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Alito Slams Supreme Court Majority Ruling To Pause Deportations; Democratic Senator Warns Maryland Man's Case Threatens Rights Of All Americans; Police Searching For Suspect After Shots Fired Near Harvard University; Israeli Military Blames Professional Failures On The Killing Of 15 Palestinian Medics; Dems Face Tough Choices As They Map Out 2026 Senate Fight; Zelenskyy Accuses Russia Of Attacking During Easter Truce; Fallout From RFK Jr.'s Comments On Autism; The Weight Loss Struggle. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired April 20, 2025 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:01:23]
JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.
And tonight, a scathing rebuke from conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito calling the late-night Supreme Court ruling on the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act, quote, "unprecedented."
On Saturday, just before 1:00 a.m., the high court sent out an order temporarily blocking the administration from using that wartime law to deport a group of Venezuelan migrants in Texas. Justice Alito, now questioning that decision.
CNN's Marshall Cohen is joining us from Washington with the details on this.
Marshall, it is interesting and worth noting. This was a 7-2 ruling. So a number of conservative justices joining with the liberals here to approve this. But what else is Justice Alito saying?
MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it appears to be 7-2, which is a pretty strong rebuke for the Trump administration. But Justice Alito had his own strong words. We'll get into that in a moment. But let me just remind everybody how we got here.
We are talking about the Alien Enemies Act. You might remember it from your history books, because it was signed into law by President John Adams in the 1700s, and it's rarely been used. The Trump administration is trying to use it, these wartime powers to deport Venezuelan migrants that it claims are gang members.
Now, the Supreme Court already said earlier this month that the administration can use the law, but they need to give due process to anyone they try to deport, and that is what triggered this current crisis because on Friday lawyers from the ACLU representing some of these migrants went to court, including the Supreme Court, and said that their clients were on the brink of deportation. They were being loaded onto busses, possibly heading to the tarmac to be flown out of this country without, in their view, due process and a chance to challenge it in court.
So, Jessica, as you mentioned, the Supreme Court stepped in very early yesterday morning and hit the pause button with some of the conservatives linking up with the liberals to make that happen. Justice Alito, Justice Thomas, two of the arch conservatives on the bench, not pleased about it at all. And they issued a scathing dissent, which I will read to you now.
Justice Alito wrote, quote, "Literally in the middle of the night, the court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule without hearing from the opposing party with eight hours of receiving the application with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation." He just torched the majority there. But he was in the minority. His decision, his views did not carry the day.
But none of this will be permanent, Jessica. This was a temporary emergency order and we are expecting the court to weigh in soon and add some clarity to the situation that desperately needs some -- Jessica.
DEAN: All right. Marshall Cohen, with the latest. Thank you very much for that reporting.
And as the legal -- that legal battle plays out in Washington, another one is taking place in El Salvador. That's where a Maryland father was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration. And the White House has now doubled down on allegations Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a violent gang member, despite having shown no evidence of that, but does say he will not be returning to the U.S.
On Friday, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen met with Abrego Garcia, who told him the whole experience has left him traumatized.
CNN's Kevin Liptak is live at the White House now.
And, Kevin, Senator Van Hollen, appearing on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" this morning, what else did he have to say?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he's essentially describing this trip that he took last week to El Salvador as a fact-finding mission, one, to try and discern more about the conditions that Abrego Garcia is being held in in El Salvador.
[18:05:09]
And two, trying to determine if the administration is doing anything to facilitate his return to the United States, which is what a judge ordered them to do earlier this month.
Now, on that first point, it does appear as if Van Hollen was able to learn more about how exactly Abrego Garcia is being held. For example, he learned that he is not being held in that CECOT mega prison where El Salvador houses many terrorists. He's being held at a lower security facility. Van Hollen was able to meet him at his hotel, but he did describe Abrego Garcia as essentially being in a state of distress about his predicament.
Listen to more of what Van Hollen said this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): He was sad and traumatized that he was being in prison because he has committed no crimes. And that goes to the heart of this issue, because he's being denied his due process rights. And Donald Trump is trying to change the subject.
