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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Facing Growing Republican Revolt With 47 Days To Midterms; RFK Jr. On Chemtrails; Sheeran's Call With Kraft. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired September 17, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:23]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Republican revolt. The GOP rep cuts an ad telling Trump voters don't trust him. Karl Rove says he's voting Dem. And a former GOP governor announces he's backing a Democrat for Senate. That governor is OUTFRONT.
Plus, chemtrails. RFK Jr., full on conspiracy mode. Chemtrails, he says he's actually going to look into what conspiracy theorists call chemtrails. The conspiracy that the white streaks left by airplanes exhaust mixing with freezing cold air is something much more sinister. What's going on?
And new details about a 40-minute phone call between Patriots owner Robert Kraft and singer Ed Sheeran before Macklemore was pulled from the tour.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, Republican revolt. With just 47 days until the midterms, major warning signs for the GOP as more Republicans are calling out Trump in the party. Republican Congresswoman Maria Salazar from Trump's home state, now home state of Florida, out with a new ad tonight criticizing Trump's immigration crackdown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR (R-FL): Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far. The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Also tonight, the former Republican governor of Kansas, Bill Graves, backing the Democrat in a key U.S. Senate race against Republican incumbent Roger Marshall. Graves slamming the refusal of his own party to stand up to the Trump administration. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL GRAVES, FORMER REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR OF KANSAS: Those dysfunctional groups in both chambers of Congress who have turned a blind eye to executive branch corruption, bullying, and ineptness.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Corruption, bullying, and ineptness. The governor will join us in a moment to talk about this endorsement in a deep red state that Trump won by 16 points in 2024. And now Republicans are so worried about it, so worried about what, with that kind of a margin, should be a safe Senate seat that you don't have to think twice about, a Senate seat that has not gone blue since 1932.
But they are so worried about it that Vice President Vance has been dispatched to the state to help boost Marshall.
And then you have Karl Rove, former senior advisor George W. Bush, longtime Fox News contributor, publicly announcing that he is going to vote for a Democrat for the first time in 32 years, specifically calling out Republican candidate Bo French, who posted a photo of non- white students watching the incredible Texas Longhorns game the other night. French's post was, problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.
Rove called it out, came out, called the post, bigoted, and warned it's a bigger problem for the GOP than just that race as Texas Railroad Commissioner. He writes in a new "Wall Street Journal" op-ed to follow up on it.
To quote Mr. Rove, "The GOP has a growing number of Bo Frenches. These people are diminishing the Republican Party, not building it. I'll have no part of it. The GOP stables need a cleaning. This is a good place to start."
And if you look at Fox News, Hosts are increasingly covering stories that the president would rather not see.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: There was a report about Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding back in May and questions about foreign influence as a Russian businessman with close ties to Vladimir Putin helped pay for the celebration in the Bahamas.
BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: "Wall Street Journal" headlined Americans have spent $100 billion more on fuel during the Iran War.
PAUL GIGOT, FOX NEWS HOST: If every American adult got a $5,000 check, would that help the economy?
DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN, AMERICAN ACTION FORUM PRESIDENT: That would be a disastrous economic misstep.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BURNETT: And all that comes as a new CNN report tonight shows that Republicans are actually avoiding showing Trump's face in their television ads, even though he's out saying that if he were on the ballot, if just his name were on there, there'd be no problem at all. It would help all the GOP tickets this year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot.
Pretend I'm on the ballot.
I'm asking you. to pretend that I'm on the ballot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: It was former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, once Trump's biggest ally in Congress before their relationship imploded, who summed up what we're seeing from many Republicans today, saying, quote, "War with Iran, national high gas prices, diesel crisis, data centers, Flock cameras, not releasing the Epstein files to protect his friends, this is not what we voted for."
Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT at the White House tonight.
And, Kristen, how does Trump plan to. deal with this, pushback from inside the GOP, whatever they want to say, having Karl Rove write that about the GOP in "The Wall Street Journal", seeing what they're seeing on Fox News, this is not what they want weeks before the election.
[19:05:17]
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's true. And President Trump himself will likely just ignore this. He'll continue to say how well he's doing. But for his political operation, this is a major concern, particularly this close to the midterms.
I talked to a number of Republican operatives, including inside Trump's political operation, who were frustrated, who were annoyed, particularly over that Salazar video that you played of her standing in front of the White House. They believe that Republicans are all already facing these tough political headwinds, many of them of their own making. If you look at the Iran war and of course, those high gas prices. They don't need more Republicans pushing back on the political operation.
