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Reporting Indicates Former President Trump Called Then Arizona Governor Doug Ducey Asking Him To Overturn State Results Of 2020 Presidential Election; Supreme Court Rules Against Biden Administration Policy Of Forgiving Student Loan Debt; Supreme Court Rules Against Affirmative Action In College Administrations; Heat Waves Hit Parts Of U.S.; Whereabouts Of Wagner Group Leader Yevgeny Prigozhin Unclear After Failed Armed Insurrection In Russia; Sea Lions And Other Sea Mammals Sick And Dying On Southern California Coast After Consuming Toxic Algae. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired July 01, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:05]

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In 2016, the V.A. produced a masterplan to renovate this rotting campus -- 233 units for homeless vets are complete. But, according to the timeline, at least 770 units should have been built by now.

There is progress. Just this week they broke ground on a new unit for unhoused veterans. When it's all said and done, there should be 1,200 units for previously homeless veterans here. But that is going to take years, and in the meantime the problem is only getting worse. We just got the most recent numbers. 2023, there were nearly 400 more veterans homeless in L.A. than just one year before.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

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SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: Hello once again. Thank you for joining me. I'm Sara Sidner in for the fabulous Fredricka Whitfield.

We are learning more about Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. A source telling CNN that after the election, former President Trump called then Arizona Governor Doug Ducey in an attempt to pressure him into overturning the state's presidential election results. Trump narrowly lost Arizona to Joe Biden by less than 11,000 votes, and sources say Trump also pushed then Vice President Mike Pence to help him overturn the 2020 election loss.

CNN's Jeremy Herb is joining us now. What more are you learning about this pressure campaign, according to sources in Arizona?

JEREMY HERB, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, that's right, Sara. Sources tell CNN that the then President Trump, he called then governor, Arizona governor, Doug Ducey, to pressure him on trying to overturn the election in the state. Specifically sources tell CNN that Trump asked Ducey to try to find the fraud that would allow him to overturn the election. Ducey acknowledged at the time that he had gotten this phone call from the former president, but he had not disclosed the contents of what Trump had told him.

One of the other things we've learned from sources is that the president pressured vice president, Mike Pence, who also tried to go to outreach for Ducey. We're told that the former vice president, he did speak to Ducey about the election, but sources tell CNN that he did not actually pressure the Arizona governor as he had been asked to do.

This all comes, of course, as the special counsel is ramping up his investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which includes outreach to states like Arizona and other states like Georgia. This week we learned that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, he was interviewed by prosecutors for the Special Counsel. Raffensperger, of course, he was the one who Trump told to find the votes he needed to win the state in Georgia.

There are a couple of key differences between these two conversations, one of which, a source tells CNN, there is no recording of the call that Ducey had with Trump, while there was a recording that was released in 2021 of the call Raffensperger had. One of the more fascinating things about this episode with Ducey, though, is that we got to see Trump's efforts to pressure him. They played out in real time. The governor, he was signing on camera papers to certify the election. And we then got to see how he received a phone call with the ring tone of "Hail to the Chief." Watch that here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HERB: Now, you'll see that the governor -- you can't hear the ringtone, but the ringtone was "Hail to the Chief" according to those who were in the room at the time, which the governor had said earlier in the year he specifically switched so he could get calls from the White House, from the president, and from the vice president. So it really is sort of an interesting scene in real time of how state officials were dealing with this pressure.

We should note the former governor's spokesperson, he said in a statement that, frankly, nothing here is new, nor is it news to anyone who has been following this issue the last two years. Governor Ducey defended the results of Arizona's 2020 election. he certified the election, and he made clear that the certification provided a trigger for credible complaints backed by evidence to be brought forward. None were ever brought forward. The spokesman, he also told CNN that the former governor, he has not heard from the special counsel about this conversation. It's a very important point to note there, Sara.

SIDNER: That's right. Perhaps he may after this reporting by first "The Washington Post" and then CNN. Jeremy Herb, thank you so much.

President Biden says he's now vowing to embark on a new path, as he puts it, to soften the blow for borrowers, student loan borrowers, that is.

[14:05:00] This is after the Supreme Court struck down his student loan forgiveness executive order. The high court rejecting the program that would have forgiven up to $20,000 in loan relief to millions of Americans. It was just one of several consequential decisions handed down by the Supreme Court justices just this week.

