Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Former NFL Player Chris Johnson Announces ALS Diagnosis; Supreme Court Lets States Receive Mail-in Ballots After Election Day; U.S., Iran to Hold Talks After Strikes Over the Weekend; Supreme Court Rules That Trump Has Power to Fire Heads of Independent Agencies; at Least 1,719 Killed in Devastating Venezuela Earthquakes; Passenger Jet Collides With Drone at JFK; Alex Murdaugh's Double-murder Retrial Set for Next Spring. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired June 29, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS JOHNSON, FORMER NFL RUNNING BACK: -- promising ideas than ever before. Seeing how hard these doctors and researchers are working gives me hope. As long as they're fighting for people with ALS, I'm going to keep fighting too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Johnson says that he has never been able to fully process the situation that he is now dealing with, but he said he had two choices, either give up or fight. Obviously, he's chosen the latter.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah, just to hear a doctor say, get your affairs in order, what a shock for him and his family. Don Riddell, thanks so much.

A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

ERICA HILL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Ballot battle, the Supreme Court says states can count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day. President Trump fires back, demanding Congress pass his controversial election bill.

Holding their fire, the U.S. and Iran stand down after strikes. President Trump says the two sides will meet for talks tomorrow. The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, heads to Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers.

And an alarming new report on social media and kids. As parents look to new safety features to keep their children safe, turns out more than half of those protections are not working as promised. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

We begin this hour with the Breaking News from the Supreme Court, as President Trump celebrates a big win when it comes to his presidential power. The justices overhauling a 90-year precedent, saying President Trump can fire most of the heads of independent agencies for any reason he likes. But in a separate ruling, the court found that power does not apply to the Federal Reserve. The president was also handed losses when it comes to mail-in ballots and a case involving E. Jean Carroll.

CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent, Paula Reid is with us now. So overall, was this a good day or a bad day for President Trump?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, it's a mixed bag. Win some, lose some. He did lose some battles today and over the course of this term, but he is winning the war to expand executive power. So that was significant today to really get a sense of where the justices are on this claim that you could pretty much have unlimited power, right? The unitary executive theory that would argue that he could fire whoever he wants.

We got a little insight into where they are on some of these bigger questions today. So again, a mixed bag, but so far on social media, he seems happy.

HILL: So you mentioned in terms of his ability to fire people, right? That was a big win for the president.

REID: Exactly.

HILL: Really expanding his presidential power, as you noted.

REID: Yeah. And it's confusing because it was a pair of cases. They were both handed to our colleague, John Fritze together at the Supreme Court. But what they say at a high level is that, yes, he does have broad authority to fire many federal officials throughout the government. But when it comes to, for example, the Federal Reserve, he can fire them, but he has to give them the appropriate kind of process, the opportunity to respond.

As the chief justice said, and he wrote this in his opinion, he said, it doesn't have to be a sit down with the president, right, or a full trial. But you do have to provide them some process. Now, all that sounds sort of legalistic and procedural, but what they're really saying is something that I think will go down as one of the defining cases of the Roberts' court, which is that the president can do most of what he has wanted to do in terms of firing officials to reshape the federal government.

They're drawing a circle around the Federal Reserve and saying you just need process there. The Federal Reserve, of course, is significant because of its potential economic impact --

HILL: Which was also cited in the decision.

REID: Yes, exactly. When it comes to all these other folks, you're good. So what we're watching for now is, all right, what are you going to do now that you have that answer? But overall, that's a big win, even though technically he lost one. HILL: So as we wait and we watch for that, the president not at all happy about what the justices had to say when it comes to mail-in ballots.

REID: Yeah, this is really a stealth case. People don't talk about it as much because it's not specifically a Trump case, but it's a Trump adjacent case because they're talking here about a law in Mississippi that says if your ballot is postmarked by Election Day, even if it comes in several days after Election Day, it will still be counted.

And the RNC, and then eventually the Trump Justice Department, were pushing back against that, right? They want to narrow the window when you can vote because that limits who can vote. This is something that they're really focused on. They argued before the court that if the election has to be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, that's the only time you can vote.

And if they won here, it was expected that they'd also go after in- person voting, early in-person voting. So, the fact that they lost this case and that the Mississippi law can stand that significant because roughly a dozen other states have similar laws. So, I was a little surprised by the ruling here, but I think it's really significant because if they'd gone the other way, this would have opened the door for a lot.

