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The Situation Room

Emmy Nominations Announced; Interview With Daniel Silva; Interview With Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN). Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired July 15, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: So what do you think overall the government embracing artificial intelligence?

REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN): I'm concerned about it, because I think that we're going to put too much emphasis on it.

And it's -- human intelligence is really the best you can have. And, of course, Intelligence Committee, we think different in human intelligence. But human intelligence in that respect and in just cerebral is the most important function and source that we have for protecting us and for having information.

And we shouldn't go too much into A.I., because it goes back into who feeds the beast. And the amount of energy that it consumes and the water it takes, the energy it takes, it's astronomical. And this, I feel, will have an effect on humans in the future and having energy necessary to heat their homes, to air-condition their homes and just to provide the daily activities that they want to have from having electricity available.

These computers and data centers just are -- they always will need more and more. And they're going to want to get bigger and bigger and they're going to take a bigger share of our energy sources. And that's at the expense of our citizenry and at the cost, because I think they're getting good deals, and they're not being taxed on all the money.

In Memphis, they are not being taxed on $12 billion, which is the value of their assets, but $2 billion. And the citizens will pay higher in residential fees who will end up subsidizing Elon Musk. I don't want to subsidize him in any way whatsoever.

What he did with DOGE hurt the United States government, hurt the United States public in taking away the safety net and just recklessly going out with his sledgehammer and then destroying the fundamentals that people like Franklin Roosevelt and Jimmy Carter and Hubert Humphrey built up over the years, even Richard Nixon on EPA.

And what they have done to the Department of Education and killing it, this is going to hurt children, it's going to hurt our futures in America, keeping up with the Chinese and being competitive in energy sources when we're not competing on alternative forms of energy and giving that over to the Chinese.

BROWN: And just to follow up really quickly, Congressman, on the Grok and the antisemitic content...

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Go ahead.

BROWN: ... that that was putting out, which is certainly very disturbing, Elon Musk for his part on what you had talked about with the salute that was controversial, he did deny that. He said that it was a dirty trick, the allegation that it was a Nazi salute, and that the everyone is Hitler attack is so tiresome.

I just want to make sure that we put that out there in response.

COHEN: Well, it's good that he denies that or tries to get away from it.

Nobody -- no good human being with any kind of morality and sense of justice would want to say that that's what they were doing and they'd find a way to try to deny it. But I have looked at it time and time again, and it's clearly something you have seen in the 1930s in Berlin right before Jesse Owens ran.

BROWN: You want to weigh in?

BLITZER: No, I'm just happy that Steve Cohen is back in THE SITUATION ROOM.

We will continue these conversations, Congressman, down the road. Thank you so much for joining us.

COHEN: Thank you. It's good to be back.

BLITZER: And, right now, we want to take a moment to remember a political legend whose voice has very sadly gone silent.

David Gergen was near and dear to the entire CNN family. He was a good friend of mine. He was an adviser to four U.S. presidents, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. After the White House, David went on to become a magazine editor, a Harvard professor and a longtime CNN political analyst. David was a voice of reason in American politics and a true champion of civic leadership.

He was also a beloved guest on my show, counted on to provide insightful political analysis, along with historical perspective, drawing upon his decades in politics. Here we are remembering the legacy of the late Senator Teddy Kennedy. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP);

BLITZER: David, as you remember, his biggest regret was not working with then President Nixon to get a compromise on health care reform that would have led to near-universal coverage.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, that's absolutely true. Richard Nixon surprisingly as a Republican did try to push for

universal health coverage. He wanted an employer mandate. And he had Bob Packwood and others in there working on it. He came close to getting it, as close as any president has. And I think Teddy Kennedy looked back upon that was a moment which might have brought it off.

It many ways it was often thought that Richard Nixon was the last liberal president and there was a natural alliance there with the Kennedy family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: David's family says he passed away last Thursday after a battle with Lewy body dementia. He was 83 years old.

Our deepest, deepest condolences to his family. May he rest in peace and may his memory be a blessing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:39:36]

BROWN: And this just into THE SITUATION ROOM.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal is pushing for Congress to adopt broader and stronger sanctions on countries that do business with Russia. He has co-sponsored the bill with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill.

Lauren, Senator Blumenthal says President Trump's recent threat of economic punishment is a hammer, but he calls the Senate bill a sledgehammer. Tell us more.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Senator Richard Blumenthal is the top Democratic sponsor of this Russia sanctions bill.

[11:40:06]

And he says, despite the fact that he does welcome the president's comments from yesterday and the belief that he thinks Donald Trump has really turned the page in terms of his view on Vladimir Putin, he said he still thinks the Senate should move forward with what he described as a more robust sanctions package than what the president was proposing yesterday.

