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President Trump Threatens to Pull Federal Funding from California If Transgender Athlete Allowed to Compete in State's Track and Field Championship; Texas State Republicans Pass Bill Requiring All Public School Classrooms Display Ten Commandments; Smoke from Wildfires in Canada Affecting U.S. Midwest; Journalist for One America News Network Fired for Criticizing Pentagon Restrictions on Press Access; Hamas Makes Counterproposal for Ceasefire Deal Endorsed by U.S. and Israel; International Atomic Energy Agency Reports Iran Increased Stockpile of Near Weapons Grade Uranium; Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Possibly Made False Accusations against Migrant Accused of Threatening to Kill President Trump; Elon Musk Leaves Government Position as Head of Department of Government Efficiency; Paris Saint-Germain Playing Inter Milan in European Club Championship; Approximately 250 Million Honeybees Escape Overturned Semitruck. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired May 31, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

SAMANTHA LINDELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- during this incident, and their foot may have been stuck on the accelerator. Police say two crashes in the same spot appear to be just a coincidence, and not a design flaw in the road. The driver was able to walk away from the crash with only minor injuries, according to police. The veterans' hall will be closed for months for a second time after the latest crash, according to CNN affiliate KCTV.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Saturday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin with new developments in a political controversy centered around a transgender high school student athlete in California. AB Hernandez was thrust into the national spotlight this week after President Trump threatened to pull federal funding from California if she were allowed to compete in the state's track and field championship. In the preliminary round on Friday, Hernandez placed first in long jump, high jump, and triple jump, which means she advanced to today's final events in all three of those disciplines.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones is live for us in Clovis, California, where the finals are taking place. So tell us more about what's happening there.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's going to be a different kind of final, Fred, with the new rules that the California Interscholastic Federation, the organization that oversees high school sports out here, they've implemented these rules after President Trump's comments. Basically, what they've done is they've given an extra slot for a cisgender female athlete to compete in the finals for every event in which AB Hernandez has qualified. So meaning if three athletes would move on, now it's four athletes that will move on on those three events.

And then later today at that awards ceremony, an extra medal will also be given to an athlete that would have made it onto the podium but doesn't if Hernandez herself takes the podium in either of those three events. This is kind of trying to make a compromise between a local California law that has been in place since 2013 that allows for transgender teen athletes to compete in the category of the gender they identify with, and Trump's comments and the threats, and even calling for local officials to get involved and stop Hernandez from competing here today.

Governor Gavin Newsom did say that he thought that this was a good compromise, despite comments he had made earlier this year in March on his podcast, where he said that just the participation of a transgender girl in girls' sports raises those issues of fairness.

WHITFIELD: And then what are people saying outside of the event, or are there people actively protesting outside of those, the track and field?

VARGAS: There are, and there have been in AB Hernandez's events for months, actually. But yesterday we saw a small group of protesters out here, and take a listen to what they told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAYLA ANDERSON, PROTESTOR: Our governor needs to comply with the president.

VARGAS: What about the California state law that says that student athletes at up to a high school level can compete in the gender that they identify with? Do you think that that law should be repealed? What should happen?

ANDERSON: Well, yes, it should be repealed because I believe that biological males are not physically equal with biological females.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VARGAS: And, Fred, the Justice Department is investigating whether that law is going against Title Nine, the federal law that bans discrimination based on sex, on any learning institutions that are partially or fully funded by the federal government. But there is no indication of AB being stopped from competing today. In the next few hours, she'll be part of this championship that she's been training for months and years. Her mom and herself saying in a school board meeting just last month that she has every right to be competing here today, that she's a girl like any other girl in her team. And she said that she is getting a lot of support from her team as well. And I'll just add that the majority of the parents here, they don't want this to be a political issue. They want to come and bring their kids to focus on the athletics.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julia Vargas Jones thanks so much.

All right, a controversial bill in Texas is one step closer to becoming law after passing both the State House and Senate. The Republican proposal would require all public school classrooms in the state to display the Ten Commandments. It is the latest effort among mostly conservative led states to insert religion into public schools. Texas lawmakers also passed a measure that allows districts to provide time for prayer during school hours. Governor Greg Abbott is expected to sign both measures.

