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Supreme Court to Rule on Trump Cases; Descendant of Founding Father Reflects on the U.S. Today; Actor Edward Norton is Interviewed about "The Invite." Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired June 29, 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]

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Democratic side, on the House of Representatives, in large part because the Washington, D.C., Democratic brand, is toxic, not just with voters overall, but with the Democratic base in particular. It is a whole new world. And we'll likely see that tomorrow in Colorado as well. Of course, we'll just have to wait and see.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, stay tuned. More on this to come.

A lot of news this morning. We'll be right back.

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[09:35:10]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are standing by very soon to hear from the Supreme Court and some potentially huge decisions from the justices on presidential power in several major cases, including the president's challenge to birthright citizenship, challenge on mail-in ballots, transgender rights, and Trump's firing of federal officials.

CNN's Paula Reid is outside the Supreme Court. She's going to be tracking it all for us.

It could be a very busy day, but lay out for everyone, kind of walk through what we could be getting today.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Supreme Court will not issue its opinions until ten, but we already have big news here, Kate. The Supreme Court has announced that it will decline to hear President Trump's appeal of a $5 million jury verdict won by E. Jean Carroll back in 2023 for sex abuse and defamation. Now, we've been waiting for quite some time for them to weigh in on whether they will hear that case. They're making it clear right now, they will not entertain this appeal.

Now, that is called an order. This when the court decides what cases they will and will not be taking up.

Then, in about half an hour, they will release opinions for the cases that they have heard over the past year. They're down to eight opinions that we are waiting for. Now, a lot of them have to do with President Trump. The extent of his executive power. Those include questions about birthright citizenship. Can he limit that right through executive order? Also, big questions about who he can and cannot fire within the federal government.

Now, there are two other really big cases that we're watching for. They're not directly related to President Trump, but they're sort of Trump adjacent issues. One is about transgender students and whether they can participate in girls' sports. We're looking at that one very closely when it comes in.

And also, Kate, what I think is really one of the biggest questions of the term, and it has to do with elections, specifically mail-in ballots, and whether they should be counted if they arrive after election day. There they are looking specifically at a law in Mississippi that allows ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by election day. That's similar to the laws in roughly a dozen states.

But this is so significant because, of course, there are a lot of questions around elections, election rules, election integrity. And we have this critical midterm coming up and the presidential race in 2028. So, depending on how they decide this case, there could be additional litigation about early in-person voting. And it could really open up a whole new vein of what it means to vote.

So, a lot of big cases that we are watching and waiting for. We do not expect today will be the last day of opinions.

BOLDUAN: So, we'll get -- could get some, won't get all.

It's good to see you, Paula. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This weekend, Americans will celebrate the country's 250th birthday. The historic milestone comes at a time of deep division over many issues, some of which you just heard Paula reporting on there at the Supreme Court. Many people wonder if where we are now is anything like the country's fathers intended or envisioned. So, CNN is getting a unique perspective from the descendants of our founding fathers.

This morning, I am joined by Reverend W. Douglas Banks. He is a direct descendant of Thomas Jefferson and sally Hemings.

I do want to quickly start with this because we were just talking with our reporter at the Supreme Court about the Supreme Court perhaps changing an interpretation of the Constitution and deciding whether or not being born in this country actually ensures you are a citizen of this country. I wonder what you, as a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, make of that.

REV. W. DOUGLAS BANKS, DESCENDANT OF THOMAS JEFFERSON AND SALLY HEMINGS: Well, good morning, Sara.

I make of that, that America is really in a dangerous but revealing moment right now. And we're discovering whether we love democracy as a system of shared responsibility or just a tool to win for our own side. The Constitution doesn't defend itself. It requires truth telling. It requires restraint, accountability, and citizens who are willing to protect democracy even when its limits are in with its own power.

SIDNER: Your family's place in American history is extremely complex. But at the same time, not unusual during slavery. You are the descendent of Sally Hemings, a slave, and Thomas Jefferson, who owned her. How do you reconcile that? Because there is so much talk about that, especially during some of the social justice protests that we saw, people asking for certain statutes, for example -- statues, for example, to come down.

[09:40:08]

How do you reconcile that?

BANKS: Yes. I descend from both Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. It's important for me to mention both, and not just lean on Thomas Jefferson. And so, my story lives on both sides of America's founding contradiction. The man who wrote all men are created equal literally meant men only. And the woman who lived in his domain and had children by him, lived in a nation and refused to treat her as an equal or even as a human being. And so, one of the things that I've been able to understand is that none of us have control over how we got here, the DNA that we may have inherited, but we do have control over what we do with it.

SIDNER: That is very well said. You said something else that really struck me in this piece on cnn.com. You said, "we have to be brave enough to come out of our hiding places." In America there's been so much divisiveness and separation. And that emphasis on that has been profound.

