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Respiratory Virus Season Off to an Early Start; Michael Cohen to Interview Trump Despite Bitter Years-Long Feud; Prince Harry and Meghan Going Back to Britian. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired August 20, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: ... Coming ahead of the usual schedule. That's up next.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: It's the early arrival nobody wants, the respiratory virus season. We often know it as flu season, but it also includes COVID and more. Usually starts around October and runs through the spring, but doctors are seeing a wave of COVID cases growing this summer, and health experts are concerned.

Medical correspondent Meg Tirrell joins us now with a warning -- Meg.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi Boris. Oh, that's right. COVID cases do appear to be ticking up, although they're still at a pretty low level.

And we have to remember, COVID really has only been with us for less than six years.

[15:35:00]

So we're still really learning about what its patterns are going to end up being. But in the last two years in particular, we really have seen that sort of August wave of COVID. And last year was actually even bigger than the winter wave that followed.

And so if you look at CDC data, looking at the positivity rate, that's the percent of tests that come back positive for COVID, that is starting to tick up. And you are not seeing that uptick for flu and RSV, which are other viruses that the CDC tracks. So the COVID there is the orange line.

And you can see it's still pretty low, it's less than 5 percent, but it is starting to increase. If you look at where this is happening across the country, well, you see that the CDC calls the epidemic trend shows that cases are likely growing in every state they track. However, we often see that this so-called summer wave of COVID begins in southern states.

And if you look at emergency department visits, we have data here from the Yale School of Public Health's PopHIVE resource that shows that ER visits for COVID really are most pronounced in the South, Texas through Florida, and a little bit in the West. And that is a typical sort of trend we see that this wave that begins in the summer for COVID begins in the South and then starts to hit other parts of the country. So if folks are wondering what to do about COVID, it's really all the things we've learned about for respiratory diseases, washing your hands, staying home if you're sick, especially if you have anybody who's vulnerable in your life, avoid going around them, masking.

You can also use resources like the CDC. There's another one called Wastewater Scan that looks at levels of the virus in wastewater and can tell you if it is high in your area. Yale's PopHIVE is another resource.

And then of course, as we get into vaccination season, there are going to be updated COVID vaccines as well as flu and others. Talk with your clinician about whether that makes sense as well as medicines for COVID as well -- guys.

SANCHEZ: Meg Tirrell, thank you so much for bringing us that news.

From fixer to foe and now friendly again. President Trump sitting down with his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, for an interview.

We've got the details.

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SANCHEZ: Reunited and it feels so confusing.

HILL: Awkward.

SANCHEZ: Awkward.

HILL: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Not really sure what to do with this.

HILL: All the things. Yes

SANCHEZ: Yes, in just two hours, Michael Cohen and President Trump are going to air it all out in an interview for the world to hear. Cohen is hosting his one-time boss-turned-adversary as part of his weekly New York radio show.

HILL: The two men have been locked in a rather public, very bitter feud for the better part of a decade. Cohen, you may recall, testified against Trump in court and before Congress, once referring to the president as, quote, Cheeto-dusted -- a Cheeto-dusted cartoon villain. Now, however, it appears the two have buried the hatchet.

Despite years of name-calling, there were also moments like this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's a weak person and not a very smart person.

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: Revenge is a dish best served cold. And you better believe I want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to me and my family.

TRUMP: He's a felon, convicted felon, and not a good person. But that's their only witness. And he's now crashed and burned.

COHEN: He's a narcissistic sociopath or, you know, look at he's definitely not 6'3", and he's not 215 pounds.

TRUMP: You know, he's a sleazebag. Everybody knows that. Took me a while to find out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: CNN's Kara Scannell and CNN political commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin join us now. So, Kara, first of all, you know, we had a little moment there going down memory lane with some of their finer moments aimed at one another. Just remind us how we got to that place and how things got so uncomfortable between the two of them.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, Erica, if you have whiplash, you really can't be blamed because Michael Cohen was once Donald Trump's fixer. He said he would take a bullet for him. And for 10 years, he essentially barbed on Trump's behalf with reporters, with other people, essentially intoxicated and completely loyal to him.

