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Trump Asks Supreme Court to Allow Order Banning Mail-In Votes; Trump to Meet with Zelenskyy and Netanyahu; Democratic Divide over Israel; Kentucky Governor Calls for Proof from McConnell. Aired 6:30- 7a ET

Aired July 28, 2026 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Casket will be transferred to South Carolina tomorrow for a private service.

The son of Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy is being held without bond this morning after allegedly shooting his mother. Fifty-seven-year-old Mia Bieniemy is recovering after being shot multiple times. Chiefs' coach Andy Reid offering his support to the family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY REID, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS HEAD COACH: She's a saint. You know, we all know that, the people that know her. One of God's good blessings right there now. A really special person. So -- but things happen, you know. Things happen and you just, you got to work through it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: This morning, northeastern Wisconsin is cleaning up from a devastating tornado. More than 30,000 people lost power when the storm struck in the middle of the day. Now we're told it could be days before that power is restored. According to officials, too, more bad weather is on the way this week.

President Trump is dialing up his pressure campaign to revamp how you vote. Keep in mind too, we're less than 100 days out from the midterm elections. On Monday, he asked the Supreme Court to allow his executive order curtailing mail-in voting and is also demanding again that the Senate pass his elections bill, even if it means killing the filibuster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You got to get the SAVE America Act passed. Or better than that would be the filibuster. If you terminate the filibuster, everything happens. If you don't terminate the filibuster, only bad things will happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Well, hours later, Senate Majority Leader John Thune went on Fox News to deliver a dose of reality to the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): I've had this conversation with the president many times, I think as you know. And I actually suggested at one point that his team come up and sit down and visit with some of my colleagues. So, they came down -- came up, met with about 20 Republican senators and 15 were a no on getting rid of the filibuster.

The votes aren't there to do it. I know he thinks he can persuade people. But there are a lot of folks who are very -- this is a -- this is a hard position for a lot of Senate Republicans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining us now in the group chat, Shan Wu, defense attorney, former federal prosecutor.

Shan, nice to see you.

So, let's start first with this push from the president, right from the administration, for his executive order. So, they argue, and I'm quoting here, "the injunction is especially indefensible because the agencies are still deliberating over how, if at all, to implement the order. Yet the district court preemptively decided that whatever the agencies may choose to do will necessarily be unlawful."

They're not highlighting the merits, right, of the executive order here, saying, here's why you -- it should go into effect. They're saying SCOTUS should allow this to happen because the states sued before it actually happened.

SHAN WU, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right.

HILL: How much -- legally, how strong is that argument?

WU: There's so many things wrong with that argument. We just could take hours to dissect it.

But you're right, they're not trying to address the merits. Maybe they sense the merits are kind of weak. But the problem is this, if the high court were to agree with them, and this is an administrative state, it's not really even reaching the merits, just pause for a moment, basically the harm that the lower courts recognize is irreparable would come to pass because you're letting these actions start to get carried out without the proper judicial review as to whether they're lawful or not.

So really what they're trying to do is to fudge the request. They're saying, look, we're just saying that the district courts acted too early, but actually, if you stop what the district courts did, we basically get what we want right now.

HILL: Right. And what they want is to limit this mail-in voting, to significantly change the way elections are handled in a number of states. But, of course, there is this whole issue about who controls elections in the states. And it is, in fact, the states.

WU: Exactly. And even the way they're suggesting this, it's pretty vague and poorly thought out, but it's the idea of first you want the federal agencies, maybe DHS is directed very vaguely to compile some sort of correct list, and then the post office is not allowed to send the ballots unless they're on that list. I mean, just from a logistics point of view, it just is impossible to get that implemented without sowing chaos over the next 100 days.

HILL: So, as people look at this, right, we are now, I believe it's -- are we 98 days today?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think that's right.

HILL: Ninety-eight. I knew I could count on you, Chuck -- 98 days out. Nothing's happening for November. Is that where we stand?

WU: Right. Correct.

HILL: Yes.

WU: Right now nothing's happening. That's what the lower court said. They're saying, you can't -- you can't implement this executive order right now.

HILL: Can't right now.

So, as we watch all of this, as all of this is playing out too, we cannot ignore, there's a whole lot of politics at play here in all of these efforts.

