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House Committee Subpoenas Clintons in Epstein Probe; Dr. Phil Huang is Interviewed about Vaccinations; Trump OK with Conquering of the Gaza Strip; David Daley is Interviewed about the Gerrymandering Fight. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 06, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:32:55]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish. And thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

It is now 32 minutes past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.

President Trump's foreign envoy is meeting with President Putin in Russia this morning. Steve Witkoff visiting at the request of the Kremlin. Trump has set a Friday deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire or face new sanctions.

And the governor of Texas ready to use the courts to get the Democrat's home. He's asking the state's Supreme Court to remove the, quote, "ringleader" of the walkout. He claims Gene Wu has vacated his seat. Wu says the governor is using the law as a weapon to silence them. A court could decide on this by Friday.

And tonight, Vice President Vance will host key members of the administration to discuss whether or not to release the tapes of Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell's interview last month. The attorney general, FBI director and others will attend.

At the same time, the House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas to nearly a dozen former officials as it broadens its investigation into the Epstein files. Among those included, Bill and Hillary Clinton. And Republicans are zeroing in on the former president for his documented association with Epstein. In a subpoena to Mrs. Clinton, Republicans cited her hiring of Ghislaine Maxwell's nephew in her 2008 presidential campaign.

We're going to bring in the group chat to talk about this.

The thing that is confusing about this is, if you're trying to tell the world that there's no longer a conspiracy, do you have a dinner where you all get in a room privately and talk about it?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, and talk about what they're going to release and what they're not going to release. This does seem to be exactly the kind of thing that many of the people who will be in the room tonight at this dinner talked about before as the things that government did to hide the Epstein files. Now, I --

CORNISH: Right, because this tape, this audio recording, is of the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, who was Trump's former attorney.

DOVERE: Right. And it includes Kash Patel and J.D. Vance, who, both of them, spent quite a bit of time talking about releasing the files, releasing the files.

[06:35:03]

So, look, they are now talking about what they are going to release and what they are not going to release. And they're doing it in a meeting that was not announced. Our colleagues reported about it. They found out about it. They're doing it behind closed doors. They're talking about what information they might -- there might be other than this, including this recording of the Maxwell interview. This does seem to be the -- like I said, the kind of thing that would feed the conspiracy thinking of exactly the people who are part of it now.

CORNISH: And the number of names we saw in the subpoena from that House Oversight Committee. Attorney generals from both administrations. So, whether that's Merrick Garland, Bill Barr, Jeff Sessions, Eric Holder, Alberto Gonzales, from the George Bush years, which I don't know if people got into the wayback machine and remember the original sentencing deal that sort of kicked off the scandal out of Florida. That's a lot of names on that screen, Maria, and I hear it's not enough for you.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, it's not because these --

CORNISH: but it's bipartisan at least.

CARDONA: Sure. And that's fine. And let's see if any of them have any additional information. But where's Alex Acosta, who actually was the one who originally negotiated the horrible deal with Epstein? Where is Bondi, where is Kash Patel, the people who have actually seen the files? If you're going to subpoena Bill Clinton, because, of course, Republicans are like, oh, well, he was Epstein's friend. Guess who else was Epstein's good friend? Donald Trump.

So, this, to me, is again another distraction and another excuse for them to be able to say, oh, look what we're doing. We really do want transparency. That's just BS. They don't want transparency. They don't want anyone to testify that is going to be able to say that Donald Trump is in the Epstein files, period.

CORNISH: OK, I want to turn to something else. So, you guys, stay with me, but it's back to school time and there's an increased chance that your kids might be exposed to measles because a growing number of kindergartners aren't getting vaccinated. That's according to the CDC. A record 3.6 percent of children were exempted from the vaccine in 2024, and most of those exemptions from parents were for non-medical reasons. Only 92.5 percent of kindergartners got their required measles, mumps, rubella shots before -- before the pandemic. That rate was actually 95 percent, which is what you need to prevent an outbreak.

And here's a stat that should get every parents attention. The U.S. is experiencing its worst year for measles spread in over three decades. So, at this point, more than 1,300 cases in 20 states so far.

