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What We Know with Max Foster

ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel Show Over Charlie Kirk Remarks; Trump Says He Disagrees With UK PM On Palestinian Statehood; Hamas: Gaza City Assault Means Hostages Will Never Return; Was Donald Trump's UK State Visit a Success?; CDC Advisers Meeting on Vaccine Policy Changes. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired September 18, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:32]

ISA SOARES, CNN HOST: A free speech furor on late night television.

This is WHAT WE KNOW.

Advocates of free speech are outraged over Jimmy Kimmel suspension. In Monday's show, the late night host suggested the suspect in Charlie Kirk's

murder was a MAGA supporter. He also criticized what he perceives as the right-wing media's attempts to capitalize on the assassination.

On Wednesday, FCC chair Brendan Carr threatened ABC and its affiliates over the show, implying public broadcast licenses could be at risk. Hours later,

"Jimmy Kimmel Live!" was pulled off the air indefinitely, and the fallout has spread all the way from Hollywood to Washington.

And like most topics, the reaction from lawmakers has been pretty much split along party lines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA): Frankly, it should shake every American that the president of the United States is out there firing comedians who make

fun of him. That is not who we are. And every American should care and stand up to this.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: What I do know is that ABC is a private company, and they can make their own choices on who they want

to, to wear their brand, so to speak. So, this is a matter of ABC's leadership. It doesn't have anything to do with Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: What questions are swirling over the increasing influence of the Trump administration on the U.S. media industry?

Here is what Jimmy Kimmel said about the MAGA movement on Monday. And the suspect accused of killing right wing activist Charlie Kirk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, TALK SHOW HOST: We hit some new lows over the weekend, with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered

Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Well, Bill Carter is the editor of latenighter.com, a website devoted to the world of late night shows.

Bill, welcome to the show. Give me your take, then. Did you think the ABC made the right call in pulling Kimmel off air? Are you even surprised that

we're here?

BILL CARTER, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, LATENIGHER: I am surprised in a way, that were here because its unprecedented for a government. Our government, to

use the basically the power of broadcast licenses to blackmail a network into taking their talent off the air. I'm not surprised in one sense,

because it has been there's been a campaign, organized campaign by the Trump administration against Jimmy Kimmel and the other late night hosts

because he doesn't like that they make jokes about him, and he has a Federal Communications Commission. Chairman who is totally enthralled to

him. He will do anything that Trump wants.

And in this case, he's come up with a pretext. It's really a pretext. This whole thing about what Trump said about the shooter in the Kirk case.

They're making it sound like he did something offensive about Charlie Kirk, who's been basically lionized by the conservatives. And you know, what

happened to him was certainly tragic and everything. But what Kimmel said was not in any way hostile or demeaning to Charlie Kirk.

So that was a pretext. So, I think what we're dealing with is a new front in Trump's war on the media, which has waged very effectively because

they've basically given in to him. And each time.

SOARES: And given in. Why have they given in, Bill? How much is money at play here?

CARTER: Because they're being -- because they're -- because their businesses are being threatened. If you take away the broadcast licenses of

stations, they have no business. They're out of business.

And if you take away the -- a bunch of stations, which is what they're going to do, the affiliated stations around the country, if you take them

away from ABC, then the network has a minimal audience and can't sell advertising at the same rate. So, it's a big, effective way of making a

company cave to your wishes because there's financial penalty otherwise.

SOARES: Yeah, the placating, of course, to these pressures. Now, we did hear bill from President Trump saying today that or next others could go.

He's hinting at Jimmy Fallon. Seth Mayer. But you know, even if were just taking a step back for viewers before Kimmel was Colbert, then there were

lawsuits, of course, against "The New York Times", "The Wall Street Journal", "60 Minutes". "AP" reporters are not allowed in the White House

for some time.

CARTER: Right.

SOARES: This is a sort of thing, Bill, that, you know, you see in Russia or I've covered in Maduro's Venezuela.

[15:05:02]

How -- have you ever seen these attacks, this kind of pressure on U.S. media? And it also begs the question, how far is this going to go? Because

in the last, what, 30 minutes or so? President Trump said he thinks networks broadcast license could be revoked if they air overwhelmingly

negative, negative perspectives on him.

This is what he said, "I read someplace that the networks were 97 percent against me. I get 97 percent negative, and yet I won it easily. I won all

seven swing states."

