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CNN This Morning

Walz Tells South Carolina Democratic Party Must Fight For Working Class; Supreme Court Allows Trump To Suspend Deportation Protections For 530,000 Immigrants; Palestinian Red Crescent: 26 People Killed After Israeli Troops Opened Fire Near Aid Distribution Site; Witkoff Slams Hamas Response To Gaza Ceasefire Proposal; Smoke Pours Into Major U.S. Cities From Canada's Wildfires; CDC Keeps COVID Vaccine Options For Healthy Kids With Slightly Different Designation; CDC Overhauls COVID-19 Vaccine Approval And Recommendations; Trump Withdraws Nomination Of NASA Chief Days Before Senate Vote; Two Bridges Collapse In Russia Killing At Least Seven People; Senator Ernst Issues Sarcastic Apology After Facing Criticism. Transgender High School Athlete Wins 2 Events At CA Finals In Shadow Of Protests; Atlantic Season Begins Today, Lasts Through End Of November; Is FEMA Ready For Active Hurricane Season?; How Pilots Train To Handle Air Traffic Control Failures; "Eva Longoria: Searching For Spain" New Episode Sunday At 9P (ET/PT). Aired 6-7a ET

Aired June 01, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:38]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING. It's a brand-new month, Sunday, June 1st. I'm Victor Blackwell. Here's what we're working on for you this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN): This woman is a Democrat. And she said, a deer in the headlights. She said, it's like they see the car coming, but they just stand there and get run over by the damn thing anyway.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Former Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz offered a blistering critique of his own party during a gathering of South Carolina Democrats. His message, the party needs to show some fight if it hopes to win back the White House.

There's new uncertainty around a U.S. proposed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, after Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff called Hamas' response totally unacceptable.

Today marks the start of hurricane season, and it comes as questions remain over how prepared FEMA is to respond to disasters. A former FEMA administrator is here with us.

Plus, you've heard the story lately about air traffic controllers losing contact with planes. Well, we'll take you inside the cockpit for a look at what the pilot experiences when that happens. Ahead of the 2026 midterms and the presidential election in 2028, Democrats are trying to regroup. National party leaders are meeting in South Carolina this weekend to shore up their message and rally local leaders. Minnesota governor, former vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz joined Maryland Governor Wes Moore in South Carolina this weekend. He had some harsh truths for the Democratic Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALZ: I'm doing some soul searching, and I was the guy who was there during this last one. But I'm convinced there's an appetite out there for this style of governing, this idea of competency, this idea of compassion, this idea of being able to get things done. When you pull people, they love our policies, but they can't love those policies if we don't enact them. And if we don't elect Democrats, we don't get a chance to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Camila DeChalus joins me now. What else did Walz have to say?

CAMILA DECHALUS, CNN REPORTER: Well, Victor, Tim Walz had really two big messages for Democrats at this dinner. And one of the biggest ones was Democrats need to do a better job at defining what the Democratic Party is and what it stands for. And he pointed to the Republican Party saying that they were very successful in their messaging around what the party stood for and how they stuck and what they really stood for when it came to certain policy issues like the economy or public safety.

And the second thing that he really emphasized was that Democrats really need to stop talking and really kind of try to craft their messaging around how to get through to voters and really start doing more in the actions and saying, let's focus, less on talking and more on action, and trying to really pivot to implementing policies on the state level that impact working class families. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALZ: We lost a big chunk of the working class in this last election. And the thing that bothers me to no end and drives me to do something about it, we didn't just lose the working class. We lost the working class to a billionaire who gives tax cuts to other billionaires.

That I saw recently that apparently the Democrats got together and hired a bunch of people, and they went into with the hotel to discuss how we could best message to people, how we could come up with -- calibrate our words that we're using. That's how we got into this damn mess. That's -- because we're really cautious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DECHALUS: And, Victor, even as you can note there he was talking, you know, let's stop focusing on what word we can use to really pivot a voter and get them to support us or back us. Let's focus more on enacting policies that will really get them to understand what we're trying to do and how -- and better understand how we can help them in their everyday life.

And I thought it was pretty notable that he gave tangible examples of what they can do on the state level like implementing a child tax credit, providing free meals for students at schools, or other policies that really can help the working class. And he just had a bottom-line message and that was, there is a lot at stake in this upcoming election.

