tv CNN Tonight CNN July 7, 2023 7:00pm-8:01pm PDT
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later, and he denied those opportunities. he said, "no, i could never live without my children." so everybody is very heartbroken. extended family and everybody is really, really devastated. >> he was also still supporting his family back in afghanistan. when you speak to his family, give them our best. i know you set up a gofundme to help his family. we are showing it right now. we'll share it online. "support family of murdered afghan interpreter." it goes to them. thank you for doing that and thank you for joining us on this difficult subject. >> thank you for having me. >> "cnn tonight with abby phillip" starts right now. >> thank you, kaitlin. that is a horrible story. i hope people will support that gofundme account for his family. thanks, and good evening to everyone tonight. is donald trump getting closer to another indictment? the former president has already been indicted twice now for two
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separate alleged crimes. a hush money scheme and the classified documents saga. now he is potentially facing yet another. special counsel jack smith's investigation into trump's efforts to overturn the election, it's clearly escalating this week. cnn has learned that smith is focused on a chaotic shouting match that you might remember unfolded at the white house six weeks aftethe election. now, that is where these baseless ideas were floated, to block president biden's victory, including martial law and seizing voting machines. here are some of those who were in attendance at that meeting in their own words. >> i walked in, i saw general flynn, i saw sidney powell sitting there. i was not happy to see the people in the oval office -- >> explain why. >> well, again, i don't think they were providing -- first of all, the overstock person, i
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never did -- first thing i did, i walked in, i looked at him, "who are you?" he told me. i don't think any of these people were providing the president with good advice. the three of them were really forcefully attacking me, verbally. we were pushing back, we were asking one simple question. as a general matter. where is the evidence? >> i mean, if it had been made sitting in his chair, i would have fired all of them that night and had them escorted out of the building. >> i think it got to the point where the screaming was completely, completely out there. i mean, people walk in late at night, it had been a long day. what they were proposing i thought was nuts. >> i'm going to categorically
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describe it as, you guys are not tough enough, or maybe i'd put it another way, you're a bunch of pussies, excuse the expression. but that's -- i'm almost certain the word was used. >> beyond that meeting, more signs of this investigation is nearing a climax. arizona has become the focus of those coup efforts. the secretary of state's office and several officials confirming subpoenas. georgia still a focus as we recently learned that jack smith compelled at least two fake electors to testify in return for some immunity. unlike the documents case, this one is much more complicated and more wide ranging. there are many key questions that are still unanswered, including are any of these actions and any of those proposed ideas against the law? joining me is former federal prosecutor joseph moreno. from what we know, is there a
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chance that the ideas raised in that oval office discussion would rise to the level of a crime, and if so, what would they be? >> hey, abby, good to be with you. well, it's interesting. there were a mix of lawyers and nonlawyers at that meeting. and so right off the bat you have a problem with privilege, keeping it confidential. you can have strategy sessions with lawyers. you can spitball ideas. you can talk about the past and developing a defense. what you can't do is potentially talk about future crimes, right? it cannot be a strategy session for doing wrong in the future. and having lawyers there does not protect it and make it privileged. so what it sounds like is, the special counsel is digging into whether there were potential crimes effectively being plotted at that meeting. and whether you call it seditious conspiracy or something similar, it's
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basically, were there plans to instigate violence? to rile people up to the extent that the election results would not be accepted and that people would basically lead to violence in trying to stop congress from signing off on the electoral college vote? >> so our sources are telling us that the special counsel has been asking witnesses about this meeting for months. in the past and also again more recently. so what does that tell you about how investigators are looking at this, and also where they are, even in the investigation? >> well, it tells me that they're probably close to the end of their investigation. because this is such a touchy subject. they must realize they're going to get a lot of blowback and they have to tread carefully, which makes me think that they're close to the end because they wouldn't have done this closer to the beginning, knowing the blowback it would bring. and basically, again what they're trying to say is, look,
