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Lawmakers Demand Answers on AP Story that Immigration Crackdown Detained More than 50 Military Spouses and Parents; Wholesale Inflation Rose 4.7 Percent in July, Lowest Since March; University of Michigan to Hide Letter Grades for Some Students; Trump's Handpicked Kennedy Center Board Tries Workaround to Put President's Name on Building. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 13, 2026 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: ... Members of service members reportedly remain in federal immigration custody. The AP says it asked for comment from DHS on each case, including the individual's immigration and criminal history. The agency didn't provide specific information about most cases but did say at least seven people had been previously removed from the U.S., at least eight had removal orders, and at least two had drunk driving or drug-related convictions.

In a statement, DHS said, "DHS and ICE value the contributions of all those who have served in the U.S. military. U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt, aliens from the consequences of violating US immigration laws."

The AP had reported that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin intervened in a handful of these cases to get family members released. The Pentagon declined to comment on the AP's findings, but these practices mark a policy change even from the first Trump administration, when parents and spouses of service members were previously shielded from being deported. Experts say there is a good reason for this, because those deportations can undermine military preparedness, leaving some troops without their support system, including caretakers for their children.

In their letter, Democratic lawmakers are asking the administration to respond to their concerns and restore previous protections for service members' families by August 23rd, which is of course in 10 days.

Coming up, inflation cooling off after months of higher costs and a spike in oil prices. But how long could this last? We're going to break down these new inflation numbers next.

[14:35:00]

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KEILAR: So some relief in the pipeline for Americans struggling with ever-growing prices for years. New data out this morning shows both food and energy wholesale prices slipped in July, and overall prices stayed flat. It could be a sign that inflation is cooling, at least for now.

We're joined by business journalist and host of the Full Disclosure podcast, Roben Farzad. Always great to have you in studio to talk about what we're seeing here. And this report today showing wholesale inflation cooling more than expected. Then yesterday you had the reporting showing annual inflation cooling for the second straight month.

It's really good news, but still annual inflation is at 3.4 percent, and it's been high for five years. So how are people actually experiencing these numbers?

ROBEN FARZAD, BUSINESS JOURNALIST: They're still seeing prices go up and they still have a recollection circa 2018, 2019 of a side of beef cost this, or five guys used to be affordable, or I used to be able to get a grocery cart full with a hundred dollar bill. And that's not how inflation works. I mean, if you get deflation and suddenly there's sales left and right, that's a whole other problem for the economy, but it is the coldest of comfort when you see prices up 3.1 percent versus 2 percent. I mean, no one in the grocery aisle is celebrating that.

KEILAR: Yes, because it doesn't really change that much for them. What is the biggest pain point for Americans?

FARZAD: I find it's groceries and gas. That's a print that you constantly see. I mean, when you were taking $2.75, $3 gas for granted, and then suddenly it's $4, that's an immediate tax. That's immediate zero sum. If you're imagining, I'm taking my kids to Chipotle this week, which by the way, has its own inflationary issues. If we're going to go out to eat, we're going to vacation this summer, that's an immediate zero sum tax on what you can do.

Now, I won't say how the other half lives, but how the other maybe 10th lives, the stock market has been rip roaring. Asset prices are still great. So if you feel like you're getting that wealth effect, that tamps down some of your inflationary anxiety.

KEILAR: Yes, but a lot of people aren't invested, right? So they're not able to go, oh, OK, well, at least that's all right, even if I'm taking it in the shorts of the grocery store.

FARZAD: And worse yet is that they're increasingly using credit cards to make ends meet.

KEILAR: Totally.

FARZAD: And interest rates are not exactly low again, and they're not getting relief from the Fed. So there's this whole conundrum for a majority of the economy, I would say.

KEILAR: Yes, and then how are they feeling about their jobs? Because let's take a look at what the numbers are saying here. The July unemployment rate ticked down 0.1 percent from June, but the economy lost 23,000 jobs in July. And that was instead of the expected gain. And then you had the revision down in May and June of the jobs numbers by about 100K. How are people feeling in the workplace?

FARZAD: So much hair splitting. Have you been on LinkedIn lately? It's the saddest wasteland.

It's people begging for work. They say this is a no hire, no fire economy. I mean, ask people, do you feel safe in your job?

Do you remember three years ago, we were talking about work from home and hybrid economy? No, it's attrition at the very best right now and people hanging onto their jobs. So I wouldn't think that people out there are really feeling their gainful employment notes and like, let's go spend some of this money.

If anything, too much of the population is still paycheck to paycheck and has difficulty even making $1,000 emergency expense.

KEILAR: Yes, I mean, that's really telling. The stock market, you mentioned the stock market doing well. Obviously, there is this disconnect, that K-shaped economy that we were talking about.