So he was saying, I would think maybe their license should be taken away. Speak to that.

CARTER: Well, he's just unhinged now because there's nothing holding him back. He those things, those are the statements, obviously, of a dictator.

I mean, you know, I'm going to -- if you criticize me, I'm going to put you out of business. That's basically what he said. And you're right to cite

all these other regimes where that took place.

And this has never anything remotely close to this has never happened in the United States. We have a First Amendment for a reason. We had a king

here once and we said, we're not going to do that anymore. The very First Amendment is freedom of speech. That's the first thing.

And here they have a guy basically, even if you criticize what he said, he still had the right to say it. He still had the right to free in our

country, had the right to say it. And so he's saying, if you -- if you cover me bad, if you cover me poorly, if you if you don't give me credit

for winning swing states, which of course, no one's disputing, then I'm going to put you out of business. I'll take your licenses.

It's really a crisis point in this country, and I'm not sure everyone in our country has grasped it yet. How significant this move is, but it's

enormously significant.

SOARES: I was speaking to Brian Stelter, who you all know, no doubt, Bill, and he was saying he gave the, you know, metaphor, this being an elevator,

right. He's going further and further down, and there's no way of stopping it right now at the -- at the speed in which its going. The question is who

-- then who then decides when to press stop. Will companies, given the, the climate, the financial climate continue to capitulate? How then how do you

make this stop?

CARTER: That is, you cannot do it unless someone stands up. Someone has to do it. I think ABC has the opportunity right now. They didn't cancel him.

They suspended him. And they are I think, having conversations about what they're going to do.

I think they should say we're going to put him back on. If you stations don't want to have him on, okay, then well put him on the stations that we

own and we'll make accommodations on cable or whatever streaming or whatever. But we're going to stand up. We're not going to let you bully us.

We're not.

Now, ABC already made a big mistake because they caved to Trump over an earlier lawsuit, which they thought was just harassment, and they paid $16

million. But once you give in, he's going to keep going. And he's -- and he has kept going. And now, you're at the point if you give in to this, you

have almost no recourse.

So I think they have to stand up. I mean, if it's not ABC then, and it's not NBC, I don't know what happens after that.

SOARES: Yeah. And it's a message that we have heard from the former President Barack Obama who has taken to X to say exactly that.

Bill, really appreciate you coming on air. Thank you very much indeed.

CARTER: Okay. Thank you.

SOARES: Thank you.

Well, President Trump was asked about the Jimmy Kimmel news as he wrapped up his trip here in the U.K. The press questioned the president about ABC's

decision to suspend the U.S. comedian. Trump was asked if his administration is negatively influencing free speech. He denied this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Jimmy Kimmel was fired because he had bad ratings more than anything else, and he said a horrible

thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk, and Jimmy Kimmel is not a talented person. He had very bad ratings and they should have fired

him a long time ago. So, you know, you can call that free speech or not. He was fired for lack of talent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Mr. Trump and the British prime minister were also asked about the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Keir Starmer said he hopes recognizing a

Palestinian state will lead to peace, an idea President Trump says he's not on board with.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have to have the hostages back immediately. That's what the people of Israel want. They want them back, and we want the fighting to

stop, and it's going to stop. But a lot of bad things, you know, Hamas said that they're going to put the hostages up as bait.

They're going to put the hostages in front of any attack. And that's pretty brutal. We haven't heard that one in a long time. So, we have to remember

that. So, I have a disagreement with the prime minister on that score. Okay? One of our few disagreements actually.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Nic Robertson is keeping a close eye on all of this for us.

So, Nic, I mean, we kind of knew there wouldn't see eye to eye on the question of Gaza potentially immigration, even energy policy. What was your

takeaway here when it came to Ukraine? Because any inclination you got from the president that he's going to apply any pressure on Putin here?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah. And that was one thing that Keir Starmer said it was important that the only time that Putin

changes his tactics is when President Trump puts pressure on him.

I think standing side by side and really wanting to emphasize is that they've done all afternoon. They're sort of friendly nature. And President

Trump clearly felt that it had a good trip, had been treated well by the royals, and enjoyed all of that. There was no sense that the prime minister

was going to upset all of that, and all the sort of apparent economic gains of the huge trade agreements that they have signed, not implemented yet.

