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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Joe Biden Diagnosed With Cancer; Trump to Speak to Putin on Phone in Effort to Cease Fire in Ukraine; Scheffler Wins PGA Championship. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 19, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

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RAHEL SOLOMON, ANCHOR, EARLY START: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and all around the world, I'm Rahel Solomon, it is Monday, May 19th, 5:00 a.m. exactly here in New York, and straight ahead on EARLY START.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His treatment decisions will be impacted mostly now by the fact that cancer has spread to his bones.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whatever your political persuasion, this is a good and decent man, and we're all pulling for him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Donald Trump is set to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin later today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They've set this up with enormous stakes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really hard to put into words, it's not easy to win out here on any level, and every time you win a tournament, I mean, it's a -- it's a pretty cool feeling.

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SOLOMON: And messages of support are coming from across the political spectrum for former President Joe Biden. This follows that news that he's been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. In a statement, his personal office said that the cancer has spread to his bones, and that Mr. Biden, now 82, is reviewing treatment options.

The news has prompted well-wishes from those who served alongside the former President, and even from those who opposed him, and that includes President Donald Trump, who took to social media to write, "Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden's recent medical diagnosis. We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe, a fast and successful recovery."

Former President Barack Obama also sending his support, saying, "nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace. We pray for a fast and full recovery."

And this message from Biden's former "Vice President, Kamala Harris, who said, quote, "Joe is a fighter, and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery." CNN's Arlette Saenz has more now from Washington.

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ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The 82-year-old Biden was at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, when this news was made public, and his family is now working to determine what treatment options will look like going forward. The statement from his office said, quote, "last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms.

On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 Grade Group 5 with metastasis to the bone. While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone sensitive, which allows for effective management." Biden and his family are reviewing treatment options with physicians going forward.

We're still trying to learn where exactly President Biden might be treated after receiving this diagnosis. But this all comes as questions about Biden's physical and mental capacity while he was in office have returned to the public spotlight. Our colleague Jake Tapper and "Axios" reporter Alex Thompson are about to roll out a new book which details some signs of decline in the former President while he was serving as commander-in-chief.

But setting that aside for the Biden family, this is just the latest in a long history of them dealing with some tragedy and some personal setbacks. Biden himself lost his daughter and wife in a car accident when he had just been elected to the U.S. Senate, and then in 2015, his son, Beau Biden passed away from brain cancer.

In fact, Biden's diagnosis comes about two weeks before they were about to mark the 10th anniversary of Beau Biden's passing. And Biden as President also did a lot of work on what he called the cancer moon- shot, trying to boost funding for cancer research, as he had really zeroed-in on that as a key issue in his presidency.

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But right now, for the Biden family, this is something, a very difficult moment that they are going through. And for many aides as well, I've heard from many who are simply devastated by this news of this cancer diagnosis for the former President. But now, we will be waiting to hear what the next steps will look like as his family is evaluating the treatment options at this time. Arlette Saenz, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: And there has been an outpouring of bipartisan support on Capitol Hill following Biden's cancer diagnosis. U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson called it sad news, saying that his family will be joining the countless others who are praying for the former President. Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene also offering prayers and saying, quote, "cancer is truly awful. My dad passed away in 2021 with cancer."

And Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren writing on social media, quote, "Joe Biden has worked for years to advance the cause of beating cancer, and now we have his back in this fight." And CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner spoke about Biden's diagnosis and the health concerns surrounding his re-election bid.

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JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: When the public elects a leader, I think the public has the right, you know, to know whether they are physically up to the job, and what is the likelihood that they will, you know, survive as an effective leader, you know, throughout the term of office. So, I think that's most important.

And I think the question going forward not just from this current announcement, but from the controversy, you know, surrounding the health of the President leading up to the last election is whether there should be a panel empowered by Congress that every year can review the health of the President.

And a bipartisan panel stood up to basically independently review the health of the President. You know, our pilots have annual medical exams and have to be reviewed, you know, by the -- by the FFA, the President's Secret Service agents have to undergo an annual physical exam. And I think, you know, particularly for much older politicians, I think it's reasonable to have an independent assessment of their health. And that's something that I think we should talk about going forward.

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SOLOMON: All right, we're going to have more on Biden's diagnosis and the reaction to the news throughout the hour. In other news this morning, that violent storm system that already killed dozens across Missouri and Kentucky left a trail of destruction in Colorado on Sunday. The severe weather produced at least two tornadoes, including this one in Aurora, Colorado, that's where the National Weather Service reported hail the size of a ping-pong ball.

