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House Mulls Medicaid-Medicare Bill; Kelly Keegan is Interviewed about Taylor Swift; Max Boot is Interviewed about the Trump-Putin Meeting. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 14, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:36]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYER": Ahead of Friday's summit with President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the White House is reportedly trying to temper expectations. Of course now the question is, how do you temper nothing?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump says there will be very severe consequences on Russia if Vladimir Putin does not agree to end his war in Ukraine during their summit on Friday.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

It is half past the hour. And here's what's happening now.

Ukraine's president just wrapped up a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. European leaders are rallying behind Zelenskyy ahead of the war summit between the U.S. and Russia.

Overnight, D.C. police and federal agents ramping up their enforcement in the nation's capital. They were met by protests as law enforcement set up a traffic checkpoint in an area popular for bars and restaurants. Community members criticizing the agents, yelling, quote, "shame," "you're the criminals," and "take off your mask."

And if you're traveling through Canada this weekend, your flight could be canceled starting today. Air Canada flight attendants are set to go on strike. The airline says it will lock out striking workers and suspend all operations starting Saturday until a deal is reached. The union is asking for 100 percent pay for all hours of work and cost of living enhancements.

And House Republicans are pushing for yet another mega bill that could include more cuts to Medicaid. "Politico" reports Speaker Johnson and other Republican leaders are discussing a bill that could pass along party lines in the Senate, and they've invited Brian Blase, the chief architect of the Medicaid cuts, to help map it all out. But with Republican members back in their districts for the August recess, their constituents have actually been turning up the heat on them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DOUG LAMALFA (R-CA): A topic that's been of very, very great interest to a lot of people has to do with Medicaid/Medi-Cal here in California.

ATTENDEE #1: You're out of your mind. You cut our health care!

ATTENDEE #2: We need a hospital!

LAMALFA: The work done in the big bill was to try and focus that --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: I want to bring back the group chat.

And, Antjuan, I want to start with you because you have a lot of experience in Congress.

Is this a sign that they felt like, you know what, doing a big bill really worked. We do have the numbers to make it happen, so let's try it again.

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think this is a sign of the Republican arrogance in Washington.

[06:35:03]

And quite frankly, if they believe so much in the big ugly bill and the depth and the width and the harm that it's going to do to America, they would not have delayed the impact or the implementation of it. Keep in mind, most of America may not feel some of these things until after the '26 midterms. But we know from polling, we know from data, and we know from just experience from town halls that the Medicaid and the SNAP pieces are two of the most pivotal pieces to those bills. And once America starts to feel them in an authentic way, they will realize this does not just impact Democrats or Republicans or anyone else, it impacts everyone.

CORNISH: Rachael, this is "Politico" reporting, so I got to come to you.

RACHAEL BADE, CAPITOL BUREAU CHIEF, "POLITICO": Yes.

CORNISH: You guys specifically pointing out this Medicaid architect, right? So, it's not like they went through the big, beautiful bill process, heard all the talking points and then said, oh, we definitely shouldn't touch that.

BADE: Yes, this isn't going to happen. And I'm going to tell you why for two -- there are two reasons. One is the midterms are now closer than ever to sort of becoming real. I mean, this was an incredibly painful exercise for frontline Republican members. I mean, regardless of some of the reporting in here. Yes, Speaker Johnson having these conversations. The group that is inviting this guy in to talk about more Medicaid cuts, he's going to what's known as the Republican Study Committee. This is a group of the most conservative members in the House. They might be on board with this, but their colleagues are not in these frontline districts. And with the midterms coming, it's just not going to happen. They're not going to get the votes. These guys are worried about their election.

But also one more thing I want to mention. We're -- they're done with the tax cut portion of this. I mean the reason why Republicans united around this and ultimately got on board and passed it is because there was this deadline and taxes would go up on Americans, and that is the last thing Republicans wanted. That is the sole reason why this bill passed. And they won't have that sort of incentive to -- to unify with this.

CORNISH: Not -- not an imposed deadline by the White House.

BADE: Right.

CORNISH: That can work sometimes.

JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I -- I defer to Rachael on the prediction. I think she's probably right. It sounds persuasive to me.

That said, I think one of the things that the White House fell in love with, with the strategy, with the last big BBB, I just can't say the thing, was -- was that it was -- the predictions going into it was that there were -- the Republicans had such a narrow margin, they'll never get it passed. And it turned out that the reason it passed was because they had such a narrow margin that no congressman wanted to be the person responsible for the thing to fail.

