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Soon, HHS Secretary Kennedy Testifies Before Senate Amid CDC, Vaccine Turmoil; Lawmakers Say They Will Name Names If Survivors Compile List; Trump Asks Supreme Court to Save His Emergency Tariffs. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 04, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are standing by to here from the man who might be the most embattled cabinet secretary. Robert Kennedy Jr. is set to face what could be withering bipartisan questions as he positions for huge shifts in health and vaccine policy.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And we're also standing by for a new report with major implications and insight into the jobs market. Why grim numbers on jobs cuts could be coming, levels we have not seen since the pandemic.

And John Berman warned you, he really did, you did not win the Powerball. Once again, there was no winner of the Powerball for the billion dollar prize, which only means that the prize is climbing higher still.

I'm Kate Bolduan with the aforementioned John Berman. Sara is out. This is CN News Central.

BERMAN: We are standing by to hear from perhaps the most embattled cabinet official, the health -- with Children's Health in the future of vaccine policy all at stake. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. about to face tough questions about the chaos and confusion at the CDC under his leadership as calls grow louder for his resignation.

Under his direction, the CDC director, Susan Monarez, was just fired. Sources tell CNN the two clashed over vaccine policy and her refusal to get rid of veteran leaders at the agency. During his confirmation hearings, Kennedy denied that he is anti-vaccine, but since he became secretary, Kennedy, who's not a doctor and has no formal medical training, has purged the CDC's panel of vaccine experts, canceled $500 million in mRNA vaccine research and has overseen sweeping changes to vaccine policy, that include new FDA limits on who can get the COVID vaccine.

The upheaval led to more than 1,000 former and current HHS employees to write an open letter saying Kennedy has, quote, put the health of all Americans at risk who called for him to step down. Kennedy disagrees. He wrote his own op-ed claiming he is restoring trust in the CDC. There will be a lot of eyeballs on this hearing today. Let's get to CNN Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell with the very latest. Good morning, Meg.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. So, of course, Secretary Kennedy has talked about how these actions are rebuilding trust in the CDC, but a lot of folks will point out, including lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, that this CDC director who was just fired last week, was a Trump and Kennedy appointee, and had just been confirmed by the Senate weeks ago before she was ousted from that position.

And so this is going to be a key test this morning of how much oversight we are going to see from Congress to Secretary Kennedy. And while we have seen calls from particularly Democrats and independent Bernie Sanders for RFK Jr. to be fired or to resign, we obviously have seen much more calculated language coming from the right. And so there will be a lot of eyes on senators, like Bill Cassidy, the doctor who chairs the health committee and cast a key vote in confirming Secretary Kennedy to see how he approaches this. What is going to be the stance of Republican senators in having oversight over what's going on at the CDC? And there is some indication that they want some answers over this CDC director who they just confirmed.

Obviously there's going to be a lot of focus from the public health world on this as well, because this has implications really that are just weeks away. There is a key advisory committee meeting from a panel of vaccine advisers to the CDC where there are expected to be votes on the childhood vaccine schedule. And so folks like Bill Cassidy have called for that to be postponed. At the same time, we are expecting new members from Secretary Kennedy to be potentially nominated to that committee. So, this is all in flux and has really immediate implications for the nation's health. John?

BERMAN: Yes, and we're talking about the nation itself. Florida making a major move ending vaccine mandates in schools. What's going on there, released an announcement to try to end vaccine mandates in schools?

TIRRELL: Yes. This was an announcement yesterday in a press conference from both Governor Ron DeSantis and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo. Take a listen to what the doctor said at this conference yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JOSEPH LADAPO, FLORIDA SURGEON GENERAL: Every last one of them, every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TIRRELL: So, he is talking about trying to end all vaccine mandates in the state, including for school children. We should say that all 50 states have some vaccine requirements for kids to go to public schools in Florida for K through 12. It's a pretty standard list of vaccines which are required.

[07:05:00]

You're looking at diptheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, and chickenpox. That is a fairly standard list.

We do see exemptions and all states allow medical exemptions. Most states allow religious and personal exemptions as well. In Florida, the exemption rate has been about 5.1 percent in the school year for kindergartners for at least one vaccine. Most of those are non-medical exemptions, and that is higher than the national average, John.

We should say this is not a done deal. They are saying they are going to do this and there are pleas from the public health community for them to reconsider, including from the American Medical Association, which said in the statement, quote, this unprecedented rollback would undermine decades of public health progress and place children in communities at increased risk for diseases, such as measles, mumps, polio and chickenpox resulting in serious illness, disability, and even death.

So, John, a lot of flux here, we will see how that one plays out. It is not yet quite in place.

BERMAN: All right. Meg Terrell, thanks so much for the update on all of that. Kate?