How much does this economic picture that we're seeing, where we talk about, oh, look, it is going pretty well, have to do with AI? And how much are you concerned that there could be a bubble aspect to that?

FARZAD: I always think about the bubble because having come of age and my investing, my first job out of college was during Y2K and everything that happened. And then the stock market bubble and Nasdaq 5000. And this so eclipses what we experience.

But if anybody remembers, the first 10 years of this century were the lost decade for the U.S. stock market because we had such a rip- roaring 1990s.

[14:40:00]

And there is this fear that we're going to have to pay for that somehow. Having said that, international has not kept up over the last 15 years. Emerging markets, it's not like the S&P 500 and AI is the only story in town. Diversification should be paying off at this point.

KEILAR: I remember my first resume tape in 2001 out of the San Francisco area had a pink slip party. That was one of the stories that I did.

FARZAD: I remember those pink slip parties and we'd console each other in New York in Silicon Alley at the same time.

KEILAR: That's right. Yes, certainly. OK, consumer spending, bit of a bright spot here.

Why?

FARZAD: There's still a lot of money in bank accounts. There's a great Wall Street Journal story about the amount in money market accounts. I don't know if it was stimulus or PPP or whatever's left over, but consumers still have FOMO and are still out there buying, going to restaurants, paying ever higher prices for tickets, going to ballgames, traveling.

I mean, the planes are still full. So that is a hard habit to break if you do have money, if you do have wealth effect.

KEILAR: Yes, if they can do it, they do it, but it's costing them a lot more.

FARZAD: It is, it is.

KEILAR: Roben, great to have you. Thank you so much.

FARZAD: My pleasure.

KEILAR: Roben Farzad, we appreciate you as always.

Coming up, the University of Michigan is doing away with letter grades for some of its freshmen, citing -- get this -- mental health concerns. We'll talk to the former Secretary of Education under President Obama next.

[14:45:00]

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The University of Michigan is taking a new approach when it comes to easing the mental health strain on students. Starting in the fall of 2027, some freshmen will see pass or no credit on their first semester of transcripts instead of the traditional letter grade.

Their actual grades will still be tracked internally though. This applies to first year students in the school's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. A dean issued a statement saying, quote, I believe this pilot program has the potential to not only address the alarming rates of stress, depression, and anxiety among our students, but to deliver on our core promise as a liberal arts college -- arts and sciences college, I should say.

Joining me now is former education secretary, Arne Duncan, who served in the Obama administration. Sir, thank you so much for being with us. What do you make of this move by the University of Michigan?

ARNE DUNCAN, FORMER EDUCATION SECRETARY, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Well, first, the University of Michigan is obviously a wonderful, wonderful institution of higher education. I have tremendous respect for it. I come at this, you know, they've studied this much more deeply than I have.

I really just come at this as a parent. I have a daughter who just graduated from college. I have a son who's entering his senior year.

And the question for me is, you know, if it was, if my child was a freshman there, would I want this for them? And I think my honest answer is that I wouldn't. I'll give you sort of a couple reasons. I think it's very important that we tell our children the truth, and where they're succeeding, encourage that, where they're having problems, you know, help them, support them, but be honest with them about their progress. If the concern is the degree of difficulty of classes, then obviously more academic support, more tutoring would be helpful. But if the real concern is around stress and mental health, then for me, the best way to address that is not by lowering the bar, it's by getting young people more mental health support.

I know young people are dealing with a tremendous amount of, you know, many, many challenges. This is the COVID generation has been through so much, but I'd rather address those issues head on rather than do something that may, on the surface, alleviate some stress, but not set our young people up for success long-term.

SANCHEZ: That's a really interesting perspective. And it seems to echo what Harvard is doing. They voted to go a different route than Michigan.

They're limiting the number of A's that they're awarding. Do you think that is going to be more effective than simply doing pass-fail with these underclassmen?

DUNCAN: Yes, well, I'll just repeat what I said. At the end of the day, I just want us to all be honest with young people about where they're succeeding and where they're struggling and what their strengths and weaknesses are. And I never ever educationally ever want to lower the bar.

That's not something I'm ever going to be a proponent of. And so I always want to have high expectations, but I want to have high support as well. And I think what happened at Harvard is they saw great inflation.

You know, everybody was getting A's. And so the A's become meaningless. And so, yes, they're trying to bring some rationality to their grading system.

And these things are sort of two different issues, but I want our young people learning to work hard. I want them learning to study hard. I want them learning to be resilient.

I want them learning to ask for help if they need help and not sort of skirting the issue. And as you know, when you get out of college into the real world, it's not pass-fail. People are going to be challenging you every day.

And I want to set young people up for success and help them build the habits while they're in college that will help them be successful in the world of work. And I do think challenging young people, high expectations, high support is the right way to do it. Not lower expectations and maybe no additional support.