CORNISH: Yes.

GOLDBERG: And so I think there are a lot of people in the White House who love that strategy because it's a way you can get everything you want and use Trump's basic superpower in the Republican Party to scare the crap out of people.

CORNISH: And there were lawmakers who admitted, like, I didn't read the whole thing. Like --

GOLDBERG: Right, but I don't think it will work a second time around.

CORNISH: Yes.

SEAWRIGHT: But as America became educated on what was in the big ugly bill, the nastier it -- it played out in terms of how people felt about it. And that's so -- that's why it was a ram, jam and screw job in terms of how to implement it.

But the scary part about it is that, again, Americans will vote and they will not be able to feel this until post the midterms. CORNISH: Well, I look forward to your next nickname for the next bill,

because I think we are going to be talking about this more.

Group chat, stick with me.

I'm going to turn now to this because, like, this is the news for a lot of people. Swifties got fed Wednesday night. Taylor Swift sat down for a two hour interview on her boyfriend, Travis Kelce's podcast, "New Heights." More than 1.3 million people tuned in. In the less than 12 hours since it airs, it has 8 million views and counting on YouTube.

Now, she rarely does interviews anymore, much less ones that talk about anything other than her music. This one hit on all of it. Her relationships, her new era. The most poignant moment was when she talked about getting back her masters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR SWIFT, : Rather than send lawyers, or management, like, in a big crew, I sent my mom and my brother, who I work with, to L.A. And they -- sorry. They sat down and they like, this happens. I don't ever really talk about it because it's --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's huge.

SWIFT: They sat down with -- with Shamrock Capital and they told them what this meant for me. Like, this is -- they -- they told them the whole story.

I get a call from my mom and she's like -- she's like, they -- they -- we -- we did -- you got your music.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: With me now to discuss all this is Kelly Keegan. She's the host of the "Taylor Watch" podcast.

A very striking moment there. We know that this decision to re-record her music because she originally lost those masters, you know, she made, like, $2 million off of that, right? Like, it was a success. But she was still emotional about finally getting those masters back.

What else stuck out to you?

KELLY KEEGAN, HOST, "TAYLOR WATCH" PODCAST: Good morning. Audie. How are you?

I, honestly, I'm emotional even watching that clip. I think that it's so clear to all of us how much this meant to Taylor as not only an artist, but just as a person, to see all of your work kind of in someone else's hands, and then to feel that -- that moment where you were able to reunite with it, you're able to feel as if you're complete.

[06:40:09] All of your work was not for nothing. And I just, you know, as -- as a fan, as a person, I think it's just something that you can look at and you can think, wow, whatever it is that you're -- whatever your goal is, you can achieve it in whatever way you need to. It might not be the way that you thought that you would, but you'll always get there. And she's just, you know, she's a beacon of hope, to be honest.

CORNISH: She talked about her creative work as well. I want to play for you some of what she said about this new album, which is apparently called "Life of a Showgirl."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR SWIFT: There's no other songs coming. It's not like -- like with "Tortured Poets Department" I was like, here's a data dump of everything I've thought, felt. There was a lot of experience in two or three years. Here's 31 songs.

JASON KELCE: There's a lot of songs on that one. Yes.

SWIFT: This is 12. There's not a 13th. There's not a 14th. There's not other ones coming.

JASON KELCE: Yes.

SWIFT: This is the record I've been wanting to make for a very long time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Sounds like she's heard the criticism also about these lengthy albums. The variants she puts out. Like multiple colors of vinyl. What do you think of the creative decision here?

KEEGAN: I actually love it. I think that -- that in some of her past albums she's had a longer track list. Sure, of course, as a fan, I am not complaining. The more tracks, the better. But she did go on to describe how this is her 12th album. There are 12 songs. She worked again with her mentor Max Martin and also Shellback. And she said that they didn't want to -- they -- they were looking for quality over quantity and they wanted to keep the same kind of storytelling that she did within her folklore album, but have kind of a poppy feel to it.

Some of us -- some of us bigger Swifties, we know, obviously, Max Martin and Shellback are producers on songs like "Wildest Dreams" and "Blank Space," and a lot of 1989 album sound. And so, we're really looking forward to that pop sound and those upbeat, you know, tunes that we can really, you know, get excited about and also listen to what kind of story she's telling us next.

CORNISH: I heard you mentioned a little bit of Taylor numerology there.

KEEGAN: Yes. Of course.

