i'm margaret brennan in washington. this week on "face the nation," the supreme court wraps up its session with some blockbuster

dec decisions dealing potentially serious blows to some younger voters when it comes to education. [ crowd chanting ] some seismic yet not surprising decisions from a supreme court that's moved to the right in recent years striking down affirmative action programs in the college admissions process. siding with religious free bomb over an anti-discrimination law and overturning president biden's student loan forgiveness program. we'll talk with former vice president in 2024 gop contender mike pence about the conservative take on the court's decisions. plus, he's just back from ukraine. university of california president dr. michael drake will tell us how the uc system ensures a diverse student body following the state's own ban on affirmative action decades ago. and there were some supreme court wins for the left. we'll talk about those key voting rights decisions with obama administration attorney

general eric holder. plus, turmoil on the travel front. it's been a miserable week for millions leading up to the fourth of july weekend. will the trip home be any easier? >> i feel gross. i feel like i want to cry but i have nothing left. >> once your initial flight gets canceled and you have a connecting flight, you can forget it. >> we'll talk with pete buttigieg about the criticism of the faa and what's in the works when it comes to dealing with the impact of climate change on airline travel. finally, can you tell the difference between an artificial intelligence generated image and a real one? we'll help you learn what to look for to tell the real deal from the ai fakes. it's all just ahead on "face the nation." ♪

good morning, and welcome to "face the nation." on this fourth of july weekend, the flight cancellations and delays that have plagued travelers all the last week have eased, but there are new threats of bad weather that will likely impact return flights. it's not just the severe weather, which has been and will continue to be exacerbated by climate change, it's problems with staffing shortages including air traffic controllers, airline and tsa personnel. there have been almost 7,500 cancellations and more than 50,000 delayed flights in the last week. we begin today with transportation secretary pete buttigieg who joins us from traverse city, michigan. good morning to you, mr. secretary. back in january, you also had a massive grounding of flights. why does it seem so chaotic? >> well, if you look at the overall picture, we've seen a lot of improvements, but we had a hard few days with severe weather at the beginning.

the week, and that definitely put enormous pressure on the system. now, the good news is on friday we saw according to tsa a record number of airline passengers, probably the most ever in america, and we saw those cancellation rates stay low. right now we're below 2%, but they really shot up at the first part of the week largely because of severe weather hitting some of our key hubs. i think most passengers understand that no one can control the weather, but anything that's under the control of the airlines and anything that we can do on the faa side, we need to continue pushing to make sure there's the smoothest possible experience for air passengers everywhere. >> well, and to that point, private industry seems to be pointing back to your office, jetblue's president said she was blaming the faa. united's ceo was sea clear saying the faa failed us. the d.o.t.'s inspector general said last month the faa has no real plan in place to fix the problem of inadequate air

traffic control staffing in miami, new york, key hubs. so, how are you addressing that particular issue? >> well, first of all, let me be very clear that even according to the industry's own data, air traffic control staffing issues account for less than 10% of the delay minutes in the system, but i would rather that number be zero, so even though this isn't the number one cause or even the number two cause of flight disruptions, it is something that is very important to tackle and we're doing exactly that. we're hiring 1500 new air traffic controllers this year. our plan is to hire another 1,800 traffic controllers next year. we're also working on staffing models that can better address the needs on the ground and cooperating where possible and where appropriate with airlines on things that can make better use of the same national airspace, remember, we have the most complex national airspace in the world, but there are things we can do to manage it

more efficiently, opening up routes more direct using gps which means less flight time and can contribute to less congestion. in the florida airspace we have enough commercial space launches taking place now that that can be a factor as that airspace gets closed down, especially on those busy travel days, so we've been engaging the space industry to try to keep the launch windows clear of when there is the most traffic. and when we have severe weather situations like we had a few days ago, have set up a very tight operational cadence working tightly and closely with airline operational managers to route aircraft in a way that always puts safety first, but also makes the most of the opportunities we have, so whether we're talking about day-to-day ops and tactics or the bigger picture of staffing air traffic control for the future, we're moving very aggressively on that, and now is the time for these conversations, because the faa reauthorization bill, which will cover the next five years is moving through the senate as we speak. > still waiting on a new permanent head of the faa.

