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Legal Battle Between Kelly and Hegseth; Americans Thoughts on Aliens; Eason Jordan Remembers Ted Turner. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired May 07, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

PHIL WEISER (D), COLORADO ATTORNEY GENERAL: Weapons that are so deadly. That's why we passed this law. We defended this law at the Colorado Supreme Court that said it passed constitutional muster. It didn't violate the Second Amendment. Now, the Justice Department, which is supposed to be protecting against patterns and practices of civil rights, is bullying Colorado, thinking they're going to get us to walk back on our commitment from gun safety. They're wrong.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, you call them large capacity magazines. And the Department of Justice basically says, no, they're not. They say that magazines that hold 15 rounds or fewer are commonly owned and come standard with many firearms sold in America. If that's the case, why shouldn't they be protected under the Second Amendment? It's a fight over the number of rounds?

WEISER: Here's the question, which is, what are reasonable firearms that people can have for lawful purposes? You don't need a bazooka to go hunting or to keep your home safe. These weapons are weapons of war. They do not belong. people bringing them to school for school shooting. Something we've seen too much of Colorado.

I'm not running for governor. I'm talking about gun violence in Colorado because it's such a big issue here that we are concerned about and we need solutions. And we know common sense gun laws are part of the answer. Getting dangerous guns out of dangerous people. This is about public safety.

Let's just be clear, the Justice Department is now trying to make Colorado less safe. This is upending the mission of the Justice Department. This is a bullying campaign. It's wrong.

BERMAN: You cited a bazooka there, which comes from the writings of the late Justice Antonin Scalia here. This is about, though, magazines, what some people call high-capacity, large capacity magazines, which the Department of Justice is now saying aren't. And you're a good lawyer, and you've been at this for a long time. So, where do you see this argument going and what will it hinge on? Because might it actually hinge on how many bullets can be held in one place at one time? I mean, will the Supreme Court, ultimately if it gets there, be the arbiter of saying, OK, this is OK to regulate but this isn't?

WEISER: John, you invoked the Justice Scalia approach from the Heller opinion, which used the following formulation, reasonable restrictions on gun ownership are consistent with the Second Amendment. In another case, Bruen, the Supreme Court said, let's look at what type of restrictions might have been allowed at the founding, and that was applied recently, saying, we're not going to let people who engage in domestic violence own weapons because we know they're dangerous.

And so, I would say, the touchstones are, what types of weapons are really dangerous. Bump stocks is something else we can talk about. And what type of people shouldn't own firearms. And it is reasonable. It's appropriate. And I believe it's morally the right thing to do to protect the public from either dangerous people having firearms or dangerous people having dangerous firearms. And we don't want people with weapons of war able to go out and commit mass murder. That's why this law was upheld by the Colorado Supreme Court. And that's why this action by the Justice Department is so disturbing.

BERMAN: You have any prediction, though, about what the Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court would say on it if it gets there?

WEISER: Here's the point I would say. When the last case I mentioned about domestic violence perpetrators owning firearms, that was a restriction in federal law. It's a restriction in Colorado law. That went before a federal court of appeals in Texas, I believe, and the Texas Court of Appeals, federal court of appeals, struck it down. That got to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court essentially said, we're going to allow that restriction to stand. That's an important point.

This Supreme Court's going to think long and hard before they start going down this road, because we know laws like the one we have in Colorado are saving lives. And the Supreme Court has to ask itself a really important question. Does it want to be in the super gun regulatory oversight, or can it rather stick to a principle that I believe is sound, the one that Justice Scalia articulated? And I think that's why our law here, and other laws we have, like our red flag law, are going to pass constitutional muster.

BERMAN: Well, this does begin a process now that could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, thanks for discussing it with us this morning. Appreciate it.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, happening now in Washington, oral arguments are set to begin in that ongoing legal battle between Senator Mark Kelly and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. A federal appeals court will examine whether the Pentagon can censure Kelly over this video he and five other Democratic lawmakers made, which told soldiers that they can ignore illegal orders.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is tracking all of this for us.

I think a lot of people forgot about this particular case, and it is clearly going forward. Where do things stand this morning? [09:35:03]

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sara, this is going to be a key argument in this case. It's a major First Amendment case. It's about the reach of the president and the Pentagon over military retirees and, in this case, with a very high-profile person, having his military grade, the possibility of facing court martial at stake. It's Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, a Democrat who's been very critical of the Trump administration and is still very influential out there on military discussions about the military.

So, how we got to this point is that a judge at the lower court said that the Trump administration, they can't come and retaliate against Mark Kelly because of a video that he put out with five other members of Congress, saying to military members that if they were given an unlawful order, they had the ability to refuse to carry it out. That came in a moment where there were double-tap strikes on boats and much controversy over that in the American military. There was a Capitol Hill questions about it. There was a lot of blowback for the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth.

Since then, the Justice Department has gone to court and wanted to say that the court should not be able to stop discipline, even of someone who has been retired from the military for 15 years, like Kelly has been.