But these candidates, they are just trying to win their races in this climate. And for some of them, as you saw there with Salazar separating herself or separating themselves from President Trump is the way to go. Now, I also want to point out one other part of all of this, which is this kind of sentiment that I'm hearing from multiple leaders of get out the vote groups who have been speaking to over the last several weeks, there is a huge concern. Remember, one of the biggest things these groups do is they go door to door. It's called door knocking, trying to get people out to vote. When they go to these doors, they are telling me that there is just no enthusiasm there, that it is really hard to sell this administration trying to get people excited Republicans to come out and vote, and that might be one of their greatest hurdles ahead of November.
BURNETT: All right, Kristen, thank you very much.
And just to add to Kristen's point on Salazar, just to think about the fact that if she thought she could call Trump and have a conversation with people around him and accomplish her goals, she would do, and she's putting an ad out for everybody to see, knowing full well the impact it would have. That in and of itself is an incredible political statement.
OUTFRONT now, the former Republican governor of Kansas, Bill Graves, as I promised.
And I appreciate your time, Governor.
So, let's just be clear here. We're talking about a race that shouldn't even be in the conversation, okay, given the margin by which Trump won Kansas. In fact, you supported Senator Roger Marshall in the past when he first ran for Congress. So why are you choosing to speak out against his candidacy now?
GRAVES: You know, Erin, I did support Roger initially when he ran for the House of Representatives. But I lost a lot -- I'm a former Secretary of State. I lost a lot of faith in Roger when his first vote as a member of the U.S. Senate was to not certify the election results from the state of Arizona, the state of Pennsylvania. And even though he then voted to certify the 2020 election, it was a little bit like being proud of closing the barn door after you'd already let the cows out.
I've always done, and I was successful for my tenure in Kansas because I tried to do the right thing for Kansas people. And it just feels like Roger has gotten lost in the swamp here in Washington and has walked away from Kansas people.
And Adam Hamilton is a breath of fresh air. He is a remarkable candidate that has the potential to be a great -- bring people together in Washington and I could not resist supporting him.
So, Roger lost my support. Adam gained my support and that's the way the political process works.
BURNETT: So, Senator Marshall is taking you on. You know he posted today images. The first image is saying that you endorsed the Democrat running against Marshall in 2020 as you're making clear because you were -- you were making a statement about his vote. OK?
The second screen though shows that Marshall defeated the Democrat that you supported 53 to 42. So, by 11 points, that's not close. Obviously, he's trying to make a statement of go ahead, Governor. I'm still going to kill it.
Why do you believe this time will be different? GRAVES: Well, Erin, my point is to reach out to Republicans and unaffiliated voters and make sure they know in our state, it's okay to cross party lines. It's okay to vote Democrat in this Senate race.
Kansas has a history, as you probably know, of doing some very unusual things politically. We've elected Democratic governors over and over again. And so, I don't put much credence in the whole thing about, well, we haven't done it for 100 years. There's always a first time.
BURNETT: So let me just ask you, because we played a clip of you in the introduction to the show, okay, when you were talking about the corruption and the ineptitude of this administration. There's a lot to talk about, but I guess, let me ask about Bo French. and Karl Rowe first okay and what's happened to the Republican Party. Erick Erickson's also talking about this.
But, you know, Bo French posts that picture of the Texas Longhorns game and a lot of brown students saying problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined, which Karl Rove just came out and said that's bigoted and there's far too much of this in the GOP.
[19:10:10]
Do you agree and do you recognize the Republican Party right now?
GRAVES: Well, first of all, I agree with Karl and Karl is a friend and he worked for me in my first gubernatorial election. Karl's right.
The Republican Party to me today feels like sort of a bad frat party. Everybody's sort of just full of this joy and enthusiasm about how great things are going and they're not -- they're not really grasping the struggles that are going on every day for everyday Americans. I mean, we have lots of problems in this country and the Republicans are not -- are not manning up in dealing with them.
So, Karl's exactly right. I don't recognize this Republican Party. I'm still a Republican and I intend to be but I'm hoping the Republican Party trends back more towards me than further away from me.
BURNETT: So, how -- how much is Trump to blame for all of this? And when you talk about corruption and ineptitude, you know, which of those words looms larger for you when it comes to Donald Trump?
GRAVES: Well, I'm not sure I could make that judgment. They all loom pretty large for me. I think the point I want to make is this is a senatorial election. Even though I was an executive branch official, I've got a tremendous respect for the balance of powers in our nation.
And right now, the Republicans in Congress have simply given away, have walked away from their responsibility to be the check and balance against this executive branch. And that is wrong. And it needs to be rectified.
