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The Situation Room
MAHA Report Targets Kids' Health; Testimony Resumes Tuesday in Combs Trial; NTSB Investigates San Diego Jet Crash. Aired 11:30a-12p ET
Aired May 23, 2025 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:30:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Rapper Kid Cudi's shocking testimony in the Sean "Diddy" Combs sex trafficking trial.
We have an update. That's next.
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BLITZER: This morning, the National Transportation Safety Board, the NTSB, is on the ground investigating what caused a small business jet to crash into a San Diego neighborhood yesterday, the crash turning cars into fireballs and sending residents fleeing, as jet fuels spilled across the streets.
[11:35:07]
Two of the six passengers on board the aircraft have been confirmed dead, and police say it seems unlikely anyone could have survived the crash. But it's miraculous that nobody on the ground was killed, though eight people were injured.
Let's go live right now to CNN's Stephanie Elam. She's in San Diego. She's got the latest for us.
Stephanie, what do we know at this moment?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.
Well, I can tell you that the NTSB is out here this morning. They just got out here, and they're going to expand their investigation here. So they are going to be moving people out and really start going into the scene. I want to move out of the way a little bit here, so you can see some of the things that are happening down there with the investigators, but also look in the front here.
You see this little white piece? That's part of the plane. Behind us, there's -- in the street behind us, there's a wing of the plane there that came down, along with that power pole that is down as well. It did clip the power line, but I got to say, based on the planes that have been flying over since we have been out here, it was actually already too low. But when you listen to the call from the pilot to the control tower,
there was not a sound of distress in his voice. In fact, take a listen to the pilot talking to the San Diego air traffic controller.
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AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: For 0955 ZULU, with wind calm, visibility one- half and indefinite ceiling 200.
PILOT: All right. Doesn't sound great, but we will give it a go.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
ELAM: So they're going to continue this investigation, remove the fuselage to study it elsewhere, and start to get some of these people back in the homes.
But I can tell you, Wolf, the smell of the jet fuel still very much present here, as they are working through clearing this area and then getting through clearing all that debris and getting these people back to -- the ones that can -- back to their homes.
BLITZER: All right, Stephanie Elam in San Diego for us.
Stephanie, thank you very much.
Right now, other news we're following. The jury in the Sean "Diddy" Combs sex trafficking trial is taking a break for the long holiday weekend. And it comes after another day of shocking testimony and photo evidence presented by the prosecution.
Let's go to New York right now.
CNN entertainment correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister is joining us.
Elizabeth, what were the biggest takeaways from this week of testimony?
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this was a huge week of testimony.
In fact, just yesterday, the jury heard from five different witnesses, one of them being Kid Cudi, the rapper and actor who dated Cassie Ventura, who, of course, is the star witness of this case. Kid Cudi testified to the fact that he says that Sean Combs on one occasion broke into his home, and on another occasion, he testified, that he actually blew up his car with a Molotov cocktail.
Now, this would match the testimony from Cassie Ventura that the jury heard last week. Now, another witness that we heard from yesterday was a hotel staffer who is the manager for a luxury hotel in Beverly Hills called the L'Ermitage. That was a hotel that Sean Combs frequented over the years.
Now, there was a moment in court where they actually pulled up the hotel records, the logs of every time that Sean Combs stayed there. And, Wolf, I want to read you some of the messages that the jury heard directly from these hotel notes.
One of them said: "Always spills candle wax on everything and uses excessive amounts of oil. Place room out of order upon departure for deep cleaning."
Another one said: "Please authorize an extra $1,000 when guest stays with us to cover any room damages."
So, this just showing this pattern that prosecutors have alleged that Sean Combs was having these so-called freak-offs in hotel rooms over the years, obviously, the prosecution here trying to paint a picture showing that Combs was always doing these freak-offs, which, Wolf, of course, is at the center of this case.
BLITZER: All right, Elizabeth Wagmeister reporting for us.
Elizabeth, thank you very much.
Just ahead: The health and human services secretary's report paints a bleak picture of children's health here in the United States. Robert Kennedy Jr. sat down with our own Kaitlan Collins to explain why. You will hear that. That's next.
But, first, as we mark Jewish American Heritage Month, I had the honor of moderating a discussion this week with three wonderful Jewish American military veterans of World War II. All three men are more than 100 years old right now, and they're still going strong, thank God. They shared their varied firsthand experiences from the war.
The event was hosted by the National Museum of American Jewish Military History.
We will be right back.
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BLITZER: Trump administration officials led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed to have figured out why so many American children are overweight, sick, and don't behave.
They make their case in what's called the MAHA Report, "Make Our Children Healthy Again" -- close quote. And it points to things like ultra-processed foods, environmental chemicals, and warns that kids are overmedicated, while calling for a new look at vaccines.
On CNN last night, Secretary Kennedy explained it like this in an interview with Kaitlan Collins.
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ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: This exercise was really a diagnostic exercise.