So, we just heard from John Thune there. He's not the only one speaking out, right? You have Mike Lee, who said he wants to force a vote. Wants to force a vote on whether the Senate should even go to August recess. And then here we have John Cornyn weighing in as well, calling all of this a big mistake.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): I don't understand the rationale. I think it's basically we're -- we're overpromising and we're not going to be able to deliver on that promise because we don't have the votes to pass it, no matter how long we stay, and we're not going to -- we're not going to change the filibuster. So -- but somehow the president is convinced that if he presses hard enough that we will -- we'll come around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:35:06]

HILL: The president's not giving up on this. Absolutely not. How damaging could that be?

ROCHA: I think it's really damaging. It's not 98 days. That's 98 days until Election Day.

HILL: Right.

ROCHA: They're going to start mailing these ballots out in less than a month in some states. And guess who they're going to mail them to, boys and girls at home? They're going to send them to your Army, Air Force, Marines overseas. That's why this was set up. And the reason some of these commonsense Republicans are going, hang on, let's wait a minute, is because a lot of this vote by mail was set up by Republicans to help Republicans.

Guess who don't want to drive miles to the polling location? Country folks on farms where I grew up. And guess how most of them, not all of them, T.W., hold on, vote Republican. And that's why then Republicans aren't always against this.

So, I think this is how this cuts both ways, because a lot of mail-in ballots, I've been running campaigns long enough to know that what they're doing is going to harm themselves as much as us. But we can sit back and say, why don't you want the military to vote? Why can't we mail them a ballot?

T.W. ARRIGHI, FORMER SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS AIDE TO MIKE POMPEO: Well, to be fair, President Trump has always said that the military would get a mail-in ballot. That's never been questioned.

But you are right. And, in fact, Donald Trump did significantly better last time around with mail-in ballots than he did in 2020 because he was saying, go do it. I think his problems mostly are with universal mail-in ballot. Everybody get -- who's a registered voter getting mailed a ballot.

I think Donald Trump -- two things. First of all, John Thune and John Cornyn are completely right. I am totally on their team. And if we scrap the filibuster, God help us if the Democrats get control because we're going to see new states, we're going to see a bigger Supreme Court. We're going to see everything conservatives don't want.

But Donald Trump needs to break this battle into two things. It is one thing to talk about mail-in ballots, mail-in voting as a general, which should fall to the states. That's them implementing an election. And another thing about the SAVE Act, which is upholding making sure that you're 18 years old and you're a legal citizen to vote. Those are two separate things in my eyes. I would focus on one of them.

The SAVE America Act isn't getting passed, but if we can do some sort of watered down version, take one part of it and put it in a package, I think a lot of Republicans would find that as a win. But I think the American people want us talking about the economy, and Donald Trump should tout the wins he's done in that regard.

ROCHA: That part.

HILL: It's -- would it be possible -- I mean looking at what we have seen from President Trump, to T.W.'s point, could you ever see a world in which he can separate these two? ADAM HARRIS, CO-HOST, "RADIO ATLANTIC": I don't necessarily think so,

right? I think what we've seen is that the president, once he has his teeth sunk into something, has some -- his teeth sunk into an idea, that he thinks -- he attempts to sort of go forward with it, right? We see it in -- across the sort of policy ideas from Iran and sort of foreign policy to domestic policy.

But I think one of the things I want to highlight here is that civil rights groups argue that effectively both the SAVE America Act and the mail-in voting scheme from the executive order would functionally provide an additional burden, right? It would become cumbersome on one of these very basic principles of democracy and one of the most, you know, fundamental pieces of democracy. And that is the fact that you can vote for your elected representatives, right? And so, to make it harder to basically participate in that basic function of democracy is civil rights groups say a violation.

HILL: Yes. We will be talking about this one again for sure, that I can -- that I can assure all of you.

Thank you all. Shan, nice to have you here with us as well. Thank you.

Still to come here, it is the morning after in Michigan. A bit of a fiery debate between the state's Democratic Senate hopefuls on Monday night.