I think that's important to say. Yeah. And we saw it there on the issue of Gaza, the prime minister saying that he believed that that implementing, a

-- an end to hostilities in Gaza and recognizing the Palestinian state were things that should happen as part of a process together. But did also say

that he spoke as a friend to President Trump, telling them about their differences. So I think he was at pains.

Keir Starmer was at pains, at least, not to minimize their differences. And that was the same for Ukraine and Russia as well, but not to -- not to --

not to make them blow up, if you will, in front of, in front of all the cameras.

Look, Starmer would be criticized if he just lay down and let President Trump roll over him on those issues. That was already sort of set up in

advance by the British media, that that was a possibility. And it was clear that Starmer was obviously not going to let that happen. And I think that's

what we saw play out there, not blowing up their differences, but also trying to minimize them on Gaza and on Russia.

SOARES: Yeah. Interesting. I was speaking to our White House reporter, Nick, in the last hour, and she was saying that she was hearing from the

president speaking inside a gaggle inside Air Force One, that he felt he got a sense that Prime Minister Starmer was somewhat embarrassed was the

word she used when he was talking about that, when he said the E.U. country should stop buying Russian oil.

ROBERTSON: Yeah, the U.K. has dialed back a lot. Russian oil, Russian gas. And it had in the past been very heavily dependent on it. And they both

seem to conclude between each other that the U.K. wasn't at fault on that. This is something that Trump said, but it was other European countries.

You know, you get the sense here that, Starmer has positioned himself. Now the U.K. is not part of the European Union because of Brexit. That he is

free to have a different relationship with President Trump than the Europe than he would inside the European Union. And he is exploiting it, you know,

only history will show us whether or not that's economically beneficial for the U.K. in the long term.

So, Trump was sort of giving Starmer the benefit of the doubt over that. But I think, again, if you look at that point where Starmer says it's only

when Trump puts pressure on Putin that he changes his tactics, really, you could interpret that as a polite push back on Trump saying, no, it's up to

all you European countries to stop buying oil. And then I'll put pressure on President Putin.

You know, it appears as a potential prevarication here by President Trump not to put the pressure that Starmer and his and the other NATO allies all

want -- all want Trump to do. So. I think in that context, you know, Starmer held his ground. Putin didn't -- Trump rather didn't hold him to

account on the energy supplies. And rather they sort of pushed that off to other European countries.

SOARES: Yeah, I think Starmer certainly -- both men probably breathing a sigh of relief after that press conference.

Nic, live from Windsor there, thank you very much indeed.

Now with a major ground assault on Gaza City just getting underway, Israel's finance minister is already looking to turn a profit from

Palestinian land that's become a mass graveyard. Bezalel Smotrich says Israels done with what he calls the demolition phase in Gaza. He says talks

are now underway with the United States on how to divide up the spoils of war. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEZALEL SMOTRICH, ISRAELI FINANCE MINISTER (through translator): I admit I didn't expect this. Just so you know, it's not funny. There is a business

plan. Listen to me carefully -- there's a business plan set by the most professional people there is and is on President Trump's table. And how

this thing turns into a real estate bonanza.

I'm not kidding. It pays off. I have started negotiations with the Americans. I say this not jokingly now, because I also demand we paid a lot

of money for this war. So, we need to divide how we make a percentage on the land marketing later in Gaza.

And now, no kidding, we've done the demolition phase, which is always the first phase of urban renewal. Now we need to build. It's much cheaper.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:15:01]

SOARES: Now, the military wing of Hamas has issued a statement saying it has distributed the remaining hostages throughout Gaza City neighborhoods.

It says the IDF's ground incursion means Israel will not get any of them back, dead or alive.

Jeremy Diamond has more for you from Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, as the Israeli military makes its opening moves to invade Gaza City, Hamas is issuing a dire

warning. A threat, really, about the lives of the hostages. In a new statement, Hamas has said that Israel's invasion of Gaza City amounts to

Israel throwing away its chances of getting Israeli hostages back alive or dead. Hamas has now said that it has spread out the hostages across Gaza

City's different neighborhoods and, quote, will not be concerned for their lives as long as Netanyahu has decided to kill them.

That is, of course, a reference to the fact that the Israeli prime minister has signed off on this invasion of Gaza City, despite the fact that there

is significant evidence that Israeli hostages are indeed being held there. The Israeli military spokesman, for his part, says that the military will

do, quote, everything to avoid harming them, will operate responsibly and in coordination with Israeli intelligence services.