That doesn't quite make sense to me.

SANCHEZ: It's interesting you mentioned grade inflation because I've seen reports online, and these are mostly anecdotal. I'm not sure that there's been enough academic research to support this, but a lot of academic institutions are reporting that there have been an increase in students' grades overall, but they're tying it to artificial intelligence and access to it. And perhaps on behalf of some students, some form of subterfuge.

I wonder if you're seeing artificial intelligence factor into how universities are approaching grades if AI could make grades perhaps less meaningful.

DUNCAN: Yes, it's early in that. And this is like a more fundamental point that's broader than higher education.

[14:50:00]

But if you look at K-12 across the country, and there've been serious studies on this in many districts, 70, 80, 90 percent of parents think their kids are on grade level and doing well. In reality, only 20 to 30 percent are. So there's not just a perception gap, there's a reality between what parents are being, are thinking their children are doing, and how their children are actually performing.

That for me is very, very concerning. We got to let parents know how their students are doing, and parents can help them. And that's on the K-12 side.

I don't want that to carry over into higher education, where there's a myth being perpetuated that kids are doing well, they're on track to be successful, and they're not. I just want to really partner with young people, partner with our students, partner with their parents to help them be successful. And so for me, this is part of a larger issue going down to literally second and third and fourth grade, where we aren't honest with parents, we aren't honest with students about their strengths and weaknesses.

And I think we do our young people a grave disservice when we lack that honesty, when our grading policies lack integrity.

SANCHEZ: A reality check, no easy A's with former Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate your time.

DUNCAN: Thanks for the opportunity.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Still ahead, it appears that President Trump's handpicked board has found a way to get the president's name back on the Historic Performing Arts Center, the Kennedy Center, after a judge ordered it removed. That story is next.

[14:55:00]

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SANCHEZ: This just into CNN. It appears that President Trump's handpicked board at the Kennedy Center has found a way around that court order that blocked Trump's name from being added to the historic Performing Arts Center. Remember, the president's name was removed from the building back in June.

A tarp has been up ever since. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has been following the drama. She was there up late that night when they were removing the name.

Sunlen, what's the latest now?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, this certainly, Boris, is a bit of defiance from the Kennedy Center's board, of course, that is chaired by President Donald Trump. Today, the board did indeed have a meeting, and they were discussing the plans for how they potentially could stay open for the next two years. And we do have details on that.

But perhaps one of the more striking items that came out of this board meeting today was the fact that the board voted through a resolution that would, again, put President Trump's name back on the side of the Kennedy Center. Now, it's the way in which they describe how it would go back on that's important. For this time, they say that President Trump's name will be under the words Kennedy Center and that will say that this building was restored and renovated by President Donald J. Trump.

Now, that's certainly a remarkable detail and certainly a sign of defiance by the board. The fact that the much-storied Kennedy Center and specifically whether President Trump's name would remain on the side of it, this has been, as you noted, a story throughout the entire summer.

Since Donald Trump's name was taken down by that court order in mid- June, the tarps have remained in place, leaving it somewhat of a question mark what would happen. So the board voted today that they would indeed like to close for the next two years for these renovations and they would keep a small side art center called The Reach away from the main building open. We will see what the judge in this case, Boris, does, how he will respond.

He has previously said that if the board really met and showed due diligence, actually reviewed plans for what a two-year closure will look like, he would not stand in the way of it. But big question is, what does he feel? How does he feel about the name going back up on the side of the Kennedy Center?

SANCHEZ: We'll be watching for the judge's response. Sunlen Serfaty, thank you so much for that -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. The Chicago Bears say they're continuing to do their due diligence on building a new stadium in northwest Indiana. That's Bears CEO Kevin Warren speaking just a short time ago.

He says their sole focus is now in Indiana while they continue talks with Illinois. Indiana leaders remain optimistic with Governor Mike Braun saying his administration is in weekly contact with the team.

Also, if the solar eclipse yesterday wasn't cool enough, check out this incredible moment in Spain as a Red Bull wingsuit flyer took to the skies at the very moment peak totality was happening yesterday. Wow. And you know what?

It gets even better. Here's his view. The Red Bull flyer was also wearing his own helmet camera. So we get this spectacular view -- I'm going to talk really slow so that you can get it -- of the eclipse as the sun was setting in Spain. Beautiful.

And a dazzling meteor shower for stargazers just hours after the solar eclipse yesterday. The Perseids meteor shower could be seen over parts of Europe last night, including Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

It's known to feature fireballs, brighter meteors that leave colorful smoke trails in the sky when they are moving. The meteor showers proximity to the eclipse extremely rare, making it particularly special yesterday. The eclipse creating darker skies ...

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