And again, I think Adam Hamilton is a guy who can be part of that solution. BURNETT: So, you mentioned your role as an executive, right, governor. You also served two terms as Republican Secretary of State in Kansas. And Governor, and I think this is important for people to know in the context of what the concerns about what could happen at polls in November, you served as a poll worker at an advanced voting site during the 2020 presidential election.
The president of the United States says he won an election that he lost. He says it's rigged. He has talked about threats and voting machines and needing to have monitoring at polls, raising all sorts of fears. And here's just a small sampling of what he said recently.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The election was rigged. It was a dirty election.
We have a lot of rigged elections.
We can never let elections get rigged again.
The elections are rigged in this country.
I didn't win twice. I won three times.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: At this point, no one even knows whether he believes it. And what is more disturbing, that he knows he's lying or that he believes his own lie? But he's called mail-in voting cheating, even though, of course, that's how he votes himself.
How concerned are you, Governor, at this moment about having a safe and secure election coming up in the face of his threats?
GRAVES: Well, Erin, first of all, I was the secretary of state and I served with 49 other state election officials. Some of them were Republicans, some of them were Democrats. Every one of them had hundreds, if not thousands, of county clerks, you know, who were administering elections at the local level, the volunteers.
And what the president says in all those instances is such a disservice to all the people who work so hard to make sure we have free and fair elections in this country. And I wanted to see for myself, so I did volunteer and work for two and a half weeks in advance voting.
And it is a remarkable system. I'm proud of the people that I worked with. And the president, every time he talks, does a great disservice to all those people and to our process. And the fact is he lost fair and square. And the fact that he can't man up and accept it is just beyond hard to imagine a president of the United States that could be in that frame of mind.
BURNETT: Governor Graves, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for talking to me. GRAVES: Hey, happy to be here, Erin.
BURNETT: All right, good to see you.
And we've got new reporting that shows more Republican candidates now believe that running on Trump's coattails will not help them win in November. And there is visual proof of this fear. Jeff Zeleny has this exclusive OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump is eager to be at the center of the midterm election fight.
TRUMP: So I'm asking to pretend that I'm on the ballot. I'm on the ballot.
ZELENY (voice-over): Yet one place he's not, at the center of Republican campaign ads.
A new CNN analysis shows that Trump is a bit player, often seldom mentioned at all, in a deluge of GOP ads in some of the biggest races in the country.
While the president asked Republicans to vow their loyalty to him --
TRUMP: Please raise your right hand. I pledge --
[19:15:00]
AUDIENCE: I pledge --
TRUMP: -- to the greatest president in the history of the United States --
ZELENY (voice-over): Our analysis shows that Democrats are far more likely to invoke Trump's name in attack ads like this.
AD NARRATOR: Mike Rogers, all in on the war, all in on Trump.
AD NARRATOR: Susan Collins does what's best for Trump.
ZELENY (voice-over): So far this month, Republicans have aired just 12 ads that mention Trump. A CNN analysis of ad impact data found to the tune of about $1 million. But that's only a fraction of more than 500 GOP ads produced during that period, spending that adds up to more than $160 million.
That means Republicans and their allies are devoting less than one percent of their ad budgets on Trump-specific TV spots.
Still, the president wants to make the midterm elections all about him.
TRUMP: When I'm in the ticket, Republicans always do very well. ZELENY (voice-over): But given his historically low approval ratings, Democrats do too. So far in September, Democratic candidates and groups have spent nearly $23 million on 95 TV spots that mentioned the president, making up about 1/5 of their ad budget.
Fallout from the Iran war is a theme Democrats have seized on, like in this ad attacking Republican Mike Rogers in his Michigan Senate race with Abdul El-Sayed.
AD NARRATOR: The endless war in Iran is costing us all. Billions for bombs, brutal at our gas pumps, and Mike Rogers, a cheerleader for Donald Trump's war.
ZELENY (voice-over): As some Republicans thread a delicate needle by showing their support and independence with Trump.
SEN. ROGER MARSHALL (R-KS): This is not the first time I've disagreed with President Trump, and it probably won't be the last.
ZELENY (voice-over): Outside GOP groups are firing back hard, erasing a Democratic spending advantage in nearly every top Senate race. Republican advisors say the party's best hopes of holding the Senate majority is not by touting Trump's agenda in TV ads, but by tearing into their Democratic rivals.
AD NARRATOR: There's something not right about Abdul El-Sayed.
AD NARRATOR: Sherrod Brown. Bailouts for big banks, higher taxes for you.