[06:05:00]

Let's focus less on 2028 and the presidential elections and more on these midterm elections, because there's a lot at stake here. And he pointed to a lot of the policies that Republicans want to put through like cuts to Medicaid or the implementation of a lot of immigration policies that we are seeing now in real time.

And he just had this message saying, there's a lot at stake, and we need to do more in order to really get voters to back us in these upcoming elections.

BLACKWELL: Camila DeChalus in Washington, thanks so much. The Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump another legal win for his immigration crackdown. They ruled Friday to let the administration suspend the Biden era humanitarian parole programs that allowed a half million immigrants from certain countries to temporarily live and work here.

CNN's Rafael Romo has more on what this means for immigrant communities. Rafael, good morning to you.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, good morning. This is the second time in less than a month that the high court has sided with President Trump's efforts to revoke temporary legal status for some immigrants.

The Supreme Court had previously cleared the way for the administration to revoke another temporary program that provided work permits to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. The Supreme Court's brief ruling was not signed and more importantly did not offer any reasoning behind the order as is often the case on its emergency docket.

Though, the decision isn't final and the underlying legal case will continue in lower courts the ruling allows Trump officials to expedite deportations for an estimated 530,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who received temporary protection status during the Biden administration.

The immigrant community reacted with great concern for those affected, especially in Florida, where many of the immigrants from those countries live. On the other hand, Victor, many Republican political leaders applauded the high court's decision, including Florida Congressman Carlos Gimenez. Let's take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): I think the Supreme Court actually ruled in the right way. Anything that can be implemented by executive order can actually be, I think, taken away by executive order.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Two liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented from the decision. In her dissenting opinion, Justice Jackson wrote that it undervalues the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending.

This kind of protection for immigrants fleeing violence or persecution was first used in the 1950s when the Eisenhower administration allowed tens of thousands of people fleeing Hungary during a Soviet crackdown after World War II. Victor, now back to you.

BLACKWELL: Rafael, thank you for that. The Palestinian Red Crescent says at least 26 Palestinians were killed and more than 80 others injured after Israeli troops opened fire near an aid distribution center in southern Gaza. That site is run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. It's a private organization backed by Israel and the U.S. It has faced heavy criticism from the U.N.

Meanwhile, Hamas said that it has responded now to the latest temporary ceasefire proposal put forward by the U.S. U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff called Hamas' response, totally unacceptable.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins us now from London. Salma, a pause in the fighting has never been more crucial as this situation, the conditions worsen there in Gaza. Tell us more about what broke out near this site this morning.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely horrifying scenes playing out in southern Gaza this morning where crowds of people were gathered to get aid, but several died trying to get that desperately needed food. According to the only medical professionals on the ground in that area, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, Israeli forces opened fire on just crowds of desperate people. Twenty-six were killed and more than 100 wounded.

You're looking at images of those bodies, of the wounded arriving in hospitals. Hospitals say they're overwhelmed by the number of people that have arrived. You have to remember, the medical system is on the brink of collapse.

Now, you mentioned the organization behind this distribution site, a highly controversial organization backed by both the U.S. and Israel and those distribution sites that it runs are being described by Palestinians as a death trap. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MOHAMMAD QDEIH, GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): Whoever manages to push forward might get something. Those who can't get nothing. People are starving. There's no place to get food except that dangerous point. It's not a humanitarian point. It's a death trap.

The gunfire was intense. Someone next to me was shot in the shoulder. And when people died there, no one carries them away. Bodies are piled up on top of each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, the Israeli military has responded to CNN's request for comment. It says it is unaware but that the incident is under review.

[06:10:02]

We've also reached out to this controversial organization again, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and we're waiting for their response. But we've seen videos in the past of what they call aid distributions but are just absolute anarchy.

Victor, you see no distributing happening at these distribution sites at all. Simply as you can see there on your screen, people running as quickly as they can to grab whatever they can with their bare hands. You heard that Palestinian man there saying, listen, if you are strong, maybe you'll get a bag of flour. If you're weak, if you're elderly, if you're vulnerable, you will continue to go hungry.

BLACKWELL: Salma, what's the latest on the ceasefire proposal?

ABDELAZIZ: And this is extremely important as well, Victor, because as you mentioned, these diplomatic efforts are the only hope to begin to stem this violence. And aid groups are pleading for unimpeded access to get that aid in.

