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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

RFK Jr. Clashes With U.S. Senators Over Health Care Agenda; D.C. Sues Military Extends National Guard Presence; Russia, Ukraine Face U.S. Deadline. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired September 05, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:23]

BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, and welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. Thank you so much for being with us. I'm Brian Abel. Rahel Solomon is off.

It is Friday, September 5th, 5:00 a.m. here in Washington.

And straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARIA CANTWELL (D-WA): You're a charlatan. That's what you are.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HHS SECRETARY: You're just making stuff up.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Democrats were united in their criticism of Kennedy. There's a lot of questions about what comes next.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The military is planning to extend the National Guard order in Washington into December.

MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D), WASHINGTON, D.C.: What's fair to say is my 100 percent focus is on exiting the emergency.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're having a very good dialogue. We'll get it done.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Vladimir Putin now says he's willing to meet inside Russia and offer Kyiv calls unacceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

ABEL: We begin early, start with a fiery hearing on Capitol Hill. U.S. senators grilling Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. over his public health agenda. He faced criticism for his controversial efforts to restrict vaccines and his overall -- overhaul, rather, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CANTWELL: You're a charlatan. That's what you are.

KENNEDY: You're just making stuff up. You're talking gibberish.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Secretary --

KENNEDY: I don't know what you're talking about.

Is this a question, Senator Cassidy, or is this a speech that you don't want me to answer?

(CROSSTALK)

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): How can you be that ignorant?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Cantwell --

KENNEDY: You're wrong.

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): You are a hazard to the health of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: As Kennedy calls for, quote, new blood at the CDC, a source tells CNN that he is preparing to appoint as many as seven new members to an influential vaccine advisory panel, many of whom have made unproven claims about vaccines in the past.

At the hearing Thursday, it wasn't just Democrats pressing Kennedy. Several Republicans also questioned his position on vaccines, and some of them, including the majority leader, would not say if they had confidence in the secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R-WY): I support vaccines, I'm a doctor. Vaccines work.

Secretary Kennedy, in your confirmation hearings, you promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I've grown deeply concerned.

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): Mr. Kennedy, you've -- you've stayed at multiple times in response to other members questions that that scientists were lying. I just like to see the scientific evidence to substantiate that.

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): I would say, effectively, we're denying people vaccine. I --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Cantwell.

KENNEDY: You're wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ABEL: CNN's Arlette Saenz has more now on the reaction from Democrats on Capitol Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Democrats were united in their criticism of Kennedy as they left this hearing. They believe that he should be fired, that he lied to the committee and that he is undermining public health in this country.

Now, there's a lot of questions about what comes next after this hearing. Democrats want to bring the ousted CDC director, Susan Monarez, up to Capitol Hill to testify. She outlined in a "Wall Street Journal" op-ed ahead of the hearing, that she was pressured to accept recommendations from a vaccine advisory panel that Kennedy has handpicked. Before that group was even set to meet.

In the hearing, Kennedy has said that Monarez was lying about some of her statements in "The Wall Street Journal". Democrats want to see her come testify to clear the air on that matter.

I also spoke with Senator Tillis, who told me he plans to meet privately with Monarez, as well, as he is seeking more answers. But there's a lot of questions, even as some Republicans were challenging Kennedy on vaccine policy, what steps they might take after this, as they have tried to grapple with his impact on public health in this country.

Arlette Saenz, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: The White House is standing behind the health secretary and praising his combative testimony. It said in a statement that the administration is focused on, quote, using evidence-based gold standard science to truly make America wealthy again. President Trump defended Kennedy while hosting a dinner at the White House, but added that he did not watch the hearing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's got a different take, and we want to listen to all of those takes, but I heard he did very well today, but it's not your standard -- it's not your standard talk.