But this speaks directly to so many of the fears that we have heard from the families of those hostages who have been crying out in Israel almost on

a daily basis now, in particular in protests in front of the Israeli prime minister's residence, expressing their fears that their loved ones will be

killed amid this, Israeli military offensive in Gaza City, with some of them even accusing the prime minister of essentially signing these

hostages, death certificates and calling for this offensive to be halted and a ceasefire to be reached instead with Hamas.

Now, as all of this is happening, we're also monitoring a situation that took place at the Allenby crossing between Jordan and the West Bank,

controlled by Israel. According to reports, a driver of a humanitarian aid truck that was headed from Jordan to the Gaza Strip opened fire at that

crossing, killing two individuals. It's not clear if those individuals were soldiers or civilian employees of that crossing. The Israeli military

calling this shooting a terrorist attack and as a result halting all humanitarian aid shipments through this land route from Jordan to the Gaza

Strip.

While there is an inquiry that is completed and the implementation of what they're describing as revised screening procedures for Jordanian drivers,

and so that suspension of aid from Jordan to Gaza will likely impact about 100 to 150 trucks of aid per week, according to an Israeli military

official, but nonetheless will undoubtedly have an impact inside of the Gaza Strip.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And coming up, it's cheerio from Trump. The U.S. president's state visit to the U.K. is over. And the reviews are starting to come in. We'll

give you a sense of how it was received.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:21:16]

SOARES: After days of royal diplomacy, and a few protests on the side, too, of course Donald Trump's state visit to the United Kingdom is over.

After finishing that news conference with Prime Minister Starmer, we discussed as we discussed, were discussing earlier, Mr. Trump looked in

good spirits, as you see there as he boarded Air Force One with the first lady, Melania Trump, who's also had a very busy schedule.

Earlier in the day, she had teamed up with Catherine, princess of Wales. You see there to meet with some young British scouts that came after

Wednesday's state banquet, where Mr. Trump and King Charles exchanged glowing speeches.

So, what we want to know is, was Donald Trump's state visit a success?

Freddy Gray is a deputy editor of "The Spectator" magazine.

And, Freddy, good. How lucky am I to see you twice in both these days? So you and I were talking yesterday. Looking ahead very much. The state visit,

talking about the banquet.

Will both leaders -- let's start with Starmer. First of all, your thoughts. Do you think you'll be popping open the champagne or having a beer

celebrating, breathe a sigh of relief. Whatever you want to -- however you want to celebrate.

FREDDY GRAY, DEPUTY EDITOR, THE SPECTATOR: Well, it's great to be with you, first of all.

Secondly, yes, I think probably a beer for Keir Starmer tonight. And his team, there have been no major mishaps. There were lots of potential

pitfalls. That number 10 were worried about. And the press conference was always -- was most likely press conference today was most likely to be the

occasion where something would blow up.

But really, there were a few roughly moments, but I think overall, number 10 will think a success, a success. And it's been good for Keir Starmer

because he's had such a terrible time domestically in recent weeks, and everything went pretty smoothly. I think on the Donald Trump side of

things, as far as journalists are concerned, it was almost a bit boring.

I'm afraid to say. It was perfunctory. All the ceremonial side of things went pretty well. It was good for photographs, but not so good for copy for

words. It was -- it was just a fairly standard state visit.

And a reminder, now that Trump is fairly normalized, we've got used to the Trump effect and I remembered that -- sorry. Go ahead.

SOARES: Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead, Freddy.

GRAY: No, I was just -- I was remembering the visits in 2017 and 2018 when it really felt like the world was on fire. The protests were enormous. By

comparison, we had a relatively small anti-Trump stop Trump protest in London yesterday.

Now it feels as though, Britain's got used to Donald Trump. And actually, we quite enjoy how much he likes the royal family. We quite enjoy the fact

that he seemed genuinely excited about meeting the king.

And I'd say pretty well for Donald Trump, it went pretty well for the British government, too.

SOARES: Yeah, he did seem pretty enamored with, with the royal family. And he did sound like he was speaking from the heart even today in that press

conference, the relationship between Starmer and the president that felt very genuine indeed.

