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Supreme Court Decision Sets Off Redistricting Scramble; Appeals Court Blocks Abortion Pill Access By Mail; Troubled Carrier Abruptly Ceased Operations This Weekend; Met Gala Returns To New York Tonight. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 04, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

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SEN. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): I suspect if the Republicans continue to do this, Democrats are going to find the necessity and feel the necessity of fighting fire with fire. But this is really a poor trend, anti- Democratic trend for the country. And I hope that when Democrats take power in both houses and once again take power in the White House, that we will insist on a national redistricting reform and end these gerrymanders for good.

[04:30:00]

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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Let's discuss all this and what it means, especially for minority voters and head over to Natasha Lindstaedt. She's a professor of government at the University of Essex.

Natasha, it's great to see you again. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR, UNIV. OF ESSEX: Thanks for having me on.

SANDOVAL: Let's begin on that last -- on that report and state redistricting battles that are seem to be intensifying following the Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act. How do you see it further complicating midterms for Democrats, especially with control of Congress at stake?

LINDSTAEDT: Well, this is a huge blow to Democrats because even though they're doing better than Republicans are doing in the polls by some polls up to maybe six points ahead of Republicans on average, maybe more closer to six to 10 points, depending on the poll that you're looking at. And so that would assume that they have a huge advantage going into the midterms because typically it's the incumbent party that doesn't do particularly well. And the fact that Trump's approval ratings are in the 30s, so Democrats should assume that they would be able to win the House. But with this recent ruling, this is going to make it easier for states, particularly states where Republicans have a stronghold, to redistrict to ensure that minority voters don't have any kind of representation. So you have some states like Florida that if they're able to redistrict, they already have 20 Republicans seats and they might be able to gain an additional four seats. And then you have states like Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, where there's really only one Democrat in each of those states, one representative, and they would be able to redistrict to ensure that there are no Democrats that gain any seats.

SANDOVAL: And you mentioned one of the potential issues that's been highlighted here, which is, you know, less represent -- potentially less representation for minority voters. I'm curious, though, if you could tell viewers around the world exactly this could potentially dilute their representation in Washington.

LINDSTAEDT: Right. Well, this is because the previous laws in place ensured that there was some type of districting that ensured minority representation or marginalized groups were being represented, that the districts could be drawn up in such a way where if you had a majority of black voters, for example, in the state of Tennessee, which are congregated in the city of Memphis, that it was drawn up to ensure that there was at least one seat that would go to represent black voters. Now you would have to prove that there was some sort of racial bias, there was some sort of intent to be racist in the way that you draw up the districts. It's going to make it much harder for different minority groups to challenge this. And it will ensure that districts are drawn up in such a way that basically the Republicans, if they are in a Republican majority state where it is the House state legislature that draws up the districts --

SANDOVAL: Yes.

LINDSTAEDT: -- they can just draw it up whatever way they want to. And there really isn't any kind of protection for black and other minority voters.

SANDOVAL: I wonder if we could shift gears to another significant development from the -- from U.S. courts. As you know, a federal appeals court also restricted access to mifepristone, which is one of the most common means of abortion in the United States. We know that the manufacturers of that drug now asking the Supreme Court to restore access to it. Do you however, see the court taking up this case? The Supreme Court?

LINDSTAEDT: I think for certain the Supreme Court will take up this case. This is an incredibly important case and it's a huge blow to abortion rights. I mean, probably second only to when they overturned Roe v. Wade. We've seen that the average level of abortions hasn't really gone down that much because of the fact that women have access to these abortion pills, which since 2021 because of COVID they were able to access via telehealth so that they didn't have to go in person.

We have some 70 percent of the American public that is in support of women having access to abortion pills, but it goes down to about half if they are able to access it through telehealth. But it's really going to upend things for women, particularly those that are living in states where they don't have access to abortion rights because it has been overturned in their particular state. They would be able to access these abortion pills through other drug companies based in other states. Now this upends everything and creates chaos and there will definitely be pushback. We're seeing abortion rights activists and other Democrats making clear that they will pressure to get the Supreme Court to overturn this because it would be a huge blow and it's probably going to be something that will be important in the midterms now that might not have been previously.

