Press Ban, Xi-Trump Meeting, UN Addresses 

0:07This is CNN Breaking News. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown and you're in the Situation Room. We're watching three major breaking stories at this hour. A new development in the press band. We're still not able to access the White House even after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to immediately reinstate access to CNN, MSNOW, and Politico. An emergency hearing has just been filed by all three news outlets. We're going to bring you all the latest developments. Also, Pamela. President Trump is about to welcome Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and this is a critical meeting.

0:48The two are expected to address artificial intelligence, the ongoing wars, and trade, among other important items. And we're also watching what's going on in New York City right now, where we expect the Prime Minister of Israel and the Palestinian leader to address the United Nations. And new this morning, the city police and the Secret Service are looking into three people seen exiting the sewer near Benjamin Netanyahu's hotel in New York. The latest reporting straight ahead. And we are covering these major breaking stories with our team of reporters and analysts stationed in key locations where the news is being made.

1:26We are live near the White House here in Washington and New York all morning. And breaking news still outside the White House. This morning, some CNN, MSNOW and Politico staff have not been able to access White House grounds even after multiple attempts. This is despite an overnight ruling overturning the Trump administration's ban on the media organizations and reinstating their passes. Thanks, Wolf. For more on all these breaking news stories, I want to bring in CNN's senior White House reporter Betsy Klein, CNN crime and justice correspondent Caitlin Polantz, CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Ellie Honig, and CNN media analyst and media correspondent over at Axios, Sarah Fisher.

2:08CNN, MSNOW, and Politico have just filed an emergency request for a formal hearing this morning. Caitlin, what more can you tell us? Set yet, and Judge Kelly hasn't yet responded. But what's on the books before him right now is that there is not compliance yet from the White House, letting the press, letting the journalists from CNN, MSNOW, and Politico, whose press credentials had to be restored under that court order late last night about nine hours ago, they are not yet able to get into the building. They also say the media lawyers representing these three news outlets say that they reached out to the Justice Department this morning wanting to call the court together because there had not been access given when people like Betsy, Betsy Klein, our own Betsy Klein over at the White House was unable to get there when she was refused access this morning.

3:10They also note that the Secret Service has confiscated the hard passes of some journalists who had hard passes from CNN, MSNOW or Politico showed up at the doorfront of the White House to get in. They don't have those passes, at least at this time, as we know. This would be a major moment in what happens next. We just don't know how this may play out. the judge's order was unequivocal and it was immediate that those passes those press credentials for all three news organizations access to the white house needed to be restored that means today and i did just get a statement from a first amendment group that's well known out there and it's been watching the situation closely putting it into a little perspective this is a statement from the foundation of for individual rights and expression known as fire they say refusing to abide by Judge Kelly's clear order would be a dangerous escalation and a clear affront to the rule of law.

4:11That's where we are now. But let's see how this plays out, what the judge may do, and also what the Trump administration might do in what has apparently become quite a standoff. Betsy, you were one of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Walk us through what your experience has been like today. Well, for all the reasons that Caitlin just laid out, It's really an open question at this stage whether the Trump administration is in open defiance of this court order or if this is more of a clerical, bureaucratic issue. But let me just take you through the sequence of events. President Trump on Friday issuing that post to social media announcing that he would be banning CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House.

4:51Then on Saturday morning, I was one of the reporters who attempted to access the White House. My badge, my White House hard pass credential that I used to get in every day was seized by the U.S. Secret Service in compliance with the president's ban. Then around 1258 this morning, that judge issued that temporary restraining order saying that the White House must immediately reinstate our credentials. So we first attempted to get in just after six o 'clock this morning, around 610. I went to the U.S. Secret Service checkpoint that's just across the street behind me and presented them with my driver's license as well as my CNN ID.

5:27They said I was not in the system. So I sent an email to the White House press wranglers and to the White House press office seeking comment, trying to get in in the way that we would get in if we had lost or misplaced our hard passes and did not receive a response. A little while later, our colleague, a producer, was able to get into the White House with her hard pass around 630. Ten minutes after that, around 6.40, our photojournalist colleague was also attempted to get into the White House. He was turned away and his badge was seized. Then I tried again at 8 a.m. and then once more at 9 a.m.

6:03after the course of normal business hours. But right now, we are still unable to get into the White House. And this is notable particularly because right behind me you may see President Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, is arriving here at the White House for a state visit. And this is a very high-stakes moment for President Trump. He is going to welcome him with all of the pomp and circumstance. And we actually just heard from the print pool reporter. It's a reporter from The Washington Times. They said that the press was assembling to go cover China's leader's arrival. And she said in that note, quote, on a side note, although a court decision restored media access to CNN, Politico and MSNOW earlier this morning, we are currently without a network pool camera.