HILL: Yeah, and especially at a time when we're staring down midterm elections, right?

REID: Yes.

HILL: And how would that have been implemented. So, this is where we are when it comes to mail-in ballots. There was also a very interesting note when it comes to E. Jean Carroll today.

REID: Exactly. So, before they did their opinions, they revealed which cases, some of the cases, that they will and will not hear. They have to decide. Do we want to listen to this next term or not? Now, when it comes to E. Jean Carroll, President Trump had appealed that $5 million jury verdict against him.

[14:05:00]

That 2023 trial, I covered it, they found that he sexually abused and defamed her. He fought this all the way to the Supreme Court and they have set a record for how many times they have deferred on deciding whether they'll take that appeal.

They finally said today they're not going to take up the appeal, but they're not done yet because he had another $83 million verdict, money he's supposed to give E. Jean Carroll. His lawyers are expected to appeal that as well to the Supreme Court in the coming days. Different questions there in terms of constitutional issues, things they might want to chew on, but we'll see what they say.

HILL: But in terms of this other one, right, they said we're not going to look at that, so he has to pay the $5 million judgment? REID: Yeah, there were suggestions that he would continue to appeal, but unless there is a court on Pluto or Saturn or somewhere, this is the end of the road.

HILL: OK.

REID: I mean, this is it.

HILL: All right, and tomorrow will actually be the end of the road for the term.

REID: Yes.

HILL: We're waiting on some other big decisions, so I'm sure we'll be talking to you again tomorrow.

REID: You will.

HILL: -- on the (ph) Supreme Court. Paula, thank you. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, a desperate race to rescue survivors still underway in Venezuela. Search teams sifting through the debris of flattened buildings after the devastating dual earthquakes just five days ago. More than 1,400 people confirmed killed, tens of thousands still unaccounted for. Hope is beginning to fade. Most survivors are located within 72 hours of a disaster like this one.

Today, though, another miraculous moment, a 21-year-old man pulled from the rubble. Moments like this one are fueling rescuers to fight through fatigue and to carry on. CNN's Stefano Pozzebon is on the ground in the capital, Caracas.

Stefano, I just wonder, I mean, such a gargantuan effort with so many tens of thousands still missing. How are those rescue efforts continuing?

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: These rescue efforts here, Jim, are fueled by the glimmer of hopes, the sparks of hope that videos like the rescue of that 18-year-old -- 18-days-old baby, 16-year-old woman, those miraculous rescues that we've seen in the last few days.

We're actually here in the center of Caracas where the search and rescue operations are still continuing with at least three excavators making their way through the rubble just behind my back and they're hoping to locate someone who may still be trapped under the pile of debris.

Here is Caracas. We were able to come up and speak to you live because the connectivity has been re-established. There is a lot of resources. There is press staying here. Clearly, La Guaira, which is the state which is north of Caracas and where the disaster zone is located, is a complete different environment.

There is where you see truly the utter devastation of this tragedy that has put this country on its knees. We spent the whole day yesterday in La Guaira and this, Jim, is our dispatch. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POZZEBON (voice-over): Rescue workers are digging their way through rubble and dust to locate survivors in La Guaira. Trapped for days under a pile of collapsed homes, the port city is ground zero for the Venezuelan earthquake search and rescue operation.

This elite rescue team from the U.S. believe they've heard a tap-tap from under the debris.

POZZEBON: They try to communicate with them with sound and this is why this is truly a race against time, but it's a race against time that is happening in utter silence. Nobody dares to speak. Nobody dares to shout because a sound could mean a life saved.

There's an elevator too, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

POZZEBON: Next to the stairs?

POZZEBON (voice-over): Now all of this is happening as the relatives of the people trapped inside and other survivors are staying here. They're waiting. They're watching. It's an excruciating wait for someone who has a seven-year-old son trapped beneath the rubble.

Ronald Pinerua has not slept since Wednesday. He was out when the quakes hit. His son was with his grandmother at home.

RONALD PINERUA, SON TRAPPED UNDER RUBBLE IN VENEZUELA (through translator): I will find my son today, he says. I know I will.

POZZEBON (voice-over): It's now or never for thousands of people who are still missing.