CNN affiliate "KUSA" reports that dozens of buildings and homes were destroyed or damaged across multiple counties, and more than 1,000 flights were delayed on Sunday due to the weather. And the threat is not over yet in Kansas. Photos show the destruction to a home after a possible tornado swept through the area late Sunday into this morning.

Meanwhile, residents of harder-hit cities like Saint Louis, where at least, five people died are just now beginning to grapple with their new reality.

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UYAMA UMANA-HOLLINSHED, ST. LOUIS RESIDENT: It's devastating. It's -- there's no word, there's no phrase that can accurately describe the feeling of total, just devastation, loss, disappointment, brokenness, confusion. You know, hurt. I saw my -- our life work. I saw our retirement, our every dime we had was flat. A three-story home flattened where you don't get to get anything.

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SOLOMON: All right, still to come for us, President Donald Trump will speak with Russia's Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine in the coming hours. What we can expect from that discussion, that's coming up next. Plus, new details on the Mexican Navy training ship that crashed into the Brooklyn bridge on Saturday.

And the NBA's final four is set. The Oklahoma City Thunder blow away the Denver Nuggets. We'll have highlights of their game 7:00, straight ahead.

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SOLOMON: Welcome back. President Trump is set to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone today to try and convince him to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine. Donald Trump's advisors are sounding optimistic about the discussion.

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STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE MIDDLE EAST: The President has a force of personality that is unmatched. I think it's important his sensibilities are that he's got to get on the phone with President Putin, and that is going to clear up some of the logjam and get us to the place that we need to get to. And I think it's going to be a very successful call.

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SOLOMON: Well, the phone call will take place today after Russia launched its largest, yet, drone attack on Ukraine, many of those targeting the Kyiv region. Ukraine's parliament leader says that the attack shows just how sincere Vladimir Putin is about pursuing peace. Let's go to CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, who joins us live this morning from Kyiv.

Nick, good to have you this morning. Beyond the obvious topic of a potential ceasefire, what more do we know about what plans to be discussed in today's call?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, I mean, this is obviously a call which is hugely important in terms of Donald Trump being able to present progress from a peace initiative that he hoped he'd be able to resolve in a matter of days.

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And he's put himself in something of a jam here, in that the Putin call will occur at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, and then he said he'll speak to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and then various leaders of NATO, essentially putting the White House in a position where it may have to present something like its results to its closest allies from this long-awaited call.

But indeed, what we've also been hearing, too, from the Kremlin on Russian state media is a suggestion that Russia thinks it can still obtain the goals of what it calls its special military operation, the full scale, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine that's now over three years old. But it'd rather get them through political or diplomatic means, and even the suggestion to the personal meeting between these two men will come down to a discussion during this.

So, ceasefire on the cards, potentially. But I should stress, too, that we have heard from Russia persistently the idea that they feel a ceasefire would allow Ukraine to regroup, potentially. But that's exactly the same point Ukraine made when Russia -- when peace talks and ceasefires were originally proposed, often a lack of trust over Russia's ability to hold a ceasefire at all.

But I think Donald Trump here is going to face Vladimir Putin who quite likely feels reluctant to cede ground, who's seen the past days, the past week or so, very much play out to the timetable that he has dictated, he's brushed aside European leaders' demands for an unconditional ceasefire that was originally an American Trump administration proposal.

He's essentially called for junior level talks in Istanbul, which happened on Friday, yielded pretty little apart from a prisoner swap. And you heard there, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, sounding optimistic as though that somehow the force of personality of the U.S. President in that phone call will be able to -- paraphrase here, but move mountains and get them on to a new stage of diplomacy.

I think it's important to remind people exactly what the internal narrative in Russia is for the past three years about this war. They've been saying that they're fighting all of NATO. The United States has very much been part of Ukraine's side here, very much the enemy that may have softened slightly.

Now, the Kremlin feel there may be some viability for them with the Trump administration. But I think it's important to not overestimate exactly how concerned Putin is about upsetting U.S. President Trump. I think there's a desire in Moscow to feel diplomacy continues to play out, not entirely disrupt it, and to not make Trump feel defeated or ignored on the world stage.

So, this meeting, this phone call will essentially, I think be about the Kremlin giving to Trump, the very least, it feels it needs to, to maintain a sense of perhaps pride or at least desire for peace negotiations to continue from this White House. And that may indeed just be a discussion about a personal meeting between the two men.

The Kremlin spokesperson saying to Russian state media that preparatory work has to be done before a meeting of that magnitude. And so, I think it's entirely possible that we see the Kremlin feeling it needs to agree to a ceasefire, that's something which came up, it seems between Vice President J.D. Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when they met in Italy just in the last 24, 48 hours.

