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Record Number Of Americans Expected To Travel For The Fourth; United Airlines Cancels Most Flights Of Any Carrier; State Department Report Details Damning Failings Around Chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal; ESPN Lays Off Top On-Air Talent. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired July 01, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

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[08:00:45]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, good morning. Welcome to CNN this morning. It is Saturday, July 1st. First half of the year behind us, second half ahead of us.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Already looking towards Christmas.

BLACKWELL: Christmas.

WALKER: Victor Blackwell.

BLACKWELL: I ordered my Christmas cookies yesterday.

WALKER: You did not.

BLACKWELL: You got to get on her list or you'll miss out.

WALKER: Can you get me on the list?

BLACKWELL: I mean, they're fantastic. So you got to start early.

WALKER: Wow. All right. Maybe it's time for some Christmas shopping then. Hello, everyone. I'm Amara Walker. Thank you so much for spending your holiday weekend with us. Here's what we're watching this morning. The holiday weekend will bring searing hot temperatures and severe storms to millions of people. We have a look at your holiday forecast and how new technology being switched on today could lead to travel delays at airports across the country.

BLACKWELL: More than a thousand people have been detained in France after a fourth night of protests following the death of a teenager the hands of police. We're live in Paris with the latest.

WALKER: President Biden says he's not giving up on canceling some student loan debt. The new plan the Whitehouse is announcing after a stinging defeat at the Supreme Court.

BLACKWELL: Thousands of Hollywood actors will keep working at least for now after their union postponed plans to strike. The wide range of impact the strike would have especially since writers are already on the picket lines.

WALKER: So from the roads to the sky that is expected to be a record- breaking 4th of July weekend for travel. AAA expects 50 million Americans to travel more than 50 miles from their homes through Wednesday. Now at airports, flight disruptions continue to impact fliers looking to get to their holiday destinations.

BLACKWELL: And so far this morning, more than 790 flights have been delayed in the U.S. and 100 or more 108 or so have been canceled. The TSA now projects to screen over 17.7 million people this Independence weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Super busy, super packed. Tensions are high.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I knew how it was going to be, that's it was going to be long lines, a long way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We left early. We're very early only to -- only to be told that our flight was delayed.

BLACKWELL: CNN Gloria Pazmino is with us now from Newark Airport in New Jersey. How's it looking around you?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Victor, Amara, so far, the Coast appears to be clear as far as we can tell here at Newark Airport, one of the busiest in the country and United Airlines hub. That airline has had a very hard time bouncing back from delays last week. We'll talk about that in just one minute. But first, let's talk about what we are expecting to see this busy holiday weekend. At least 50 million people are expected to travel by car or by air according to AAA. And this Transportation Security Administration says they are expecting to screen more than 17 million passengers this holiday weekend.

Now let's talk about the airlines because that is where a lot of the travel headaches have been focused. There were major disruptions across all of the country's major airports last week, a mix of bad weather and staffing shortages that left thousands of passengers stranded. Now you United Airlines on their particular scrutiny here because they've had a really hard time bouncing back. In fact, as of yesterday, they still had 979, delays and 234 cancellations.

Now sort of adding insult to injury here is the CEO of United Airlines, Scott Kirby, forced to apologize after it was revealed that he took a private jet not far from here actually out of Teterboro Airport as this meltdown of his airline was unfolding right here at Newark Airport. Here's what Scott Kirby had to say about that. He issued a statement saying, "Taking a private jet was the wrong decision because it was insensitive to our customers who were waiting to get home. I sincerely apologize to our customers and our team members who have been working around the clock for several days often through severe weather to take care of our customers."

[08:05:03] PAZMINO: So certainly not what you want in terms of optics when your

airline is melting down and your customers are unable to get to their final destination. This is causing a lot of criticism for both United Airlines, not just from their customers but also from their employees. So United Airlines under scrutiny this travel holiday weekend, as what is expected to be a record-breaking weekend gets underway. Amara, Victor

WALKER: Gloria, thank you very much. Glad it's a bit calm there for now. So if you are planning a 4th of July barbecue, you might want to have an indoor backup from severe storms to dangerous heat. Many parts of the U.S. are facing an extreme and unpleasant weather conditions.

BLACKWELL: We're joined now by CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. What's it looking like out there?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So we've already got some storms underway across portions of the Midwest. This large cluster of storms here, making its way from Illinois into Indiana and eventually over towards Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky. But that's the first of two rounds that we're going to go through today. And we have the potential for severe storms in both of them.