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SANDOVAL: Absolutely. Natasha Lindstaedt, as always, really appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective. Have a good day.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

SANDOVAL: And we're back with more of your headlines in a moment. Don't go anywhere.

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SANDOVAL: The abrupt closure of Spirit Airlines on Saturday, it is sending shockwaves throughout the U.S. with thousands of passengers and employees left in limbo. The Spirit was hoping for a last minute 500 million Hail Mary bailout from the Trump administration, but that never came. The troubled carrier never fully recovered also from the COVID 19 pandemic. And it's been hit hard by soaring fuel costs because of the war in Iran. But sources are telling CNN that there were some reservations about a deal among key members of the Trump administration.

Also, creditors failed to sign on because the agreement would have effectively given the government control of most of Spirit's shares. John Strickland is an independent airline consultant and also the director of JLS Consulting. He joins me from Barnard Castle, England.

Thank you so much for joining us.

JOHN STRICKLAND, INDEPENDENT AIRLINE CONSULTANT: Pleasure.

SANDOVAL: John, so, you know, after three and a half decades in the sky, this abrupt end of this airline, just what happens next? I mean, this is an airline that certainly was not known perhaps for customer service. But at the end of the day, you have 14,000 Spirit employees out of a job. What happens next for them as well?

STRICKLAND: Exactly. That's a sad situation with a long established airline and Spirit in name, maybe Spirit in nature. It was known as a bargain basement carrier when it was founded. Over here in Europe, of course, we have Ryanair, which has taken many of its characteristics from those of Spirit. And in a moment, I'll differentiate between the two.

[04:40:05]

It sold prices that people could afford. It was successful in its earlier years, but really from about the time of the pandemic, maybe a bit before, things were really turning sour. And we're now seeing kind of quite a split between what's happening in the U.S. and what's happening in Europe. Because while low cost airlines like Spirit and starting with Southwest came out of the U.S. and then the idea migrated across the Atlantic to here in Europe and indeed elsewhere, we've seen a difference in competitive response. So Delta, American, United, who all have vast amounts of capacity in the U.S. domestic market, something which is quite different to their equivalent carriers over here in Europe, were able to put in a modest amount of capacity relative to the whole that they were offering into the bucket of the low fares being offered by Spirit and offer something more, for example, frequent flyer loyalty points, better onboard service and really match those prices.

And that was beginning to kill Spirit. So it then looked for merge opportunities. They were cast aside by regulators. It tried to merge with Frontier, an airline of similar type. JetBlue was interested to purchase the airline and that fell wayside.

Then of course, the pandemic hit everybody. And the final nail in the coffin despite that, was the rapid rise in fuel prices of recent weeks since the Iran war began.

SANDOVAL: And certainly not to dwell on what never happened, but had that bailout deal from the U.S. government come together? Would Spirit, I'm curious -- I'm personally curious, would Spirit have been the first essentially government owned U.S. airline?

STRICKLAND: Certainly, as far as I can recall, that would be the case. And indeed the industry, other players in the industry were absolutely grim faced about the idea of that happening. They were looking to see this capacity disappear, to tighten up the market. And the U.S. market is much more consolidated than the one in Europe with five or six major players.

And you mentioned in the intro about the number of jobs, thousands of people out of work who've given their law service to this company, the hope is that a large number of them will get picked up in other airlines in the industry. And I mentioned I was going to contrast this with Europe because we've seen low cost airlines under pressure because of this capacity offered by the full service airlines like Delta, United, American of the U.S. In Europe it's quite different. We're going to get earnings very soon from Ryanair, who reports strong profits for the year ended March prior to the -- prior to the war breaking out. Ryanair, which as I said took less from Spirit, is a very successful airline, very low cost based, large cash resources in the bank. And I think low cost carriers are still going to have a successful ride here in Europe for the foreseeable future.