So, what would be your advice, as a descendant of two people who are clearly with this desperately opposing views, what would be your advice to all of us on this birthday?

BANKS: You know, as the 250th anniversary comes, we should both celebrate and examine. We can celebrate the ideals of the declaration, but we've got to also examine who was excluded. A mature nation doesn't need myths to love itself. A mature nation can tell the truth and still choose hope. America's greatness isn't seen in its perfection. It's really seen in its correction, being able to correct ourselves along the way from things and people that were not originally included with these great ideals that we still imagine toward.

SIDNER: Reverend W. Douglas Banks, thank you. You've taken us to church this morning. You didn't even have to try. I know it's what you do, but I do appreciate your sentiments this morning. It really is something to consider. Do appreciate you. John.

BERMAN: All right, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani jumps into a pool wearing a full suit. I actually don't know why. I suspect we will learn. Let's stay tuned together.

And then, imagine the worst dinner party ever, and then multiply it by a million. The inside scoop from "The Invite."

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[09:47:16]

SIDNER: All right, on our radar for you this morning, a state of emergency in place in Kentucky as we speak after deadly and catastrophic flooding across the state. At least four people have been killed. And those floods have destroyed roads, bridges, homes and businesses. I spoke with Governor Andy Beshear just last hour to get an update on what they're dealing with in his state.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): It's significantly widespread. We probably have 15, 16 of our 120 counties that got hit and got hit mildly to significantly hard. Now we are through the worst of it. The rain moved out yesterday. The flash flooding is abating.

Sadly, we've had a lot of practice. but what that means is we know how to be there for our people in their toughest of moments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And he was clear, he's going to ask for FEMA assistance.

Out west, three firefighters have died after battling a wildfire along the Colorado-Utah border. It's bad, man. Look at those pictures. They were helping fight the fast-growing Snyder Fire, which has burned more than 28,000 acres. It's just one of a dozen brush fires that are burning right now in Utah. The largest fire, known as the Cottonwood Fire, has grown to nearly 100,000 acres. As of Sunday it remains zero percent contained. The fires have led officials to restrict, as they should, fireworks over Independence Day weekend. Even though this is a really big one, it's super dangerous, dry conditions.

All right, and from New York to Seattle, millions took to the streets Sunday for the Annual Pride Parade. The event filled the streets with, as you see there, colorful live performances and events. Pride Month is marked in June to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and in observance of the 1969 Stonewall uprising right here in New York. A turning point in the gay rights movement.

All right, here goes something. Cannonball courtesy of Mayor Mamdani. Pool season officially underway, kicking off with a mayoral leap into a New York City pool. I know you noticed the same thing we noticed. Yes, he has a full suit on. With dozens of kiddos by his side looking to beat the heat. Pool season couldn't be coming at a better time with temperatures expected to hit triple digits in New York later this week that is. I'd jump in with all my clothes too if it was that hot.

John.

BERMAN: Will be necessary.

All right, so we had a big movie date, right?

SIDNER: We did.

BERMAN: And for about two hours we grabbed each other's arms and --

SIDNER: We tried not to look at each other also.

BERMAN: And in a mixture of laughter and horror. "The Invite" is funny, provocative, amazing and awkward. It stars Penelope Cruz, Edward Norton, Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde, who also directed the film.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Similar to what was there before, but that was kind of what I was going for with the -- the whole theme was renovation without change, which I think I succeeded in, you know, just to keep it original but with a new surface.

[09:50:12]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Admittedly, I know a lot less about tile than I've learned about rugs. And a lot of the bathrooms that I've seen have been on fire. So, my --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My relationship with them was fleeting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I'd have just said, this was an immaculately preserved vintage bathroom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow. That's what I was going for. That's --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You fooled me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow. Oh, I'm -- oh, Facebook Marketplace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That only scratches the surface. SIDNER: So awkward.

BERMAN: With us now is Academy Award nominee Edward Norton.

Thank you so much for being here.

EDWARD NORTON, CO-STAR, "THE INVITE": Hey.

BERMAN: We loved it. We just loved it. And if you do me a favor, because I don't think I can adequately do it, can you just sort of explain what the film is about, or how would you say it? Like, what is this film?

NORTON: We've been calling it the double date movie of the summer because you really should -- you really should pick another couple and go with you.

I -- it's really about the collision of two couples. You know, one, Seth and Olivia play a couple who are maybe at the -- at the dead end of their marriage, not in a happy place. And they invite the neighbors upstairs down for cocktails. And the whole movie is about what ensues from the collision of a very, we learn, oversexed couple with a very -- a very -- a couple that --

BERMAN: Undersexed.

SIDNER: Undersexed. Just to be clear.

NORTON: Yes, has -- and undersexed and over resentful. And it's -- it is -- it is really funny. It is a really, really funny film. But it does, I think -- I think kind of send a lot of people into a meditation on what it means to be in a long term relationship.