This entire area that you see here has the potential for damaging winds, large hail, and even some isolated tornadoes as well as the secondary cluster here in portions of Western Texas. And we talked about the first area, that's the first round this morning. Then the same areas are likely to pick up a secondary round this afternoon and into the evening hours. Then as we transition into Sunday, that system begins to push farther into the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, but we also have additional showers and thunderstorms developing across the southeast. So a lot of areas here, if you've got some travel plans that may be dealing with some delays, not only in the air but also on the roads.

Temperatures are still hot across the south. But we're starting to see it shift a little farther east. So you're starting to see temperatures coming back down across areas, say like Dallas, Texas, finally getting back down only into double digits over the next few days. We'll also see the same thing for other places like New Orleans and Mobile. It's just going to take it a few more days before we start to see those temperatures come back down to more reasonable numbers. Out west, it's the opposite story. You're going to start to see these numbers continue to go up in the coming days and they're going to go up quite high.

Palm Springs topping out at 116 the next few days. Bakersfield around 110 for the highest even Vegas likely topping out at 113 on Monday. That's 10 degrees above average for them this time of year and potentially could be a record. That's one of at least a dozen cities that could end up having some record-breaking temperatures, not just today but also potentially into tomorrow as well. And the other thing too is that heat really doesn't go away anytime soon.

If you look at Vegas, notice all of the next few days likely looking at those temperatures above average. I would like to point out Victor and Amara one thing too, that Vegas just hit a hundred degrees, triple digits for the first time this season yesterday. That's the latest they've ever made it into the year before hitting triple digits. The problem there is people are not yet acclimated to this extreme heat. So a lot of heat-related illnesses likely will hit people a little bit sooner than they normally would be.

BLACKWELL: All right. Allison Chinchar watching those scorching temperatures and all the other severe weather. Thank you so much. Millions of people set to fly across the country. There are still concerns about more flight delays, cancellations after the thousands of flights were canceled this week because of staffing shortages and bad weather. Here with us now is CNN Aviation Analyst and former Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo. Mary, good to see you again. All right, so we've had some pretty bad days behind us and people are on their way to airports. What should they expect I mean have any of the variables that made the past few days so bad? Are they over or are they passed us now?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION AND TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Yes, and unfortunately, all those variables that you mentioned in the earlier segment are still out there and -- and it all depends literally, it comes down to the weather. We could be facing a perfect storm or we could get lucky because so many factors are in the -- in the red zone right now. One, we do have the air traffic controller shortage, and the facilities can operate or the rule of thumb was 85 percent of the controllers. But 77 percent are below that 85 percent threshold and 26 percent of the controllers are still trainees.

So that means they have to put more distance between the aircraft. What does that mean? Delays and slow down. then we put the weather on top of it. If we've got the smoke in bad weather, all the aircraft, or almost all the aircraft are going to need to be under the services of air traffic control. That's what's called instrument flight rules.

And finally, if you need to rebook, if you bumped, dumped, stranded abandoned. Well, the system now has what's called very little excess capacity, meaning the planes are full. So for travelers that means big dose of patients when you go to the airport but then there's another little wrinkle on top of that. And that's everybody's worried about 5G. If you'll recall, a while back, the more of the bandwidth was released to cell phone providers and airlines were concerned that that would affect what's called a radar altimeter, something you need when you fly in bad weather. So those factors are all coming into play. And I -- it again, is coming down to the weather. So instead of a rain dance, we need to do a dance for a sunny, sunny weekend.

[08:10:38]

BLACKWELL: I don't know who decided to now allow these cell phone companies to bring up their 5G or power up on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. But that didn't seem to make sense if we're looking at schedules. Go ahead.

SCHIAVO: Well, you know, the airlines have known about this for a long time. And -- and in this one, it's not the FAAs fault although they were late to the game to object. The Federal Aviation Administration did object but after it was a done deal and those bandwidths were released. But most airlines say they're ready to go. The newer aircraft already have the shielding and equipment in place. And only one airline has -- has fessed up. Delta said -- Delta Airlines it has a few older planes, narrow-bodied planes that --that won't be ready, but they have already adjusted their system in their schedule to account for it.