I'm joined now by Bayliss Wagner, who has been following these developments as a political reporter for "The Austin American- Statesman." Great to see you, Bayliss. So when might classrooms potentially see a display of the Ten Commandments?

BAYLISS WAGNER, POLITICAL REPORTER, "AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN": So this bill would go into effect in September of this year if it's signed by Governor Abbott, who has said that he will sign it.

WHITFIELD: What's it designed to look like?

WAGNER: So the poster -- so there would be posters in every K to 12 classroom, and they would use the King James version of the Bible, the same wording that is actually on a monument on the Texas capital grounds that succeeded a Supreme Court challenge in 2005. So all Ten Commandments, including the commandment on adultery, on the sabbath, all those.

WHITFIELD: So a Republican led state legislature voted in favor of this in neighboring Louisiana and also in Arkansas, legislation was passed to display the Ten Commandments. In Louisiana, a consortium of parents from different faiths are legally challenging the law's constitutionality. Is it looking like the same potential road for Texas?

WAGNER: Absolutely. And actually, Governor Abbott wrote on social media last night after it was announced that the ACLU and other groups will sue over Texas's law once it's signed, he said, "Bring it." So it's actually part of a larger campaign by conservative Christians in particular to expand, or actually to pull away at the separation of church and state that has been established in Supreme Court precedent. So they've said that's their goal.

WHITFIELD: So what are non-Christian families bracing for? What are they even saying?

WAGNER: So, yes, so Democrats tried to amend the bill during floor debate so that it would include other religions' foundational texts in these posters, or so that it would say -- it would use different translations, even saying, you know, not everyone uses the King James version of the Bible, and said that families are worried that kids could feel left out if they're not Christian or, you know, don't follow that kind of version of Christianity. WHITFIELD: OK. And then there's another issue, another bill in the

state that would give school boards rather than library staff the final say over student access to materials in the libraries. Where do things stand on that measure?

WAGNER: So that measure is also about to be finally passed after the two chambers talk through amendments. It would require school boards to ban indecent and profane content. These have pretty specific definitions, but they're also very much up to interpretation. "Indecent" is kind of about sexually explicit material, and "profane" is related to language used. So those are also, like, have the support of the governor. But obviously there's a lot of discussion about how that implementation would look. Another part of the bill is that it authorizes parental library advisory councils to choose which books should be considered indecent or profane if districts choose to have those councils.

WHITFIELD: All right, keep us posted on the developments there. Bayliss Wagner, great to see you. Thank you.

WAGNER: Thanks so much.

WHITFIELD: All right, it's not even June and smoke from Canadian wildfires is now threatening air quality in several northern states. The early season fires are burning across multiple Canadian provinces with conditions expected to worsen this weekend. CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar has more.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Nearly 200 wildfires are burning across more than half-a-dozen provinces in Canada, specifically across Manitoba and Saskatchewan. But all of the smoke from those fires is now starting to descend into portions of the upper Midwest. So states like Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, thanks to this cold front, it's pulling a lot of that smoke down into a lot of these areas, and it's likely going to stay there for the next several days.

As we go through the rest of the evening, tonight you can see the real hyper focus of a lot of that smoke is across the Dakotas, Minnesota, and even stretching down into portions of Iowa. But you even have some of those high smoke particles into the higher levels of the atmosphere as far south as, say, the Carolinas. Once we transition into Sunday, you'll start to see more of that smoke. It stays there. It just begins to shift eastward, so now into portions of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and back into portions of Michigan.

[14:10:03]

Now, one thing that these areas desperately need is rain to not only clear the smoke out of the air but also help with the fires. The unfortunate part is the forecast doesn't really have anything until we get into at least Monday. But even once we do start to see some rain into the forecast, it's not going to be a lot in terms of totals. Most of these areas, especially southeastern portions of Manitoba where Winnipeg is located, you're looking at maybe half an inch at absolute most in terms of rainfall. At this point, they'll take anything they can get, but it's not really enough to really put out a lot of those wildfires from a widespread standpoint.

The other concern is before those rain chances begin to increase, winds will also start to increase, and that could start fanning a lot of the flames from the fires out ahead of it. Here you can see Sunday those winds really starting to tick back up across southern Canada and even into the upper Midwest. The concern there again is that it could help spread some of those fires before they get relief from the rain.

