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A Closer Look at Trump's Close Personal Assistant Natalie Harp; Millions in U.S. Face Dangerous and Likely Record-Setting Heat Wave; Witkoff, Kushner to Meet with Qatari Prime Minister in Doha Today; Speaker Mike Johnson Backs New 60-Day Clock if Iran Fighting Flares Up; Supreme Court to Rule on Birthright Citizenship, Transgender Athletes; GOP Rep. Tom Kean Expected Back on Capitol Hill After 4- Month Absence. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 30, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Her life by signing the Right to Try Act in 2019. She claims that allowed her to receive experimental cancer treatment.

NATALIE HARP, SPECIAL AND EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT: I'm not dying from cancer anymore thanks to President Trump. I'm living with cancer.

KAYE (voice-over): She shared her story and credited Trump, again, at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

HARP: I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for you. They didn't give me the right to try experimental treatments, Mr. President. You did.

And without you, I'd have died waiting for them to be approved.

KAYE (voice-over): The Washington Post has raised questions about her claims. In Regime Change, the authors report that Harp stays late into the night at the White House, when President Trump is often active on social media.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CO-AUTHOR, REGIME CHANGE: Natalie Harp is one of the people who took over posting duties to the President's Truth Social post in this term, and that makes her fairly significant.

KAYE (voice-over): In May, the Wall Street Journal reported that "Harp has frustrated some White House officials because she typically doesn't share draft posts with the chief of staff's office, communications aides, or national security officials." The paper also reported that Harp has told others she works for Trump and only listens to him. Soon after Trump began his second term, according to the authors of Regime Change, Trump told staffers that Harp was the only one who loved him as much as his wife and kids.

All of you will go off and make money, Trump said. She'll never leave me.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Palm Beach County, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, a warning. It's going to be scorching, potentially deadly temperatures set to engulf millions of Americans starting today, lasting four days and spanning from the Midwest to the East Coast. Why officials say this is not a heat wave to take lightly.

Also breaking news on the talks the president said were set for today between U.S. and Iranian negotiators. They're not happening. New reporting on what happens next.

And caught on camera, a woman struck by lightning outside of a church. She now says it's a miracle, she's alive.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So this morning, millions of people across the eastern half of the United States are essentially bracing, bracing for potentially record setting heat. And it's set to peak over this holiday weekend. The National Weather Service is really honestly telling everyone essentially like this heat wave is different.

Cities from Chicago to New York are going to see consecutive days of temperatures in the mid 90s to the low 100s. New York City Central Park could record 100 degrees for the first time since 2012. D.C. could see three or more consecutive days of 100 degree heat. That's really only happened a handful of times ever before there.

CNN's Derek Van Dam tracking all of it. It's quite a lot to be tracking. Derek, what do you what are you watching right now?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, no, it truly is. If you are east of the Mississippi, there's no escaping this heat. Kate, that's the point here.

One in two Americans currently under some sort of heat alert, whether it's an extreme heat warning or a watch for what's to come. Fifty million Americans get this. That's a huge number.

They're going to experience temperatures above the 100 degree mark above the century mark. So where is the heat wave starting? Well, it's located across the Midwest right now.

This is Chicago. And good to see people doing their exercise right when that sun is setting. Let's try to maximize our outdoor activities when we have the least amount of direct sunlight, right?

103 degrees. That's how warm it could feel on your body. That means your body has to work exceptionally hard today to cool itself off.

Remember, sweating is our natural process to cool our bodies. But when it's so humid outside, that's what's going to set the difference between this heat wave and a dry heat wave out west is that it's that much more difficult, more challenging for your body to actually effectively cool itself, especially when temperatures don't drop below 80 degrees. I was driving into work early this morning.

It registered 82 on my car's dashboard. And I just think about that. That's just horrendous heat to have at five in the morning.

70 million Americans under heat alerts today mentioned the Midwest and the Great Lakes. But I want to show you how this advances towards the I-95 corridor, the most populated part of our country. Look at New York City.

You are currently under a heat alert warning. What's the cause? The heat dome.

