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Investigators into Disappearance of Nancy Gutrie Release Ransom Letters from Kidnappers; Justice Department Drops Charges of Vandalism Tied to Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool; Heatwave Hits U.S. Pacific Northwest; President Trump Says U.S. Military Will Hit Targets in Iran; Upcoming Michigan Democratic Senate Primary to Test Electability of Progressive Candidate Abdul El-Sayed; New Data Reveals Cyclospora Affecting One in Every 1,000 People in Michigan; Dr. Anthony Fauci Pleads Fifth Amendment to Questions during Senate Hearing on COVID-19 Lockdowns; Muhammed Ali's Impact on American Sports and Culture Examined in New CNN Series. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired August 01, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:30]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news. Savannah Guthrie's family saying today our hearts are in ruins. They are pleading for answers in the disappearance of their mother, Nancy. This coming a day after investigators in Arizona released a pair of ransom notes.

Plus, hasty and botched. In a rare reversal, the Justice Department admits the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool renovation was flawed, and it is dropping the criminal case against a former Olympian accused of vandalizing the pool. An outraged President Trump just weighed in.

And historic outbreak, new data reveals cyclospora has now affected about one in every 1,000 people in Michigan. What E.R. doctors in that state are seeing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

WHITFIELD: Hello, everyone, and thank you so much for joining me this Saturday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin with this breaking news. Six months to the day since she vanished, there are new developments in the search for Nancy Guthrie. Her daughter, "Today Show" anchor Savannah Guthrie, is making a painful new plea for answers, writing on Instagram, quote, "We are begging for help. We are desperate. We need someone to come forward. Someone knows something. Someone suspects something. Someone recognizes the writing in the ransom demand notes. There is a way to end the situation and do the right thing."

Yesterday, investigators took the major step of releasing the full ransom notes that they believe came from the kidnappers, and they urged the public to look closely at the distinctive writing style for clues. CNN's Josh Campbell has more on the disturbing contents of those released notes. (BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: We now know the contents of two letters addressed to the family of Nancy Guthrie by her purported kidnappers, according to law enforcement. This week, the Pima County sheriff's office in Arizona is releasing the details of two kidnapping letters that were received by different media outlets shortly after the disappearance of Nancy, who, of course, is the mother of NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie.

Now, this comes on the six-month anniversary of Nancy Guthrie's disappearance. Authorities want people to look at the syntax, the actual wording. All of us have unique writing styles. They want anyone with information on who might have written this to pick up the phone and call law enforcement.

Now, in the first letter that was received by the media on February 2nd, the letter says that "We have your mother. She is safe but scared." They demand $4 million in ransom be paid via bitcoin. The letter goes on to say, "If payment is not received, the ransom will be increased to $6 million U.S. dollars, which will need to be paid by 5:00 p.m. on Monday the 9th. Once payment is received to the bitcoin address below, she will be released to a safe dropoff location back in Tucson. If payment is not received by the last deadline on Monday the 9th at 5:00 p.m., she will be killed. Your mother is aware of this, and her life is in your hands."

Now, just a few days later, on February 6th, media also receives another letter, this one much different in tone. They say, "We did not fully grasp the seriousness of her physical condition. We never intended to hurt her. That was not our intention. She perished shortly after she was taken. We believe it was heart related. She is buried in nature now. Nothing you could have done could have changed the outcome. We want your family to know this and hope you can all find peace." They say that "We are truly sorry," which of course will likely come as little consolation to the Guthrie family, which has just been grief stricken since this incident first happened.

Now, again, authorities are asking anyone with information to call law enforcement, to call 1-800-FBI. Authorities say in addition to continuing to analyze this letter, they are also processing DNA from the scene, trying to gather any leads in hopes of actually identifying the perpetrator or perpetrators here. Of course, authorities also released that dramatic video where you actually see a person in a mask at Nancy Guthrie's front door, believed to be the time when she was abducted. Authorities are asking anyone who might know the identity of that person to also call law enforcement.

Josh Campbell, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, Josh, thank you so much.

And if you have any information that may help investigators, call the tip line at 1-800-Call-FBI. All right, moments ago, President Donald Trump weighed in on a major

reversal by the Justice Department.