CORNISH: And here's what she had to say about people looking for the puzzles in this marketing and in the music.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR SWIFT: People are like, the easter eggs thing is getting a little zodiac killer at this point. If you are a part of the fandom and you want to experience -- like music in a normal way --

JASON KELSC: Yes.

SWIFT: Then -- then you don't even see these. You don't even care what that this is above that doorway in -- under that dimly lit flickering light over there that's upside down, backwards, in Braille. I -- you don't -- you don't need to know what that is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: I know that you literally are on the "Taylor Watch" podcast, but like this -- I felt this zodiac killer comment because it was starting to feel like a superhero film. Like, oh, if I haven't seen the first 20, I don't know what's going on.

What do you say to that? Because that was a little bit of a message to the fans.

KEEGAN: I think that that -- that is exactly how it feels. I think that the fans have made jokes like that. We kind of, you know, the ones that really want to go down the rabbit hole with her, like she said before. We do look out for those things and we do look for signs and clues and easter eggs. And whether they're real or not, you know, we don't know until we know. But it just -- it feels like a -- it feels like a fun game for the community, for the Swifties, for -- for her to have fun with her own music. You know, it's -- you know, you write music, you put it out. That's exciting. But when you have this added element of having fun with your fans at the same time, I think it's amazing. And I honestly think that her easter eggs and things like that make it so much easier to be her fan and also it feels like you are, you know, like you're in on it with her or something. And it's -- it's just a good feeling and I think it's a great way to connect.

CORNISH: OK, Kelly Keegan, host of the "Taylor Watch" podcast. I'm sure this is your super bowl. So, thank you for taking time to talk with me.

KEEGAN: Absolutely. Of course. Thank you for having me. This has been fabulous.

CORNISH: After the break on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump preparing for that summit with the leader of Russia. Does he have a new perspective heading into the one on one?

Plus, it's all the craze, but there's a new warning about fake Labubus. And we want to know what's in your group chat. It's probably this. But just in case it's not, send it to us on X.

We'll be back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:48:33]

CORNISH: It's 47 minutes past the hour. And here's your morning roundup.

Hip hop artist Kid Cudi, opening up about his testimony in the Diddy trial. He is the ex-boyfriend of Cassie Ventura. He denied testifying twice before he was subpoenaed. He was speaking on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, and Cudi says eventually he was happy to support his friend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KID CUDI, RAPPER: It was just about, damn, I don't want to do this, to being like, oh, man, I got to, like, hold homegirl down and like, you know, look out for her, you know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The Grammy winner's home was broken into and his car set on fire when he was dating Cassie. And he said that Diddy was behind it.

And if you've been on the internet at all, you've seen Labubus. The toys have had massive success. They're basically sold out everywhere. And with that comes, of course, a warning about fake dolls now flooding the market. A U.K. consumer protection agency says that these ones are poorly made and unsafe. They can actually pose a choking hazard.

And the president says the Kennedy Center Honor now has his stamp all over it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was about 98 percent involved. No, they all went through me. They came over, Rick and Sergio and everybody. They said, I turned down plenty. They were too woke. I turned -- I had a couple of wokesters. No, we -- we have great people. This is very different than it used to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:50:00]

CORNISH: Among those, Gene Simmons of KISS, who was actually critical after Trump left office. Now Simmons says, quote, "KISS is the embodiment of the American dream. We're deeply honored to receive the Kennedy Center Honor."

And turning our focus now to tomorrow's summit in Alaska, where President Trump hopes once again his brand of personal diplomacy can help broker an end to the conflict in Ukraine. And that personal touch so far hasn't gotten results. Back on May 9th, the president had a two hour call with Putin and

claimed progress toward a ceasefire. Then, just days later, Russia launched its largest aerial assault since the start of the war, killing 29 people over a span of three days.

Then again, June 4th, Trump and Putin speak. He called it a good conversation. Two days later, Russia launched a barrage of what they called retaliatory strikes.

And July 3rd, Trump had nearly an hour long phone call with Putin and told reporters in Iowa he believes Putin is, quote, "not looking to stop the war." And five days later, on July 8th, Putin launched a new record aerial assault against Ukraine.

So, now even the president seems to admit the approach hasn't worked so far.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Do you believe you can convince him to stop targeting civilians in Ukraine?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've had a lot of good conversations with him. Then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home or a rocket hit an apartment building, and people are laying dead in the street. So, I guess the answer to that is no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now is Max Boot, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of "Reagan: His Life and Legend."

