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Trump Reunites With Fixer-Turned-Foe After Feud; Michael Cohen Interviews Trump About Their Public Falling Out; Sources: Navy May Strip Black WWII Hero's Name From Ship And Rename It For Trump. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired August 21, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00]

BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: Well, that does it for CNN Headline Express. I'm Brad Smith. CNN This Morning with Audie Cornish starts right now.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, the reunion few saw coming, Donald Trump and Michael Cohen. So are the bygones really bygones here, or is the renewed flattery just a very public push for a pardon?

Plus, the Navy may strip a black war hero's name from an aircraft carrier, instead naming the ship for Donald Trump. What's behind the latest vanity project?

Key midterm races in Texas and Iowa. Now toss ups. So is the GOP in real danger at this point of losing the Senate this fall?

At Rosie O'Donnell unleashed, filling in for Jimmy Kimmel this week brutally mocking President Trump? Perhaps it's safe to say ABC, not so afraid of any revenge from this administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSIE O'DONNELL, AMERICAN ACTRESS: You got to realize it's time to hang up your wig and let Natalie tuck you in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Good Friday morning, everyone. I'm Erica Hill in for Audie Cornish. This is where we begin.

From bitter foes to burying the hatchet, President Trump and his former fixer Michael Cohen reunited.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: They weaponized you like nobody's ever been weaponized, like few have been.

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, maybe just you and I, sir. But --

TRUMP: And you. Yes, me too. But I don't consider mine, you know, mine was -- mine was at a level that nobody's ever seen before.

But they weaponized you. They weaponized a lot of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: This was as close as they got to talking about that highly public feud in a radio interview which was partially released on Thursday. Cohen spoke to CNN earlier about how the two got to this point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: After all of what took place, all of the name calling, the years of the public war, the verbal missiles that we threw at one another, how is it possible that the two of us can ever sit down again? The answer is, is that we forgave.

Forgiveness does not require amnesia. It requires the courage to stop allowing yesterday to dictate tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: It's a beautiful sentiment. Is he fishing, though, for more than just forgiveness? Cohen has submitted an application for a pardon for his crime of paying off women who claim to have affairs with Trump during the 2016 election.

Joining me in the group chat, Noel King, co-host and editorial director of the "Today Explained" Podcast, Doug Hyde, Republican strategist and former RNC communications Director, and Lulu Garcia- Navarro, CNN contributor and journalist, host of the New York Times, The Interview.

Nice to see all of you on this lovely Friday morning. So the possible pardon here, in terms of that pardon, a White House official telling CNN, a submission here should not be interpreted to mean anything other than an individual has chosen to submit a request highlighting the White House's thorough review process.

I tend to be a little cynical in these moments.

NOEL KING, CO-HOST AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, "TODAY, EXPLAINED" PODCAST: Oh really?

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: What could lead you to that conclusion?

HILL: It is -- it's a fair question, Lulu. I mean, if not a pardon, what would be behind this lovely display?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So, I have a real theory about Donald Trump's power over people, which is this. No one is ever out of the fold. His power is that he will always take people back if they bend the knee. He likes that.

So, if you heard in that interview, he said to Michael Cohen, you recanted everything you know, which is not true, of course. But this is the thing. You are never fully out of Trump world. You are always able to come back in up to a point.

So that's the first thing I'd say. And the second thing I'd say is, transparently and clearly, Michael Cohen is looking for a reboot. He's looking -- he's got this new radio show. He got the biggest player in politics to come on, and he also wants a partner.

HILL: Yes. So all those things come out. And I think you make such an excellent point about nobody ever. No one's ever really out. It's just about bending the knee.

The recanting thing is also interesting because this has come up about what was, what was not recanted. So I just want to play what we have heard in terms of those proclamations, if you will. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He took back everything he said in court, took it all back.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You did not recant your testimony on the witness stand.

COHEN: No.

BERMAN: What's he -- what's he referring to?

COHEN: I have no idea. He makes things up.

TRUMP: I respect the fact that you recanted everything you said. And that's a big -- that's a big thing that you did.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: You're not going to discuss things you said in the past, but you're not retracting anything, right? I mean, you're not taking anything back.

[06:05:02]

COHEN: Like I said, I refuse to go back in time. What I said was said, and that's where I stand with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: There is the element of, yes, nobody's ever fold. The other, I think, important element that we often see with Donald Trump, too, is Donald Trump says what he wants to be true. It doesn't matter if it is true, right?

And so if he says you recant it. We don't know, right? It's tough to know from these two players what really happened. But that's also part of it.

KING: Yes, absolutely. He's like, in my mind, Michael, you have come out and said you took it all back. Michael Cohen says, I didn't take it all back. I don't remember Michael Cohen taking any of it back or much of it at all. But, yes. HILL: Michael Cohen says he's not going back. So there you go.