BOLDUAN: A Democratic hoax, that is still the view of President Trump today after the -- about the Epstein files, this is even after half a dozen survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse spoke out publicly together really for the first time. The women are now putting feet to fire, though, talking about compiling a list of names of the people they remember as the enablers and abusers around Jeffrey Epstein. And the lawmakers standing with these women are also even threatening to take it a step further to read those names publicly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): The reality is if they try to release that list, they're going to be sued into homelessness. They will be attacked. They will have death threats. And so what my colleague, Marjorie Taylor Greene, volunteered to do, and I've volunteered to do as well, is to read that list on the floor of the House of Representatives because our founders put into the Constitution speech or debate immunity, which says that we can't be prosecuted for what we say on the floor of the House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Republican congressman right there, Thomas Massie, and standing next to him, Ro Khanna, the Democratic congressman, they say that their move to go to their push and move to go around House leadership and force a vote to bring about the complete release of the Epstein files is gaining steam.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House this morning. Alayna, what are you hearing about this latest push and what we hear from Massie and Ro Khanna from there today?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. Look, I mean, I can tell you this, Kate, for a while now, the White House and people here in this building behind me have long recognized that this was likely going to be an issue that came back when Congress returned from recess. They recognize that, really, the backlash that the president had faced over the handling of this Epstein, yes, it's not as bad, they believe, as it was in July when it kind of hit a fever pitch, but, again, they knew that it would come back in full force when Congress was ready to put attention on it.

And that's exactly what we saw play out yesterday when we saw not only those Epstein victims, many of whom have not come forward publicly, speaking on Capitol Hill at that press conference. And then, of course, as you mentioned, we're seeing a growing number of Republicans really try to hold the Trump administration accountable here.

It's not just Thomas Massie, the only Republican lawmaker on this. You're also seeing people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace, all of them coming out and trying to say that more needs to be done here, particularly having the Trump administration release more of these files.

Now, we did hear the president, for his part, address this yesterday. He was asked a question about it while in the Oval Office and he kind of tried to dismiss it again, all of this as a Democratic hoax, even as we heard some of these victims really in the most clearest terms, described what had happened to them and what they believe needs to happen next. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALEY ROBSON, SURVIVOR: Mr. President Donald J. Trump, I am a registered Republican. Not that matters because this is not political. However, I cordially invite you to the Capitol to meet me in person so you can understand this is not a hoax. We are real human beings. This is real trauma.

MARINA LACERDA, SURVIVOR: We are tired of looking at the news and seeing Jeffrey Epstein's name and saying that this is a hoax. We are tired of it.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: This is a Democrat hoax that never ends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Kate, look, I mean, clearly that juxtaposition is pretty striking and a lot of people very dissatisfied with the president's answer there. And I remind you as well that even though he's calling this a Democratic coax, a lot of this stemmed from the online right, even people who are within the president's FBI leadership, the vice president, et cetera, the ones who were really pushing these conspiracies around Epstein, all to say it's not really clear what's going to happen moving forward from the White House side. But what is clear is that Congress is going to continue pushing them to do more. We'll have to see how it all plays out.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and hearing from the victims, what that does to the course of where this is headed is an important thing to stand by to see.

[07:10:07]

Alayna, thank you very much. John?

BERMAN: All right. And new this morning, if you played Powerball, you lost again, no winner in last night's drawing, which means the new $1.7 billion jackpot is the third largest in U.S. history. 15 ticket holders won either $1 or $2 million prizes. The next prize is Saturday. If someone wins, they can choose that lump sum of $770 million, we have to, or spread it out over 30 years.

Now, the chances of winning are $201 and $292 million. But the statistic, which we do not say enough, and this is why it's a regressive tax, LendingTree says, in states where they do have the lottery, the per capita spending is $320. People spend, Kate, $320 on average on the lottery.

BOLDUAN: Money well spent.

BERMAN: Throw it away, burn it, light it on fire, put it up in flames.

BOLDUAN: John --

BERMAN: Put it up in flames.

BOLDUAN: -- there are some things that you should just love and hope and it just -- hope springs eternal. Okay, J.B. not a family Powerball, in case you're wondering.

President Trump now asking the Supreme Court to step in and save his tariffs. The high court now facing a critical test around this.

And also talk about a major test, a major fast fashion website removes his shirt from its website seemingly being modeled by Luigi Mangione, the man accused of murdering the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. That company now investigating how that happened.

And two kangaroos on the lam in Texas, police and firefighters jumping into.

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[07:15:00]

BOLDUAN: New this morning, President Trump is taking his global trade war to the Supreme Court now, urging the justices to overturn a lower court ruling that found that his administration acted unlawfully in imposing many of his tariffs. The ones we're talking about here at issue are those liberation day tariffs that Trump announced in April, and the tariffs imposed this here against China, Mexico, and Canada, that the President had claimed at turns were imposed to combat the flow of fentanyl to the United States.

The court found that the president overstepped in leaning on a 1970s era emergency powers law to pull this off. So, what now?

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is here to explain it all. What is this lower court saying and what's about to happen?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the lower court just ruled on Friday about this, and the case is moving fast because this is quite important to the Trump administration. They want the Supreme Court to look at Donald Trump's power to put taxes on imports by the fall, early fall. They want an answer from the Supreme Court in just a couple days, and they potentially want this to be argued in November.

