CNN, MS NOW, Politico Back at WH as Media Ban Lawsuit Proceeds

25:55So the consequence is that if we're not able to export that, you're backing up the entire system, and costs go up for jet fuel and for gasoline at the same time. So let's say that President Trump listens to your advice and doesn't ban the export of diesel. I don't know that that's going to happen, but who house. What do you see happening to fuel prices as we head into the fall harvest and home heating season? Well, there will be a short-term cut in the price of diesel. But at the same time, you'll see a simultaneous increase in jet fuel and gasoline as a consequence of that. So what we need is these export markets so that we can make sure that the system still works.

26:32So you're telling me if President Trump bans the export of diesel and goes through that, then diesel prices will momentarily go down, but the rest of us who just use regular gasoline or flying airplanes, we'll see prices go up. And that will also only be a short-term cut in diesel. Long-term, you're going to see shortages. You're going to see increased prices for diesel over the long-term. We need the diesel export market so that we can produce these other fuels that are exported to other parts of the world. You're also going to see huge increases in diesel prices all over the world. And that's bad for our allies.

27:08That's bad for the world energy system. So according to AAA, a regular gallon of gas unleaded is$4.48,$1.50 more than before the Iran war. What is going to have to happen to bring these prices down? Well, there are a couple of big things that happen to happen. First of all, you have to get the straight at Formos unclogged. It's still clogged. It's still clogged, but they're finally getting through almost 18 million barrels a day through both the strait and the pipelines that go through the Middle East. So that, and it was 20 million before the war. So we are clearing the system a little bit. At the same time though, the biggest issue that we're dealing with is a lack of refining capacity throughout the world.

27:48If you think about the fact that because of the war in Ukraine and Russia, and of course in the Middle East, about 10 % of global refineries are currently offline. And when you take 10 % of global refineries offline, that means we don't have the refining capacity to produce gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel. All right, Mike Summers, thank you so much. Good to see you, as always. A big event coming up next Wednesday. CNN's hosting a debate in the California race for governor. I'm going to moderate alongside my colleague, Dana Bash. That's next Wednesday, September 30th at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern.

28:19We're going to carry it live on all CNN platforms. Still, it's had American fighter jet parts mistakenly sent to Hong Kong. How did that happen? Well, the Chinese leaders here in D.C., maybe Trump will ask for those parts back. We're getting into this story next.

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29:17So I'm picking up my friends, hit in the road and seeing what's out there. The Detour with David Chang on CNN, now streaming with an all-access subscription. We're back, continuing in our World Lead, an urgent effort right now at the Pentagon to retrieve and find out how a shipment of F-35 stealth aircraft parts bound for the U.S. ended up diverted to Hong Kong. The Australian government confirms that the parts were mistakenly rerouted this summer. Bloomberg reports that these parts, including a cockpit canopy and a weapons bay door that's coated in radar-absorbing material are now in the hands of the Chinese government.

29:55The situation is raising grave concern across the national security community, given China now has access to key components of America's highly classified weapons system. And this couldn't come in a more pressing moment, as President Trump is currently meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. My panel joins me now. Kylie, this has triggered some pretty significant concern and risks. What do we know about how it happened? Yeah, well, it's a pretty interesting story because it happened at least in June, if not before, because according to these reports from Politico and Bloomberg, this was based on reports that were given to congressional staff that happened in June.

30:32Now we're in September. And what happened was that this was parts of the F-35, of course, the most advanced fighter jet in the world, arguably, that were going to the United States for repairs. They were supposed to go through South Korea, come to the United States. They got diverted when they were in South Korea and instead went to Hong Kong. And the thing is that this happened more than three months ago now, and the Pentagon is acknowledging that they still don't have these parts. I want to read to you what the Pentagon spokesperson said. We're actively working with U.S. authorities and industry partners to retrieve these components, investigate the incident, and place safeguards to avoid future occurrence.

31:09So obviously they're still focused on this. And to your point, it's not good for the Chinese to have these components, to be able to perhaps work them into their own military developments. But it also could be something that President Xi or President Trump feels like he needs to bring up during this discussion, giving China leverage in the state visit. As Sabrina is saying, a major concern here is that China could study the parts and not only potentially copy them for their own flights, but reverse engineer the technology to be able to shoot down F-35s or whatever. How devastating might this be for America's national security?

31:45And do you think that it's being brought up by Trump 2G? Well, I would certainly, if I was advising the president, I think this would be one of the points that I push. We need those parts back. How did this happen? An investigation would certainly need to play out. But I think this is incredibly damaging and embarrassing for the United States. I mean, this is our most sophisticated aircraft platform that our military uses. and the proprietary information in some of the parts that were rerouted can be devastating, not only to reverse engineer, but these are the fighters that can evade detection.

32:19I mean, they are very sophisticated. And you'll remember when President Putin came to Alaska, the red slating that you saw on the fighter jets, that was to protect key components of the F-35 from photographs. So the fact that this has now fallen into the wrong hands, I would hope that the president is pushing President Xi on how to get these back, But it's almost it's a bit a little too late at this point because I would assume Chinese intelligence has at least taken photographs of this. I just don't even know how this happens. How do they ship these things? It's not like a UPS, apparently UPS.

32:50That's according to the reporting from Bloomberg. Yeah. UPS. It's not a Christmas sweater. All right. Kylie, you were in New York yesterday at the U.N. You caught up with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who you covered. You asked him about the fate of the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan. Matter of much controversy. Let's play some of that. Any arms sales we do with anyone on the planet, we're about Taiwan, with any country on the planet, has to be balanced with what our combatant commanders around the world are telling us are their minimum needs in case of a conflict in their region. So there's been a lot of questions about the delays for this$14 billion deal.

33:29Yeah, and I do think it's important to note that the Secretary clearly didn't want to talk about this. In his answer to me, he spoke about U.S. arms sales broadly. He really didn't delve into the question specifically about this$14 billion arms sale that has been held up to Taiwan. He did note, however, that last year there was a$11 billion arms sale from the U.S. to Taiwan that the administration did green light. And he also quickly quipped to me saying yes when I asked if the administration remains committed to regular and increased arms sales to Taiwan. So it indicates that, at least from his perspective, the administration remains committed.

