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Epstein Survivor Jess Michaels is Interviewed about Blanche's Nomination; Trump to Discuss Elections in Speech. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired July 15, 2026 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Horrible to think of spending weeks and weeks with this horrible diarrhea.
So, let's just be really clear, what we should have been doing is messaging, where is the problem? How can we deal with the problem in those locations I just mentioned.
And as far as what the CDC director will say today, or a designate, I don't have a clue. You know, at this point, I think it's going to be a challenge to just deal with issues around vaccines and so forth on this committee.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: OK. That's Dr. Michael Osterholm. Thank you so much.
OSTERHOLM: Thank you.
CORNISH: And straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, the Epstein files could define Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing today. We're going to have a survivor joining us live to talk about what she wants lawmakers to ask him.
Plus, Trump is promising a primetime address. It will be about election integrity.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:35:41]
CORNISH: Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.
It's now half past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.
The U.S. has carried out a fourth day of strikes against Iran, hitting dozens of military targets near the Strait of Hormuz. An Iranian spokesperson says seven military members were killed overnight. More than 30 people have been killed in the past several days. Iran's military is now threatening to stop energy export routes in the Middle East altogether as a response to the U.S. naval blockade. Elon Musk likely broke Wisconsin law when he handed out $1 million
checks to voters in the 2025 state supreme court election. That's according to a bipartisan panel. Now, the Wisconsin Elections Commission has referred two complaints to the district attorney's office for possible prosecution.
And E. Jean Carroll received more than $5 million from President Trump. The payment comes more than three years after a jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a civil case. The president has continued to deny Carroll's allegations.
And in just a few hours, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche will face the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Justice. Now, he's expected to face tough questions on the now defunct $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund. A federal judge this week called the lawsuit, which led to that fund, an effort to, quote, "manipulate the judicial process."
And Senate Democrats are also expected to call on an Epstein survivor to testify at today's hearing. Survivors of Epstein's abuse have released a series of PSA's doubting Blanche's credibility to carry out the role after personal details were leaked with the release of the files at the time he was deputy attorney general.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Todd Blanche failed us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He failed victims everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We deserve better.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our country deserves better.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vote no on Todd Blanche for attorney general.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vote no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vote no on Todd Blanche.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining us now in the group chat, Jess Michaels, one of the survivors of Epstein.
I think I saw you in that video.
And there's a couple issues I think survivors have had with Blanche. One is, when the department released files, they had redacted all of the potential abusers and somehow unredacted all of your faces and names and images, right? So, there is that.
And then around this time last year, Blanche interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell. And, after that, she was transferred to a lower security prison. And he was asked a while back about the goals of that interview. And here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD BLANCHE, ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE: The point of the interview was not for me to pressure test every single answer she gave. Of course not. The point of the interview was to give her an opportunity to speak, which nobody had done before. And so, she had been -- she had been in prison for many, many years. And she had offered to speak on many, many occasions. And she was never given that opportunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Is this one of the sources of your frustration with him, or is there something more?
JESS MICHAELS, EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: Well, it really is the second sweetheart deal in this case, right? It replicates exactly, very similarly, what Epstein got. So, it's very frustrating that Ghislaine Maxwell is getting more protection, more attention from the DOJ than any of the victims. I mean nine hours with her and we've had zero.
CORNISH: Here's what he said when people were asking him, hey, are there going to be any other investigations? What more could there be? He said this in February.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TODD BLANCHE, ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE: I can't talk about any investigations. But I will say the following, which is that, in July, the Department of Justice said that we had reviewed the files, the, quote, "Epstein files," and that there was nothing in there that allowed us to prosecute anybody.
Now, there's a lot of correspondence, there's a lot of emails, there's a lot of photographs, there's a lot of horrible photographs that appear to be taken by Mr. Epstein or people around him. But that doesn't allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: What is it that you would expect under a Blanche Justice Department, different from a Bondi Justice Department, or is the issue Trump?
[06:40:09]
MICHAELS: I don't know whether the issue is Trump. I mean, Blanche is Trump's personal criminal attorney. So, we, you know, can make an assumption there.