In a six-three conservative majority decision, the court gutted Affirmative Action in college admissions, ruling that colleges and universities can no longer take race into consideration as a basis for admission.

And in another monumental case, the court sided with a Christian web designer in Colorado who refuses to create websites to celebrate same- sex weddings, saying it violated her First Amendment rights.

CNN Supreme Court reporter Ariane de Vogue watched all of this unfold there in person. You've been following this court for a very long time. What did you make of this court's rulings? Lots of polarizing, if you will, and precedent-setting decisions.

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: Sara, you're absolutely right. In the last few days we really saw just how robust this conservative majority is in all those cases that you just talked about. If you look at the Affirmative Action case in particular, it really is a good example of just how the liberals and the conservatives in certain cases are just seeing the law and the country in two opposite ways. In that particular case it was Chief Justice John Roberts, he said he's never been a fan of these preferences.

And he said, look, the schools have to have a really good reason to take race into consideration, and they did not meet that high bar. He insinuated that it's actually thwarting the goal of a colorblind society to take race into consideration. And his colleague, Justice Clarence Thomas, he wrote his own concurring opinion, and he said basically taking race into consideration actually taints the minority applicants.

On the other side, you had the liberals who were just mystified. You had Justice Sonia Sotomayor who wrote for the three liberals, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson who wrote her own opinion, and they basically said, look, we don't live in a colorblind society right now. There is still discrimination and these programs helped ward that off. But they were on opposite sides.

And if you think about the LGBTQ case that you mentioned there, there was a web designer, she did not want to create websites, new websites to celebrate same-sex marriages because she didn't believe -- that went against her religious beliefs. Again, the conservatives, led by Neil Gorsuch, they saw that case as really about the First Amendment, she couldn't be forced to create a product with a message that she didn't agree with, whereas the liberals on the other side said this doesn't have to do with the First Amendment. This has to do with discrimination. Again, they were in loggerheads.

And in that student loan case, you had the conservatives saying Congress has to give its authority before you forgive billions of dollars of debt. And you had the liberals saying Congress did give its authority, you're just not listening. The way you're looking at the law is wrong.

Roberts did earlier in the term rule in favor of the liberal position in two voting rights cases, but by the end of the term you really saw him back in his place as a conservative, and you looked at this majority and you saw a couple of things.

First of all, there's six now, so they can lose one or two -- they can lose one member to the liberal side, as they did sometimes this term, and they can still prevail. But the other thing is, they are a young conservative majority. They are going to be doing this, changing the law, probably more decades.

SIDNER: Ariane de Vogue, thank you.

There is so much to unpack. Lots to read out there for those who want more information on CNN.com.

Here now to talk about one of those decisions, Roger Severino. He is the former director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights during the Trump administration. He's now the Vice President of Domestic Policy for the Heritage Foundation.

Roger, I read your opinion piece. You say that you did benefit from Affirmative Action. How so? And what do you think of the Supreme Court's decision to end it for college admissions?

ROGER SEVERINO, V.P. OF DOMESTIC POLICY, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: Well, my life story is very much like the American dream, a son of immigrants. And I did benefit from Affirmative Action programs for the longest time. But as I went through college, I realized there was a big problem. My Asian girlfriend, who grew up on the same block, practically, as I did was flatly ineligible for any of the programs, and I couldn't live with that, the injustice of it. And also the stigma. I was wondering, can I make it on my own? And I wanted to be able to break free of that stigma.

[14:10:00]

So when I applied to Harvard Law School, I did not check the box. And I think it was one of the best decisions I ever made. A person's background, a person's history is important, but we've got to be measured as individuals, not as checked boxes. And the Supreme Court said that the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King is that we should be judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin. And that's a principle that was vindicated in the Supreme Court case.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about skin color. So skin color cannot be considered. But the Supreme Court did say that you could write in an essay about your experience and how your skin color has affected you in your life. I do want to ask you about legacy admissions, because one of the things that people look at this as, legacy admissions, you just happen to be born to someone who went to this elite school and now you get preferential treatment. Do you think that those should also go away as a matter of policy? SEVERINO: I would hope so. I think legacy admissions, they really

don't measure the content of a person's character. And Harvard University has not let them go. This is this club that Harvard set up that was exclusionary. And let's remember who lost the most under the old system. It was Asian Americans. They were capped at around 20 percent, a hard cap. And now Harvard is trying to get rid of the use of the SAW. Why? Because Asian Americans tend to do quite well on standardized tests, and standardized tests level the playing field.