KING: Yes. He's not. He's not looking back. Another thing about President Trump and Michael Cohen, I mean, they're getting up there in age. I think the sentiment about forgiveness. President Trump is 80 years old.

I think he knows he won't be around forever. I do think that there -- I think there are some aspects of this that might actually be a little, I give. I try to think people might be genuine.

And when you get toward the end of your life, you do tend to for --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: We do see that as Justice Department, he's full of forgiveness. Full of forgiveness.

KING: Yes, yes. Right.

HILL: What do you make of this moment? I mean, what is the -- as you're watching all this play out, Michael Cohen, back in the conversation with Donald Trump, what's your takeaway?

DOUG HYDE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Completely predictable for the reasons that you said also, boring. I've seen this show too many times, right?

Everything about Trump's presidency this time and the next time is, tune in tomorrow. And one of the things that we can do to be sane is tune in to stuff like this less and less. Twitter has this amazing function called Mute. So I have the words Michael Cohen on mute. So I see less of this.

Nancy Mace, don't see that anymore. Hunter Biden, doesn't show up in my feed anymore.

KING: You're missing out.

HYDE: It is such a great thing for mental health and wellness to not be exposed to that toxicity.

HILL: Yes.

HYDE: It's a fantastic quite a bit.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I think Doug is making a really great point also, which is this is part of the Trump show, and this is part of the Michael Cohen show. And there's always a redemption arc, right?

In television, there's always, like, the feud that then, you know, kind of crests, and then there's, like, the redemption arc, and this, I think, is also part of that.

HYDE: And also the ultimate reality TV show which Donald Trump knows very well. And it's not Real Housewives or anything else. It's professional wrestling. And you can hit me in the back with a steel chair, as long as a few episodes later you come out to my music, you share, you -- you wear my T-shirt. Donald Trump knows this extremely well.

KING: People actually want to watch that, though. This, you know, to your point that this is boring. Who is -- is anyone actually interested in Michael Cohen anymore? Like --

HILL: It's a fair question. It is very fair question.

HYDE: I would say. I wish never was but sure --

HILL: But I will your point, right, about the muting of things and watching what you want, and reality TV. This is also an effort, right, for Donald Trump to change the conversation.

So, this morning we're talking about Donald Trump and Michael Cohen sitting down. We are not talking about the economy. We are not talking about the Iran war. We are going to get to those things, by the way.

Don't worry this morning. But that also helps him, right as he wants to orchestrate this alternate reality show in terms of what we're living.

Much more to come here. We'll put a button in that one. We'll mute that one for you, Doug.

HYDE: All right.

HILL: Still ahead here, interesting timing for First Lady Melania Trump making her first public appearance in more than a month. Plus, the jurors really locked in for the Tupac Shakur murder trial. We'll take a closer look at some of their questions posed directly to witnesses.

And the Navy, CNN has learned, could rename an aircraft carrier set to honor a black war hero. The new name being considered, sources say none other than Donald Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:13:17]

HILL: Exclusive new reporting here at CNN. The Pentagon working to rename an aircraft carrier which is currently under construction. So the ship, when it was announced, it was announced it would honor Doris Miller, a black war hero, for his actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Two sources, however, tell CNN there have been conversations about renaming that carrier instead to honor Donald Trump. It's important to note an aircraft carrier has never been named for a sitting president.

The ship was announced as the USS Doris Miller during the first Trump administration. And it would be the first aircraft carrier named for an enlisted sailor and also the first to be named for an African- American, but would not be named a first here would be a name change by the Trump administration. The Pentagon last year stripped Harvey Milk's name from a boat

honoring the Navy veteran and gay rights activist. And at least eight other ships could be in line for a change as well, including those named for, as you see there, Harriet Tubman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. and Thurgood Marshall.

The group chat is back. I mean, it is something I just want to play because, as a reminder, this was announced during the first Trump administration, the USS Doris Miller. When that announcement happened, here's how President Trump reacted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Last month, the Navy announced that the next American aircraft carrier will bear the proud name of USS Doris Miller. That's pretty good.

They won't give me that honor. That's a big boat. That's a big ship.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One day.

TRUMP: All right. One day maybe. But in the meantime. You're right. One day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Doug, maybe that was our hint.

HYDE: Look, you know, as we see a debacle happening in Iran so often, we also see the military and the president focused on sort of military-ish things that maybe it's not the biggest priority, even if it's a mistake to do anyways. This is not where you want to be if you're talking about our military, renaming things might be some virtue signaling or not virtue signaling to your base.

[06:10:07]

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes. It be opposite.

HYDE: But it's not telling the American people what they're begging to hear is, what is the plan to win or get out in Iran. That's a much bigger issue.

