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CNN News Central

Biden-era "Save" Repayment Program Comes To An End; Smithsonian Removes Trump's Impeachments From Presidency Exhibit; Justin Timberlake Reveals Debilitating Lyme Disease Diagnosis; President Trump Reviews Presidential Fitness Test; Stocks Slide On Weak Jobs Data, Trump's New Tariffs. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 01, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": One of the big issues here, George, is that folks didn't have a lot of time to adjust to this, right? They only got a few weeks' notice when this started to kick in. So, if they're looking for what they should be doing, whether it is calling their lender or whatnot, what would you say to them about how they should be approaching this?

GEORGE KAMEL, CO-HOST OF "THE RAMSEY SHOW": Absolutely. A lot of people are scared right now and they're feeling desperate. And the truth is, there's a lot of confusion around it. And trying to get answers from these companies or from the government on these policies isn't going to get you very far. But what you can control is your own finances. So, the first step is to look in your own financial mirror and actually make a budget. It might be your first time, but just lay it all out.

What am I going to bring in this month? What are my expenses now that these loans are coming back, the interest is coming back? How can I make sure that I don't just make the minimum payment, but I actually get ahead of this and really start attacking the principal to knock out this debt for good?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": And if borrowers are unable to make these new payments, is there relief available to them?

KAMEL: Well, there are these new income-driven repayment plans that are coming that will take about one to 10 percent of your income, and then there's standard plans as well. And you have until 2028 to make these elections. But don't wait until then. And in fact, I don't -- I'm not a big fan of the income-driven repayment plans because we've seen what happens. People just kind of let it bury in the background, they don't pay attention to it. And then one day they go, oh my gosh, the balance has ballooned, instead of me just looking it head on and attacking it. So don't wait on the government, just go for it.

Attack the debt yourself using the debt snowball method. This is how I got out of $36,000 in student loan debt. You just list your balances, smallest to largest, no matter what kind of consumer debt it is, and attack the little one with a vengeance. Make minimum payments on the rest and this is going to take work. You got to pay attention, make a plan, get on that budget. I used an app called EveryDollar to make this easy. And the key is lower the expenses, increase the income. That's what's going to give you margin.

KEILAR: Yeah. And you have to be super intentional about it. When people are thinking about this kind of debt, student loan debt, George, should they be thinking about it differently than other debt or no?

KAMEL: Well, a lot of people saw it as an investment in themselves, right? We were all told, well, education is paramount. So we'll all take as much student loans as possible to make this dream happen. And what we found is the income isn't always there on the other side, you don't always graduate with a four-year degree. The job market is tough. And so, a lot of people were lied to from misguided guidance counselors and well-meaning parents. And it left us in this student loan crisis.

So the best thing you can do is not to look for the next government program to save you because as we know, that's rocky ground. The best thing you can do is just look in the mirror and go, I'm going to deal with this myself. I'm not going to wait on anyone else. I'm not going to wait on this new 30-year forgiveness program and hope it works out one day as I try to retire. I'm just going to knock it out in two to three years with intensity. And that's not going to be fun. But that short-term sacrifice is going to lead to long-term peace.

SANCHEZ: George, this is a tough question to answer for anyone. I wonder what your advice would be to a young person looking at their options now. Because as you put it, depending on the degree, the income isn't always going to be there. And on top of that, I mean we're talking about artificial intelligence changing the labor market in the short term, not even the long term anymore. What would your advice be to young people pondering what kind of money they should borrow to go into higher education?

KAMEL: Oof. Well, here's my hot take. Not borrowing any money is the best plan. The 100 percent down plan is the way to go. I regret taking on student loans. And so the truth is, if you need to take a gap year, you need to look into the trades, applying for scholarships and grants, working part-time, making a plan with your parents about how we're going to pay for this instead of hoping that they ended up taking Parent PLUS loans. You got to have the conversations early on and make a plan to go to school debt free, even if that means delaying the dream.

And what we found is degrees don't matter as much as they used to. And Gen Z, I have a lot of hope in them because they are so resourceful. They are figuring this out because they watched brother and sister go deeply into student loan debt. They're finding out, Hey, I got to avoid this at all costs, even if that means going to that state school, going to the community college down the street for a little while and avoiding the expensive private four-year institutions.

KEILAR: Love the state school.

SANCHEZ: Yeah?

KEILAR: Love the state school. George Kamel, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

KAMEL: Thank you guys.

KEILAR: Still ahead, controversial removal. The Smithsonian takes out references to President Trump's two impeachments from its American presidency exhibit. We'll talk about the implications next on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:39:50]

KEILAR: We're learning some new details today after the Smithsonian Institution decided to remove references to President Donald Trump's two impeachments from an exhibit on the American presidency. This is the National Museum of American History that we're talking about, here in Washington, D.C., that removed the content last month.