i want to ask you about the bipartisan infrastructure bill you were very prominent in promoting the impact on the country for the better, but there's new data out there showing that while taxpayers are pouring in billions of dollars to upgrade infrastructure, there is some reporting from first street foundation that recently came out showing the government is substantially underestimating the risk of severe rain in some of the city -- some of the largest cities in the country. do you fear that some of these projects are being built on flawed data and flawed numbers? >> you know, part of what we've been working to do is make our infrastructure more resilient for the future. you know, the hard reality doesn't care about political debates, and if you have what used to be a 500-year flood happening every other year and have a road that gets washed out and put it back and gets washed

out again, it doesn't make any sense. >> i know you were outspoken with the supreme court ruling in favor of a colorado website designer. you called it discrimination, justice gorsuch said this was a first amendment issue where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands. what do you make of the argument that colorado was labeling free speech as discrimination in order to censure it? >> i think what's really revealing is that there's no evidence that this web designer was ever even approached by a same-sex couple looking for services to support their wedding. you're seeing more of these cases and circumstances that are designed to get people spun up and designed to chip away at rights, and i think the bigger picture here, when you look at the supreme court taking away a woman's right to choose, you look at friday's decision diminishing the equality of same-sex couples, you look at a number of the decisions made,

they pose a question that is even deeper than these big cases and the question is this, did we just live to see the high water mark of freedoms and rights in this country before they were gradually taken away? because up until now, not uniformly, but overall, each generation was able to say that it had enjoyed greater inclusion, greater equality and more rights and freedoms than the generation before, and those decisions have added up and affected so many people inc including me, of course, as i'm getting ready to go back to my husband and our twins for the rest of this morning thinking about the fact that the existence of our family is only a reality because of a one-vote margin on the supreme court a few years ago. these are the kind of things at stake and we have a supreme court that is very much out of step with how most americans view these issues. >> you know that conservatives are just framing this in a fundamentally different manner. senator ted cruz described the colorado law that would compel

services be provided despite personal beliefs and put it this way, should a muslim artist be compelled by the government to draw the image of muhammad, should jewish artists be forced to create art that is anti-semitic? do you see merit in those comparisons that have to do specifically with free speech and freedom of religion? >> you know, that's really not a comparison that is relevant to this case, but more importantly, i think it's really telling that you have to think of these far-fetched hypotheticals in order to justify decisions that are actually going to have much worse impacts in the real world, and i think this again goes back to the broader agenda of the culture wars that are being fired up. >> mr. secretary, thank you for your time this moin "face the nation" will be back in a minute. stay with us. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it.

ozempic® lowers the risk of major c cardiovascucular evs susuch as stroroke, heart t at, or deathth in adultsts alsoso with knowown heart didi. and you mamay lose weieight. adulults lost upup to 14 pouo. ozemempic® isnsn't for r peoe with type e 1 diabeteses. don't t share neededles or pe, or r reuse needldles. don't t take ozempmpic® ifif you or yoyour familyy everer had medulullary thyryroid cancerer, or h have multipiple endocrie neopoplasia syndndrome type , or i if allergicic to it. stop o ozempic® a and get medical hehelp right a away ifif you get a a lump or swellining in your r neck, severere stomach p pain, or n allergrgic reactioion. seserious sidede effects m y inclclude pancrereatitis. gallbladdeder problemsms may oc. tell youour providerer about vin prproblems or r changes. takiking ozempicic® with aa sulfonylylurea or ininsulin may y increase l low blblood sugar r risk. side effecects like nanausea, vomiting,, anand diarrheaea may leadd to dehydydration, which h may worsenen kidney p problems. ask yourur health cacare proror ababout the ozozempic® t tri-. you u may pay asas little as $. one candidate getting travel in is former vice president mike pence. we spoke with him yesterday from

a stop on his way back from ukraine and started with the colorado website's designer's supreme court victory. what do you say to americans who believe this opens the door to discrimination? >> from the moment the supreme court recognized same-sex marriage, the court had made a commitment that they would still respect the freedom of religion and freedom of conscience of every american and in lorie smith's case, she made it very clear that she would take all customers in her website design but said she could not create a website that would celebrate something that violated her religious beliefs, and as you know, i'm a bible believing christian, i believe that marriage is between one man and one woman and i believe every american is entitled to live and to work and worship according to the dictates of their conscience. >> i understand you see this as religious freedom but in other words you say you would not refuse services to people on the

