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Hawley Sides with Democrats on Trading Bill; Inflation Heated Back up in June; Student Loan Borrowers See Interest Restart; Questions about Cognitive Decline. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 31, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:33:19]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, a notable development in the Senate. Missouri Republican Josh Hawley has voted with Democrats. A Senate committee has advanced Hawley's bill, titled the Pelosi Act, that would ban members of Congress and their spouses, as well as, ultimately, presidents and vice presidents, from trading stocks. If it becomes law, politicians would have to gradually divest their holdings. Every Republican on the panel opposed it, but Hawley.

Someone else who seems to oppose this, President Trump. He wrote, in part, quote, "I don't think real Republicans want to see their president, who has had unprecedented success, targeted because of the whims of a second tier senator named Josh Hawley."

Now, Hawley is responding to the president's criticism, saying he loves him and reiterates that this bill would not take effect until the end of President Trump's term.

With us now, CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings, and Christine Quinn, the executive committee chair of the New York State Democratic Committee.

I just think this is an interesting fight that the president decided to pick with Josh Hawley on a notable issue that Hawley has now made sure wont impact President Trump.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, there's some intra party conversations going on about how to do this, and whether Democrats may be trying to use it to specifically target the president. So, I don't know how it's going to turn out.

I do know the politics of it though.

BERMAN: Which are?

JENNINGS: It's an 80/20 issue. People don't think members of Congress should be able to day trade on insider knowledge.

Now, my personal view is, I don't have a problem if people own things, and they sit in a blind trust or whatever. But, you know, to the average person, the idea that you might know something that then could allow you to make a trade that would then benefit you, that the average person wouldn't know, it doesn't feel right. And so that -- that's the impetus behind the deal. I mean a lot of members of Congress have done quite well in the stock market.

[08:35:02]

BERMAN: You say it's an 80/20 issue. What side is President Trump on there?

JENNINGS: Well, I -- I --

BERMAN: The 20? The 20? The 20?

JENNINGS: I -- I think he -- I think he wants to ban it. I think he's worried about this specific version. So, we'll see what happens.

BERMAN: Geez. When you see this play, Christine, you know, what do you think?

CHRISTINE QUINN, EXEC. COMMITTEE CHAIR, NY STATE DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE: Well, I think a couple things.

One, this can't be targeting the president because it doesn't go into effect until afterwards. So, sometimes it seems like the president misses the nuance.

Two, Scott's absolutely right, a lot of members of Congress, in both parties, have done extremely hard to imagine well. And this bill makes a lot of sense in a kind of what's fair is fair for the average American and members of Congress.

But Trump, I think, just raises -- raises in doing this the issue that by some reports 40 percent of his wealth he's received since he's been in office two times. What's going on that he's so nervous that this specter even berates?

BERMAN: Let me just ask you a different way. If you're running in the midterms in 2026, do you -- would you rather run for this bill, with this bill, or against it?

QUINN: Yes. Yes, you want to be for this bill. This is a treat Congress, treat the president like everybody else.

BERMAN: Yes.

QUINN: Nobody's above what's fair. Nobody's above the law.

JENNINGS: Yes, I mean, to say that we're going to treat members of Congress like this would be fine. And it can't -- I mean, look, my view is, the midterms are going to be rise and fall on how the general economy is doing.

BERMAN: Right.

JENNINGS: But -- but, yes, this is something you would be for. BERMAN: All right, I want you to -- if you can, if it's humanly

possible, take off your partisan hats, put on your strategist hats now, right. Vice president -- former Vice President Kamala Harris has announced she's not running for governor of California. What's the political calculation there, Christine? Do you think that this is positioning to run for president? Do you think she's making a mistake by not taking this opportunity in California?

QUINN: I think she thinks she's well positioning herself to run for president. And I think she probably, incorrectly, assumes that if she runs for president, it'll just be given to her. That's far from the truth. There is going to be a robust, aggressive Democratic primary. And she -- if she wants -- is going to run for president, has to go through it all.

I think she's made a mistake. I think she would be a great governor. I think she should have seized this opportunity to serve because passing it over kind of sends the message, you're not really about taking opportunities to serve, you're looking for particular positions and particular levels of elevation.