If we deny the constitutional rights of this one man, it threatens the constitutional rights of everybody in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIPTAK: So we hear Van Hollen there getting to this question of what exactly the White House and the Trump administration are doing to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States. Van Hollen says that they are outright defying this judge's order. And, in fact, the White House has said explicitly that Abrego Garcia will never come back to the United States. They said that after a federal appeals judge said last week that they needed to take a more active role in returning him to the U.S.
And so you see all of these strands coming together. What the White House has done, instead of bringing him back to the U.S., is to try and point to what they say is evidence of his participation in the MS- 13 gang. They've pointed to, for example, his tattoos. They've also tried to raise various incidents from his past that they say illustrate criminality, all of it essentially skirting this question of whether he was deported by mistake, which is what their own lawyers said in court.
You have started to hear even some allies of this White House start to speak out against that. For example, we heard from John Kennedy, the Republican from Louisiana, say earlier today that the administration screwed up -- Jessica.
DEAN: All right. Kevin Liptak, more to come on that. Thank you very much from the White House this evening.
And just in to CNN, some scary moments near Harvard University outside Boston today with a shooting near the Harvard Square train station. Police telling CNN no one was injured in that shooting. But this is a very busy weekend in the city, as the Boston Marathon is tomorrow. Schools are out not only for Easter, but also to celebrate Patriots Day.
CNN's Rafael Romo is joining us now.
What more do you know, Rafael?
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica, some scary moments there. We're now getting some details from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police Department regarding this incident. According to MBTA PD chief Richard Sullivan, at approximately 2:12 p.m., transit police officers responded to the MBTA's Harvard Square Station for a report of shots fired.
That's when, according to Chief Sullivan, a man while on the southbound platform who was apparently in possession of a firearm, fired four or five rounds at what the chief calls a, quote, "targeted individual." After the shooting, Sullivan says the suspect fled the station. The chief also added that there was nobody injured, but also added that this is still an active investigation and his officers are trying to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident as we speak.
"The Harvard Crimson," the student newspaper at Harvard University, earlier reported that a shelter in place order to Harvard affiliates was lifted at 3:19 p.m. due to the shooting, and that two previous alerts, one issued at 2:46 p.m. and the second at 3:08 p.m., asked students to shelter in place as a search for suspects was ongoing. According to a social media post from MBTA, some transit services are delayed.
Jessica, back to you.
DEAN: All right. Rafael Romo, thank you so much for that.
The Israeli military is blaming, quote, "professional failures" for an incident that killed 15 paramedics and first responders in Gaza last month. Those who were killed worked mostly for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. They were shot by Israeli forces before being buried in a mass grave. The IDF says an investigation into the killings revealed several breaches of orders and a failure to fully report the incident, but it says it stands by the decision making of the soldiers who carried out the attack on the ambulance convoy.
Our Jeremy Diamond has more now from Tel Aviv.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Israeli military is acknowledging, quote, "professional failures" in the incident that led to the killing of 15 paramedics and emergency responders last month at the hands of Israeli troops.
[18:10:07]
The Israeli military is blaming a, quote, "operational misunderstanding" for the decision to open fire on this convoy of ambulances and a fire truck. The military concluded its investigation into this incident by dismissing the deputy commander of the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion. This is the field commander who actually gave the order to open fire and was the first to open fire on these ambulances and this fire truck.
The military also issued a letter of reprimand to the commanding officer of the 14th Brigade, which was also involved in this attack. The military said that it, quote, "regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians," but the Israeli military also stopped short of criticizing the decision making of the soldiers on the ground who opened fire, saying that they opened fire because they felt an immediate and tangible threat.
That's despite the fact that these ambulances were clearly marked, that they had their emergency signals on, headlights on, and no weapons were found in any of these vehicles. All of these individuals were, in fact, wearing their uniforms, whether as paramedics or as civil defense first responders.
The Israeli military also praised the officer that it dismissed as a, quote, "highly respected" officer whose story they say reflects the, quote, "spirit of combat, volunteerism and great dedication."
I also was in a briefing with the Major General Yoav Har-Even, who oversaw this investigation, and he also told me that he believes that commander who ordered troops to open fire, quote, "acted reasonably." And he said that there was no evidence, in his view, of any unethical or immoral conduct by the forces, repeatedly calling it a mistake. And that is what he seemed to focus on, this idea that they opened fire based off of something that they felt, preconceived notions that ultimately turned out to be false.