And so far they're out the airline posting the -- the delays or the problem. So airlines have known about this for a long time. And I guess in terms of passengers, I worry more about their expectation because remember, just a few months ago, the administration now in sweeping new rights for passengers. They said you're going to have rights for rebooking and rights for hotels and amenities if you get dumped, bumped, or stranded. But those rules did not go into place ye. Those are only proposed rules. And I am afraid that travelers will be expecting a lot more amenities than they have in the past because of this big announcement, you know, a couple of months ago. And those rules are just not the law yet. So there are passengers, you know, anybody heading to the airport, be you taking someone or a passenger yourself, it could be very difficult if the weather gets bad.

BLACKWELL: Yes. So we can't control the weather. I mean, we'll just have to deal if there are weather-related delays. But as it relates to the air traffic controller shortage, that is manmade. That's controlled. You can't just onboard air traffic controllers, like staff for an event or a festival. You can't just invite people in and have them work for a few days. So how long will we be on this footing of this -- this shortage, this crisis of air traffic controllers? Are we talking Thanksgiving? Are we talking Christmas travel season too?

SCHIAVO: Oh, we're talking well into next year, because what people don't realize is air traffic controllers, you know, I was a pilot there, you know, more than one saved my life when people enter the airspace without proper clearances. You know, they're highly trained professionals. And it takes between 18 months and three years to get our fully trained, you know, out of evaluation and ready to take over and, you know, be in command, 18 months to 3 years when all of your tests are finally done.

So when you know what happened was the FAA simply cut back on hiring and training during COVID. They failed to plan for the huge demand when COVID ended or at least was under control. And there's where the problems stemmed. And remember air traffic controllers, you have to be under 35 to get hired says the FAA and you have to retire says the FAA, and 56. So there's a small window of hiring and this small window of your useful life, sorry to put it that way. But a lot of this is created entirely by the FAA and their failure to plan so this problem will extend well into next year.

BLACKWELL: All right, maybe a weekend to stay at home. But likely if you're traveling, you've already bought that ticket. Mary Schiavo, thank you so much.

WALKER: I already bought that ticket. What do I do? All right. This morning, we are following developing news out of France where hundreds of buildings have been set on fire or damaged after a fourth night of protests over the death of a 17-year-old boy at the hands of police.

BLACKWELL: The violent demonstrations swept through the country in numerous cities. Officials say more than 1,300 arrests were made in the last day despite French police deploying 45,000 officers to help keep the peace. Let's go now to CNNs Nick Robertson. He is live this morning in Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron has resisted calls to issue a state of emergency. Do we know of a plan from the President to end what's happening night after night?

NICK ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think what we've heard from the presidency in terms of not going to state of emergency as they talk about an escalation of -- of sort of series of increasingly strong security measures and we're seeing an indication of that today and the fact the last hour or so, we heard that the elite, anti-riot police will be sent to Leon in the center of France. That was the city last night where there was some of the most extreme violence that two police officers were shot.

[08:15:23]

So what you see the government is therefore increasing the security there in Paris. There was violence there across the country, 26, city halls burned, 24 schools burned. That was way down on yesterday. Yes, more people have been arrested. But there were more police overall out across the country, 45,000. They had heavier armed vehicles. There were greater restrictions, no big gatherings are being allowed, and I think the biggest exception today in terms of gatherings, is the funeral for that 17-year-old boy who was shot and killed by the police.

Now that's happening about half a mile behind me down the road here at a mosque. We've been here through the day. Its situation here is relatively calm. But, of course, the government's concerned that the tensions around the funeral, following the funeral are going to potentially lead to more violence. And I think the country is really wondering if that slight decrease in violence last night compared to previous, if that holds, or perhaps a funeral becomes a catalyst for some increased violence again. And -- and this is where the government's trying to balance that -- that response not yet going to, you know, full -- full measures that they could put in place in the coming days if they say if they needed to.

WALKER: Right, because perhaps those full measures could even provoke further tensions as well. Nick Robertson, appreciate your reporting. Thank you very much.

The Supreme Court hands down a series of major rulings that will impact the lives of millions of Americans. Next, the Whitehouse is Plan B for student debt relief.

BLACKWELL: Plus, a damning new report from the State Department on the failures of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Next, what we're learning about the chaos surrounding the U.S. exit.

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[08:21:20]

WALKER: The Supreme Court ended its term yesterday with two highly controversial rulings one was seen as a major setback for gay rights. The other blocked President Biden's plan to forgive billions in student loans. The ruling comes as a blow to the millions of Americans who had been counting on it.

