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Margaret Manto is Interviewed about RFK Jr.'s Health Plan; White House on Qatar Bombing; Protesters Confront Trump. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired September 10, 2025 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for explaining it. Appreciate it.
RANDALL WILLIAMS, U.S. SPORTS BUSINESS REPORTER, "BLOOMBERG": Thank you for having me.
CORNISH: Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, staying put. The embattled Federal Reserve governor can stay on the job, for now.
Plus, shipping containers tumble into the Pacific at the Port of Long Beach.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:35:05]
CORNISH: Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.
It's half past the hour, and here is what's happening right now.
Overnight, Poland's military accusing Moscow of an act of aggression after shooting down a Russian drone in its airspace. Poland says there were more than a dozen airspace violations. At least three drones were shot down.
A federal judge blocked President Trump's effort to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. The president wants to fire Cook, citing an investigation into alleged mortgage fraud. The Trump administration is likely to appeal.
And the Supreme Court has agreed to fast track an appeal over President Trump's sweeping global tariffs. The tariffs will remain in place while the court hears the case. A decision would normally be expected by the end of June, but in this case the court said it would expedite review.
And later today, North Carolina GOP leaders will hold a news conference after the killing of a Ukrainian refugee on a train. They plan to blame Charlotte's Democratic leaders. The city's mayor says the attack boils down to a failure by the courts. The man federally charged in the killing was a repeat criminal offender.
Right now crews are trying to recover shipping containers that fell from a cargo ship at the Port of Long Beach. More than 50 containers fell into the ocean. Port officials say no one was injured.
And we finally know what RFK Jr.'s long awaited Make America Healthy Again plan would do. But it's what it will not do that's created some backlash, especially among the MAGA crowd.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: We're changing nutrition standards in baby formula. We are requiring medical schools to do nutrition education. There's 128 recommendations. A lot of them we're going to accomplish before the end of this year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: The group chat is back, along with Margaret Manto, "NOTUS" science and health policy reporter.
Margaret, thanks so much for being here.
MARGARET MANTO, SCIENCE AND HEALTH POLICY REPORTER, "NOTUS": Thanks for having me.
CORNISH: OK, because of the fight over CDC scientists and vaccines, that's where all the focus has been. This is his chance to show what he really wanted to do. And what are the things here that are on the wish list that MAHA will be happy about?
MANTO: Yes. So, this report does include some things that the MAHA movement has been waiting for. One of the big ones is a vaccine framework that Kennedy will have HHS set up to take a closer look at vaccines, even more so than he already has. He's also talked about, you know, things like medical schools including more nutrition education, coming up with a definition of ultra processed foods, which is something that has really played into his movement to try and improve the diet of American children.
CORNISH: Yes. And then the things that aren't on it that sort of shocked me is like, not really any steps to deal with pesticides. Not really any steps to deal with ultra processed food. To me, it felt like, did this reflect the limits of his power? Like, it's one thing to push around the scientists, but it feels like he couldn't push around the agriculture industry or the food industry.
MANTO: Yes, I think that's exactly right. I mean it's easy to forget that a year ago Kennedy was still running for president, and he was making promises, like he was going to potentially be president. And now he's having to kind of implement these plans from HHS. And it's really kind of showcasing how he is having to work within the confines of the administration that he is in.
CORNISH: What are you guys seeing in -- in this conversation? I mean and this is supposed to be an inflection point, right? And instead, I feel like they're still noodling with vaccines and not much of the other things.
EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CO-AUTHOR, "NOTUS MORNING NEWSLETTER": Right. I'll first just say, it's just totally awesome to be on with Margaret, who's doing such a great job covering all this stuff at notus.org. Sign up immediately.
CORNISH: OK. Enough promo.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: But, no, I think there's something -- one thing that Margaret has done a lot of in her reporting that I think about a lot is about these limits, right? The most interesting thing about this moment is that there has been a huge shift in Republican politics when it comes to this MAHA stuff. You can find folks who used to tell you, oh, you like your food, well, thank Roundup. And now they're very skeptical of pesticides and it --
CORNISH: Or Michelle Obama, leave our lunch alone.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Right. Organic foods are sort of more popular.