SANDOVAL: John, in the last minute I have with you, maybe you could tell travelers what this means for them, especially with the busy travel season. You now have one low cost carrier completely gone from the equation. So that's no longer an option. Does this mean that the more conventional that the major carriers in the U.S. may have -- may be tempted to increase some of their fares because of demand? STRICKLAND: I don't think they would ever say such a thing, but certainly they will be relieved. This capacity disappearing out of the market and that exercise that I talked about in matching on a proportion of capacity the type of fare levels which an airline, Spirit or indeed Southwest was a primary provider of. There'll be less pressure on them to do it. And as it happens anyway, we've heard about airlines like United recently talking about fare increases of up to 20 percent or indeed others like Delta in an effort to keep headline fares down, increasing other charges, such as baggage charges going up at quite substantial rates. They're having to do that anyway because of fuel pretty well doubling in price in recent months following the outbreak of the war with Iran.

But a competitor out of a market of this type, a price led competitor, is something definite that they will see as to their advantage.

SANDOVAL: John Strickland, grateful for your time and for your analysis. Have a good day.

STRICKLAND: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: We also want to show you some dramatic video of the moment that a Boeing 767 jetliner collided with a bakery delivery truck in New Jersey. Now we do want to keep in mind that the driver behind the wheel is OK. Police say that the tire of that aircraft is clipped the tractor trailer. You see that moment there.

As the flight passed overhead, the driver able to safely pull over, fortunately suffering only minor injuries from the broken glass. It was actually singing before this happened in the cab of that truck. The plane landed on a Runway safely, and -- which actually starts less than 400 feet from the edge of that busy highway. The National Transportation Safety Board says that it will be investigating the incident and how this happened and of course, how they can keep this from happening again.

[04:45:14]

The war with Iran continues to inflict some pain on everyday Americans at the gas pump. Average U.S. gas prices, they soared as high as $4.25 per gallon over the weekend. And that number coming from AAA Auto Association. CNN's Gloria Pazmino has more on how drivers are coping with mounting price hikes.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we've been speaking with drivers throughout this entire week. And here in Queens, where we are right now, we've encountered a lot of taxi drivers, Uber drivers. They told me they specially feel like they don't have a choice, right? They have to fill up the tank in order to go to work. Many of them told us then even if they're making their usual income, they're spending a lot more money on everything else, right?

Food has gone up. Gas is going up. So they're just trying to stay afloat. I spoke to a man who told me that sometimes filling up the gas all the way up to full might mean that he doesn't get to have lunch one day. Another person told us they work a six or a seven day during the week in order to try and stay afloat.

So a lot of frustration among drivers. People directing their frustration at the administration and worried that the conflict in the Middle East is continuing to drag out and that prices may not come down anytime soon.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, that's the reason why we have to work now, the seven day. Because when you think -- when you think about the gas price, you go to the store, you want to buy the food, the grocery, forget it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Us getting involved in a stupid war, I think that's had a direct -- obviously a direct effect on --

PAZMINO: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- the cost of everything here. You know, we're only like putting small amounts of gas in at a time in hopes that the prices are going to come down again soon.

PAZMINO: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really sucks. Gas going up every single day now from $3.60. Now it's $4.45 and the same price. So it's affected everyone, not only me.

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PAZMINO: Now, let's break down the numbers. The national average is trending right around $4.45 for the gallon, and that is an increase of 35 cents in just the past week and an increase of almost a dollar and fifty cents since the war in Iran started back in February. New York is seeing some of the highest numbers here at this gas station. We're seeing $4.45. So right on trend with the national average. And $5.43 if you get the premium option.

If you're in California, you're paying some of the highest prices, $6.10 a gallon. And experts warn that even if the conflict in the Middle East ends soon, even if the Strait of Hormuz were to open soon, it would likely take months for prices to come down and for the oil markets to stabilize again.

Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York.

SANDOVAL: And we're back in a moment.

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[04:52:01]

SANDOVAL: Designers, celebrities and their stylists, they are getting ready for fashion's biggest night, the Met Gala returns to New York City tonight. The 2026 theme is costume art and the dress code. Fashion is art. The event facing some controversy, though. Amazon co- founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez-Bezos.

They are the Met Gala's main benefactors this year, which has led to some to call for a boycott.

