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Sources: Trump Expected to Pick Dr. Heidi Overton to Lead FDA; Trump Speaks After Delaying 50 Percent Tariffs on Some Canadian Goods; Baby at Center of Surrogacy Fight Has Heart Surgery. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired August 19, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, sources telling CNN that President Trump is expected to nominate a longtime ally to head the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Heidi Overton has helped developed the administration healthcare agenda. The president has been searching for a new FDA commission since Dr. Marty Makary resigned some three months ago under intense pressure from the White House.

I want to bring in our CNN medical correspondent, Meg Tirrell. Meg, what can you tell us about Dr. Overton?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, she is an MD. She also holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins, where Dr. Marty Makary also worked. She has been working as a policy aide in the White House. She was also part of the first Trump administration. Pardon me.

And as you noted, she has been central to a lot of the health policy coming out of the Trump administration. And if she is indeed nominated, she'll of course have to go through a confirmation process, which could have her facing Senator Bill Cassidy, who is the Republican chair of the Senate Health Committee, also a doctor himself, and who has clashed really within the last week, especially with the Trump administration over its vaccine policies under Trump and Health Secretary RFK Jr., specifically about that vaccine executive order that Trump signed last week.

Now, Dr. Overton was in the Oval Office when the president signed that executive order. And so, she's bound to face questions, if nominated, about her stance toward vaccines, as the FDA, of course, regulates 20 percent of the economy, including vaccines, drugs and food. So, there'll be questions about that, as well as questions about her stance, pardon me, on medication abortion, including vaccines, drugs and food.

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So, there'll be questions about that, as well as questions about her stance pardon me, on medication abortion, where the FDA has been pressured to conduct a safety review. She has expressed views about abortion in the past that may align more with Senator Bill Cassidy, who's been pressing for that safety review. She'll also be faced with a lot of questions about peptides, how they are going to ensure food safety. Many, many questions for Dr. Overton, if she is indeed nominated into this role, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Meg Tirrell with an update. Thank you very, very much, Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. so coming up here in the Situation Room, what happens when a surrogate refuses to end a pregnancy? Still ahead, how a courtroom fight over a newborn critical condition could reshape surrogacy laws nationwide.

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[11:40:00]

BLITZER: Breaking news. President Trump just spoke about his planned tariffs for imports coming into the United States from Canada. The 50 percent levies were set to go into effect today, but the president is now hitting the pause button. Here's what he just said. Listen to this.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Yes. We had a very good conversation with the prime minister last night and we've come to a deal with Canada. As you know, the 50 percent tariffs across the board were going on against Canada today. And they called yesterday and they gave us the points that we had to have. Very fair deal for both. The tariffs will be non-existent for our farmers. Our farmers were paying tremendous tariffs into Canada and those tariffs are going to be totally eviscerated down to zero.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is the U.S. going to lower tariffs on (INAUDIBLE) autos for --

TRUMP: We're doing certain things. We're giving -- got to give something and we're doing certain things. They were paying a high number. We're reducing it a little bit. It's good for everybody. But our farmers are going to be thrilled. Our manufacturers are going to be thrilled. And basically, we have no tariffs going into Canada anymore. Canada was charging us tremendous tariffs. We no longer have any tariffs.

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BLITZER: All right. for more on the view from Canada right now, I want to bring in the former Quebec premier, Jean Charest. Jean Charest, thanks so much for joining us. Welcome back to our show.

JEAN CHAREST, MEMBER, ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON CANADA-U.S. ECONOMIC RELATIONS, 29TH PREMIER OF QUEBEC AND FORMER QUEBEC PREMIER: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: First off, what's your reaction to what we just heard from President Trump?

CHAREST: Well, we made a lot of progress in the last few weeks in negotiations. We re-engaged after the president announced a new series of tariffs invoking an old piece of Smoot-Hawley (ph) legislation, Section 338. And both the prime minister, Carney, and President Trump decided to re-engage. We've been at the table. We've been talking and that in itself is good news.

Canada wants a few things. We do not want these new tariffs to come in into play. We also want the American side to reduce the tariffs under the 232s. Those are the tariffs of 50 percent on steel and aluminum, tariffs on cars, tariff on softwood lumber, in particular. And on the American side, Wolf, the administration has been telling us that they want to revisit the quota allocation for milk that was negotiated by President Trump the last time because the American side's not filling its quota. And I think there's maneuvering room for there for us to talk.