[14:05:00]

The DOJ now blaming the problems with the $14 Million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool on, quoting now, "hasty and botched," end quote, repairs rather than vandals. Trump responded in a social media post, saying, "I disagree 100 percent with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, on the reflecting pool. I don't know what she was thinking. To me, it was a pure case of vandalism that included the grass, which had a big "86-47" emblazoned in giant letters on it, and other elements of the surrounding area. There may have been some contractor difficulty but the major damage was caused by vandals." That coming from the president today.

All right, CNN's Katelyn Polantz walks us through Fridays DOJ court filing where prosecutors also moved to dismiss the criminal case against a former Olympian who was accused of vandalizing the pool.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: The former Olympic canoeist who was indicted for vandalizing the reflecting pool this summer. That case, it's being dropped. And the Trump administration is walking back everything that they had said or tried to say about how vandals were the ones that caused this pool liner Donald Trump wanted for the 4th of July to be peeling up, and an embarrassment across Washington.

In this situation, Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., she's saying that after her office indicted David Hearn, the former slalom canoeist and someone who was critical of Donald Trump and also was fighting the case against him, she says that after he was indicted, the U.S. attorney's office and the Justice Department got documentation from inside the Department of Interior, the National Park Service, that they knew back when the reflecting pool work was being finished, days before Hearn even visited the National Mall to see the pool, that they knew that there were peeling issues with a liner that had been sprayed on to make the bottom of the pool very, very blue.

People like Hearn had gone to that site because there was algae that was filling the pool at a time when Donald Trump wanted to renovate it and a lot of other monuments in Washington, D.C. This case is now falling apart, though. And the example the Justice Department had tried to make of Hearn is no longer. Here's a quote from the filing, "A recent visual inspection", done by Pirro herself, "showed damage throughout the reflecting pool," now that it has been drained of water, "even in the middle of the pool where a vandal would not likely attempt to peel the lining. Given all of this newly discovered information, it's difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the reflecting pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt."

Attorneys for Hearn, they are asking for an apology from the Justice Department. We haven't seen anything like that in court filings, but we are seeing the dismissal of other charges against at least one other person who was charged with a misdemeanor version of this vandalism related to the reflecting pool and the debacle that happened in Washington this summer. Back to you.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much.

Also, we're tracking a massive heat dome baking the southwest of this country this weekend with the hottest temperatures of the year. More than 55 million people are under heat alerts, and multiple cities could easily cross into the triple digits.

Meanwhile, the pacific northwest is bracing for dangerous weather conditions that could make an already record fire season even worse. CNN meteorologist Chris Warren has the forecast.

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Still tracking some showers and storms throughout parts of the central and eastern time zones. But the big story remains here in the west, with tens of millions of people dealing with some serious, potentially dangerous heat from southern California, the desert southwest, where this time of year it's hot anyways. It's the hottest time of year in one of the hottest locations in the U.S. So when we're getting close to or expecting to break records over the next couple of days, this is a big deal.

And then there's the fire risk also that continues in the pacific northwest, and even moving Sunday into parts of more of Montana and even into the Dakotas as well, as this area of low pressure, it's a cold front, but it's dry. So it's mainly going to be a wind maker, which can fan the flames and help spread wildfires. This is just to the north of this intense heat dome that has just been sitting and baking throughout the southwest and creating that scenario where we could see, again, the hottest time of the year, some records fall, daily, records fall, possibly even monthly records throughout parts of Montana.

A little bit cooler, though, than normal across parts of the pacific northwest. That's not going to last. So not much relief expected for these wildfires that are burning. And there's a lot of them. When that cold front moves through, a little bit of relief from the smoke, but it won't be long before that moves back. More smoke settling in and just festering east of the cascades in Washington and Oregon and moving inland as well into the intermountain west.

[14:10:05]

So temperatures will be bouncing back by Monday into the 80s, and 90s, still hot in the southwest. And then on Tuesday, you can see even Seattle to Boise will be baking. So you got to do what you got to do to keep cool, especially at night. That's what makes things so dangerous when it's tough to recover during the overnight hours.

WHITFIELD: That's right, and keep that hydrating going. All right, Chris Warren, thank you so much. All right, coming up, the U.S. could launch a new wave of strikes on

Iran in less than 36 hours.

Plus, Ukraine says it is running out of missiles needed to defend its skies as Russia launches another deadly round of attacks. This comes just as President Trump backed away from a pledge to help.