HILL: Well, and to your point, about where the priorities lie, right? I mean, we talked a little bit about ships that are reportedly under consideration to be renamed. Hagseth's last year, which he announced during Pride Month, which when he announced that he was renaming the Harvey Milks, that he was taking the politics out of all of this.

But when we look at what has happened, to your point, Doug, the New York Times reporting under Hegseth, the number of female and black officers, right? Who have been struck from this promotions list. There's also the names of multiple bases which had been changed because they honored Confederates and Confederate generals, being changed back. Conveniently, the names also existed. You know, there were other soldiers who were not Confederate generals

to be able to bring that back. There is a message that this sends, right?

It may not be the right one, but there is some signaling happening, and that's part of the plan, I would think.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's politics at its highest level. I mean, you are talking about renaming this boat for a sitting president, which has never been done. That is the most political act. It's, again, giving Trump the gift that he clearly wanted, as we saw from that clip.

But beyond that, what do all these names have in common? They're the names of black people. They're the names of women. They're the names of gay civil rights icons.

This is a concerted effort from this administration to do this at every turn, whether it be in our institutions of history, whether it be in the institutions of government, and now in the institutions of the military.

KING: This one, I think, is super egregious. And I'll tell you why I think I might understand Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She wasn't in the service, right? You could say, okay, she was in a different branch of American life.

I was looking to this guy this morning, this Doris guy. So it's perfect Pearl Harbor Day. He is a mess attendant because the Army is, you know that --

HILL: As high as he's allowed to go in the Navy at the time.

KING: That's as high as he's -- exactly. And so he has never fired a gun before. And they tell him, you know, we're being attacked, go get ammunition. So he runs, and he gets the ammunition, and then he loads the gun, and then he shoots a Japanese plane out of the sky.

HILL: Yes, you're right. Had never been traced.

KING: Exactly. This guy was a hero. This is not like -- this is not some random dude.

HILL: Right.

KING: And so I don't know, if I were President Trump, I say this a lot, I would be embarrassed by this one in particular.

HILL: So I think you bring us so many. His story is so important. It was important to the Navy and the military at the time, and that he was brought out on a roadshow, right? With other soldiers. I believe he was the only black sailor, right, who was brought on that.

But also, you know, his family, how proud they were. How honored they were at the time. They've been pushing to for years for him to get the medal of Freedom. Now that is apparently being dangled, his family is reacting to this news and spoke with CNN. This was his great-grandnephew, or his great-nephew, rather last

night. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS BLEDSOE, DORIS MILLER'S GREAT NEPHEW: There was also a shocking that we found out from a news outlet comparably from the Navy. And so it caused a lot of concerns and uncertainty. Even if they take his name and rename another ship. It is also about timing.

So we're looking at my mother, my uncles, which is our Doris's nieces and nephews that are in their 70s and them being able to have the opportunity to see this go to fruition is so important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: It's so important for this family, right, who was promised this six -- six years ago. And for the story, as you point out, Noel, the real story to be told, that's why this ship was being named for him.

HYDE: It's an amazing story of bravery and I think we can reasonably say that maybe nothing to your point should be named after somebody who didn't serve in the military. And frankly, nothing in America should be named after Cesar Chavez anymore. I think we've learned that lesson as well.

But this is such an amazing story that the military should want to tell and there are so many names that we don't know or we take for granted. I grew up in the south, in North Carolina. I never knew who Bragg was until several years ago. Turns out maybe these aren't the kind of people we should be honoring either.

HILL: A lot of people didn't, right? There were a lot of those bases. I didn't realize until that was coming up either because it wasn't something I had thought about.

But when you think about some of those bases and who they were named for, why they were changed to go back to them, even if there just happened to be another brag in the army.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes, I mean, I think, you know, naming is sensitive. It's a way of marking who is important to you, what the culture values. It's also a way, as you rightly point out, Noel, of elevating a story that maybe not enough people knew because of the history of this country, because of segregation, because of the terrible wrongs that were done to black people here.

And so, I think to not honor this man in this way is a stain, frankly, on us.

HILL: We'll see how it all plays out.

Still to come here this morning, Washington vowing to up the economic pressure on Iran as Tehran threatens more destruction if the fighting resumes. Plus --

[06:20:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'DONNELL: If you thought the president hated Jimmy Kimmel Live when it was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. Buckle up, people. Buckle up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Rosie O'Donnell is back, as is her long-running feud with Donald Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: The Trump administration is overhauling its strategy in the war with Iran. Again, instead of trying to wipe out Iran's military, the new goal is to crush their economy. That's something the president is now branding economic D-Day.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the U.S. is reaching out to all of its allies to put together the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: If you insist on doing business with them, either transferring money, buying their oil, they are doing seaborne ship transfers, then the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. government, they will put its full might and force toward enforcing against you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:25:15]

HILL: So the U.S. is also imposing new sanctions against Hezbollah and designating the Lebanese militant group as an Iranian proxy.