So Harvard has this club where it wants to pick and choose exactly who gets in and who doesn't, and it cannot use simple color of a person's skin anymore. Life stories can be taken into account, but life stories don't revolve simply based on one's skin color. You could be rich, have every door open to you, and be African American. You could be poor and white and suffer tons of discrimination. You could have a disability. It's a matter of a person's ability to overcome obstacles that should be taken into account, and legacy admissions, I think, are a bad idea.

And Harvard, if it wanted diversity, it could start with intellectual diversity. Only eight percent of its incoming students are conservative. That needs to change.

SIDNER: I want to ask you about -- you talked about standardized tests, and that is something that you said levels the playing field. For some there are many people who have looked at it and studied it and said, actually, those tests really make it very difficult for people in different cultures and from different backgrounds, particularly black and brown folks. But as someone who grew up poor, you said, in Los Angeles, do you worry about how this decision might impact the younger generations who come from a similar background where their socioeconomic background has made it extremely difficult for them to be able to take part in some of these schools, particularly private schools as well?

SEVERINO: Well, it's an upstream versus downstream problem. Downstream, Harvard is trying to do racial balancing. People should focus their efforts upstream. Our education system is broken, particularly at the K through 12 level. I had difficulty going through school because they were government public schools, and it wasn't the best opportunity I could get. I wish I had the opportunity, as well as my colleagues, to have school choice, to have vouchers so my parents wouldn't have been trapped by sending me to a school that they had no other option to. That's a way that we can open doors for everybody. We start at the K through 12 level.

And when you try to do this mismatch balancing at the end of it, you're going to give people a special boost that sets them up for failure. I went through the Affirmative Action programs. I knew a lot of my compatriots were being set up to fail because they were put in a place where they did not have the proper background. And that is absolutely demoralizing.

And then you get locked into this idea that, well, maybe it's just racism, maybe it's some world obstacle that I can never overcome, and therefore I need this boost because I can't compete on my own. That is devastating to minority communities. And I'm so glad I didn't buy into that mindset. I saw an obstacle. I tried to go over it, and thank God I had my parents who stuck with me. But it's really about the opportunity of equality. That's the vision. And once you've taken off the shackles of racial balancing, the minorities will step up and deliver.

SIDNER: Can I just quickly ask you, do you think that you were given a boost, though? Because you did benefit from Affirmative Action in the beginning, not when you went to Harvard where you did not check the box. But you said you did benefit. Did that give you that extra boost to get into Harvard, because you had such a good education going in?

SEVERINO: It opened doors that were closed to others. And that was fundamentally unjust. And it did not solve the mismatch problem. A lot of the folks that went through those same programs, they never actually caught up to the other levels because of the mismatch. If you give a person an artificial boost, that acts as a crutch. And that crutch actually hurts the people you're trying to help. And the thing with the case of Harvard, there is no end point.

[14:15:00]

When would they ever stop racial balancing? If they believe that this is a structurally racist society, that it's inevitable that we are trapped in our races, then they will never stop. And that's what the Supreme Court pointed out. There is no end point under the Critical Race Theory model, and that means you trap minorities at the bottom because you're telling them you cannot, on your own, make it. And that message is just wrong.

SIDNER: Roger Severino, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate your time.

And coming up, dangerously high temperatures, severe storms, and smoky skies are in store for this holiday weekend. We'll tell you the hardest-hit places. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Triple digit temperatures and severe storms are threatening to wreck holiday weekend plans for millions of Americans. CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is here with the latest. I hate that you have to be the bearer of bad news.

[14:20:02]

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and unfortunately if you've got some travel plans in or around Nashville, now is not really an ideal time. You've got a very strong line of thunderstorms starting to slide into the city as we speak. So any travel on the major interstates like I-40, I-65, likely to have some delays there as this line goes through. Also, any airport travel, would not be surprised if there's delays as the line begins to slide in.