There's also going to be relief in the form of cooler temperatures. Now, it still remains very warm over the weekend, but you do finally start to see a drop in temperatures as we start off the early portion of next week.

WHITFIELD: All right, Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.

All right, still to come, investigators think a man accused of threatening the president was set up. We'll have details.

And up next, PBS fights back against President Donald Trump's attempt to cut off federal funding.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:10]

WHITFIELD: All right, President Trump's plan to shrink the federal government has suffered a setback. The administration had requested that a lower court's order to stop mass firings at multiple agencies be frozen, but an appeals court has denied that request. The plans for sweeping layoffs have been on hold since May 9th.

And PBS is suing President Trump over his push to cut public media funding. The new lawsuit claims Trump's executive order to defund PBS violates the First Amendment, and argues the president is punishing PBS for its content. NPR filed a similar lawsuit earlier this year. Both say Trump's order threatens the future of public broadcasting, especially smaller stations that rely on federal support.

CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter is joining me right now. Brian, great to see you. So what more can you tell us about these lawsuits and what happens now?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, this is a list of lawsuits against what is claimed to be Trump's overreach. This is one of those cases where it's Congress that funded and set up the public broadcasting system. It's Congress that decides every year to give more money to local radio and TV stations. So this lawsuit says it is Congress that should be playing this role, not President Trump. So they say this is an example of executive overreach, and they say it's unconstitutional for reasons I'll get into in just a moment.

Here's the White House reaction, though, to both NPR and PBS suing the Trump administration this week. Here's what a spokesman for the White House told me, quote, "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting," which doles out the money, is, quote, "creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime. Therefore, the president is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS."

So the White House says Trump is within his rights. He's doing this lawfully, but it is actually the claims of bias that you saw in that statement that are at the heart of these lawsuits. Basically, NPR and PBS are saying that Trump is violating the First Amendment because he's specifically denouncing alleged bias, and then he's trying to take away their money because of the bias. In First Amendment parlance, that's known as viewpoint discrimination.

Now, PBS and NPR deny the claims of bias. They say they do not have a liberal bias. They're just trying to report the news fairly. But the idea is that Trump is accusing them of bias, and thus that is why he is violating the First Amendment by trying to take away their funds.

Now, here's an important quote from the PBS lawsuit that gets at this point. Here's what PBS says. They dispute these "charged assertions in the strongest possible terms. But regardless, our Constitution and laws forbid the president from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS programing, including by attempting to defund PBS."

So there are now one, two, three different lawsuits all about this public media fight, and we'll see how it works its way through the courts. Fred.

WHITFIELD: Yes, we will.

All right, you also have some reporting on a correspondent for a pro- Trump television channel who actually got fired after she criticized the defense secretary Pete Hegseth's press access at the Pentagon. Tell me more.

STELTER: Yes, a really interesting story that we just published on CNN.com. This is about One American News, which is one of those far right TV channels that's really been kind of marginalized in recent years, but has had a comeback thanks to Trump's reelection. One America news actually was given Pentagon office space a few months ago, back when NBC and CNN and some other outlets were booted from the Pentagon.

So OAM went out. They hired a Pentagon correspondent, Gabrielle Cuccia, who renovated the office space, started doing live shots from the Pentagon. But earlier this week, Cuccia spoke out in a Substack blog post about the Pentagon's press restrictions. In the last few months, Pete Hegseth and his crew have been trying to tamp down on media access. They have not held press briefings. They booted certain news outlets out. And in the past week, they actually blocked off parts of the Pentagon from press access. Basically, key parts of the building journalists are not allowed to visit without having an escort.

[14:20:05]

So we've seen this real restriction on press access. And this OAN correspondent told the truth. She wrote a blog post about the restrictions. She asked questions about why this was happening. She suggested it was against the spirit of the MAGA movement. And two days after publishing that blog post, she was called into the bureau chief's office. She was told to hand in her badge. The next day, she tells me she was fired from OAN.

So it's a really interesting case here of a journalist, in this case, a pro-Trump MAGA media journalist, trying to speak out against the Pentagon's press restrictions and ending up laid off for doing that.

WHITFIELD: All right, I'm sure there's going to be some more follow up to that. Keep us posted. Brian Stelter, thank you.