34:08But we have heard from President Trump earlier this year saying that these arms sales are a negotiating tip for him going into conversations with Xi. So it's pretty clear that Trump views them as something that he can use at the table. The question is, would he be willing to actually pull back on any of those arms sales? Or is he just using them to try and get something else out of China and then follow through on these arms sales? We really don't know the answer to that. And, Kylie, you have some new reporting on Iran. Yeah, so the foreign minister of Iran met with U.S. officials earlier this week in New York, and our colleague Jennifer Hansler just met with Foreign Minister Aragachie and some other reporters.

34:44And he said that the Iranians put a proposal on the table, this was during that meeting on Monday, that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and that would also restart negotiations to a final deal between the United States and Iran. Now, final deal is the key descriptor there, because we really don't know if the Iranians said that they would get into negotiations over their nuclear program. We know from Trump administration officials that they really aren't looking to reopen the strait unless they also have commitments from Iran on their nuclear program, questions over that approach by the Trump administration.

35:22But that is where they're at. And we heard from Secretary Rubio earlier this week saying effectively that the Strait of Hormuz problem is a challenge, but they feel like the U.S. military escorts are doing a good job for them. So we'll have to watch and see if the Trump administration actually commits to going forward with this proposal from Iran. We should note that it says that there are seven days that the United States has to take certain actions that would put this into work. Your response? What do you think? I mean, we don't have the fine details of this potential plan. I think my question is, what does traffic through the strait look like?

35:55Is Iran going to charge some type of fee or toll, which the U.S. and Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance has said is basically a non-starter. I think Iran still retains the ability to strengthen the strait of Hormuz. So that will be something that I think they bring to the table of saying, we're going to maintain control because that's the way that they can retain power. When it comes to this longer term deal on the nuclear program, I mean, that is going to be the major sticking point for both sides. And I think Iran has shown that they are willing to run down the clock as long as possible and retain that upper hand because they're willing to incur the economic costs.

36:29This president has seen gas prices, diesel prices going up every single day. The economic costs are coming to a head and they're going to come to a head in the midterms. Thanks, everyone. Really appreciate it. CNN's Anderson Cooper is coming up next with some of his brand new interview moments ago with the CEO of NVIDIA, one of the most valuable companies in the world. what the tech giant said about AI and the warnings that AI development is moving too fast. Stay with us.

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37:26See terms.

37:31Now, the latest installment of our continuing series, AI, friend or foe? NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wong is betting on Friend. And his company not only dominates the AI chip market, but has stakes in companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. CNN's Anderson Cooper just sat down with Wang and joins us now. So Anderson, Wang is expected to attend tonight's White House state dinner for the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. What did he have to tell you? We talked a lot about that. We talked a little bit about the dinner, what he may be talking to Xi Jinping about. But we talked mostly about regulation and safety concerns that have been raised, obviously.

38:06You know, I talked to Dario Amadei last week, as well as a number of other folks who formerly worked at Anthropic. I asked him about the calls for regulation by Amadei and others. Here's what he said. The people who are working closest, the people who are on the front lines of the frontier models, the frontier of this technology, they seem worried. Whether it's researchers, engineers, or the CEOs, Daryl Amadei, Sam Ullman, they are raising alarms saying we need regulation. Aren't they the ones closest to these models who would know best about what is needed? If they're worried about it, they should just stop.

38:50If the product is not safe, just don't release it. It's that simple? I mean, these are multi-billion dollar companies. The competition is... No, that's what every company does. That's what we do. That's what a car company would do. That's what anybody would do. If you're, of course - But there's companies that have gone forward with products that are not safe or are risky and they go forward anyway because of competition. That's why there's regulation. Well, if a regulation is necessary, if they don't have self-restraint, first of all, they ought to have self-restraint. If they're telling everybody that their product is unsafe, they obviously know it.

39:33They're publicly admitting it. They ought to just not release it. OK. So he's also very, you know, look, he's an AI optimist. He wants an acceleration of safety protocols, an acceleration of this technology. He is obviously all in on this. I mean, his company is, you know, the biggest provider of chips, obviously. And I talked to him about the concerns by whistleblowers, the concerns that have been coming out of former employees at Anthropic, concerns about, you know, civilization being wiped out in a matter of four years, something he categorically dismisses. Here's what he said. It's not grounded on science.

40:15It's not grounded on facts. It doesn't make any sense. You said there's zero chance of that. I said there's zero chance that is end of humanity by 2030. 2030 is around the corner. Do you think there's a risk to humanity in the next 10 years? If we don't build society safely, if we don't build technology safely, of course there's going to be risk. But there's a lot of people working on really, really genuinely good technology. But there is, I mean, on a 10-year time frame, a longer time frame, let's not quibble about the years. But there is an existential risk in this technology. If we don't build it safely.

40:54If it's not built safely. Yeah, so let's build it safely. Let's build it safely. That's easier said than done, right? Yeah, I mean, what's so interesting about this is, you know, in July, he was talking about sandboxing, you know, models and agents and that that can be secured and can be done safely. what we saw in July in the Hugging Face attack against Hugging Face and OpenAI itself by these, you know, some swarm of 1 ,200 agents or several hundred agents was that they broke out of the sandbox. The sandbox was not secure and they gained access to the internet. Every day we read a story where OpenAI or Anthropic, and this is just what they're admitting to, says, oh, this company, you know, these agents, these AI agents did this.

41:40There's this report out of Australia. Hacking the Australian government. Where they're hacking the health. You know, and that's just what we know about. Yeah. I saw another report where AI is able to find out who, like, anonymous Reddit commentators are. And even if you give people, like, a six-month head start, remove everything, they can still figure out who you are. Jensen Williams makes the argument this is an engineering issue. He sees AI essentially as software. And obviously there's a lot of people who work closely with this who kind of think of it as, you know, another kind of being or another kind of life form.