Now, what we know about this ceasefire proposal, it was brought forward, of course, by America's Middle East envoy, Mr. Steve Witkoff. Hamas responded to that draft proposal yesterday. It said that it was willing to release a number of living and deceased hostages, as outlined again in Mr. Witkoff's draft proposal.

But Hamas also pointed to their reservations and made the demands that they've been making throughout this conflict, which is a complete ceasefire, a permanent end to the conflict and a permanent ceasefire. The full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and the flow of humanitarian aid to those desperate 2 million people without any blocks.

Now, the draft proposal put forward again by the U.S. does not include any of those guarantees, no guarantee of an end to the conflict, no guarantee that the ceasefire would continue even if negotiations are ongoing. Mr. Witkoff responded to Hamas' response by calling it unacceptable. Hamas responded to that by saying that that was not a refusal, but the diplomatic activity, of course, continues because people needed this ceasefire yesterday. BLACKWELL: Salma Abdelaziz, thank you. Fire crews are working around the clock to fight more than 170 active fires across central and western Canada, and smoke from the flames that's spreading fast. So far, it has covered an area twice the size of Texas. And now that smoke is drifting into the U.S. It's triggering air quality alerts in Wisconsin and Minnesota and Michigan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pretty heavy. And we had to drive out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's this higher concentration that you're breathing kind of overwhelms your body and can lead to the health issues that we expect from air pollution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in now, CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. How bad is the air quality?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: In some of these areas, it is incredibly thick. That's why they have the air quality alerts out to let people know, hey, if you suffer from asthma or allergies, try not to spend much time outside just because of the impacts that it can have.

Now, we are going to see some relief in the form of some of these -- the air quality that you see here. And that's because we're finally going to start to get some rain back into the mix. But here's a look at the overall scope of the fires.

Just to show you, we're talking nearly 200 wildfires across more than half a dozen provinces in Canada. And all of that smoke is starting to filter down thanks to that cold front that's sweeping it down across portions of the upper Midwest. But even -- look at this. You even got some southern states that have a little bit of that haze in the sky because of that smoke that's coming down.

Now, as we go through the rest of the day today and transition into Monday, you'll start to see it spread a little bit farther to the east. So, pushing into states that maybe got a break the last couple of days now it's going to return. And then hopefully by the time we get to late Monday and Tuesday, we'll start to see a big change, not only just in the temperature drop but, take a look at this, rain chance.

This is for Minneapolis, but it's the same rain chance that's going to happen across portions of Canada in the next 24 to 36 hours. You can see it right there. That's the section we're talking about.

Now, more of the rain is really going to be focused over the U.S., not necessarily Canada, but there are several fires across portions of southeastern Manitoba. And some of that rain is expected to get there.

So, the hope is that maybe this rain can kind of help those firefighters out and they can put out some of those fires, and that will really limit a lot of the smoke that's coming down into the Midwest, especially, say, Tuesday and Wednesday, because it's a delayed effect.

It's not going to be instantaneous. But that is kind of the hope there that we can maybe get some improvement here over the next 48 to 72 hours.

BLACKWELL: All right. Allison, thank you. We're going to dig into this COVID vaccine back and forth. The CDC and the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., there's some inconsistencies in the guidance that they're offering about vaccinating children. We'll talk to a doctor about it. That's coming up straight ahead.

Plus, the transgender high school student athlete at the center of controversy in California wins three events at the state track and field championship. We'll share some of the changes sports officials made for other athletes. And it's the first day of the Atlantic hurricane season.

[06:15:01]

It could be a busy one. Allison is going to be back to talk about some predictions a little later.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: The CDC has updated its immunization schedule for children. The health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced last week that COVID-19 vaccines would no longer be recommended for healthy children.

[06:20:03]

But the new immunization schedule, released days later, keeps the COVID-19 vaccine as an option for healthy children, but only when parents and doctors agree. Now, the vaccine designations have created more confusion for doctors and parents as they try to understand these new guidelines.

Joining me now is the Executive Associate Dean for Emory School of Medicine, Dr. Carlos del Rio. So, recommended versus available, right? They're not synonymous, but there is some confusion here. What do parents need to know?