Plus, the latest health update from Senator Mitch McConnell, falling -- fall short for Kentucky's governor, Andy Beshear.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:42:59]

HILL: President Trump holding two high stakes meetings in Washington today. One will be with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And this marks the first time the leaders will meet in person since February when the U.S. and Israel, of course, launched those joint attacks, starting the war with Iran. Netanyahu is also in town to attend funeral services for Senator Lindsey Graham.

Joining me now is Avi Mayer, founder of the "Jerusalem Journal."

Avi, it's good to have you with us this morning.

It's so interesting to me that CNN learned that Benjamin Netanyahu had actually been working for some time to secure an invitation to the White House for several weeks. He is coming, of course, for memorial services for Senator Graham. But the fact that President Trump had been somewhat resistant to meet with him, what does this tell you about where the relationship stands right now and just how willing President Trump is to listen to the prime minister.

AVI MAYER, FOUNDER, "JERUSALEM JOURNAL": Well, Erica, good morning.

I think you're right to note that this has been a visit that has been several weeks in the making. We understand that there were several advanced teams that went from Jerusalem to D.C. and came back empty handed. This one, of course, is taking place. We assume that it will happen later today.

But I think you're right, it is an indication that there may be some lack of clarity on whether or not the two countries are fully aligned on the next steps in the Iran War. I think it's fairly clear to everyone that the MOU thus far has been a failure. The Strait of Hormuz is not fully open. We see Iranian forces taking aim at ships trying to traverse that waterway on a regular basis.

And so the question is, what happens next? Do we see a return to hostilities? Is there going to be another round of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran to figure out some kind of long-term arrangement? I imagine that will be top of mind for the prime minister in the White House today.

HILL: As I noted, the prime minister, of course, is here as well to pay his respects to the late Lindsey Graham, a great friend of Israel, talked about his friendship with the prime minister himself. Without having Lindsey Graham in his corner, who also, of course, is the Trump whisperer, was in many ways, how does this change things for Benjamin Netanyahu?

[06:45:09]

MAYER: Well, I think that there are still many folks in the White House who believe that the job is not yet done. We understand that Iran still does hold a certain amount of nuclear material. We understand it is buried underground in that facility. Perhaps other facilities as well. We understand that the military missile capabilities of Iran have not been addressed by the MOU or any other way, nor, of course, has Iran's support for terror proxies across the region. And so, there are many in the White House and elsewhere who understand that this is a war that is not quite finished yet.

And the question is whether there can be some kind of resolution, some diplomatic deal that brings those issues to a close, or whether some kind of further military action will be necessitated. I think that, of course, certainly Senator Graham was one of the most avid advocates for some kind of military action in Iran. We know that he was one of the loudest voices in the president's circle calling for military action in order to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. But there are certainly many others who feel similarly about the necessity of avoiding the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran.

HILL: Yes. As we look at -- look at the calendar, you know, looking forward, we talk a lot here, of course, about the U.S. elections, the midterm elections coming in November. There's a major election set for October in Israel. How much is that playing into, perhaps in some ways, what we may see?

MAYER: Well, it's impossible to see Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit in any way but through the lens of his upcoming elections. These are pivotal elections, not only for the country, but for the prime minister himself. We understand that, of course, he is facing several legal charges that may, of course, be brought to bear should he no longer be in office. And so, he views it as a matter of not only national but personal survival, that he win and is able to form the next coalition.

It will be extremely valuable for him to have images coming out of the White House of him meeting with the president of United States, positioning himself as a statesman. But it's important to note that at the moment his situation is quite precarious. He has been holding up the prospect of preventing a nuclear armed Iran for his entire career. This has been his flagship issue. And to see this military campaign against Iran, at least at this point, fail to deliver the desired results is, I think, a significant blow to him, and he'll be doing his best to shore up his foreign policy credentials during this visit.

HILL: Avi Mayer, great to have you with us this morning. Thank you.

MAYER: Thank you.

HILL: Support for Israel really taking center stage in Michigan last night at the debate between Congresswoman Haley Stevens and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, reinforcing the bitter divide in that race there just one week out from the Democratic Senate primary. The duo clashed over the pro-Israel super PAC backing Stevens and what it means for voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), Michigan SENATE CANDIDATE: The difference between us is $46 million of AIPAC spending.

