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A look at how Republicans are Feeling on Trump and the GOP; Cancer Thriver Sally Joy Wolf Discusses Living with the Diagnosis. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired August 07, 2026 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[09:31:56]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning, police in Thailand say a 14-year-old suspect killed five teachers at a school north of Bangkok. They say the shooter stormed the high school after killing his grandparents in the home that he shared with them. More than 30 people, including students, were wounded. At least nine critically. The youngest victim is just 12 years old. Now, our producer, Karla Cripps, has a child who attends that school. She was on the scene.
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KARLA CRIPPS, CNN TRAVEL SENIOR DIGITAL PRODUCER: Yes. Well, first off, I'll start by saying, I have a personal connection. My son actually attends this school. He's 17 years old. So, he's in his senior year. But he's away in Japan this week. So, it's been a really surreal day for myself, all the parents. Everything kicked off just after 10 a.m. this morning. My son called me saying he heard a rumor from another student that there was an active shooter. And immediately and, of course, the parent chat groups, the parents are talking about receiving these messages. And the uncertainty, the fear, it was palpable in that chat. It was just really difficult to go to.
When I arrived here today, there was still ambulances pouring in. Just everybody looking really stunned. Parents, students. My own son, I'm sorry to say, he said, one of the casualties was one of his own favorite teachers. So, it's been a really hard day for all of us.
It's a wonderful school. They have a really lively community. They're very supportive of the students. A lot of parents now are just asking what comes next. Right now, there's still -- the place is swarming with police. Yes, there's just a lot going on. So, they haven't really communicated what comes next just yet. So, we're all waiting to see.
It's, as I said, it is just so -- a really surreal atmosphere here at the school. Everyone's, yes, it's -- it's just -- it's unbelievable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Obviously, our heart goes out to Karla Cripps this morning. We thank her for filing that report. We are thinking of her and all the families affected. All right, coming up, a hit and run in Texas ends with a tanker truck slamming into a TV station.
And what do you want to be doing when you're 97 years old? Is it that?
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[09:38:46]
BERMAN: This morning, in a brand-new interview with "Punchbowl News," President Trump says voters are angry at Republicans but not angry at him.
Listen.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If I don't run, will those people go out and vote? And that's the one thing I can't tell -- I'm going to ask them to, but I'm just watching guys like you, and you're very talented people. The question is, will they vote? Because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why is that?
TRUMP: They're -- I don't know. I mean they're angry at Republicans, but they're not angry with me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's an interesting thing. Why, though?
TRUMP: They're not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Angry at Republicans, but not angry at him, question mark, really?
CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten is here.
As soon as he said that --
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: You --
BERMAN: I thought of you.
ENTEN: Yes.
BERMAN: OK. How true is it? Are they angry at Republicans but not him?
ENTEN: He's full of it. The president's full of it. I mean that's just the bottom line. I mean that is the scientific answer. That's the scientific phrase.
I mean, you could just see it here, how voters are feeling. Forty- three percent of them, in an average of polls, are choosing the Republicans for the House. The Republicans for the House are outrunning President Trump.
[09:40:02]
He is approval -- his approval rating is just 37 percent in an average of polls. They're out running him by six points. Among independents, the spread is even wider. I have it as a little nugget down there. The House Republicans are outrunning Donald Trump by nine points, although they're both doing poorly.
But the bottom line is this. When Donald Trump says that voters are angry at Republicans, not him, that, simply put, is not the case looking at the data.
BERMAN: And, in fact, when it comes to what voters want to see members doing vis-a-vis Donald Trump, what is it?
ENTEN: What do they want him to do? I mean, it's just really clear here. Take a look here. Voters who want congressional Republicans to do more to stand up to Trump or work with Trump. Fifty-six percent say more to stand up to Trump. That's what they want congressional Republicans to do. Compared to just 35 percent who say they want congressional Republicans to work more with him.
