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FED Chair Signals Further Interest Rate Cuts; Fed Cuts Key Rate by Quarter Point to Aid Weak Job Market; Pomp, Grandeur Surround Trump's Second State Visit to U.K.; Rupert Murdoch Attending State Dinner Amid Trump Legal Battle; Body of Black Student Found Hanging from Tree in Mississippi; Ex-CDC Director: RFK Jr. Called for Firings Without Cause; Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) Discusses About CDC. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 17, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:14]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Pomp and politics: President Trump getting the royal treatment during his historic second state visit to the U.K. And we're taking you inside Windsor Castle, where this hour the President is going to be honored with a lavish state banquet.

Plus, the Federal Reserve giving President Trump the rate cut that he's been calling for. The Central Bank opting for a quarter-point reduction, hinting at more rate cuts likely this year. Could it backfire, though, in its fight against inflation?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And serious concerns about the CDC. The agency's fired director appears before Congress and accuses Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of playing politics with the nation's health.

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: Right now, stock markets are coming down a bit from the near- record high territory they hit earlier today. After just within the past hour, the Fed cut interest rates for the first time this year by a quarter percentage point. The only voting Fed member who voted against it was President Trump's new appointee, Stephen Miran, who is still a member of the White House staff.

Miran wanted a bigger, jumbo-sized, half-point cut. Investors are listening closely to the comments coming from Fed Chair Jerome Powell meantime, who is signaling more rate cuts to come into 2027.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: FOMC participants wrote down their individual assessments of an appropriate path for the federal funds rate based on what each participant judges to be the most likely scenario for the economy. The median participant projects that the appropriate level of the federal funds rate will be 3.6 percent at the end of this year, 3.4 percent at the end of 2026, and 3.1 percent at the end of 2027.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's talk about the economy with Damian Paletta. He's the Washington Bureau Chief for The Wall Street Journal.

Damian, great to see you, as always.

A quarter of a percentage cut, is it appropriate given the tightrope that the Fed is walking between stagnant job growth and nagging inflation?

DAMIAN PALETTA, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, it clearly shows that they're very worried about the stagnant job growth, as you said. This summer, it looks like there was almost no real hiring in the economy. President Trump wanted to create a lot of manufacturing jobs. They are concerned about inflation still, but this shows that the labor part is a bigger part of their focus right now.

SANCHEZ: How about Stephen Miran voting for a half-point cut? I mean, we described it as a jumbo-sized cut. Not quite jumbo, but it is a significant descent.

PALETTA: He's only been in the job 24 hours. He's sending a signal that he wants a different kind of Federal Reserve, the kind of Fed that the President wants. Jay Powell, as you said, the Fed chairman, he's not going to be in this job for much longer because his term ends next year.

So, if Stephen Miran is going to be his Fed, we're going to see a much more aggressive Fed in slashing rates. And what that means, it could juice the stock market, but also could fuel an inflation, which is something that a lot of consumers will feel immediately.

SANCHEZ: Yes, I wonder what you make of Lisa Cook's role in this. She's obviously voting as this administration has targeted her.

PALETTA: Right, she's voting still, but it's still tangled up in the courts. President Trump wants to take this attempt to fire her to the Supreme Court. We could see that fairly soon. She's obviously in a very difficult position. The next Fed meeting is going to be in late October. It's likely this could all be resolved by then.

If President Trump has another seat on the Fed board by then, it could be -- make it easier for him to put even more pressure on Powell to maybe be more aggressive in those cuts.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we've been monitoring Powell's comments. Are you anticipating some kind of full-throated defense of Cook individually, maybe the independence of the Fed more broadly?

PALETTA: Definitely independence in the Fed, but he's been careful not to weigh in too much on the personnel stuff. I think he's being -- he knows that President Trump's really gunning for him. President Trump labels him too late, Powell. Whether this continues, you know, much longer, it's going to be harder for the Fed to retain its independence, and it needs that to convince Wall Street to trust its decisions, because if Wall Street believes the Fed is acting politically, it can lead to all sorts of problems.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we don't want that. Damian Paletta, thank you so much for the analysis.

PALETTA: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Brianna?

KEILAR: Happening now at Windsor Castle, President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are being treated to a state dinner that's hosted by Britain's royal family. And this comes after a series of extraordinarily lavish ceremonies that took place today in their honor, which included a carriage procession and a flyover by the Royal Air Force.