Max, thank you so much for being here.

MAX BOOT, SENIOR FELLOW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Thanks for having me.

CORNISH: I want to start with those, sort of how we opened this conversation, right? It's not clear what the president has accomplished when he has met with Putin. But there was a point when several people, including yourself, were looking at how Trump was talking more stridently against Putin, and people thought maybe there was a shift afoot. Do you still see that?

BOOT: Well, I definitely thought that there was a shift afoot about a month ago when Trump started talking about how Putin was, quote/unquote, tagging him along, how he was talking nice on the phone, but then staging these air attacks on Ukrainian cities. And then Trump threatened to impose harsh secondary sanctions on Russia. And that deadline was last week.

He did impose sanctions on -- on India, which is a major buyer of Russian oil. But then all of a sudden, out of the blue, he decided to hold this summit with Vladimir Putin after Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow. And this to -- to my mind, is just a way for Putin to delay and obfuscate and prevent the imposition of further sanctions. And just by having the summit on U.S. soil, Trump is already giving Putin a victory by ending his international isolation. So, you know, this is not consistent with the message he was sending last month. What he's going to say next week, who knows?

CORNISH: Since you've written a book about Reagan, I wanted to bring this quote to you from Senator Lindsey Graham, where he was saying, "remember, Reagan met with Gorbachev to try to end the cold war. I'm confident President Trump will walk away like Reagan if Putin insists on a bad deal." And Graham says he believes Trump would walk away from a bad deal. He's making this Reagan analogy. Help me with some relevant history here.

BOOT: Well, Putin is no Gorbachev, unfortunately. Gorbachev was a real reformer who was dedicated to ending the communist system and creating a more pluralistic Russia, whereas Putin is just the opposite. He is ended pluralism in Russia, and created this one-man dictatorship, which is the worst Russia has seen since Stalin. And while Gorbachev was ending the war in Afghanistan, Putin launched this war in Ukraine and shows no sign of ending it. So, I don't see a real analogy between Reagan and Gorbachev and -- and Trump and Putin.

I just hope that we can avoid the other analogy, which is one that I've used before, to the 1938 Munich Agreement between Chamberlain and -- and -- and Hitler, where Chamberlain turned over the Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia, to Hitler and thought he was coming home with peace for our time. And, of course, the result was World War II.

Now, that's kind of the worst case scenario that I think we need to be very concerned about. I don't think that's necessarily going to happen, but that -- that is the concern about Trump and Putin meeting together for the first time since the 2018 Helsinki summit, which was -- which did not go well.

CORNISH: Can I ask you about the Alaska of it all? I mean, this had implications in Russian media. And again, it's all about the optics here of him being knee to knee with Putin. Like, what -- what are we looking at in this combination of factors?

BOOT: Well, I think the Alaska setting is unfortunate for two reasons.

[06:55:00]

One is the obvious one, which is that Putin has not been received in the west, in either Europe or the United States, since launching his unprovoked war of aggression in 2022. And I think it's a mistake to break that isolation without having any concessions from Putin. And there is no indication that he is willing to make serious concessions.

Alaska is also unfortunate on another level because, of course, Alaska used to be Russian territory. They sold it to the United States. A lot of Russians still think that they want it back or think that was a bad deal. But by holding it in Alaska, you're basically -- you're basically showing that there have been these land swaps throughout history and that, in some ways, prepares the ground for a land swap in -- in Ukraine, which could wind up selling out Ukrainian interests. So, it's a -- it's a dangerous place to hold this summit. And, you know, I'm not even sure if Trump is aware of the symbolism,

but I'm sure that Putin very much is.

CORNISH: Max Boot, thank you so much for being here.

And you can get a copy of his book, "Reagan: His Life and Legend," that's out now.

Now that Texas redistricting fight seems to have marked a turning point for many Democratic governors. California's Gavin Newsom, one of them, he's attempting to neutralize the Texas redistricting effort by redrawing California's congressional maps. Newsom channeled Trump as he took to X, saying he will "now draw new, more beautiful maps. They will be historic as they will end the Trump presidency," all caps.

And here's what he said about it in a podcast with former Democratic Congressman Beto O'Rourke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): We're going to get it on a special election on November 4th, and we're going to fight fire with fire. We're going to neutralize whatever Abbott does next week, or whenever they move forward with the next special session. It will also hopefully inspire some other states. There are many other Democratically led states that can move forward, and we just cannot sit back passively.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Let's bring back the group chat.