Look, they did avoid some of the thorniest issues that you and I were discussing, potentially yesterday. And that was, of course, Lord Mandelson.

That was, come came up very briefly and that batted that away. And Nigel Farage -- I mean, in many ways, Starmer, I'm sure, will probably see that

tomorrow. Some of the newspapers will probably be relieved.

But there was some -- probably there will be some frustration I think, Freddy, and you can probably give me some insight on this that many were

hoping that perhaps, Starmer and the king would try to put pressure on the president to try and isolate Putin. We didn't hear much from -- from that,

from him, other than him saying, Putin let me down.

GRAY: Well, we didn't hear much from that, but Putin let me down is the sort of thing that the British government wanted to hear. We want Trump to

or the British government certainly wants Trump to support them in Ukraine and support Ukraine as adamantly as possible.

So, I think it was a minor positive for the British government on that. And they'll be glad that there wasn't any blow up over that. There wasn't any

great point of Discord. Another potential point of Discord is, of course, Gaza. And the British government is talking about imminently recognizing

Palestine as a state.

There is a big U.N. meeting in New York later this month. And I think the funny thing about that is that, over here -- you know, we -- it's all --

let's not talk about it while Trump's here, but then were going to go the British delegation that goes to New York in in a few days' time is going to

make a very bold declaration once we're in America.

So, it's odd form of diplomacy where we make our big statements abroad, but not at home.

SOARES: Yeah, I mean, that's probably one of the issues. One of the key issues alongside illegal immigration and energy policy that we kind of knew

they wouldn't see eye to eye. And we heard that from the president today.

Freddy, as always, great to see you. Thanks very much. Come back tomorrow, Freddy. Why not? Thanks, Freddy. Thank you.

And still to come right here on the show, President Trump is speaking out about ABC's decision to suspend comedian Jimmy Kimmel. We'll have reaction

from Hollywood and Washington, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:09]

SOARES: I want to bring you some breaking news out of Russia. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of far eastern Russia. As you

can see there, the quake is within striking distance of islands in the U.S. state of Alaska. And the U.S. Geological Survey is issuing a tsunami

advisories.

Of course, if you're just joining us, 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of far eastern Russia. We'll, of course, keep an eye on this

U.S. Geological Survey also issuing a tsunami advisory. We'll keep on top of the breaking news as soon as we have any more information. Of course,

we'll bring them to you throughout the hour.

We continue, though, to track the fallout from the abrupt decision from Disney's ABC to pull U.S. television host Jimmy Kimmel off the air

indefinitely. This move comes after the FCC chair, Brendan Carr, threatened ABC and its affiliates over the show, implying public broadcast licenses

could be at risk. Democratic lawmakers are now calling for Carr to resign and accuse U.S. President Donald Trump of starting a, quote, war on the

First Amendment. The constitutional clause that protects the of course, the right to free speech.

President Trump believes U.S. networks could have their broadcast licenses revoked for overwhelmingly negative coverage of him. Those remarks made a

short time ago while traveling back from the U.K. And this comes after he encouraged NBC. Have a look at it to make a move similar to ABC's

suspension of Jimmy Kimmel in a social media post.

As you can see there, he said Kimmel suspension only leaves Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers left to be fired. They are the hosts of "The Tonight Show"

and "The Late Night Show with Seth Meyers". President Trump ending his message. You can see it there, "Do it NBC".

Joining me now from Washington is Kevin Liptak.

So, Kevin, you and I were talking in the last hour, and I think it's important to get a sense of what the president had to say in this on Air

Force One, because it does not bode well, does it?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: No. And it's pretty striking the way the president phrased it here, because so far what you've

heard a lot from his allies is that this decision to suspend Jimmy Kimmel was a business decision made by ABC and its parent company, Disney.

President Trump seems to be suggesting that this is all part and parcel of what Jimmy Kimmel is saying, that because he has been a critic of the

president, that his parent company dumped him and that, by extension, all other critics who are on the airwaves could potentially face the same fate

or, in his words, see their government licenses revoked.

And just to quote verbatim some of what the president said. He says that these networks give me wholly bad publicity. He goes on to say, "I would

think maybe their license should be taken away." Later on, they said, "All they do is hit Trump. They're licensed. They're not allowed to do that."