What I know is that Pam Bondi said that Blanche was in charge of the release of these files. And so he is responsible for the egregious mistakes that were made and that have never been addressed.
When he says there was nothing to investigate, this is what I'd like to ask you. If there are six million files collected over 20 years, to the point where in 2015 a DEA task force, literal cartel hunters, joined in across multiple departments working on this, spending millions of taxpayer dollars, and he's saying it was for two people.
CORNISH: I think at a certain point the administration has been hoping that this would go away.
MICHAELS: Yes.
CORNISH: It seems pretty clear.
Terry, will it or does every time someone like this comes up, and Jess comes up and says, hey, don't forget about us, it doesn't go away.
TERRY SCHILLING, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN PRINCIPLES PROJECT: Well, I certainly hope it doesn't go away, at least until we get justice for the victims. And I think there's a lot of people that agree with me and --
CORNISH: Do you think the administration believes that? If they're saying there's nothing more to investigate, do you see an administration that says, there's more justice to be gotten?
SCHILLING: I don't. I would say that there are people within the administration that do want to get justice here. But we have to remember, 20 years, six million files. This is a failure, not of Todd Blanche, not of Donald Trump. This is a failure of every single FBI administration, every single DOJ official, every single president since then.
CORNISH: Do you agree with that?
MICHAELS: We've said that. We've said it's five administrations. In fact, this is just falling in line.
SCHILLING: Yes.
MICHAELS: So, that's the problem is they say, oh, well we released files. No, you actually created the exact same situation that we've said over and over again for decades, that no one is investigating what we're telling them is there.
CORNISH: Yes. You know, Jess used the phrase "sweetheart deals," and I want to follow up on that because the whole debate over the Trump administration's settlement with the IRS is that that was kind of a sweetheart deal, that the administration settled with itself and in that settlement gave itself money and, you know, all kinds of privileges. No audits, for example.
Do they foresee a Blanche being on the defense for the whole day today for more than even what Pam Bondi had to deal with?
JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "NOTUS": They definitely believe that Blanche is going to be on the defense. He's been preparing for this moment. I think he will get a lot of questions about that fund. Thom Tillis, senator from North Carolina, we know he's retiring, has said that he wants to push Blanche through, but he won't unless he gets the answers that satisfy his questions over that fund. He's not the only one that feels that way. And so you're going to see him get a lot of questions about that.
You're going to see him get a lot of questions about some of these criminalization efforts of people who are perceived to be Trump's foes. You're going to see him get a lot of questions about the downsizing of DOJ. They've lost thousands of career attorneys and other folks within the building.
CORNISH: Yes. He's (ph) actually gone to some states.
WRIGHT: And folks directly link that to Todd Blanche. And so you're going to see him get questions, really heated questions, from a plethora of different senators on both sides on a bevy of issues that he's going to have to be prepared for and answer correctly so that he gets at least Republicans on his side when it comes to pushing him through.
CORNISH: Do you expect answers or do you expect stock replies?
MICHAELS: So, we actually started Blanche bingo in our group chat.
CORNISH: In your group chat.
MICHAELS: In fact, all of the -- and, again, all of the --
CORNISH: Because you expect --
MICHAELS: Because we have certain expectations of what, you know, will there be a binder? Will, you know, will they (ph) say there was nothing to investigate? You know, there are so --
CORNISH: Check.
MICHAELS: Yes.
CORNISH: Check. Drink. Drink. Drink.
MICHAELS: Exactly. Exactly.
CORNISH: Gallows humor --
MICHAELS: Exactly.
CORNISH: On a story that I don't know how you guys have had any resilience through. And you have. You have. I --
MICHAELS: Thank you.
Can I -- can I say one thing when you're talking about Tillis too? If -- since Blanche won't meet with us, we are asking senators to meet with us. Senator Tillis, Senator Cornyn, Senator Kennedy. CORNISH: Have they said yes?
MICHAELS: No, we can't get through to their office. So, we're -- they're -- as we understand it from Senator Tillis specifically said, unless there's something, you know, reasonable, some reasonable reason for me not to pass Todd Blanche through, I'm going to pass him through. And I'm like, well, hello, there are over a thousand of us. Those are reasonable --
ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Audie, I would say the dynamics in the Senate have changed now for this confirmation process.