I want your tax dollars spent in Michigan, to provide schools in Michigan, to build health care in Michigan, to build roads in Michigan. And I think that money sent over there to kill kids and women is the worst use of our tax dollars. And yet that's exactly what $46 million in spending will buy you.

REP. HALEY STEVENS (D), Michigan SENATE CANDIDATE: I want to see long term peace. I want to see a two-state solution. I am deeply proud to represent one of the largest Jewish populations in a congressional district in the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But no concern about the $46 million plus spent on the behalf of AIPAC that should worry people about perhaps you doing their bidding should you win this seat?

STEVENS: Well, I don't think there's much difference between super PACs going in for Abdul or super PACs going in for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The group chat is back.

The Democratic Party is struggling in this moment when it comes to support for Israel, right? There is a lot going on. There are a lot of understandably very strong feelings. How much is this going to dominate this particular race, Chuck?

ROCHA: Well, we have to separate some things. This is a Democratic primary. And I'm running a bunch of elections for November right now in marginal House seats and Senate seats where the actual majorities of the House and Senate will be. So, I'm doing polling and talking to those voters.

It's funny reading that this morning that the Israel or Palestine issue is not in the top ten of any general election when you ask, why are you voting? It doesn't mean that it's not an important issue in a Democratic primary, because you have a small subset of voters who are more tuned in, who care more about this issue. And I don't think this is as much around Israel and Palestine as it is about corporate money influence elections. And that really gets people upset, on top of Democratic base voters who really care passionately about this issue. And in Michigan, where you have one of the highest concentration of Arab American voters, it's even that much more of an issue.

HILL: So then to follow up for you on that, as you're saying, it doesn't mean it's not an issue, right, but it's not in the top ten that you're seeing nationwide, in larger reason --

ROCHA: In the general election.

HILL: In a general. I know, I understand in a general.

[06:50:00]

But when we look at what this could mean in the primary, right? And then depending on who you may get for a candidate, that's going to be really interesting if it plays out.

ROCHA: That's why you see so many people in here fighting each other.

HILL: Yes, in terms of what that could mean for the seat and for control of Congress.

ROCHA: And you also see here two different ideological folks lining up. You see all the establishment getting behind Haley Stevens. The sitting governor just came out, Gretchen Whitmer. The sitting senator who's leaving. You see Bernie Sanders, AOC and others with -- so you see the divide right in front of you.

HILL: So, you just set me up really well for my next question that I wanted to ask --

ROCHA: You're welcome.

HILL: Which is about that support, right? So, you have Gretchen Whitmer coming out in support of Haley Stevens recently, but then you have all these big name, very progressive Democrats, supporting Abdul El-Sayed. What matters more? Is it the more local big name or is it these big, national names coming in?

HARRIS: You know, I think it's interesting. Michigan, right, of course, is a -- it's a purple state. There was -- there was this comment from Abdul El-Sayed after the debate last night where he says, you know, electability doesn't need a $60 million crutch, right? This argument that there was a lot of outside money coming into the race. And so, I guess the argument from the progressives would be that, well, yes, she has a local endorsement, but she is also receiving outside funding, right?

And so, it's almost as if the two were sort of canceling themselves out. But as Chuck was mentioning, right, she's got the endorsement of also these national figures on the -- from the establishment, right? You think of Senator Chuck Schumer. You think of Representative Jim Clyburn sort of coming in from South Carolina. And so, there are -- this is a race with national implications because it does say a lot about where the base of the Democratic Party is kind of moving into these general elections. And then once you're towards the general election, it becomes a question of whether or not that base interest actually matters.

HILL: And just how widespread that, quote/unquote, base actually is, right? Because the base in Michigan is not the base in New York City, is not the base in Denver, is not the base in --

ROCHA: In these congressional seats.

HILL: Right.

So, Republicans are loving this moment of division within the Democratic Party, right? The fight over, are they Democrats? Are they Democratic socialists? So, some of that, of course, came up last night. I want to play how Abdul El-Sayed reacted to part of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), Michigan SENATE CANDIDATE: When it comes to the question of socialism, I'm not a socialist. I'm just a capitalist who understands how capitalism works. The biggest threat to capitalism was never the idea of government regulation, it was always monopoly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: He's responding to that. Democrats are going to have to continue to respond. Republicans want it that way, right, T.W., to respond to this idea. If you're a Democratic socialist or you're communist, there are a lot of ists (ph) that are being mixed up and sort of thrown in together that don't all necessarily go together. How -- as that's driving everything, right, is that enough to really keep Republicans off the questions about the economy, which is what people really are concerned about?