But it is, as I say, something which Russia has persistently resisted. They've called two of their own unilateral ceasefires 30 hours long, 72 hours long. Ukraine has remarked how they violated all of those, and indeed, the energy ceasefire, which was supposed to be upheld for a month or so, both sides accused the other of significant violations of that.

So, peace settlements and negotiated truces have an exceptionally rocky past just in the past two months or so. And I think great expectations now set by the U.S. President that he can emerge with something valid and meaningful from this phone call. But if we look at the past week, less than, I think perhaps, is that Russia feels relatively immune to the pressure weighed against it, and was willing to take an enormous risk, frankly, by brushing aside the European initiative for a ceasefire lasting a month, despite the Europeans saying they had the backing of President Trump personally for it.

The question you have to ask yourself now is, given that level of bold behavior, will a one-on-one call between Trump and Putin, their third since he came to power really changed much. Rahel.

SOLOMON: Yes, will it move the needle, and by how much? Our Nick Paton Walsh in Kyiv, thank you. Well, in a surprising turnaround, Romania's pro-EU candidate, Nicusor Dan has won the country's presidential election.

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NICUSOR DAN, PRESIDENT-ELECT, ROMANIA: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

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SOLOMON: That was all of the votes counted, Dan won at least 53 percent, clearly defeating his hard-right, ultranationalist rival George Simion. Simion is a Donald Trump fan who swept the first round of voting earlier this month, but then faltered in a televised debate. President-elect Dan is a strong supporter of Romania's NATO membership, who has pledged to continue providing aid to Ukraine.

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SOLOMON: In Portugal, meantime, the ruling center right alliance won an early parliamentary election on Sunday, but they again fell short of the majority needed to end a long period of political turmoil. With all domestic ballots counted, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro AD Party won 89 seats in the 230-seat parliament.

The far-right Chega Party outperformed most polls to take 58 seats. The Prime Minister has said that he will not make any deals with Chega, that means that he'll have to piece together a coalition in order to lead. And Poland seems headed toward a presidential runoff after liberals failed to deliver the sizable win predicted over the Nationalist Party.

Exit polls show that the mayor of Warsaw of the Centrist Civic Coalition, ahead of his rival by just over a percentage point. Now, if that result is confirmed, the two men would go head-to-head in a runoff on June 1st, and that will determine whether Poland stays on the pro-EU track established by the Prime Minister Donald Tusk, or if it moves closer to Trump's style nationalism.

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance attending Pope Leo's inaugural mass on Sunday, and today, just a few hours ago, he met with the new pontiff. We'll have details of that meeting straight ahead.

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SOLOMON: U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Pope Leo today. They attended the pontiff's inaugural mass on Sunday, and were seen shaking hands with him afterwards. Vance was also seen greeting other world leaders before the start of the service. Let's get to our Ben Wedeman, who is following these developments and joins us from Rome this morning with the latest.

Ben, we also know that the Vice President has also recently met with the pope just a few hours ago. What more do we know about that meeting?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We know, according to the pool reporters traveling with the Vice President, that at 7:56 a.m. local time, the American delegation arrived at the Vatican, and they wrapped up at 8:40 a.m. local time. Now, this was the second time the pope -- that, rather, J.D. Vance has met the pope.

He had about 17 seconds with Pope Leo yesterday while he was at the installation ceremony in Saint Peter's Square. Now, we don't know how long the meeting between J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio and Pope Leo actually took place because it was followed by a meeting with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher; who's basically the Secretary of State of the Vatican, where they discussed the general situation in the world.

And according to a statement put out by the Holy See press office, the archbishop did stress the importance of respect for humanitarian and international law in current conflicts. Clearly, this pope, like Pope Francis before him, is very concerned about the situation in Gaza, and has also been -- is also pressing for some sort of negotiated settlement for the war in Ukraine. And in fact, Pope Leo has volunteered the Vatican as an intermediary in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Rahel?

SOLOMON: Fascinating. Ben Wedeman for us there in Rome, Ben, thank you. Mixed messages coming from Hamas' upper ranks. On Sunday, a senior Hamas leader told CNN, that the militant group had agreed to release up to nine Israeli hostages in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire and the release of 300 Palestinian prisoners.

But just hours later, another senior leader denied that proposal. Israel says that it will allow, quote, "a basic amount of food to enter Gaza as a U.N.-backed report warns that the enclave remains at critical risk of famine amid Israel's 11-week aid blockade." Israel is also pushing ahead with this new offensive "Gideon's Chariots" in the enclave.

All right, still ahead. More on our breaking news. Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis. We will speak with the radiation oncologist about the treatments available and what the former President may be facing. We'll be right back.

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