All right, still to come, the desperation for survival in Gaza leads to chaos around aid trucks. What are the hopes for return to peace in the region?

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[14:25:21]

WHITFIELD: All right, new this afternoon, Hamas says it has responded to the ceasefire plan put forward by the U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff. The group says it wants any ceasefire to be permanent and is calling for an end to the war in Gaza. We're also seeing more chaotic scenes as humanitarian aid arrives in the enclave. This was in Rafah earlier today.

Let's bring in now Aaron David Miller. He's a former Middle East negotiator for the State Department and is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Great to see you. So Hamas, are they rejecting Witkoff's proposal outright, or is this their way of requesting some amendments?

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: I mean, first of all, Fred, thanks for having me. Look, it's a "yes, but," and that's the best you're going to do here, in large part because the game now is who is going to take the hit and the responsibility for collapsing the negotiations.

And the reality is, Israel, or at least the policies of this Israeli government, and Hamas's objectives on the endgames in Gaza are mutually irreconcilable. And we've had this conversation before, Fred. It's been this way for the past 18 months. Hamas is perfectly prepared to release the 59 hostages that remain, living and dead, in exchange for an ironclad assurance guarantee that the Israelis will end the war, let's even use the term permanent ceasefire, and withdraw their forces from Gaza. Under no circumstances is this Israeli government, probably any Israeli government, willing to agree to that.

So you have a situation here where the outside -- the influence of outside parties, whether it's the international community, the United States, is limited because in this conflict, both the Netanyahu government, the prime minister in particular, and Hamas, on the other hand, view the endgames, winning at the end, to be existential or near existential. So you may get -- you still may get some kind of incremental hostage for ceasefire exchange. But I see absolutely no way that we're moving toward anything that you and I would describe as an end to the war in Gaza. WHITFIELD: So then what do you see in the near horizon if, you know,

in your view, Israel is really not interested in another ceasefire?

MILLER: Nothing but trouble. You're going to end up with Hamas that's been hollowed out as a military organization, but it will remain an insurgency. You're going to end up with bad or no governance in Gaza, and you're going to end up with what you've seen over the course of the last 18 months accelerated, a humanitarian catastrophe building for the 2.1, 2.3 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

And that raises the question of humanitarian assistance. At a minimum, it's been demonstrated over the last year that when there was a ceasefire, there are ways to surge in humanitarian assistance into Gaza over land, through trucks, not through airdrops, not through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and not through the pier that the U.S. military, with the best of intentions, tried to set up to deliver aid.

But that aid has to be neutral. It needs to be delivered to Gazans wherever they are and where they need it, not just three or four distribution points in southern Gaza. There's been no assistance getting into northern Gaza at all.

So look, it's bleak. I wish I had better answers, but I just don't see any clear end state that will benefit the hostages, those that remain the hostage families, and certainly not for the long-suffering population, the Palestinian population in Gaza.

WHITFIELD: The Saudi foreign minister was supposed to travel to the West Bank tomorrow. That trip has now been postponed. Do you see the West Bank as potentially becoming a flashpoint once again between the U.S. and -- I mean, between Israel and Arab countries?

MILLER: I do, and I think, you know, the Saudis, I don't think there's been a Saudi, certainly not the Saudi foreign minister visiting Israel or the West Bank since the Israelis 1967 war, when the Israelis occupied the West Bank and Gaza. So it's a missed opportunity here, it would seem to me. I don't think Arab foreign ministers visiting Ramallah to consult with the aging Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is going to fix the problem or bring us any closer to fixing the problem.

But the reality is, Fred, you know this better than I, that when you're in a hole, the first order of business is to stop digging.

[14:30:03]

And frankly, I think the current government of Israel, certainly Hamas, has all sorts of ulterior motives as to why it's better for each of them that this war continues.

WHITFIELD: Let me ask you about one other matter concerning Iran. The U.N.'s nuclear watchdog group said today that Iran has increased its stockpile of near weapons grade uranium, calling it a serious concern. We've heard Iran say their uranium enrichment is really about medical studies. What do you think is happening here? MILLER: You know, the Iranian program is advancing at a rather

alarming and extraordinary rate. The report from the IAEA couldn't have been worse. The Iranians now have enough fissile material for 10 nuclear weapons. The IAEA estimates, I think, that within two weeks they could enrich uranium to weapons grade, which is 90 percent. Plus, the IAEA again has been rebuffed. There are uninspected nuclear sites where the Iranians may be researching and taking steps even to lay the groundwork for weaponization.