However, when the rubber meets the road, these are very powerful industries. And we are seeing a moment here where it does seem like this is only going to go as far as not costing a lot of people a lot of money, right? And so, it's an interesting divide to figure out sort of the politics of that. Is that enough to satisfy these folks who really are activated and brought into this GOP buy this MAHA movement? Is this going to be enough to make them feel like they're actually being heard? And I don't know that we do know that yet with what we've seen from this report.
CORNISH: Yes, but these people are very active online. Have we been seeing anything? Like, is there any response in MAHA land?
[06:40:00]
MANTO: I -- I think they are glad, to a certain extent, that the report is so thorough. You know, it's 128 recommendations.
CORNISH: Yes, so something got in there.
MANTO: Yes.
CORNISH: Yes.
MANTO: There's a lot -- there's a lot to cover. But I think there is some -- some pushback against, yes, like what you said, that there are some things that are left out. Pesticides are only mentioned three times. And it's really just to say that we are going to -- that they are going to continue, you know, using the regulations that already exist. And they've emphasized things like responding to illegal pesticides coming into the country without really talking about pesticides that are legal.
CORNISH: The more holistic concerns people -- people have.
MANTO: Yes. CHARLIE DENT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASPEN INSTITUTE CONGRESSIONAL PROGRAM: Am I the only person who thinks there's a problem with the messenger here? That, it -- look, some of these recommendations I'm sure will be well received, maybe on ultra processed food or nutritional standards. But a lot of people don't trust Secretary Kennedy --
CORNISH: Do you think the Senate hearings damaged him?
DENT: With the health of the American public based on what he's done at the CDC, firing all these doctors. Of course, he's just done so -- his vaccine denial, all these things. And a lot of us are saying, well, are these recommendations, are they all based in real science? And I suspect there's some good recommendations here. I haven't looked at them all. But -- but there's a question of his credibility right now with respect to the nation's health. And this is a man who couldn't endorse polio vaccines.
CORNISH: Yes.
SABRINA SINGH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But the concern is that people are going to -- who do listen to his report, are going to take it as what they should trust and not vaccinate their kids and going to eat, you know, or going to take this guidance and it's going to make -- I think we're saying the same thing here, but it's going to make people less safe.
CORNISH: Yes.
SINGH: It's going to make people, you know, less healthy. And I think -- I think for -- to your -- to what you were saying, I think there's a total problem with the messenger, absolutely.
CORNISH: Well --
SINGH: But the issue is, people are going to listen to that.
CORNISH: And --
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Well, and Charlie's right, this is one of the few inflection points we've seen where we are seeing Republicans in the Senate really push back against --
CORNISH: Right, Republican doctors in particular. Yes.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Bill Cassidy, you know, really pushing back on RFK now. And also we've even seeing the president do some -- some tweeting, some conversations about this. A little bit more of just trying to be on both sides of this issue with this guy.
So, it is a big question, right, as to like whether or not RFK is the right guy to carry this forward. But he did bring it in to this movement. And I think he's been very successful at sort of coming in to the Trump movement and bringing his own stuff with it and really remaking a lot of that movement in his own image.
So, it's interesting to see where that -- where that limit is.
CORNISH: Yes.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: But I think you've got to give him a lot of credit for how far he's gone so far.
CORNISH: And I'm sure we're going to hear more about this because there's been more questions raised by some of these same lawmakers we're talking about.
All right, you guys, stick with me, because next on CNN THIS MORNING, Donald Trump not thrilled about Israel's strike in Qatar. How that attack could impact the ongoing ceasefire negotiations with Hamas.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROWD: (INAUDIBLE) Free Palestine. Trump is the Hitler of our time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Plus, safe from crime but not hecklers. President Trump's night on the town disrupted.
And we want to know what's in your group chat. Send it to us now on X. We're going to be talking about ours after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:47:28]
CORNISH: The Israeli strike in Qatar is putting the U.S. in an awkward position. The bombing raid in the Qatari capital killed five members of the terror group Hamas, but not the high value leaders the Israelis were looking for. The U.S. quickly distanced itself from the attack and even tried to warn Qatar of the attack moments before it unfolded. The White House, not pleased with the surprise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He doesn't think this serves Israel's interests or the United States' interests. And so he's not happy about it. But we're going to keep on working for peace despite it and hopefully see this as an opportunity.