This case, it's about the tariffs that Donald Trump put broadly on that big liberation day announcement against China, Mexico, and Canada. It was what he said his initiative to combat drug trafficking coming into the country from illegal cartels. And the way that Trump did these is different than other tariffs he levied. He is saying that these tariffs should be something that Donald Trump should do as president under his emergency powers. That's going to be a question that the Supreme Court looks at. Can the president use these emergency powers to put tariffs in place against other countries?

The lower court, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, they said, no, he cannot. And so this question is going to be a very important one now at the Supreme Court because the emergency powers have now been something that the president has tested over and over again in a lot of cases. And what the lower court found here was that Congress alone has this power to put tariffs on other countries.

There is a lot of impact in this case potentially as well, Kate. What the lawyer, the primary lawyer for the plaintiffs here says -- his name is Jeffrey Schwab. He says, these unlawful tariffs are inflicting serious harm on small businesses and jeopardizing their survival. Indeed, it is small businesses among others who were suing here.

Donald Trump, though, in the Oval Office, just yesterday, he said that if these tariffs are wiped away by the Supreme Court and in line with what the lower courts have done here, it would be devastation for the country. And we do have facts from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection saying that in the 2025 fiscal year, these tariffs alone brought in more than $200 billion, and that potentially could have to be paid back to companies that paid them if the tariffs are struck down. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Fascinating to see how this unwinds, if it needs to be, and what happens now.

Katelyn, as always, thank you so much for your reporting.

So, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is trying to shut down rumors that he is getting out of the race to keep his seat. But the White House may have other plans. And the NFL is officially back tonight. The commish weighing in on whether Taylor Swift will headline this year's Super Bowl halftime show.

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[07:20:00]

BERMAN: They are still playing tennis, which is good news. You want some great news though? Real life pro football that counts tonight.

Let's get right to CNN's Coy Wire, who is outside the room, the big room where it's going to happen tonight in Philadelphia. Good morning to you, sir. Happy season.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. And happy opening day to you, John. Here in Philadelphia, we, the people in the United States demand football, and we'll have more than that in a minute.

We will start at the U.S. Open though, Naomi Osaka advancing to the semi-finals. The four other times that she's made it this far, she has won the Grand Slam. She took down Karolina Muchova in the quarterfinals yesterday, 6-4, 7-6.

It's been a long journey for Osaka to get to this stage at a major, taking time to address mental health struggles, using our platform to try to change the narrative around it. She missed more time becoming a mom for the first time. But now the former world number one is back in a Grand Slam semi for the first time since 2021. She says it's been like trying to level up while playing a video game. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAOMI OSAKA, NOW 5-0 IN MAJOR QUARTERFINAL MATCHES: I learned I love tennis way more than I thought I did. And I learned that, you know, I actually really love challenges, you know? It's like a video game, you pick it up. And even if you lose the level, you kind of just restart and keep going until you eventually win. And I think it's a little tough at sometimes, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. So --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right. Osaka is going to face American Amanda Anisimova next. She took down Iga Swiatek in her quarterfinal.

Now. One of the greatest rivalries in the NFL kicks off tonight right here in Philadelphia, the defending champion Eagles facing the so- called America's team Dallas Cowboys. Eagles have now been to three of the last eight Super Bowls, won two of them, including last year, Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley and the crew spoiled the mighty Chief's chance at a first ever three-peat. Cowboys, they went seven and ten last season. Previous three years they were 12 and 5. But each time, dramatic playoff collapses, haven't won a Super Bowl in 30 years.

So, why is it, John, that Dallas fans are the ones claiming to be America's team? We asked some Philadelphians if the Eagles should be instead.

[07:25:00]

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is America's team and that is America's bird.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Champions, world champions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right, America's bird, America's city. Go bird.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bird flies a bird to prey.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, we are the birthplace of America. I mean that makes the most sense to me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Americans start in Dallas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Screw it, Cowboys.

WIRE: How would you describe the Dallas Cowboys?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Paper champs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: High school tryout team, rugby squad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Losing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, what is a cowboy though?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They fell from grace, extinct.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody that lives in Texas choose dip.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Losers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dance with the Stars audition antique (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like dinosaurs, they no longer exist.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: E-A-G-L-E, Eagle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Oh, those lovely folks, John, told me the Cowboys have fans, the Eagles have family, sometimes deeply dysfunctional, loud, slightly unhinged family, but nonetheless, what is more American than that? This is one of two NFL stadiums, John, where my parents would not wear my jersey when we played here. Why mom and dad? We don't want to have beers spilled on our heads again. In other good news, John, for the Swifties out there, Commissioner Roger Goodell did not rule out that Taylor Swift would be the halftime show at this year's Super Bowl. A long, exciting season ahead.

BERMAN: Oh, that's awesome. Coy, I got to say, Philadelphia fans, they are fantastic. I don't even know why the Cowboys were scheduled on opening night. They're so bad right now. That's a question for the NFL. I'm not sure they deserve that anymore.

Great to see you and, again, happy opening day.

All right, breaking this morning, a new report out any minute showing how many people could be facing layoffs and which sectors are being hit the hardest.

Then a tram car lays in ruins after it derailed and crash with riders on board. More than a dozen people dead at the historic tourist attraction.

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[07:30:00]