Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Frustration Grows in Indiana Amid Weeklong Power Outages; Michael Cohen Interviews Trump; Trump Admin in Midst Of Sweeping Firearm Policy Deregulation. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired August 21, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: -- of them but the large vast majority of them were damaging wind reports. Now, overall, across portions of the Northeast and the Mid-Atlantic we had about two to four inches of rain that fell. That may not sound like all that much but keep in mind a lot of it was within a very short period of time which is what resulted in some of that flooding that you saw.

We still have some showers right now across Massachusetts especially over the Cape but also a few portions of Rhode Island and even Connecticut before that first wave will finally start to make its way out. For the remainder of the day today the heaviest rain is actually going to be across portions of the Carolinas, the Southern Plains and then eventually that next system will begin to impact portions of the Midwest.

Here's a look as we go later on this evening about 5:00, 6:00 you've got some very strong thunderstorms at portions of North and South Carolina stretching all the way back through Mississippi and even into Louisiana. Then we progress into Saturday, and here you can see that next wave that starts to come in across portions of the Central Plains and even into the Midwest. So, it's going to be a couple more days of dealing with these strong to severe thunderstorms and the potential for flooding.

So, here's the greatest risk for today again the yellow areas here highlighting Charlotte and Columbia but we also have areas of the Midwest and the Central Plains that could also be looking at damaging winds and some large hail.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Allison Chinchar, our meteorologist, thank you very, very much. In this note, you can always keep up with severe weather in your area or anywhere else for that matter with the CNN weather app. It's available in the Apple App Store right now.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Happening now, Wolf, frustration and exhaustion in northern Indiana. More than 40,000 homes and businesses face another day without power after those powerful storms that hit last week. Officials said at least seven people died. People in Gary, Indiana just outside of Chicago have been enduring outages all week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No lights, no Wi-Fi, can't charge your phone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And some people are getting angry claiming the majority black city is being ignored. Meanwhile power crews are working to fix the massive outage but full restoration isn't expected until next week.

And just ahead here in the Situation Room, why online clinics are selling pills meant for sexual health as longevity drugs and why the numbers may back them up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:35:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, Michael Cohen has had a reunion of sorts with President Trump, his former employer and one-time foe. You may remember during Trump's first term, Cohen went to prison for what he has said was his part in covering up Trump's, quote, "dirty deeds." The president appeared on Cohen's new radio show and both men seemed to set aside their bitter past.

Joining us now for the situation with Smerconish, CNN political commentator Michael Smerconish. He's the host of CNN's Smerconish and the Michael Smerconish program on SiriusXM radio. Michael, thanks so much for joining us. For a radio veteran like you, what do you make of this on-air breaking of breads -- breaking of bread between these two men?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, SMERCONISH: It's the latest example of how you're not dead to Donald Trump until you're dead. There have been so many individuals who've come in and out of his orbit and the explanation, I think, Wolf, is that the president views this all as playing the game, the rough and tumble of politics.

I'll give you an example. I remember when he was flying home aboard Air Force One a couple of weeks ago from China and David Sanger from the New York Times and from CNN took a real brow-beating from Trump, the usual kind of your fake news sort of thing. And then within a few weeks the president had something important that he wanted to say about Iran and what did he do? Unscripted, unprompted, he picked up the phone and he called David Sanger and had the conversation and gave that story to Sanger.

And I think that's just how he views it. You know, he lets it roll off his back. From the standpoint of Michael Cohen, and I know this because I had the conversation with Michael Cohen, he very much wanted to repair that relationship. So, you know, I think the two of them got what they wanted.

BLITZER: Michael, I also want to ask you about Natalie Harp, one of the president's closest aides, as we all now know. The Daily Beast has revealed two letters she sent to the president back in 2023 and the fawning tone that has raised some eyebrows. We just want to note the White House's response to CNN's inquiries to the letter saying, in part, and I'm quoting the White House now, "Natalie Harp is one of the most loyal and hardest-working aides on President Trump's team." So, what are you hearing from people out there?

SMERCONISH: So, I can only speak for myself. I think that the story is a story of loyalty thus far. I mean, I read the letters at the Daily Beast. I've not read any response and I see no hint of any impropriety on the part of the president. If there were, I think that would be in the public domain already.

He values loyalty above all else. I think that the people around him, especially in Trump 2.0, much in contrast to Trump 1.0, a lot of personalities with credentials that he really didn't know. He thought it through and he made sure that this time he has people in his orbit who are most loyal to him and I think that's qualification number one.

BLITZER: Michael, this week also a major development. The federal debt hit an alarming new milestone. $40 trillion. That averages out to a stomach churning $117,000 per person in the United States, every man, woman and child. What are you telling you about this during, on your radio program?