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE DEAN, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Well, I think what you hear is exactly that is there's confusion, right? To me, the vaccine are still recommended. What the new CDC Web site says, and I just checked it, it talks about shared decision making. In other words -- and that's not bad. That means a parent needs to talk to a health care provider and decide whether this is the right thing to do for their children.

As a healthcare provider, I would hope that health care providers say, yes, this is the right thing to do for your children, and then the kid gets vaccinated. What I'm hoping, though, is that by changing this recommendation, insurance companies continue to pay for the vaccine because insurance companies decide not to pay for the vaccine because it's no longer recommended, then the cost will fall on the parents, and then people will not take the vaccine.

So, to me it's a lot of nuisance. But we know over and over that when vaccines are recommended, they're more likely to be taken up. So, I really don't know the data that the secretary has looked at to make this recommendation. But the reality is COVID vaccination for young children and for pregnant women is still a very good thing to do. It's a very smart thing to do, and I would recommend that to my patients.

BLACKWELL: All right. There is a report of the new COVID variant, NB.1.8.1, that's been detected in the U.S. Should there be any increased concern? What do people need to know about this variant?

DEL RIO: Well, it's too early to know exactly what we need to know, but what we know is that the COVID virus mutates or COVID virus changes over time, and we don't necessarily have good immunity against these new variants. And therefore, it starts spreading among susceptible population. And what we're seeing is over and over is then those at higher risk then get COVID and end up in the hospital and end up in the ICU, and some of them even end up dead.

So, what people need to know is stay up to date in your COVID immunizations. And the recommendations are very clear, if you're high risk, if you're over the age of 65, if you have an underlying condition, you should get a COVID booster.

BLACKWELL: And the current boosters are effective for as much as we know about this new variant against NB.1.8.1?

DEL RIO: We think so, yes.

BLACKWELL: OK. The A.P. is reporting that the FDA has now approved a lower dose Moderna vaccine. It's a fifth of the dose of its current shot. Who should consider this vaccine?

DEL RIO: Well, you know, again, the vaccines available are different. There are three manufacturers of vaccines available in our country. It's Novavax, it's Moderna and it's Pfizer BioNTech.

You know, the Moderna vaccine had a much higher dose of antigen in the past. So, decreasing the dose of antigen proportionally could decrease the side effects and still be immunogenic. So, really anybody who, you know, who wants to have maybe less side effects would be a good idea to get that that version.

BLACKWELL: Should there be expectation or do you expect there'll be a summer spike?

DEL RIO: You know with COVID it's hard to know. I've learned not to make predictions, but we've known in the past that especially in places where there's a lot of time spent indoors, like in Florida, where there's a lot of, you know, heat outside and there's air conditioning and people stay indoors, we tend to see increase in the number of cases of COVID in the summer. But again, you know, COVID has become very, very hard to predict.

BLACKWELL: Dr. Carlos del Rio, thank you very much. Two bridges collapsed in separate incidents in Russia, killing at least seven people, leaving dozens more hurt. Investigation into what Moscow officials are calling a terrorist attack. That's ahead.

Plus, some good news out of Newark airport. The runway that contributed to weeks of delays at Newark airport is about to reopen ahead of schedule.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:28:52]

BLACKWELL: President Trump says he'll soon announce a new nominee for NASA's chief. The White House pulled tech billionaire Jared Isaacman's nomination yesterday just days before the Senate was set to vote on it. Trump cited a review of prior associations. And he said a new nominee will better align with his America First in Space agenda.

Isaacman has flown to space on private missions. He has ties to Elon Musk but faced scrutiny over past political donations to Democrats. Some were also concerned he would focus more on Musk's goal of getting to Mars than NASA's of getting back to the moon.

Two bridges have collapsed in Russian region bordering Ukraine, killing seven people and injuring more than 60. Officials say an explosion brought down one of the bridges onto a passenger train underneath it.

And hours later, a second bridge gave way in nearby Kursk. Now, it caused a freight train to catch fire. It's unclear if the two train bridges collapsed or connected to -- or what exactly caused them. A Russian state media has called them terrorist attacks.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst issued a sarcastic apology after facing criticism for her comments about the bill at a town hall Friday.