Joining us now is Gloria Browne-Marshall, a Professor of Constitutional Law at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Good morning to you. Thank you so much for joining us, Gloria. I'm sure you've heard the accusations of the Supreme Court practicing judicial activism. Biden has said it's not a normal court after these decisions were handed down yesterday, starting with the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year to the last 48 hours, Gloria, up where we saw the limiting of LGBTQ protections, among other things. And the votes were all along ideological lines, right? 6 to 3, 6 to 3. Is this how the Founding Fathers intended for the Supreme Court to operate?

GLORIA BROWNE-MARSHALL, PROFESSOR, JOHN JAY COLLEGE, CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Well, that's the concern, because under the Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court, the judiciary powers generally were given a short shrift. So when you read the constitution, the first two branches, the Legislative and Executive branches have all types of very specific authority set out. But the Article III, the Judicial Branch has very little. And so it says that there will be a Supreme Court but it doesn't give a lot of direction as to what the powers of that Supreme Court would be. So it's only after the -- the country is in motions, so to speak that the Supreme Court then begins to carve out his powers. And it takes nearly 100 years for the Supreme Court to truly get its footing as to what its purpose is supposed to be and how expansive the powers are.

It doesn't even state in the Constitution how many Supreme Court Justices should be on the court. So the number has changed over time but we've set nine and I think that's where we were until FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted to expand the Court. And now we're looking at expanding the Court again.

So the problem I think most people are having is that the one thing the Court was supposed to be was credible and trustworthy. That's where we're having a problem. So the procedural issues and other issues are debatable. That issue about credibility is the one that's at the forefront of people's minds right now, with this super-majority of conservatives.

WALKER: It's the Constitution that established the Supreme Court. It is up to Congress to organize it. I do want to get your take on Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative, appointed by Trump. He actually led the way in a Supreme Court ruling back in 2020 that expanded protections in the workplace for the LGBT community. So how do you reconcile that with his vote limiting LGBTQ protections when it came to this graphic artist, who does not want to make websites for same- sex couples?

BROWNE-MARSHALL: I think the -- the problem that we're having with this Court generally, is that the Supreme Court is supposed to limit confusion. It's supposed to be clearer and set the standard. When there are conflicts in different circuits, for example, maybe between the Fifth Circuit and the Second Circuit, it's supposed to say what the law of the land is.

And what we have now is a group think of it like herding cats basically. I'm sure Chief Justice Roberts is in a situation in which there's no clear thought pattern. So we in the country, lawyers, the police departments, Federal Government agencies, States, don't know exactly what the Court is doing because you have all of these different decisions. There's no clear thought process they have the power they have the votes but they don't have what I believe is a clear vision as to what the law is and how it should be applied. And I shouldn't say what the law is.

[08:25:13]

They have the determination of what they believe the law is. But I don't think they're really thinking about the country as a whole having to follow these decisions. And so they can fall back on their own ideological backgrounds, I guess, or, you know, Neil Gorsuch, has had issues with the Federal government for some time because his mom was, you know, one of the directors of the Environmental Protection Agency. And she was forced to step down and under a cloud so he's carrying a lot of baggage from that. I think it's concerning to all of us trying to read these decisions to figure out what does the Court really want us to do as American citizens, as people who are trying to follow the law.

WALKER: I'm curious to know what you thought about some of the dissent from the liberal justice, you know, on the LGBTQ, affirmative action, Biden's loan forgiveness rulings. I mean, they were scathing, and on the rejection of Biden's student loan program, Justice Elena Kagan accused the court of acting as an arbiter of political and policy disputes rather than of cases. And then, on the Supreme Court's decision to gut affirmative action, Justice Sonia Sotomayor and her dissent wrote this, "The results of today's decision is that a person's skin color may play a role in assessing interval individualized suspicion, but it cannot play a role in assessing that person's individualized contributions to a diverse learning environment." Have you ever seen this kind of raging dissension and an acrimony really?

BROWNE-MARSHALL: Well, think about the acrimony that I read in Justice Clarence Thomas's concurrence. He called Justice Jackson's dissent and her logic cancerous. He used the word cancerous. I -- I wondered when a black woman Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson rose to the Court, how she would be treated by the other black Justice, Clarence Thomas and now we see. I don't know how they get along personally. But just call her logic cancerous. I think that the acrimony is -- is that we have these conservatives who are trying to carve out what they believe is where the country should go based on their ideological beliefs that they claim they weren't going to do you during the vetting process and the judicial hearings. And many of them are carrying grudges into this -- these decisions.