BERMAN: The reason I ask you to take off the partisan hats, and I do appreciate the way you answered that, Christine, is because I'm curious what you think of it as a political decision, not what you think of her politics.

JENNINGS: Yes. My guess is, they looked at some polling and thought there was a high risk that she wasn't going to win. I mean I'm not so sure all the Democrats in California were so hot to trot about this. There's a huge amount of risk that she could have lost.

I agree, I don't think it's going to be handed to her in 2028, but hope springs eternal that you guys go back to the Kamala Harris well one more time. Hope springs eternal, Christine. Please, bring us Kamala. Let's give it round two.

BERMAN: I -- the hat didn't stay off for long. Maybe a second, but the hat went back on there at the end.

All right, Social Security. The Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, was doing an interview where he was talking about part of what passed in the huge tax and spending bill, which are these new investment accounts that have been created as part of that. Listen to how he explained what he thinks one of the advantages is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: Young people are disillusioned with the system. So, when you do this, you make everyone a shareholder. You make everyone a stakeholder. People who are part of the system do not want to bring down the system. At Treasury, we are going to push, with these accounts, that if you have the account, we want you to learn about it. We want you to understand it. It is a backdoor for privatizing Social Security.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: That last part, for someone who's covered politics now for almost 30 years, is like a, oh, my, he just said, privatize Social Security, which growing up was always the third rail of politics. And then he called it a backdoor to privatizing Social Security. So -- so not just saying that, you know, it's a path they want to take, but saying it's sort of a workaround there. What did you think when you heard that?

QUINN: Those are deadly words. Those are words that are going to send fear into the heart of everyone who is on Social Security, or everyone who is going to be on Social Security, which is just about everyone.

And the backdoor phrasing is just bizarre, right? You're kind of saying, yes, this is what we've been thinking for a long time, and we can't do it aggressively and plainly, we're going to do it this way. Talk about midterms. Forget about it. That's a TV commercial over and over and over.

JENNINGS: Oh, I feel like I've gotten into a time machine and gone back to 2005, when I lived through this with President George W. Bush.

BERMAN: How -- how -- how did it feel then?

JENNINGS: I -- I -- well, I did -- I will just say, I did look up the math. If you'd invested $100 in the Nasdaq in 2005 would be worth $930 now. If you invested $100 in Social Security back then it's worth one to 1.5 maybe.

And so, the idea that you would supplement your retirement by investing in the American stock market over -- over a long period of time, for a young person, is objectively a good idea.

[08:40:10]

And so, at the time, the argument was, the people who were going into the system would be exempted and so on. It was for younger people. That's still the same argument today.

BERMAN: But politically.

JENNINGS: Oh, politically, I'm sure Democrats will scare everybody to death, even though --even though if we -- if we had put young people in investment accounts in 2005, they'd be in much better shape today than they would be under the current system.

QUINN: Little different than privatizing the whole system, which is what he said.

BERMAN: Christine Quinn, Scott Jennings, thank you both for coming in this morning. Hat or otherwise.

All right, Shannon Sharpe out at ESPN after settling a sexual assault lawsuit. How he is reacting this morning.

And a brand-new inflation report just in. I was talking to these two nice people, so I have no idea what it says. Find out after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new economic news coming in. A new read on the state of the U.S. economy. A new inflation report just out.

[08:45:00]

Let's bring in Matt Egan for much more on this.

Let's start there and then we'll continue with much more.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Kate, yes, look, we did just learn that the Fed's favorite inflation metric heated up in June. So, the annual rate for prices is 2.6 percent year over year. That is more than expected. And that is a four month high. It's up from 2.4 percent in May.

Now, the monthly rate also went in the wrong direction at 0.3 percent, as expected.

This is an acceleration in inflation. It's not an alarming one, like a few years ago, right? Inflation is still below that. But it is a notable move with prices heating up because it means that everyone's paychecks, they're just not going as far as they used to.

Now, economists, Fed officials, they like to look at core inflation, as you know, right, because it strips out food and energy.

BOLDUAN: Right.