Here's what he told me just a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): As welcome as the president's action is, I think we need to push even harder for our Russia sanctions bill because it is broader, stronger. The president is bringing down a hammer. We have a sledgehammer with 500 percent secondary tariffs, action against the Russian shadow fleet, other kinds of clear, strong, stringent penalties against China, India, Brazil that are fueling Russia's war machine.

And I'm very hopeful about the timing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: Now, when it comes to the timing, that is going to be up to Majority Leader John Thune, who, yesterday, after the president's comments, seemed to be much, much more skeptical that this was going to pass before the August recess.

We heard from Majority Leader Thune yesterday that he believed that Trump wants to take some of these actions on his own, but he did say that the Senate would be ready at a moment's notice to move forward with the sanctions bill if they believed that it was necessary and if they got a signal from the president that it was necessary. Obviously, that's far different than what you're hearing there from Richard Blumenthal.

But this decision will be up to the Republican majority leader, who again yesterday signaled that this may not be an immediate need they need to deal with before the Senate leaves town for August recess in just a few weeks -- Pam.

BROWN: All right, Lauren Fox, thanks so much -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Murder, greed, corruption, and a stolen masterpiece. A new spy novel from the number one "New York Times" bestselling author Daniel Silva has it all.

"An Inside Job," that's the name of his latest chapter in the blockbuster Gabriel Allon series, where the legendary spy and art restorer discovers the body of a woman floating in the Venetian Lagoon and finds himself in a desperate rage -- in a desperate race, I should say, to recover a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci.

"The Wall Street Journal" is calling it a summer book to get lost in and it hits the shelves today. Daniel Silva is joining us right now.

Daniel, before you became a bestselling "New York Times" novelist, you were a journalist. You worked together with me on CNN, including here on a show that I anchored called "INSIDE POLITICS WEEKEND." You covered the Arab-Israeli conflict. You have written about it in all of your novels. This has been a remarkable time in that region, as you and I well know.

Could you have imagined seeing the horrors of October 7 and subsequently Iran and Israel trading missile strikes?

DANIEL SILVA, AUTHOR, "AN INSIDE JOB": I have to say that I feared something like October 7 was going to happen.

In an early draft of a book called "The Collector," I actually put a reference to one of my characters' fears of an impending attack because Israel was so divided over this judiciary reform that Prime Minister Netanyahu was trying to undertake. And I feared that Israel might come under attack.

And a spectacular piece of reporting in "The New York Times" a few days ago, that that turned out to be the case that Hamas saw that Israel was quite divided and felt that Israel was vulnerable, and I'm afraid that I felt the same thing.

In terms of that it would go on for so many months and months and that the death toll would be so high and that the United States would join in an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities -- I'm pretty good at predicting things. I never could have imagined something like this.

BLITZER: Yes, it's amazing to me too. And I have covered that region for a long time.

How hopeful, Daniel, are you that we potentially, God willing, could be on the verge of a breakthrough with a cease-fire? How much pressure do you think Prime Minister Netanyahu is under right now to make that happen?

SILVA: I think he's under tremendous pressure. Israel's standing in the world has sunk to historic lows. He is shedding support here in the United States even. Elements of the MAGA coalition have had enough, which is quite interesting.

The European partners of Israel, Germany, France, Britain, who have been very close over the last few years, have had enough. And I think he is under pressure. But, of course, the coalition is the problem. In order to get into power, Benjamin Netanyahu recruited some very, very far right extremist elements into his coalition. And they are keeping him in this war longer than I think he would have preferred.

[11:45:08]

BLITZER: Let's talk about your excellent new book, and here it is, the cover. I will show to our viewers, "An Inside Job."

What can readers expect, especially those who have been reading all of your bestselling novels?

SILVA: Well, this one, a reviewer the other day referred to it as a cross between "The Da Vinci Code" and "The Thomas Crown Affair." And that's actually pretty close. It is part murder mystery. It's part caper novel. It's part Vatican thriller. It is sort of a perfect book to take to the beach or to the pool this summer. If you're planning to go to Europe on a holiday this summer and you couldn't make it, not to worry, you can go on a great adventure with Gabriel Allon in this one.

BLITZER: How much of this book was inspired, Daniel, by real-life events?

SILVA: Oh, it is not quite a roman a clef, as we say, but it was inspired by real-life events and a recent financial scandal at the Vatican involving a cardinal who made some terrible investment blunders that cost the Vatican hundreds of millions of dollars and enriched his business partners.

He was summarily fired by the late Pope Francis. It was a huge, huge scandal. I borrowed elements of that and wove it into this story.

BLITZER: Well, Daniel Silva, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for writing this excellent new book, "An Inside Job." Once you start reading it, you can't put it down.

SILVA: Thank you, Wolf. Thank you so much, Wolf.

BLITZER: We are all grateful to you. Thank you very, very much.

SILVA: Thank you. It's so nice to see you again.

BLITZER: Always good to see you.