AD NARRATOR: Roy Cooper, his record is worse than you remember.
ZELENY (voice-over): Trump repeatedly talks about the fate of all presidents and their parties in midterm elections.
TRUMP: Even if he's really a good president or a great president, there aren't too many of them. They don't win the midterms, and nobody quite knows why.
ZELENY (voice-over): A lesson he well remembers from 2018, when Republicans lost control of the House during his first term.
TRUMP: You know what happens if you don't vote? You go to hell. You know that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZELENY: And Erin, what is so interesting about this analysis? It's not Republican candidates alone, sort of distancing themselves as we've seen throughout the day. It is Trump's own allies, his own political network here, choosing not to use him as the best messenger.
We're not seeing in any of the ads. Some of these claims he makes in campaign rallies about the hottest economy in the world. In fact, they're not mentioning him at all. But, Erin, talking to Republican advisers, this one quote stands out to me. One said this, "The president is not the best message or our best messenger at this point" -- Erin.
BURNETT: Right, right. Message or messenger. Thank you very much, Jeff Zeleny.
And next, could Trump tear down the Kennedy Center? Another bizarre question. A judge is actually intervening as new images reveal Trump with a poster that says "Kennedy Center demolished".
Plus, JD Vance facing ridicule after asking American voters to give the Trump administration one more chance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, RADIO HOST: You're the vice president right now. Donald Trump is the president right now. Well, based on my calculations, this is the chance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And RFK Jr. is fueling conspiracy theories about one of the most conspiracy of conspiracy theories, the whole chemtrail thing. The former CDC official who resigned over Kennedy's policies will be OUTFRONT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:23:19]
BURNETT: Breaking news, a judge just warning the Kennedy Center it must give 30 days notice before it begins any new construction or a demolition. That's the key word here. Republican Senator Thom Tillis is slamming even the possibility of the historic building being demolished.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): I think it's absurd. Abolishing or demolishing a memorial want -- a worldwide known venue for arts like that. We got to get past this sort of said these are distractions we don't need. We've got an election 48 days from now. I think we should be focusing on that and worrying about what it's named. It's kind of silly. These are distractions that only benefit the Democrats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, he may wish they are distractions. The problem is, for the president of the United States, this is not a distraction. It is the action.
Until his comments coming just hours after these images of President Trump on Air Force One came out. If you look in, you see the president of the United States looking at a poster that appears to read Kennedy Center in all caps, demolished, right? This is how the president of the United States is spending his time.
OUTFRONT now, former Republican Congressman Ken Buck, the author of the new book, "Wake Up, America: The Rise of Socialism is the Death of Freedom". Also with me, Democratic strategist Meghan Hays.
Appreciate both of you.
And Congressman, I'm curious what you think about Senator Tillis. I mean, obviously, he's trying to talk, put this in the framework of why that, you know what, are we talking about this when we should be talking about an election and serious issues.
[19:25:03]
Of course, we're talking about it because the president of the United States is obsessed with the Kennedy Center and its name, and if his name doesn't go on it, maybe demolishing it, which is, it is crazy talk, but this is the world we live in. What do you think, Congressman?
KEN BUCK (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: I think it's not coincidence that it's the same day that the Fed raised the interest rates. President Trump will talk about running for a third term. He'll talk about opening negotiations with the dictator of North Korea. He'll talk about demolishing the Kennedy Center.
I think Senator Tillis' phrase was absolutely right. It is a distraction, and it is not an unintentional distraction at this point in time.
BURNETT: Right. I mean, Meghan, maybe the president's like, oh, I'm going to hold this so they can zoom their long lens through my plane window and get a picture of it. I mean, we do see the picture Trump was looking at.
We hear his threats. We see his long screeds that he posts on anything when he is handed to defeat on the Kennedy Center. We see that the tarp doesn't come down. When his name came off, the tarp never came off, so he didn't have to look at it with his name off it. If Trump follows through, for whatever reason, to try to distract as a congressman and Senator Tillis are indicating, or because he really cares about this, if he tries to follow through and move ahead with, you know, construction demolishing for the Kennedy Center, what will that mean?
MEGHAN HAYS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I mean, I think it just shows the American people what we already know is his priorities are not in the right place. He doesn't care that he's taken away food from children or health care from aging people that live in rural communities that voted for him. And I think that's the problem here.
There's not a lot you can do once he starts to demolish something. We learned that with the East Wing and you're just showing that he his priorities are not in the right spot. He doesn't care that the American people cannot afford gas and their groceries. He literally only cares about himself. So, Democrats where it is a distraction need to use that distraction
in their favor people about the solutions that they are going to offer them for the election so they can take back the majority.