So, I want to point out, of course, that measles can be dangerous, even deadly, for anyone, even adults. This Indianapolis man found out the hard way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I ended up in a coma for three days. And -- and my parents were kicking themselves because they had the opportunity to get me vaccinated on the East Coast before this whole trip. And they're like, he could die.

The big -- the big rule for me is that if it's FDA approved vaccine, I'm going to get it.

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CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss is Dr. Phil Huang, director of the Dallas Health and Human Services Department.

Welcome to the program. Thanks for being here.

DR. PHIL HUANG, HEALTH DEPARTMENT DIRECTOR, DALLAS COUNTY, TEXAS: Thank you. Good morning.

CORNISH: Texas has been dealing with some aspect of this outbreak for many months now. You've already had a school year affected by it. Do you expect another school year where you're going to see the effect of this?

HUANG: Well, definitely the decline in some of the vaccination rates and more of the people -- parents opting out is the setting that sets us up for something like that. And that -- what was happening in west Texas really was there was a large group of people that had low vaccination rates, and that's, you know, that's where you're going to see something like this happen.

CORNISH: I want you to listen to the Health and Human Services secretary, RFK Jr., when he was asked why he thinks the measles is spreading in the U.S.

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ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: People get measles because they don't vaccinate. They get measles because the vaccine wanes. The vaccines wane about 4.8 percent per year.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: Just to underscore what he's claiming, that the vaccines wane. Can you try and translate for us what you think he's saying and whether it's factually correct?

HUANG: Well, I'm not -- you know, if he's saying that the vaccine -- what he's saying is the effectiveness is going away over time. But then that would seem he would want to encourage maybe more vaccination. But that's not seems -- doesn't seem to be the message that we're getting from the HHS secretary.

I mean, you know, it's been so effective and safe that it was declared eliminated in the year 2000 in the United States. So, it's, you know, highly effective. I mean, two doses, getting the full two doses is considered about 97 percent effective. So, I'm not sure exactly what his message is with that.

[06:40:05]

But, either way, we say, everyone needs to be up to date on their childhood vaccines and other vaccines and, in particular, what we're seeing with the measles is, you know, very important.

CORNISH: But it's clear that's not working if you have this further decline, right, of parents calling for exemptions. What messaging is coming to you? What kind of messaging do you give to your school nurses, to, you know, people around the state who are trying to make a difference on this issue?

HUANG: Sure. Well, you know, again, it's this mixed messages that we get and we need the consistent message from the top that how effective these vaccines are, how safe they are, and that this is the most important thing that we can do to protect, you know, every -- yourself, your family from these childhood illnesses and vaccine preventable illnesses, and in particular measles in this case.

So, you know, we need to use trusted messengers. We need to build that trust. I mean, I think we all want the same thing for the kids. The parents want the same thing. Physicians, health care providers. And just to make sure that we address some of these, you know, the misinformation and disinformation that's out there and, unfortunately, that can get out so easily on social media now.

CORNISH: OK, speaking here to the director of Dallas Health and Human Services, Dr. Phil Huang. Thank you so much.

HUANG: Thank you.

CORNISH: Next on CNN THIS MORNING, it's up to Israel. That's what President Trump said when asked about the plan for a full conquest of Gaza.

And the voting lines and the battle lines, the redistricting fight spreads across the country.

We want to know what's in your group chat. What are people talking about? Let us know on X. We're going to be talking about what's in ours after this.

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[06:46:01]

CORNISH: It's 45 minutes past the hour. And here is your morning roundup.

It turns out the deadly Titan submersible implosion, well, it was preventable. The U.S. Coast Guard released a report yesterday laying out all the issues with the 2023 voyage that included technical repair, maintenance problems, and issues within the company itself. We also learned that the sub was stored in an outdoor parking lot in Canada for seven months, including during the bitter cold winter.

Sean "Diddy" Combs defense team confirms that they approached the Trump administration about a pardon. Combs was convicted of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. President Trump says he is unlikely to pardon Combs because when he ran for office Combs was, quote, "very hostile."