And it's not the only area. That's the other thing to note. You've still got some showers and thunderstorms across the Ohio Valley, another cluster that is just to the west of Dallas. Really, as we go into the afternoon they continue into the evening hours, strong to severe thunderstorms are possible. We're talking damaging winds, large hail, and yes, even some isolated tornadoes.

The best chance for that is really going to be across this area here, St. Louis, Louisville, down through Paducah, Kentucky. But basically, anywhere from eastern Kansas all the way over through eastern Pennsylvania has the potential for those severe thunderstorms, as well as that secondary spot located in western Texas.

Now, we have that ongoing band now, but as we progress into the afternoon and evening hours, more of that is going to develop along the back side and begin to spread farther east into the mid-Atlantic and eventually into the northeast. We also will still have the potential for some pop-up showers and thunderstorms across the southeast, too, so any travel plans there could end up incurring some delays.

Heat is going to be another big story. You've got areas across the southeast dealing with excessive heat warnings and heat advisories, as well as to the west where that next heat wave is really just starting to take shape out there. You are looking at, at least, two dozen cities to potentially break records not only this weekend, but also extending into Monday and Tuesday of the upcoming week. And again, they extend from Florida all the way back through California and portions of Oregon, where, again, we're expecting these temperatures, Sara, to get pretty high. Yes, it's summer, yes, this is the time of year where we have it. But even for a lot of these areas this is extreme.

SIDNER: All right, thank you so much, Allison Chinchar.

Coming up, where is Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin? And why hasn't he been seen in public a full week after his failed rebellion in Russia? And by the way, he's not the only top commander who has not been seen.

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[14:26:26]

SIDNER: A week after the short-lived insurrection in Russia, questions swirl over the whereabouts of both the top Russian commander and the head of the mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin, and why does their treatment by the Kremlin differ so drastically to those who are far less powerful in the country? Here is CNN's Melissa Bell.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two Russians in exile, one a student with a rebellious tattoo, the other an insurrectionist warlord. Only one of them is on the run on terrorism charges. Meet 20-year-old Olesya Krivtsova. Her alleged crime, an anti-war social media post last year that led to a conviction and her escape to Europe. Now in Norway as she looks for work, she was glued to the images coming out of Russia over the weekend. OLESYA KRIVTSOVA, RUSSIAN EXILE (through translator): I watched it

nonstop. I followed this justice march all day. I wondered how it would end, and I really wanted to see in person how Prigozhin was taken to the pretrial detention center.

BELL: Pretrial detention centers are well known to Olesya, but that's not where Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin ended up, heading instead to Belarus where Putin Ally Alexander Lukashenko offered him refuge.

ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I also realized that there was a harsh decision taken to destroy. I suggested Putin not to hurry, let's talk with Prigozhin, with his commanders.

BELL: No such help for Olesya as she fled Russia, prying off her own electronic bracelet on the way to the border. CNN first brought you her story earlier this year. She had just arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania, after fleeing her home in northern Russia. Taking very little, but a reminder of the cost of her freedom. The reason she was made an example of, she says, is there are many ordinary Russians like her.

KRIVTSOVA (through translator): Every day we see the people are put in jail for posts on the Internet. But a person guilty of killing 20 people, 14 people according to the official version, and they tell him you can go to Belarus, every time I think about it, I get angry.

BELL: But there is only one Prigozhin, even if Vladimir Putin never named him as he addressed the failed insurrection.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): What we are facing now is treason. Unreasonable ambitions and personal interests led to treachery, state treason, and betrayal of one's own people.

BELL: The man behind an insurrection facing no charges at all.

KRIVTSOVA (through translator): There is no law and no justice in Russia. It's just all one big act of insanity and hatred.

BELL: Melissa Bell, CNN.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SIDNER: Let's talk more about this still-evolving situation in Russia. Jill Dougherty is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and a CNN contributor and the former bureau chief in Moscow for us. What happens now, Jill, with Prigozhin, knowing that the Kremlin and Putin are looking at this, and there's in-fighting going on? Will he be allowed to live in exile?