So, the president really going out there pretty far, suggesting that critical talk on these networks that are on the public airwaves, if the

overwhelming majority of their programing is anti-Trump, that that is not allowed. Thats his words and that their licenses should be taken away. So

really quite a striking insight and window into how the president views all of this.

You know, the president's attempts to sort of manage public dialog on the airwaves extend well before this. He's already secured major settlements

from CBS and ABC for what he says was unfair decisions by their by their news divisions. And I think by doing this, by saying this, you really do

get a sense of the president very much trying to go after the opposition in terms of what they're saying on some of these networks.

SOARES: Yeah, he said. I read some place the networks where 97 percent against me, I get 97 percent negative. And yet I won it easily. Talking

about, of course, the 2024 election.

And he went on to say that, you know, they all they do is hit Trump. They're licensed. They're not allowed to do it, but they're an arm of the

Democrat Party.

Have we had any response at all from any of these big networks? Because this puts more pressure. We're not talking just about late night shows,

right? The fear is that this could extend beyond that.

LIPTAK: Yeah. And I don't think either of the -- or all three of the networks have come out to respond publicly to the president here. But it's

interesting, some of the tactics that he and Brendan Carr, the chair of the FCC, have used. They're talking about their licenses, their broadcast

licenses, but they're also applying pressure to some of their local affiliate stations.

And just to sort of explain how this works, there are these national networks, ABC, CBS and NBC. But they're broadcast overwhelmingly around the

country by these individual affiliate stations that are sort of headquartered in cities big and small around the country.

[15:35:08]

And the tactic that Brendan Carr and President Trump seem to be adopting here is to apply pressure on those local stations to not air some of the

content that they find objectionable. Their thinking seems to be that in places that are more conservative around the country, perhaps these station

owners are also more conservative and will be more willing to sort of adapt to what the administration wants. It's a playbook that actually Richard

Nixon used back when he was in office, and the president seems to be reviving it.

That is where all of this originated with the Jimmy Kimmel segment. The president and Brendan Carr saying that the broadcast stations and the

conglomerates that own them should pull them off the airwaves. I don't think it's happenstance that the conglomerates also have business in front

of the government. That will need to be approved. They're trying to merge. They're trying to break apart.

All things that will require approval by the Trump administration. So, you can see how all of this is wrapped up in the money as well. But certainly

it's going to be a major issue for these networks going forward as they both try and stay in the president's good graces, but also as they face

accusations that they're stifling their own free speech.

SOARES: Kevin Liptak, thanks very much, Kevin. Appreciate it.

Well, entertainment unions throughout Hollywood have criticized ABC's decision, and many of Jimmy Kimmel's fellow comedians are also showing

their support for him. Have a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WANDA SYKES, COMEDIAN: So I'm in a full face of makeup because I was supposed to go over and have a chat with my friend Jimmy Kimmel on his

show, but as you have heard by now, the Jimmy Kimmel show has been pulled indefinitely, abruptly because of complaints from the Trump administration.

So, let's see. He didn't end the Ukraine war or solve Gaza within his first week. But he did end freedom of speech within his first year.

MARC MARON, COMEDIAN: This is government censorship. This is the Trump administration coming after people who speak out against him. This is the

end of it.

If you have any concern or belief in real freedom or the constitution and free speech, this is it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: What we don't know is, will Hollywood stand up to the Trump administration?

Directors Guild of America says its suspension is part of a disturbing trend. Its executive director, Russell Hollander, joins me now.

Thank you very much for being with us, Russell. So, I was just looking at your statement here, this kind of political pressure on broadcasters and

artists chills free speech and threatens the livelihoods of thousands of working Americans. Just give us a sense, then, when you're talking about a

disturbing trend.

A disturbing trend. Explain how far it will go as well. You fear how far this will go.

RUSSELL HOLLANDER, NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA: Well, let's start by just acknowledging how outrageous this behavior is. We

have always prided ourselves as a nation on having free speech. And right now, we're seeing a situation where creative people in the entertainment

industry are having their livelihoods threatened.

The careers, their careers, the livelihoods, their families are threatened by the government if they say something on air that the government

disapproves of. This action here happened because the government was upset at a single sentence. In a monologue by Jimmy Kimmel that was put on

earlier this week, hundreds of people are out of work as a result of that. It's just incredible and it has an incredible chilling effect on creatives.