And President Trump is seemingly OK with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to fully conquer the entire Gaza Strip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are there now trying to get people fed.

That's what I'm focused on as far as the rest of it. I really -- I really can't say. That's going to be pretty much up to Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: President Trump, he -- says he still expects Israel to help the U.S. pay for and distribute food and aid to thousands of starving Gazans.

And the group chat is back.

I want to talk about the shifting politics here. And I'm going to start with you, Isaac, because you were actually writing about the moderate Democrats who are now starting to speak publicly to shift on Israel, which is significant given a year ago how they were spending their time.

DOVERE: Yes, and that's because of the situation that is there in Gaza now, everything that has been going on since October 7th. And really a long, brewing situation with Benjamin Netanyahu that goes back to when Netanyahu was dealing with Barack Obama in ways that aggravated is, to say the least, the -- the president then and -- and the people who worked for him. And for Democrats now the situation is something that is exploding on the left wing of the base, but is also leading to people who you would not guess to take issue with what's going on in Israel. And they are looking at this and saying --

CORNISH: Give me a name. Like who.

DOVERE: Well, I'll give you a lot of names. Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, spoke out yesterday against Netanyahu. Tim Walz I talked to a couple days ago about this. Rahm Emanuel, who was Obama's chief of staff at the time, and told me about the time that Netanyahu called him a self-hating Jew for being against him. All -- and what's going on is that there is a real fear among Democrats that Zionism is in danger among the Democratic Party, and that it could be a litmus test for the midterms next year, and really for the presidential election that's coming up in 2028. And when I talk to all these people, I talked to a lot of people who are expected to run for president. A lot of others. Brian Schatz, the likely next Democratic leader in the Senate, saying that they really need to pivot hard away from Netanyahu, criticize what he's doing, say that they have no association with this, and hope that there is a change in Israel government policy.

CORNISH: This is a very profound conversational shift.

Maria, before I bring you in, Audrey, we were talking earlier this week about Marjorie Taylor Greene going out and talk -- and using the word genocide in relation to what was happening in Israel. She's not reflective of the whole caucus, obviously. But what is going on, on the right, or the MAGA right -- I don't know which we want to talk about -- on this issue as well?

AUDREY FAHLBERG, POLITICS REPORTER, "NATIONAL REVIEW": Right. So, among Democrats, this is becoming gradually -- quickly, actually, becoming a default position among mainstream Democrats to have this skepticism of the Israeli government. But in the Republican Party, in his first term, now his second term, Trump has been a staunch ally of Israel here.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, of course, calling it a genocide. She is, as you mentioned, not reflective of the Republican Party. She, Thomas Massie, have long been, you know, considered the fringe on foreign policy issues especially.

We are seeing people like Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, you know, the conservative MAGA influencers being skeptical of Netanyahu, a bit of -- quite a bit of anti-Semitism on the right, particularly among young conservatives.

[06:50:11]

But I would say right now --

CORNISH: You mean in how they're talking about -- what aspect of it?

FAHLBERG: Well, I'm saying, you know, skepticism of Netanyahu also, but also among types like Tucker Carlson, you know, maybe taking some of the rhetoric to the extreme. But again, that is not the Republican Party writ large. And I'd say, right now, you know, it is -- the Republicans in Congress are still pro-Israel right now.

CORNISH: So to your point earlier, here's New York Congressman Ritchie Torres. He's a Democrat. A self-described Zionist. And he also has begun questioning the Israeli government, like many people, after the release of those images of the effect of the humanitarian crisis on children. Here's what he said on MSNBC recently.

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REP. RITCHIE TORRES (D-NY): There's a genuine humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and we should do everything in our power, the United States, Israel, every member of the free world, to address -- address and alleviate the hunger and hardship that has taken hold in the Gaza Strip.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Then he got interviewed on "Politico" and he said, "I feel it's possible to be an unapologetic Zionist, while at the same time recognizing there's a crisis in Gaza and recognizing the war has poorly defined strategic objectives."