JILL DOUGHERTY, FORMER CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: I think the dilemma for the Kremlin is you've got Prigozhin and then you have Wagner. And Wagner is 25,000, maybe even 50,000, perhaps, well-trained, pretty brutal fighters, who were pretty effective in Ukraine, in a terrible way. They are really -- they are not trained military, but they are real fighters. So what do you do with them? So I think there are two different

issues. So if you look at the fighters themselves, they're useful to Russia, they could be useful to Belarus, and that's why you have the president of Belarus, Lukashenko, inviting them to help train his forces in Belarus, and also these reports of possibly building bases for them because, remember, the deal from Putin was join the regular military, go home to your families, or go to Belarus. So that's the forces. They could be useful.

Then Prigozhin himself. Prigozhin is, as we've been saying, a loose cannon and a dangerous person in many ways. He is, or has been, pretty popular among Russians, kind of the tough guy, macho guy. So what do you do with him? If you kill him, you could alienate and really infuriate his followers. But if you don't kill him, then he can come back and, let's say, take up his message and perhaps threaten the Kremlin. So there are other things that we can get into, but I think that's kind of the dilemma, the man and the mission.

SIDNER: It is incredible. What do you think that we'll understand fully how much damage may have been done to Putin's power in Russia because of this?

DOUGHERTY: Boy, that's, again, really hard. It could be a few days. It could be 20 years from now. But really, I think this is an incredible moment where behind the scenes Putin has to be figuring out who can he trust. Who can he trust in his own military who might have supported Prigozhin. We have General Surovikin, very important person, who was implicated in some fashion, perhaps. And I think right now they're trying to figure out who do they trust, and also, maybe, who can they get rid of in this fashion, sideline, fire, prosecute, et cetera, who might not be directly involved in this. So it's a time of great, I would say, behind the scenes chaos, and a pretty serious challenge to Putin right now to figure out.

SIDNER: If nothing else, it shows there is a crack in his power structure. And we know that he is a very paranoid man, so this will just add to that. Jill Dougherty, it is so always wonderful to see you. Thank you so much for joining us this weekend.

Coming up, hundreds of dead sea lions are washing ashore amid a toxic algae bloom in southern California. How long it's expected to last, that's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:37:14]

SIDNER: It's a heartbreaking sight across southern California, beaches right now, where dead and sick marine life is washing ashore, the victims of a massive bloom of toxic algae. Those are sea lions right there. CNN's David Culver has more on the marine wildlife rescuers who are scrambling to try and save them.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's 8:00 a.m. and they're already playing catchup. These marine wildlife rescuers inundated with calls to help.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two animals, one is sicker than the other one. One is way up the beach, and there's one by the tideline.

ADAM FOX, MARINE MAMMAL CARE CENTER RESCUE WORKER: The beach itself over here has been narrowing, so it's a little dicey sometimes.

CULVER: We go along with wildlife rescuer Adam Fox. He's been saving sea lions for nearly 15 years. What he's seen on southern California beaches since late May is unprecedented.

FOX: Is there anyone there that could potentially assist us?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lifeguard there.

FOX: OK, great. Thank you.

CULVER: As we get closer, we spot one of the sea lions.

Looks like he's having a seizure right now.

FOX: What we'll do is just be very gentle with her and get those flipper pits in. And I'm going to flip her to you. On three, two, one.

CULVER: They obviously were able to rescue one, but you can see behind us another one that didn't survive. It's just heartbreaking seeing this.

The cause sits just off the coast in the Pacific Ocean. Out here scientists say a massive bloom of toxic algae is growing, stretching some 200 miles from Santa Barbara south to San Diego, and forecasted to get worse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ocean temperature is projected to be its warmest over the next five years. That's the recipe for these blooms to become more intense.

CULVER: Smaller sea creatures feed on the toxic algae. They in turn are eaten by larger mammals like dolphins and sea lions. These blooms have happened before, but this year scientists warn that the concentration of toxins in this bloom forecasted in red is leading to potentially record deaths of marine life.

Experts liken this to waves of a tsunami washing over local beaches with even more sea lions and dolphins showing symptoms.

The dolphins are lifeless once they hit the shore. The sea lions, beached and suffering from seizures and paralysis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People who have called in because they've seen annuals on the beach, and they've described it as the ocean sort of coughing up death.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm here to report a sea lion that seems to be foaming at the mouth and looks like it's in distress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This one is really, really on his way out. Its eyes are closed and just shallow breathing. That's so sad.