basis of their sexual orientation? >> no, look, i think this is not about the law of public accommodation, and this is -- both of these cases came from colorado where the heavy hand of government came in and said, look, if you have a public accommodation, whether you're a cake baker or a web maker, that you're required to take all customers. that's what a public accommodation is, margaret, but what the supreme court said here and as they did in the jack smith case by a 7-2 majority is that you can't compel the american people to create products that violate their conscience or religious beliefs. >> but to the public for those who do hear some concern here, as president, how do you assure them that you will provide equal treatment to all? >> well, look, i believe in the freedom of religion and the freedom of conscience of every american and in this case i think the supreme court drew a

clear line and said, yes, to religious liberty. >> the ruling on affirmative action, fundamentally do you believe that there are racial inequities in the education system in the united states? >> i'm so grateful that the supreme court of the united states here recognized what, frankly, justice sandra day o'connor said back in 2003 was that affirmative action was a temporary solution. it was designed to make sure that we open doors that hadn't been opened before but she herself said she expected it to go away within 25 years. it went away more quickly than that. i think that's a tribute to our nation. it's a great, great credit to the extraordinary accomplishments that minority students have had on our campuses and i really do believe that we can move forward as a country and embrace the notion that we're all going to be judged not on the color of our skin but on the kong tent of our character and in this case on our gpa.

>> am i understanding you do not believe there is racial inequity in the education system in america? >> i just -- i really don't believe there is. i believe there was, i mean, there may have been a time when affirmative action was necessary, simply to open the doors of all of our schools and universities, but i think that time has passed and we'll continue to move forward as a color-blind society which is really the aspiration i believe of every american. >> the court also ruled that president biden lacks the legal authority to forgive student debt for 40 million americans as he had tried to do. in response, the president made the political argument that republican officials couldn't bear the thought of providing relief for working class middle class americans. how do you respond to that? >> first it's factually wrong. the majority of people that would have benefited from this student loan forgiveness are people with multiple graduate degrees so you'll say to working

americans, to truck drivers, to people working in the trades, we're going to take your taxes and pay down a part of the student debt of doctors and lawyers and ph.d.s. nothing could be further from the truth. this was not about the middle class. >> you still have to get young voters to turn out and vote for you, sir. this is very politically popular for democrats. what is your pledge to young voters? >> well, my pledge so young voters is that we're going to get the economy moving again. they're worried about this economy, and unconstitutional government handouts are not what young americans are looking for, they're looking for a growing economy, and they know by putting into practice the policies that we did in our administration by extending those trump-pence tax cuts, ending the war on energy, securing our border, we're going to set the table for a balanced

american future for them. >> there was some reporting in "the washington post" that president trump back in 2020 after the election repeatedly asked you to call the governor of the state of arizona, doug ducey, to get him to substantiate president trump's claims, false claims of fraud. "the post" is reporting you did call the arizona governor multiple times to discuss the election. is that reporting accurate, and what did you tell governor ducey at the time. >> i did check in with not only governor ducey but other governors in states going through the legal process of reviewing their election results, but there was no pressure involved, margaret. i was calling to get an update. i passed along that information to the president and it was no more, no less than that. >> you are clearly saying you did not pressure the governor, but were you being pressured by mr. trump to get those -- to influence doug ducey and did you

talk about this with the special counsel? >> no, i don't remember any pressure. look, the president and i -- things came to a head at the end, margaret, i've spoken about it very openly, and the president and i continue to have a strong difference. i'll us believe that by god's grace i did my duty under the constitution that day in presiding over a joint session of congress in the aftermath of the mayhem and the rioting, but in the days of november and december, this was an orderly process. you'll remember there were more than 60 lawsuits under way. states were engaging in appropriate reviews, and these contacts were no more than that. >> you did just make this trip to ukraine. you are the only republican presidential candidate to have done so and you met with president zelenskyy. he is being very clear that when nato leaders meet this month, he expects clear steps and an

invitation to join the western military alliance. if you were president, would you make that pledge to a country that's currently at war with russia? >> i'm someone that believes that it's absolutely essential that the united states continue to provide military support to the ukrainian military to push back on russian aggression, because if russia were able to overrun ukraine, i think it would not be long before vladimir putin ordered his troops across the border that under nato we would be required to send men and women in uniform. it is not in our interest to send american forces into ukraine, and i would never support it and as i met with president zelenskyy he made it clear that he's not looking for that. and i have reason to believe, margaret, that when nato meets in a few weeks that president zelenskyy would be open to a conditional invitation to membership in nato, namely, saying that ukraine will be a