I mean, there are university students right now who, you know, their schools are -- have taken a massive amount of heat because of the way they talked about Israel. What do you see in this shift?

CARDONA: I see, freaking finally, it's about time that Democrats, and I think others as well, and even some in the Republican Party, are differentiating between Netanyahu and the Israeli government and the state of Israel and the Jewish population, either here or the people in Israel. They are not one and the same. You can absolutely be anti- Netanyahu and the racist, fascist policies that he is implementing, and how he is engaging in this horrific war in Gaza, and still be pro- Israel, still be pro-Israel, has a right to defend itself. Those are not mutually exclusive. And I'm glad that my party is starting to understand that, because that's where the majority of Democratic voters are. And I think, frankly, the majority of America and the majority of the world, actually.

DOVERE: Yes, when I -- when I talked to Torres for -- Ritchie Torres for this article that is up on our site, he said, the political question, though, is whether this is situational or structural, how lasting this is.

But one of the other --

CORNISH: Meaning the situation around the crisis is allowing more political room --

DOVERE: Right. More as to say larger, move away from Zionism. But I --

CORNISH: Yes. Well, I think if Netanyahu gets his way of having --

DOVERE: Right.

CORNISH: Escalating a military campaign, we'll see what the reaction is.

CARDONA: Right. CORNISH: You guys, stick with me.

I want to bring in one more person in the conversation around that political mess in Texas, because is this going to become a nationwide gerrymandering free for all ahead of the midterm elections? You've got state leaders in both parties threatening to claim more congressional seats by rewriting their voter maps. Indiana could be up next. As we mentioned earlier, J.D. Vance travels there today.

But while talking to reporters Tuesday, the governor there hinted about what could be on the agenda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE BRAUN (R-IN): It's exploratory. So, there's been no commitments made.

It looks like it's going to happen across many Republican states. And I think that my observation would be that the folks raising the most cane about it are the ones that have gerrymandered their own states.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, what does this mean for your vote? David Daley is the author of the book "Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count." He joins me now.

David, that's pretty intense name for a book about gerrymandering and redistricting. What do you -- to be honest. I want to talk about the fact that the Supreme Court ruling in 2019 kind of pulled the guardrails from this, right? But in part, the court said, look, in recent years there's been redistricting commissions, and people seem to be taking care of what is a political process. Why did things regress so quickly?

DAVID DALEY, AUTHOR, "RATF**KED: WHY YOUR VOTE DOESN'T COUNT": That's right. The court actually, accidentally perhaps, signed the death warrant for those reform movements when they, in 2019, closed the federal courts to partisan gerrymandering claims. What they said was that the federal courts would no longer be available to police the bad behavior of politicians. And what we're seeing across the country right now is that politicians behave terribly when it comes to redistricting. It is so important -- the power to draw lines is the power to pick winners and losers. And we need a national solution. As we see this spiral from state to state, this can either spiral down to the bottom, or we can have a national solution.

And John Roberts and the court closed that possibility off at exactly the moment that federal judges, appointed by both presidents, looked at gerrymanders drawn by both parties, by Democrats in Maryland, by Republicans in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Ohio and Michigan, and said, we have the tools we need to fix this.

[06:55:19]

John Roberts said, no, that math doesn't work. It's sociological gobbledygook. Closed the federal courts. And here we are.

CORNISH: I want to play a clip of Governor Pritzker from Illinois talking about how, well, look, Democrats have to do this now, too. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): Here in the state of Illinois, it is possible to redistrict. It's not something that I want to do. It's not something that any of us want to have to do.

There are no rules anymore, apparently. And so, we're going to have to play by the set of rules that, well, that are being set out in front of us, which, frankly, none of us believes is the right way to operate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Are there no rules when it comes to redistricting, gerrymandering anymore?

DALEY: Thanks to the court, that is perhaps the case. That's a little bit rich coming from Governor Pritzker, who, in 2021, gerrymandered his own state for the Democrats. Democrats have a 14 to three advantage there. They get 52 percent of the two-party popular vote in 2024. They got 83 percent of the seats.