The one good thing, Matt, is it looks like it probably eliminated a couple of very bad guys from Hamas. So, there's a silver lining, even though we disagree with the underlying decision. But -- but we're going to keep on working to get the hostages home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: In Doha, condemnations of the attack as state terrorism as the country's prime minister also warned the bombing puts ceasefire and hostage talks in jeopardy.
The group chat is back.
We were talking earlier about this with our reporters, but Stephen Collinson writes that this is "a new embarrassment for Trump at a time when he's also being taken for a ride by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who grinned through the summit in Alaska and then escalated attacks on Ukrainian civilians." And even since writing this, you now have Poland raising questions about breaching its borders.
Sabrina, let me go to you with your defense background.
SINGH: Yes.
CORNISH: Is this a moment where the administration just straight up looks embarrassed by it? How do you hear this?
SINGH: Yes, to some extent. But I can say, having been in the previous administration, you know, we would get within, like, seconds of an Israeli attack when they took out Haniyeh. It was, you know, the bombs had already gone off and we got the call saying, you know, just FYI.
CORNISH: So, not uncommon.
SINGH: And so it's -- you know, this is the problem with dealing with Netanyahu's government is, they will take actions and then they will inform you after.
And you're seeing it -- you saw it play out in real time. And I think what happened was that when Karoline Leavitt was at the podium and said our -- you know, the White House was informed by the U.S. military, they -- we didn't get that confirmation or call from the Israeli government until our radars probably picked up signals.
So, I think what you're seeing here is an unprecedented attack on one of the U.S.' greatest allies in the Middle East. We have our largest base there as well. More importantly, this is going to further put the hostages' lives at risk. I mean it was an attack --
CORNISH: Yes, and the -- and the families have started to speak out about this.
SINGH: Yes. Yes.
CORNISH: Because they are hoping to get real --
SINGH: Right.
[06:50:02]
CORNISH: And even when the president spoke, he mentioned the hostages first. Trump saying, like, this is going to jeopardize that.
I want to play for you the former NATO allied commander, Admiral James Stavridis. He was speaking to us about how Israel's prime minister is viewing this moment. Here's his point of view. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADMIRAL JAMES STAVRIDIS, FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER (RET.): Strategically, this is going to put pressure on the U.S.-Israeli relationship, pressure on the Israeli relationships with the Europeans, and a lot of pressure on the Israeli relations with their Arab partners in the Middle East.
He's been in power forever by U.S. standards. And over time he has gotten very comfortable with doing exactly what he wants to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: I was also hearing this idea that however counterintuitive this looks, that somehow if they make the president angry enough or disillusioned enough that he might somehow bring more leverage to bear. Do we think that is in the cards here?
SINGH: I don't. I don't. I think -- I think it's very hard to -- to say at this point.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: I mean have we seen a more fraught relationship than this one already? I mean, it was about Israel, right, that the president dropped his infamous f-bomb, walking out to the helicopter after Israel struck Iran, if that -- you know, if that deal was supposedly made. It did not result in a massive policy change.
I mean, this is a -- this is a situation where this administration is extremely pro-Netanyahu government, has been that way. And we haven't seen big shifts in that direction one way or the other.
CORNISH: Right.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: You know, it'll be interesting to see. Obviously, they obviously want to be very pro-Qatari government as well. They have a lot of connections with that. But I do think that it's a little weird to suggest that this outrage is any different than any of the other outrage that we've seen and resulted in absolutely no change politically.
CORNISH: Well, because it's an ally.
SINGH: Israel (ph) attacked a sovereign nation.
CORNISH: Doha tried to give him a plane.
SINGH: Yes. Right.
CORNISH: Like this is very specific.
DENT: This is --
CORNISH: And a key partner in even trying to develop these talks.
DENT: Well, yes. I think Israel may have miscalculated here. It's one thing to attack Iran, which has been menacing Israel for years, or going after Hezbollah in Lebanon and striking those sites, or even radical elements within Syria. But with Qatar as a key strategic partner for the United States, with the air base, it's more complex.