SIDNER: Yes.

NORTON: Yes, it sort of hits the high and the low. And I think that's a testament to Olivia Wilde, who, who is brilliant in the film, but also directed us like in a -- in a -- in a way that was so creative and phenomenal. It was in the upper ranks of my experience as an actor with a director, it was just absolutely brilliant the way she put this film together.

SIDNER: Can I just -- I was sweating. Like, I was -- I was literally --

BERMAN: I am now.

SIDNER: I'm sweating. I'm uncomfortable. I was so uncomfortable. But also, I would not get up to go to the bathroom because I knew I couldn't miss a single scene because it was so intense. When you read the script, did you have any idea -- I'm just wondering what you did when you looked at the script. There are so many twists and turns.

NORTON: You know, it's funny that you -- so, this is very interesting because this was -- we have to give credit. There's a brilliant Spanish playwright and director named Cesc (ph) who wrote this originally as a play in Spain and then turned it into a small, independent Spanish film that Olivia and I had both seen and just thought was absolutely brilliant called "The People Upstairs."

SIDNER: Wow.

NORTON: And so, the conceit -- and what's wild is, they've made this film in Poland --

BOLDUAN: Yes.

NORTON: In France. In Korea.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

NORTON: And each one is like a reinterpretation of the scenario. And Olivia -- what Olivia did was invite us in to fill up that frame or that armature with our own version of it. And she literally almost asked us to write our own characters. It was a wildly creative experience. It was really -- she asked us to bring our own intimate experiences into it and stuff like that.

SIDNER: Really?

NORTON: But I do know it was -- it was -- and I do think you feel it in the film. I think you can feel the four of us tumbling over each other in a very -- we were making each other laugh. We were sharing -- she even had us keep certain secrets from each other and only reveal them in the scenes. It was really --

BOLDUAN: Oh, I love it.

SIDNER: Oh.

NORTON: It really was -- it really was a wildly different kind of experience for all of us. But I think what comes through it is kind of an authenticity of the awkwardness, the sexiness, the real emotion and the anger. And it -- and it, I think, many, many people will really be able to relate to some dimension of what gets discussed in this. Yes.

SIDNER: Definitely.

BOLDUAN: You've been in -- you've been in -- you've done so many amazing projects and work with so many really outstanding people. I saw, when you were talking about like the creative space that Olivia Wilde created for you, allowed for you guys to do so that you -- she -- you wrote -- you came up with that final monologue towards the end of the film that was sort of like, what was this like?

NORTON: I did -- you know, it's funny, like, it was something I had -- I had written for myself to hold almost in my own -- my own mind as what had happened to him as almost like a secret. Olivia felt like there needed to be something that shifted the frequency. And when -- and when we started discussing it, I said, I think I know what happened to him.

[09:55:00] And she said, don't tell -- she said, I don't want to know what it is. Is it good? Is it -- and I -- and I said, yes, I think it is. And she said -- and she actually set up the cameras on herself and Seth and filmed her and Seth hearing it for the first time. So, the emotion -- her emotion in the film, which I have never, in 30 years making films, I've never had a director put that kind of level of trust in, in us as a cast.

BOLDUAN: That's really great.

NORTON: It was -- it was -- I've had amazing experiences with people like doing "Birdman" and things that were done really differently. This was in the -- for me, this was in the upper, upper ranks of kind of wildly creative and collaborative experiences amongst us. And I -- just huge testament to Olivia because I think she -- to give that kind of a performance while also crafting the film and also opening up a space for actors this way to work, it was, it was just next level in my experience.

BOLDUAN: So cool.

SIDNER: I cried. By the way, that monologue messed me up.

NORTON: You do laugh and cry. I think a friend of mine said, that's the hardest I've laughed in a long time, and I'm going to go home and have a good sob in the closet right now. Like --

SIDNER: That's the -- that's the best way to describe this film.

BOLDUAN: Welcome to the journey.

NORTON: Yes, exactly. But I think -- I think, you know, that's, that's what relationships are, right? I mean, I think that is the truth. It is -- they take you high and low and working through all that is what kind of makes us all human. And I think --

BOLDUAN: Yes.

NORTON: I do think when a film -- when people see themselves in a story --

SIDNER: Yes.

NORTON: It's when it really, it really activates for us, you know.

BOLDUAN: Like an immaculately, encapsulated, preserved bathroom.

SIDNER: It resonates.

BERMAN: Yes. And, or, when you desperately don't want to be part of that story, if you know what I mean.

NORTON: Yes.

BERMAN: Thank you all. Edward Norton, thank you so much.

SIDNER: Correct.

BERMAN: We loved it.

NORTON: Thanks for having us.

BERMAN: Congratulations.

This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "SITUATION ROOM," up next.

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