42:12He does not believe that. He views this as a math problem, as a software problem. And he says this is just a question of putting more compute on the issue and getting better safety protocols. Yeah. Well, of course, he's also worth$180 billion with that everything continuing as it is. Yes. Anderson Cooper, thanks so much. And you can watch Anderson's entire interview with the CEO of NVIDIA coming tonight on AC 360. That's 8 o 'clock Eastern right here on CNN. Up next, CNN media access restored at the White House. But will you see images from tonight's lavish state dinner, the president's brand new comments on this legal fight, and how that impacts White House press coverage?

42:51Coming up.

43:00Queen Carvania stood haloed by the morning sun. An army hung on her every word. My champions, I have sold my chariot on Carvana. It was a lovely SUV, an inexplicably queenly offer. They're even coming to the castle to collect it. Tonight, we feast. An offer you can feast on. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up fees, mail, buy. Welcome to the Lean Up Jigtapper this hour. CNN back at the White House after a judge ordered the administration to restore access to the three media outlets banned by Trump last week. But the fight's far from over with the president already vowing to appeal. We're going to check in with CNN's Caitlin Collins at the White House in moments.

43:46Plus, more than 40 million Americans will feel the impacts this weekend from a nor 'easter storm that's still gaining strength tonight. Heavy rain, punishing winds, flooding all expected as some cities could get a month's worth of rain in just one day. We're going to go live to the CNN Weather Center for just the latest forecast. Also, a brand new CNN poll finds the overwhelming majority of Americans are worried about artificial intelligence and think the federal government should be doing more to regulate the evolving technology. We're going to be joined by a candidate for Congress who used to work at an AI company for more on how that could work and what the government should do.

44:22Our late tonight breaking news. Right now, President Trump preparing to greet Chinese leader Xi Jinping ahead of their lavish state dinner at the White House. Today, Xi said both the U.S. and China have a responsibility to, quote, manage AI for good. Chinese state media reports that Xi told Trump he hopes the U.S. will oppose Taiwan's independence, despite the U.S. selling arms to the country. The two leaders also discussed the Iran war. And in the latest act of panda diplomacy, Xi announced that China will be sending two pandas to a zoo in Atlanta in the coming days. a full day and night of activities we unfortunately cannot show you because right now the five major networks that make up the TV pool, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, are waiting on confirmation from the White House that CNN will be allowed to fulfill its pool responsibilities in the future.

45:08Right now, the pool doesn't have that assurance. So the pool has not filmed any of Trump and Xi's consequential events so far today. Joining us now from the White House, CNN's chief White House correspondent Caitlin Collins. Caitlin, first of all, what an own goal on the president who wanted these images out there. Second, Trump just weighed in again on the press ban. Yeah, Jake, and the president obviously, you know, is part of this carefully choreographed visit that has been been the planning for weeks, if not months, of course, by the White House and the top aides, with the two delegations from the Chinese side and the American side going back and forth over what every detail of this visit is going to look like, including tonight's state dinner.

45:46And as you can see behind me, they are getting ready here at the White House to hold that state dinner. We're already seeing a lot of the invited guests start to arrive here at the White House dressed in black tie. And this is a moment that typically would be broadcast essentially everywhere, certainly over the five major TV networks. But obviously you're not seeing that coverage because of this holdup with the commitment to letting CNN continue to fulfill its full responsibilities, as it has always done, of course, no matter who is the president. And so while we are waiting for that, Jake, and obviously waiting for that to happen, we are back here on the White House grounds after that court order that came out overnight.

46:20And this has been something that's been going on as the Chinese leader is here in Washington. And a lot of the state visit has already been underway. And so we're waiting to see what tonight looks like, because, of course, that state dinner is set to kick off in just about two hours from now. And oftentimes in those state dinners, as you saw when the king was visiting not so long ago, there are toasts at the top of these dinners where each leader stands up and delivers essentially their remarks about the ceremony of this, the pomp of this, not always on the substance of those conversations, which we know have revolved around artificial intelligence, trade, Taiwan, all these big things that are on the agenda for these two leaders.

46:59But the toast can also be an insight, Jake, into what each world leader is projecting and how they are talking about this visit. And so sometimes they turn into speeches. They have a habit of doing so. We'll see what the quotes are from that earlier. But I've covered the White House for 10 years, Jake, and this is pretty remarkable, given the magnitude of this event, the major implications of it. And for President Trump, who was noting earlier that it was not being broadcast on television, that is obviously a result of the president's decision-making on Friday and the White House not saying, yes, that there is a commitment that CNN will be back in that rotation of Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, that covers the president on a daily basis, covers his activities, disseminates the material of what the president is doing, not just the Q &A, all of his visits and public appearances in front of the camera.

47:50Obviously, that is something we very much look forward to returning to do as soon as we are allowed to. Kaylin Collins at the White House doing her job. Thanks so much. Don't miss Kaylin on her show. The source of Kaylin Collins, her guest tonight, include Republican Congressman Thomas Massey of Kentucky. That's tonight at 9 Eastern, only on CNN. Joining us now in studio, a rare treat, Republican Congressman from South Dakota, Dusty Johnson. He's a member on the House Select Committee on China. So you have more information about Xi Jinping and how China is being run than the average person, certainly more than I have, because you probably get intelligence that I don't have classified information.

48:28What do you make of all the pomp and circumstance? I think the pomp and circumstance is fine, but we just need to make sure that we remember as a country and that the president remembers, and I'm sure he is, we cannot threaten and we cannot charm Xi Jinping into a good deal. This is a very savvy operator. And the president's very good at leveraging and threatening and charming people, Americans, into good deals. But Xi Jinping, this is a real geopolitical threat. This is an important set of meetings, and I hope they go well. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that if the president had asked him, he would have said, engage with Xi, but don't throw him a state dinner.

49:05Don't roll out the red carpet. What advice would you have given him? I think Wicker's right. But listen, I think it's important to generally defer to a president of either party on foreign affairs. There are no easy answers in foreign affairs. If I know the president's wrong, I'll say so. But if it's a gray area decision, I think generally politicians should try to back the play of our head of state. Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy was asked if he had any concerns about China working with Iran to spy on the U.S. during this state visit. Here's what he had to say.