BURNETT: So, Congressman, when it comes to the real economic pain in this country and what you're seeing now with, I mean, that was already there. And now when you have the gasoline and diesel crisis that we are also facing as a result of the Iran war, the administration is struggling to talk about the economy. Now, popular radio show host Charlemagne tha God came out today and called out Vice President Vance because Vance has a pitch to voters and his pitch to voters is. Come on guys, give us a second chance.
Here's Vance yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's a lot of good that's been done but there's a lot of work left to do. Don't give power to the people who cause the problems that we're fixing. Give us another chance or give us another couple of years to continue to work on the amazing things that we've been doing for the past two years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OK. There's obviously a lot to unpack there, but if we just take the surge in gasoline and diesel prices and all that, that is not a problem of anyone's fixing other than-- of anyone's making other than Trump's. But all in, that comment, give us another chance, led to Charlemagne's response. Here it is, Congressman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLEMAGNE THA GOD, RADIO HOST: What happened with the chance you already have? Okay, you're the vice president right now. Donald Trump is the president right now. Republicans control Congress right now. I'm not the highest grade of weed in the dispensary, nor am I the strongest avenger. But based on my calculations, this is the chance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: This is the chance. You got the House, you got the Senate, you got the White House, you have all your Supreme Court picked justices who, by the way, are now voting against things Trump wants, like mail-in voting.
Do you think that that's how many voters see a congressman, that this is their chance?
BUCK: I do think this is their chance. I think if Vice President Vance had those words to take back, he would probably take those words back. He undoubtedly went off-script in that situation.
I think what the vice president should be talking about is the success at the border. I think he should be talking about other successes that President Trump can point to. Let the Democrats talk about the failures.
But the bottom line is the people in Congress voted for tax cuts. They voted to support the president on the border. Those are the things Republicans need to stand up and talk about, not a second chance or not another chance You've got two years of record, and that's what the voters are going to be making their decision based on.
BURNETT: And yet, Meghan, it's interesting. And Congressman, I hear you on the border, because obviously you can look at the stats, and it's a quiet place now. And yet, Meghan, we're looking at ads like we just saw from Congresswoman Salazar, where instead of having private conversations with the White House, she's putting an ad out saying, you have gone too far on immigration, and you are going to lose Hispanics, who are the ones who put you in the White House in the first place.
HAYS: Yeah, because they decided to go after things that were hateful and inhumane and didn't want to follow the law. And then people were getting murdered in our streets and people were seeing that.
So, everything that they were doing, they just go too far and don't do it appropriately. And it's -- it's interesting because you want another chance. But what are your amazing policies that you put forward that the American people can hang their hat on?
[19:30:02]
There isn't anything. They still can't afford gas. They can't afford their groceries. We're in a war that no one wants. So, it's interesting that J.D. Vance wants another chance, but I think he's looking at 28 and he's trying to figure out here how he can tax some wins on in the next two years so he had something to run on.
BURNETT: So, Congressman, we also have, you know, developments. We've got all everything which is going on with NATO and Putin possibly seeking an escalation with another invasion. CNN's reporting that Trump has talked about cutting troops in Europe by a third -- by a third. OK, that would be 25,000 troops, fewer American troops in Europe.
You are a former member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. What would it mean if Trump did that?
BUCK: Well, I think it means a lot of different things. One, it means that Europe has to step up and start spending money and start protecting itself. It also means that we have troops that may not be in Europe but can react very quickly to support Europe. I think it's a bad message in some ways because it empowers President Putin and it may even embolden President Putin.
But in other ways, the reality that President Trump, one of the only presidents in recent history to do this, has told the Europeans, you've got to spend more money on your defense. You cannot rely on us.
At a time when we need to be stronger in the Pacific, stronger to defend our allies like Japan and South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and others against the increased aggression by China, Europe needs to step up and take care of themselves.
BURNETT: Yeah, and they, of course, have been spending significantly more, and just tonight announcing a major new package for Ukraine in the gap of the Americans.
Thank you both very much. I appreciate your time.
And next, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. headlining an anti-vax conference. You'll hear what he said as the United States is facing its worst measles outbreak in decades, and new reporting about what happened before Macklemore was pulled from Ed Sheeran's tour over his free Palestine remarks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:36:12]
BURNETT: Tonight, conspiracy. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation's top health official, top health official of America, giving the keynote address to the anti-vaccine group he founded and making an announcement about an extreme conspiracy theory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR., HHS SECRETARY: We're also looking at chemtrails and the impact of emissions from aircraft and those potential impacts on health.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now, he used a word there that is the gateway to a different world. That world is chemtrails, but it's not actually what comes out of the back of planes. That's called a contrail. It is the white streak, the trails behind the jet.