[11:45:03] And it's important because this has never happened in the federal government. We have all the agencies recognizing we have a chronic disease crisis.
This was just the diagnostics. Sixty days from now, we put out the prescription. So we will put out a series of policies to address this issue and to eliminate the chronic disease.
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BLITZER: All right, joining us now, Dr. Leana Wen. She's the author of "Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health."
Dr. Wen, as always, thank you so much for joining us.
What do you think the key takeaways are from this report? And what do you expect to see in some 60 days?
DR. LEANA WEN, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: Well, I think that, right now, this report is a bit of a mixed bag, because, on the one hand, the public health establishment, the medical community is in agreement with Robert of Kennedy Jr. about the dangers of ultra-processed food.
It's a real problem that 60 to 70 percent of the calories that Americans consume are these chemicals, these additives and substances that are not good for health, that are linked with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, premature mortality, and so forth.
So I think it would be a good thing if there are policy prescriptions that aimed to make healthy foods the easy choice, like whole grains or fruits and vegetables and so forth. But, on the other hand, there are also parts of the report that once again sow doubt on the safety and effectiveness of childhood immunizations.
I think it's good for Kennedy to be talking about pesticides and toxins and eliminating those things from the air and the water, but he seems to also imply that childhood immunizations, which are lifesaving and prevent kids from getting ill and dying, that somehow they're part of these toxins too.
And I think it's for that reason that many of us in medical and public health are very skeptical of what those policy prescriptions are and whether some of them are going to be rehashing of what Kennedy has already expressed as his anti-vaccine beliefs.
BLITZER: I also, Dr. Wen, want to get your reaction to something else that Secretary Kennedy told CNN's Kaitlan Collins last night about his approach to trusting scientific experts. Watch and listen to that.
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KENNEDY: Trusting the experts is not a feature of science. It's not a feature of democracy. It's a feature of religion and totalitarianism.
The -- what we should do is trust the science. And we are going to do the science. And the science is going to be replicable and it's going to be gold standard. People should not be taking medical advice from somebody who is not a physician, but they -- and they should also be skeptical about any medical advice. They need to do their own research.
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BLITZER: Dr. Wen, what do you think of that message?
WEN: Well, I'm confused by that message. And I bet that many people are confused about this too.
Look, I'm a clinician. I talk to my colleagues who are physicians and nurses all the time. And, yes, we do our own research. And, yes, we look at scientific articles and we parse through them. We look at recommendations. But the thing is, there are lots of different clinical topics.
It's not reasonable to expect that even clinicians and scientists look at the medical literature all the time and parse through the literature ourselves on every single topic. This is the reason why we have look to guidelines. There are medical organizations that synthesize these data.
By the way, we look up to the CDC. Or at least, throughout history, we have looked up to the CDC, to the FDA to compile these studies for us and to make recommendations. And this -- we have always throughout history depended on our federal agencies as the gold standard for expertise, for information, for unbiased scientific data.
And so it's very confusing and quite distressing, actually, to hear the person who heads up these agencies, to whom these agencies report, now say that expertise cannot be trusted. I'm confused, because it leaves people wondering, well, what sources of information can I trust?
BLITZER: Good point.
Secretary Kennedy also plans to commission a study to find the cause of autism, and he says he should do -- we should do that by March. Do you think that's a realistic timeline?
WEN: No, because we have already had decades of studies looking at autism that have so far found that there is a complex interplay between genetics and environmental factors.
And, if anything, these studies point to the fact that autism is determined before a child is born. And so, if you're looking at environmental exposure, you would be looking at in utero exposure.
And so, for any studies to be done, we would require tracking pregnant women through their pregnancy to the early years of a child's life. I mean, so we're talking years of study. And if Kennedy is now saying that we're going to have results within months, then one wonders if there are already predetermined conclusions and these so-called studies are just window dressing.
Interesting.
BLITZER: Dr. Leana Wen, we always appreciate having you join us here in THE SITUATION ROOM. Thank you very, very much.
[11:50:05]
WEN: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: And coming up: an inspiring commencement speech from the world's most famous frog.
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BLITZER: America's favorite amphibian is sharing some words of wisdom this graduation season, Kermit the Frog delivering the commencement address at the University of Maryland.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Stay connected to your dreams, no matter how big, no matter how impossible they seem.
The truth is, dreams are how we figure out where we want to go. And life is how we get there.
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[11:55:07]
BLITZER: And we can't forget the time that Kermit actually stopped by right here in THE SITUATION ROOM, spoke to me. This was back in 2011.
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BLITZER: You are good. You're really good.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Yes.
BLITZER: And I know it is going to be very exciting. This is a political season, and a lot of people are going to be voting right now.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: You're going to be reporting on all of this, right?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I'm going to try, because I'm afraid, as a frog, we cannot vote.
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BLITZER: And a final piece of advice from Kermit's so-called Kermencement speech reminds us all that life is better when we -- quote -- "leap forward together."
Thanks very much for joining us this morning. See you back here Monday 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
"INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" is next right after a short break.