49:48Do you agree? Of course, I'm not anywhere near as eloquent or folksy as the senator is. But yeah, I called Xi savvy because I was trying to be diplomatic. But this guy does lie. He is a master manipulator. And we should make sure that he does not manipulate this administration into deals that do not serve American interests. Why do you think Trump today called Xi strong, vibrant and fit? not long after President Trump basically accused China of stealing the 2020 election from him in that big primetime press conference. I think this is a tactic the president uses a lot. He loves flattery, particularly of foreign leaders.

50:31And so he says things about Putin that I would never say. He says things about Xi that I would never say. And listen, that's a tactic he uses. Let's hope that it bears some fruit. But flattery is not going to be the way that we get a tough deal with China. So let me ask you, because we've seen the president do this, the flattery, the charm with Mohammed bin Salman, with Kim Jong-un, with Vladimir Putin, with President Xi, even with the Iranians on social media to a degree. Have you ever seen it work in any way? I mean, Putin is still doing Putin stuff and he's still killing all the Ukrainians and I could go on and on and on.

51:11I agree with you. I have no issue with somebody trying a new approach. That was what I thought about Kim Jong-un in the first term. But I've just never seen it work. Well, I don't know to what extent it works. And maybe with North Korea it does work. I would tell you, Putin has been... They still have a nuke. Well, they still have a nuke. Although it's hard to charm somebody out of a nuclear weapon. I mean, if we're being honest, these are difficult situations. I would say with Putin, I get most uncomfortable when we are saying flattering things about Vladimir Putin. This guy is an authoritarian thug.

51:42There is nothing about how he conducts business that is flattery worthy. And part of the strength of America is that in general, over the last 250 years, we have done a good, not a perfect, but a good job of tiling the world about American values. Vladimir Putin is the exact opposite of all of that. A local paper, the South Dakota Searchlight, reports that you spoke to members of the downtown Sioux Falls Rotary Club on Monday about your time in Congress and revealed that you thought Trump sometimes shows a, quote, lack of focus. I assume you mean talking about the ballroom, talking about the reflecting pool, talking about the arch and not being laser-like focused on affordability and ending the war in Iran?

52:23I think they're the same thing. I think a lot of people are burying Republican prospects in the November election. I think 40 days out, it's a little early to say that. I would say, though, our chances of winning are a lot better if we're talking about the border, about what real steps have been taken in affordability, and about us rolling back some of the nonsense that was going on in the culture wars. If we're instead talking about Lake Ontario and the reflecting pool and about whether or not CNN should be a part of the pool, I think Republican prospects are markedly worse. And so, yeah, when I talk about focus, I think Republicans need message discipline because there is a story to be told there, and it doesn't have a damn thing to do with Lake Ontario.

53:06All right, South Dakota Republican Congressman Dusty Johnson. Always good to have you, sir. Thank you so much. A vote to rein in President Trump's war powers narrowly failed today with members of both parties crossing now to vote with their opponents. One of the lawmakers who tried to get it across the finish line joins me to react next. Plus, we're digging into the numbers of CNN's latest poll, which finds an overwhelming majority of Americans worried about the risks of AI. What more could or should the federal government do to regulate this technology?

53:38In our politics lead, congressional opponents of the Iran war came close today, but still could not muster enough votes to invoke the War Powers Act to try to limit President Trump's ability to continue the war in Iran. The final vote was 49-4 and 50 against the resolution in the U.S. Senate. Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat who voted against the resolution. For Republicans, Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky, plus in a new defection from the party line, Tom Tillis of North Carolina, they did vote for the War Powers Resolution, which passed the House back in July.

54:17One of its co-sponsors, Democrat Jason Crowe of Colorado, joins us now. Congressman, what's your reaction to this afternoon's Senate vote?

54:27Well, Jake, if more people than a third of the Senate were running for reelection right now, I suspect that vote would be very different because Americans don't want this war, Republicans and Democrats alike. Donald Trump even campaigned on ending wars in the Middle East, like the very one that he just started, until he changed his mind and decided to get us involved in another quagmire. and Americans have had enough. So we're going to keep on pushing for it as many votes as it will take to send a very strong message from Congress that this war was not authorized by the American people and Americans have had enough.

55:03What exactly does the resolution do and are you going to try again after the midterms? Yeah, the resolution says that we have to cease combat operations in the Middle East and then we have to start drawing down our additional forces related to Iran. What we want to be able to do in addition to this, if we retake Congress, what we need to do is actually reform the War Powers Resolution of 1973, reform the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, sunset those so there are no more blank checks. I don't care whether you're a Republican president or a Democrat president, no more blank checks from Congress.

55:41If you want to go to war, you want to send our men and women off to fight, and you want to spend hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars to do it. You have to come to the American people, do their elected representatives, and we have to debate it. And then we have to be held accountable for those votes and we have to finance it. So we have to start cutting the money off. That's the bottom line. There should be no endless stream of money to fund these conflicts. Americans are done paying for this without accountability. You're a former Army Ranger. You served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

56:09I want to get your reaction to something we learned yesterday, and that is that eight U.S. Navy personnel assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, eight of them attempted suicide during combat operations against Iran. The carrier set a modern record for its time at sea and finally is on its way home. Thankfully, none of those eight suicide attempts were successful. But what's your reaction? Well, this just shows the amount of strain and extreme pressure that our military is under. And, you know, I talked about how Donald Trump just a minute ago, how he campaigned on ending these wars and actually bringing our service members back from this endless cycle of conflict and helping rebuild our military.

56:51You know, invest in new systems, invest in drone technology, invest in the things that we're seeing on the battlefields of Ukraine. That's the future of warfare. But most importantly, invest in our service members, invest in their families, time at home, you know, help them fill their cups up, be whole, focus on their families. That is what makes a strong military. So when we actually face threats that we have to encounter, we're ready to go. And they're ready to meet that. Not these endless open-ended conflicts where we set new records for aircraft carriers being at sea longer than they need to be because we started a war without a plan.