SMERCONISH: So, I find the response to be contradictory and I'll tell you why. By the way, Wolf, to the extent you and I spend five minutes together right now, another 25 million will have been added to the national debt.

[11:40:00]

In terms of what I hear from people, people are alarmed about the size of the debt, but you know I love my daily poll questions. So, today I've got a poll question at my website, thoroughly unscientific, but really interesting, where I say to people, would you be willing to pay higher taxes and obtain less in terms of Medicare and Social Security? Yes, there it is. And in order to reduce the debt.

And, Wolf, when I looked at it last, like 70 percent of the people, more than 20,000 had voted, said no. So, people are alarmed about the debt and then you say, well, if we spread the pain, are you willing to incur your share? Oh no, tax the other guy.

We haven't had a serious conversation in this country about the national debt since Simpson-Bowles, which I know you remember. And in that case, they couldn't even get the requisite number of commission votes so that Congress would have been forced into an up or down vote. The solution? Term limits. That's the only way we're ever going to address this.

BLITZER: Michael Smerconish, as usual, thanks very much. We always appreciate you here in the Situation Room. In this note, Michael's live program every Saturday morning here on CNN, 9:00 Eastern, every Saturday morning. I watch it. You should watch it as well. Pamela.

BROWN: All right. We have more coming up here in the Situation Room. Who can legally get a gun? The rules are changing. The new reporting this morning about whether past felons can get a gun coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:45:00]

BROWN: Well, now to a Situation Room special report. The Trump administration is in the midst of rolling back several gun safety laws and guidelines, and this latest example came just this week. The Justice Department finalized a rule Monday that would let some people convicted of nonviolent felonies regain their gun rights.

BLITZER: Stephen Gutowski is joining us right now. He's a gun safety instructor and founder of RheReload.com, which reports on firearms policy and politics for that matter. Stephen, thanks very much for joining us. Explain what's behind this latest move and what these rules are changing.

STEPHEN GUTOWSKI, FOUNDER, THEROLOAD.COM: Yes. Well, this comes after years of legal battles over whether or not particularly nonviolent felons can have their rights restored later in life after they've served their sentences. You've had some court victories on that front.

And when the Trump administration came back in for the second term, they took this as a priority to try and reestablish what had previously been part of the Gun Control Act allowed for rights restoration, but the process had been defunded by Congress for the last 30 years or so. And so, they found a way to take some of the power back in that process to the attorney general's office and reignite it, restart it again, and that's what they had finalized this week was the rules surrounding who can apply, who's going to actually have a realistic chance of getting their rights back, and who's going to be presumptively denied on those sorts of fronts.

BROWN: The Trump administration is making several changes on the gun rights front. I'm wondering, what do you view as the most consequential?

GUTOWSKI: I mean, rights restoration will be pretty consequential. The ATF or DOJ itself has estimated that they expect 330,000 people to apply for this restoration process in the first year of operation, and there are something upwards of 20 or 30 million people who have a conviction or mental health record that keeps them from owning guns that most of those people won't be able to get their rights back, but it would be a significant portion of them.

And then, of course, there's also the recent legal fight over the National Firearms Act of 1934, which regulates things like silencers, where the administration has at least not appealed in time to prevent an injunction from going in force, and now those devices are becoming more readily available, and they become increasingly popular over the years, even under the more restrictive regime.

BLITZER: Many gun rights advocates, as you know, have been left confused by the Department of Justice's decision earlier this month to not challenge a federal court ruling that struck down federal registration requirements for firearm suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and other weapons. Is the DOJ, the Department of Justice, sending mixed signals to gun owners out there? GUTOWSKI: Yes, on that particular case, I would say so. They certainly defended the National Firearms Act in court pretty vigorously, but once they lost at the lower level, the district court level, they had seven days to appeal under a stay to prevent the injunction from going into place, and they didn't do that, but they still have another seven weeks or so, six or seven weeks left to file an appeal. They haven't actually said whether they're going to or not.

They told the New York Times, for instance, that just because they didn't seek a stay doesn't mean they won't appeal the law, and so it's not exactly clear what the DOJ is going to do, and the injunction itself is a bit murky as well in terms of who it applies to and the exact details of what's protected.

BROWN: So, could the new rules implemented under Trump be easily rolled back if the Democrats take control of Congress? How difficult would that be?

GUTOWSKI: Yes, certainly this rights restoration rule, for instance, could be rolled back if different administration wanted to undo what the Trump administration has done here. You saw the Biden administration did a number of really substantial firearms-related rules during its time in office, and a lot of those either lost in court or have been rolled back by the Trump administration.

So, you know, rulemaking is substantial, but it's not necessarily permanent if it's in an area where a future administration doesn't agree with you.

[11:50:00]

So, obviously passing laws is more substantial than rulemaking, and rulemaking can be more easily undone.