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we'll give that group of people some leeway. they could have taken a few weeks after the election, in good faith, to look into whatever theories they thought they may have. but by the point of this meeting, it was so year that, like pat cipollone said, where's the evidence? if they're basically throwing around ideas about how to be tough, knowing that there was no evidence to substantiate their arguments, that's a pretty damning thing. i can see why the special counsel will want to dig into that. >> also at the heart of so much of this is rudy giuliani, former new york city mayor and an attorney for former president donald trump. he was one of the witnesses that was interviewed recently. and also today, a disciplinary committee is now recommending that he actually be disbarred for his 2020 election lies. they're saying, "he claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence of it. by prosecuting that destructive case, mr. giuliani, a sworn officer of the court, forfeited
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his right to practice law, he should be disbarred." that recommendation is not final, but do you think it's fair? >> well, look. we lawyers, everyone likes to hate on lawyers until they need one, right? but the fact is we are given a lot of leeway. as officers of the court, we are given leave to make good faith mistakes. we can be wrong on the law, we can be wrong on the facts. what we can't do is we can't make arguments that have no evidentiary support. and that's what basically the panel said was that rudy giuliani, resting on his long reputation as a political figure, made these very, very ambitious claims that the pennsylvania findings of the election in 2020 should be discarded. and basically what it came down to, he had no evidence to support those claims. and so i don't know if he will eventually be disbarred, but certainly there is significant evidence the panel found that what he did was not just wrong,
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it was so wrong that his license to practice law going forward should be revoked. >> and not just wrong, but perhaps he knew at the time, because he was told by people around him, that it was wrong as well. thank you so much for all of that. >> thanks, abby. tonight on the campaign trail, the war of words escalates between donald trump and his closest 2024 rival. the former president bragging about his strong poll numbers even in the wake of one federal indictment and possibly one more coming. >> that's why my polls go up. i'm the only person ever got indicted who became more popular. never forget our enemies want to stop us because we are the only ones that can stop them. we can stop them. they want to take away my freedom because i will never let them take away your freedom. >> i think if you look at the people like the corporate media, who are they going after? who do they not want to be the
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nominee? they're going after me. i'm running to win in january and february. i'm not running to juice polling now. >> i'm joined by former republican congressman and south carolina governor mark sanford. congressman, thank you for joining us. >> yes, ma'am. pleasure. >> look, trump continues, as is probably not surprising to you, to cast himself as a victim here of doj overreach. and these indictments do seem to be helping him right now in the polls. my question to you is, why won't his republican opponents use his legal peril to make a case against him? >> because they want his base. and so you're trying to tiptoe through this thing. but i think that comes at great peril. it's the exact same thing we saw in the last election cycle wherein nobody wanted to hit trump that hard because they figured he'd die off, then he
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was the last man standing. ted cruz then would turn on him, but he was betrending him all the way through. it's a dangerous game but i get it. what they don't want to do is alienate trump's base. they're trying to keep quiet, tiptoeing. i think it's a mistake. i think they ought to hit hard. i think they've got a lot of material to work with. facts are real things, and there are scary facts and scary indimes out there that aren't being talked about on the republican side. we'll see what happens. right now the simple answer is, they want his people. >> so you heard there ron desantis saying he's not wanting to juice the polls right now. before he got into this race, he was supposed to be the candidate who would give trump the biggest fight. are you surprised by his poor performance so far? >> well, it's early in the game. so i'm not going to describe this as a poor performance.