Joining me now, Edward Fishman, former diplomat and international relations scholar. He's the author of the book "Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare." It's nice to have you with us this morning.

So, you know, I should point out there are some signs here that this economic approach is having some impact, but we're also dealing with a brutal regime which we know is not necessarily moved by the plight of its citizens when they are suffering. How long do you think this regime will and can hold out in your mind? Is it months? Could it be years?

EDWARD FISHMAN, AUTHOR, "CHOKEPOINTS: AMERICAN POWER IN THE AGE OF ECONOMIC WARFARE": Well, look, Erica, the track record of economic pressure bringing about regime change is very poor. So I don't think we should expect the Iranian regime to collapse under economic pressure. I mean, go back even to Trump's first term when Trump launched a

maximum pressure strategy against Venezuela. The Venezuelan economy declined by about 75 percent. It was one of the biggest peacetime collapses we've seen of an economy. And Maduro stayed in power until Trump launched the Maduro raid earlier this year.

So I don't think we can expect the Iranian regime just to collapse under economic pressure alone.

HILL: There's also what I find interesting is we heard from the Treasury Secretary, from Scott Bessant, saying that it's unlikely that the U.S. is going to resume any large scale fighting here. The reality in making those comments, while in some ways they may have been meant to soothe perhaps certain parties, Iran is listening to that as well.

FISHMAN: A hundred percent. Right. I think the Iranians understand that Trump doesn't want to fight a war. And this economic D-Day just sort of strikes everybody as Trump trying to seem tough and showing that he's doing something when he doesn't actually want to go back to the battlefield.

What I'd also note, and a very important point here, is that Iran has been under comprehensive sanctions for decades. So really the only thing left to do on sanctions is to target Iran's trading partners. And really their top trading partner by far is China. And with Xi Jinping set to come to the White House in just about a month, it strikes me as pretty unlikely that Trump wants to ignite an economic war with China right now.

HILL: Which is fascinating, right? And I'm so glad you brought that up because as we look at this, right, with that visit looming, how could even just this announcement, how could that impact those discussions and the visit itself?

FISHMAN: Oh, could impact the visit completely, right? I mean, I think. Let's see what Secretary Bessent actually announces in terms of sanctions on Monday.

But if you actually took Trump at his word, and this is going to be unprecedented economic sanctions, economic D-Day, there's no way for that to be true unless there's aggressive sanctions on Chinese banks, Chinese energy companies, all of the Chinese companies that basically provide Iran with a lifeline to the global economy.

If Trump actually were to do that, I think it would totally blow up the Trump-Xi visit, and I would expect that visit wouldn't happen. And you may even have Chinese retaliation, right?

We all remember last year when China cut off our access to rare earth minerals. It really upended supply chains here in the United States. So that's to say, if we could take Trump at his word, it would soon significantly imperil the visit. But I'm skeptical we're actually going to go in that direction.

HILL: I also, I found interesting some recent comments from Chris Christie when he was talking about the war recently and the way he views this moment and Donald Trump. Take a listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE, FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: Donald Trump is about to become what he never, ever wanted to be. Jimmy Carter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CHRISTIE: He is being held hostage by Iran. They are holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage. And as a result, they're holding the world economy hostage. And it's focused at Donald Trump.

And I know from talking to him over the last 24 years, the one person he would never want to be --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jimmy Carter. I talked to him about Jimmy Carter, too. Yes.

CHRISTIE: Right. And so here we are. And it was all voluntary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Right to the point of Iran watching how all of this is playing out here. That is very much a focus, right, to see how things are playing at home and to understand what it would be like to have that Jimmy Carter moment or to be in the midst of it right now.

Is Iran fully exploiting that? What more do you think could come?

FISHMAN: Oh, certainly. I mean, I think the Iranians have understood now, since March, right, since the very beginning of the war, that their control of the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important energy chokepoint, gives them a huge amount of leverage over the United States. Because, remember, in any sort of economic standoff, what matters isn't so much who inflicts more damage on the other side's GDP. What matters is which side has the capacity to withstand whatever pressure they're under.

[06:30:01]

And I think the Iranians have assessed that even though their economy is certainly suffering much more from a sort of quantitative standpoint than the United States, that America's tolerance for economic pain is a lot lower than theirs is. And I think that's just going to be Iran's strategy moving forward.

HILL: Edward Fishman, really appreciate your time and your -- and your viewpoint this morning. Thank you.

Straight ahead here on CNN this morning. With 75 days now until the midterm elections, the Senate could really be in play as political insiders shift two key races to the left.

Plus, jurors in the Tupac Shakur murder trial hearing from the defendant himself.

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