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[14:15:32]

WHITFIELD: All right, new today, Ukraine says Russia launched more than 200 drones and missiles overnight, with Kyiv taking the brunt of the attack.

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WHITFIELD: A Ukrainian official says at least nine people were killed and dozens more injured. Damage was reported across seven districts, including a school and the Lithuanian embassy. Ukraine says it only intercepted one of the 35 missiles launched during the attack, exposing severe shortages in its air defenses. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his plea for western air defenses. That came just hours after President Trump backed away from a public pledge to allow Ukraine to make its own Patriot interceptor missiles.

Meantime, President Trump is warning of new attacks on Iran, which U.S. officials say could come as early as this weekend. The president said, quote, "We'll be hitting them very hard," end quote. For its part, Iran is keeping up its drone attacks on Kuwait, where the U.S. has a major military presence. Kuwaiti officials say no casualties were reported in today's attacks.

CNN's Julia Benbrook is following all of this. Julia, what more do we know?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The United States is planning new strikes against Iran, which could come as soon as this weekend. President Donald Trump, he is spending the next couple of days here in New Jersey at a nearby property, and he is weighing some options.

What we don't know at this point is the precise scope of these strikes and the potential targets the United States might go after. And officials familiar with the planning who spoke with CNN cautioned that this could all be called off. Those officials did say that there has been planning around the option of targeting Iran's energy sites. The Trump administration has been wary of going after Iran's energy infrastructure, in part due to the concern that Tehran could retaliate by going after Gulf infrastructure and then spike global energy markets, which have already been under great strain during this conflict. Just yesterday, Trump, while speaking at a cabinet meeting that was

held at Camp David, he previewed the potential of this new wave of strikes and expressed frustration in the way that diplomatic efforts have gone so far. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: We'll be hitting them. We'll be hitting them very hard. You know, at some point they're going to say, we just can't take it anymore. We just want to win. We don't want to have them -- it's very simple. They cannot have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: It is important to note that throughout this now five-month long conflict, that Trump has really gone back and forth between threatening -- threatening to escalate military action, and expressing hope for a diplomatic breakthrough. It does seem by his recent remarks that at least right now, he is not putting a lot of hope in diplomacy. He said during those remarks that he is losing faith in Iran's leadership and that they have just been making him angry lately.

We did reach out to the White House for specifics on these potential strikes, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said this, in part. She said, "President Trump is not going to stand by and allow this terrorist behavior to occur. Iran will continue to pay until they can come to the table in what President Trump deems a meaningful way."

But as he weighs these options, and as this conflict has gone on longer than he had originally predicted after those first joint U.S.- Israel strikes against Iran, he said this could last a couple of days, then a couple of weeks. We're now months into this. Recent polling has shown that Americans are not happy with the way that this has played out. This has shown up consistently in recent polls. And a CNN poll showed that just 28 percent say that they approve of the way that Trump has handled this conflict. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Julia Benbrook, thank you so much.

All right, let's continue this conversation now. With us now is Behnam Ben Taleblu. He is the senior director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Great to see you, as always.

All right, so the U.S. is threatening to go after energy and infrastructure. Is that rattling Iran at all?

[14:20:00]

BEHNAM BEN TALEBU, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF IRAN PROGRAM, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: Pleasure to be with you again, Fredricka.

In short, I think it's a big mistake, because we've been at the edge of this precipice before, where the president is threatening to widen the war, widen the target set, particularly against this sort of infrastructure. And this is a regime that, even prior to the war, prior to the protests that began late December, early January, was moving the whole country towards failed state status anyway. I mean, just look at the Iranian exchange rate today and you'll get a glimpse of exactly what I'm saying.

So if the president is hoping to do this either as a threat to get the regime to blink -- it hasn't blinked thus far -- or to generate more pain, I think that's a lose-lose proposition. And therefore, we're in a familiar but frustrating place on this crisis.

WHITFIELD: And you say that because, you know, Trump has said things before and then not followed through or changed his mind. And that speaks to, I guess, his credibility on the world stage, and particularly in this conflict. So what is at stake for Trump, his diplomatic and military strategies in terms of whether he does or doesn't follow through on these threats?

TALEBU: Well, you don't want it to be a lose-lose proposition to be able to have to strike a target that is not going to generate the political leverage that you need either for a diplomatic offramp or to go against this regime in a broader, bigger way.