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everybody's sort of lining up behind the scenes right now, raising money, building teams, all the sort of apparatus, if you will that goes with politics. but what i would say is, everybody's got to manage the game of expectations. and the game of expectations, tragically -- because i'm not a trump fan -- has acruised to trump's benefit because he's had two indictments against him, yet his numbers are still rising. and the game of expectations with regard to desantis has not worked out so well. i think one of the dangers that ron is playing right now is trying to be sort of trump on steroids with regard to sort of social issues. i think that there are really deep problems in this country with regard to the debt that's mounting, government spending, inflation, historic bedrocks of what republicans used to be about, but they're not getting talked about, ron's not talking about them, other candidates aren't talking about them. i think if that comes back to the forefront rather than who's winning the popularity contest
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of the moment, i think his numbers would grow. we'll see what happens. >> yeah, we'll both see. meanwhile, the florida gop is asking primary candidates to sign a loyalty pledge in order to appear on the ballot in that state. very similar to what the rnc is doing when it comes to the debate stage. do you think these loyalty pledges should be a part of your party's primary? >> no. again, i believe in the war of ideas. there a ought to be robust competition on both the democratic side and republican side as to, this is what we stand for, this is what we believe. and inasmuch as you have a standard bearer that is at odds with the beliefs, then you as a candidate ought to be free to say, look, i'm sitting this one out. because in this case, the standard bearer is not consistent with the ideals that supposedly we believe in as republicans or as democrats. so i don't think it's a good idea. but it's a way of boxing people
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in, and it's something that's, you know -- seen through the years. you've seen it particularly strong here era but it's been around. >> the house freedom caucus voted this week to remove representative marjorie taylor greene from their ranks. this is what one of the members told cnn, which is that the confrontation between congresswoman boebert and marjorie taylor greene, that was the last straw on the house floor. the freedom caucus is a body that you were yourself a part of when you were in the congress. what's your response to their decision to take that extraordinary step? >> well, i mean, i applaud them. she's been far-out crazy for a long time. i don't know why it would take somebody calling somebody a name on the house floor to get you there. that's a separate discussion. i would say i'm disappointed in what the freedom caucus has become. you know, originally it started
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as a group of folks who were going to try and steer the conference a little bit to the right. because that happened to be our perspective. particularly on economic issues. but then it became simply a trump lap dog. wanting to hang on to or be close to power. it was with glee that the chairman would hold up a conference phone, say they got the president of the united states on the phone. but it's also the reason that somebody like justin amash said, i'm out of here, i'm leaving, because it had become so untethered from the ideas it originally stood for. it's sort of adrift. i don't know what it's about these days. maybe it will come back around. but the fact that this was the last straw, it's a straw that should have gone a long time ago. this is somebody talking about all kinds of crazy conspiracies that i think are harmful to both republican ideals that are conservative ideals -- i don't know what republican ideals are anymore, but conservative ideals we ought to be about advancing, and the democratic process.
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>> it is very interesting that this is what it took. in addition, probably also to her closeness to the house speaker, kevin mccarthy, as well, which rubs some of her colleagues the wrong way. mark sanford, always good to have you. thank you very much. >> yes, ma'am. take care. next, a major inflection point by the u.s. in wartime. >> there are reports of illegal cluster bombs and vacuum bombs being used by the russians. >> if that were true, it would potentially be a war crime. >> it was a very difficult decision on my part. the ukrainians are running out of ammunition. >> hear from a former defense secretary on president biden's decision to send cluster bombs to ukraine. he's the movie star who promotes qanon conspiracies. now his film just hit number one at the box office.
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cluster munitions, warheads that explode over wide areas, ones that human rights groups call a threat to civilians. and today the u.s., after hesitating since the start of the war, are now sending them to ukraine. the clusters are banned by 100 countries, but even though the united states is not one of them, there's a history of american officials referring to their use as war crimes. >> we've seen videos of russian
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forces moving exceptionally lethal weaponry into ukraine which has no place on the battlefield. that includes cluster munitions and vacuum bombs, which are banned under the geneva convention. >> there are reports of illegal cluster bombs and vacuum bombs being used by the russians. if that's true, what is the next step of this administration, and is there a red line for how much violence will be tolerated against civilians in this manner that's illegal and potentially a war crime? >> it is -- it would be. i don't have any confirmation of that. we have seen the reports. if that were true, it would potentially be a war crime. >> two democratic senators now calling the move a serious mistake. in a "washington post" op-ed. they're warning this could compound the deadly impact of the war for years. but president biden defending his decision today in an exclusive interview with cnn's fareed zakaria.