We had imposed counter tariffs on cars. They want that to go away. But they also, on the American side, want the provinces in Canada to put American booze back on the shelves. You may remember at the very beginning of this tariff story, the American, the Canadian governments, the provincial governments who run the liquor stores in Canada took American booze off the shelves. It's their decision whether to put it back on or not. And that was also part of what the American side was asking us to do.

And once we do all that, by the way, then we have to get down to talking about how we pursue our negotiations on CUSMA in general, which we hope to deal with as rapidly as possible.

BLITZER: You're a key member of the Prime Minister Mark Carney's advisory committee on Canada-U.S. economic relations. Have you heard anything this morning from the prime minister?

CHAREST: Well, we know -- we found out this morning that our minister who's responsible, his name is Dominic LeBlanc, was meeting with Jameson Greer this morning at 11.15. There is -- these new tariffs were supposed to come into place on midnight last night. There's a three-day pause so that we can finish off the negotiations.

Expect both sides to be very careful on what they'll be saying. No one wants to derail what looks like a possible deal. And if we do get an agreement, what it'll give both sides is just more certainty. And, you know, there's no one -- by the way, Wolf, in the United States, the business community, there's no one out there who's saying, let's undo CUSMA. They're very supportive of the business and trade relationship with Canada, including doing away with tariffs.

We understand the president's position. He's made it very clear. We get that. But we want an agreement that is going to be good for both sides. I will give you one example. Aluminum. It does not make sense for the American side to tariff aluminum. We send 2.7 million tons a year. Aluminum is made of -- 40 percent of it is made of energy.

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It's the -- we export to the United States the equivalent of five Hoover dams worth of energy when we export clean aluminum, green aluminum. And, and you need that. And with what's happening in the Strait of Hormuz. So, there's a, there's a good example where tariffs are not working for the American side and where we should take them off. Same thing where autos, where markets are very integrated.

BLITZER: Very quickly before I let you go, Premier. The -- a lot of stories coming out that Canadians are so angry at the United States right now that they're basically refusing to buy U.S. imported products into Canada, like Kentucky bourbon, for example. And they're refusing to even come to the United States, to go to Florida, for example, because they're irritated with the U.S. How significant is that?

CHAREST: There's no one in the federal government saying to Canadians not to go to the United States or to not buy American booze, though the provinces took it off the shelves. Canadians are reacting to a situation where they're challenged by the American administration.

But the perspective on this, Wolf, that Canadians say to themselves, well, we need to buy more Canadian. It's not that we're hostile to the United States. We want to buy more Canadian products, which is exactly what you want your American citizens to do with American products. So, that's the dynamic it's created.

But let's get beyond this trade conflict that we have. And if we do, we're going to return to a relationship where we -- you know, Canada and the United States have one of the best relationships in the world. And we support each other's economy. We're more efficient. We're more productive together. And that's what we want. We want to have a relationship that is going to be good for the American side and good for the Canadian side.

BLITZER: And let's hope that happens. The former Quebec Premier, Jean Charest, thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it very, very much. And we'll be right back.

CHAREST: Thank you.

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[11:50:00]

BROWN: Happening now, the baby at the center of a surrogacy dispute is recovering from the first of several surgeries for a severe heart condition. This case has drawn national attention. The surrogate mother, McKenna West, went to Texas to have the baby, and she claims a California couple she carried the child for pressured her to end the pregnancy when prenatal tests revealed this heart condition.

So, West has asked a Dallas court to give her custody. A couple denies the claim that they intended to refuse surgery once the child was born. They've accused West of breaking the surrogacy contract, and they also obtained a restraining order that keeps her from seeing or holding the newborn. So, I want to dig into the medical, ethical, and legal questions surrounding this.

Joining us now are NYU bioethics professor Arthur Caplan and Alexis Cirel. She's a fertility and family law attorney who has two children born via surrogate. Dr. Caplan, I want to start with you. Big picture, have we ever seen anything like this before?

PROF. ARTHUR CAPLAN, NYU GROSSMAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AND BIOETHICS PROFESSOR: Well, believe it or not, Pamela, fights about surrogacy have been

going on for 40 years. A case just like this 40 years ago, New Jersey, Mary Beth Whitehead, surrogate, got into a dispute with a couple that commissioned a baby, ran from New Jersey to Florida, set off a two- year court process. We have never figured out how to regulate surrogacy.