While Trump is spending the day at Windsor, protesters were gathering about 25 miles away in London. We have CNN Anchor and Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins live for us from Windsor.

Kaitlan, you got a preview of this event tonight. What are we expecting?

[15:05:00]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, THE SOURCE: Yes, and Brianna, you mentioned those protesters there in London. Here in Windsor, there's a couple behind me, as well. I'm sure you can hear them. It's not clear, though, that President Trump himself can hear him.

Obviously, he is safely ensconced in Windsor Castle, and reporters were taken in there earlier. I was part of the group to see what this state dinner, this banquet is going to look like tonight. And it is quite grand and quite ornate. And there was also a chance to look at the guest list, which we didn't have a full picture of yet until that preview that we got just about 90 minutes ago.

But as we were going around and looking at all of the name cards that are on this table that has taken about a week to put together, according to royal officials, one name stood out in particular, and that is Rupert Murdoch, who is attending the dinner with his wife, Elena, tonight. And that stands out, obviously, not because Rupert Murdoch himself, obviously, he's been a guest at many state dinners before, but because he's in the middle of a major legal battle with President Trump right now.

President Trump is suing The Wall Street Journal for $20 billion in damages. Not just that, he also wants Rupert Murdoch's testimony as a part of that case. After The Wall Street Journal reported on that Epstein birthday card, which Trump has denied that it's his signature at the bottom of that. And Brianna, you'll remember at the time that The Wall Street Journal published that, the President said he personally warned Rupert Murdoch, someone that he has known for decades and has counted as his friend at times, that it was not true, and that if they did publish it, that he would sue The Wall Street Journal over it. Of course, they published it anyway. Then we got a look at the card itself after it was released to members of Congress.

But it is notable that down the table from President Trump tonight will be Rupert Murdoch and his wife. It's not clear, obviously, if this will come up. But we've seen the Jeffrey Epstein of this looming over parts of this trip, given the ambassador to -- from the U.K. to the U.S. was ousted over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein as well.

I will tell you, Brianna, looking at this dinner table, it's about 160 guests that are going to be there. And it's a guest list that was put together not only just the royal family, but also in conjunction with the White House, as well as with the menu that they are going to have tonight.

And you'll notice there's a huge list of people that you'll recognize inside that room, not just American officials, including the Treasury secretary, who I will note will be seated next to the Queen, as trade deals have very much been a heavy conversation with the U.K. There's also a lot of U.S. business executives that are going to be in there: Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, Steve Schwarzman, Larry Fink, just to name a few, Brian Moynihan of Bank of America.

And so quite the guest list that is set to get underway here in just moments at Windsor Castle. Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. Sitting charts can get complicated and awkward, as we are seeing. And this is a lot of pomp and circumstance that we're seeing today. Tomorrow, there's going to be a lot of work. What's on tap for tomorrow?

COLLINS: Yes. And one thing that has been clear from British officials is that they're kind of trying to set the table for tomorrow, so to say, by impressing President Trump, you know, pulling this power card of having this major state dinner and state visit here at Windsor Castle. He's actually going to be seated in between the King and the Princess of Wales tonight. Melania Trump's going to be across him. She's next to the queen and the Prince of Wales, Prince William.

And so, that just kind of gives you the dynamic of the impress effort that they are trying with President Trump before he meets with Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, tomorrow, as they're going to be talking about trade deals, defense, Ukraine. All of that is going to be on the table.

And so, we'll see what they say tomorrow when they hold a press conference together.

KEILAR: All right. We'll be looking for that. Kaitlan Collins live for us in Windsor, England. Thank you for that report.

And still to come, a black college student is found dead on campus, his body hanging from a tree. And police say there were no signs of foul play. We'll talk about what we're learning there.

Plus, the ousted CDC director appearing before Congress, telling lawmakers her side of the story. We'll have details on that.

And then later, a Spirit Airlines pilot getting scolded, told to pay attention as Air Force One flies close by. And now we have the audio. We'll have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SANCHEZ: The family of a black college student whose body was found hanging from a tree on campus is now demanding answers. They do not believe local officials who ruled his death a suicide and said they found no signs of foul play. CNN's Dianne Gallagher is following this story for us.