Most earthquake survivors are rescued within 72 hours. These rescue workers say they will continue to dig until everyone is accounted for. The Venezuelan government estimates more than 12,000 people have been displaced. They all need a place to sleep and eat.

POZZEBON: We've just arrived to a fast food. It's a fried chicken restaurant, but they've been turned into a community kitchen, basically.

[14:10:00]

All of these people are now working in a chain to bring out 1,500 ready meals. It's fried chicken and fries, but that will fuel both displaced and volunteers that are trying to help.

POZZEBON (voice-over): At this restaurant, everyone lives in La Guaira. Everyone has lived through the double earthquake, but nobody wants to rest. It's the strength of a community who refuses to give up, despite the reality. By sunset, the search stopped.

Ronald's son was found, along with his grandmother, under the rubble. The latest victim in a tragedy that's already taken more than 1,400 lives. It will still take days to recover the remains, but the pain will stay forever.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

POZZEBON (on camera): The pain will stay forever. This, Jim, is already a different country from the one from last week. Ronald, for example, is a policeman. He used to serve in the security apparatus in the Venezuelan government. And when they did find the remains of his body, he hugged one of the U.S. base. They were rescuers from Fairfax, Virginia. They hugged.

And just that image of seeing a Venezuelan cop, a Venezuelan policeman hugging a uniformed man from the United States with the Stars and Stripes, I mean, you can appreciate how this tragedy is changing the course of history, clearly changing the course of the history of this country, and perhaps is also, in the middle of the pain, bringing nations together. Jim, Erica?

SCIUTTO: Well, natural disasters are often the biggest crises for governments to face. Stefano, please keep yourself and your team safe there. And we just have this update now into CNN that the death toll, the confirmed death toll from the Venezuelan quakes is now above 1,700. It's 1,719 people, and still with all those many thousands missing.

Well, still to come, a passenger jet collides with a drone on approach to JFK Airport in New York. We have the startling details.

Plus, we're less than 24 hours away from a big election test in Colorado. Democrats will be watching to see if a progressive movement has Western momentum after last week's win in New York City.

And later, President Trump tees up another renovation project here in Washington. That and much more news coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:14]

HILL: Breaking News coming out of one of the busiest airports in the United States. We're just learning that the FAA is now investigating after a JetBlue pilot reported a drone hit his plane as it was coming in for a landing at JFK just this morning. CNN's Pete Muntean is on the story, gathering some more details for us at this point. What happened?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Right now, still a bit of a mystery at this point, and the FAA says they're investigating this. JetBlue, though, says it found no damage to the plane, but if this is confirmed as an actual collision with a drone, it could be one of the first ever with a U.S. commercial airliner.

This occurred as JetBlue Flight 948 from Vegas was descending to land into JFK around 7 a.m. local time. One of the pilots reported hitting a drone at about 3,000 feet, about 10 miles from a waypoint on the final approach into JFK's runway 13 left.

That would put this collision somewhere over Seabright or Sandy Hook, New Jersey, which jets out into lower New York Bay, and I want you to listen now to how one of the JetBlue pilots reported this to the tower at JFK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JETBLUE PILOT: We are clear to land, 13L. Just quickly, I couldn't talk to approach, but we collided with a drone back there in the turn as we're coming to ASALT. Just wanted to pass that to you.

JFK TOWER: You said you collided?

JETBLUE PILOT: Yep, it hit us right -- right above the cockpit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Pretty matter of fact there, this comes only days after two commercial flights descending into nearby Newark Liberty International Airport reported seeing a drone. That happened on Friday evening. First, the pilot of a United flight reported seeing a drone. That was corroborated by a report from the pilot of a regional jet next in line to land.

It's important to note here that officials have been very concerned about drones flying illegally near World Cup stadiums and MetLife Stadium, where the World Cup is taking place, it is not really all that far from where these sightings occurred.

The TSA says federal authorities have seized more than 300 unauthorized drones during the World Cup for flying in areas where flights are banned for security reasons, and just last Thursday in Kansas City alone, the TSA says eight drones and controllers were seized.

Operators could face $100,000 fines, criminal charges, because a drone hitting a plane can do some real damage. You probably remember the images from the firefighting plane that hit a drone responding to the L.A. wildfires last January.

One important note of caution here, there have been reported drone collisions by pilots that actually turned out to be something else, maybe a bird strike or maybe another mechanical issue of a different type. So we will see as this investigation unfolds.