CORNISH: Yes, especially post all these primaries.
SEAWRIGHT: Post all these primaries. People have nothing to lose. And, quite frankly, they've seen the behavior of some of these cabinet officials and secretaries. And so, the political dynamics will have certainly have an impact on whether or not he's confirmed or not or how swiftly he is confirmed or not. And I think people are looking for something different because the American people are now demanding something different.
CORNISH: I think how swiftly maybe is the issue.
Well, thank you so much for talking with us.
MICHAELS: Thank you.
CORNISH: Hope to see you back. Jess Michaels.
Next on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about something, I don't know, an hour of sleep or an hour of sunlight.
[06:45:04]
Congress says it may be time to stop doing both. They want a new daylight savings bill that could change our lives.
Plus, President Trump is back in 2020. He's going to talk about why two Georgia's -- Georgia's two sitting senators are in the spotlight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Privately, most elected Republicans in this building think the president has lost it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: OK, so that's Georgia's Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff. He's reacting to President Trump's plan to deliver a primetime address tomorrow night.
[06:50:02]
What is he going to discuss? Quote, "new findings" about the security of American elections.
Now, this is expected to be yet another opportunity for the president to also dispute the results of the 2020 election, which he lost.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's really, really big news. And our country has to shape up. But that's what we're going to be talking about Thursday is, it doesn't get bigger because without free and fair elections, you don't have a country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, sources tell CNN, what the president is expected to focus on is voting machine security, and alleged that efforts by foreign nations to influence U.S. elections has occurred.
And the group chat is back.
The backdrop to this is the president has been stymied when it comes to making election reform changes. He did several executive orders in Arizona, they blocked him, removal of voters from the rolls. Georgia, of course, rejected a purge of voters in 2025. Michigan struck down the removal of voters from the rolls. Never mind the fact that the SAVE Act is stalled.
WRIGHT: Yes, I think the DOJ just lost their 15th attempt to grab voter rolls in the state in court.
CORNISH: Did you just say 15?
WRIGHT: Fifteen. Zero out of 15.
SEAWRIGHT: Idaho (INAUDIBLE).
CORNISH: Not a blue state.
SEAWRIGHT: Not a blue state. Idaho's attorney general sent the letter basically telling them to chill out.
WRIGHT: Yes. So, they are not doing well in that regard.
Look, I think this is a natural evolution of putting Bill Pulte into the ODNI position.
CORNISH: Got it.
WRIGHT: He put him in, he said in his own words, to kind of purge what they believe is the deep state aspect of ODNI, the folks who they don't believe are doing anything.
CORNISH: And this is the office that is supposed to help coordinate and oversee all the intelligence offices.
WRIGHT: Yes, the national intelligence office. Yes.
CORNISH: Yes.
WRIGHT: But also to declassify findings like this. Tulsi Gabbard was doing it when she was at the head of that position. Now, Bill Pulte perhaps is going to be doing it as well.
This is something that is very personal to the president. He's been talking about this for years. He just won't move off of the 2020 positions, even though they've been debunked time and time again. And no administration have really put up evidence to show that there has been widespread voter fraud.
CORNISH: But this is what he's expected to talk about tomorrow. As we said, our reporting is that he's going to allege some sort of issue in Georgia.
This is Senator Ossoff talking about why he thinks the president is going to make this speech tomorrow night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): If he calls Georgia's senators illegitimate, he is calling Georgia's voters illegitimate.
He fears defeat in the midterms. And that explains his spiral into conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories that put Georgia Republicans in a terrible bind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Then I want to play one more thing for you. This is Bill Maher. This was in June. J.D. Vance -- sorry, I think it was actually, yes, late June, and J.D. Vance was on the show talking about election integrity. Here's Bill Maher.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL MAHER, HOST, "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER": Here's my deal breaker for your side.
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: OK.
MAHER: OK. Under Trump, you guys have two outcomes in an election can be, either we win or they cheated. That shit has to stop.