[05:05:01]

I would say that, and that has to do with medical and vaccines. But if you look at what's going on in the world with health and look at this country also with regard to health, I like the fact that he's different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: So, it may seem a bit strange to hear it, but the U.S. president is now being sued by the nation's capital. The lawsuit filed by Washington, D.C. claims the Trump administration violated the Constitution and federal law by deploying National Guard troops in the city.

A source told CNN this week Trump plans on extending the National Guards deployment through December.

Our Gabe Cohen has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the local attorney general here in Washington is arguing that deploying these armed National Guard troops, more than 2,000 of them that we have seen in recent weeks and deputizing them to patrol the streets and make arrests, like local police, violates federal law.

They say in their complaint, "No American jurisdiction should be involuntarily subjected to military occupation."

The District of Columbia brings this lawsuit to obtain declaratory and injunctive relief that will stop the defendant's violations of law, that's the Trump administration, remedy the harms the defendants are inflicting on the district and preserve the district's sovereignty.

And this comes as the military is planning to extend the National Guard order in Washington into December, although it's not clear at this point if they'll actually have troops deployed for that entire time. Now, the White House, for their part, has dismissed this lawsuit, saying that it is, quote, nothing more than another attempt at the detriment of D.C. residents and visitors to undermine the president's highly successful operations to stop violent crime in D.C.

Now, Washington's mayor, Muriel Bowser, has been doing a really delicate political dance for weeks now, trying not to antagonize President Trump in order to limit the federal interference in her city. On Thursday, she refused to endorse this latest lawsuit when asked by reporters.

Here's a little bit of what she said.

BOWSER: What's fair to say is my 100 percent focus is on exiting the emergency, and that's where all of our energies are.

COHEN: The president's 30-day emergency is set to expire next week, unless Congress votes to extend it. And D.C.'s mayor has said she hopes that by agreeing to work with federal law enforcement moving forward, the district can avoid an extension of that emergency and a more heavy handed federal takeover like we have seen. We will see if this lawsuit complicates that approach.

And it's also important to note that President Trump has said he is considering national guard deployments in other Democrat run cities like Chicago, for example. And he has also said that D.C. is a testing ground for those future operations. This lawsuit now could be a part of that test. Gabe Cohen, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: And while D.C. sues the Trump administration, the U.S. Justice Department is suing Boston's Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu. It says Boston's so-called sanctuary city policy is illegal and is obstructing the enforcement of immigration laws. The city passed an act in 2014 that limits cooperation by local police with federal immigration authorities. It also bars officers from sharing information with ICE or detaining people on its behalf. Boston's mayor called the lawsuit an unconstitutional attack.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the august jobs report in just a few hours. According to the data firm FactSet, economists predict about 80,000 jobs added for the month. This will be the first jobs report since President Trump fired the head of the bureau, accusing her without evidence, of manipulating the numbers for political purposes.

Reporters asked Trump about his confidence in the report at a dinner for tech executives last night at the White House. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Tomorrow, we have a jobs report coming out, the first since the BLS commissioner who you fired won't be there. A lot of people will be turning to you to see if you believe the data that's released. Can you commit to saying the data will be credible?

TRUMP: We're going to see what the number, I don't know. They come out tomorrow, but the real numbers that I'm talking about are going to be whatever it is, but will be in a year from now when these monstrous, huge, beautiful places, the palaces of genius. And when they start opening up, you're seeing, I think you'll see job numbers that are going to be absolutely incredible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: A report earlier this week showed that for the first time in more than four years, there were fewer job openings than there were job seekers.

And today's jobs report is sure to drive the stock market. The futures index gives us some idea of what to expect when the opening bell rings. You see the Dow is down, but the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are up to start the day. We'll see what happens throughout the day.

Meanwhile, Thailand has a new prime minister. The vote in parliament a short time ago comes a week after a Thai court removed the country's last prime minister from office.

CNN's Hanako Montgomery is with us now following developments from Tokyo -- Hanako.

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brian. It's good to see you.