57:27That's what happened. We started this war. There was no plan. There was no off-ramp. And an aircraft carrier was stuck at sea twice as long as it should have been. and the stress and strain on our sailors was evident as a result of that. A new article in the Atlantic magazine says that some people around President Trump, though not in the White House, but outside the White House, they want him to declare martial law for the midterms. And in the New Republic, conservative former judge Michael Ludic warns that congressional Republicans may claim that the election was stolen and refuse to seat newly elected Democrats when Congress convenes next January.

58:00How worried are you that the midterm elections are going to be blocked in some way by President Trump? I think that Donald Trump and the sycophants around him are going to try to cheat. That's what I think. I also know that our elections are safe. They're secure. There's been no foreign interference. We have some of the most secure elections in the world. We've literally had thousands of elections that have happened at all levels, state, local, municipal, special districts, federal that have happened in the last few years that have gone off very well. In Colorado, we have some of the most secure elections in the country with the second highest level of voter participation.

58:43So Americans need to show up. They need to show up. They need to vote for their preferred candidate. They need to elect people who aren't going to be corrupt, who aren't going to fall into the corruption of this administration. Democrats are going to take back the House. And then we're going to have to make sure that whatever hijinks Donald Trump and those around him are up to, because they know they can't win unless they try to cheat, that we block that, that we mobilize, we organize, we're going to communicate, we're going to tell the truth, we're going to litigate if we need to, and we're going to make sure that Americans' voices are heard and we restore our democracy.

59:18Congressman Jason Crowe, Democrat of Colorado, thank you, sir. The 2026 midterms are filled with political content coming from not normal people, regular people, but paid influencers pretending. Who are they? Are they even in the United States? That story's next.

1:00:00for us now. Some of these paid influencers do not even live in the states that they're posting about and in fact some of them don't even live in the United States. You have to work 47 percent more to afford rent in Texas compared to California. The cost of living in the Lone Star State is unbearable. That was the essence of the claim in this TikTok from a user going by the name Drew. A post so popular, the California governor's social media feed shared it twice. But the New York Times found Drew was not his real name. The math was made up. And in a later post since deleted, he admitted the whole thing was backed by an app offering money.

1:00:44So they were paying me to post very left-leaning stuff about how Texas was super expensive and how it has been hard for me living in Texas. I don't even f***ing live in Texas. I'm from Utah. I'm in Florida right now. It's part of what the Times calls an army of paid creators carpeting the web with political content. From the left, right and center, pushing social media engagement that seems like a grassroots movement. You can normalize something online by repeating it a billion times. And that's essentially what these things are trying to do. Here's how it works. Social media users connect with an app or website of unclear origin, promising payment for basically scripted posts about chosen candidates or issues.

1:01:31By fulfilling the orders, the users push those subjects deeper into the online debate, where social media algorithms then see the topics as popular and push them even more. It's really cheap. It's fast. It's agile. It's not broadly illegal, but in a word, it is advertising. And even though Drew did not respond to the New York Times request for further comment, he did have thoughts after he says his deal was cut off. It's really f***ed up, though, because you have so much stuff on your reels that isn't labeled as ads. It's just people making videos about stuff that really is an ad. It doesn't matter if you live here or here.

1:02:11That's key because traditional political ads must reveal who is writing the checks. And I approve this message. But the federal rules dictating that don't apply to this paid online content. So who is behind all this influence on American politics just grows murkier. We found many, many accounts in Pakistan, Nigeria, Philippines. Hard to imagine they have much connection to it, but they know how to cash a check, I suppose. And again, this is being done by Democrats and by Republicans and by independents. And yet, for the people who are actually doing it, the Times reporter said to me, you know, the few people they could actually get a hold of, many of them said, I would never post something I did not believe in.

1:02:57The pay made the difference, though. But he said, really, for most people, the overwhelming sentiment was, these are just people trying to make a buck. It has nothing to do with politics or anything they believe. They're just trying to make some money in a difficult time. It's different for the people hiring them, though. Very, very different. Tom Foreman, thanks so much. From North Carolina all the way up to New England, millions of residents are right now bracing for impact tonight as the powerful nor 'easter barrels up the coast. Where it is this hour, where it's headed next after the break.

1:03:33International lead from North Carolina all the way up to New England. Millions of Americans are bracing for a rare September nor 'easter. The storm is gaining strength. It's expected to slam states with coastal flooding, heavy rains, powerful winds. CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is in the weather centers. Allison, when and where will the worst of this storm be? Yeah, the when comes this weekend, the where really is very spread out. I mean, essentially up and down the eastern seaboard, you're going to see some type of impact. We're already starting to see those winds up around 20 to 30 miles per hour sustained with the gusts being even higher for places like Ocean City and even around Virginia Beach.

1:04:13That is one component of this nor 'easter. The other is certainly going to be the coastal flooding. You've already got those flood advisories, watches and warnings in place for areas stretching from Boston all the way down to Norfolk. So you're talking a pretty widespread area that's going to be dealing with the storm. Now you see two low pressure systems here out in the open water. It's the closer one. That's the one that's going to be causing all of the problems here over the next several days. Now, right now, just kind of hovering off the coast of the Carolinas, bringing some showers and thunderstorms to that particular area.

1:04:42But what it's going to do is it's going to strengthen as it continues to slide up the east coast. So by the time we get to Friday, now you're starting to see some of those heavier rain bands into Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and into New York. By Saturday morning, some really heavy rain starts to enter these areas, and you also start to see it overspread into places like Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and even into Maine. Some of these areas are talking pretty heavy rain, four to six inches. Other areas it could be in terms of coastal flooding, but you also have the rip currents up and down the entire eastern seaboard.