It's basically condensation trails. It's contrails, right? Water vapor. You've got the exhaust in the plane. It's very, very cold. It can be what, 40 degrees below up there. It freezes into ice crystals, and there's more of them than there used to be because there's a lot more planes in the sky.
Conspiracy theorists, though, believe that this could be a big conspiracy, chemtrails. They say they're not created by water vapor, that it could be government monitoring or trying to do something to our brains or putting toxic chemicals in the air to poison people or mass distribution of pharmaceuticals, mind control. That's what the word chemtrail opens the gateway to.
Scientists say there is absolutely no evidence to support the existence of chemtrails, just to be clear.
OUTFRONT now, Dr. Debra Houry. She is the former chief medical officer at the CDC. She resigned in protest over Secretary Kennedy's actions and decisions.
You know, Doctor, I thought that we were going to be talking about vaccines and measles, and we are, but then the Secretary of HHS, the top health official in the United States of America, made this comment about chemtrails.
So I wanted to give you a chance to talk about it. What do you think about the fact that the put this conspiracy theory about chemtrails out there and says he's looking into it.
DR. DEBRA HOURY, FORMER CDC MEDICAL OFFICER; RESIGNED OVER RFK JR.'S POLICIES: I certainly think it shows you where his priorities are when we're seeing record number of cases of cyclospora and measles and he's focused on this conspiracy theory. And if he really wants to look at things like ending chronic disease and is trying to tie chemtrails to it, I would probably look at things like the smoking program that he stopped at CDC or focusing on things like high blood pressure or diabetes. I bet those contribute to chronic disease more than a chemtrail.
BURNETT: What does it say to you that he says something like that? I mean, I guess what I'm saying is that means that that has space in his brain, that he's thinking about it, that he thinks it's worth saying, right? There's time being spent on this.
HOURY: It's truly unbelievable. I had to watch it a couple of times to see that he truly said it. I had not heard of that when I was at CDC, and he was asking questions about things. It's really -- it's really puzzling that this is on his radar when there are so many significant health issues in the United States to be addressing that now he's chasing this theory.
BURNETT: Yeah, yeah, and I mean this is one that has, you know, there's got an increasing pickup on this one. You know it's -- it's, you know, people track them and then they're trying to get involved in state legislatures.
HOURY: Yeah.
BURNETT: And you know, so it's -- I'm saying is it's fertile ground for him to throw something like this out there. But the context of course is as you point out doctor that a lot of major health issues in this country, including the worst measles outbreak in over three decades, Pennsylvania with four measles related deaths, including two infants. Secretary Kennedy, though, only mentioned measles once today in his speech, which I guess is the same number of times that he mentioned chemtrails.
[19:40:03]
But here's what he said about measles.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENNEDY: In our country, we care about rare illnesses and deaths. We care about every child who dies from measles. They get headlines. We should care about the children, shouldn't we? I'd ask you, care about children who are dying or suffering or being injured by vaccine injuries. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So I mentioned that he only talked about measles once. Now you heard the context in which he talked about it, which was to say why are we not talking about vaccine injuries or deaths?
HOURY: Yeah, and again, very puzzling and really mind-blowing when you think about vaccine injuries, they are exceedingly rare. Certainly, we want to monitor them and ensure that people get appropriate care. And vaccine deaths, if you even just look at allergic reactions like anaphylaxis, that's one in a million. So, deaths are exceedingly rare. I'm not even aware of any, you know, other than around the Johnson and Johnson vaccine for COVID many years ago.
And it's more than measles deaths. Think about all the measles cases in the United States that we're seeing and the hospitalizations around it. To me, that's what he needs to be focusing on is the long-term health consequences for measles, the continued spread, the hospitalizations.
And actually, we know how to prevent measles. It's called vaccines. And if he would speak to that more, that would be helpful.
BURNETT: What is so challenging about all of this is they will take that one in a million and say that if you aren't willing to focus on that, that you are the one not focusing on science. And that is the real challenge with the world that we are living in right now. He didn't say it as directly as I just did, but here's how he put it today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENNEDY: As I said, you have friends in the White House and we are doing this one day at a time and we're putting the science before any changes that the science dictates that we should make.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Again, you know you can say there's one in a million and we can all agree that we want it to be 0 and everything should be done to make it zero. But he makes that the focus instead of the 999,999, right, 999,999 people who are improved and saved and made healthier and live longer because of that vaccine.
