And that's a -- that's a beautiful thing in a very dark place.

SIDNER: Can you give us some sense of what is happening inside the facility and how you are hearing about the medical condition of the client you're trying to speak to, even though you can't get in contact with him, and what the situation is as a whole in this facility that has been touted by President Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis as a great thing that should be replicated?

BLANKENSHIP: So it should not be replicated. It should not be here. It is from its inception been a human rights atrocity. What we know from people inside, and that has been repeated via many family members who speak with people inside, I had another client that was able to call me, at least for a few minutes, on a monitored line, every -- it's about, they give you a call that they pay for it. It's about five minutes. We didn't stay on that long because every five seconds there's a voice going, you are being recorded. You are being recorded.

I can't speak to clients and that it's literally a violation of my ethical obligation.

SIDNER: Right. Attorney-client privilege. Yes.

BLANKENSHIP: Violation of attorney-client. Confidentiality, right? In that brief time, that was -- what was confirmed by him and that we've heard from multiple family members and multiple individuals is this. They are held in cages 24 hours a day. They are held in these cages with the lights on at all times. They have no idea what time of day it is, what day it is. It's extremely disorienting. If you look under the Geneva Convention, this is a form of torture.

There are toilets but there are no bathrooms. There's just open air toilets per cage. Those are overflowing constantly. There are human waste and feces on the floor that they are not cleaning up. We heard a report about this yesterday that even more of the toilets have overflown. They are evidently getting, if they're lucky, one hot meal a day. We've had people report out that they literally got a sandwich for the whole day. Two pieces of bread and a piece of cheese.

They are not provided medical care. Let's talk about Mike's case. This is Michael Borrego. He is one of the plaintiffs in our case. Mike is a Cuban man who found himself, unfortunately, in ICE detention on a very simple issue of a probation violation that would normally be resolved very easily. Unfortunately, that put him at the Everglades facility. He woke up in a pool of his own blood a few days ago.

He had to be rushed to the hospital. He had to have emergency surgery. He, in the middle of his convalescence, was taken out of the hospital and put back into the Everglades facility, where he has not received medical care, where he reports that he is bleeding, that he has blood in his stool, that he is quite literally scared for his life. I can't get to him. I send e-mails, I send calls, I alert the health care officials, alert the state. We have done all of this. And it was -- it's critical to understand that when they said, oh, you'll get a call in 48 hours, that was over a week ago. That was over a week ago. And I have yet -- yet to even make contact with my client as he's suffering like this.

SIDNER: It sounds like you're getting some of the information from family as this drags on. We will keep up with what is happening there.

Katie Blankenship, thank you so much for talking to us this morning. John?

BERMAN: All right. Just moments ago, President Trump posted that he will sign a $9 billion rescission package this afternoon. This claws back billions of dollars in funding that had been approved for foreign aid and public broadcasting.

Now the Jeffrey Epstein situation very nearly derailed the vote in the House overnight.

Let's get right to CNN's Lauren Fox for the very latest on this.

Good morning to you, Lauren.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, John. You're right. Just a couple of hours before House Republicans were slated to try and move forward with the president's rescissions package, something that had broad support among conservatives, especially there was this brief interim where there had to be ongoing negotiations for several hours as some of those same conservatives who support these cuts were also calling for more transparency over the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Now, it's really interesting because ultimately what leadership and conservatives settled on was this non-binding resolution that Speaker Johnson hasn't guaranteed or given any context for when exactly he's going to bring it to the floor. That would call for the release of some of the documents. But again, it's non-binding. That means it doesn't force the Justice Department's hand. And already we know that in the United States Senate, John Thune has made clear he does not want to wade into this issue.

[09:45:02]

So it's very unlikely that it would come up in the Senate. So right now, what we know is that this bill did pass right around midnight last night. But the rescissions package essentially cuts $9 billion in already appropriated funding from Congress, including about $8 billion in foreign aid, $1.1 billion in public broadcasting funding. And that obviously funds things like NPR, PBS, as well as local affiliates around the country.

Speaker Mike Johnson argued this was a huge victory, though, for the president. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We clawed back $9 billion in taxpayer funds and wasteful spending, fraud, waste and abuse. We've been targeting that every area. This was directed to wasteful spending in the previous State Department. Of course, the corporation for public broadcasting and a couple of other areas. We looked at that. We thought it was a waste of taxpayer funds, and we're taking care of business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: Now, Democrats are already saying that this is muddying the waters, making it much more complicated to find a bipartisan agreement with Republicans to fund the government, which has a deadline coming up of September 30th. Obviously, that feels like a million years away in congressional time, but lawmakers are going to be away for that August recess. And Democrats are warning that this claw back of already appropriated congressional funding makes it really hard to trust Republicans as they begin that process of trying to fund the government.