I think not every problem with respect to the Islamic Republic needs a B-2, but many of them indeed could use creative planning, could use drones, could use the unleashing of intelligence assets, could even use, you know, running the clock on the blockade, which was Americas most powerful non-kinetic tool to drive down the thing that actually funds these destabilizing missile, military, nuclear, and even drone programs.

So the president has lots of options, but he's also got lots of goalposts on the field to play against. The question is, which one? And that's really the art of governance. That's the art of strategy, prioritizing time, resources, and priorities. And this is a regime that sees its own survival more based on escalation than engagement right now. And they're going to try to force the president into a lose-lose option.

WHITFIELD: All right, and correct me if I'm wrong, you have said you believe that Iran wants to divide and conquer in the Middle East. So how might this conflict be helping to facilitate that?

TALEBU: You know, in the very early phases of this conflict, when the Islamic Republic internationalized the war by striking Arab infrastructure, hotels in the UAE, energy infrastructure in the Gulf Cooperation Council states, Jordan, even four times trying to fire a missile at NATO ally Turkey, for example, let alone against Israel, and later drone strikes against Cyprus, I said the Napoleon quote, which is when your enemy is making a mistake, don't interrupt them.

And that was an opportunity for America to shore up the pro-American order in the region and diplomatically. Sadly, we let that opportunity atrophy and go away, such that Iran is now engaging in salami slicing tactics against all our partners in the region. The weakest ones without the retaliatory capability, like Jordan, less so Bahrain and Kuwait, continue to get struck by Iranian missiles and drones. And so we're in a very rough place where diplomatically we need to be able to hold the line. WHITFIELD: You've also said that it's not a regime change, but a

leadership change in Iran. So who is calling the shots, so to speak, in that country? Is it the Revolutionary Guard or the supreme leader, who hasn't been seen publicly, but there have been assurances made that he does indeed exist?

TALEBU: Well, the supreme leader, that's a position entitled meant to be taken rather literally. But you're 100 percent right that he does not exist. And the legacy of his father, of Ali Khamenei, who was the longest serving dictator in the contemporary Middle East, his legacy was to take a personalist, authoritarian Islamist system and institutionalize it. And the rise of the IRGC, a designated terrorist organization, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as an institution, means that that system cannot be decapitated. If you're going to go against it, you have to decimate it, which requires a rethink of U.S. strategy.

WHITFIELD: All right, Benham Ben Talebu, thank you so much. Great to see you again. Appreciate it.

TALEBU: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, coming up, a heated primary season is exposing deep divisions among Democrats. We'll look at what the Michigan Democratic Senate race could say about the party's future.

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[14:28:33]

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. We're in the final weekend push for Michigan's Senate candidates ahead of a high-stakes Democratic primary on Tuesday. Progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed is facing off against the more moderate Congresswoman Haley Stevens in a race that may have the highest stakes for the party. Both candidates have two events today across the state, and right now, Stevens is at a community event in Detroit, and El-Sayed will hold a rally in Grand Rapids this afternoon.

Michigan's race will gauge whether the success progressives have had in more solidly Democratic areas can extend statewide in a critical swing state. It also sets the stage for a general election that will help determine control of the Senate.

Joining me right now to discuss is "L.A. Times" columnist LZ Granderson. LZ, it's been too long, but it's so good to have you. Excellent to see you. So in your -- wonderful. So in your latest op- ed, and you were using the Michigan Democratic Senate race to kind of pose the question, what is any endorsement worth in 2026 really? And, you know, and in your article, you have South Carolina's Clyburn, you know, who throws his support behind a candidate. And you're wondering, you know, how relevant that really is. So you argue that kind of big names may not carry the same significance that they once did. Explain to me what you mean.

[14:30:04] LZ GRANDERSON, OP-ED COLUMNIST, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Sure. I think we're moving towards a post celebrity America. Social media has a lot to do with that. You know, the access we've had to celebrities. Then, of course, the ability to become a celebrity yourself, whether you have talent or not. And so there's, I think, a level of exhaustion within society in general with just seeing famous people saturated on our phones and our televisions.

And I think that's sort of seeped over into our politics. You know, Vice President Kamala Harris relied a lot on celebrity endorsements and performances. And, you know, it -- it's a question of whether or not that helped her or not. You know, I don't know if that moves the needle the way that it used to.