ARRIGHI: Well, in the inverse, we Republicans went through that in 2010 during the Tea Party era. And we had to talk about things that we did not want to talk about because we nominated candidates on the fringe of our party. It's hard to know what El-Sayed really believes because he deleted a lot of his past comments about defunding the police, about ICE, and how everyone's racist in law enforcement, about his support for socialist policies. Not only that, he's getting the endorsement of many of the leading socialists.

And so, we're seeing this play out with a fringe of the party is taking over the Democrats, and it's clouding the overall message, which is a great thing for Republicans because we have a great candidate in that race in Mike Rogers.

But make no mistake about it, this is going to get to be a bigger deal as this movement grows in places that aren't New York City, but the Democratic primary voters, like Chuck just said, are more in tune and have a bigger voice. You have candidates right now who Mamdani has endorsed, who were at a pro-Palestinian rally the day after the October 7th attacks, where there were people openly chanting in support of Hamas. You have people saying, America deserved 9/11. These are outrageous things that will pollute the well for Democrats.

And, yes, it's a good political thing for Republicans. I don't think it's a good thing for our country.

HILL: I also want to talk about Senator Mitch McConnell. So, we got an update from his office. This, of course, on the heels of what we're told was a fall last month.

This is not really helping the skepticism at all. So, his office releasing this picture on Monday, as well as a statement from the office of the attending physician, which reads in part, he is not yet medically cleared to leave the rehab facility and return to office.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, pretty clear, that's not good enough, writing, "I understand anyone's desire for privacy, but when you run for office and serve as one of the state's two U.S. senators, you willingly abdicate much of your personal privacy." Going on to say, "I'm calling on you to directly and verbally address the people of Kentucky and provide proof" to your campaign to serve -- "of your capacity," rather, "to serve or resign."

Does Mitch McConnell need to get on board with that? I mean we do live in an era, right, where it is very easy for you to snap a video, here I am, I'm moving, I'm talking, I'm doing all the things. That's not happening.

ARRIGHI: No. And it should. I think every American wants more transparency.

[06:55:02]

Even the Republicans of Kentucky would like it. I'm not saying Mitch McConnell is lying or being deceitful. I just think he should be more forthright and put out a quick video.

But look, let's put this in perspective. He's not running again, which was a good thing. I wish we had all old politicians say they aren't running again. He's not running again. We have three, four weeks maybe of the Senate calendar left. Everything else is operating. And we have a -- they have a Democratic governor in Kentucky. So, resigning is out of the option -- out of the playbook.

HILL: Still a few weeks left, though. You're still in the job, right?

ARRIGHI: I agree. I agree.

ROCHA: Right. And I think that this also raises a bigger point of, as we have a Congress that's not that representative of the people because the average age is so much older, it's so much more male, it's so much more -- all the things that don't look like America. If we had some -- stay with me here. I'm not saying it's got to be a 55 age limit but maybe we just do 70 and say, if you get to 70, maybe you shouldn't be in Congress no more.

And my last thought on that is, I'm 57. I know I look damn good for 57, but I'm 57. It was hard for me to get up this morning to get here. I couldn't imagine being 70 and being in all my faculties.

HILL: Well, which also raises the question, is this about age, right, because there could certainly be, and valid, perhaps, questions about ageism. Is it about, you're 71, you shouldn't be there? Or is it about term limits, which is something that has, you know, been kicked around for decades here? Are we starting to see more of a push for maybe a term limit? Because this is not the first instance that we've had, right, about questions?

HARRIS: I think we are -- I think we are seeing more of a push for term limits. I also think we're seeing more of a conversation around the abilities of some, you know, some more senior lawmakers to continue to function in their positions. But I think, as T.W. mentioned at the beginning, right, this could have been solved with a little bit more transparency.

HILL: Yes.