So, as you said, I mean, this is really a just the latest twist in Thai politics, which has been pretty tumultuous over the past three years. Now, the new Thai prime minister looks as though it's going to be Anutin Charnvirakul, who is the leader of a center right political party in Thailand. He's well-known in the country for being, quote/unquote, the cannabis king because he helped decriminalize the plant back in 2022.

Now, he's also well known in Thailand for helping orchestrate the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Anutin is also an avid karaoke singer and is also a licensed pilot.

Now, his election just comes a week after the former Thai prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, was ousted by a Thai court for holding a very controversial phone call that the court found to have violated Thailand's ethics code. Now, she was only really in power for about a year, but her removal is very, very significant because she hails from a very powerful political dynasty in Thailand, the Shinawatra family. The family, its proxies and the Thai military have pretty much ruled the country for the past two decades. So, her removal and her replacement with someone outside of the family could indicate that the power that the family is slowly losing its grip on political power and also represents a key juncture here in Thai politics.

Now, also, just to add, really in the mix of this tumultuous moment in Thailand is the fact that Paetongtarn Shinawatra's father, Thaksin Shinawatra, has fled the country. Now, on Thursday, Thaksin took his private jet to what he hoped was Singapore, but actually ended up in Dubai for what he says was a health checkup. But it has raised a lot of eyebrows because of the timing of his departure. In fact, on September 9th, he faces a court ruling where he could be found guilty of abusing his power and corruption for his time in office a couple of decades ago.

So again, Brian, really just a tumultuous moment in Thai politics, but it looks as though there's a key, key juncture point here, and it looks as though political hands might be changing -- Brian.

ABEL: A new chapter begins in Thailand.

Hanako Montgomery for us -- Hanako, thank you.

President Trump is up against his own deadline to get Russia to talk peace with Ukraine. Ahead, his next move as his time frame for Moscow is about to expire.

And later, Israel escalates its military takeover of Gaza city. New details in a live report this hour.

Plus, following last week's tragic school shooting in Minnesota, the U.S. Justice Department is now considering banning transgender people from owning guns. We'll explain how they may do it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [05:17:36]

ABEL: Russia's President Vladimir Putin is repeating an invitation that's already been declared a nonstarter. He said this morning he's ready to host Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a peace summit in Moscow. Mr. Putin also said he would guarantee Zelenskyy's security. Never mind that Russia has tried to assassinate him multiple times, according to Ukraine. Mr. Zelenskyy had said earlier that any proposal for a meeting in Moscow is dead on arrival.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump is facing his own deadline to get the Russian president to the negotiating table. Mr. Trump gave him, until today to do that or face unspecified consequences. The U.S. president now says he'll talk to Mr. Putin soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're having a very good dialogue. I settled seven wars. The one that I thought would be maybe one of the easiest. You know that feeling, you think one thing is going to be easier? It turns out to be a little bit tougher. But the one that I thought would be an easier one because of my relationship with President Putin and with Ukraine and everything else, I thought it would be the Russia Ukraine disaster. We'll get it done. But that's turned out to be the most difficult of the group.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: CNN's Ben Wedeman is monitoring those developments, and he joins us from Rome.

And it feels like we are once again at a stalemate, Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not surprising, Brian. I was actually in Kyiv three weeks ago today when Presidents Putin and Trump were meeting in Alaska and we were reporting on the very optimistic statements, certainly coming out of President Trump to the effect that within a week he would arrange a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Well, that didn't happen. And it appears it's not going to happen again.

And of course, we're getting mixed messages. Today, we heard from Dmitry Peskov, the senior spokesman for the Kremlin, who said that a lot of work still needs to be done before any sort of meeting between the two leaders can be arranged. And, of course, this morning, we heard from President Putin, who's attending the 10th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, where he suggested that perhaps such a meeting might be possible, but on his terms.

[05:20:04]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We said that we're ready for meetings at the highest level. Listen, the Ukrainian side wants this meeting in is proposing it. I said, I'm ready. Please come. We will definitely provide conditions for work and security. A 100 percent guarantee. But if they're telling us we want to meet you but you go there for this meeting, it seems to me that these are simply excessive demands directed at us.