VANCE: The sense in which I think the election in 2020 was rigged, I'm sorry, is that you had technology companies that were putting their thumb on the scale in a way that completely obliterated the real open exchange of ideas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Terry, which one do you want to take their, Maher or Vance?
SCHILLING: Look, I'm with Vance on this. I think there was a lot with big tech. I know, I know, but --
CORNISH: But what is your response to someone like Maher, who has been very open to Trump? He's not a never-Trumper.
SCHILLING: Agreed (ph).
CORNISH: He doesn't have Trump derangement syndrome. And he's like, we don't buy the either we win or they cheated.
SCHILLING: Yes.
CORNISH: Because I think a lot of Americans hear that when the president describes the scenario of any election outcome.
SCHILLING: Look, the first election before I could actually vote was 2000, right? And Democrats have been playing the same game. We shouldn't pretend otherwise.
But the reality is, is that America is a $6.5 billion -- or $6.5 trillion budget. It's got the most powerful military in the world. It is a target for election tampering. That's what we were told the 2016 election was all about was the Russians, they tamper with it.
CORNISH: Yes.
SEAWRIGHT: Well --
SCHILLING: Real quick. Real quick.
I just want to say, it's hurting young people and their energy to vote. A lot of people don't think these things are real. They think they're rigged. And I think that, you know, if you -- you could fix it with two things, voter I.D., very simple, high support, and getting your election and your votes counted on the same day. Florida counted 10.5 million ballots and had all the election results done within two hours. I don't think that's hard to ask.
CORNISH: Let me let Antjuan.
SEAWRIGHT: A couple things. Senator Marco Rubio agreed, as a senator, that Russia did interfere with our elections. I want to just start there.
But number two, voter suppression, voter intimidation, and voter fear is a strategy by Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
SCHILLING: I disagree with that.
SEAWRIGHT: By the Republican Party. And so, what tends to happen is, when black voters or voters of color defeat Donald Trump, then he automatically turns to this idea somehow or another, cheating is involved.
[06:55:06]
That's why there's this big focus and attention on Georgia, because we've seen a large surge in voter -- black participation at the ballot box. Lastly, I'll remind you, the largest case of election fraud in modern
history happened in North Carolina, in the Dan McCready district, by which a Republican operative was convicted for his crimes in -- his involvement in that election. So, when you hear Republicans --
SCHILLING: So, we should support voter integrity.
CORNISH: So, can he --
SEAWRIGHT: When you hear Republicans talk about election fraud --
SCHILLING: You're with me now.
SEAWRIGHT: Then you should turn to --
SCHILLING: You're with -- if Republicans are --
SEAWRIGHT: And then -- but let me also --
SCHILLING: Join (ph) our efforts.
CORNISH: I want to give some people some facts about voter I.D. and what the president is asking for in the SAVE Act.
Number one, your driver's license would not be enough to prove you are a citizen in your registration for voting. If you have a name change or anything like that, you will have to provide different documentation. States would not be given any money whatsoever to implement changes. That would go into effect almost immediately.
Now, we're in a moment where we're back to war with Iran. Kevin Warsh was just testifying about the economy. Labor participation rates are down. People are talking about prices and worries about inflation. We can't seem to get a primetime address about any of those things. Why do they still feel that this is an issue that is worth primetime addressing?
WRIGHT: When you talk to White House officials, they say that the SAVE America Act is the president's foremost priority. Yes, he is dealing with Iran. They want a resolution on that. Yes, he is still focused on the economy. They say he wants to continue that. But the SAVE America Act is what the president talks about is what he wants to see. And he's upset that Congress hasn't done what he's asked, which is passed this ginormous bill, which is not just the elections part, although that is very important.
CORNISH: Yes, there are other things --
WRIGHT: It is also a lot of cultural issues that are also in this.
CORNISH: It's a Christmas tree of random ornaments. Yes.
WRIGHT: And he is upset that Senate Republicans have not moved on this bill in a way that the House has. And he wants to see that rectified. And I believe that this speech is going to, not just be talking about all the things that he wants to see change, but putting pressure on them to do so.