SANCHEZ: We should note, despite President Trump's removal from the exhibit, it still includes information about the impeachments of Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, and the impeachment process against President Richard Nixon, who resigned from office before he was formally impeached. Let's get the latest from CNN's Tom Foreman. Tom, this all this all follows President Trump's executive order back in March that targeted the Smithsonian. Do we know exactly why they took these steps?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, like a lot of this, do you know exactly why? No, because nobody's going to come out and say we did it because of this. Right? What they say is that this is part of a remaking of the exhibit. Their statement was the board, that thing you were just looking at a minute ago where the two red boxes on the bottom were about Trump's impeachments, the board was intended to be a short-term measure to address current events at the time. However, the label remained in place until July 2025.

[13:40:00]

A large permanent galley, a gallery like the American presidency that opened in 2000 requires significant amount of time and funding to update and renew a future and updated exhibit. We'll include all impeachments. OK, so well enough. The question is how long does that take? Do they get around to that? Would we -- will we hear 18 months from now that the new exhibit is open and it features two impeachments against Donald Trump? Or will it somehow not happen until his term is over?

The White House response to this is, we are fully supportive of updating displays to highlight American greatness. The Trump Administration will continue working to ensure that the Smithsonian removes all improper ideology. And once again, it unites and instills pride in Americans. You know, what's interesting about that? When you say that is back in March, the executive order he signed really went after this idea of the Smithsonian in particular, you need to not be putting history out there that we consider improper ideology.

Well, bear in mind, Donald Trump has said all along his impeachments were frauds that they were witch hunts, that it was all unfair. So it's easy to see the jump there to say, well, you can't have anything about that because those weren't real. We don't like those. Is anybody saying that openly except critics of the Trump Administration? No, the White House is saying, they're just updating things. It's good.

KEILAR: Kind of un-updating in this -- un-updating in this case.

FOREMAN: Kind of un-updating. I mean, people can say what they wish, but we can also see what we see.

KEILAR: Yeah. So this executive order when it comes to the Smithsonian, this is just one of the efforts that we've seen from this president, from this administration to target some institutions that generally a president leaves alone.

FOREMAN: Yeah. Generally, you let the Smithsonian run the Smithsonian. In this case, he's put J.D. Vance in a position to have a say over that. He's tried to get the Washington Commander's football team to go back to their previous name of the Redskin saying, oh, that should absolutely be done. They're talking about renaming part of the Kennedy Center for the Trump family. And of course, the law firms he's gone after, the universities he's gone after. Yeah, this president, more than any president in my lifetime, more than any modern president, is sticking his fingers into a lot of places, including private companies and saying, you have to do it my way.

The question is, will that stick? Will it hold up? And what will history show in the long run?

SANCHEZ: Tom Foreman, appreciate the reporting.

Still plenty more news to come on News Central. Justin Timberlake's Lyme disease diagnosis now putting a spotlight on a condition that afflicts hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. We're going to break down what you need to know about the illness when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:47:16]

KEILAR: Justin Timberlake says he wants to shed some light on his recent diagnosis. The singer revealing that he was recently diagnosed with Lyme disease. He made this announcement on Instagram, saying the disease is relentlessly debilitating. Going on to write, when I first got the diagnosis, I was shocked for sure, but at least I could understand why I would be on stage in a massive amount of nerve pain or just feeling crazy fatigue or sickness.

SANCHEZ: The announcement comes as his "Forget Tomorrow World Tour" comes to a close and he says he had the choice to stop touring amid his Lyme disease battle, but ultimately decided to continue saying, "The joy that performing brings me far outweighs the fleeting stress my body was feeling. So I'm glad I kept going." Let's discuss Lyme disease with Dr. Brian Fallon. He's the Director of the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia University. Doctor, thanks so much for being with us. How does somebody get Lyme disease and how does somebody know that they have it?

DR. BRIAN FALLON, DIRECTOR, LYME AND TICK-BORNE DISEASES RESEARCH CENTER, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Those are important questions. The diagnosis is made as a result of clinical symptoms and accompanied by lab tests in the context of later-stage infection. So let me clarify that for you. First of all, people get the disease as a result of the bite of an infected tick. And these, in the northeast, would be known as black-legged ticks and the tick is about the size of a poppy seed. So it's so easy to miss.

The ticks bite you and then they suck up your blood and they insert what's inside of them into your body, and that's how the infection passes into the bloodstream. Once it goes into the bloodstream, then it can go to various parts of the body. It can go to the muscles, it can go to the heart, it can go to the central nervous system, to the brain, to the peripheral nerves. So, it can cause a wide range of multisystem symptoms. What's important to know about Lyme disease is that, initially, it might cause an erythema migrans rash, which is a reddish rash.

Most people think of the Lyme rash as a bulls-eye target rash. In fact, that's not the most common presentation. The most common presentation is more of a pinkish reddish rash. But the main thing about it is that it expands in size from a small rash to larger, five centimeters or larger. Some people actually get more than one rash when the rashes disseminate. So they might get multiple rashes, like three or four different parts of their body. So that's -- so it's recognized mainly by the rash early on if you can see it, if you're lucky enough to see it.

[13:50:00]

And then later, by symptoms such as a neurologic symptom that may manifest as a facial palsy or a meningitis causing severe headaches with stiff neck or shooting pains or severe stabbing pains. So those are neurologic symptoms. Cardiac symptoms may include palpitations, may include heart block, slow rhythms, things like that. And the muscle pains typically are musculoskeletal might -- like what you might see with someone who has fibromyalgia fatigue, maybe similar to what you see with someone who has chronic fatigue syndrome. It can be profoundly debilitating.