As I said at the top here, what we're dealing with is Republicans are getting dragged down by Donald Trump, not the other way around. And indeed, among independents, what we're seeing is 65 percent, they want him to say -- they want congressional Republicans to do to stand up to Trump -- more to stand up to Trump. So again, the president, simply put, is full of it.
BERMAN: Yes, he's saying it's not me, it's you. But it turns out --
ENTEN: It's him. It's him. It's him. It's a relationship. And in this case, it's him.
BERMAN: And you got more numbers to show this.
ENTEN: Yes. OK. What about Republicans, right? You know, oh, this idea, oh, Republicans, you know, they're upset with the congressional Republicans not working with me enough necessarily. But again, how Republican voters are feeling. This is the Republican base. Ninety- four percent of them say that they're going to vote for, are choosing Republicans for the House. Look, President Trump isn't doing poorly with Republicans, but he's not doing as well as House Republicans are on the generic congressional ballot. He's just getting 80 percent right now approval among Republicans. So, some quick math for you, 94 minus 18. The House Republicans are actually the ones that are outrunning Donald Trump by 14 points.
BERMAN: This number is higher than this number.
ENTEN: Yes. Yes it is.
BERMAN: OK. So, just talk to us about what the prediction markets are then saying about the Senate. ENTEN: Yes, OK. Republicans actually have a chance to hold the Senate.
Chance to win the Senate in 2026, 53 percent chance, compared to the Democrats, 47 percent chance. But that is, simply put, because voters who disapprove of Donald Trump may actually still vote Republican for the United States Senate.
BERMAN: All right, Harry Enten, thank you for this reality check. Appreciate it.
ENTEN: It's a -- this is a reality check. President Trump, it's you, not them.
BERMAN: All right.
We have a lot of news this morning. We'll be right back.
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[09:46:53]
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, I wanted to share this update with you about me. During these past few weeks, I thought that cancer had spread all over my body. A PET scan, which shows how your organs and tissues function at a cellular level, well, it lit up like a Christmas tree. It indicated I was likely metastatic, stage four cancer, incurable. It appeared to have spread to my hip, my spine, my liver, my lungs. I was inconsolable at the time.
I immediately, as one does, looked up, how long do I have to live? The number came back, less than five years. That is the median overall survival time for stage four breast cancer.
It knocked the breath out of me, as you might imagine. Then I cried. My husband cried with me. My mother was stunned and scared, but surprisingly hopeful, bless her.
Then came the biopsy where doctors stick needles in a few areas to try to get a sample of your body to test it. Fifteen days of torture later, waiting for results, they came back. They came back during the show. And behind the scenes I saw it come up in my chart and I could not help it, I opened it. Not malignant it said. Not malignant.
What does that mean? It means, not cancer. Again, shock because this scan suggested otherwise. The doctor then made very clear, biopsy beats scan.
I had a deep, guttural sigh of relief. A blood test then confirmed. These tests are incredibly new and a new tool. Mine was called Signatera (ph). They look at your initial cancer tumor samples and then search molecularly for cancer cells that are floating around undetected by scans in your body. And again, those results showed up in my inbox during this show. And like a moth to a flame, I had to open it, negative it said.
I uncharacteristically grabbed John Berman's hand in the cubbyhole, where we work side by side, negative, I croaked. A lump of tears was in my throat. He looked at me, a little puzzled because I hadn't told him what was going on, just that I wasn't sure if I was OK or not. And he said, just celebrate the win. Don't do what you always do, which is look for the next worst thing that's going to happen down the -- down the road.
There is so much work to do, though. Information is power. So, to do my small part, I want you to meet someone who I deeply admire. She is living with metastatic, incurable cancer. She is stage four breast cancer. But she doesn't just survive. She is showing us all how to thrive, even with that diagnosis.
Sally Joy Wolf is showing us all that you can live a full life even when you have cancer.
So, first to you.
I admire you so, so much. And I wondered, when you got the diagnosis of metastatic cancer, if you thought the same thing I did, that I was about to have a very short life.