member of nato. once the war is over, once the war is won. i really do believe it's essential that america continue to lead, that our allies provide ukraine with the support they need. >> on the afghanistan issue, the state department just released a report friday, an after action report that faulted the biden administration for a number of missteps but named the trump administration saying they had insufficient senior level consideration of worst case scenarios when it agreed to the withdrawal from afghanistan in 2020. president trump signaled his desire to end the military presence before even reaching a deal with the taliban. there was no plan or effort to help at-risk afghans or plan for what to do with diplomats after withdrawal happened. just a lack of planning. do you accept that the trump administration bears some responsibility for this chaos? >> margaret, i don't, because i know what the deal was that was negotiated with the taliban.

i mean, it was made very clear, i was in the room when president trump told the leader of the taliban, said, look, you're going to have to cooperate with the afghan government, you don't harbor terrorists and you don't harm any american soldiers. we went 18 months without a single american casualty to the day at that kabul airport that we lost 13 brave american service members. the blame for what happened here falls squarely on the current commander in chief and under our administration, i promise you, that while it was our -- it was the ink tension of the president, the former president to pull our troops out, when the taliban broke the deal and moved in and joe biden did nothing, that set into motion the catastrophe that became afghanistan. >> are you saying that you would have kept the troops beyond the 2020 deal? is that what you're saying? >> well, look, candidly it was

always my belief that it would be prudent to keep a couple of thousand american forces there to support our efforts against terrorist elements both in afghanistan and in the region, and i think we ultimately would have done that, just as the president announced we were -- the former president announced we were pulling troops out of syria, you remember i was sent to turkey to negotiate a cease-fire and ultimately there's still american forces in syria today. i think we would have landed in that place. >> i want to ask you about china as well. do you agree with president biden that xi jinping is a dictator? >> i think it's a statement of fact, margaret. but, look, i also want to say with regard to ukraine, because a lot of people will say, china's the real issue. there's no more effective way to send a deafening message to communist china to check their

military ambitions in the asia pacific than by giving ukraine what they need to repel the russian invasion. i know china is watching. they forged this unlimited partnership with russia, but i got to say i met president xi and president putin. i guarantee president xi is watching what is happening. we give them what they need to win this fight to repeal the russian invasion, i think it'll lay a strong foundation for restraining the military aggression and ambitions of china in the asia pacific like almost nothing else. >> to be clear you as president would commit u.s. troops to defend taiwan against a chinese invasion? >> i would say to you that i'm somebody that believes that it's no advantage to say what you would or wouldn't do. i thought one of the catastrophic errors that president biden made before the russian invasion in ukraine was

he signaled that if it was just -- if it was just a small invasion maybe we wouldn't send troops or we wouldn't respond. look, margaret, we never say what you'll never do. the united states of america should continue to be providing to taiwan with military means to defend themselves. what we want is a policy of deterrence. >> thank you for your time today, mr. vice president. >> thank you, margaret. our extended interview with the former vice president is available on our youtube page. we'll be right back. thanks to golo, i've lost 27% of my body weight, and it was e easy. (soft music)

i got this $1,000 camera for only $41 on dealdash. dealdash.com, online auctions since 2009. this playstation 5 sold for only 50 cents. this

ipad pro sold for less than $34. and this nintendo switch, sold for less than $20. i got this kitchenaid stand mixer for only $56. i got this bbq smoker for 26 bucks. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. the virurus that cauauses shshingles is s sleeping.... in 99% of f people ovever. and it couould ste atat any time.e. think you'u're not at t r? wawake up. because e shingles coululd wake up p in you. ifif you're ovover 50, talalo your dococtor or phaharmat ababout shinglgles preventnt. gunfire interrupted a block party in southern baltimore early this morning where police say two people were killed and 28 hurt. no one was arrested immediately after the shooting. according to the gun violence archive, it was the 338th mass shooting this year.

we'll be right back with the

former u.s. attorney general eric holder and the president of the uc system, dr. michael drake. stay with us.

>> announcer: this is the "cbs overnight news." >> tonight, a manhunt is under