CULVER: All of it weighs on rescuers like Adam.

[14:40:00]

FOX: Sorry. I just know from working in the colonies how incredible the animals are. So they deserve respect.

CULVER: Respect this team shows through care, unloading the seizing sea lion for Dr. Lauren Palmer to begin treatment. Dr. Palmer has not had a day off in months, her desperate patients keeping her busy.

DR. LAUREN PALMER: Big breath. She seems a little bit more comfortable.

CULVER: There's no guaranteed cure. The meds and fluids can help flush the toxins out, but if the toxins take hold, the brain damage is irreversible, causing erratic and aggressive behavior, including towards people who get too close. Off to the side, we notice this pup fighting for survival, desperate for milk and nurturing that only his mother can provide. She's sedated as her body fights off the toxins.

PALMER: She might deliver a healthy pup, but doesn't nurse, doesn't lactate, doesn't or pay attention to it.

CULVER: The Marine Animal Care Center had 40 sea lions this time last year. Today, they're caring for three times that number.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We ordered fish for the whole year based upon what we have normally see and have gone through the entire 150,000 pounds this month.

CULVER: They've had to accommodate overflow in the parking lot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's put strains on our personnel. We have one veterinarian.

CULVER: Is it only going to get worse?

PALMER: They used to call it an unusual mortality event. And unfortunately, they're frequent enough now that they no longer call them unusual because they're not.

CULVER: Relentless and expected to intensify, possibly devastating generations of sea lions, like this pup, just seven days old. He may not make it. The hundreds of sea lions that are saved, unable to return home until the toxic algae clears.

David Culver, CNN, San Pedro, California.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SIDNER: Oh, man, that is hard to see. With me now to talk more about this toxic algae bloom is Clarissa Anderson. She's the executive director of the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Why is this bloom so big and so deadly this year in particular? We have seen blooms in the past, of course.

CLARISSA ANDERSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COASTAL OCEAN OBSERVING SYSTEM: Yes. So it's something that we will have to dig into as scientists as we accrue data. But I think we can kind of look at the oceanographic setting right now and make some guesses. This is a seasonal occurrence almost every year in the California current where we have spring upwelling. This is induced by winds. It brings nutrient rich water to the surface that fuels blooms. A lot of the times, these blooms are dominated by the particular plankton or microalgae that is causing this toxin.

We don't always know when it's going to turn toxic. But there is something about the strength of the upwelling this year, the duration, and the mixture of nutrients in the water that is likely the cause of how we're seeing so much toxic production that the genes in these cells are being turned on to create this toxin.

SIDNER: In David Culver's story we heard someone say the ocean is coughing up death, and that is quite a statement. Are you worried about there potentially being serious harm to the population of sea lions, dolphin, and other marine life?

ANDERSON: I think there's a concern. Sea lions are, overall, doing really well as a population in California, but they're getting hit hard. And we saw an event like this last year. It wasn't quite as bad, but it was one of the worst we had seen in a while. I think my concern is that whenever we have one of these events in the last five years, I would say, each one seems to be worse than the last, where at least there's a sense that there's more toxin, the impacts are greater.

When we saw an event like this last year we did not see nearly as many dolphins. We now have over 100 dolphins stranded and dead. That is unusual with respect to adenylic (ph) acid event. And so these are the things that cause us to take pause, to think while there are cycles in the ocean and there are years where these blooms are more common than other years, when we see them now and we're in one of those cycles, the toxins seem to be worse.

SIDNER: Stronger. And I know in some places like Florida, humans can definitely tell. They're told not to go into the water.

I do want to ask you just quickly. I know someone who actually was attacked by a sea lion, and I think it was this past week. The algae can affect their brain. Eventually when it comes to sea lions, could this make them more aggressive toward humans? Is there something that we should be doing?

ANDERSON: Absolutely. So it's a nerve toxin. It's basically replacing an important amino acid in animal bodies and going into the brain and replacing that and causing this excitation.

[14:45:06]

So you're seeing the seizures, but you're also going to see disorientation and aggressive behavior. And this is what's leading to these attacks. We always know we shouldn't approach wild animals, but in this particular instance, sometimes they even look like they're coming toward us, which can be disarming and almost people might think it's a friendly gesture. But they are dangerous animals, even without a toxin affecting them. But this really does change the way their brains are working, and they can be erratic.