We know Clarence Thomas has a grudge against affirmative action because, you know, he has his personal issues that he believed that he was not treated as his intellectual prowess should have been because, you know, he was black and he believed he was affirmative action hire, which of course people responded. Why did you take the job? But there are also people who were hired who African Americans in many positions are not hired before affirmative action policies ever took place. My major concern is this. The acrimony is leaving us the American people wondering what kind of high court is this and what kind of credibility should we give it?

WALKER: Yes, that's the big question regarding the credibility and what that all means. Gloria Browne-Marshall, thank you.

BLACKWELL: CNN Whitehouse reporter Jasmine Wright joins us now. Jasmine, President Biden has laid out plan B to provide student loan relief to millions of borrowers. What did he say?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN WHITEHOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Victor. Well, yesterday, President Biden was very clear that he thought the Supreme Court misinterpreted the Constitution when they struck down his signature student debt forgiveness plan. Frankly, he says that they -- he believes that they got it wrong. And he said that while they closed down one path with Friday's decision, he's going to go for a new path. Now that new path is grounded in the Higher Education Act of 1965, a different law that Whitehouse officials feel that provides President Biden with a different authority to try to seek mass student debt forgiveness. But they said that it will take months to actually even get off the ground to even start to do that. So, and they also really kind of declined to say whether or not it would affect the fit 40 million people that were estimated to be impacted by the now struck- down wall.

So President Biden said in between the time that it takes to get that off the ground, he's going to do two things. First of all, when it comes to repayments, he's going to focus on income-based repayments. But also he's going to provide a 12-month on-ramp for borrowers who are really trying to get re-acclimated into paying their student loan debt. That's going to include obviously, the interest will incur on those student loan debts. Repayments that we know are expected to start in October. But if people were to miss a payment, it wouldn't impact their credit for that grace period.

Now something else that we heard President Biden talk about Victor was the fact that he really kind of downplayed and slammed this Republican talking point that it was actually him that overstated what his ability would be to actually cancel student loans. Take a listen.

[08:30:00]

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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I didn't give any false hope. The question was whether or not I would do even more than was requested. What I did I thought was appropriate and was able to be done and would get done. I didn't get bars false hope. But the Republicans snatched away the hope that they were given. And it's real, real hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WRIGHT: So that last line from the President is going to be very important when he slammed Republicans for snatching away real hope. We're going to see him try to harness that energy and harness the anger that he feels that voters have after the Supreme Court decision and other decisions that have been made in the last week as he heads into the 2024 election season. Victor.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Jasmine Wright for us at the White House. Thank you so much. The Biden administration faced widespread criticism back in 2021, over the chaotic exit of Afghanistan, but now there's a new report that's detailing what went wrong. More on that next.

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BLACKWELL: A new report details the failings of the deadly and chaotic us withdrawal from Afghanistan and the new report concludes that the Biden and Trump administrations were to blame, but this report contains sharper criticism of the Biden administration's actions.

[08:35:07]

CNN senior national security correspondent Kylie Atwood has details for us.

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KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN CNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The report paints a flawed picture of both the Biden administration and the Trump administration's ability to prepare for the withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying that in both administration, there was insufficient senior level consideration of worst case scenarios and quote, how quickly those might follow.

And also gets into specifics surrounding processes that weren't effectively put in place to deal with withdrawal as it was actually unfolding, for example, saying that the noncombatant evacuation operation which the Department of Defense stood up didn't have a lead at the State Department to coordinate with them. And there wasn't a single person on the seventh floor here at the State Department, which is where the Secretary of State sits coordinating on this crisis scenario.

It also paints a picture of, you know, the challenges that this presented for the Afghans on the ground because there weren't decisions made in advance about where those Afghans if the U.S. was going to help evacuate from the country, we're actually going to go.

Now, this is a long anticipated report, the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan almost two years ago, the report was done. More than a year ago, there was a classified version of it shared with Congress a few months ago, but just now, we have received this unclassified version.

And there's some criticisms and questions about the administration and trying to burry this story, which is a dark mark on their foreign policy. A record senior State Department official wouldn't discuss questions related to the process of when this was released. Kylie Atwood, CNN, the State Department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Still to come, a disturbing pattern at the Coast Guard Academy how a secret inquiry into alleged sexual abuse revealed that high ranking officials were ignoring and concealing assault and other serious misconduct. Our Pam Brown has exclusive reporting. Next.