SALLY JOY WOLF, METASTATIC BREAST CANCER THRIVER: Absolutely. I was about ten blocks from here, on 23rd Street, and I started sobbing. And, first of all, I just want to say, I'm so sorry you had that scare, and I'm so grateful that you're elevating this discussion of metastatic breast cancer because it doesn't get enough attention.
[09:50:08]
And I imagine you, like me, we're not even led, when we're initially diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, to think about the possibility of it coming back.
SIDNER: Right.
WOLF: So, you know, metastatic is synonymous with stage four, is synonymous with incurable. And when everyone is so obsessed with telling you you'll be cured --
SIDNER: Right.
WOLF: And with the messaging on breast cancer so clear, unlike so many other diseases, with breast cancer it is, if you're vigilant you'll catch it early. If you catch it early, you'll be cured.
And I'm the daughter of a survivor. My mom was diagnosed in 1989. And, thankfully, 36 plus years later, she remains cancer free.
SIDNER: Wow.
WOLF: So, I had her story as a guidepost. And I had been vigilant. I was, you know, screened, mammograms and sonograms because I had dense breast tissue since age 32, diagnosed at 40, double mastectomy, chemo. I was bald. And then I was cured.
And what I didn't realize, and that moment at 23rd Street crystallized. You know, initially I thought, oh, this is -- I'm some fluke, right? This is the anomaly. This is not. And then I started meeting other people. And about three in ten, approximately, early stage survivors become metastatic.
SIDNER: That's 30 percent.
WOLF: Correct. That is not a rounding error or some small percentage. And I understand to some degree why no one is introducing that statistic while we're going through the early stage diagnosis, right? It's terrifying.
SIDNER: It's terrifying and it's not good for you. It keeps your stress up. But 30 percent --
WOLF: Right.
SIDNER: Of women who get breast cancer end up with having to live with the disease eventually.
WOLF: Correct. And stage four is, you know, it is the only stage that kills. And it gets such a small percentage of research dollars. And that is just not OK. Because the reality is, is if we figured out how to treat and ultimately cure stage four cancer, it would trickle down and be effective for every other stage.
SIDNER: Can you give me a sense of what has helped you stay alive? Because there is an incredible amount of new things, new medications that have been extremely helpful to keep people alive and able to live their lives. What have you been doing to stay this healthy, even with an incurable disease?
WOLF: Well, I do do everything my oncologist says and I am like absolutely obsessed with taking my medicines. I have my alarm go off, all of that, right? And I want to also say that I'm on an oral chemo that I have been on for all eight plus years since my diagnosis. So, that is what's called my first line of defense. That medicine was only FDA approved, you know, a couple years before I needed it. My hope is I get to stay, that gets to be my partner in this, until I am cured. Until science one day changes.
The reality is, what happens for many people is that something changes. Even when a medicine is effective, something, you know, the cancer mutates.
SIDNER: Cancer morphs.
WOLF: Something changes. Like there's just -- you know, you can't predict it. So, right now, I am so fortunate. I'm on my first line of defense and I am NED. My favorite letters, no evidence of disease. It is different than being cured. A lot of people think when you are lucky enough to have a clear PET scan, which is NED --
SIDNER: Right.
WOLF: That you are cured. And I've even had close friends who will say to me then, oh, so you're done.
SIDNER: Yes.
WOLF: And unfortunately, no, I'm not done. But what a gift for me. And, you know, part of it is that clinical trials were done on bodies that looked like mine, right? I've learned to speak up a lot for health equity and advocacy because I realize that is not true for everyone. And also, there's some luck involved. I mean, one day it won't seem like luck because my hope is with A.I. and more research and more funding that we can figure out in advance, this medicine is going to work for, you know, for Sally, but not for this other person. So, we don't lose precious time with what sometimes feels, and I've had so many friends, unfortunately, in this situation where they try a new line of defense, optimistic, and three months later they have a scan and it hasn't worked. But, obviously, the oncologist thought it would --
SIDNER: Right.
WOLF: Or they wouldn't have tried it.
