A Comedian Claims He Pulled Off A Prank Call On The President On Board Air Force One; Justice Kennedy's Announcement That He Is Retiring On July 31st.
CABRERA: Holiday in mile high security breach. A comedian claims he pulled off a prank call on the President on board air force one. The comedian, John Melendez aka stuttering John, managed to convince the White House switchboard that he was New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. Well, before long he got a call back from the President.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, I have a good relationship with the party. You have a good relationship with the party. And I think we can do a real immigration bill. We have to have security at the border. We have to have it. I mean, look, you got 60 percent of the country says you have to have security at the border. And that is good for the Democrats too. It is not like it is good for you or good for me. It is good for both of us.</s>JOHN MELENDEZ, COMEDIAN: No, I understand that, but --</s>TRUMP: Go ahead.</s>MELENDEZ: No but -- I'm Hispanic, so I have to -- I'm sure you understand. I have to, you know, I have to look into my, you know, my people as well. You understand.</s>TRUMP: I agree, I agree.</s>CABRERA: I want to bring in CNN's Boris Sanchez in New Jersey near the President's Bedminster golf club. Boris, we are now hearing from that comedian directly. What is he saying?</s>BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Ana. Yes, stuttering John Melendez revealing that his team actually previously called the White House and openly identified themselves, but they were told that President Trump was busy and they were hung up on. This time he says he was able to get through to President Trump getting a call back from the President on air force one. He says it only took about an hour and a half of time to get through to the President. He could not believe that this was taking place. He says that if anyone had asked him along the line who Senator Bob Menendez, what state he was from or what party he was affiliated with, he wouldn't have been able to answer those questions can. Here is more from stuttering John.</s>MELENDEZ: I get a call from air force one and it is Jared Kushner. And I know it is Jared. I'm a political news junky. I actually do watch CNN all the time and I know Jared's voice and it was definitely him. And he said to me I'm going in and out of my English accent. I'm like -- I answer, hey, hello. And then I go, oh, yes, hello, how you doing Jared. And then he says, well, I can get the President out of a meeting now or I can have him call you back in a few minutes. I said, oh, no, please have him call me back, you know, because I knew I had to call my friend in New York to record it. He said no problem. We will call you back. Now I'm getting nervous. Now, I'm like this can't be happening. And sure enough, 20 minutes later, I get a call. It is from, you know, again I answer with my bad Long Island accent. And hello. And then, oh, yes, let me get the senator on the phone and I call my friend in New York. I get on the phone with Trump and Trump is just like Bob, I want to congratulate you. I didn't even know that Senator Menendez was in any legal problems. And really if they would have just screened me and asked me what party affiliation senator Menendez had or what state he represented, I would have been stumped because I had no idea anything about senator Menendez.</s>SANCHEZ: You could add stuttering John Melendez to the list of things we never thought we would be discussing when covering this administration. Ana, we have reached out to the White House for comments. They have not publicly said anything about this phone call nor confirmed its authenticity -- Ana.</s>CABRERA: It is so bizarre. Boris Sanchez, thank you for filling in some of the mysterious gaps in that story for us. Now, the President this weekend is focusing on his next Supreme Court nominee. Justice Kennedy's announcement that he is retiring on July 31st came as a shock to some, but not to others. The 81-year-old is one of the oldest justices on the U.S. Supreme Court second only to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. CNN's Tom Foreman explains why age is more than just a number when it comes to Supreme Court justices.</s>TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you look closely at the ages of the sitting justices, you begin to understand why this change is so momentous. So let's start by rearranging everyone in order of their age. And you can see that down here we have Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the top at 85, Justice Kennedy almost 82, and then comes Breyer and Thomas and Alito, Sotomayor, the chief justice John Roberts is here, and then Kagan and last but not least, the newest arrival, Neil Gorsuch. Now let's put those appointed by Democratic Presidents on this side and those appointed by Republicans on the other side and consider this. The average age on the Democratic side is 71 1/2. The average age on the Republican side is nearly 66 1/2. And look what happens when Kennedy leaves. Suddenly the two oldest justices are both on the Democratic front. And according to an analysis by the Pew research group, they have already been on the court longer than expected based on their age when they were appointed. So has Clarence Thomas. But he is the only one on the conservative side and he is still about nine years younger than Breyer. Furthermore, look at Neil Gorsuch, the first justice chosen by President Trump. He is just 50. The Pew center found when a justice is appointed around that age, he or she will tend to serve close to 19 years. So you see what is shaping up here. If Kennedy is replaced with a much younger justice, the Republican nominees will certainly dominate this court for at least several years and if either of the two most senior Democratic appointees retires or leaves for any reason, the math says Republican dominance could extend for a decade or more. And remember, President Trump has been loading the lower courts with conservatives. He is doing it at a very rapid pace. And many of these are younger judges who could be around for a long time. Meaning if Democrats are counting for the courts to support their agenda, they could be heading into a rough spell.</s>CABRERA: That is our Tom Foreman. Thank you, Tom. Coming up, all the big highlights from the coast to coast immigration protests, including a powerful speech from the daughter of an undocumented immigrant parent.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our government also continues to separate people like me from their parents every day. This is evil. It needs to stop. It makes me sad to know that children can't be with their parents. I don't understand why they are being so mean to us children. Don't they know how much we love our families? Don't they have a family too? Why don't they care about us children? Why do they hurt us like this? It is unfair that they got to spend time with their families today while there are children in detention centers.