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>> two things, fareed. it was a very difficult decision on my part. by the way, i discussed this with our allies, discussed this with our friends up on the hill. we're in a situation where ukraine continues to be brutally attacked across the board by munitions, by these cluster munitions that have dud rates that are lvery, very low -- i mean, very high, that are a danger to civilians, number one. number two, the ukrainians are running out of ammunition. the ammunition -- they call them 155 millimeter weapons. this is a war relating to munitions. and they're running out of those, that ammunition, and we're low on it. and so what i finally did, it took the recommendation of the defense department to not permanently but to allow for in this transition period where we have more 155 weapons, these
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shells, for the ukrainians, to provide them with something that has a very low dud rate, i think 150, which is the least likely -- and it's not used in civilian areas. they're trying to get through those trenches and stop those tanks from rolling. and so -- but it was not an easy decision. and it's not -- we're not signatories to that agreement, but i am -- it took me awhile to be convinced to do it. >> i'm joined by former secretary of defense, william cohen. secretary, you heard there what president biden said, that this was not an easy decision. they deliberated over it for some time. but with ukraine waging this tough offensive, and it's going slowly, more slowly than most people expected -- is the administration, in your view, making the right call? >> i think the president has said it just right. it was a tough decision on his part, but the right one. we have a situation where russia has attacked a sovereign, independent country and has put
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them in the crosshairs of destruction. so president biden and our nato allies have said this should not stand, we need to provide whatever we can reasonably to the ukrainians to help them help themselves defend against the russians. so i think that, under the circumstances, the president felt because this is going -- the counteroffensive is going slower than we anticipated and hoped, it's been going slower because of the trenches, because of the land mines, this is a munition that can help overcome that, and that's the reason why he's approved it. >> the other part of it, though, as you also heard the president say, the united states is low on the munitions that they have been providing to ukraine. the stockpiles now in the united states are low. is this a sign that this war in ukraine is consuming united states military resources at an unsustainable rate? >> it is consuming our resources. whether we can sustain this for
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any period of time, it's hard to say at this point the president and our nato allies have said we are in this for the long haul. so in the meantime, we are trying to accelerate the production of more 155 munitions. this stockpile that we have of the cluster munitions is a result of we phased them out in 2016. so we have a large stockpile of them. those will be used in the interim until our manufacturers can really accelerate the production of the conventional munitions, as opposed to the cluster. >> and you have a really unique view on this as well. back in 2001, you instituted a policy requiring the united states to have those munitions that have a less than 1% dud rate, which means basically, the parts that don't explode when it is deployed. what does it mean for the safety of these weapons for that rate to be as low as it is for the
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u.s.-provided weapons to u. ukraine? >> we've really delved into this, get that dud rate from 20% historically, going back to world war ii, but over the years we used them in "desert storm," for example, we've used them since. to get that dud rate down below 20% to between 1 and 2%. i don't think any other country has been able to do that. the russians, by the way, their dud rate is 30%. so they have no concern about killing civilians. in fact, they are firing those munitions into civilian areas as opposed to what the ukrainians want to do, and that's use those munitions against the russian soldiers in the field, not civilian areas. so they're really not comparable in terms of what ukraine wants to do and what the russians have been doing. >> we were unfortunately witnesses to exactly what you're talking about early on in the war. seeing those bombs exploding in urban areas and in towns in
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ukraine. former secretary william cohen, thank you for that perspective. >> sure, great to be with you, thank you. there's a new movie, "sound of freedom." it is a box office hit right now, a thriller about the battle against international sex child trafficking. but critics accuse the film and its star, jim caviezel, from catering to qanon conspiracy theories. good checkup? no, great checkup! [laughs] nailed it again! keep up the good work! for great checkups,
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it stars a qanon promoter. "the sound of freedom" is based on the life of real-life former homeland security agent who staged sting operations to catch child sex traffickers. the film and its star are raising eyebrows among critics. some say that it bends the truth about child exploitation, and it caters to qanon conspiracy theorists. its distributor, angel studios, denies those accusations. jim caviezel is known for openly embracing qanon theories. i want to bring in journalist and author of "the storm is upon us," mike rothschild. mike, the star of this film, jim cav caviezel, is coming under scrutiny for his embrace of qanon conspiracy theories. you seem pretty familiar with him because he doesn't really hide his association with this real wild plot that involves drinking the blood of children and things like that. >> no, he doesn't hide it at all.