I think there are three clocks here, and they're all working at cross purposes. The Iranian clock is moving fast. They want to demonstrate that if you think you can deprive us of enrichment, you won't have a deal. And you see what happens without a deal, our program is going to advance. Then you have the faster clock, which is Trump. He'd like a deal. He doesn't want a major war in the Middle East, which produces all kinds of uncertain consequences. But he's not willing to wait forever.

And then you have the fastest clock of all, which is the Israeli clock, and a prime minister, I think, who argues, and advisors who are telling him, that there will never, ever be a better time to use Israeli military power to deal a blow, not to eliminate, but to deal a blow to Iranian nuclear sites. All these clocks are not synchronized. And as a consequence, I think you run the real risk of no deal. And that opens up the door, I'm afraid, to a lot of bad things. And Fred, frankly, again, nothing but trouble.

WHITFIELD: Oh, boy. All right, Aaron David Miller, we'll leave it there for now. And, you know, always remain hopeful, right?

MILLER: I do. I do.

WHITFIELD: Yes, I know you are the consummate optimist, the diplomat in you. All right, thank you so much.

MILLER: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, still to come, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accuses a man of threatening the president's life. But a new CNN investigation shows police may have known that that wasn't even true.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:37:30]

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. CNN has new reporting about the Department of Homeland Security's stunning blunder, in which Secretary Kristi Noem made false accusations about the arrest of a migrant accused of threatening to kill President Trump in a handwritten letter. Not only do investigators believe someone else probably wrote the letter, they also suspected the undocumented migrant may have been set up days before Noem went public with the claim.

CNN's Holmes Lybrand is joining us right now with the story you'll only see first here on CNN. Holmes, it's rather confusing, but well follow along with you. Help us understand what this is all about.

HOLMES LYBRAND, CNN REPORTER: Right, right, right. It is a bit complicated, so I'll kind of lay it out for you. The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, tweeted out, as you mentioned, this claim, kind of a stunning claim, that an undocumented immigrant sent this letter to ICE saying, I'm going to shoot Trump at a rally and then I'll self-deport.

But we learned through sourcing and through kind of going through police documents that investigators actually were already aware and believed that this was a setup by someone who had allegedly assaulted this man, Ramon Morales-Reyes, back in 2023, stabbing him with a box cutter.

Now, why do investigators believe that? Theres several big reasons. One, lawyers tell me that that Morales-Reyes cannot speak English. He cannot write in English. They also compared the handwriting in that letter to handwriting from Morales-Reyes, and the two do not match. Now, also, secondly, they've reviewed phone calls from the jailhouse where the man who allegedly assaulted Morales-Reyes called individuals and said because under Trump, under the new administration, immigrants are really worried about coming to court because they might be detained, he really wasn't worried about the trial in the case coming in July.

Furthermore, he said he had a hell of a plan. And part of that plan, investigators believe, included sending these letters to not only ICE offices in Milwaukee, the local ICE office there, but also to Attorney General Pam Bondi. The phone calls that I have reviewed from documents I obtained show that the individual discusses sending out letters, discusses, hey, I'm going to send you a manila folder that's going to have letters. I need you to send these out.

[14:40:01]

So because of all of this evidence, the police department there is actually investigating this as stolen identity.

Now, DHS in their statement, they've kind of changed a bit of how they're talking about Morales-Reyes, really saying that in the course of the investigation, they determined that Morales-Reyes was here illegally and he's currently being detained.

What does that mean for the future of the case against the man who allegedly assaulted Morales-Reyes? That's, really, we don't we don't know because the June 4th hearing for Morales-Reyes to determine whether he can stay in the U.S., that will have a big impact on the July trial and whether or not Morales-Reyes can testify against this man who may have set up Morales-Reyes.