SILVA: I feel like I should be in the control room, though, instead of in front of the camera.

BLITZER: You could have been in the control room, because remember, in those days, you were writing things like: "I'm Wolf Blitzer, the events, the issues, the battles, the bites."

SILVA: Well, I have some news for you. I have some news for you.

BLITZER: Yes.

SILVA: Abigail Crutchfield, Charlie Moore said, they will hire me back if you will have me. I can come work for you again.

BLITZER: Well, you're making too much money with these "New York Times" bestsellers.

SILVA: I'm doing OK, just OK.

BLITZER: You're doing great. Thanks very much, Dan.

SILVA: Thank you so much, Wolf. Thank you.

BROWN: And, by the way, his wife, Jamie Gangel, is one of my favorite people.

BLITZER: One of my favorites too.

BROWN: Aside from you, Wolf, of course.

BLITZER: Yes. No. Yes.

BROWN: All right, and coming up: unreleased music from Beyonce stolen from a car -- what's now missing and who officials believe is responsible.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:51:50]

BROWN: Just into THE SITUATION ROOM, the nominees have just been announced for the 77th prime-time Emmy Awards and some well-known names are in the mix for TV's top honor, including Colin Farrell, Cate Blanchett, and Seth Rogen.

BLITZER: Want to go to CNN senior entertainment reporter Lisa France right now.

Which shows dominated today, Lisa? And any major surprises or snubs, for that matter, thus far?

LISA FRANCE, CNN SENIOR ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Well, good morning, you guys.

"Severance" dominated in the drama category and that just appears to be everybody's beloved show. It's quirky. It's very different. It's doing really well in terms of the ratings. And Apple TV has a definite hit with that

And when it comes to comedy, of course, everybody was excited for "Hacks" and "The Bear" and "Things Like That," and, of course, "Abbott Elementary." but Seth Rogen's "The Studio" did really well when it came to those nominations because it's an insider look into Hollywood. And when people think Seth Rogen, they know that they're going to get really smart comedy.

And clearly the Emmy folks agreed with that because it appears to be dominating. As for snubs, I will say that the main thing that really stuck out to me was that Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon, neither one of them were nominated in the late-night category, which was kind of interesting to me.

So -- but, yes, folks are really excited. The 77th Emmys celebrating, of course, the best in television is, I think, going to be quite the show because we have some of our old favorites like "Hacks" and "The Bear" that are also nominated. And so I think we will get a good mix of the older shows that we have come to love and some of the newer kids on the block, as they say.

BROWN: All right, let's talk about something else. This is a big developing story today in the entertainment world.

BLITZER: Major news.

BROWN: Major news. Wolf is paying very close attention to this because he loves Beyonce. And someone stole hard drives of Beyonce's unreleased music from a car, her work stolen from Christopher Grant. That's her choreographer during this "Cowboy Carter" tour stop in Atlanta.

Let's listen to the portion of the 911 call and discuss on the other side.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: Do you have address of where your computer is?

CHRISTOPHER GRANT, CHOREOGRAPHER: So it's following them, because it's on Find My, Like Find My iPhone. They have my computers. And it's really, really important information in there. Like, I work with someone who is like of a high status.

And I really need the -- my computer and everything.

911 OPERATOR: What's your name?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BROWN: So what's going on? What more can you tell us, Lisa?

FRANCE: What I can tell you is that person, whoever -- person or persons who allegedly took the hard drives that has unreleased Beyonce music and stuff, better watch out, because the Hive is on the lookout.

People are very concerned. We know that we're going to get an "Act III" album from Beyonce. So the fact that there's unreleased music from her out there in addition to some other sensitive material, including plans for the tour, people are very upset about this because they do not want Beyonce's music to leak before she's ready for it.

She's beloved. So much like Wolf, we all love Beyonce and they just want her to get her stuff back.

BROWN: Yes, you got to watch out for the Hive.

BLITZER: And I do really love Beyonce. You know that.

BROWN: Yes, I know.

FRANCE: She loves you too, Wolf. She loves you too.

[11:55:00]

BROWN: He loves all music, by the way. He doesn't discriminate. He loves all music.

FRANCE: Oh, I was at the Soul Train Awards with Wolf. I know. I know.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: That's right.

BLITZER: You remember when I learned how to do the Dougie?

FRANCE: I was there in the front row.

BLITZER: OK, Doug E. Fresh and me, the BET Soul Train Awards.

FRANCE: Yes.

BROWN: I posted that on my Instagram.

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: Can't forget it.

BLITZER: All right, good work. BROWN: Thanks, Lisa.

FRANCE: Thank you.

BLITZER: And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

You can always keep up with us on social media @WolfBlitzer and @PamelaBrownCNN. We will see you back here tomorrow morning, every weekday morning, 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

BROWN: You said that with some extra gusto. I liked that, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" up next after a short break.