Now, the Qatari government, frankly, I think, has been too cozy with Hamas over the years.
CORNISH: Yes.
DENT: But -- but at the same time, you know, Israel is trying to develop better relations with the gulf Arab states, particularly Saudi and UAE. I can't imagine they're too happy about this.
CORNISH: Yes. We've been hearing some upset comments. Yes.
DENT: I can't imagine they're very happy about this right now. And on -- and again, how does this affect the ability to release the remaining hostages? I don't think this advances their interests or ours.
CORNISH: Or even just end this war. I'm going to bring in something also related to this. It won't seem at first, so stay with me.
President Trump's 30-day emergency order in D.C. is set to expire later today. That's unless Congress extends it. So, Trump actually came face to face with protesters as he celebrated the takeover with a night out. Here's what they were saying to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CROWD: Free (INAUDIBLE). Free Palestine. Trump is the Hitler of our time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: We actually haven't seen someone kind of yelling the "free Palestine" at a president since Biden. I thought that was sort of an interesting moment. This was inside a seafood restaurant near the White House. Trump went there to have dinner. You can hear them yelling "free D.C.," "free Palestine," and also, "Trump is the Hitler of our time."
So, dining with the president was Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The president is declaring that D.C. is now a safe place to go out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The restaurants now are booming. People are going out to dinner where they didn't go out for years. And it's a safe city. And I just want to thank the National Guard. We loved working with the mayor and the -- the chief. And we all worked together. And the -- the outcome is really spectacular. We have a capital that's very, very safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, even though that emergency order is expiring, the National Guard is expected to stick around.
Group chat is back.
Sabrina, leaning on you again because this whole two weeks we've been talking about the use of military police to do domestic policing jobs.
SINGH: Yes. Yes.
CORNISH: And the courts are starting to weigh in and talk about this. What are you going to be looking for next as he's talking about more cities?
SINGH: Well, I think what's important is that the cities that he's talking about, particularly Chicago, mayors, governors, they know their cities, they know their states the best. They know what they need in those cities, and what they don't need. And when you send in our National Guard, I mean, these are men and women trained to fight our wars. So, they're not trained in dealing with city crimes. And so, they don't --
CORNISH: I mean there has been a chilling effect, right?
SINGH: Right.
CORNISH: There's far less crime, especially kind of petty crimes, the things that people, I think, who want to go to state dinners are -- are worried about.
SINGH: But I think -- and we were talking about this in the break. You know, mayors are never going to say no to more federal funding when it comes to police. That's what we need to really be investing in.
[06:55:05]
We need our men and women who are in uniform, that are going to fight tomorrow's battles, staying on mission and staying adept to their readiness. They're being pulled from those right now.
CORNISH: Yes.
SINGH: And they're being expended all across our country. And we're not, frankly, keeping an eye on the threat of China.
CORNISH: We might be hearing about another city today. Charlie, I want to play this for you because, to Sabrina's point, he's looking for a more amenable partnerships, so to speak, right?
Here's what the president had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, we're going to be announcing another city that we're going to very shortly. We're working it out. The governor of a certain state would love us to be there. And the mayor of a certain city in that same state would love us to be there. PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Chicago should be begging Donald Trump
for help to keep Chicago safe. Yet they aren't. So, we're going to go into a city who wants us there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: It's interesting because you saw -- I remember it was Gavin Newsom who was going around pointing out other cities that have higher per capita crime, violent crime rates. And, of course, pointing out ones that were in red states. But are they actually now going to try and find someone who wants them there?
DENT: I think the short answer is, yes. I think they have probably identified a Republican governor who was willing to accept federal National Guard support in their cities. So, I think that's a real thing.
Now again, as a Republican, I remember a time when a lot of Republicans did not want federal intervention into state and local law enforcement. You know, we had cops grants. I supported cops grants, but a lot of Republicans didn't. And so -- so if Republicans are now stepping up and saying, hey, we want more federal intervention, that's a major change in policy for the party.
