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Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) is Interviewed about the Kennedy Hearing; Giorgio Armani Dead at 91; Alison Singer is Interviewed about Autism Answers. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 04, 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]

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kennedy earlier this year. But Cassidy, even as Kennedy had espoused these anti-vaccine policies throughout decades, Cassidy had said that he had sought some -- received some assurances from Kennedy relating to the future of vaccines. So, that is something that lawmakers, Democrats and some Republicans likely might question Kennedy about today.

Now, just ahead of the hearing, the Democrats on this committee released a statement saying they are calling on Kennedy to resign, saying that he is a threat to public health. So, we will be watching this closely to see what angles exactly these senators will have and whether they take an issue with Kennedy's approach so far at HHS.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, it's all about to get underway. Arlette is there for us. Thank you so much.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now is Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire.

Senator Shaheen, thanks so much for being with us.

I know this isn't your hearing today, but -- but this op-ed that we just got from Dr. Monarez accusing Secretary Kennedy, really, of a deliberate effort to weaken America's public health system and vaccine protections, that's coming from someone who ran the CDC that was nominated, Senate confirmed, had vast Republican support. What do you hope comes out at this hearing today?

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): Well, I think people are going to want to know from Secretary Kennedy what scientific basis, what data he has that he's basing decisions on, because clearly that's what's going on at HHS under his leadership is the -- the scientific, the medical data that should be driving our policies is totally being thrown out. And as the former director said, decisions are being made based on partisan stacked information. And that is not good for the health care of the American people.

BERMAN: On the subject of health care, on an issue you've been working on, I think very closely over the last several weeks, many people may not be aware that expanded tax credits for ACA, for Obamacare, expire at the end of this year. What impact will that have?

SHAHEEN: Well, they're going to be aware very soon as they see the information coming through from their insurance companies about what's going to happen to their health insurance rates.

We just got back a report that we had requested from the Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reform. And what they say very clearly is that the expiration of those tax credits that have been so important to people mean that rates are going to go up the highest that we've seen -- the biggest increase that we've seen in a decade. And the people who are going to be most affected are older Americans, working families, people in rural areas, those people who can least afford those premium increases. And what's happening is that people who are healthy, who are going to, because of the changes in President Trump's big, beautiful betrayal bill, as I call it, make it harder for people to enroll in the health insurance marketplace. So, those healthy people are going to decide, they're not going to enroll, and it's going to mean that sicker people are left in the pool -- risk pool. That's going to drive up premiums for everybody.

So, it's creating a huge issue, and we need to fix it. We need to extend those premium tax credits.

BERMAN: What has been the response from Republicans in the Senate? I don't know if you've been in talks with Republicans in the House as well, because it would need to pass both chambers. One of the president's pollsters, John McLaughlin, actually wrote an op-ed where he said that this is a real threat to Republicans in the midterms if these tax credits expire.

SHAHEEN: Well, I hope they're hearing from their constituents that they don't want to see their health insurance rates go up and that they're going to be willing to do something. We've talked to a number of our colleagues who have expressed an interest, but they're worried about what the White House and President Trump says.

BERMAN: Senator, you are the ranking member on the Foreign Relations Committee. I know you've been watching what's happening between the United States and Russia and Ukraine very carefully. I think Vladimir Putin has -- has blown through another deadline set by President Trump to go to the table and meet with President Zelenskyy. What do you think the current status is of peace efforts in the Russian invasion there?

SHAHEEN: Well, President Trump has now allowed Vladimir Putin to blow through seven deadlines that he has set since he came into office. And he's continuing to allow Vladimir Putin to play him. The most obvious example was at the summit in Alaska, where he got virtually nothing from Vladimir Putin. And what we've seen is more people killed in Ukraine because of President Trump's failure to act on something that he said he was going to be focused on.

[09:35:10]

What -- the only thing that Vladimir Putin understands is strength and pressure. We need to fund the Ukrainians in terms of the military hardware they need. We need to provide the support to help them keep going in this fight. We need to pass the Graham Blumenthal sanctions bill that has over 80 sponsors in the Senate to really put pressure on Russia to come to the table to negotiate a peace deal.

BERMAN: One very quick question of parochial interest. You are not running for re-election in New Hampshire. The guy you beat way back, you know, several terms ago, former Senator John Sununu, announced that he's exploring a run as a Republican there. What do you think of the possibility of the former senator getting in the race?

SHAHEEN: Well, the people of New Hampshire will decide who they want to support in that race. And it's going to be an interesting election year.