BLITZER: Stephen Gutowski, thanks so much for joining us.

BROWN: Thank you so much.

GUTOWSKI: Absolutely.

BROWN: And coming up, we're going to have quite the discussion. Why are women taking a drug that men use to improve their sex lives? We'll explain straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, new this morning, a drug prescribed for erectile dysfunction is gaining traction as having potential benefits for heart and brain health and longevity. Some wellness groups and influential voices have started taking this drug, Tadalafil, more commonly known as Cialis, for its potential impact beyond the bedroom, including women.

[11:55:00]

One of those women is molecular and cellular oncology PhD, Kristi Sawicki. I want to note that the major studies in this area only show associations, not that the drug was a definitive cause of possible benefits, but it's certainly an area of exploration. And, Kristi, you've been part of this. You've been taking it for over a year, right? Tell us more about your journey here.

KRISTI SAWICKI, MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR ONCOLOGY PHD AND TAKES E.D. DRUG FOR HER HEALTH: Yes, that's right. Yes, I started exploring it right around the time that I started doing a GLP-1 medication and I noticed some interesting studies on this for, you know, improvements in heart health and improvements in all-cause mortality. These were observational studies, as you mentioned, but the signal was very intriguing to me as someone with a family history on both sides of heart disease and higher cholesterol lipid levels that weren't really being modified by diet and exercise. I thought that this might be something to explore.

BROWN: So, you know, there are these observational studies and then there are there more concrete peer-reviewed studies. What sort of research would you like to see done in this area?

SAWICKI: I definitely would like to see more research done on women. Most of these studies are done in men for obvious reasons, but we obviously have the same biology as men and that signal, you know, it also works in women. It essentially improves blood flow. So, blood flow is really important to our heart, our brain, our muscles, and we are seeing early signals of that.

But I would love to see longer-term trials in women and especially on the same outcomes that we see in men, which is improved cardiovascular risk and improved dementia risk and all-cause mortality.

BROWN: Yes, because there is that question how this medication could benefit women. We know heart disease, it can be a big issue for women, especially as they go through menopause and after. So, tell us more about that, how it could help.

SAWICKI: Exactly, yes. So, when we have declining estrogen that we -- you know, through menopause and perimenopause, that is associated with changes in endothelial cell function, vascular tone, lipids, body fat redistribution in women and the women's risk of heart disease goes up to similar to that of men once we enter menopause.

So, you know, not everybody can take estrogen HRT. So, some people may want to explore something like this if there's a risk of heart disease or something, you know, along those lines, or it could just, in addition, be another way that women could protect their heart long- term. We don't have those definitive answers yet, but I think it's very interesting biology.

BROWN: What has it been like for you since you've taken it? Have you noticed any difference, whether the way you feel or in your labs?

SAWICKI: I haven't noticed a tremendous difference. I do notice a feeling like when I go to the gym, if I take it before the gym, I notice like my feel more blood flow to the muscles. I feel warmer sensation. But other than that, I would say it's relatively benign in terms of any side effects or anything like that. I haven't noticed anything.

BROWN: Yes. I was going to --

SAWICKI: It's more of just, you know -- yes.

BROWN: I was going to ask about any like harms or downsides in taking this.

SAWICKI: Personally, I haven't found anything and I'm on a very small, this is a very small dose, by the way, it's 2.5 milligrams. And I think the standard dose for men on demand use is more like 10 or I don't know, a larger amount. There are counter indications and things.

So, I wouldn't say that this is a blanket recommendation for everybody to obviously work with your doctor and explore that pathway. But for me, it was, I did work with a clinician. We made sure there weren't any issues now in my medical history. And so, it was relatively safe option.

BROWN: Yes. Everyone, talk to your doctor. But it is an interesting discussion and area of research. Quickly, final words to you on this topic.

SAWICKI: Yes. I mean, it's -- again, it's not proven as a longevity treatment. It's not proven to, you know -- but we do have these very interesting early numbers of disease risk outcomes in men. There are some actual studies in women as well. So -- and, you know, even in sexual function in women that it can help with blood flow to that area.

So, this is something that I think a lot of women deal with in blood flow to the brain and the heart and the muscles. So, all those -- you know, all of our tissues need blood flow to bring oxygen and nutrients. So, this is kind of where this is playing a role in then -- in how the biology functions.

BROWN: Yes. And hopefully, there will be more of those studies done for women as well. Kristi Sawicki, thank you so much.

SAWICKI: Thank you.

BROWN: Wolf.

BLITZER: And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media, @wolfblitzer and @pamelabrowncnn.

BROWN: We'll see you back here Monday morning and every weekday morning for two hours at 10:00 Eastern. Inside Politics with our friend and colleague Dana Bash starts now.

[12:00:00]