Just a reminder, Sara, this is what the video sounded like. This is a clip from it. It was published in November of 2025.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Our laws are clear, you can refuse illegal orders.

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): You can refuse illegal orders.

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): You must refuse illegal orders.

SLOTKIN: No one has to carry out orders that violate the law --

REP. CHRISSY HOULAHAN (D-PA): Or our Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: So, now this big question about the First Amendment and the military's power, the president's power, it's at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. There's three judges today that are hearing the arguments on this. The panel, it's split. We'll see where they go with this. They won't rule today. But it is a major argument. Something that could potentially go always to the Supreme Court.

SIDNER: Like so many cases we have seen so far.

Katelyn Polantz, I know you'll be watching it no matter where it goes. I do appreciate your reporting this morning. All right, ahead, the president is teasing the release of some

government files on UFOs. But how many Americans do actually believe that there are aliens? We're running the numbers, ahead.

Plus, a homeowner woken up in the middle of the night by what she thought was someone trying to break into her home. This is what she got instead. Two gators going at it.

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[09:42:06]

BERMAN: All right, new comments from the Artemis II astronauts on whether they think space aliens exist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I -- we think about the universe, and I was talking to you before, every star you see is in our galaxy, the milky way. But then we think there is maybe a couple trillion other galaxies out there. So, it's pretty hard to fathom that there's not alien life out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: We are also standing by for new possible revelations from the Trump administration. The president said this week the Pentagon is getting set to release some, quote, "very interesting UFO files," although I will say he has kind of indicated that before.

With us now, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

When it comes to belief in life out there, how many people believe there is?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: You know, if you had told me a decade ago I'd be standing here with Johnny Berman yesterday talking about ballrooms and today talking about aliens, the only thing I could say is, to quote the great Bill Murray, "this is one nutty hospital."

But, you know, the fact is, Americans who believe in aliens, it's up like a rocket. In 1997 it was 49 percent. By the beginning of this decade, look at this, 66 percent. Two in three Americans actually do believe that there's life out there, that there are aliens.

So those Artemis astronauts, they're not alone.

BERMAN: It's really interesting that it's growing there. I think that might be the most interesting thing in this.

What about people who say that, you know, not only are they out there, but they're going to give us a call?

ENTEN: Yes, you know, my number, I am not going to reveal on air to you, aliens. But I will say this, look, have humans had contact with aliens? I think the most interesting thing here is, seven percent of Americans think that we already have. I wonder if they look like this fellow up here. I think he's quite good looking there. But then we got another 39 percent who believe that we will. But then you get basically a 50/50 split, right? Because 49 percent say we'll never have contact with the aliens. So, you basically get about 50 percent who say we have or we will, and then another 50 percent who say we won't ever have contact with them.

But, you know, I've got to be honest, I think a conversation with an alien would be pretty gosh darn cool.

BERMAN: Yes. I mean the seven percent who say we have is pretty interesting here. How many sort of unexplained sightings are there?

ENTEN: Yes. Yes. And I would just note, John, if you are a member of this seven percent, you really should tell me about it because I'm quite interesting to see whether or not they know whether the Bills will win a Super Bowl next year.

But look at this. UFO sightings that go unexplained by the U.S. government. Look, two to five percent of UFO sightings actually go unexplained. So, you know what? Who knows? Maybe the "X-files" was on to something.

BERMAN: Or, there are a lot of flashlights and drones out there.

ENTEN: You know what, John is --

BERMAN: Or -- OK. What are the odds? I mean, people are making predictions on this. What are people saying about whether or not the government will just flat out announce, hey, they're out there?

ENTNE: Yes. Yes. I think John, you know, expressed some skepticism at the beginning of this segment, you know, maybe that they would do so.

Look, chance that the U.S. executive branch actually confirms that aliens exist by the end of this year, it's 26 percent.

[09:45:02]

Hey, that's not nothing. That's one in four. That's not Nutter Butter. But probably not when it comes to aliens. They probably won't. That's at least, according to the Kalshi prediction market, where the people who are putting their money where their mouth is.

But you know what? If I was putting money on the line, I would say, hey, you know what, there's got to be something out there, right? Maybe? Possibly?

BERMAN: I don't know. But I will tell you this, if it does turn out there is alien life, it is confirmed, we will bring it to you live when it happens.

All right, we got a lot of news this morning. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:50:02]

SIDNER: All right, on our radar for you this morning, severe storms spawned multiple tornadoes in southern Mississippi overnight, leaving more than a dozen people injured and damaging about 1,000 structures. Officials are going to be assessing the damage this morning as the sun has come up there. The system is now moving east and could cause isolated severe storms from the Florida panhandle to the eastern Carolinas.