I know we've talked about this a lot, but it is so incredibly imperative where this thing is positioned because it's parked itself just off the southeast coast. So it's driving in all of the humidity from the south. And that means dewpoint skyrocket.

[08:05:00]

That's when we get the feels like temperatures above the 110 degree threshold. These are the locations we expect to see tide or broken record daytime highs through the end of the week. And the timing couldn't be worse.

We've got the 4th of July festivities. It's the 250th birthday of our country, and we need to spend it outdoors in temperatures like this. This is the actual air temperature, 102 in D.C., 104 on Friday, 101 on Saturday, Independence Day. Guess what? If that temperature is actually realized, this could go down as the hottest 4th of July ever recorded in Washington, D.C. Of course, you factor in the humidity levels. It feels even warmer.

And this is why we keep reiterating this. You need to take this type of heat seriously. Get shade, find ways to cool yourself off and stay hydrated and keep a smile on your face if you can through all this, right Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes, always smiling. Always.

As you know, here at CNN, we're always smiling, J.B. No matter if we're sweating or freezing. Which one are we doing in the studio today, J.B.?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, sweat is your natural coolant, which, you know, is what Derek taught me there.

BOLDUAN: But that's the key. I would prefer to be sweating in the studio, but I can't feel my fingers because it's so cold.

BERMAN: Well, the rest of us are sweating, thanks to you, because you turned the temperature up so high. Anyway, thank you very much.

All right, happening now. The president's envoy, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, are on the ground in Qatar. Now, there is no meeting planned with Iranian officials today.

That's despite the president's grand pronouncement yesterday that there would be meetings happening. Tomorrow, delegations from the U.S. and Iran are expected to separately engage in technical talks with mediators from Qatar and Pakistan.

Also this morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson tells USA Today that President Trump, he thinks, can reset the 60-day clock for congressional authorization for the war now because of the ceasefire between the United States and Iran that they signed. If they renew their fighting, in other words, it would be a whole new process. That's according to Speaker Mike Johnson. Not necessarily his choice, but that's what he thinks.

Let's get right to CNN's Alayna Treene on the White House for the latest on the talks and non-talks and who will be saying what to whom in Qatar.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's been a lot of mixed messaging, John, about what is exactly going to happen in Qatar this week. What I can tell you is I spoke with a White House official this morning, and they said that the president's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, of course, both of them being very crucial throughout all of these negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, they have now landed in Doha and are set to meet today with the Qatari prime minister and other officials. Tomorrow is when we are going to see those technical talks take place.

But as you mentioned, the president argued that the U.S. would be meeting with Iran while in Qatar. That's not happening, according to my conversations. There's going to be separate technical talks with the U.S. meeting separately with mediators from Qatar and Pakistan. The Iranians doing the same, not expected to have direct talks at this time. But look, these talks are going to be crucial. There's a lot of uncertainty still.

And I think you're hearing a lot of this, actually, you know, criticism from people on Capitol Hill about what exactly this Memorandum of Understanding that was signed back when the president signed it at Versailles, when he was, you know, around the G7 trip he took, about how that is going to be implemented and what is going to take place during that 60-day period of technical talks, where they're really trying to push toward this permanent agreement between Washington and Tehran.

We know that some of the thorniest issues still need to be settled. That includes really some of the biggest issues on the nuclear program that Iran has and how the U.S. is going to try and live up to what the president said, which is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. Also, questions about U.S. sanctions on Iran and the unfreezing of assets, all of those still really needing to be settled. The other big part of this is, of course, these talks come after we saw the United States and Iran exchange fire over the Strait of Hormuz, something that Iran continues to argue that they maintain authority over, something we know the president and the Trump administration has tried to say that's not the case anymore. That fighting between the two of them ended on Sunday, but still a lot of questions about where that leaves this fragile ceasefire and an ultimate potential deal down the line. So we'll have to see how these talks end up going in Qatar this week and really if the U.S. and Iran can get closer on some of these agreements.