How is any creative person, whether it's a director, a writer or an actor, supposed to go to work in this environment when they have to be concerned

that something they may say, something they may write, something that they put on the screen could offend someone in the administration, and their

show is canceled. It's pulled off the air, pulled off the air, and their career is impacted.

And the people who work with them are impacted. This is particularly troubling given the contraction in the industry and what's going on. And

it's a very concerning to directors guild members and to the entire industry.

SOARES: And, Russell, just give us a sense of the conversations that you've been having because, you know, the president also saying you would

have seen this, Russell saying that, that there could be others after Jimmy, right?

He mentioned Jimmy. He mentioned Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers basically saying that they could be next. Give us a sense of the conversations that you're

having and the concerns that, you know, that people have at this moment.

What -- what are they telling you? Give us a sense of that.

HOLLANDER: I think you're getting to the chilling effect.

[15:40:01]

People are very concerned about going about their business on a daily basis, not knowing what will happen. The Directors Guild itself was founded

almost 90 years ago, and the reason it was founded was to protect the creative freedom of artists. It's worked really well for 90 years. Film and

television is an industry for the U.S., has been incredibly lucrative, employing hundreds of thousands of people, making literally billions of

dollars for people.

And that's all up, you know, all somewhat threatened now on what can people do for creative freedom? Can we still tell our stories? Can we say what we

believe and tell them compelling stuff without worrying about censorship?

SOARES: What are we likely to see you think as a result of this? Strikes protest? Do you think that will move the needle at all here?

HOLLANDER: I think it's too early to tell what the reaction is. I think we're all absorbing it right now and talking internally about the next

steps.

SOARES: Russell, I was seeing. I'm sure you saw former President Barack Obama, has been tweeting about this. He normally doesn't comment on many of

these issues, but he came out and he said, this is precisely the kind of government coercion that the first amendment was designed to prevent, he

tweets.

And media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating to it. What is your message to media companies who, of course, are facing

increasing financial strain?

HOLLANDER: Well, I think you saw it in our statement, is that the media companies are not without blame here. They, as the employers and the people

who are responsible for putting on the air, have to fight to protect the rights, their rights and the rights of the people who work for them. And

they need to -- they need to stand up for the people who are working so hard for them.

SOARES: Yeah, that means, you know, not capitulating because it seems behind this. And, you know, if you follow the money, there is potential

deals in the works here. This is why potentially this happens. At least this is the sense we are getting.

What does this do? Going after Kimmel, going after potentially others. What does this do to the United States? Create not just free speech, but the

creativity -- the thinking. Just speak to that.

HOLLANDER: Yeah, I think I said it a little earlier that its very chilling. If you're a creative artist, if you're making a movie, you're

making a television show, you don't have that freedom to tell the story you want to tell, and you have to be concerned about whether or not the studios

are going to support you and whether the government is going to ask that something be pulled.

This is outrageous behavior, and it's something that we need to join together with to put -- to put a stop to.

SOARES: Russell, really appreciate you coming on the show. Russell Hollander, thank you very much live there from Los Angeles.

HOLLANDER: All right. All right. Thanks for having us.

SOARES: Thank you.

Are we about to see some major changes to U.S. vaccine policy? We'll have the latest from Atlanta today's CDC meetings, just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:46:21]

SOARES: Major changes could soon be coming affecting who can get vaccines in the United States and when. CDC vaccine advisers are meeting today and

will vote on changes to the childhood vaccination schedule for vaccines like hepatitis B, as well as measles.

The panel was handpicked by Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., and is stacked with people who have previously advocated against using vaccines.

Meg Tirrell joins me now from CDC in Atlanta.

So, Meg, I understand that their meeting. The meeting is currently underway. Give us a sense of what they'll be discussing, what changes we

could be seeing here.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So, we are expecting two votes later today. And what we are seeing really is a discussion of

vaccines and vaccine recommendations that have been in place for decades here in the United States. And public health experts point out that we are

not seeing new data necessarily to suggest reasons for revisiting these vaccine recommendations. And as you noted, this panel was just put in place

by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

First, one set in June and then five more advisers just this week. A few days before this meeting started. And one of those advisers in this

exchange will play for you in a second. Even suggested retesting one of these vaccines, the measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox combination

vaccine. Listen to what she suggests and how a CDC staff scientist responds to that suggestion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. EVELYN GRIFFIN: In this day and age, where we do have, I believe, a rising percentage of parents who are not vaccinating in an informed manner,

I feel that it is ethical to invite those parents for such a study and say, okay, since you are making this informed choice, let's -- let's study this.