[06:30:06]

She was speaking about the potential cuts to Medicaid and food stamps when an audience member yelled, people will die. And she responded, we all are going to die. That drew a big reaction from the crowd and criticism from Democrats and Ernst brushed off the criticism in a video posted to her Instagram account.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN JONI ERNST (R-IO): People are going to die. And I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth.

So, I apologize. And I'm really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Facing protests and even funding threats from the president of the United States, a transgender high school athlete won two events at California's track and field finals this weekend. It's put the high schooler A.B. Hernandez at the center of an ongoing political debate about transgender athletes.

Here's CNN's Julia Vargas Jones.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor. A very controversial final of a track and field championship coming to an end after a very busy week of attracting national attention.

This one athlete in the middle of it all, A.B. Hernandez, competing after the rules were changed by the California Interscholastic Federation that would now allow an extra slot for a cisgender girl in the events in which she qualified, and even an extra medal to girls that would have been displaced by A.B. Hernandez' placement in this race.

This after Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, said that this was a good compromise on the part of the federation, despite earlier comments where he said that just the participation of a transgirl in girls' sports raised issues of fairness. This was echoed by some protesters that showed up at this championship who came to protest A.B. Hernandez' participation, and some of them had been following her for quite some time through the qualifiers as she made her way here to the state finals, and we caught up with one of them about these changes of the rules.

What do you think of the solution that the CAF has put forward now, where there is an extra slot? So, basically.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's ridiculous. Once again, you're having special accommodations for someone. Why? Women, we got our spaces because we had to fight for it. We had to fight for our space so that we could compete and have our own thing. This is for women. This is for girls. He is a biological boy.

JONES: Some strong words there, Victor, from that protester. She is talking about a 16-year-old high school junior who was participating in this championship.

Most parents we spoke to did not have that same feeling. They said they just wanted to focus on the athletics of it all and be here to celebrate their kids in this sporting event. Both A.B. Hernandez and her mother have spoken multiple times defending her ability to participate in these kinds of competitions and saying that her own team is very much supportive of her throughout this whole process.

Victor?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, Julia Vargas Jones, thank you.

The Atlantic hurricane season starts today, and there are a lot of questions about whether FEMA is ready to respond or if it will respond or how after serious staffing cuts.

We'll talk to a former FEMA administrator, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:38:34]

BLACKWELL: Today's the start of the hurricane season in the Atlantic. The National Hurricane Center expected to be an active one again.

Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is here with a look at the numbers. What are we looking at?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on-camera): Yes, so again, they're expecting it to be either normal or above normal for this year, yet again. Kind of feels like a broken record here, because that's what it's been the last several years.

Now, you take a look at the list of names behind me. We actually have a new one on the list. That is Dexter, because that name is taking the place of Dorian, which was retired from all of the damage that it caused back in 2019.

Now, for the numbers themselves, these are the official numbers coming from the National Hurricane Center. In terms of the forecast, they are saying we will have a total of 13 to 19 named storms. Six to 10 of them are expected to become hurricanes, and three to five of those are expected to become major hurricanes, which is a category three or stronger. Just for some perspective, those normal numbers that you would have in an average year are 14, seven, and three.

And then overall, they also give it in kind of a just a standard percentage, basically saying there is a 60 percent chance that this will be an above average year, a 30 percent chance that it's going to be relatively normal, but only a 10 percent chance of below normal.

So you add those top two together, basically saying it's a 90 percent chance. It's either going to be normal or above normal for the entire year.

And to note, too, the Gulf and the Caribbean are very warm already, looking at about low to mid 80s. That puts it about two to four degrees above average. I know two to four degrees may not sound like all that much, but with water, it's much different than air temperature.

[06:40:05]

You know --

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CHINCHAR (on-camera): -- it takes a little bit more for us to feel the difference. Water, it doesn't. Two to four degrees is plenty in terms of being fuel for a lot of these tropical systems that would come into that area. BLACKWELL: And so, I know the peak of activity is in September.

CHINCHAR (on-camera): Yes.

BLACKWELL: When do we typically on an average season start to see some movement in the tracks (ph)?

CHINCHAR (on-camera): You really start to see things ramp back up in July. Now, statistical peak is September 10th, that date. But really, by mid-August, all the way through September, that six-week time period is when you typically have the most. But yes, by July, you really start to see things start to ramp back up.