BERMAN: No doubt. Always is in New Hampshire.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate your time this morning.

So, European regulators banned a key ingredient in certain nail polish. So, is it safe here in the United States?

And we were looking at live pictures of that hearing room where we will hear from Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. very shortly. And this comes as an ousted health official just said he is actively trying to undermine the U.S. health system and vaccine protections.

Oh, and more breaking news just in. Legendary fashion designer Giorgio Armani, we're learning, has just passed away at the age of 91.

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[09:41:18]

BOLDUAN: Yes, this just in. Famed Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani has died. The name synonymous -- the name and the man synonymous with sleek, understated style.

CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau has more on his life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Throughout the decades, Armani made "made in Italy" famous throughout the world, building one of the world's most successful fashion and lifestyle brands.

GIORGIO ARMANI, FASHION DESIGNER (through translator): At the end of the day, our goal is to make people look more attractive. You know, more beautiful.

NADEAU (voice over): And Giorgio Armani's designs did just that. The Armani style had timeless, refined elegance, simple clean lines, subtle colors. It was all guided by one clear principle.

ARMANI (through translator): Always keep in mind what people can actually wear and what actually makes them look better and feel better about themselves.

NADEAU (voice over): Armani's power suits were big hits with the public, and his signature style made him the go to designer for some of Hollywood's biggest stars, including George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Richard Gere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you wearing tonight?

JULIA ROBERTS, ACTRESS: I'm wearing a beautiful Armani gown that he made just for me.

NADEAU (voice over): Armani was born in the northern Italian town of Piacenza in 1934 and endured a difficult childhood.

ARMANI (through translator): I grew up after the war, and after the war years. It was actually, you know, it was dangerous. There wasn't very much. There was no food. My mother used to spend all her time looking for food.

NADEAU (voice over): He first studied medicine, hoping to become a doctor, but later dropped out, realizing he simply lacked the drive for it. Then his life took a fateful turn.

ARMANI (through translator): I wasn't born with an extreme passion for fashion. Even when I was a kid, I never had such an inspiration of becoming a fashion designer. It was almost by coincidence that I joined a big department store, La Rinascente, through an acquaintance.

NADEAU (voice over): His work in the menswear department sparked an interest in fashion, and he discovered he had a gift for it.

Armani later became a freelance designer with the encouragement of his friend and business partner, Sergio Galeotti, and launched his own menswear label in 1975, where his signature color, "greige," halfway between gray and beige, was born.

ARMANI (through translator): I think that the push that Sergio gave me, that courage inspired me to start a new life. It was pivotal for my success.

NADEAU (voice over): And pivotal to his success in America, where movies and TV shows popularized his designs, starting with "American Gigolo" in 1980, and dressing stars in more than 200 films, including "The Dark Knight" and "The Wolf of Wall Street."

At the age of 90, he also designed the Italian Olympic team uniform for the 2026 Milan-Cortina games. He took a hands on approach to running his empire, for which he was the sole shareholder, and remained deeply involved in day to day operations of his company into his '90s, fueled by a passion for fashion.

ARMANI (through translator): The older you get, the more active you are, the younger you keep. Yes, I mean, the secret is to do something that you love.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BOLDUAN: Giorgio Armani, at the age of 91.

Still ahead for us, we're taking a live look and keeping a close eye right here in Capitol Hill. This is the hearing room where very soon Robert Kennedy Jr. will be facing tough questions before a Senate panel. And that was going to happen even before the now -- the CDC director that he just pushed out of a job put out a scathing piece about what she says he wanted her to do. Why she's calling out sabotage this morning.

Be right back.

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[09:49:21]

BERMAN: All right, breaking news this morning, the ousted CDC director, Susan Monarez, speaking out for the first time since being fired. And she's directly addressing what went down at the CDC in this blistering "Wall Street Journal" op-ed. She called out HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., saying he is undermining the U.S. public health system. This as he's about to appear before lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

The secretary has also promised that this month there will be answers on what causes autism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: We will have announcements, as promised, in September. We're finding interventions, certain interventions now that are clearly, almost certainly causing autism.

[09:50:09]

And we're going to be able to address those in September.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: He will have announcements. But this is before studies, which need federal funds, have even begun.

So, with us now, Alison Singer, the founder and president of the Autism Science Foundation.

Thanks so much for being with us.

So, again, let me just focus on that question there. He says there will be announcements. When you hear him say that, what's your first question?