All right, let's go to fashion journalist, stylist and professor at Arizona State University's Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. Joe Zee. Welcome back. Great to see you, Joe Zee.

JOE ZEE, FASHION JOURNALIST, STYLIST: Hello.

SANDOVAL: So let's dive deep into this here, the 2026 Met Gala, it, as you know, may prove to be especially contentious this year. Amazon's Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez-Bezos, the benefactors of this evening. And as you know, that's leading to a call for a boycott from some of the event's biggest promoters on social media. So, Joe, break down just what's behind this additional layer of scrutiny of fashion's biggest night.

ZEE: I think, first of all, you have to go back and look at all the sponsorships in the past decade or so. You know, at the very beginning, I mean, you understand this started in 1948, and with $50 to attend, and in the last few years, I mean, tickets are going at $100,000 per ticket to sit at the dinner. So sponsors in the past decade or so have really been the big tech companies. So you've had everyone from Yahoo to Meta to TikTok last year to really bring it together. And Amazon has sponsored this in 2012.

But this is the very first time that a private individual such as Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez-Bezos, have sponsored this entire thing on their own. And I think there is that layer of these billionaires coming in to sort of buy their way into art or prestige. And that is a lot of what the controversy is. But also, we live in an era now where everything is tinged by politics. So it is also about the labor, the work conditions within Amazon, and also his ties to the Trump administration and the Trump family that a lot of the liberal arts regions are not aligned with.

So there is that layer right now, billionaire backlash right now.

SANDOVAL: Oh to the day that a soda costs 5 cents and a ticket to the gala costs only $50. How about that? The guest list, as you know, highly secretive. Any early indication, though, from what you're hearing, of some of the VIPs who may -- who may choose to skip this year for some of the reasons that you laid out?

ZEE: Well, first of all, yes, the guest list have always been incredibly secretive. It's always been incredibly fluid. People show up at the last minute that you think were never coming, but you know for sure that the co-chairs will be there. So Beyonce, who has not been there in 10 years, will definitely be making an appearance. And Venus Williams and Nicole Kidman.

But I think some of the rumored people who are probably sending this one out, a big one, was Lauren Santo -- Lauren Santo Domingo, and she is really a big part of the fabric of this culture. And she worked at Vogue. She is a huge, bold face, name and socialite within the New York society. And this is something she attends on a regular basis. So if she is sitting this out, this will be a very interesting political statement as she is very outspoken in her political leanings and towards understanding and sort of championing (inaudible).

[04:55:30]

So I think that is, to me, an incredible thing. Nicolas Ghesquiere, who is a designer of Louis Vuitton, and Jonathan Anderson from Dior are rumored to also not be attending, though I'm not entirely sure that's connected to the Bezos effect, but that is so far the ones that I think are not going. And I heard Zendaya is also taking a little bit of time off, so we may not see her on the red carpet.

SANDOVAL: Yes. And as you were speaking, Joe, we're also showing our viewers some of the statement couture on the red carpet from years past. I mean, who could forget Jared Leto and that had.

Let's talk about the event itself, though. We could in the last minute, I have with you here, tell me about this year's theme, costume art and the dress code, fashion is art. What's your interpretation of that?

ZEE: I think this is an interesting theme this year. I mean, costume art, they're going to pair costumes, classical artworks, with clothing and couture that have really sort of been aligned in the past.

I think fashion as art is really left open to a very broad interpretation. And I think we're going to see so many versions of what we interpret as art. But I think we'll see a lot of, like, surrealism. Like Schiaparelli has been an incredible designer who's really championed, done an incredible job with that. So I think we're going to see a lot of that.

But, you know, historically, Anna has paired celebrities with a designer so that they will all be wearing the designer that they have been paired with. So it'll be interesting what the creations are that will be in -- keeping with this theme.

SANDOVAL: It'll be a night of surprises. And as you discuss it -- as we discussed at the top, certainly a bit of controversy as well. We'll be watching together.

Joe Zee, as always, really appreciate your insight. Thank you for your time.

ZEE: Thank you.

SANDOVAL: And thank you so much for watching. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. Our coverage continues with CNN "Headline Express."

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