1:05:15Alison Chinchar, thanks so much. Cue the election music, everyone. We're just 40 days from Election Day in this year's midterms, and artificial intelligence is emerging as a major issue for voters. In fact, a brand new CNN poll finds 87 % of registered voters say AI and data centers will be an important factor in their vote for Congress. Voter concerns about this emerging technology run deep. 75 % of Americans fear the growth and development of AI, while nearly 90 % are more concerned than excited that AI could one day surpass human intelligence. Those concerns may be valid, as OpenAI says one of its agents went rogue again, this time hacking Australia's national healthcare system in June, accessing public and non-public data.

1:06:00Let's bring in a rather unique voice on this issue. Her name is Nicole Laughlin. She's a former attorney at the AI company Databricks. She's also the Democratic nominee in the House race for Florida's 26th congressional district. Thank you so much for joining us. So what do you make of these polls? Are Americans right to be concerned of AI? So I think that, first of all, thank you for having me. Yes, I think that their concerns are valid because we look at, you know, just this last week, we have the news of OpenAI attacking the Australian health system. And before that, it was the OpenAI agents, an agent swarm hacking into Hugging Face.

1:06:43So I think that it's clear that we have reached a point where we need, and by we, I mean the United States government needs to step in and regulate this technology before it gets out of hand and that we can't control it. Because I do think that there is a window where we can get in front of it, but that window is closing fast. So in terms of this latest hacking incident by an OpenAI agent, a spokesperson for OpenAI says that the agent, this AI agent or bot, hacked Australia's government health care system in June. The company says they didn't discover the breach until August, and then they didn't notify the Australian government until September 10th.

1:07:27Now, OpenAI says they found no evidence that patient records were accessed. But what do you make of the breach? What do you make of the delay in discovering it and the delay in reporting it? I think that all of those things make it clear that we need more safety built into these tools, even when we're testing them. You know, no powerful tool can only be used for good. And while I do think that this technology is a game changer, we can solve unsolvable math problems. And if it's pointed at the right problem, I think that we are going to have leaps and bounds of scientific discoveries and things like that.

1:08:18But we need safety features built into this tech rather than put on as an afterthought. Think about cars. When we first started making cars, it wasn't until about 60 years later that we really had the safety of it nailed down. And we simply do not have the luxury of doing that with AI because it is going to get exponentially smarter and better. And then we will not be the apex intelligence on this planet. and it will be a lot harder to control it when it is way smarter than us. You've warned that these AI agents or bots can forget that humans are in control and they can make decisions based on what they think is important, not humans.

1:09:00How realistic do you think are the warnings that AI could actually wipe out humanity? So I think right now the risk is more that bad actors could use this technology to do something rather than, you know, it going off on its own and having some diabolical plot to erase humanity. But, you know, it could hack into the CDC, for instance, if it decided that that was something that it wanted to do, because we are seeing that, you know, these models are clearly doing things that they weren't told to do. They weren't given instructions to do. So, you know, it's not a far flung possibility that, you know, it hacks into the CDC system and there's some disease in there that it learns about and releases or, you know, it's not very hard to catastrophize these situations.

1:10:00So I really think that we need and when OpenAI and the CEOs are coming out saying that they that we need regulation, I think that we should listen to them. But I also think, you know, we should look at the totality of the circumstances as to why they're coming out and saying that, because, you know, that for OpenAI, it also is pacing with them saying they want to slow down their IPO. So is it that these technologies are actually out of control or is it that, you know, potentially there's not the ROI on the investment that we thought there was? And so, you know, so there's there's a few different things.

1:10:44But I do think in general, we need to put safety first because you we have to be able to keep people responsible. And one of the things that's really concerning about this technology is that it has emergent behavior. It has shown that it has functions and features that emerge from it rather than it being programmed to do that. Right. You know, like it has it's deceitful. It it can know when it's being tested and perform differently on tests. It can obviously break out of its containers and things like that. So, you know, it's showing that we do need we do need guardrails now before before it's too late.

1:11:31Yeah. All right. Thank you so much, Nicole Lachlan. Really appreciate it. And we should note we did extend an invitation to her opponent in the race, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart. We have not heard back from his office. Nicole, again, thank you so much. We have some breaking news for you now. CNN was just denied access to cover the arrivals for the state dinner for Chinese leader Xi Jinping. CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes is at the White House. Kristen, this is the latest chapter in this battle over not only media access at the White House, but the First Amendment to the U.S.

1:12:01Constitution. Tell us what happened. Yeah, and I do want to be clear here. This was not a pool event. This was a pre-credentialed media event before the state dinner. We submitted our credentials or our names for credentials last night. We didn't hear back shortly before the actual event. We did hear from the White House asking for names of who would be attending. Like all of the other TV pool networks, we are doing the exact same thing that they are doing, which is sending an editorial presence, but not a camera presence. That is what we have been doing. That has been part of all of the TV networks banning together.

1:12:33and all of the other TV networks were submitting or sending either correspondents or producers, no cameras. When we walked to the top of the line to get inside, they told us that we were to talk to the press office, specifically Stephen Chong, and that we were only, that our allowance for going into the event was only to be a camera, an audio, no editorial presence. Again, the arrangement that all of the networks have right now is that we are only sending in an editorial presence, not sending in the camera because of what we know is happening with the pool and CNN being taken out of the pool rotation.

1:13:12They again said that we were specifically denied access and that they were not letting in the CNN editorial presence. All right. Kristen Holmes, thanks so much. Yet another egregious violation of the First Amendment and the judge's order by the Trump White House. Coming up next, what a new article reveals about growing concerns about what the president may do when it comes to the midterms and his election fraud lies.

1:13:45in our politics lead with just 40 days left until election day there is growing concern among experts about what president trump might do as he continues to push baseless election fraud claims and as the republican party appears headed toward losses in the midterm elections Democrats right now are enjoying an eight-point lead over the GOP in the latest generic ballot in the battle for control of the House. A new report from The Atlantic magazine details how a slew of outside advisors to President Trump are urging him to take control of federal elections this November. A key player in the scheme, according to The Atlantic, is an attorney named Peter Tickton.