But he did not fault them in the end for the decision to open fire. He said that he is not recommending any changes to the IDF's rules of engagement or its combat policies in order to prevent another incident like this from happening again.
I was also able to see aerial surveillance video from the Israeli military of this incident. They showed this video to us, but they have declined to release it publicly. This also shows that in addition to the attack on a first ambulance and then that convoy of ambulances and a fire truck several minutes later, a United Nations vehicle actually drives by. And in this video, you see this vehicle drive by quite slowly as it passes the vehicles that had been fired upon.
Several Israeli soldiers standing behind that U.N. vehicle then opened fire. The Israeli military has said that that part of the incident was indeed a breach of the Israeli military's rules of engagement, and the U.N. worker who was in that vehicle was indeed the 15th fatality resulting from this incident.
Now, the findings of this Israeli military internal investigation have now been sent to the military's advocate general. It will be up to that office to decide whether to file any charges. It's not clear whether or not that will happen.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DEAN: Jeremy, thank you.
Still ahead tonight, Democrats starting to panic over the 2026 midterms. New reporting on the desperate effort to dig out from years of losses and find some fresh talent.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:18:20]
DEAN: The math may not be adding up for Democrats. They're facing a tough Senate map next year with few opportunities to flip Republican held seats. And not just that, but they're also going to be defending seats where three incumbent Democratic senators have said they will not be seeking reelection, and they may not be the only ones.
Joining us now, CNN's senior reporter, Isaac Dovere.
And, Isaac, this map is a tough one for Democrats. And then to that point, you add in these retirements as well. You've got new reporting on all of this. What did you learn?
EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hi, Jessica. I talked to people all around the country and this question of who the Democrats are going to try to recruit and field in their races for Senate next year. I know it's April of 2025, but this process is already underway for the elections that are going to be in November of 2026. And what you see is real -- these questions of what the Democratic Party stands for.
Can they compete outside of the bluest areas in the country? All of those things that are very much in the mix are playing out already in thinking about these races and the story that I've got up on our site right now have a quote, among others, from Jaime Harrison, who was the Democratic National Committee chair, but in 2020 ran for a Senate seat in South Carolina, raised over $100 million, ended up losing by 15 points.
And what he said to me is the goal has to be to compete for every damn seat. That's tricky when you've got races that are up in places like Kentucky, in Mississippi, in Alaska, in Iowa, places that in recent years and really for decades for some of them, not been very good for Democratic candidates looking to get to the Senate. And then you've got people like Mallory McMorrow, who's running in Michigan.
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She's a state senator there running for that open seat in Michigan, a state that Democrats feel pretty good about but not great, saying to me that this is really about what the Democratic Party stands for. To her even there, she said to me, for too many voters in Michigan who narrowly elected Donald Trump, they don't know what the Democratic Party stands for, and that this is a huge opportunity for us to write a new Democratic Party and really put a stake in the ground showed through our race, she's talking about her race, that this is what the new party can look like and sound like and act like.
So all of that is coming together here even now, as I said, a year and a half out from the election.
DEAN: It is interesting to see those pieces start to get -- put into place and to see it all playing out. When it comes to what the Democratic Party should be, that question that Mallory McMorrow was talking about, did you -- what did you learn or what were they saying about kind of this push and pull between going with a more liberal take, a more progressive take, if you will, or a more -- running more moderate candidates? What did you learn about that?
DOVERE: Well, this is part of what the party is going to have to sort out and look, it will depend on what happens in each state. These races are not necessarily connected to each other, but you could have a range of candidates running as Democrats that go from people aligned with Bernie Sanders to people who voted with Donald Trump a bunch of times in key votes over the past bunch of years.
And so that is also part of what the party is going to have to sort out, because, look, we can talk about this all in philosophical terms. At some point next year it will get to be hard decisions about who the party is going to think about directing money to when it comes to the national Democratic organizations, the Senate Campaign Committee or the DNC, whether they lift up candidates in these states, let's say, places like Kentucky or Mississippi or South Carolina that are rich states, to put it mildly, for Democrats at this point or whether they will consolidate around certain candidates, certain states where they can say that those are their best bets.