But then when Michael Cohen himself fell under federal criminal investigation related to hush money payments he made to Stormy Daniels on behalf of Donald Trump, that's when this relationship really started to fray. Cohen pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to this, and he implicated Donald Trump in his guilty plea. And then Cohen went on to serve prison time.

He also, before he went to prison, just before he went to prison, he testified on Capitol Hill, and he said that Trump had inflated his wealth by inflating the property values of many of his assets. That launched a New York attorney general civil investigation into Trump and his company. It also prompted the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to focus a criminal investigation on both the finances and the hush money payments.

Michael Cohen was a star witness in both of those cases. He launched two books, a podcast by criticizing Trump using many of those words that you had just explained. Now that Trump's in office, Cohen says that it was about six months ago after he wrote a Substack saying that he felt coerced to help the prosecutors in New York, that there was outreach from the White House, and that's led to this frozen relationship beginning to now thaw.

SANCHEZ: Alyssa, Cohen says, as Kara laid out, that the reconciliation started with some text messages at the beginning of this year. I wonder about the timing of this. Why is this reconciliation happening now?

What does each side have to gain?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, listen, I think Michael Cohen is an opportunist. I think it was a mistake by the resistance, if you will call it that, to embrace him wholeheartedly just because he suddenly became willing to trash Donald Trump. But just to put a finer point on some of what you highlighted, he once called the president a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, and a conman.

[15:45:00]

So this sort of conversion that we're seeing now where he's going back to wanting to be in the good graces of the president, I think it's because the political dynamics have changed. Donald Trump was reelected. He won the popular vote.

He's in power. Michael Cohen's opportunities have in many ways dried up. What I'm probably most surprised by is that the president is sitting down with him.

Now, Donald Trump does love a humiliation ritual for his enemies. We remember Mitt Romney famously having dinner with him, where he basically asked to be secretary of state, only for him to not offer him that position. I think for Donald Trump, it's simply that, because the president has very little to gain appearing on a kind of small- scale radio show.

You would think there would be other things he would have going on during the day. But for Michael Cohen, my guess is this is some attempt to sort of rebrand as a Trump loyalist yet again to try to make inroads with the right wing and see this, you know, window of the next two years that he's still in office as a money-making opportunity. I think it's as simple as that.

HILL: Is there anything that you think we'll learn in this podcast today, Alyssa?

FARAH GRIFFIN: Listen, it'll probably be interesting to listen to for this reason. These men were incredibly close for decades. They had a very close relationship.

Michael Cohen was, as we call it, you know, sort of a fixer to Donald Trump. So just how personal do they get? Does the president, you know, let his hair down a bit in the conversation?

I'd be curious about this, that. I also don't think that Trump's going to go in looking to really call him out. I think he'll probably make some funny jabs.

But the power dynamic is so off. Like, Donald Trump won this and every other round before with Michael Cohen. So I think beyond just taking some digs at him, this is just going to be some sort of a kind of friendly conversation. SANCHEZ: For a lot of folks in Trump's orbit who have, in his eyes, crossed him, there seems to be an arc where they wind up returning to him. I think of people like Steve Bannon, who exchanged barbs with the president at one point and immediately went back to his camp. Elon Musk is another one.

I mean, things got pretty nasty on social media between the two of them, only for them to reconcile later. Why do you think that keeps happening with people and Donald Trump?

FARAH GRIFFIN: Well, two things. It's the incentive structure. Donald Trump is arguably the most powerful man on the planet.

There's a lot of money to be made being in his good graces if you're on the outside in business or in the right-wing media ecosystem. So it is in people's interest to stay in his good graces. If you're Elon Musk, to make sure that, you know, your companies have access to the best defense contracts, it's not good business to pick a fight with Donald Trump in this environment.