1:14:24He's a longtime friend of Trump. They went to military school together as teenagers. Tickton told the Atlantic magazine that Trump could decide to declare martial law on or around Election Day. Tickton is also the attorney for convicted election denier Tina Peters out of Colorado. Her sentence was commuted by Colorado Governor Jared Polis. Soon after her time in prison was commuted, she met with President Trump at the White House. This is what Peters said about that meeting. There is a plan. yesterday when I was with the president, he talked to, and I can't get into the plan. Understood. Please don't.

1:15:02But we talked, you know, he basically said to his lead counsel to do what I was asking. There is a plan, says Tina Peters. And it's not just the figure circling the president saying this out loud. President Trump himself has publicly called for greater federal control of elections. This is what he told his former deputy FBI director, Dan Bongino, on his podcast in February. The Republicans should say we want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. And then there's Trump's response back in August to radio host Wayne Allen Root's suggestion that he should declare a national security emergency to mandate his preferred changes to the elections.

1:15:53You have the right to declare a national security emergency for elections. Let me just say that stranger things have happened. Okay, I'll leave it at that. He said, let me just say that stranger things have happened. Okay, I'll leave it at that. During the Republican convention this month, Trump sarcastically asked his supporters to make this pledge. I don't care if I'm registered or not. I'm going to try and cheat like hell like they do. When asked for comment by The Atlantic, the White House said that figures such as Tickton and Peters and Wayne Allen Root play no role in election policy at the White House.

1:16:29That's good to know. But then again, neither did discredited MAGA attorney Sidney Powell and General Michael Flynn, both being boosters of the 2020 election lie. They were not official election advisers. And yet you will recall in December 2020, in the midst of various Trump and Trump allies plots to overturn the free and fair election of 2020, Powell and Flynn told the president he should seize voting machines in key states. A move then Attorney General Bill Barr told the president he could not do. So that happened in 2020. the only reason I bring it up is because in 2026, January of this year, President Trump told the New York Times that he regrets not having seized the machines.

1:17:11I should have, he said. Now, the president continues to make public comments and take active steps to push more election fraud claims, not just about 2020, but 2022 and 2024 and 2026, claims that could theoretically be used by the president to take extraordinary actions. In February, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence under then-Director Tulsi Gabbard said it obtained electronic voting machines seized from Puerto Rico to look for, quote, security vulnerabilities. In July, the FBI assigned analysts to examine ballots and election materials seized from Fulton County, Georgia, right near Atlanta.

1:17:47Of course, to date, no evidence of large-scale vote rigging or foreign interference has been found as a result of any of these measures. So the big question we continue to ask, what is the president planning? We do not know, but we will keep watching and keep you up to date, whether from inside the White House or outside. The panel joins us now. Mark Williams, I'm not going to ask you to defend this, but I want to know what you think about the fact that, according to The Atlantic, there are people in Trump's inner circle who say it's possible. We'll listen to the demands from these election-denying supporters outside the White House.

1:18:23How concerned are you? Not a lot. I don't think anyone that's serious really takes this seriously. There's no one serious that's saying this is actually going to happen. So the Republicans aren't saying it. The Supreme Court is not going to go for it. The Joint Chiefs aren't going to go for it. So at the end of the day, the president doesn't really have that power to do this, regardless of what his election attorney is saying. We all took civics, government, whatever. We know that the states administer the elections. We know that Congress writes the rules. At the end of the day, Republicans start talking about voter ID, and the coverage turns into, oh my gosh, this is the end of the republic.

1:18:56You know, the bombastic coverage that the Atlantic gives is Trump talks voter ID. You guys need to go look for your bomb shelters. Karen Finney, the Atlantic asked Tickton, this attorney who's advising him to declare martial law, about the possibility of riots should Trump try to overturn the 2026 midterm election results. And Tickton told the Atlantic he was not concerned. Quote, believe me, our armed forces are a lot bigger than they are. Yeah, that was not, sorry, that's not reassuring when he says that and you say, you know, hit the bunker. Look, Democrats. That's not me. That's the Atlantic saying that.

1:19:30The Democrats are taking it very seriously because one of the things we've all learned about Donald Trump, you cannot say it would never happen. I mean, here we are. Not after January 6th, 2021. Or, I don't know, today as CNN is not in the pool and there is a White House state dinner, which I used to work on. The idea of not having the press there was insane, right? So you can't say it wouldn't happen. And he does tend to telegraph what he's thinking in these kind of comments. And we've learned in the past, you've got to actually pay attention to him. It may be the case that it's not successful.

1:20:04That doesn't mean he may not try something. And so you've seen secretaries of state, state attorneys general, governors, even Republican governors, actually, tabletop exercises and lots of different meetings to try to anticipate if there is some kind of action. The last thing I'll mention is don't forget Kash Patel, when he was on the Hill, when he was asked, will you deploy troops or resources to polling locations, he wouldn't really answer the question. Meanwhile, if you watch Fox, you might notice there's a new TV ad that is generating a lot of attention and heat and criticism. Make sure to look at the words on the bottom of the screen at the end.

1:20:45Here is just a little piece of the ad.

1:20:51He's the toughest, most resilient person that I've ever met, and nothing was going to stop him from fighting so hard for the country he loves. So that's UFC President Dana White saying he's the toughest, most resilient person I've ever met. nothing was going to stop him from fighting so hard for the country. He loves an ad that's really just a love song to President Trump. We should note that Jameson, the singer-songwriter whose song was playing in the background, he suggested on X that the Trump administration use the song Love Me without his permission. He's going to look at lawyers and handle it internally.

1:21:25But the most important part of that ad is that it said, paid for by the U.S. government. I've seen the U.S. government pay for a lot of stuff that I would say is a real waste of money, but nothing quite like that. I mean, call me old fashioned. I think I'd rather see an ad like this versus trans operas in Zanzibar, which is what the Biden administration had. Look, I think this administration will answer for whether this is appropriate or not. I think it's really telling, or maybe it's a bit of 4D chess, that they spent$14 ,000 on one ad and are getting$14 million worth of earned media out of it.