And then I do want to touch on what you said from this USA Today interview with House Speaker Mike Johnson. It was an interesting thing because obviously I think all Republicans right now are really trying to sell this idea that a deal, a more lasting deal with Iran is going to work. However, when asked, you know, if hostilities continue, especially after what we saw take place over the last couple of days, would the president and the administration need to seek congressional authority for a continued war?

[08:10:00]

Johnson's trying to argue, well, the 60 day clock that is stated by law that the president needs to get approval from Congress. He's saying, well, I think that would restart. We'll see.

Definitely something I think the president likes to hear that if they need to resume combat operations, that he has the backing of the House Speaker to do so without congressional approval again for 60 days. But right now, I don't think that's a huge focus of this administration really trying to see this MOU become a more longer term deal, John.

BERMAN: No, the administration seems to do what they want in terms of the War Powers Act, but Johnson essentially saying it would be a whole new war. It would be a different war than the previous one. Yes, against the same country in the same place a few days apart, but a completely different war.

Alayna Treene at the White House this morning. Thank you very much -- Sara.

SIDNER: John Berman, thank you so much. This morning, we are standing by for major rulings from the Supreme Court on the very last day of their term. Birthright, the one a lot of people waiting for that should drop any moment.

Plus, miraculous rescues in Venezuela still happening days after deadly back-to-back earthquakes. A 12-year-old pulled from the rubble just hours ago. We're live from Caracas.

And a tourist killed by a crocodile outside a Mexican beach resort. We're now hearing from the people who tried to save that tourist. Those stories and more ahead.

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Everyone watching the Supreme Court this morning, because there are some huge decisions they are about to make, the justice is preparing to hand down the final rulings of the term, which includes the decision on President Trump's efforts to end birthright citizenship and whether states can ban transgender student-athletes from girls' and women's sports. It comes after a mixed bag for the president on Monday, when the court expanded his power to fire independent agency heads, but dealt him defeat on mail-in ballots and the E. Jean Carroll case, making it so that he does have to pay that $5 million.

CNN Chief Supreme Court Analyst Joan Biskupic joining us now. I mean, look, this decision potentially on birthright citizenship has a lot of people really either worried about it or the administration's point about this, you know, they're on that side excited, wondering what the court's going to do. But this is a really big, really earth-shattering potential decision here today.

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: It absolutely is, Sara. And there's a lot of suspense around the Supreme Court right now. At 10 a.m. Eastern time, they'll start releasing these three decisions. I think it's going to end up that, frankly, the way the oral arguments went in the birthright case, it looks like Donald Trump's executive order is not going to survive. But we just never know. Let's just step back and let me tell you what it even means.

On January 20, 2025, when he first returned for his second presidency, he signed an order that lifted the automatic policy -- automatic constitutional guarantee that any child born on U.S. soil, irrespective of his or her parents' immigration status, would become a U.S. citizen. That has been the understanding for more than a century here in America. And what he wants is that anyone whose parent is not here lawfully or is here on a temporary visa, for example, a student visa or some sort of temporary protected status, that that person's child would not automatically be a U.S. citizen and entitled to a passport and other federal benefits. This really flies in the face of an understanding that we've had about American identity and what the law has said for decades. And no federal judge, no lower court judge, has ruled for the administration. So it will be a real shocker, Sara, if the court does accept his arguments.

But we just do not know. That will come and then after it will come the rulings on transgender sports. Two states, West Virginia and Idaho, both prohibit trans women and girls from playing on female teams.

And the question there is whether those discriminate against trans individuals and would violate Title IX of the 1972 Education Act or violate the Equal Protection Guarantee of the U.S. Constitution. There are two cases and I think they'll likely be decided together there, Sara. And this is another area that actually is really controversial and has become increasingly politicized.

You know, only about one percent of the population is trans, but it has become a salient political issue both on the Hill and certainly with President Donald Trump. So we'll have to see where the justices go on that.

And finally, in the area of campaign finance, the justices are looking at a restriction on whether coordinated spending can go on between political parties and the candidates they support. This one, I'm kind of surprised that we're on the very last day of the session and it still hasn't been resolved because the court has been moving only in one direction on campaign finance restrictions and that is to eliminate them.