And so the effort that particularly on the Democratic side to try to, like, pair themselves with people of high profile celebrities, it may be great to like raise your profile temporarily, but at the end of the day, you're the one that has to come up with the goods and hold the attention. People don't care about celebrity the way they used to.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. And people really want to know about this, you know, kind of kitchen table issues and where are you as it pertains to that? How is this going to impact my life directly? You're back home in Michigan this weekend. And, you know, I guess you're talking to a lot of voters there. What is it that they are saying they want to hear from these candidates? What are the issues that are driving their votes in this 11th hour?

GRANDERSON: Well, Fred, as you mentioned, both Congresswoman Stevens as well as Dr. El-sayed are having events today. And I actually just left Abdul's event not too long ago. And it looks pretty much the way you would expect any Democratic primary event to look. You know, there's a cross section of people wide variety of diversity. The red meat comments that were made on stage were big hits. So in a lot of ways, you can't really tell the difference between necessarily Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed until you start talking about things like money in politics. That's when you start to see a division.

And it's not just simply, like, you know, the AIPAC conversation that's driven a lot about what's been happening in Michigan. But Michigan in particular has a ballot measure in which voters are deciding whether or not to allow corporate money or big dollar monies to be involved in any more statewide politics. So it isn't just about AIPAC, it's just about corporate money in general. And I think that is also part of the groundswell you're feeling across the country when it comes to progressives.

You know, there's a lot of focus in on Gaza, a lot of focus in on Iran and Israel. But there are other aspects to this conversation that's happening within the Democratic Party that I don't think is getting talked about enough. And a lot of that has to do with the way that corporate money is putting their finger on the needle and moving the electorate. And people are pushing back against that. And Stevens is having some problems in Michigan because of her attachment to corporate money. And El-Sayed, to his credit, has taken advantage of that. WHITFIELD: OK, so you've got money that is an influencer, and so can

be sometimes, you know, star power. But then what about when the entire party seems to be behind a candidate? I mean, that too might make an impact because we certainly see that in many circles in many races.

GRANDERSON: Well, I think if anything, we've learned over the past decade or even a little bit more than that, I would go back as far as the Tea Party, to be quite honest with you, when we started to see not a revolt. I don't like using that word, because I think that the country continues to evolve politically, culturally, and so the changes are natural, and it's supposed to be expected. And we saw those changes happening first with conservatives, first with the Tea Party and now with MAGA.

And now you're beginning to see it happen on the Democratic side. And they're both stemming from the same sort of conditions. People are poor, people are struggling, people are hurting. Sometimes racism is used as dividing tool. Sometimes it's LGBTQ-plus issues. Sometimes it's sexism. But whatever the cultural issue or the sort of like, you know, hot button topic issue is, the divide that drives the sort of narrative, underneath that, Fred, is the exact same populist sort of yearning for wanting more affordability, housing, not worrying about going to the doctor and losing, you know, your house or all your savings if you do. Like, that is a reoccurring message, regardless of party. And this is just another extension of that change that's happening here in Michigan and in this particular primary race.

WHITFIELD: OK, LZ, appreciate it. I mean, LZ wearing his politics hat. He's got his realist hat. And then in a minute, we're going to have you put on your sports hat because were going to talk again later on this hour about that as well. LZ, stick around. I'll see you soon.

All right, coming up next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to -- respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights -- Fifth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:35:03]

WHITFIELD: After pleading the Fifth more than 100 times this week to Congress, Dr. Anthony Fauci could now face a contempt fight.

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WHITFIELD: All right, now to the cyclospora parasite outbreak, the largest of its kind ever seen in this country. In Michigan, health officials have now reported more than 10,000 cases of this gut- wrenching parasite since May.

[14:40:03]

To put that in perspective, that means that one out of every 1,000 people in Michigan has been infected. While Michigan has become the epicenter of the outbreak, the parasite has spread to 45 states now, with thousands of brand new cases popping up nationwide just this past week.

Joining me right now is Michigan emergency physician, Dr. Rob Davidson. He's also the executive director of the Committee to Protect Health Care. Doctor, always great to see you.

All right, so your home state of Michigan, it's getting slammed by this outbreak. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy says it's now under control. What are you seeing on the front lines?

DR. ROB DAVIDSON, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: Yes. I mean, I'm seeing and I'm hearing reported from my colleagues, and again, my spouse is a family doctor, sees a lot in the clinic, that it is definitely not under control, right. Were still seeing cases pop up daily, multiple cases. You know, fortunately, rarely people getting hospitalized, but still extremely disruptive to people's lives.