So, Dianne, this was at Delta State University in Mississippi. Walk us through what the family is saying and what local officials are saying.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And Boris, obviously, this is very painful, not just for his family and friends, but for that entire community. There is historical context that looms over all of this. But on Monday, the body of 21-year-old Demartravion Reed or Trey Reed as he went by, was found hanging from a tree by a staff member at Delta State University near the pickleball courts on campus early in the morning.

Now, police and the university still say that there was no foul play suspected. They continue to say there's no danger to anyone on campus. This is an isolated incident. But they do note this is still an open death investigation. We just got an update from police late this morning, and they did confirm for the first time that there is video.

Now, they would not go into what was on this video evidence, what they may be able to use it for, what you might see saying that it's all part of this open investigation. There was also an autopsy being performed by the state. They say we could expect that as soon as the next 24 hours, but at least sometime later this week.

[15:15:04]

Why that is important is because the local county coroner released a preliminary statement about his findings, and he indicated that he did not observe any broken bones, bruises or injuries that would indicate there was an assault on Reed, perhaps before his death.

Now, look, the context here also being that Delta State, it's a small university, fewer than 3,000 students in Cleveland, Mississippi. It's located about 30 miles from the place where Emmett Till's body was found 70 years ago. There were a lot of people paying very close attention to this.

The nature of his death, of course, combined with social media rumors and that painful history was addressed by the university president today. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAN ENNIS, PRESIDENT, DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY: The loss of Trey Reed has been, and continues to be, devastating for the Delta State community. I want to begin by acknowledging that the manner how Trey was discovered has stirred many emotions in this community and many emotions around the state and the nation. By the preliminary report of the Bolivar County Coroner's Office indicates no evidence of foul play. I -- we recognize that this is not only about facts. It's about emotions and it's about feelings. And the way this loss and how it was discovered affects people's lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Now, the family has said they just want answers and they want transparency. They have since retained National Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump, who released a statement saying in part, quote, Trey Reed was a young man full of promise and warmth, deeply loved and respected by all who knew him, his family and the campus community deserve a full independent investigation to uncover the truth about what happened. We cannot accept vague conclusions when so many questions remain.

Congressman Bennie Thompson from Mississippi has also asked that the FBI do an investigation as well. Boris? Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Dianne Gallagher, thank you so much. Brianna.

KEILAR: Here's a look at some of the other stories that we're following. Republican Brad Raffensperger, who refused to help president -- then-President Trump find votes in Georgia to help overturn the 2020 election, is joining the 2026 race for governor there. As Georgia's secretary of state, Raffensperger took that now infamous phone call from Trump and suffered his wrath before winning reelection overwhelmingly in 2022. His next challenge will be qualifying for the primary since the Georgia Republican Party voted to ban him from running in the GOP field.

Also, tropical storm, Gabrielle, there it is. It is formed in the central Atlantic Ocean. That ends an unusually long calm period with nearly three weeks of no new storms coming right in the middle of peak hurricane season. Gabrielle is expected to become a hurricane by Saturday. The storm is about a thousand miles from the Caribbean's northern Leeward Islands, and it is heading to the north northwest. It's not clear how strong it could become, and it doesn't seem likely to hit the U.S., but it's still too early to say for sure.

And what seemed to be a blast from the past, thank goodness, was really just strong wind gusts stirring up scary memories over Mount St. Helens. It looked like the volcano might be erupting again, but really it was just high winds kicking up old volcanic ash that has been in the crater for decades. Mount St. Helens, of course, did erupt in 1980 when it killed 57 people. But in this case, a lack of snow has created extremely dry conditions, allowing wind gusts to send ash as high as 10,000 feet, according to the National Weather Service.

And coming up, the fired CDC director tells lawmakers that her former boss, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., seemed to put politics before public health.

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DR. SUSAN MONAREZ, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR: If the deputies did not do what I had wanted, I needed to fire them and promote the next group and continue to do so until I got to an organization that was compliant with my demands.

SEN. ANDY KIM (D-NJ): So, the plan was to literally just kind of keep firing until there was somebody in that position that was willing to go along with what Secretary Kennedy was asking. Is that right?

MONAREZ: That is what he communicated to me. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Another remarkable moment on the Hill today, as ousted CDC director Susan Monarez described why she says she was fired just 29 days after her boss, Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. welcomed her to the role. Monarez expressing her grave concerns alongside the CDC's chief medical officer, who recently resigned. Both doctors warning that if Kennedy's disproven vaccine skepticism goes unchecked, Americans will suffer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DEBRA HOURY, FORMER CDC CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Given what I have seen, if we continue down this path, we are not prepared, not just for pandemics, but for -- to preventing chronic health disease and we're going to see kids dying of vaccine preventable diseases.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We're joined now by the senator that you saw there questioning Monarez about those firings, Democrat Andy Kim of New Jersey.