How insidious is the logic that they are using against science?
HOURY: Yeah, and that one in a million was around allergic reactions, not even deaths. Deaths are even rarer. The science that he
BURNETT: I'm sorry --
HOURY: Yeah. I would say the science that he uses -- I read several of his books when I was preparing for him to come to the department when I was at CDC. Many of the studies are retracted. Or, you know, have been shown not to be valid. And so, I'm concerned what he considers gold standard science is not
what you or I or other government taxpayers would. You know, I consider a randomized controlled trial. You know, he talks about how there's not placebo-controlled trials.
Vaccines are placebo-controlled in randomized controlled trials. There's great studies that have been done. And there's safety monitoring that's done around all of these.
On the flip side, what we're not seeing is with back to school, him talking about measles or the CDC director.
BURNETT: Yeah, yeah. All right, thank you very much, Doctor. I appreciate your time.
And next, that 40-minute phone call that left Ed Sheeran's tour in disarray, what Robert Kraft told the Grammy award-winning singer before Macklemore was pulled from the tour.
And these are Americans living in the United States, but right now, they are all in for Canada.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Why are you also flying the Canadian flag?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?
JIMENEZ: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel just as loyal to the Canadian side growing up here my whole life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:47:46]
BURNETT: Tonight, inside the 40-minute phone call between Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Grammy Award winner Ed Sheeran that led to rapper Macklemore's cancellation from Sheeran's tour. "The Wall Street Journal" reporting that Kraft told Sheeran he believed that Macklemore's comments constituted hate speech, not freedom of speech, according to a person familiar with the call. The real problem in the conflict, he told Sheeran, was Hamas, a U.S. designated terrorist organization. He noted that Macklemore had previously been accused of anti-Semitism in 2014 for wearing a costume that featured Jewish stereotypes such as a beard and an oversized hook nose. Macklemore apologized for the 2014 incident at the time.
OUTFRONT now, Andrew Beaton, a sports reporter for "The Wall Street Journal" who broke all of this reporting.
So, Andrew, this is a long call when you think about the two individuals, right? Robert Kraft and Ed Sheeran. It's a 40-minute call. What have you learned about it?
ANDREW BEATON, REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Yeah, I think the first important thing to understand is that Robert Kraft and Ed Sheeran have a relationship dating back years at this point. Ed Sheeran performed at Robert Kraft's 2022 wedding. And when we're delving into this really thorny moment of Robert Kraft not willing to host Macklemore at the New England Patriots Gillette Stadium, I think he wanted to personally tell Sheeran his logic and what he was thinking.
And so, they sort of ticked through the fact that Robert Kraft empathized with the plight of the Palestinian people. He told him he didn't even give into causes that support Palestinian people in the past, but he felt that Macklemore's comments that blamed Israel for a genocide that didn't address Hamas's role in October 7th to Robert Kraft, it was hate speech disguised as free speech and that was his perspective and he wanted to tell Ed personally.
BURNETT: Right, right, right, and that to him, this was hate speech. This was not a free speech conversation.
And important obviously he's the face of this I know he led the charge Andrew but other NFL owners were on board. Behind the scenes, you've learned they were ready to act as well?
BEATON: Yeah, and I think it's also important to understand that those NFL owners were -- had independently come to the same conclusion as Robert Kraft. Robert Kraft was really the face of it. This is a cause he has championed for years with his Blue Square alliance against hate.
[19:50:00]
But other NFL owners who were about to host Ed Sheeran on tours, such as David Tepper of the Carolina Panthers, Arthur Blank of the Atlanta Falcons, Jeffrey Lurie of the Philadelphia Eagles, felt similarly that all of these people had booked Ed Sheeran for a night of good, clean, fun. Ed Sheeran isn't a controversial act. He's popular among pretty much everybody.
And then when Macklemore was changing that and turning it into a very political scene, that changed the calculus.
BURNETT: And it's obviously important that that reporting right that they were all going to do this as well. It the context here, of course, with Robert Kraft, though, is he's Gillette Stadium open 24 years ago and he has not -- he's hosted, what, 100 concerts at that venue right at his stadium. Has he ever intervened like this before?
BEATON: Not that I know of, but this is also a rather unprecedented situation. I mean, I feel like in all of our daily lives, the Israel- Palestinian conversation can be such a third rail. I think a lot of people like these owners were thinking that when you're booking Ed Sheeran, you know what you're getting. If you're booking another act, you might know that there is political speech. And if someone buys a ticket to that act, they know what they're
getting. And I think there's probably a sense of this might not be what our ticket buyers paid for.