1:21:59Interesting. We'll see. Is it a good election year ploy? The proof will be in the pudding. What do you think, Karen? It's out of touch. I mean, if that's what he thinks the American people want to hear right now, that's what struck me when I saw it. I mean, again, people are worried about gas prices. They're worried about their groceries. They're worried about their everyday lives. And Trump thinks that this is a moment to be uber masculine and show what a tough guy he is. I don't think people are concerned about that. So I want to read to you what the White House said, because obviously Democrats are pushing back on it, such as yourself.

1:22:35The White House says, quote, these public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country and understand what makes it worth defending at home, at our borders and abroad. The ad is educational and unapologetically patriotic. We should be proud of our country. Yeah. You know what? Love our love this country. Proud of it. That's why I hope everybody goes to the polls, votes this guy, you know, votes Republicans out and Democrats in so we can be a check on power. I don't think we need to be reminded. And we certainly don't need to pay to be reminded to love our country. I'd rather see them, you know, do those kind of ads that you used to see where it was about.

1:23:06Don't do drugs, kids. How about that? Well, I think being not communist is a good, good ad. When you have a communist country over for dinner, by the way. I'm just saying. What do you think? I mean, it's about reminding people to love their country. It is. And it's a motivation to get his base out to the polls. Like when you think about it, just overall writ large, like he is trying to remind Republican voters, I am on the ballot. Yeah, but that's paid for by the U.S. government. That's my only question. I don't think I would. I don't think any. I think if that were paid for by the Trump administration, I mean, by the Trump campaign or the Republican or the RNC, I don't even think anybody would have noticed it.

1:23:43I think we can run anti-communist ads. Any thoughts about the ban going on with CNN, MSN Now and Politico and our reporter being turned away from the. I mean, it's really, I mean, I'm sort of speechless only because, again, having been a White House press person where, particularly when you have such an important moment of diplomacy, you want the press there to cover it. You want America to see that the president and other world leaders, you come together, you can break bread, you can have conversation. But again, it just shows, I mean, he is such a petulant child when it comes to things like this.

1:24:23And look, I think it's pretty clear they're going to lose the case because they don't like because you were mean to him. I mean, Jake, did you say something mean about the guy today? Is that why we can't be in the pool? I haven't said anything mean about him. I've said something mean about President Xi. Oh, well, maybe that's true. Do people watch state dinners? I guess that's that's my biggest thing. I have to tell you, I don't even remember coverage of a state dinner like for the past 20 years. You don't remember the Salahis who snuck into the state dinner during the Obama years? Oh, man, that's a story.

1:24:51I'm watching The Voice or something else, I guess. I got a tail for you during the commercial. Thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. And in our National League, one of the men who was seriously wounded in that tragic attempted assassination of President Trump at the 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has died. Jim Copenhaver was 76 years old. This is according to the House Republican Twitter account, which posted in part, quote, We were deeply saddened by the passing of Jim Copenhaver, who was gravely wounded in the horrific shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania. Jim endured unimaginable hardship with strength and perseverance, unquote.

1:25:24In June of this year, Copenhagen filed a lawsuit against the federal government. He was seeking damages and argued that the Secret Service's failures to properly secure the rally made the government liable for his injuries, which he described as serious and grievous. Our condolences to his family and friends. In our money lead, how much would you give to get a piece of the AI pie? For some, the promise of being an early investor in this new industry is worth giving up their own homes. CNN's Natasha Chen traveled to San Francisco to speak with some homeowners who are willing to risk it all. Some people want to stake in AI so badly, they're willing to sell their homes for stock.

1:26:02Like the owner of this vacation home, he's listing it for$2.35 million. He'll take it in cash, of course, but he really wants to sell it for AI stock. Yeah, well, welcome to Chuta Valley. We've been here since 2012. Vijay Chatha has a communications firm, not an AI company, but he says he wants in on the profit when companies like Anthropic and OpenAI go public. You have a second bedroom, larger with a sitting room and an ensuite bathroom. Chatha figures one way he can get stock in these AI companies is to find an insider willing to give him some. That's because usually founders, employees and early investors are the ones who have pre-IPO stock.

1:26:42stock that's about to make them very rich. This is a really interesting time, and you are asking specifically for pre-IPO. Yes. Tell me about why. AI itself is not only gonna impact all of our lives, but we are training the data, we're training the models. So in many ways, we are the product, we should be able to participate in it. The San Francisco Bay Area has seen booms and busts before. This time, the boom is happening here in AI Alley, where you can find companies like Anthropic. Hundreds of people who work around here could become millionaires or multi-millionaires. And not just millionaires, but like lots of zeros.

1:27:19Real estate agent Kelly Croft took me to San Francisco's Marina District. This house here sold this summer for$3.5 million over the asking price for a total of about$10.5 million. So Kelly, you work for Redfin. There was a Redfin report that the wealth from these AI employees could buy up almost a third of San Francisco property. have you been seeing a crazy buy-in like that? I have a buyer, for example, that I started working with last year. He works for AI in the city. So they've doubled their budget just because of the momentum of AI and the valuation of these companies. When you see listings that are asking for cash or AI stock, have you seen anything like that before in your real estate career?

1:28:03I have not. There's a lot of controls on that. And in many cases, the board has to approve the buyer. It's also, you know, a very small group of people who would even be approved. So talk about elitism. Probably the fastest wealth growth in the history of time in any one particular region that I think we can even remember. Will you be disappointed if someone is buying this for cash instead of stock? I will not be disappointed. Natasha Chen, CNN, San Francisco. Wednesday, CNN is going to host the debate in California's race for governor. I'm going to moderate alongside CNN's Dana Bash. That's next Wednesday, 6 p.m.

1:28:39Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern. Aaron Burnett out front starts now. I'll see you tomorrow.

1:29:08have any cash give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch up front payment of 45 dollars for three months 90 dollars for six months or 180 dollars for 12-month plan required 15 dollars per month equivalent taxes and fees extra new customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy see terms farming on cnn willie nelson and family john mellencamp neil young dave matthews and tim reynolds margo price nathaniel rateliff farm aid september 26th on cnn and streaming with an all-access subscription