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and you have a lot of people who are in this world of qanon who say, oh, they don't know what that is, they've never heard of it, they're just asking questions. somebody like jim caviezel, openly embracing it, openly using its catch phrases and concepts, speaking at qanon conventions. this film is being marketed to either specific qanon believers or to people who believe all the same tenets as qanon but claim they don't know what it is. >> "the sound of freedom" does focus on a real issue of sex trafficking, but that theme, it's sort of like that kernel of truth that feeds the qanon conspiracy theory. tell us how those two things work together. >> sure. and the most durable and most believable conspiracy theories are not entirely false. there's something in them that is true, and the rest of it is false. but the believers point to the one true thing and say, oh, you don't believe that this particular thing is true? in terms of child trafficking, we know trafficking is real, it
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has real victims, no one is denying that. but these films are created out of moral panics, they're created out of bogus statistics, they're created out of fear. with something like "sound of freedom," it specifically is looking at qanon concepts of these child trafficking rings that are run by the high-level elites and only people like tim ballard and only people like jim caviezel and by extension only people like the ticket buyer than help bring these trafficking rings down. there's a participatory element. you're not just seeing a movie on a hot day, you're helping bring down these pedophile rings and save children. it's not true, but it's a very comforting and very warm feeling to have. >> yeah, and in fact, some of the ticket sales here have come from this crowdfunding of tickets. people can actually buy tickets for other people to send them to see this movie. the other part of it is that this fueling, it seems, the box office success, is that it is being spread even in sort of
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socially conservative circles, even donald trump this week tweeted about this film. does it surprise you that this has kind of penetrated into hollywood in such a real way? >> no, it doesn't surprise me at all. the faith-based market is enormous. the market for conspiracy theory materials, whether books, podcasts, merchandise, or films like this, is enormous. these people have disposable income, and they put their money where their mouth is. they feel like they are sticking it to the hollywood elite, ironically by helping prop up theaters at a time when the theater industry is still really struggling to bring people back. there's this huge group of people buying tickets for strangers who probably aren't even going to the movie. there's a feeling of all pulling on the same rope together, of all trying to fight back together. and these people, they want to be seen, they want to be represented. they feel like buying tickets, whether for themselves or their church group or complete
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strangers, is a way to push back against these horrors they think are infecting the whole world. >> it's really fascinating. and it's an example of -- the film, we should be clear, is about child sex trafficking. but it's the associations with the conspiracies that makes this such a fascinating story. thank you so much for joining me on this, mike, appreciate it. >> thank you. more than five years after the deadly mass shooting in parkland, florida, the families of those victims are able to go inside of that building for the very first time. the scene there remains completely untouched. up next, ill speak with two parents who decided to make that visit where their children died. to reel in the fun and savor every bite. to helelp you get ready your aspen denental team is celebrating 25 years of f affordable care with an epic summer of smiles e event. don't miss enjoying a moment, with our onsite labs to help you, fast,
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the parkland school shooting were allowed to enter that building, which remains untouched after five years. it was one of the deadliest high school shootings in history, and the building is open after the trial of the school resource officer. not all parents decided to go, of course, but my next guests did. max schachter and linda beagle schulman both lost their children in the tragedy. max and linda join me now. thank you for joining me tonight. linda, i do want to start with you. your son, scott, was the teacher at the school. he died while saving 31 students from that gunman. i wonder when you made that visit, what did you see there? what emotions did it bring up for you? >> well, thank you for having me, abby. when we drove up to school, i remember saying to my husband that i had such trepidations
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even going into the school. last time that we were -- five years ago, five-plus years ago when we went, the trepidations were different. i just hoping and knowing in my heart, he was probably in the hospital somewhere, but he was alive. this time going in, those trepidations were just so wildly different. because i know i was going and he wasn't alive, he was dead, and i was going to go and actually see where he took his last breath. when you walked into the school, we walked into -- i walked into the school, and it was exactly like they say. everything was left the way it was on that day. but even though i had seen the video of what had transpired on february 14th, 2018, it was -- it was just devastating, walking in. it was like the difference of zooming with someone and meeting them in person. i thought i was prepared. mike satz took us in from the first steps where the murderer walked into the school, and he
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went meticulously through the first floor, looking at the windows of the doors being shot out, seeing the glass on the floor, seeing the bullet holes in the classrooms. he explained who was shot and then the next person and who was injured. and then we went slowly, but we went through the first floor. and to the second floor. then we went to the third floor. and that was really important for me, because i wanted to see where my son took his last breath. i wanted to understand what i had seen on that video where the shooter was walking up those steps and five feet away from scott and actually shooting him six times within three seconds from five feet away. and i could see -- i could see where the shooter was, i could see where scott was, and i could finally understand where scott was standing, how he was holding the door, how he got shot. then going to the classroom and see where his blood was on the floor. where he was actually -- where
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he laid down dead. and then go into his classroom and see all of the papers where there was valentine's day, valentines on the floor, candy on the desks. actually seeing scott's computer, teachers know that they have to keep their computers halfway open and halfway shut so that no matter what, when they're away from the desk. seeing his desk, seeing the things, seeing the walls. actually seeing a paper that one of his students had landed in, and this is one of the students who would have written letters to us right after the murderer -- the murder at marjory stoneman douglas. just putting the face and the letter and everything together. it was really quite devastating. >> i cannot even imagine. for you, max, you also lost your son, alex, in this massacre. you had said that you wanted to be, just like linda, in that room where your son took his last breath. what did you end up deciding to do when you went into that school?