BURNETT: All right. For Ed Sheeran, right, the inconsistency there.
All right. Andrew, thank you very much and for sharing the new details from your reporting.
And next, Americans who live right on the border with Canada cheering on the prime minister's retaliation against Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm grateful for tit for tat. I mean, I don't know what else is going to work with that man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:55:51]
BURNETT: Tonight, Trump pushing Canada away into the wide, open arms of Europe. In the face of unprecedented attacks from the United States president, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is embracing the idea of becoming the EU's first associate member. President Trump calling the alliance a, quote, "hostile act", as some Americans are openly saying they're on Team Canada.
Omar Jimenez is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: So Lake Ontario, that's gone. Lake America.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.S. and Canada relationship hitting some new lows.
TRUMP: I can tell you this, you know, Canada has been ripping off the United States for many, many years, for decades.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Online, the U.S. president posted this image, beating up the Canadian prime minister in hockey. While offline, the two countries are locked in an escalating trade war as President Trump now threatens outright bans on Canadian products, on top of the 50 percent tariffs are more than $20 billion of Canadian goods, which Canada is now matching dollar for dollar.
And these Americans aren't upset about.
SHARON CAMPBELL, DERBY LINE, VERMONTH RESIDENT: I don't know what else is going to work with that man, but --
JIMENEZ: So, you're glad that Canada is fighting back?
S. CAMPBELL: Yeah, yeah, I don't blame them at all.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): The U.S.-Canada border runs right through Wayne and Sharon Campbell's Vermont house.
WAYNE CAMPBELL, DERBY LINE This part of the order will be in Canada. The pond, the Border Patrol has three cameras on the property. I could walk out there, but I can't leave my property into Canada. I have to go through a border.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): In the small border town of Derby Line, Vermont, you can't separate the United States and Canada, regardless of politics. Even their library is split in half by the U.S.-Canada border.
JIMENEZ: Driving this town, the one thing you cannot miss is the U.S.-Canada border checkpoint. I mean, it basically funnels you right into that middle of town. The town on the other side of the border is Stanstead.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Karin Cantin owns the Auberge Le Sunshine Bakery there.
KARIN CANTIN, OWNER, AUBERGE LE SUNSHINE CAFE BISTRO: It's almost 50 percent of our customers come from U.S.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): She says she's been seeing more lately, like these women on a group biking trip.
MARIANNE EATON, VERMONT RESIDENT VISITING CANADA: We thought, okay, we got to pull together and support our Canadian friends, and we could have chosen any place.
JIMENEZ: Do you find yourself apologizing to Canadians?
AIMEE MOTTA, VERMONT RESIDENT VISITING CANADA: It's true. And when I do meet someone who's Canadian who's come to Vermont to visit, I thank them. The sadness is heavy.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): But the cross-border visits haven't been reciprocal.
CANTIN: It's like our way to tell to the politics say we are not agreeing with that.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Starting in February 2025, U. S. Customs data shows arrivals to EU. S. From Canada at this Derby Line port of entry declined every month for 13 months straight compared to monthly arrivals in the previous year.
JANICE BEADLE, DERBY LINE, VERMONT RESIDENT: I've lived on this border for 72 years.
JIMENEZ: Why are you also flying the Canadian flag here?
BEADLE: Why?
JIMENEZ: Yeah.
BEADLE: I feel just as loyal to the Canadian side growing up here my whole life.
JIMENEZ: Yeah, where Canada is quite literally just across the street.
BEADLE: It's just across the street, right there.
JIMENEZ: How would you say business here has changed over the past year?
LORALEE TESTER, DIRECTOR, NORTHEAST KINGDOM CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: It's been stressful. because it's unpredictable. The tariffs have been really challenging to navigate. Where I see the greatest hit is in all of our businesses related to tourism and then that manufacturing piece, because that is, again, like I said, the consistent backbone of our economy.
CANTIN: It's sad for everybody. We hope that it's just a few years.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Back with the Campbells.
W. CAMPBELL: So if I sit here to do any kind of work at all, I'm in Canada.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): They're a house divided by border, but they still believe in unity.
W. CAMPBELL: They're our closest ally, and it's become a mockery.
S. CAMPBELL: We're just, we're loving and honoring. It's those guys in Washington that are screwing everything up, I almost said --
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Omar Jimenez, CNN, Derby Line, Vermont.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Awesome. Fascinating with the border going literally through their house.
Thanks so much to all of you for being with us.
"AC360" starts now.