All right, in New York, police arrested a 28-year-old woman accused of pretending to be a 16-year-old high school student. According to court records, Kacy Claassen enrolled last month under a fake name and birth date. She was busted after the school principal saw her Facebook page and confronted her. Officials say Claassen admitted she lied so she could receive more public assistance from the state. She's been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and criminal impersonation. I think there was a movie that was the same thing.

Anyway, you have to see this video. Two alligators going at it inside somebody's home and there's a baby sleeping just feet away from where this happened. The mom actually thought it was a burglar when she went to investigate the loud noises, but instead she saw these two huge alligators tearing into one another. She called for help and a Florida state trapper eventually got rid of them. Everybody's OK, including the gators. Rangers say it's mating season, so that might explain why they're a bit more aggressive.

John, I do not need you to comment on that.

BERMAN: No, I will lay off mating season.

All right, here at CNN we are remembering our founder, Ted Turner, who died yesterday at the age of 87. He started CNN back in 1980. He did a lot of other things, too, like winning the America's Cup, owning the Atlanta Braves, donating $1 billion to the United Nations. A lot. But we care most about CNN.

And with us now is Eason Jordan, former CNN newsgathering president, friend of the network, friend of the show. It's great to see you in person here.

EASON JORDAN, FORMER CNN NEWSGATHERING PRESIDENT: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: And I know you were a great friend of Ted over the decades. And he was a mentor.

And instead of asking about him, I actually want to ask about you, which I think in some way is instructive about him. He hired you to run like all international news gathering and bureaus and everything at CNN when you were like a 28-year-old punk on the news desk. Like, explain to me how that happened and what it says about Ted.

JORDAN: Well, Ted Turner was a rebel. And he wanted to go against the odds and do extraordinary things. And so, one of the extraordinary things he did was, when there was a change in leadership in overseeing foreign news coverage at CNN, and we shouldn't say foreign, but global news coverage.

SIDNER: Didn't he get fined for saying foreign? You had to say international.

JORDAN: Yes. It was $100 fine, not a $50 fine. But Ted decided that a kid, a 28-year-old, myself, should be put in charge of news coverage of the world. And his explanation of that was, well, when I was young and my dad committed suicide, I took over. So, we can just put a 28- year-old in charge. And so be it. I'd been working the overnight shift for six years in a row, and none of the leaders of CNN even knew who I was. But Ted just mandated it.

And when he finally met me and I thanked him for this huge promotion, he clutched his heart, fell to the floor and said, damn it, I knew you were young, but I didn't think you were that young. And he just had to defend it for the rest of his life.

SIDNER: All right, now to what he was like, because that gives you a sense of how he was with you.

What other things do you remember about him? For example, when you're in this position, you have to push back sometimes on the boss and say, like, hey, this is not possible. We're not doing this. Or other things. What happened when you would do that? Or would you?

JORDAN: Absolutely I pushed back. And I think that was one of the reasons he kept me on the job for as long as he did.

To talk about the word foreign. He banned the word foreign. He said it was a divisive word. And he said we had to say international instead. I remember one of the Atlanta Braves announcers, Skip Caray, saying, well, I now have an international object stuck in my eye.

But we -- Ted, on the first day of the foreign ban, he called me as I was on the international desk because we were in the midst of an interview with the Soviet foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze. And Ted said, Eason, I told you, under no circumstances should anyone say or show the word foreign on CNN. And I said, Ted, it's his title, foreign minister. And he said, well, God damn it, tell him to change his title.

SIDNER: And you did not do that, I'm assuming.

JORDAN: No.

BERMAN: One of the great things about CNN, the bureau here in New York, which is vastly different from when Ted was in charge, but Atlanta, everywhere, we got pictures everywhere of the -- all the years of CNN. You're in a lot of them, too, traveling with Ted everywhere. Just talk to me about what that was like.

JORDAN: Well, it was incredible. I was fortunate to be with him on many occasions with Fidel Castro, going late into the night and on occasion Ted walking out on Fidel Castro.

[09:55:04] Fidel would just talk for hours, nonstop.

But the meeting with Vladimir Putin, Ted and I were the first Americans to meet Vladimir Putin when he first became president in the year 2000. And Ted decided to drop a bomb on Vladimir Putin and asked Putin to sell him, Ted, a nuclear weapon. And Putin said, why would I want to sell you a nuclear weapon? And Ted said, I just want it to blackmail the rest of the world into nuclear disarmament. And he was -- that was his way of sending a message, the world needs to be rid of nuclear weapons once and for all. We were then escorted to the door. Putin said, thank you very much.

SIDNER: Yes.

JORDAN: But the next day we were taken to the underground nuclear command post from which all nuclear weapons of Russia would be launched should there ever, God forbid, be a nuclear war.

SIDNER: Wow. There will never be another Ted Turner. Not even close.

Thank you for sharing those stories.

JORDAN: Thank you.

SIDNER: Fascinating.

BERMAN: Thank you for everything you also did personally at CNN to build this for us here.

JORDAN: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: We really do appreciate it.

And thank you all for joining us here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM" is up next.

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