And some of that decision is also going to be, are they going to back candidates who have aligned themselves with Donald Trump or align themselves with more progressive parts of the party at stages of their career so far. Like that's in part about just, hey, we want to win the races wherever we can. But it does get to be tricky as people really sort through what that looks like.
DEAN: Certainly. Isaac Devore, great stuff. Thanks so much. We really appreciate it.
DOVERE: Thank you.
DEAN: Joining us now for more perspective, CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein.
Ron, good to see you. Well, you just heard from our colleague Isaac there on his new reporting. Are Democrats right to be concerned about this Senate map the next go around?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, if the trajectory continues for Trump that he's on, it's going to be an overall good environment for Democrats in 2026. But the Senate is a reflection of the electoral college problem. They're just not competitive in enough states. I mean, if you look, there are 19 states that have voted against Trump all three times he's run for president.
Democrats already hold 37 of their 38 Senate seats, and they have a shot at that 38th one. Certainly, Susan Collins in Maine, who is the only Republican left in those states, right on the top of their list. Democrats are also doing, you know, holding their own in the six states that have split at any time during the Trump runs, voted for him sometimes, voted against him sometimes. They won four Senate seats last fall among those six states where Trump won and Democrats won anyway, which has been very unusual. The core of the problem is that in the last 25 states that have voted
for Trump all three times, Democrats are now down to zero, zero Senate seats. They had eight as recently as 2017. North Carolina is one that they absolutely need to flip if they're going to have any chance of getting back to 50 anytime soon. But ultimately, as Isaac was saying, you have to be able to compete in a broader range of places.
Can they compete in Iowa? Will Republican primaries from the right in Texas and Louisiana possibly open alternatives for them? As it stands, I mean, essentially, if you're writing off half the country and all 50 Senate seats in those 25 states, you've got to run, you know, you've got to run the table on everything else to get to 50. And that's just asking an awful lot.
DEAN: Yes. I do want to want to talk about some legislation in the in the current Congress. You've written a piece kind of looking at, you know, Republicans and Medicaid. It could be on the chopping block. They're looking to cut $1.5 trillion. You have this analysis piece out today on CNN.com looking at this new data from KFF. That's a nonpartisan health care think tank.
What did you find about this? Walk people through what you were writing about.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Yes, I mean, you know, one of the great success stories of the Affordable Care Act has been, one of the things it did was expand eligibility of Medicaid to more of the working poor.
[18:25:00]
Still very low-income people. We're talking about single individuals with incomes up to about $15,000, married couples with income up to about $21,000. But Medicaid made it -- the ACA made it possible for states to cover those folks and the federal government would pay 90 percent of the cost. 20 million people now get health insurance through that Medicaid expansion. If you listen to what Mike Johnson, the House speaker, and other Republicans, including those swing district Republicans who say they're cautioning against Medicaid cuts, broad Medicaid cuts, they are very clearly signaling that they intend to go after this population, this expansion population.
And the challenge is, is that even as the Affordable Care Act extended eligibility for Medicaid up the income ladder, you know, the realignment, political realignment in the Trump era has extended the Republican reach down the income ladder. And the result is that there are 32 House Republicans who, according to the KFF data that we analyzed, represent districts where the share of people who are receiving care through this Medicaid expansion exceeds the national average.
In Mike Johnson's district and every other Republican held district in Louisiana, over 100,000 people in each of those districts are receiving care through this.
DEAN: Wow. BROWNSTEIN: 6.8 million Republicans in general. It's not only the
people, Jessica, who are receiving care, it's all the providers who now count on this to avoid having to deliver uncompensated care. That is a big issue in Republican areas, particularly in rural communities, where reliance on the expansion is even greater. So if this is indeed where they are headed as a target for getting a big share of those budget cuts, it's going to put them in a position of a collision, really, with the material interests of a lot of their own voters.
DEAN: Yes. And those rural hospitals, too, where they get that care, rely on a lot of that, as you note.