And I think people recognize that. But I also think, secondly, there's a little bit of a myth that Donald Trump, once you cross him, will never let you back into the fold. Now, he is if you cross him, he's not going to let you forget it. But he actually loves a convert, and he loves a second-time, and a third-time convert. Steve Bannon is the best example.

I remember in, I want to say, like, 2017 being in the West Wing when it was declared to basically be open season on Steve Bannon. He was cut off. The president wanted nothing to do with him.

He's come back into the fold probably three or four more times since then. Tucker Carlson's another one who's been in, and then he's out, and he's now back out right now. But Donald Trump actually always kind of welcomes a conversion if you come back into the fold with him.

HILL: That's a great point. Alyssa, really appreciate it. Kara, as well.

Thank you, guys.

They are going back. Back to Britain. Six years after leaving, Harry and Meghan heading across the pond, just in time for the kids to start school next month.

So what's behind the decision to return?

[15:50:00]

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SANCHEZ: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are heading back to Britain.

HILL: Sources say their kids have already been enrolled for the new school year. They'll start next month. The couple only told King Charles, however, about their move this past weekend. CNN Royal historian Kate Williams joins us now. Kate, there are so

many questions about the why. I know they're all swirling in this moment as we wait for the answers.

How is the British public reacting today?

KATE WILLIAMS, CNN ROYAL HISTORIAN: I mean, Erica, this is a bombshell. No one had expected this. It's front page news across the U.K.

It's front page news across the world. No one expected Harry and Meghan to come back. This is a huge surprise, a huge surprise for the country, for the world, and also a big surprise for the Royal family.

And I think there's a lot of support on social media, in the press, but there also are beginning the attacks. Why is Harry coming back? ETC.

So if Harry and Meghan, I think, were hoping that perhaps if they came back this time, the press would be kinder. I don't think that's going to happen. But certainly what has happened, which has been brilliant for Harry and Meghan, is they have kept control of this story.

No one knew about it. No one leaked it. The story came out.

It came up from our Telegraph newspaper, a broadsheet newspaper. We don't know who gave it to the Telegraph, but it was good timing for Harry and Meghan. They are in control.

And I think this is going to be their media strategy for ongoing. Because the fact is that Harry and Meghan, even if the British tabloids are hard on them, they are box office, and everyone wants to know what they're up to.

SANCHEZ: And could they really avoid taking back that role of working Royals, Kate? Or at least avoiding the spotlight once they move back to the U.K.?

WILLIAMS: It's impossible. They are huge celebrities. They're perhaps some of the biggest celebrities in the U.K.

And they sell newspapers, everything like that. So the deal was when they left, they could not be half in, half out. You can't be part-time members of the Royal family.

What we will see is Harry and Meghan coming back as private individuals, not living in a Royal residence, but they'll be out there doing engagement for charities. Every charity wants them. They'll seem royal in every way, apart from officially.

And that, I think, is going to cause a lot of, well, some drama in Buckingham Palace because they simply might outshine the King and William.

HILL: Well, and that's the big question, right? Can William and Harry mend the fences? I imagine William's not so excited about this move. WILLIAMS: We don't know anyone's reaction at present, but I think I do imagine that the King will be pleased. He was delighted to see Harry and the grandchildren in July when they made a visit to Highgrove, his country estate. Harry and William did not meet then.

There has been a long estrangement, a lot of water under the bridge, briefing from both sides. I do not imagine they're going to be best friends any time soon. It may take years, and it may be the cousins who create a relationship.

Archie and George and Willibert and Charlotte and Louis. That may be the future. But at the moment, I don't think Harry and William are going to be best friends any time soon.

But Charles will expect Harry to come on the balcony for Royal engagements. For example, his 80th birthday party in a couple of years. So William and Harry are going to have to get on because they're in the same country now.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Kate Williams, thanks so much for that report. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts after a quick break.

Thanks for joining us.

END