[08:20:00]

The justices have found that the First Amendment speech protections, which treats money as speech when it comes to politics, does not allow a lot of these regulations. So that one, I thought, again, I thought we'd have it by now. So there's suspense with that.

But as you said in your opening, Sara, the real suspense is over this centerpiece of Donald Trump's anti-immigrant agenda and how staggering it would be if suddenly the right that's under the 14th Amendment, that every child born in the U.S. is automatically a citizen, is suddenly disrupted -- Sara.

SIDNER: Yes, it could be huge. We will see what happens. Joan Biskupic, thank you.

You are so good at this. You know all the details and we do appreciate you bringing it to us -- John, Kate

BOLDUAN: I'll take it, Sara. The four month long Capitol Hill mystery that could be solved today. Where has Congressman Tom Kean gone? What will he say if he returns today?

A new study finds that child safety features put in place by social media companies, the research in the study finds they are not living up to their promise. This study finds that they aren't even close. We'll be back.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: It's been one of the wildest mysteries of late on Capitol Hill, which is where is Congressman Tom Kean? He's a New Jersey Republican, has not really been seen since the beginning of March. He last cast a vote on March 5th, but he is expected to finally be back on Capitol Hill today.

And throughout, he and his office have been remarkably tight lipped, only saying over and over again that he is addressing a personal health matter. CNN's Annie Grayer is tracking this one and she's joining us now. Annie, she will be joining us.

Do we have Annie? There she is. Annie, tell us what, tell us.

Solving one mystery. Where is Annie Grayer? Annie Grayer is on Capitol Hill.

What are we learning about what could happen today?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Lots of mysteries today, Kate, but this mystery will finally be solved today when Congressman Keene returns to Capitol Hill after months of absence, absences where he's missed over a hundred votes. And lawmakers have been really perplexed by this. Usually when a member of Congress has to take an extended leave of absence, they will be transparent with their colleagues and their constituents to explain where they have been.

Now, CNN spotted Kean outside of his home yesterday in New Jersey. It was only the second time that Kean has been spotted since he's been missing in March. And his office said after CNN spotted him that he will be transparent when he returns to Capitol Hill today.

But up until this point, as you mentioned, the Congressman and his team have been extremely tight-lipped. They've only said that he's under the care of a medical doctor and that he expects to make a full recovery. I'll give you an example of just one statement from April that really left more questions than answers, where the Congressman said, "I want to thank my constituents and colleagues for their patience as I address a personal medical issue. My doctors continue to assure me that my recovery will be complete and that I'll be back to the job I love very soon."

But colleagues who are close to them up here are still questioning where has the Congressman been? Now we know how Speaker Mike Johnson has spoken to Congressman Kean. He's urged the Congressman to be transparent but has left it to the Congressman and his office to handle how he explains his absences.

And this has been very difficult for Republicans to navigate, who have a very narrow majority in Congress and have not been able to rely on Congressman Kean's vote. Republicans are also trying to hold on to their majority in the midterms and Kean is representing a very competitive district.

And there are a lot of questions about how his absence is going to impact his efforts to run for re-election, which we are told that he wants to do. And so in the absence of truth about where the Congressman has been, the rumor mill has run wild on Capitol Hill about where he's been. But hopefully we will get some clear answers today about this very mysterious absence.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And adding to the mystery is voters and people in general are very understanding when public figures want privacy for especially personal medical matters. But normally they explain what their personal medical issue is that will explain their absence, which is why people are so sympathetic to it.

That's part of the mystery here is there's just been basically radio silence now for months, but hopefully he's doing well and hopefully we'll get some answers today. It's good to see you, Annie. Thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right, a JetBlue pilot says he struck a drone while landing at one of the nation's busiest airports. An investigation is now underway.

And then a woman struck by lightning outside a church reignites with the people who saved her. Reunites? No, I guess reignites would be the wrong way of saying it.

Reunites with the people who saved her.

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