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>> i went -- i went in there just like linda did. and i wanted to go in alex's classroom. i wanted to sit in the chair that alex took his last breath in. that he was murdered in. and it was just unbelievable. i'm on the marjory stoneman douglas high school public safety commission. so i know everything that happened. but still, for me -- you've done a lot of coverage on the ukraine war. and that's what it looked like in that school. it looked like a war zone where a mass murderer had hunted down and killed children and staff. and it was grotesque. there was blood everywhere. i was just not prepared for that. >> max and linda, you all -- as a parent, i can't imagine the courage that it took to do what you did. and my hearts really go out to
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you and your whole families tonight as i'm sure you continue to grieve your loved ones. thank you very much for joining me, max schachter and linda beagle schulman. coming up next, a preview of cnn's sunday program, "the whole story." the subject is "wired for trouble." school districts and parents are suing the tech giants, alleging that social media is contributing to a mental health crisis among america's youth.foh . you could save $700 dollars just by switching. ooooh, let me put a reminder on my phohone. on the top of the pile! oh. ononly pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. . liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ we all need fiber for our digestive health, but less than 10% of us get enough each day. good thing metamucil gummies are an easy way to get prebiotic, plant-based fiber. with the same amount of ber as 2 cups of broccoli. metamucil gummies the easy way to get your daily fiber.
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to save lives by supporting st. jude children's research hospital. families never receive a bill from st. jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food so they can focus on helping their child live. subject 4: childhood cancer, there's no escaping it. but st. jude is doing the work, continually researching towards cures, giving more than just my child a chance at life. interviewer: please, call or go online right now and become a st. jude partner in hope for only $19 a month. subject 5: those donations really matter because we're not going to give up. and when you see other people not giving up on your child, it makes all the difference in the world. interviewer: when you call or go online with your credit or debit card right now, we'll send you this st. jude t-shirt. you can wear to show your support
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to help st. jude save the lives of these children. subject 6: st. jude is hope. even today after losing a child, it's still about the hope of tomorrow, because. childhood cancer has to end. interviewer: please, call or go online right now. [music playing] when you're ready to go but static and wrinkles are like, nooooo! try bounce, it's the sheet. less static. less wrinkles. more softness. more freshness. bounce. it's the sheet. the u.s. surgeon general recently issued a warning that social media carries what he calls a profound risk of harm to
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the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents. several school districts have filed suit against the tech giants, alleging that they're contributing to a mental health crisis among youth. hundreds of families are now suing too, including a connecticut woman named tammy rodriguez. she's a mother to selena and abby cornish spoke to tammy for a report on cnn's new show "the whole story with anderson cooper." here's a peek. >> reporter: what tammy didn't know at the time was that selena had figured out how to block her mother from seeing her online life. >> she had saved her fingerprint, and i didn't know she had saved it in my phone. so if i'd fall asleep, she would use her fingerprint to get in and change the settings. >> once the pandemic had started, she was posting more, she became more recluse, she was focused on how many likes she has. how many followers she has. how many followers she's losing. who's messaging her?