And now there's another cluster of cases, over 70 cases that they haven't identified a source, right. And so to say it's under control, that is ignoring just the facts on the ground, and it's leaving people, patients, it's leaving doctors, it's leaving our state health department a bit hanging out to dry, you know, trying to pretend like everything is going great

WHITFIELD: And there has been a lot of confusion, you know, about, you know, the origins of this parasite. Where is it coming from? You know, everyone heard about the lettuce plant, and then now it's gone way beyond that. Michigan health officials admit that they can't say for sure if everyone is getting sick from the same kind of food. So what are you telling patients? How do you keep yourself safe?

DAVIDSON: Yes, listen, I mean, as far as we know, right, that one, that one farms, Taylor Farms de Mexico is the source. So if you, you know, have shredded lettuce, maybe avoid that. I am personally. If you get lettuce, wash it really well.

Beyond that, it's really tough to know, you know, until we get guidance. And this is where leadership at the top is really important. And that lack of leadership and sort of just, again, washing your hands to it and saying it's under control, it's fine, and wanting not to have to deal with it, it just doesn't help us, because it leaves myself and my fellow physicians and health care providers in this state of we don't know what exactly to tell people. We can tell them, you know, what we do know. But there may be something they could do more to avoid getting sick. And again, for the lack of leadership, we don't have the ability to tell them that.

WHITFIELD: And then what are your concerns right now about the potential dangers, whether it be about this continuous spread of, you know, of this bacteria, or how this country might be managing any other kind of outbreak?

DAVIDSON: Yes, I mean, it's -- I mean, we look right now at measles, right? The most cases, you probably reported on it, most cases in 35 years. We are very likely going to lose our status that measles is under control in this country. And that is directly related to, again, lack of leadership at the top. I mean, RFK Jr. is the secretary of HHS. Certainly these cases were going to be happening even if he wasn't there right now. But his career of sowing distrust in vaccines is part of it.

And then they've defunded programs to try to understand vaccines -- vaccine skepticism, where we need to get vaccine rates higher or we're going to be seeing measles as a regularly occurring infection that can present with really severe outcomes for kids, you know, pneumonia, meningitis, and even death in some cases.

WHITFIELD: OK. You know, this this week also was very eyebrow-raising for, you know, some other reasons. You saw Dr. Anthony Fauci, you know, the man who guided the nation through the COVID pandemic being grilled by mostly Republicans about his response as he had to testify on Capitol Hill. And he repeated these words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

I respectfully decline to answer --

I respectfully decline to answer --

I respectfully decline to answer --

I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Yes, what was your response to this this week, especially since, you know, you joined us many times on the show during the pandemic, helping people navigate everything that they were experiencing. What did this moment, I guess, do or compel in you?

DAVIDSON: Yes, I think one of the biggest concerns is that it's sad that he had to go there and do that, Right. It is sad that he had to plead the Fifth so he didn't end up perjuring himself. And that's what I'm understanding his lawyers told him to do. It's because the chair of that committee, Senator Rand Paul, has stated he wants him in jail.

[14:45:02]

I mean, Senator Ron Johnson has said this. Senator Tuberville in Alabama said when he's governor, they're going to try to find state charges and make sure that he's either in court or in jail for the rest of his life. And so he's under attack for the fact that he was the face of the of the COVID response, right.

Did everything go perfectly? No. He will tell you that. The people that he has trained in his life, people across public health, it did not go perfectly. Did they do everything they thought was exactly correct in the moment to prevent illness, to prevent death? Absolutely. I have no doubt in my mind that the intentions of every action that was taken was to spare people's lives.

And we saw it. I mean, I remember, I've been seeing a lot of people with these hearings going back and posting pictures of them in full, you know, full gear with masks and gowns and all of that, and saying, you know, people want to kind of memory-hole this and pretend like it never happened. We were there. We saw it happening. We saw our neighbors and our family dying from this. And they're just, you know, these senators in this political theater are absolutely missing, missing the mark.

And they're ignoring the real crises going on right now -- people without insurance, measles, cyclospora. They're ignoring what's really going on that we need to be addressing.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right, Dr. Rob Davidson, always great to have you. Thanks for taking the time out. I know your plate is full as well. Thanks so much.