HARRIS: It takes about a minute to record your video, to post it online, to say, hi, everybody, I'm doing all right. It's -- there's an understandable bit of privacy that you would -- you would want in a situation like this. But as a representative of the people who is receiving a salary for the people who -- from the people who have voted for you, he probably does owe it to the voters to have a little bit more transparency in this case.

HILL: Chuck, you made a point about, you know, where people stand, right? You weren't saying 55. You were saying 71. You had said something earlier too, not in sort of pre-notes, right, for the show about, also, I mean, these are also, let's say, older representatives, right, need to understand what's happening in the world, that they're not representative. You mentioned a comment from a Democrat, I know, earlier --

ROCHA: All I said was a senior Democrat.

HILL: So, a senior Democrat, but it's getting a lot of attention, who was asked about A.I. I'm just going to play that --

ROCHA: OK.

HILL: Because I do think it's an interesting discussion point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No ChatGPT. No cloth (ph) for you.

REP. JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): Believe it or not, I didn't even know what that was until about a week ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which one?

CLYBURN: ChatGPT or whatever it is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You didn't know until a week ago. Wow. I'm jealous. You kept yourself in the bubble.

CLYBURN: That may -- that may sound strange to you. I don't know -- I didn't know what that was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: It's funny in the moment, but then it's not. And Congressman Clyburn, right, quite a record.

ROCHA: Yes.

HILL: But for him to say, I didn't know what A.I. was until a week ago, this is something that has been brought up by voters. There are concerns about it, right? They're asking their lawmakers to do something about it. The president talks about it a lot.

ROCHA: Look, my wife is teaching me how to use TikTok. I shouldn't be the one regulating TikTok. That's all I'm saying here. And folks should be -- with the way that things are moving so quickly, and as I'm making TV ads with data centers and A.I. and all the other algorithms, and things that are feeding us every day on this thing, making us hate each other and not love each other, like, we should just be a lot more tuned in because things are moving so fast and that Congress -- this ain't nothing against Mr. Clyburn or anybody else, but our Congress and our Senate is almost made to move slowly when things are moving so quickly now.

HILL: Well, you could change all that because I understand in your group chat, Chuck, there's a big push for you to be in charge of the DNC.

ROCHA: No, there was a big push. And then my -- I'm just saying --

HILL: I thought it had been renewed.

ROCHA: It had not been renewed. And I want to give -- actually come to Ken Martin's defense a little bit. For all of you out there who want a millionaire or a billionaire to be in charge of the DNC, you got a guy that's there who was actually giving out money to the state parties or opened up 60 offices in Georgia. All I was saying is, thank God I made the right decision.

T.W.

ARRIGHI: I don't -- I don't think that my endorsement would help you in your run for DNC chair.

ROCHA: I don't think (INAUDIBLE). HILL: Probably not.

ARRIGHI: So, I'm just going to say this. I anti-endorse Chuck Rocha for DNC chair, because he would do an awful job.

ROCHA: Ooh-e (ph). More trailer parks and less (INAUDIBLE).

ARRIGHI: Yes. Exactly.

My group chat has been about the upcoming funerals for my late boss, Lindsey Graham. I'll be there today. It will be a great celebration of his life. I'll miss him every day, but my life is richer and more blessed because I knew and was inspired by Lindsey Graham.

HILL: And I'm going to give you last word here. You're talking a little soccer, which --

HARRIS: I am. Yes. You know, the World Cup just --

HILL: I'm here for the soccer.

HARRIS: World Cup just ended. I'm a Wolverhampton Wanderers fan, Wolves in England. We just got relegated from the Premier League. So we're down in the championship this year. But Raul Jimenez, Mexico striker, is back with Wolves. And I'm excited for this season. It's always fun to watch the new fans come in and experience the highs and lows of a club.

[07:00:05]

HILL: That is a great name. The Wolverhampton -- what are they?

HARRIS: Wolverhampton Wanderers.

HILL: Wolverhampton Wanderers.

ROCHA: Wanderers. A hell of a name.

HILL: I will not say that three times fast, but I do -- I like the name.

All right, gentlemen, thank you all. A pleasure, as always.

Thanks to all of you for joining us here on CNN THIS MORNING. I'm Erica Hill. Stay tuned. The headlines are next.