EGAN: Well, you know what, that moved in the wrong direction as well on a monthly basis. And on an annual basis, it got -- we're talking about 2.8 percent core inflation. That's not what you want, right? I mean the Fed is targeting 2 percent. That's what they consider healthy.

Now, why did this happen? We just got this report a few moments ago. Still digging through. But one thing to call out is that we did see a significant heating up of prices when it comes to durable goods. And we do know that a lot of durable goods are imported. And those imported goods, they are subject to historically high tariffs.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: So, I think when you put it all together, this is not the kind of report that Fed officials want to see as they consider slashing interest rates, like the president wants them to do. And, obviously, it's not what a lot of consumers want to see because they're concerned about the cost of living right now.

BOLDUAN: But, at the same time, consumers are still spending. Add this in.

EGAN: They -- yes, they are. They are. This new report shows that consumer spending during the month of June, it did rebound. It increased at 0.3 percent on a monthly basis. That's an improvement from May, which was revised higher to unchanged. So, we know that consumer spending, it's the biggest driver of this U.S. economy, and it is extremely important that people continue to spend money to keep the economy going. So, it is good news that that rebounded.

But I do think there is this concern about how long that can continue, right?

BOLDUAN: Right.

EGAN: Because you do have those sky high tariffs. It feels like every hour we're getting a new announcement on just how high tariffs are going. And at the same time, as Fed Chair Powell noted yesterday, there are some cracks starting to emerge with the job market, right? Unemployment still low, but hiring has slowed down. So, they're watching that closely to make sure the job market stays healthy and people can continue to spend.

BOLDUAN: All right, Matt, thank you so much for bringing it to us.

EGAN: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: All right, in less than 24 hours, nearly 8 million student loan borrowers could see their monthly payments skyrocket as a Biden era repayment program comes to an end. It's known as the "SAVE" Plan. It was created to help some low-income borrowers struggling to keep up with high interest loans.

Let's get right to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty.

Sunlen, you've been reporting on these people and the changes that are about to come. What have you heard?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, people are certainly worried about these changes. But more than anything, the people I spoke to are really concerned and confused and really having a hard time navigating this, given that that massive changes undergoing the student loan landscape right now, it's really confusing all of them.

Now, this specific change only applies to people who are enrolled in the "SAVE" plan. Changes will start tomorrow. And this is when people will start to see interest accrue on their accounts once again.

Now, people who had been in this plan, they have been in no interest forbearance. That basically meant that since last summer their balances were frozen, their monthly payments were paused. But that is what is now going to change.

So, starting tomorrow, people in this plan will start to see interest once again accrue on their account. Meaning, that big, overall dollar figure that people are facing, that will start to go up for the first time in a year. And people I spoke to are certainly concerned. They went to this plan and specifically enrolled in this plan because they were facing massive amounts of debt and really liked that this plan prevented them -- the interest from ballooning out of control. One woman I spoke to, she's 31 years old. She just graduated medical school. She doesn't make a lot right now in her residency program, and she's facing $300,000 of debt. And she said this plan really helped her. She's facing the reality of this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRONTE REMSIK, "SAVE" PLAN BORROWER: I've spent my entire 20s in school, and so now, in my 30s, and as a young professional, I would love to have a life. I would love to be able to, you know, go on vacation and to eat dinner out and to live a normal, human life in the very limited free time that I have. And now, you know, the financial walls just feel like they're crashing down around me, when I thought graduating medical school was the big win.

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[08:50:02]

SERFATY: Now, notably, one thing driving a lot of this confusion is these changes were made very abruptly, with very little notice from the Department of Education. Only three weeks ago they announced these changes that really set off a scramble they say. And student loan experts, John, also encouraged people to be as proactive as possible in this moment and investigate and see if another plan works better for you.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, don't -- don't fall behind and know what you are facing.

Sunlen Serfaty, thank you so much for this report.

A fighter jet pilot ejects from his F-35 just moments before it crashes and bursts into flames.

And what steps can you take to stop or slow down cognitive decline? The latest research, ahead.