SIDNER: And I think one of the things that really needs to be said is, you know, a lot of people go, oh, well, the reason why this person has this is because they didn't do what -- dah, dah, dah. You can do literally every single thing that you are required to do.
WOLF: Everything.
SIDNER: You can take care of your body. You ran a marathon with -- while metastatic.
WOLF: I did. And, for context, I always say I danced my way through cancer, but I was never a runner.
[09:55:01]
My sister ran marathons. I went to cheer. And I -- about three years ago -- you know, one of the things people don't realize is these medicines keep us alive.
SIDNER: Right.
WOLF: But it's important not only to survive, but also to thrive, ideally. And to ideally thrive in one piece. And the reason I'm saying it like that is, I was on a bunch of estrogen suppressors, which can be quite common for a hormone-responsive breast cancer.
SIDNER: Right.
WOLF: And one of those medicines led me to need a bone strengthener. The bone strengthener --
SIDNER: Because the bones are very brittle.
WOLF: Correct.
SIDNER: And I know that you've had broken bones.
WOLF: Well, the thing is, is the bone strengthener is ideally going to strengthen the bones.
SIDNER: Yes.
WOLF: But in my case, I had what was told to be a rare side effect, which is it damaged my femur. The reality is, is I've come to realize that's not quite as rare as some oncologists think when you talk to the bone specialists.
SIDNER: Yes.
WOLF: They're seeing more and more of it because of the gift that we are living longer with metastatic breast cancer.
SIDNER: Right.
WOLF: But I was given a few choices, stay off your leg and let it heal, which if you're a New Yorker, right, how are you supposed to do that? Or prophylactically get surgery to get a rod and some screws. So, I did that and I thought, well, now that I'm bionic, I should put this leg to good use. So, that is sort of what the inspiration for the marathon was.
SIDNER: You just --
WOLF: And it's also an example of post-traumatic growth, which I think doesn't get enough attention.
SIDNER: Yes.
WOLF: We all know about PTSD, right?
SIDNER: Yes.
WOLF: I do public speaking and I'll ask a room, how many of you have heard of PTSD.
SIDNER: Yes.
WOLF: Every hand goes up. How many of you have heard of post-traumatic growth?
SIDNER: PTSG.
WOLF: Right, PTG.
SIDNER: PTG.
WOLF: And the beauty of post-traumatic growth is, it's a resilience bell curve.
SIDNER: Yes.
WOLF: It's the other end. And it is the opportunity to grow through what we go through. And I like to say to glow on the other side. And so, for me, the marathon was part of that. It was the opportunity to change the narrative of that story, not why did this happen to me, but what can I do with this? And alongside that, to tell my oncologist to talk to my bone surgeon because they were saying, this isn't rare.
SIDNER: Yes.
WOLF: And I don't want -- and it's also why I advocate --
SIDNER: So, you --
WOLF: Because I don't want other people --
SIDNER: No, to go through this.
WOLF: To be getting rods.
SIDNER: The fact that you had rods put in, you ran the marathon anyway, is just the most mind blowing thing. And I've known this story about you for several years.
So, to pay it forward, I, who am not a runner, don't even like running, have decided to sign up for the New York Marathon in your honor --
WOLF: Oh, my God.
SIDNER: And in honor of all of the cancer survivors and all of the researchers who get no publicity, who just do their work with their beakers and their microscopes.
So, I'm running that. If you would like to donate, because I am running to raise money for research, because we need it. I want it to save your life and the lives of so many other women out there who are dealing with metastatic breast cancer. You can go to my Instagram. It's sarahsidnertv. There is a link there to donate. It is through MSK. And all of the donations go to cancer research.
Sally, you inspire me every single day with what you do. Thank you for showing us how to live with this terrible disease.
WOLF: Thanks, Sara. I'm going to come on a training run with you.
SIDNER: OK. Good. Do it. That -- John also is going to help.
WOLF: Amazing.
SIDNER: All right. We'll be right back.
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