But it also depends on the areas to, you know, behind me, I've got the map that you can see that kind of shows where they typically form in June. So you can see it's mostly around the Gulf, the Caribbean, and maybe that southeastern coastline that's there. But by June or July, it really starts to spread back out.

And it also starts to increase. And that's what you'll start to see is it just starts to shift from one region to the next and then overall just start to increase as we get go through those months.

BLACKWELL: All right, Allison, thank you.

CHINCHAR (on-camera): Thanks.

BLACKWELL: Let's dig deeper now in hurricane preparedness with former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell.

Thanks for joining me this morning.

You know, there have been so many changes at FEMA. The President says that he actually wants to end FEMA, shift the responsibility to the states. Anything that we know of the insight that we have into what's happening at the agency? Broad question, are people less safe going into this this season?

DEANNE CRISWELL, FMR FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Well, the men and women that work at FEMA are incredibly dedicated public servants. And regardless of the loss that they've had or the loss of institutional knowledge, those that remain are going to be there to help people before, during and after disasters.

And so, I want the American people to know that those that are left, they're going to do everything they can to help people when one of these storms forms and passes and after the destruction happens to come in and help with that recovery.

But it is going to be a challenge. Right? You've lost institutional knowledge. You've lost a number of people that can be able to go out and support these events.

And so, they will find a way to be able to help. But it's going to be strained. BLACKWELL: Yes, this new acting administrator has said that they will follow the direction of the White House and that anyone who tries to get in the way will, in his words, be run over.

So, let's go through some of those elements. You say the people who are left are going to help people before, during and after the storm. And we should also say fires, because all of the natural disasters FEMA responds to.

If this responsibility is being shifted to the states, how much can the states absorb?

CRISWELL: It's important to remember, Victor, that the states and the local jurisdictions have always had the responsibility to respond and recover from these disasters.

FEMA's role has been when they exceed their capability and they need additional resources to come in and help with those life-saving measures. And then afterwards, it's a reimbursement program. As they start to rebuild, FEMA's role is to reimburse them for the costs that they incur.

And so they always, states and locals, have always had the primary responsibility to manage these disasters. What you're going to see is if they don't have the funding to get reimbursed and they don't have the budgets that they planned for, then they're going to have a longer time and a harder time to actually rebuild and recover from these events.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And some of those declarations from the federal government heading into what are expected to be major storms help with the pre-positioning and the pre-staging.

Will that still be something that can happen if there is this shift toward the states?

CRISWELL: That's, you know, that's the question that I don't have a good answer to yet, but that would be one that I'm concerned about. Right?

One of the biggest things that we were able to do during my time is give pre-landfall emergency declarations so we could push resources in, search and rescue teams and commodities, medical assistance teams, push them into the area ahead of the hurricane so they're ready to respond immediately. But we also would push an incident management team that would sit side by side with the state emergency management director.

None of those resources get employed until that state emergency management director says, I need them. And that way you don't lose time and FEMA can then move those resources in quickly. If that process is not happening and that's slowed, then it's just going to delay the ability to get those life-saving resources to where they're needed most.

BLACKWELL: Yes, let's expand beyond government to government, federal to state. But if someone who is living in one of those states that likely will face one of these storms this season, what do they do with this?

I mean, if the question is, will FEMA reimburse? When will the declaration be approved after a major storm? Should they reconsider staying through a storm that otherwise in a previous era, they would have just kind of stayed in their home and ride it out?

[06:45:13]

CRISWELL: Well, the first thing people need to do is listen to their local officials, right? Depending on where you live and where the impacts of that storm are going to be, they're going to tell you whether or not it's safe for you to stay where you're at or if you should evacuate. That's the information that they need to focus on mostly in order to protect themselves and to protect their families.

But after the storm happens, it's, I don't know, it's yet to be seen whether or not a disaster declaration is going to happen.

I would say this is a good time right now to check your homeowner insurance policy, see what coverage you have, see if you need to increase any of that coverage. Remember, FEMA's programs jumpstart that recovery process. They don't do everything that insurance does, but that's when some of the other factors come in like the Small Business Administration.

Those are the types of partnerships across the federal government that really help support these recoveries.

BLACKWELL: Deanne Criswell, thanks so much.

Air traffic controllers in Newark have lost contact with pilots a few times over the past few weeks, but what's happening inside the cockpit when communications go dark?