[15:25:03]

Senator, thanks for being with us. And I wonder, as you were listening to what Monarez testified to today, how does it comport with what Secretary Kennedy told the Senate during his confirmation hearing?

SEN. ANDY KIM (D-NJ): Yes. Well, first of all, it was a stunning hearing today. I mean, just the differences that we saw, you know, with Secretary Kennedy when he came before the Senate earlier this year, talking about how he's data driven, how he wants to make sure that there is a radical transparency. But the hearing today very much showed the opposite there, that Secretary Kennedy is running an operation that is literally just trying to gut people that might disagree with him, that you have to pledge total loyalty and fealty.

And one thing that really stood out to me is that the former director of the CDC today talked about how Secretary Kennedy told her he already knew the outcome of a vaccine related meeting that's supposed to happen tomorrow. He already knew that a month ago. What they are doing is they are predetermining what they want the science and the data to later prove. They're twisting the data to be able to prove whatever it is that Secretary Kennedy is moving forward. And that is a betrayal of science and a betrayal of trust.

KEILAR: Democrats voted unanimously against Monarez' confirmation at the time. I want to play something that Senator Tim Kaine said during the hearing to Monarez.

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SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): Dr. Monarez, I owe you an apology. When you were here for your confirmation hearing, I questioned you very significantly, not on your qualifications. You got over the qualifications bar easily. But my worries about the direction of HHS made me question you very significantly on your backbone.

MONAREZ: You did.

KAINE: A trait that is not in long supply in this town. And then, when I voted against your confirmation, I cited that as the reason. Again, no concern about your qualifications. I had concern about your backbone. And I was wrong. And I apologize to you for being wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I heard a lot of Democrats today calling her a hero. How are you looking at your vote during her confirmation after this hearing?

KIM: Yes, well, look, I respect Dr. Monarez. I voted against her in the confirmation because I felt that a lot of the challenges that we saw with Secretary Kennedy were predictable. You know, I will be honest with you. I'm not shocked that he is someone that is trying to bend science and the data towards him. We've seen it in so much of what he said on podcasts or in interviews and in other means beforehand.

So, I'm glad that Dr. Monarez was willing to stand up.

KEILAR: Can I ask you about -- can I ask -- I want to ask you about her because, I mean, are you glad that someone like her was in a position to tell you what went down at HHS during this time?

KIM: Yes. I'm glad that she is somebody that stuck with her integrity and was somebody who was willing to stand up and say enough that this is not the way that we should be proceeding. And I'm very concerned that she's going to be replaced by someone who would literally just be a rubber stamp and a yes man to Secretary Kennedy, which is what he's looking for.

KEILAR: So, on the right, there is -- and you're aware of this, on the right, there's a lack of trust in these public health institutions. And now you're seeing on the left and in the center, a lot of distrust of these institutions as they're operating under the Trump administration. Can Democrats address that mistrust from their voters while also addressing concerns from the right?

KIM: I hope so. I mean, I think it's so important that we are able to restore that sense of trust. You know, I'm somebody that worked as a career civil servant in the State Department. I worked under both a Republican president and a Democratic president. So, I know what it means to be a nonpartisan public servant and to try to serve the country, not the political party. And frankly, that's the same oath that I swore as a member of Congress.

We're supposed to operate without this sense of partisanship and tribalism guiding our every action. That's what we should aspire towards. So, yes, you know, I hope that we can try to show the, you know, the concerns that we have about what Secretary Kennedy is doing, but show that the way in which we try to guard against that is about protecting public servants, protecting science, protecting experts, and trying to share with the American people why it's important.

Why is it going to be dangerous for them if Secretary Kennedy can basically have anything that he wants when it comes to vaccines or other healthcare aspects move forward? You know, we need to make sure that we have an anchor and that anchor should be about what is best for the American people.

KEILAR: Senator, a lot of extraordinary moments during this hearing, but there was one where there were these conflicting accounts about the conversation between Monarez and Secretary RFK Jr.

[15:30:02]

She said that the Secretary told her he couldn't trust her and that she said that if you can't trust me, then ...