And that really is the problem that Democratic governors face right now. They are talking tough for their base about needing to do something about this, but they fired off most of their ammunition back in 2021 when they redrew Maryland and Oregon and New Mexico, and certainly Illinois.

CORNISH: Yes.

DALEY: If Democrats want to do something about this right now, they don't have a lot of opportunities and targets. And that's the big problem.

CORNISH: And if you're a voter right now, what do we do? This is just ahead of midterms. Are we calling our lawmakers and saying, stop? Are we, like, this is a weird moment of feeling kind of helpless.

DALEY: I think that is right. Four hundred and thirty-five House districts, only 37 of them back in 2024 were within 5 percent. So, most of us, about 90 percent of us, do not live in a competitive district.

The good news about all of this is that voters hate partisan gerrymandering. It doesn't matter if you're a Democrat, a Republican, an independent. There's a new poll out this week that shows 60 percent -- plus percent of Democrats, high 50s on Democrat -- on Republicans and independents all still favor the idea of independent commissions taking this power to draw lines away from politicians, putting it in the hands of people and non-partisan commissions. I think that's one reason why what Texas Democrats are doing right now is so effective. They're out making good trouble, as John Lewis once said, right? They are really speaking with moral clarity about what is at stake when these lines get drawn for everybody, because this is a national fight. If -- if Texas Republicans are able to add five additional seats, that's a big change for the entire country in the battle for Congress in the midterms in 2026.

CORNISH: David Daley, author of the book "Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count." We're going to keep reaching out to you. Thanks so much.

David gave us a lot to chew on. I'm sure that's going to appear in my group chat. I want to talk about what's in yours.

Audrey, why don't you start?

FAHLBERG: This is kind of a nerdy one, but NASA fast tracking the -- a nuclear reactor on the moon. It's a fun story.

CORNISH: Oh, that is one my friends are talking about, where the transportation secretary/slash NASA chief, Sean Duffy.

FAHLBERG: Right. It's a fun one. We haven't gotten too much out of -- out of NASA lately. So, it's a, you know, moment of national pride, I'd say. It's a fun story that I'm watching.

CORNISH: OK.

Maria, for you?

CARDONA: To your point, in my group chat, it is about what's going on in Texas. As you know, I have a lot of Latino leaders in my group chat. And they're saying, look, this could backfire for Republicans. If they're trying to group a lot of Latino voters in those districts, which I heard is one of the things that they're trying to do, and they are counting that the shift to Trump is going to be permanent, and it hasn't been permanent. And, in fact, you have data from 18 and 22 that Democrats overperformed with Latinos and Republicans, not Trump, Republicans underperformed with Latinos. And this is a midterm election. It's not a presidential. Trump is not on the ballot. So, this could actually backfire.

CORNISH: Your group chat has crosstabs is what you're saying. It's just people sending Excel links.

CARDONA: Oh, you have no idea.

CORNISH: OK.

Last word to you, Isaac.

DOVERE: Sort of not politics, but really it's all politics. There's a great article in "The Washington Post" today about the -- the one actor who has showed up, who has been in every production of "Hamilton" on Broadway for the last ten years. It's the 10th anniversary of "Hamilton," and he is the guy who plays Samuel Seabury, who gets -- the British guy who gets into the debate with Lin-Manuel Miranda, or Hamilton, I guess.

CORNISH: Oh, yes.

[07:00:03]

DOVERE: And --

CORNISH: And has amazing social media is what I see here.

DOVERE: Yes, exactly. There you go.

CORNISH: I do feel like it's extremely on brand for you to have "Hamilton" in your chats.

DOVERE: I'm -- I'm -- I --

CORNISH: I just --

DOVERE: I -- I feel like I'll take that as a compliment.

CORNISH: No, it is. It is. I mean, I don't -- I don't know, it's in this era.

You guys, thanks so much. We covered a lot of ground in the group chats alone.

CARDONA: Thanks, Audie.

CORNISH: I want to thank you for waking up with us. We've got lots of headlines. We're staying on that news out of Russia. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts now.