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[08:41:30]

BLACKWELL: CNN investigation now about a damning report into sexual assault of the Coast Guard Academy that Coast Guard leaders kept secrets for nearly four years.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: And the Coast Guard only came clean and told members of Congress about it after CNN started asking questions. Here's chief investigative correspondent Pamela Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): The multi-year investigation was called Operation Fouled Anchor and then covered a history of rapes and assaults at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy that were ignored or even covered up by high ranking officials. But coast guard officials have kept the investigation secret since 2019 and never released the report, only approaching congress this month after CNN asked about it.

During the investigation, the Coast Guard found evidence of dozens of cases of sexual assault, even though they only looked into a specific timeframe from the late 80s to 2006, overlooking many years when other assaults had been reported.

A report on the investigation found suspected attackers were not criminally investigated. Punishments if they happen were sometimes as minor as extra homework. Victims sometimes face punishment for fraternization or lewd acts. Many suspects went on to have successful military careers while victims were sometimes kicked out of the academy. For those who stayed it could be just as difficult.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was sexually assaulted three times it was completely toxic and devastating to my sense of self, and left lifelong damages to my physical and mental health.

BROWN: This young woman is a recent cadet. She graduated in 2022 and says the Coast Guard culture has not changed.

UNIDETNIFIED FEMALE: The Coast Guard Academy employees reinforces and cultivates a system that that thrives on the trauma and pain of women and minorities. It's designed for their failure. BROWN: The Coast Guard secret investigation revealed that female

cadets describe survival tactics they had to use while at the academy. They would rake their doors to make it hard to get in, prop rifles against the door or utilize a trash can. And that cadets were hesitant to report for a fear that as female cadets, they wouldn't be taken seriously. One woman described a fraternity of male cadets that hated women and didn't think women should be in the Coast Guard.

UNIDETIFIED FEMALE: You realize that if you say something, you are blacklisted, because now you're the girl who cried wolf.

BROWN (on camera): Even if it really happened?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even if it really happened.

BROWN: It sounds like from what you've described. The survivors are the ones who are punished and those accused of sexual assault go on to thrive?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly. When cadets get in trouble, there is this intense shame. This group shaming.

BROWN (voiceover): The Coast Guard did investigate one of this victim's assaults but told her they didn't find enough evidence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was 17 I needed my mom. I needed somebody to stand up for me in those moments. And it just broke me.

BROWN: Democratic senators Maria Cantwell and Tammy Baldwin sent a letter Friday to the head of the Coast Guard that called the information quote disturbing and demanded answers. They committed to pursuing full accountability for perpetrators and investing in meaningful support for survivors.

BROWN (on camera): After seeing his report was first published on Friday morning, the Coast Guard sent us a statement apologizing about the mistakes made in the Fouled Anchor investigation saying that quote the Coast Guard fully recognizes that by not having taken appropriate action.

[08:45:08]

At the time of the sexual assaults, the Coast Guard may have further traumatize the victims, delayed access to their care and recovery and prevented some cases from being referred to the military justice system for appropriate accountability.

The Coast Guard owns this failure and apologizes to each of the victims and their loved ones and our colleagues here on the investigative team including Melanie Hicken, Blake Ellis, Audrey Ash, we're going to continue to be asking the questions as the story unfolds. Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: Pamela, thank you. Coming up, a strike avoided for now. America's largest actors union puts plans to pick it against major studios and streaming services on hold but what would another potential strike in Hollywood mean for viewers at home?

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[08:50:05]

WALKER: ESPN has lay -- is laying off some of its top talent at the network as part of a multibillion dollar cost cutting effort by Disney. A source tell CNN Jeff Van Gundy, Suzy Kolber. Max Kellerman. Keyshawn Johnson and Jalen Rose are among roughly 20 high profile analysts and reporters who were laid off on Friday.

Parent company, Disney told staff members, some contracts would be renegotiated and others would be allowed to expire. And this morning, the Screen Actors Guild has agreed to extend contract negotiations with Hollywood studios and streaming services just hours before its members were set to go on strike.

BLACKWELL: The Union, which represents about 160,000 actors now has until July 12 to reach a deal, or they could join the Writers Guild of America that's been on strike for two months already. CNN's Lisa Respers France is here with us.