WHITFIELD: So do we know whether the secretary of Homeland Security was aware that this subject may have also been the victim of stolen identity, as you were reporting, but then went with this information anyway, and accusing him of being someone who was plotting to assassinate the president? LYBRAND: So I've asked the Department of Homeland Security about this

and about, kind of, where, when people knew what, when. I really don't know when she knew what. I don't have a reason to suspect that they knew, but really, we just don't know how this unfolded and whether or not investigators were communicating with the federal government as they were kind of going through. And we're talking about, of course, this is over the span of about a week. So it's its tight, but it also is -- it's a big deal to accuse someone and post their photo online, accusing them of threatening to kill Donald Trump when they might actually be the victim of a setup themselves.

WHITFIELD: Wow. All right, Holmes Lybrand, glad you were able to bring that to us. Thank you so much.

LYBRAND: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, Elon Musk well, he's out of the White House in an official capacity, but he's not gone for good. Musk is heading back to the private sector, but the president of the United States made it clear that he's welcome back any time. CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more on Elon Musk's last day and his future plans.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: The world's richest man, Elon Musk, takes his leave from President Trump's orbit on Friday at the White House in a very fond farewell in the Oval Office. It was really quite something. These two men have been essentially joined at the hip for most of this administration, and even before going back to the election last summer, when Elon Musk invested some $275 million with the help of electing Donald Trump as president once again. He played a key role in shaping the cabinet and other agencies. And, of course, he led the Department of Government Efficiency.

There are many questions about the actual fallout in the after effect of Elon Musk's role in government. He pledged at one point to trim some $2 trillion from the government coffers. That did not happen. He scaled that back to $1 trillion, and then much less than that. Of course, there was significant fallout in terms of tens and tens and thousands of government employees that decided to leave on their own or their agencies were closed. But on Friday in the Oval Office, the president and Elon Musk had nothing but kind words to say for one another.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: We are totally committed to making the DOGE cuts permanent and stopping much more of the waste.

Elon is really not leaving. He's going to be back and forth, I think. I have a feeling. It's his baby.

ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA: I expect to continue to provide advice whenever the president would like advice.

TRUMP: I hope so. MUSK: I mean, I'm -- yes. I expect to remain a friend and an advisor.

And certainly, if there's anything the president wants me to do, I'm at the president's service.

ZELENY: Now, in recent weeks, there's no doubt that Elon Musk's influence has been waning here at the White House. He was less visible than he was before. That's largely because his own private enterprises were punishing him, essentially. The stock on tesla, for example, SpaceX, as well, they wanted him to make a choice between serving in the government and working in the private sector. So he did make that choice.

And on the way out the door, he was somewhat critical of the president's administration and the agenda as well, saying the big budget bill passed by the house, pending in the Senate, would not do enough to reduce government spending. But again, on Friday, all smiles in the Oval Office, the president saying Elon Musk will be welcome back as an advisor at any point. Of course, he is still the world's richest man.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, still to come on, Knicks fans hoping to extend their dream season a few more nights. We'll have a preview of tonight's big game.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:49:28]

WHITFIELD: All right, here we go. It's a rematch of the titans as the New York Yankees face a weekend stint in L.A. against the Dodgers, their first matchup since last year's World Series. And CNN World Sport anchor Patrick Snell is here to bring all the fanfare. Very exciting.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. But before that, happy birthday. Where is my slice of the cake?

WHITFIELD: I think we still have some upstairs. Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

SNELL: I need to get there. All the best to you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much.

SNELL: Theres so much going on this busy, busy weekend.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SNELL: You're quite right. History made on Friday night.

[14:50:00] This is actually Major League Baseball, The New York Yankees were in L.A. for a world series rematch with the Dodgers. Let's get straight to the action. Top of the first inning, Aaron Judge absolutely crushing this one. Where has it gone? Well, the ball went 446 feet for his 19th homerun of the season. Then bottom of the first, Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani, saying I can do that too. His 21st of the campaign. This was the first time in baseball history, Fred, that the reigning MVPs in both leagues hit a homer in the first inning of the same game. Ohtani, far from done, though. Six inning there he homers again for his league leading 22nd of the year. Dodgers winning it eight to five in the entertaining opener of the series. You wanted action. You got it.

WHITFIELD: Yes, I know. I mean, action there and then action at Roland-Garros.

SNELL: Oui, oui, oui.