Now, the big debate is, is the National Guard the right approach? And many people would say, if you bring in the National Guard, if you say you need the National Guard, you're kind of admitting that you -- you aren't able to control or manage the situation in your own community. So, it's a bit of a double-edged sword if you're inviting the Guard in. You're -- you're acknowledging that you maybe have not been able to -- to deal with this situation.
CORNISH: Yes.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Well, the question, obviously, also, when you talk to experts about crime and stuff, is, is this all show or is it actually something real? Because some of this stuff is not really about crime prevention. It's sort of about, having people stand around, you know, in the -- you know, in the streets. And you're not seeing people who actually spend their lives figuring out how to reduce crime in places.
Seeing these surges as being all that helpful to that project, right, and you're seeing a lot of things, you know, when you push back against, you know, the sanctuary city idea, for example, that's an (INAUDIBLE) crime prevention people have said for a long time is important, to have people be able to go and work with the police. So, a lot of this is sort of like, at what level are we just kind of seeing a stunt versus an actual focus on crime and crime prevention, right? And so this is a -- it's interesting to see a mayor or a governor accept this, as Trump has said, because most of this messaging has been about people who are supposedly uninterested in talking about crime or working on crime.
CORNISH: Yes. MCMORRIS-SANTORO: And so to say, come in is maybe admitting, we don't know what we're doing on this. It's interesting -- it's an interesting moment.
CORNISH: Well, or, I think there's always been a conversation, because there are so many more red governor offices and blue leaders of cities, right? There's this dichotomy where you have Democrats leading cities, Republican governors. It's not that hard, actually, to find a state where there might be a governor who might want to embarrass somebody in the Capitol.
I want to talk to you guys about what is in your group chat. We're kind of in the middle of the week. There's a lot of things bubbling here and there.
I'm going to start with you, Charlie, because I know the lawmakers be gossiping. So, you must be hearing something.
DENT: Yes. The big question is, I thought there was going to be a second reconciliation bill. You know, you remember when we just went through the first one. But now --
CORNISH: There's one big, beautiful bill.
DENT: That's right.
CORNISH: And you're saying there -- these was supposed to be another?
DENT: There was supposed -- there's supposed to be a second one, but they're --
CORNISH: They're still renaming the first one.
DENT: I know. But the first one was motivated by the -- by the tax changes. It had extended the tax cuts.
CORNISH: Yes.
DENT: But what's the there there? There's -- what's the issue that would drive the second one? And nobody seems to know what that is. So, it sounded like they wanted to move on a second bill, but it doesn't seem like they -- they know what the motivating issue is.
CORNISH: Yes, and also it sounds like they want to keep their momentum going.
DENT: Yes.
CORNISH: But they actually got a lot done in that first bill. And so now they're struggling.
Sabrina, what about you?
SINGH: A little different. Take my group chats have been abuzz about "The Summer I Turned Pretty," the show that I'm sure you're watching. It comes out every Wednesday. CORNISH: The teen romantic drama?
SINGH: But the -- the teen romantic love triangle drama --
CORNISH: OK. OK
SINGH: That -- that people just cannot seem to get enough of.
CORNISH: Yes, people keep talking to me about this and I haven't (INAUDIBLE).
SINGH: I think it's just time. You got to do it. But, yes, it is coming out tomorrow and everyone's talking about it.
CORNISH: OK.
Evan, you.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: This summer has not occurred for me yet.
CORNISH: No.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Yes, I'm still waiting for that summer I turned pretty.
CORNISH: You're waiting to turn pretty?
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Any day -- any day now.
No, you know, this is September. This is the time when politics shifts from talking about the last election to the next election. And I'm looking at all these stories about what might be these dynamics for 2026. We have a really good one in "NOTUS" today about Democrats that are finding pieces of the OBB that they're actually starting to tout.
[07:00:07]
They're saying, you know, I didn't vote for it, but I like this money that they put in for World Cup, you know, security. Or, I like this, no taxes on tips. One of those classic moments that happens all over the political world where it's like, well, now I got to start running on something, let me run on this thing that maybe I didn't even vote for.
CORNISH: Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I am somewhat still thinking about the last election because Kamala Harris, her book, "107 Days," there's an excerpt out now. So, we're going to get more clues about how she talks about all of that.
I want to thank you for being with us. And thank you for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish and "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts now.