All right. Ron Brownstein, a really interesting point, a really interesting piece. We really appreciate it. Thanks so much.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.
DEAN: Still ahead, President Trump says Ukraine and Russia can, in his words, hopefully reach a peace deal this week. This as Vladimir Putin is accused of breaching his own Easter truce.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:31:26]
DEAN: Vladimir Putin's brief Easter truce in Ukraine was scheduled to end last hour, with the Kremlin not planning to extend it. Yet Ukraine says the attacks slowed overnight but have continued throughout the two-day truce announced by Moscow. Russia's Ministry of Defense is accusing Ukraine of breaching the halt in fighting.
David Sanger is a CNN political and national security analyst and national security correspondent for "The New York Times."
David, good to see you on this Sunday. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says Russia kept fighting throughout this truce. He accuses President Putin of only doing this for the PR, not really adhering to it. Would you say that's accurate?
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Jessica, Happy Easter to you and end of Passover. And I guess the best answer to your question is yes, this does not look really like a truce. It looked more like a bit of a stunt.
President Putin announced the ceasefire just hours before it was supposed to go into effect. There was no advance discussion with the Ukrainians, so it wasn't clear how it was going to be two way. But most importantly, it didn't resolve any of the big issues around a ceasefire that the U.S. and others are seeking to bring on, which is, what would be the conditions of some longer lasting ceasefire. So at best, it was a gesture, at worst, a stunt.
DEAN: And President Zelenskyy and Donald Trump have both been calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine. You look at how you just described it, at best described as a stunt. Looking at what happened to this weekend, what do you think the odds are that that a month long halt in the fighting could even hold?
SANGER: Well, if you couldn't get a day getting a month seems a bit much, but I think the bigger question that's really going to be driving all of us in the next few days or weeks is whether this peace process is even going to continue.
DEAN: Right.
SANGER: It was pretty notable the other day when you heard Secretary of State Rubio say that just in a few days the president was going to have to decide whether to continue with this. It just wasn't clear what this was. Was it discussion over a ceasefire, or was it instead the question of whether the U.S. would keep supporting Ukraine?
DEAN: Yes. And I do want to ask you about that because we actually have a clip. I want to play some of what they said, and then I want to talk a little more about that.
SANGER: Sure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No specific number of days, but quickly, we want to get it done. If for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we're just going to say you're foolish, you're fools, you're horrible people, and we're going to just take a pass.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEAN: Again, this idea, just take a pass. What exactly does that mean? Marco Rubio, as you noted, saying, you know, it may be time to move on. What might that look like? What might that mean?
SANGER: Well, first of all, it's interesting that the president didn't say which one of the two parties he was talking about. Presumably it was Russia, which to the president's frustration, has really not engaged in any serious discussion of compromise and so forth. You'll remember that the Ukrainians did sign on to a 30-day ceasefire agreement. The really interesting question, the one you're raising here, is what does the president mean by take a pass?
[18:35:04]
One could be that he simply says, look, we got other things to go do. We've got lots of issues at home. We have China to worry about, tariffs. So you guys just go on and fight your own war. But the bigger concern is that this is playing right into the hands of Vladimir Putin, who really doesn't want to have a meaningful ceasefire here because he thinks he's winning and that he can just move on, continue to fight the war at a low level, and hope then to build his relationship with the United States. And President Trump has been pretty clear he wants to build a relationship back with Russia.
DEAN: All right. Well, more to come on this.
David Sanger, thank you so much. We really appreciate your analysis as always. Good to see you.
SANGER: Thank you, Jessica.
DEAN: Still ahead, Health Secretary RFK Jr. says autism is an epidemic that destroys families. How families and members of the autism community are reacting to those comments.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:40:43]
DEAN: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is getting pushback for claiming autism is preventable and part of a chronic disease epidemic. Now, he made those remarks at his first news conference as the head of the agency. Advocates and researchers say his rhetoric is harmful for Americans living with autism.
CNN's Julia Vargas Jones is joining us now.
Julia, we talked to an autism expert here yesterday who refuted so much of what the secretary had to say. What are you hearing on your end?
JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, from the families and people in the autism community we're hearing that the comments landed as degrading, insulting and frankly, just inaccurate. We spoke with one man who is diagnosed with autism and has been since he was 12. He went from being nonverbal and dropping out of fifth grade to now teaching at UCLA, one of the most prestigious universities in the country. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JUNIOR, HHS SECRETARY: It's not a canard.
JONES (voice-over): A series of controversial statements about autism by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sparking anger last week in the autism community.
KENNEDY: This is coming from an environmental toxin. And these are kids who will never pay taxes. They'll never write a poem. They'll never go out on a date. Many of them will never use a toilet unassisted.
JONES: He later clarified he meant among the most severe cases. The CDC says about a quarter of 8-year-olds with autism are considered to have profound autism.
For Russell Lehmann, who was diagnosed with autism at age 12, the words stung. RUSSELL LEHMANN, DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM: It's degrading. There are some
individuals out there who have very high support needs. To talk about them as if they are not able to contribute anything to this world does a disservice to them.
I was that little boy who would cry and shut down and break down the minute I wasn't by my mom's side due to severe anxiety.
JONES: Lehmann is a public speaker raising awareness about autism and a lecturer at UCLA.
R. LEHMANN: I want people to know the real, raw, transparent look into my world.
JONES: Kennedy's remarks followed a CDC report showing a rise in autism diagnosis rates among U.S. children. In 2022, about one in every 31 children was diagnosed by age 8, up from 1 in 36 in 2020, and 1 in 150 children in 2000, according to CDC data. Autism diagnosis rates are also higher among boys than girls, and in Asian Pacific Islander, black and Hispanic children.
Experts have largely attributed this rise to the better understanding and screening for the condition. But Kennedy argues that this lets industries that make or use products he believe may be linked to autism off the hook.
KENNEDY: And it's to their benefit to say all that to normalize it.
JONES: Kennedy says HHS has launched research to identify a cause for autism by September.
R. LEHMANN: For him to cut funding to where we are conducting that research and those studies, and then to start his own task force led by people who are anti-vaxxers, does nothing. If we got accommodations, we would thrive. All of us would pay taxes. All of us would be able to write a poem. All of us would be able to have a relationship.
JONES: Awareness is the first step for that, he says. In the mid-1990s when Lehmann was being diagnosed, autism was hardly part of the conversation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many different doctors did you go to?
GRETCHEN LEHMANN, RUSSELL'S MOTHER: I would say 10 easily.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what do they tell you?
G. LEHMANN: Usually an incorrect diagnosis.
JONES: As school became unbearable, Russell dropped out in the fifth grade.
R. LEHMANN: You know, I never had the opportunity to go to college or anything like that. I was very lost, had no friends.
JONES: It was poetry that inspired him to make something out of his suffering.
R. LEHMANN: I always feel like I'm just one random act away.
JONES: The raw, unfiltered videos he posts online have gained him thousands of followers, many of whom say he makes them feel seen.
R. LEHMANN: I want to keep it authentic. I don't want to say autism is a superpower. If it's my superpower, it's my kryptonite. If it's my best friend, it's my worst enemy, you know? So, autism is neither good or bad. It's both.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES (on-camera): Now, Jessica, the silver lining here is that there is a lot of attention once again on autism.
[18:45:02]
And Lehmann said that it would be good to know why he is the way he is and to find a cause for autism, but says he would also rather that energy and funding be directed toward more support and dignity for people living with autism today.
DEAN: All right. Julia Vargas Jones, thanks so much for that report. We appreciate it.
Up next, the science behind a weight loss struggle. Why some who used GLP-1 drugs dropped a few pounds, but then seemed to hit a plateau.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:50:09]
DEAN: Drugmaker Eli Lilly announced this week an experimental pill version of popular GLP-1 medications is effective in weight loss. Now, this comes as some users of the medications are finding that their weight loss has plateaued after using the drugs for months.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look at why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What was the highest weight you ever had?
KOSTA LIGRIS, WEIGHT LOSS DRUG PATIENT: The highest weight I ever had was over -- just slightly over 400 pounds. You have this sort of reckoning like, OK, I'm going to die.
GUPTA (voice-over): So Kosta Ligris started taking a weight loss drug three years ago.
How much weight did you lose?