ALISON SINGER, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, AUTISM SCIENCE FOUNDATION: Well, I think all of us who have family members whom we love, who have autism, appreciate that RFK and the administration is focused on autism. And I agree with RFK, that we do need gold standard science in autism. But this announcement is unlikely to be gold standard science. I mean autism is very complicated. There's not a single cause of autism. It's a complex mix of genetics and the environment. So, this idea that someone can announce the cause of autism is a gross oversimplification.

BERMAN: And when you say it's unlikely, what raises that question specifically? Because he started talking about this in the spring, suggesting there would be studies. I mean have those studies launched? Are there results from them?

SINGER: We have not seen any studies that were launched. There was an announcement that there would be an autism data science initiative, and applications have been submitted. Many of those applications are focused on answering questions that would be important for us to know to move the science forward.

What we're concerned about is that those funds will be diverted to further studies looking at vaccines as a cause of autism when we have 20 years of studies, a mountain of science, showing that there is no relationship between autism and vaccines.

BERMAN: If you'd like to just emphasize that point one more time because it is something that Secretary Kennedy either says directly or says with coded language, or has regularly over the years.

SINGER: Yes, he has talked about his belief that vaccines cause autism for years. And so, we think that this announcement of the cause will probably have something to do with vaccines. Either that vaccines themselves cause autism, or that given his focus on the CDC over the last few weeks, that they've uncovered some conspiracy at the CDC, they found new data that warrants reinvestigation of whether vaccines cause autism.

And this is problematic, really, for two reasons. First, it scares parents. You know, not all parents, especially new parents, are familiar with the huge body of evidence exonerating vaccines as a cause of autism. They will hear that the government is investigating whether vaccines cause autism. And they may say, oh, well, I'll wait until we have that information. I'll -- I'll wait to vaccinate my child. And we know that when you withhold vaccination, you're doing absolutely nothing to prevent your child from being diagnosed with autism. But you're absolutely leaving your child vulnerable to a disease that -- that could kill them.

And our second concern, as I said, is that we're -- we're worried that critically needed autism funds will be diverted from studies that could actually shed light on the real causes of autism. Those will be diverted to further studies of whether or not vaccines cause autism.

And, you know, there's not a bottomless pit of money at the NIH to study autism. We need to use our scarce resources wisely. And we need to make every dollar count.

BERMAN: Again, and we're looking at live pictures right now from the hearing room where we will hear from Secretary Kennedy shortly. And we'll also hear, frankly, the questions that senators have for him shortly to see if they're focused in on many of these key issues.

Some of the language, again, that Secretary Kennedy used is, I feel like people who are novices to the subject, and I count myself among them, we don't necessarily know what he's talking about. But we played that soundbite, and you heard it before, of him saying that it will focus on interventions and maybe the cause, you know, interventions being responsible in some way for autism. What is he talking about there?

SINGER: We're not certain what he means by interventions. He talks as if he's really the first person to think, oh, we should study whether, you know, what are the causes of autism, when, in fact very smart scientists all over the world have been studying this question for years. And we've learned a lot about the underlying biology of autism.

We've learned that autism is highly heritable. That if you have one child with autism, and you have another child, that child is 15 times more likely than someone in the general population to be diagnosed. And we know that that risk extends to nieces and nephews.

We have identified -- we can identify the genetic cause of autism in about 20 percent of cases of profound autism. And we're now moving towards correcting those genes using gene editing technologies to help restore the function of those genes.

[09:55:01]

And we've also identified some environmental factors that cause risk for autism. Waiting to have a baby. We know that older parents, older mothers, and particularly older fathers, that increases risk of having a child with autism. And we also know that fever during pregnancy, certain illnesses during pregnancy, certain medications taken during pregnancy, those also confer risk. that increases risk of having a child with autism. And we also know that fever during pregnancy, certain illnesses during pregnancy, certain medications taken during pregnancy, those also confer risk.

So, the goal is really to focus our limited resources on finding the true causes of autism.

BERMAN: Yes.

SINGER: That is what our families want and deserve.

BERMAN: Alison Singer, I've got to say, I love the way you discussed this because there are so many questions and there are responsible ways to address that. And I know you care about that so deeply.

Thanks so much for being with us.

SINGER: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Very helpful. Thank you so much.

And we are keeping a very close eye on Capitol Hill, where, as we were just -- as they were just discussing, Robert Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services secretary, will be testifying before a Senate panel. Many questions. Big morning ahead. Thanks for joining us. "SIT ROOM" is up next.

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