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[08:55:06]

BOLDUAN: This morning, a man is now facing capital murder charges for the death of a couple who were attacked and killed while hiking in Arkansas. James McGann (INAUDIBLE) was arrested yesterday at a barbershop (INAUDIBLE) bodies were found. (INAUDIBLE). Police say instrumental in finding the suspect was an overwhelming amount of tips they say came in from the public. Officials found the bodies of Clinton and Cristen Brink Saturday on a popular hiking trail in the Ozarks. They were hiking with their two young daughters, just seven and nine years old. The children were not harmed. The motive has not yet been determined.

We're hearing from former NFL star Shannon Sharpe after ESPN cut ties with the "First Take" frontman. Sharpe was let -- let go from ESPN less than two weeks after he settled a lawsuit with a woman who accused him of multiple instances of sexual assault and battery. Sharpe addressed this Wednesday on his podcast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHANNON SHARPE: Obviously, I'm sure everybody's heard the news by now that I will not be returning to ESPN. I found out this information a little earlier in the week. And, really, the only thing that I really ask is like, wait until Monday. (INAUDIBLE). My brother is going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I really want it to be about him, and I want it to be about my family. I know this would -- I've said, this coming out will overshadow everything that he's worked his entire life for. And, unfortunately, you know, it didn't happen that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Hs legal team has previously described the lawsuit as an attempt to, quote/unquote, "shake down the host."

There's new video coming into CNN showing the aftermath of a Navy fighter jet crash in California Wednesday. Thick black smoke seen coming from the site. The pilot of the F-35 was able to safely eject. That's according to the Navy. The Navy also says that this happened over an open farmland near an air station in central California. This is the second crash of an F-35 this year. The cause of this is still under investigation.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, the latest research on stopping or slowing cognitive decline.

CNN chief medical correspondent, and author of "Keep Sharp," Dr. Sanjay Gupta is back with us today to answer what you can do to keep your brain strong.

Sanjay, we asked people to write their questions in, and I have some of them for you right here.

Allan from Ottawa, Canada, asks, "does having type two diabetes accelerate cognitive decline if you are over the age of 70?"

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so, this is a good question. And the short answer is, yes. Diabetes can be a risk factor for dementia. Even Alzheimer's disease. Some have even called Alzheimer's type three diabetes as a result.

A little bit of -- a little bit of context, John. About 11 percent of the general population in the United States has diabetes, confirmed, diagnosed. When you get over the age of 65, that number jumps to closer to 30 percent. So, you have a, you know, almost three times, two and a half times as much. You have a much higher risk of having diabetes. And probably as a result of that, increased blood sugar, and also something known as insulin resistance, where your insulin just isn't working as well, that seems to affect your -- your -- your cognitive abilities later in life as well. So, definitely a correlation there, John.

BERMAN: Something to monitor for sure.

All right, Cal wants to know, "what kind of impacts can learning a new language or learning to play a new instrument have on cognitive decline?"

GUPTA: This is a -- this is a really interesting question because there's been a lot of studies on this. People have -- have talked about brain training and all these different things you can do to -- to train your brain, to -- to ward off dementia. What they find, interestingly, is that a lot of things, like crossword puzzles or even number games, they don't do a great job in terms of actually slowing down dementia or preventing it. Crossword puzzles, if you do them a lot, probably make you very good at crossword puzzles, but not necessarily in terms of actually improving your cognition.

The key in that question that was just asked, learning something new, doing something different, that tends to activate different parts of the brain.

Also, you know, a really interesting study, John. There was a study of twins. One had dementia. One did not. They went back and looked through their history, and they found, if you played a musical instrument, compared to your twin, you had a much lower chance of developing dementia later on in life. So, sort of genetically controlled experiment, small one, but I thought that was interesting as well.

BERMAN: So, both my twins, one played the trumpet, one played the baritone, although they both quit. I wonder what that means long term for them.

All right, Sanjay, we had a lot of people --

GUPTA: We'll check them out.

BERMAN: We had a lot of people write in and ask, people say they're seeing products out there that you seem to be promoting, right? And they say it looks like it might be A.I., like this.

[08:59:54]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER LIKENESS CREATED BY A.I.: Scientists believe they may have finally found a natural way to not only fight but potentially reverse the devastating effects of the disease. The most surprising part? The key isn't some new drug. It all comes down to a simple honey recipe and a powerful traditional Indian root developed by Dr. Sanjay Gupta.