So, many of these issues are contracts binding. Do surrogates actually understand what they're getting into? Can people change their minds? And what can somebody be forced to do, required to do under contract, including abortion if they're a surrogate? Still unsettled, literally after four decades.

BROWN: Wow. So, then Alexis, walk us through the legal aspect here at how enforceable surrogacy contracts are depending on the jurisdiction you're in.

ALEXIS CIREL, ATTORNEY WHO BUILT HER FAMILY VIA SURROGACY AND FERTILITY AND FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Sure. Thanks. I mean, you know, I want to start by saying this is such a tragic story, but I really do have to beg to differ that it is -- that it's common. I mean, this is such an outlier. My colleagues and I who practice in this space, we facilitate legal components of surrogacy arrangements day in and day out. And with very, very rare exception, the process is streamlined, it's balanced, it's mutually rewarding, and it's really a miraculous way of building families.

And this is thanks to a robust system of safeguards that we have in place. We have statutory regimes in many states. We have guidelines and ethical rules promulgated by professional organizations like American Society of Reproductive Medicine, the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys. And we have Model Acts.

And these are all designed to ensure that the parties are aligned even before attempting a pregnancy. This starts with the matching process. It involves facilitated mental health counseling sessions and culminates really in an informed and voluntary contract. A negotiation process for both sides of independent legal counsel. So, you know, I very much beg to differ that we haven't figured out a way to do this in an ethical and safe way.

BROWN: But I mean, obviously, this case, while it might be an outlier, has raised a lot of those questions. And so, Dr. Caplan, I wonder where you stand on this and whether she, Wes, did the right thing by going ahead and having this baby.

CAPLAN: Well, look, there may be outlier cases, but they show weaknesses and big problems with respect to surrogacy. Look, things vary state to state. Some states don't even allow surrogacy. Others won't enforce contracts. There are people bringing in surrogates from overseas. It's not clear they know what's going on. So, we're going to disagree that the area is well regulated. I do agree, not anti-surrogacy. I think you can build families using surrogates that are hired and paid. But the power relationship is not equal. The surrogate is usually much poorer, lacks resources. Nobody guarantees independent legal representation for the surrogate, which is an absolute must.

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Nobody should be able to write in a contract that you have to get an abortion if the baby is found to have a heart defect or any problem. That's obviously unethical and wrong. So, I think we've got work to do. All that said, this case, you could spend a semester teaching it. It has every issue. Whose laws apply if you run from state to state? What can be in the contract? Everything that is a problem in surrogacy is right here.

BROWN: All right. And it is true that so many times there are positive outcomes, right? And that is the majority of cases. But cases like this do raise important questions. And I appreciate you both coming on to tackle those questions. Alexis Cirel, Arthur Caplan, thank you so much.

And we want to get to some breaking news. A woman has told the House Ethics Committee that Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez sexually harassed and assaulted her. Her attorney said in a new statement obtained by me and my colleague, Allie Gordon, that the Ethics Committee announced Monday that it had not -- that it had opened this investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Gomez, including engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with a staffer, which would be a violation of House ethics rules.

Now, when we first broke this story a while back, Gomez acknowledged that he made personal mistakes "outside my marriage," that was his quote, but said that his actions, quote, "were consensual in nature and haven't violated the law or House ethics rules."

However, one woman who has not publicly shared her name told the committee Gomez's actions toward her were not consensual, according to her attorneys. In a statement, they wrote, we represent one of the women who was interviewed by the House Ethics Committee about her experience of sexual harassment and assault by Rep. Jimmy Gomez. Contrary to Representative Gomez's assertion in his statement, his actions were not consensual in nature with respect to our client. We fully expect that the House Committee on Ethics will come to the same conclusion in its investigation.

Now, Gomez did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the attorney's allegations, which CNN has not independently corroborated. It was not clear from Gomez's earlier statement about a consensual relationship, whether he was referring to his actions with the same woman. A spokesperson for the House Ethics Committee declined to comment on the attorney's statement.

BLITZER: And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media, @wolf blitzer and @pamelabrowncnn. BROWN: And we'll see you back here tomorrow morning and every weekday morning at 10:00 Eastern. Inside Politics with our friend and colleague Dana Bash starts after a quick break.

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