I repeat, once again, if anyone really wants to meet with us, we're ready. The best place for. This is the capital of the Russian Federation, the heroic city of Moscow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEDEMAN: Well, I don't think anybody in their right mind would accept such an invitation.

Certainly, President Zelenskyy has said it's a nonstarter to meet in Moscow. Perhaps a another neutral territory or city would be more appropriate, but neither side seems to be ready for that. Certainly not the Russians who want to do it on their home territory.

Now, as far as latest developments go, yesterday, the so-called Coalition of the Willing met in Paris. That's 26 countries, European and others who are allied with Ukraine trying to work out a formula for some sort of post-ceasefire security guarantees involving perhaps troops in Ukraine to guarantee any security arrangements.

The United States has made it clear it will not be putting any boots on the ground. And, of course, the problem is that the signals coming out of Washington are so erratic, unpredictable and fickle that it's very difficult for European leaders or any other leader to try to understand where to go from here.

President Trump -- yes, he put out another deadline which came to an end today. He's talking about consequences, but we've heard that before and there haven't been any consequences for Russia, for the fact that they have not even made one step toward a peace between Ukraine and Russia.

Now, the United States is in this position where its being led by a president who seems to change his mind on a daily basis, which leaves the Europeans severely confused. On the other hand, they understand that they have to flatter the American president. They have to praise his efforts, even though, as we've seen in the last three weeks, those efforts have led to naught -- Brian.

ABEL: Ben Wedeman reporting for us from Rome -- Ben, thank you.

Still ahead, Israel has mobilized tens of thousands of reserve troops as it ramps up its military takeover of Gaza City. We'll have the latest developments in a live report after the break.

Plus, Donald Trump is expected to rebrand the Defense Department later today. Details on the not so new name. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:27:36] ABEL: Health officials at al Shifa hospital say Israeli strikes on Gaza city overnight killed more than a dozen people, including at least seven children. A hospital spokesperson says the strikes targeted residential buildings and tent camps. CNN has reached out to the Israeli defense force for comment. Just hours earlier, there were other deadly attacks in Gaza City. Residents and displaced people say Israel conducted airstrikes in multiple locations and on the ground, Israeli tanks advanced, destroying homes and tents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The woman is getting ready to deliver the baby. Here are the Pampers for the baby. The clothes of the baby. It is her due month. What is her fault? This is a people's tent.

What is their fault? Make me understand. What is their fault? Is it a war against Hamas or a war against the people?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Israel's military says it currently holds 40 percent of Gaza City. As it escalates its offensive in the enclave. A spokesperson for the defense force says the military campaign will continue to expand and intensify in the days ahead.

Israel started mobilizing tens of thousands of reservists this week as part of its plan to take over Gaza city.

And for more on this, we go live now to London and CNN's Nada Bashir -- Nada.

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Brian, what we have seen in response to this move by the Israeli government, the Israeli military is growing international condemnation. We have seen large scale protests taking place across Israel, calling for an end to the war and calling for the Israeli government to secure the release of all hostages.

And, of course, despite this, we have also been hearing that messaging from the Israeli government, including the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, that the Israeli government remains determined to take control of Gaza City. And as you mentioned, we have certainly seen the intensification of Israel's military operation over the last few days and even overnight, where we have seen those continued airstrikes and artillery fire that continued movement of Israeli troops inwards towards Gaza City, where there are some 1 million civilians, civilians believed to be still living and sheltering in this very densely populated city.

And according to officials from the Al-Shifa hospital, where many of those casualties would have been dealt with overnight, there are believed to be still many tent cities that are coming under attack as a result of those airstrikes. And the fear is, of course, that these -- that this military operation will have yet another disastrous impact on the civilian population. We've been hearing the warnings from the U.N.'s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, warning that this.