All right, so we got one group that's striking now potentially another one in what 11 days or so if there is no deal reached to have both of them off at the same time, what's the impact?

LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN SENIOR ENTERTAINMENT WRITER: The impact is it shuts down all productions except for independent productions that aren't tied to studio. So we will see everything come to a halt. Right now, of course, the writers are picketing and striking. But there are some productions that already had been written and they were still in production. But if actors go on strike, that's it. It shuts everything down.

WALKER: So what are the demands that the actors are making? Because obviously, on the surface, people haven't go, well, these actors make a ton of money, what more do they want, and but it also has to do with streaming, right, and how a lot of the revenue has gone down.

FRANCE: It has to do with money, it has to do with streaming rights, it has to do with the way that they've seen the industry change. They say it's been a seismic shift in the past couple of years. And they need those contracts to catch up with the way that the industry has shifted and changed.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Actors also have concerns about AI as well.

FRANCE: Yes, we all do. Because in order for artificial intelligence to work, you have to feed in information and data for it to learn. So there are concerns that these actors are going to be providing the data that's going to help artificial intelligence, eventually, possibly put them out of work.

So if you could train AI to, you know, do a scene, you don't ever have to worry about them going on vacation, them getting sick, you could have an AI actor that could just fill in, and that AI actors work could be based on an actor's work that has already transpired.

BLACKWELL: They could take your seed from the last five seasons, and we really don't have to pay you for the sixth season, we'll just take from the archive that we already have, and create those scenes.

FRANCE: Exactly. So that's a huge concern. And we don't know where AI is going to go. But we do know that wherever it's going, it's going quickly, because already we're starting to see how it's affecting the industry. You know, there was huge outcry for the latest Marvel TV show, because Samuel Jackson's show, because they used AI and create the beginning of the credits. And people were outraged by it, because that puts people out of work.

And so actors are saying we don't want to let, you know, potentially have a movie that we're not starring in, but they're using us as if we're starring in it and just use an artificial intelligence. And we're very close to something like that.

WALKER: Yes, well, I hope it doesn't, you know, impact TV news.

BLACKWELL: Never.

FRANCE: Are we providing --

WALKER: I shouldn't put it out there and either I show -- rewind.

BLACKWELL: Get that to the universe.

WALKER: Yes, erase, erase, erase.

FRANCE: Never going to happen.

WALKER: So let's go to the worst case scenario, right? Because you already have the Writers Guild that's been on strike for a couple of months, then if, let's say talks break down, and they go on strike the Screen Actors, the actors go on strike. I mean, what would that look like? And how would that impact, you know, us avid viewers of shows on Hulu and, you know, Macs and whatnot.

FRANCE: It's not going to look great for Hollywood, I'll tell you that. First of all, there's the visual of having these celebrities out walking the picket line. So already, you've got fans who have total buy in, and you already have some celebrities like a Quinta Bronson, she's already on strike, because she's a writer for her show. So then it's like -- it's almost like a double strike.

And so you cannot get anything done. You won't have any new productions. And we may not feel the pinch immediately. But psychologically, people think about that you start to feel like you're going to run out of content, because Hollywood's not producing anything. And of course, that's not true. But the whole point is that it will shut down the industry and it will shut down anything else that is connected to the industry. So, you know, restaurants and caterers, and you know, makeup people everybody's affected. BLACKWELL: Yes, Natasha Chen was just reporting on how those restaurants in the building spaces because there's no work --

WALKER: Makeup artists out of work, yeah.

BLACKWELL: Yes. They all feeling it. Lisa, thank you.

WALKER: Lisa, good to see you. Thanks.

FRANCE: Thank you.

WALKER: Well, this week's episode of the whole story with Anderson Cooper examines the underwater tragedy of the Titan submersible. We want to show you a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The chance to travel to the site of a storied 100-year old disaster would be just the type of opportunity billionaire adventure Hamish Harding couldn't pass up.

[08:55:04]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy had such a zest for life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I climbed Kilimanjaro with him. I know that he had gone to the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on earth in a submersible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been a fantastic dive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he had gone to space as part of Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin project.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The space was amazing. I loved it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On Saturday, June 17, the 58-year old Brit posted on Instagram, I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate expeditions for their RMS Titanic mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic. We are going to attempt to dive tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: The whole story with Anderson Cooper airs tomorrow at 8:00 pm. Smerconish is up next.

BLACKWELL: We'll see you back here in an hour.

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