KEILAR: Yeah, and certainly, we hear that from people. We're hearing that from Justin Timberlake, Dr. Fallon. And I wonder what you think is, he's saying that -- as he's saying that living with Lyme disease can be relentlessly debilitating both mentally and physically. What does it mean when someone like him comes out and says this? What is then the effect of other people having awareness?

FALLON: I think it's fantastic when a celebrity of his stature can come out and talk personally about an experience that he's having of illness that is profoundly affecting him. So in his case, he's talking about Lyme disease. That raises awareness that Lyme disease is more than just a rash and it's an illness that can cause months and sometimes years of symptoms that can be debilitating.

So, it raises awareness to all people out there in the public that this can be a serious disease and one that needs to be avoided if you can. And so, one of the main ways of avoiding it is through prevention from being bitten by a tick. So there are certain parts of the country, many parts of the country right now, where ticks are prevalent, and you can treat your clothes with permethrin and that actually repels the ticks.

You can put solution on your body that will also help to repel the ticks. So, all that can be very helpful. The ticks tend to hang out in leafy areas. So if you're hiking on trails, stay on the trail. Don't go into the leafy areas. They tend to like wood piles because that's where the mice are. The mice carry the ticks and so, avoid wood piles if you can. So there's a lot of things that we know about ticks that can help with the preventive efforts.

Also, if you are out in an area that is known to have many ticks in that particular area, then when you come home that day, check yourself for ticks. It's called a tick check. If someone else is available who can help you with that tick check, it's helpful because the ticks may go, let's say behind your knee or they may go and bite you in the back and you can't see your back or reach your back, so it may be hard to know.

Take a shower at the end of the day because that may help to wash off some ticks that haven't fully attached yet. And then if you do find a tick that's attached, the tick will gradually bloat. So it might -- it'll -- maybe as big as a raisin. So take tweezers, go underneath its body, just pull it out. Don't try to burn it off with a cigarette. Don't try to put anything toxic on it. Remove it with tweezers if you can.

KEILAR: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: Very good advice. Dr. Brian Fallon, thank you so much for that. Appreciate it.

Time for a quick trip down memory lane. Brianna, do you remember the sit and reach?

KEILAR: Oh.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, the push and hold?

KEILAR: No thanks.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: Those fond or, for some, worrisome memories depending on your point of view from childhood will soon be coming back.

KEILAR: Oh, great. And President Trump signing an executive order to reinstate the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools. That's what all our groaning is about here. Former President Obama retiring the test back in 2012. So if you need a refresher on the exam, have no fear, because we put CNN's Harry Enten to the test.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: All right. Apparently, we're bringing back the Presidential Fitness Test. So I've decided, can I actually beat the median sixth grader from all the way back in 1985? So this is the first time that I've been in a gym since about 1985. I have to run a quarter of a mile, and get this, in about two minutes and 11 seconds I think it is. Or two-one. Someone time me? I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it. I did it.

Now, how do I shut this thing off? I'm a mean, mean running machine. So now, I'm in the V-sit and reach part. This is supposedly testing flexibility. This looks basically impossible, but we have the tape measure there and apparently, in order to get to the 50th percentile for a six-year-old, I got to reach to the 16 marker. That's -- so, next up is some curl-ups. I got to do 22 of these.

[13:55:00]

22 in a minute, I'm not quite sure I'm going to be able to do it as I can barely get this yoga mat out. One, 21, 22 -- I did it. I did it. Look at this. I had a full minute and I did it in a little bit under, 51 seconds. Boo ya, baby. So now, comes the part I dread most, which is I have to do seven push-ups. My arms are not exactly my strength despite all my wonderful working out that I've been putting in, all those seconds in the gym up till now.

We're going to go down for one and then two. Oh my god, it's a miracle. I did it. So, it's all come down to this. For those of you who don't know what the shuttle run is. Ready, set, go. Two markings, 30-feet apart. I got to go down, pick up one of the blocks, is being a diet coke. Bring it back, place it down, then go back, pick the other one up and run through the finish line. I did it in 12.59 seconds. I beat it by just less than a second. But you know what? Close to failing is not failing. It's a pass. All right, so I managed to get four out of five on the Presidential Fitness Test.

President Trump, I say bring on the Presidential Fitness Test because you ain't got nothing on me. Cheers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: You're my hero.

SANCHEZ: Really impressive.

KEILAR: Hero.

SANCHEZ: Really impressive.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: Harry Enten, the V-sit and reach.

SANCHEZ: Especially the -- the footwear too. The Air Harry is on sale now.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: I know. Maybe you could have done better with some sneakers on.

SANCHEZ: No, I think the long socks and the loafers, shout out to Harry Enten.

KEILAR: Harry, you're the best.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: We continue to follow our breaking news, stocks sliding after today's lackluster Jobs Report and as President Trump unveils the new tariff policy. Ahead, how this all impacts your bottom line.

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