BERMAN: Yes, we'll see if they take a stand on this.

Lauren Fox, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much. Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Just ahead, does sugar feed cancer? Does being overweight lead to cancer? What about drinking alcohol? Ahead, the myths and truths of how to prevent cancer.

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[09:51:17]

SIDNER: More and more women than ever are getting breast cancer. So I wanted to talk to you about prevention. I had the honor of hosting the podcast created by the late actress Shannen Doherty, who died of breast cancer last year. In it, I asked the brilliant oncologist and author, Dr. Elizabeth Comen, about three things people say to me about how to avoid cancer.

Here are some of the myths, or is there real science behind what people talk to you about for preventing cancer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: Probably once a week I hear someone say to me, you know, sugar feeds cancer. You really shouldn't eat that. Is that true?

DR. ELIZABTH COMEN, ONCOLOGIST, NYU LANGONE: Sugar is not like, going into the cancer and feeding it, right? It's not this, like one-way train with that M&M that you put in your mouth. And that also puts a lot of blame on the patient. That being said, excessive sugar can lead to excessive weight. It can change your metabolic function. And we know that that is not good overall as being what's called a host to cancer. So cancer cells are living in your body and we want to make them inhospitable. We want to make your body and the environment around it less hospitable to cancers.

SIDNER: I asked a couple of different oncologists, is there a cancer diet? And I was told no twice except when it came to drinking alcohol. Three oncologists said do not drink alcohol. I'm confused. Is there a cancer diet or not? If you're not supposed to drink alcohol, it seems to me that there's got to be something to do with nutrition.

COMEN: It's a great, great question. I'll tell you what I think we know and then we'll hit the alcohol point as well. So we do know that maintaining more of a plant forward diet with less processed foods, and what is processed foods? I mean, there are all these quizzes online about is it processed, is it not processed?

SIDNER: Everything.

COMEN: In general, if it's got artificial dyes in it, it's more likely to be processed. If you can't pronounce a laundry list of ingredients there, it's more likely to be processed than not. You want to think about whole foods, whole grains, real foods, and limiting, especially processed red meats. The processed deli meats, the processed salami, the pepperoni, things like that.

The other piece that we know that can be helpful is alcohol. We know that it's a carcinogen. We know that there's an association the more you drink, the higher your risk. However, this is not the same risk as having a genetic mutation that leads to an 85 percent increased risk of cancer over your lifetime. But people ask me all the time, what can I do that's within my control? You can't control what your family history is.

You can control what you put in your mouth and how you exercise and what you drink. And so we do know that there is an increase association not only with breast cancer, but other types of cancers from alcohol consumption because it is a direct carcinogen.

SIDNER: Does being overweight or being obese make you more susceptible to cancer?

COMEN: It does, it does. So we know that obesity, like tobacco consumption or alcohol consumption, is one modifiable risk factor for cancer. But we know that it can also be a tremendous battle to fight, right? And so it's something that we really want patients to talk openly with their doctors about what are their options, what are their lifestyle options, what are the medication options that they might be able to have so that they can start to decrease their risk from that excess weight.

SIDNER: Oh, my god, this is my fault. Like that's the first thing that jumped into my head when I heard that.

COMEN: Yes. Yes. And there is so much shame around that, that I think we have to really dismantle and compassionately give patients their options.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: And there are a lot of options. I have opted to do reconstructive surgery, which is why I am partly telling the story, because I will be out for several weeks because of that.

[09:55:09]

And I know you're probably not going to miss me, but I will continue to bother you, John Berman, by texting you snarky things, watching the show, making comments. I know you love it when I do that.

BERMAN: We are going to miss you every single day while you're gone. And I just want you to know that if you need anything at all while you're gone, Kate will be here for you.

SIDNER: She's not here today and we miss her. But you're right. I will --

BERMAN: Kate will be there.

SIDNER: I will go to Kate. I will not bother you so much.

And this is why we love the show and the people that are behind the scenes as well. They have been incredibly supportive. I have to say, I really did not realize how long it takes to deal with cancer. It is a long slog and I think for me that's the hardest part because I'm an active person.

BERMAN: You've been amazing every step of the way and we're right here beside you. Everyone here is right here beside you. Everyone out there is beside you as well. You've got this. We'll be thinking about you. Don't worry about us.

SIDNER: Thanks.

BERMAN: We're with you.

SIDNER: Thanks, John. I really appreciate it.

And thank you for spending time with us this morning. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM" is up next.

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