LIGRIS: I've lost probably over 130 pounds.
GUPTA: Wow. Do you want to lose more weight?
LIGRIS: I do.
GUPTA (voice-over): But losing more weight has become increasingly difficult.
And, of course, the Zepbound.
LIGRIS: And the Zepbound.
GUPTA (voice-over): Even on what is now the highest dose of his GLP-1 drugs.
LIGRIS: This is the equivalent of 15 milligrams of Mounjaro. I'm not losing seven or eight pounds a month anymore.
GUPTA: People are using this word plateau when it comes to these medications. What does that term mean to you?
LIGRIS: Plateau basically means you're continuing to use the medication at the dosage that you've been using it, but the weight loss has stopped, like you have reached sort of a ceiling or a cap.
DR. ANGELA FITCH, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, KNOWNWELL: All right, you know the drill.
GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Angela Fitch prescribes Kosta's medications.
FITCH: We don't have something that gives you greater than a 20 percent to 30 percent weight loss today on average. That 20 percent weight loss is a real plateau barrier that we have trouble kind of breaking through without more intensive intervention like surgery. As you lose weight, your body makes biochemicals that try to force your weight to go back up.
LIGRIS: But as you'll see, it's a heavy protein diet.
GUPTA: If Kosta wants to lose more weight at this point, that's going to have to mostly come from good nutrition and lifestyle changes.
LIGRIS: I've moved away from just doing a lot of cardio to moving to strength training and it's completely changed my life.
GUPTA: If you're doing everything right, though, getting plenty of sleep, eating right like Kosta's doing, working out, you may still plateau on these medications.
FITCH: You will plateau. It is inevitable.
GUPTA: You will plateau.
FITCH: Yes.
GUPTA: So is a plateau an end goal to achieve or an obstacle to overcome? FITCH: That is an excellent question, and I think, you know, for now
it is somewhat of both. We have to be happy with it being an end goal to achieve because that's the limit of our treatment today. But I think as an individual person, we still continue to make changes.
You've lost 2.7 pounds of fat since last time.
Even Kosta is still losing fat around his midsection, which is better for his health. The hope is the future is different, that we have other treatments we can offer that could potentially break through those plateaus.
GUPTA (voice-over): But until then, Kosta will be in unchartered territory.
LIGRIS: I think that sometimes when we think about weight loss, a plateau sounds like a bad thing. Like you get to that number and you're stuck there. By the way, let's be clear. If I stay at this weight and I can never lose another pound, I'm probably, you know, 100 times healthier than I was when I was 130 pounds heavier and probably have added years to my life.
GUPTA: Everything you measure says you're healthy. Why do you want to lose more weight?
LIGRIS: I think that as I get older, it might be a challenge to continue to lose weight. You know, just looking historically at the data, the lower percentage body fat, the better. I certainly don't think I could lose 130 pounds, another 130 pounds.
GUPTA: Can't wither away to nothing.
LIGRIS: Can't wither away to nothing.
GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DEAN: All right, Sanjay, thanks for that.
Your favorite stars take you to their favorite places in the new CNN Original Series, "MY HAPPY PLACE." Join Alan Cumming in the Scottish Highlands for the premiere episode. Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALAM CUMMING, ACTOR: I feel the spirit of my granny whenever I return to Inverness. She was hilarious and always up for a good time. So when I'm back, I always try to relive some of the fun we had and it always starts here.
Nice to do this with my granny. A little boy. Find the best bouncy spot and it's not in the middle. No. This side. No. I must look so insane. Oh, yes. Small pleasures.
(END VIDEO CLIP) DEAN: Be sure to tune in the all new CNN Original Series, "MY HAPPY PLACE" premieres next Sunday. That's April 27th at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only here on CNN.
We are getting some breaking news into CNN right now regarding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly sharing military plans in a second Signal chat. This one apparently included his wife and brother. We're going to have more details on this when we come back.
[18:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.
DEAN: And you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.
We do have breaking news right now, as multiple sources tell CNN Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed attack plans for airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen in another Signal chat, this one included his wife, brother and personal attorney.
Now, this second Signal chat is in addition to the one Hegseth used to communicate about military plans with Cabinet officials last month.