So I think I would invite that idea to have a true placebo study.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think at a time where we're seeing the highest measles cases we've seen in in many years, it would be concerning to ask

parents to risk the chance that they would receive a vaccine that would not end up protecting them from measles, mumps, rubella or varicella disease.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TIRRELL: Now, that's an example of just one of the debates that's been going on here today. Right now, the discussion is around the hepatitis B

vaccine and whether a dose should be given at birth universally to infants. CDC scientists have argued that the benefits stack up in that favor. And

so, we are going to see votes both on measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox vaccine, as well as hepatitis B later today.

Tomorrow is going to be all about COVID 19. And CDC scientists have presented a slide today supporting the universal recommendation for a birth

dose for hepatitis B. And if we can show you that slide, I'm not sure we have it, but it shows you how the CDC scientists say that the risk of

rescinding that recommendation really stack up a lot more strongly in the - - in their view of the evidence compared with any potential benefit of rescinding that recommendation.

This is such an influential panel because it influences vaccine insurance coverage, state policy. Of course, the recommendations that the CDC puts

out. And so we'll be watching it closely, and we'll bring you the results of the votes when they happen tonight.

SOARES: Yeah, and we could see those slides.

Mel, appreciate it. Thank you very much indeed.

And still to come, if you're in the market for some new sunglasses, would you be willing to spend $799 on these? We'll explain what's behind the

hefty price tag. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:52:24]

SOARES: Meta, the owners of Facebook and Instagram, is continuing to try and innovate using A.I. this time introducing a new set of smart glasses in

a partnership with Ray-Ban. The new model, named Display, is a bid to ditch the smartphone and push users to interact more with their surroundings

instead.

Our Clare Duffy was one of the first to try them out. Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Well, that's crazy.

(voice-over): These are the new Meta Ray-Bans display glasses, the next generation of A.I. powered wearables.

Meta is making a bet that with these glasses, users won't need to spend so much time looking down at their phone. Unlike previous versions, which you

could only interact with via voice and audio, these feature a tiny display inside the lens, and they come with what's called a neural wristband, so

you can navigate simply with hand and finger gestures.

So what I'm seeing right now on this little display, it looks like, you know, the home page of Spotify for whatever song you're currently listening

to. So you've got the play button, the forward and backward button. You can shuffle yeah. And then when I do the volume, I see the little volume button

open up. Cool.

They're a bit bulkier than previous versions of the Meta Ray-bans. They still look and feel more or less like regular glasses, just slightly

thicker and heavier. People around you won't be able to see what you're seeing on the glasses display. That's by design. So your messages or photos

remain private.

It's probably going to take some getting used to for most people to interact with the world around you, while seeing a little display in front

of your eye. But I was surprised by how high quality the display was. You're going to have to take my word for it on this one, because you can

only see it if you're wearing them, and I liked that. You can turn the display on and off. So, if you're doing focused work or walking around

outside, you won't be distracted. And I did find the neural wristband gestures intuitive to learn.

You can capture and view photos and videos. There is live captioning, navigation, video calling. You can ask A.I. about your surroundings and

also view and respond to messages, all of which I tried in a mostly successful brief demo.

You may remember when Google tried to do this back in 2013 with Google glass, but that product flopped because it was expensive, unfashionable,

and had limited functionality. This is another way for Meta to get its A.I. technology to be a bigger part of our daily lives, and it'll test how ready

the world is for more advanced wearables.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Finally, tonight, if new sunglasses aren't glamorous enough for you, how about a work of art instead?

A newly resurfaced Pablo Picasso painting will soon be sold at an auction house in Paris. The bust of a woman with a flowered hat is expected to sell

for at least $9 million. It was acquired by a French family in 1944 and kept in their private collection for decades, unseen by members of the

public. It is believed to be a portrait of Picasso's muse and partner, French photographer Dora Maar. The auction will be held on October 24th.

Slightly pricier than those glasses, of course.

That does it for today. I'm Isa Soares in for Max Foster. That is WHAT WE KNOW.

"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" with Richard Quest is up next. See you tomorrow. Bye-bye.

END

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