SIDNER: I love seeing them out there. I do not go near them, but I always want to because they're so cuddly. Clarissa Anderson, thank you so much for your expertise and for watching all of this happening and keeping an eye on it.

And we have a programming note for you as well on another tragedy in the sea, a special hour on the underwater tragedy, the recovery effort and the dangers of deep sea exploration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even if it's right on top of the water, you're looking at an area the size of Connecticut for something the size of a minivan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the possibilities was that it was at the surface somewhere bobbing away. That was the horror show scenario because you're bolted in from the outside. You would be looking out the port hole at the air you need and unable to reach it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER" tomorrow night at 8:00 on CNN.

Now just after the break, thousands of workers at dozens of major hotels set to walk off the job today. The demands they're asking for and how it might affect your holiday travel plans coming up.

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SIDNER: A union representing thousands of hotel employees in southern California are ready to go on strike. The workers in Los Angeles and Orange County are pushing for higher wages. The looming walkout today comes on a very busy holiday weekend. Among the 65 major hotels affected are the Ritz-Carlton, Fairmont Miramar, and Anaheim Hilton. CNN national correspondent Camila Bernal is joining us from Los Angeles with more details. What are you hearing on the timing of this strike potentially?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, what we're telling me is stand by. What they said is these workers could walk out at any moment. So we're waiting to hear from the union because this will be significant. We're talking about 15,000 employees here, and they are the people that check you into your hotel, that are behind the scenes cooking and cleaning. And they have a number of demands.

Of course, they want higher wages and better pensions. Specifically, they're asking for a $5 an hour increase. But they're also asking for safer workloads and for better health care benefits. And they're also saying they would like to create a housing fund. And that's because the union says that a lot of these workers cannot afford to live in the Los Angeles area or near the hotels where they work. Here is Maria Hernandez, who is the spokesperson for the union.

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MARIA HERNANDEZ, UNION SPOKESPERSON: All of this stuff is happening with the backdrop of these hotels making so much money. A lot of them now are making more money in revenue than they were in 2019.

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BERNAL: And a person familiar with management says the hotels, they plan to stay open. They also told us that they offered an increase of $2.50 an hour. We're waiting to hear where those numbers are, if they are at the negotiating table. Of course, we're in touch with both sides but have yet to hear an update from them.

There is, though, this notion from the hotels that it is city leaders here in Los Angeles and elsewhere who should be looking into the affordability problem here. They essentially say that it's not the problem of the hotels.

There's a number of hotels in the area that are going to be impacted if these workers do walk out. We're behind a Marriott property here. There are a number of Marriotts telling us that they are going to remain open. And so we'll have to wait and see exactly what happens over the next couple of days. But it is the holiday weekend. It's also the anime expo here in Los Angeles. It is sold out. And you're seeing the crowds of people who are coming and going and who would be impacted if these workers don't show up to their shifts, Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Camila Bernal, so good to see you. Thank you so much.

Rollercoaster fans may want to brace themselves for this next story. An amusement park in North Carolina had to close one of its rides Friday after finding a massive crack in a steel support pillar. Jeremy Wagner told CNN he was visiting the Carowinds Amusement Market in Charlotte when he noticed a crack. Yikes. He started taking video of the Fury 325, which shows the pillar slightly move out of place just there, you see that, when passengers go by. He says he alerted staff and the Charlotte Fire Department about the issue.

Carowinds said in an email to CNN that, quote, "The park's maintenance team is conducting a thorough inspection, and the ride will remain closed until repairs have been completed." The attraction takes riders to a height of 325 feet and reaches 95 miles per hour. The park's website says other attractions, though, will remain open today. Not for me, you all. Nope, not doing that.

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A quick programing note now. CNN's July 4th -- this I will do -- the special returns with an all-star lineup. Celebrate with spectacular fireworks and the biggest musical performances around. Watch CNN's "The Fourth in America" live, of course on July 4th, starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern on CNN.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Sara Sidner in for Fredricka Whitfield. SMERCONISH starts after a quick break.

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MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST: Elections have consequences, especially 2016.