WHITFIELD: Oui, oui, always so fun.

SNELL: Roland-Garros, yes, the French Open. And on Thursday now, a cool bit of history, Coco Gauff becoming the youngest player in 17 years, Fred, to reach the third round in Paris for five consecutive years. That's incredible. Today she backs that up, though, with another win, seeing off the challenge of Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic to book her spot in round four. She's looking really good this year at the French.

And how about this from Friday? The young American player Ben Shelton, he's from right here in Atlanta, actually, winning in straights against the Italian player Matteo Gigante. Shelton is actually down on the old tier there, down, but not out. How does he even get to that? Incredible.

WHITFIELD: He's the Gigante.

SNELL: Yes, you took the words right out of my mouth. He had no business getting to that, Fred. He had no business winning the point, but he did, goes on to win the match, facing defending champ Carlos Alcaraz next.

WHITFIELD: I love it. OK, so if I'm him, I am keeping that outfit. Do not wash it, because, you know, they sell a little vials of the French Open dirt.

SNELL: And they get loads of backup outfits as well. So no need to, no need to wash that one ever.

WHITFIELD: OK, so from that court to the hardcourt, lots of excitement.

SNELL: Yes, we're talking the NBA.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SNELL: There's a lot going on. What a treat, I will say, for sports fans this Saturday. Later on, the Knicks will take the floor to once again try and keep their season alive. This is going to be a game six against the Indiana pacers. The Knicks have never come back from a three-one deficit. They did take game five in front of that New York crowd, but game six, I will say, is in Indy. Tonight's game, by the way, is on our sister network TNT. Not to be missed.

WHITFIELD: It's going to be exciting.

SNELL: I know. And listen, we can't miss this. This is just a few minutes away now, seven minutes away from kickoff in the biggest game there is in European Club football. We're talking the champions league final in, well, we've got Paris Saint-Germain taking on the Italian powerhouse Inter Milan. They're meeting up in Munich. This game is massive. We were checking the numbers earlier. Fred, thinks Super Bowl, according to tournament organizers UEFA.

WHITFIELD: Times ten.

SNELL: This match is, well, it's as big as the Super bowl.

WHITFIELD: Yes, bigger.

SNELL: The final is going to be aired in more than 200 territories. It's projected to reach an astounding, this is amazing, 400 million unique people globally. And get this.

WHITFIELD: That would be bigger.

SNELL: An average global -- yes. Absolutely spot on. An average global viewership as well of 125 million people across all platforms. That is comparable, I will say, to the Super Bowl, but this is massive.

WHITFIELD: And these are rabid fans.

SNELL: This is a huge day. And PSG -- yes, they really are. PSG trying to win it for the first time ever. Inter Milan trying to win it for the fourth time in their history. I know where I'm going seven minutes from now, with a slice of your cake if I can find it.

WHITFIELD: All right, OK, OK. I'll find a little Tupperware or something.

SNELL: Please. Thank you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: You can take it along. Eat it on the plane.

SNELL: Many happy returns.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much. Appreciate it, Patrick Snell, always great to have you. Appreciate it.

SNELL: Thank you so much.

WHITFIELD: All right, still to come, a quarter of a billion, with a "b", honey bees on the loose after a truck carrying them overturned. The strategy authorities are now taking to try to get them back to their hives. Is it possible?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:58:47]

WHITFIELD: All right, officials in northwestern Washington state are in the middle of a lot of buzz this weekend -- 250 million honeybees escaped a semitruck when it overturned on Friday. The sheriff's office says the driver was not hurt, but responding deputies, well, they dove into their squad cars at times to avoid being stung. Authorities say local beekeepers were able to recover and reset the hives, and hoped the bees will actually return to find their queen in the next day or two.

And in this week's episode of "Searching for Spain," Eva Longoria takes us to a hidden gem on the country's northwestern coast. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

EVA LONGORIA, ACTOR: Look at how these waves are crashing into them. Like they could be swept away any moment. I know, I know, I know, I know, I know.

Percebes used to be a survival food. Now they're served in high end restaurants with Galician percebes rated the best in the world thanks to these mineral rich waters.

Oh my God, he jumped in the water. Where'd he go? Oh my God, oh, my God!

How is he swimming in that current? You could never do this. No. OK.