SEAWRIGHT: It's a -- it's a proof of citizenship bill. It's a voter suppression strategy and bill that we've seen time and time again, different iterations of it. It's also --
CORNISH: How come Democrats never talk about that? I feel like Democrats tend to talk about these issues and really big suppression democracy, it's over terms, instead of just being like, here are all the ways this is going to make your life harder. Like, really just talk about what's in the bill.
SEAWRIGHT: Well, we try. But we try. But there's very limited oxygen supply. And quite frankly, when it comes to prioritizing what's important to the American people, the affordability crisis is top priority for Americans hat Republicans have created.
And so you have to pick which plum you want to eat. I think most people want to focus on the affordability crisis that Republicans have created, because that's what they feel every single day.
SCHILLING: I just don't think you guys realize what you just admitted. You just admitted that you don't have to prove citizenship in order to participate in America's elections. That should be like a bare minimum, like, standard.
SEAWRIGHT: Well, you do. That's -- well, nobody -- but, Terry, nobody said that because every time I go to vote, I have to present my driver's license.
SCHILLING: Well, then, why is it a big deal for this law -- this bill? Like --
SEAWRIGHT: Because this is not --
CORNISH: Because it says a driver's license wouldn't be enough.
SEAWRIGHT: Wouldn't be an issue.
SCHILLING: Well, we all have to get Real I.D. now to fly.
CORNISH: It literally --
SCHILLING: I mean, I -- is that -- we can do this with flying, but we can't do it with voting?
CORNISH: Only -- no, there's only x amount of -- there's only a hand --
WRIGHT: You can use your Real I.D. to fly and you can't use that in this bill.
CORNISH: Your Real I.D. to fly and not in this bill.
SCHILLING: Well, I need to look that up.
CORNISH: That's the kind of thing we're dwelling (ph) on here. SEAWRIGHT: And, Terry, I would also suggest to you, we had a problem with elections broadly by the Republican Party when Donald Trump came on the scene. This was not an issue before the election denying of Donald Trump --
CORNISH: Well --
SEAWRIGHT: Broadly speaking.
CORNISH: Yes, but let --
SEAWRIGHT: Before Donald Trump came on the scene.
CORNISH: Let's take a pause, quite frankly, because he's about to talk about this at length tomorrow night at primetime. I think this is going to put it back on the menu.
So, for those of you scared of salad or can't afford salad, good luck because we won't be talking about that this week. We'll be talking about voter issues.
I want to talk about what is in your group chat. What have you been talking about?
WRIGHT: My group chat has been filled with folks talking about a story that I broke with "NOTUS" and my colleague Taylor Giorno about a little rapper, Boosie Badazz, paying $600,000 to two known far-right conspiracy theorist, Jacob Wohl, Jack Burkman, who are also pardon advocates, basically trying to get a pardon. He's not paying for the pardon, he's paying these advocates to advocate to him to the administration to be pardoned.
CORNISH: And we have talked about the infrastructure of people that have grown up to lobby the White House for --
WRIGHT: Yes, because of the way -- yes, for pardons because of the way that the pardon apparatus has changed. And it's been a huge story.
CORNISH: OK.
Antjuan. Yes.
SEAWRIGHT: My group chat has been filled with the Michigan Senate race and this emotional conversation style versus substance in that regard. But also the death of our late senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham --
CORNISH: Yes. Of course.
SEAWRIGHT: And the recent appointment of his sister to the U.S. Senate as of yesterday.
CORNISH: OK.
Terry, for you. SCHILLING: I just got back yesterday. My brother and his wife, KiKi,
they had their six baby. He was with us for five days. He had a rare genetic lung disease, and his lungs didn't properly form.
[07:00:01]
And I just want to share that because it was -- all life is sacred. All life is beautiful. I saw -- we saw so many people come out of the woodwork with the GoFundMe, the prayers and all the support. It was -- it was really beautiful. And every life is meaningful and every life should be sacred.
CORNISH: You know, Terry, you don't have to share things like that with us. And the fact that you do is really meaningful.
SCHILLING: Thank you.
CORNISH: So, I'm sorry for your loss.
SCHILLING: Thank you.
CORNISH: Thank you so much.
And thank you for being with us. Stay with us. The headlines are next.