We're going to go inside a simulator, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:50]

BLACKWELL: A runway at Newark's Liberty Airport will reopen tomorrow after causing months of significant delays and cancellations when it was under construction. This is an 11,000-foot runway. It's reopening 13 days ahead of schedule.

Officials say it will allow regular runway operations to resume, but the runway closure was just, as you know, one of the reasons passengers flying in and out of Newark have experienced some major disruptions.

Air traffic controllers at that airport have also experienced at least four blackouts since April 28th. It's left them unable to see planes on their screens.

CNN's Pete Muntean has a look at what it's like for the pilots when that happens and how they prepare for it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES MORGAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF FLIGHAT TRAINING, UNITED AIRLINES: Ready to go?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I'm at the controls of a Boeing 737 MAX simulator here at United Airlines Flight Training Center in Denver to see what pilots experience when air traffic control goes dark. It's the latest challenge for them after flights in and out of Newark faced repeat failures of radar and radio earlier this month.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't have a radar, so I don't know where you are.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Along with me is Captain Miles Morgan, who heads training for United.

MUNTEAN: Would you say that these issues at Newark have caused any sort of degradation of safety?

MORGAN: Not at all. Safety for us, if you've got pilots that are operating into the airspace, it is safe for us to do so. We are 100 percent confident in that.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): This is some of the busiest airspace in the country.

If air traffic controllers lose their radar scopes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traffic, traffic.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Morgan says pilots can fall back on the plane's Traffic Collision Avoidance System, or TCAS.

It calls out collisions in the making and can even issue instructions to climb or descend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traffic, traffic.

MORGAN: So now, OK, I've stopped doing what I'm doing. I look, I see it on the screen 700 feet above, I acquire it visually.

MUNTEAN: Yes.

MORGAN: And now I'm monitoring. I'm making sure, hey, this is good. We're at a good airspace, we're safe.

MUNTEAN: The reason you're showing me this is to show that there are other layers, you know, there are other systems.

MORGAN: Exactly correct. We have a lot of different layers, and a lot of them rely on the external world, but we all have this internal system that our airplanes will talk to each other.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): But when controllers can't reach flights via radio, Morgan says pilots would try a previously used radio frequency.

MORGAN: Push this button, the previous frequency pops back up.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Try the emergency backup frequency.

MORGAN: This would be a backup if we couldn't raise it any other way.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Use data link text messaging to communicate with the airline.

MORGAN: And I can say need frequency.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): And dial in a transponder code that signals that communication has been lost. Decades old redundancies that air traffic controllers are trained for too.

NICK DANIELS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: We were always prepared for it, the pilots were always prepared for it. Unfortunately, we're having to use those safety nets.

MORGAN: So, I'm going to start putting some flaps in for you.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Maybe to prove that flying is safe, Morgan even let me do the landing.

MORGAN: A little flare, perfect, boom.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Not my worst, as airlines insist the worst will not happen when air traffic control fails.

MORGAN: I don't really worry when something is a little abnormal. We're trained for all these abnormalities. It's not just this, it's we're constantly training for whatever could be going wrong and how to make a decision to rectify that.

MUNTEAN: This is especially pertinent since Newark is one of United's biggest hubs and the FAA has scaled back flights there in order to not overwhelm air traffic control.

United says that actually led to it canceling no flights on Memorial Day or the day before. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that the federal government has taken steps to harden Newark air traffic control systems, but even still there needs to be a nationwide overhaul of air traffic control, he says, something that could cost tens of billions of dollars.

Pete Muntean, CNN, Reagan National Airport.

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BLACKWELL: In this week's episode of "SEARCHING FOR SPAIN," Eva Longoria takes viewers on a search for a hidden gem on the country's Northwestern coast. She explores more history and the fresh seafood, the beef and the produce that a certain region is known for.

Here's a look. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

[06:55:07]

LONGORIA: I know, I know, I know, I know, I know.

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

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

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

LONGORIA: How is he swimming in that current?

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

LONGORIA: You could never do this?

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

LONGORIA: No. Oh, OK.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

LONGORIA: Arturo and Pablo's bravery is giving me the courage to confess, I don't like Percebes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Be sure to watch the new episode of "EVA LONGORIA SEARCHING FOR SPAIN," airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on CNN.

Another hour of "CNN This Morning" is up after a quick break.

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