Antjuan, can -- I'll let you go first, being the Democrat. There's been a little bit of a vacuum. Who's the leader? And I see Newsom and Pritzker kind of being the people charging into the breach of this particular story, which is about Texas.

SEAWRIGHT: Well, here's where I disagree with the governor a little bit. Down south we don't fight fire with fire, we fight fire with water. And I think that the best way to --

CORNISH: I don't think that's just the south, but I'm really here for this.

SEAWRIGHT: California is different.

CORNISH: Sure.

SEAWRIGHT: But -- but, look, I think what Newsom is saying to the country is that Democrats are going to fight, I think what Pritzker is saying to the country is, Democrats are going to fight. I think what Jeffries is saying to the country is that Democrats are in for the fight and we're prepared to do this with whatever tools we have at our disposal because this effort to bleach America, to limit black and brown political power, and to unravel the Voting Rights Act will not stop in Texas because this has been a long time coming.

CORNISH: But -- I hear you tying all of those things together. Yes.

SEAWRIGHT: Because that's what it -- it all stems back to limiting voting power and political persuasion.

BADE: It's also a continuation of the -- the 2028 audition, though. I mean, you have to hand it to Newsom. He has found a way to really hit back at Trump, it feels like, every few days, like he finds a way to get himself back into the headlines as the one standing up against Trump, you know, in terms of who's going to run in 2028. And I love that -- that tweet you guys just put up there, all caps, very Trumpian. I mean, like --

CORNISH: Well, trying to get in on the memes.

BADE: Very -- very much so.

CORNISH: Like, I see a lot of Democrats trying to do this.

BADE: (INAUDIBLE).

CORNISH: Like they're trying to, like, look how many mean things are in there. There's the TACO. There's the "thank you for your attention to this matter." They're like throwing in the satire.

GOLDBERG: Yes.

BADE: He loves being at the center of this.

GOLDBERG: I -- I find all that stuff kind of lame dad play, but --

SEAWRIGHT: Well, that's disconnected.

GOLDBERG: Well, no, I -- when people try to imitate Trump, they always look like idiots. And, it's been the story --

CORNISH: Where they try and imitate or try to be?

GOLDBERG: Well, either way. Like, the -- the -- the Trump impersonators in the Republican Party has not really worked out very well for them because the one thing you can say about Trump, love him or hate him, is that he's authentically Trump. And everybody else pretending to be like Trump ends up looking like Marco Rubio in the 2016 thing when he was trying to give as good as he got and he -- he suffered for it.

CORNISH: Yes. Well, he's got two jobs now, in fairness. He's doing OK.

GOLDBERG: Yes, well, he's got like four.

CORNISH: All right, we just have like a minute left and I got to know what's in group chats, because Rachael started talking during the break and I was like, girl, what?

BADE: Ah, yes.

CORNISH: So, what is in your group chat? BADE: Oh my gosh, I got to pull up my notes. No, "Mean Girl" MAGA

messages on Twitter. I cannot get over the fight happening right now between Laura Loomer and Marjorie Taylor Greene, two big MAGA influencer types, people close with Trump, going after each other on Twitter in very personal tones. I mean, I'm talking about Loomer. I have to look at this because I -- I can't believe the -- the words coming out of my mouth.

CORNISH: It's a morning show, so, yes.

BADE: But Loomer accusing Marjorie Taylor Greene of cheating on her ex-husband, quote, "like a whore." Marjorie Taylor Greene suggesting that she is being paid for by Israeli intelligence. Loomer suggesting that she is corrupt for hiring her daughter, who, quote, "has no talent because she has your genes." I mean, what in the world?

[07:00:04]

CORNISH: So just kind of like turning their weapons on each other in a way?

BADE: Yes.

CORNISH: Like these are how they deal with the rest of us.

GOLDBERG: I would be happy in senatorial fashion to defer my time to Rachael if she wants to continue getting quotes.

CORNISH: I mean --

SEAWRIGHT: Add me to your group chat, Rachael.

BADE: I mean why -- why do we care? Why do we care besides like, oh, my gosh, eye popping. I mean it clearly is a battle for influence here with Donald Trump.

CORNISH: Yes.

BADE: With them trying to take each other out.

GOLDBERG: True.

CORNISH: And there's a question about who has that influence now.

BADE: Right.

CORNISH: You guys, thank you so much for talking with me. We covered a lot of ground. Thank you for waking up with us. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts now.