The Smithsonian Institution is really the foremost authority on this, and they will come out and check the remnants of the bird. There was the flight path there now, and you can see that this flight came in from the northwest, came out over the sound there and then turn north into JFK.

[14:20:00]

So still some things to figure out here. There is a name for remnants of a bird and it's got a very strange one. This is one of my favorite pieces of aviation trivia. It's called snarge.

HILL: Snarge?

MUNTEAN: Snarge.

HILL: Do we spell that S-N-A-R-G-E?

MUNTEAN: Exactly.

HILL: Can I use that in cosplay (ph)?

MUNTEAN: Use it in a sentence? Yeah.

(LAUGH)

MUNTEAN: So we will see if this actually turns out to be a drone. But the real mystery here --

HILL: Right.

MUNTEAN: -- is that JetBlue says no damage found to the plane. No obvious signs of a drone.

HILL: Right.

MUNTEAN: Although we'll see as this plays out. Of course, there have been sightings elsewhere which makes this especially suspicious.

HILL: Right. So we look to see if there is drone or snarge.

(LAUGH)

MUNTEAN: So you got it.

HILL: You know, Pete, I always learn something new from you. Thank you, my friend. Appreciate it. Jim?

Oh, no, on to me. Sorry. I was distracted by snarge.

Still ahead here, Alex Murdaugh is set to get another day in court. We have new details now about the re-trial over the deaths of his wife and son.

Plus, there's a new report out that finds many of those safety tools for youth when it comes to TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, turns out the safety tools are either not working as advertised or they're simply too tough for kids to use. So what do parents need to know? We have that and much more ahead for you, right here on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:26:00]

SCIUTTO: Alex Murdaugh, the disbarred South Carolina attorney accused of killing his own wife and son, is set to be re-tried next spring. A judge set a trial date for April 5th. Murdaugh appeared in court today for the first time since the state Supreme Court overturned his murder convictions and ordered a new trial.

CNN National Correspondent, Dianne Gallagher has been covering this. And Dianne, I know one of the key requests of the defense had been for a change of venue. Where does that stand?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So this was the first time we actually have seen Alex Murdaugh since those murder convictions were overturned. And the judge did not officially rule on any of the pre-trial motions that were filed by the defense, including the change of venue request. What she did do was give us a schedule, a timeline.

And so what we now know is that Alex Murdaugh will go back on trial, officially, for the murders of his wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, on April 5th of next year. That is the re-trial date. We're going to have a slew of these pre-trial hearings ahead of that date.

In fact, we already have one set for August to talk about some of those pre-trial motions that were filed, like the change of venue request. The defense argues that Alex Murdaugh simply can't get a fair trial in the 14th Circuit where the original murder trial was held and where he's from because there's just been too much attention. And because of his family's legal dynasty in the area, if you remember, there's a portrait of a relative they had to take down from the courtroom where the last murder trial was held.

I will tell you that the media attention and the community's interest is still there. There were dozens of people from the general public who showed up today for a status conference hearing. They said they just wanted to catch a glimpse of Alex Murdaugh in person.

They also wanted to get to know the new face in this universe, if you will. And that's Judge Debra McCaslin. She will handle everything related to this re-trial for those murder charges that he still remains charged with.

And I will tell you that, being in there, she was no nonsense and she was ready to get things moving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE DEBRA MCCASLIN, SOUTH CAROLINA CIRCUIT COURT: Because when I say April the 5th, we're picking a jury and going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Now, look, Alex Murdaugh, as you can see, appeared in that orange jumpsuit, shackled. His defense team says that they believe that that could potentially taint a jury pool. They initially filed a pre-trial motion and then they withdrew it after the state said that they opposed it, claiming, look, Alex Murdaugh is still a convicted inmate after he pleaded guilty to federal and state charges for stealing millions of dollars from his vulnerable clients. In their response, they said, quote, "He is not special." But the defense says, look, this is going to be televised, live streamed. People are watching it. We want to make sure that if we have a change of venue, those new jurors are not poisoned in any way, seeing him in that outfit. We should learn more about the potential for a change of venue at the next hearing in August.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, always a challenge with highly public cases like this one. Dianne Gallagher, thanks so much.

Still to come, a stamp of approval from the Supreme Court details on the decision about mail-in ballots. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)