DAVIDSON: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, tomorrow morning, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will join CNN's STATE OF THE UNION. That's at 9:00 a.m. Sunday right here on CNN.

All right, coming up around the world, today's mega wildfires are becoming so extreme that they are changing the weather around them. All new next hour, the growing concern that wildfire season is becoming an around the year problem.

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[14:51:23]

WHITFIELD: All right, the all-new CNN original series "Decades in Sports" explores the cultural and political mine-stones -- milestones, rather, that transformed sports and, in turn, America from the 1960s to the 2010s. The series shows how major historical events like the Civil Rights movement, the TV revolution, and social media coming to prominence have all impacted athletes and the world.

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MUHAMMAD ALI, FORMER BOXING HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION: I can run through a hurricane and don't get wet. When George Foreman meets me, he'll pay his debts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happens in the 1970s is you begin to see sports on television growing into spectacle. Everything felt like it was raised a notch. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In 1974, Muhammad Ali challenges the new

heavyweight champion of the world, George Foreman, in the central African country of Zaire, now known as the Congo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, in some ways, George Foreman is the new Sonny Liston. He's knocking out his opponents with ease. He knocks out Joe Frazier, winning the heavyweight crown. The widespread belief is that Foreman's going to kill him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before Ali and Foreman fight, much happened. Ali lost the first fight of three to Ken Norton. Now we're asked to believe that Ali, who now is 32 years old, not only beat Foreman, but that he can even survive George Foreman.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Via live via satellite, a Video Techniques presentation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boxing is becoming global. Satellites are up in the air. The fight in Zaire, you can watch it live in America. That wouldn't have been true 10 years earlier.

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WHITFIELD: All right, back with us now, this time wearing his sports aficionado hat, journalist LZ Granderson. Good to see you again.

All right, so one of the most significant sports moments in the 1960s, you know, was the 1967 Cleveland summit where, you know, about a dozen black professional athletes met to discuss Muhammad Ali's decision to refuse the draft. I mean, this all around the same time of this whole, you know, match in Zaire, too. What were the lasting impacts of that summit?

LZ GRANDERSON, OP-ED COLUMNIST, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Wow. You know, we're still processing it in a lot of ways, you know, because after that summit, one, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, uh, Lew Alcindor, decided not to participate in the Olympics. Those that did participate in the Olympics, we are very familiar with the fists that were raised on the podium. And those images are continuing to be inspiring for us to this very day.

As a matter of fact, you can make an argument that the current day athletes, particularly black athletes, whenever there is a moment of cultural or political uprising, we're still looking at those black athletes, particularly if they're dealing with the black community, to see if they're going to be leaders. And it stems from those men that gathered in Cleveland in 1967. So it's still very much a part of American society.

WHITFIELD: Right. And in Mexico City, with Carlos and Tommie, I mean, people think of them as well, you know, making statements through their sport and their social consciousness.

So, I wonder with Ali's decision, ultimately, how his decision-making process also helped impact athletes and coming to almost a realization of the power that they had, not just in their sport, but socially, politically, even if it wasn't direct, but even in indirect fashions.

GRANDERSON: You know, you're absolutely correct. And the thing that, Muhammad Ali had that some of his predecessors didn't have was television, right?

[14:55:05]

So we know about Jackie Robinson. We know about Jack Johnson. It's not as if black athletes did not fight against racism before. But now we have televisions in the homes. And Muhammad Ali, in addition to being a fantastic athlete, one of the greatest boxers of all time, he was gregarious, and he was a natural in front of the cameras, helping to sell his sport, helping to sell his message, and helping to sell his viewpoint on the world.

And I think that use of his platform is one of the reasons why he continues to be so dominant today. It isn't just what he did athletically. It was the courage to use his platform to try to help change hearts and minds about black people.

WHITFIELD: Incredible. It's going to be an incredible hour, can't wait to see it. So glad you're part of it as well. LZ Granderson, always great to talk to you about a wealth of things, because you are a man of a wealth of knowledge. Appreciate you.

The all new --

GRANDERSON: I'm just a journalist.

WHITFIELD: All right, oh, hey, just a journalist? Capital J, journalist. All right, the all-new CNN original series, "Decades in Sports" back-to-back episodes premiering tomorrow night at -- tomorrow night, eastern and pacific, 9:00.

We'll be right back.

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