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>> reporter: during the pandemic when selena's school and social life moved online, she was regularly messaging with people on these apps. some she knew, some she did not. >> there were adults that would reach out, which i was not aware of until not too long ago. men. they knew she was a minor. >> cnn's audi cornish joins me now. would you have been speaking with these families, getting a sense of really what this battle is like. it's really almost like a david and goliath type of situation. huge tech companies and individual families struggling with how this technology that i'm sure some of them don't even fully understand affects their children's lives? >> right. right now the law is not exactly on their side. section 230 of the communications decency act says that online companies can't be
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held responsible for what you or i post on them. we're third-party publishers. what that means is if you decide a social media company has helped draw your child into the world of eating disorders, for instance, you can't necessarily be guaranteed that you're going to get a hearing in the courts. this came before the supreme court. they really didn't want to mess with section 230, and that leaves these families in the midst of their lawsuits which they're still pushing, but more so their kind of public campaign to raise awareness about this and bring pressure on the companies. >> what is your sense of how much social media companies recognize their role in creating algorithms that suck these young children in? >> well, i think people now have a better understanding of algo rhythms in general. the idea that recommendations and recommendation engines are drawing information based on what you engage with in order to push more of that on you. which means that if you get intn
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you. this is ra a real concern. ticktock has shown how profitable this can be. >> and they are better at it than anyone else in the game. >> exact ly last couple years. a few years sag is a good example, but not clear yet if we will see self-policing from the industry itself. >> and school districts, in addition to parents are struggling with this. thinking back to -- until maybe the beginning of high school. now kids have phones at such a young age, elementary school age and parents feel like, okay, you got to give your kid a phone for safety to keep in touch with
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them, but schools are struggling with social media, how much it is a part of their day-to-day lives than their teacher. >> in the age of school shootings and social media and apps were built into the learning process itself. the roles in the teens brew. you can see disconnect backlash. you see kids talking ing about wanting to be on the apps less. but their brains aren't exactly wired to do that now. and this is what researchers are looking into, whether or not social media can become an addiction, so to speak. >> the kids get a sense what's going. but like a lot of addictions, people can't pull themselves out of it. and this is what is so did i feel difficult
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for them and their kids to handle. i can't wait to watch this for an hour. you can tune into anderson cooper, one whole hour airs 8:00 p.m. specific on sunday. thanks for joining us. and coming up next, donald trump gets stumped at a campaign trail in iowa. see what happened when we come back. by providing blankets for comfort and warmth and encouraging messages of hope to helelp support nearly three hundred thousand patients facing cancer nanationwide. we call it “the subaru love promise.” and we're proud to be the largest automotive donor to the leukemia and lymphoma society. subaru. more than a car company. how white do you think your teeth really are? let's try the tissue test. ooof, still yellow. whitening toothpaste can only do so much.
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it's great stuff. >> in case you didn't know in the first part of the video, that was inside the white house. so it was very interesting when today in iowa trump seemed to have been caught off guard during a stop at dairy queen. >> anybody that wants a blizzard? what the held is a blizzard. take care of some people, okay? will you take care of them for me? we will do the blizzard thing. >> allison is here with me, so i guess to be fair, not a whole lot of dairy queens in new york, probably. but if you have ever done a road trip, as i have, across the country, including through the midwest, you cannot not know what a blizzard is, am i right? >> what the -- is a blizzard? it's delicious. that's all you need to know. but there are a ton in new jersey. i'm surprised he is not up on his blizzard knowledge.
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>> trump, he literally knows the mcdonald's menu like the back of his hand. i guess ice cream is not really his thing. he is like a burger and fries kind of guy. >> this is dairy queen. maybe he is committed to mcdonald's. >> first, reporters need to check back to see if blizzards were actually purchased for people in the restaurant at this time. second of all, this is not as gross as that time that he offered a piece of half eaton pizza at a pizza shop in florida. i think that he might get a pass for this one. >> i saw that. even his ardent supporters are like "no thank you with the pizza." all right. abby, have a great weekend. good to see you. good evening, everyone. welcome to cnn tonight. >> we have a fantastic show for you this evening. it has been quite a week of developments i
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