6:47And what that means is that there will not be televised coverage from these five networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox News of this arrival ceremony that the president has been looking forward to for so many months now, Pamela. Wow. I mean, I don't remember a time, Betsy, where you wouldn't have that kind of coverage for a big visit like this with the leader of another superpower like China. Wolf? You know, it is unprecedented. I spent seven years as a White House correspondent. It never even dawned on me that something like this could happen. So, Sarah, give us a little perspective now. What's really going on?

7:25Well, broadly speaking, this is embarrassing for the United States, especially when we are meeting with the leader of a communist country. We're supposed to be representing democracy and freedom of the press. But what this means for press freedoms, the judge's injunction basically said that they feel as though the plaintiffs are likely to win on the grounds of the Fifth Amendment on due process, Wolf. But it has yet to be litigated whether or not the plaintiffs' claims around the First Amendment violations are going to hold up. And that will be a key milestone historically in press freedoms. If this case moves on after the 14-day restraining order ends and we start to litigate the First Amendment and the plaintiffs are found, or the defendants are found guilty, it reinforces the power and the precedent that has been set already that the First Amendment protects the press in situations like this, that you cannot unilaterally ban certain outlets of reporters from the White House once you've opened up access for all of them.

8:20So the silver lining here, Wolf, is that this whole kerfuffle may actually end up strengthening the press freedom precedents that the law has long protected. Well, that would be good if that happened. So far, it's not happening. Pamela. Yeah, I want to bring in Ali Honig just for that legal perspective. I mean, is the White House breaking the law right now? I mean, what happens next here? Well, they're absolutely in defiance of the judge's order. The big question is, Is that the result of something that's just sloppy and unintentional or is that intentional? And every minute that passes is now 10.08 a.m.

8:54makes the latter more likely, make it more likely that it's intentional. And we just heard Betsy Klein say that she's tried numerous times throughout the morning and been denied, including after 9 a.m. Now, it is the exact right move to do what the lawyers for CNN, MSNOW and Politico have done to request an emergency hearing. And I expect the judge will grant that. And by the way, they don't even have to take the time of physically getting everyone into the courtroom. The judge can convene a hearing like this by phone or by Zoom. And let me just try to anticipate a couple of things that may come up.

9:24Number one, if one of the positions that the administration takes is, well, we disagree with the judge's ruling and we intend to appeal. Fine. You can appeal. And if you win, if you can get the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to undo what the judge did last night, then you can deny the pass. But the status quo right now is unequivocal. The judge last night ordered the administration to immediately restore the press credentials to the three media outlets. That is the state of the law right now. So we'll see what the administration says when they go in there. And by the way, just a quick word to the wise here.

10:00Anyone who's going to go into that court or attend that hearing on behalf of the Justice Department and the government needs to be really careful. because if you lie to a court, mislead a court, or are part of defiance of a court, you're putting your own professional future at jeopardy. You're not only risking a potential contempt finding, but that could lead to bar consequences down the line. So I think if you're a lawyer in the position of having to represent the government here, you need to show up for this hearing, you need to be candid, and you cannot be any part of willfully defying a court's order.

10:32All right. That sums it up. Ali Honig, Sarah Fisher, Caitlin Polant and Betsy Kline. Thank you all so much. Over at the White House, the president and the first lady are about to welcome the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, and his wife. And just minutes from now, the two leaders are set to deliver remarks as the world's top economic superpowers hold a critical meeting in a rapidly changing world. CNN White House correspondent Elena Treen and national security correspondent Kylie Atwood are here with me in the Situation Room. Elena, first to you, what are the issues that these leaders are likely to focus on most closely today?

11:07Well, the thing I want to start with before we get into the issues, Wolf, is just that red carpet welcome we saw yesterday with the president. I mean, when was the last time you remember a president going all the way, the Joint Base Andrews, to welcome a foreign leader, let alone... On the tarmac. Exactly, let alone an adversary. And we did hear from the president this morning. This is what he posted about that meeting. He said that Xi, President Xi, looked strong, vibrant, and fit, better than ever. So just to give you a little context of how successful this White House wants this meeting between the two of them, the state visit, to be.

11:38But as for the topics, to your point of what are they going to discuss, there's a myriad of issues. You know, you have Taiwan and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. You have trade, which I'll get into a moment because there was an announcement on that. You have, you know, critical minerals that they're likely to discuss. The war with Iran, which the president yesterday, President Trump, said he does plan to discuss with Xi Jinping. And then, of course, you have this huge issue, which has really been garnering a lot of attention in recent days, is this AI race and both the U.S. and China trying to outpace each other in this.

12:08Now, as for the president is, he did post about this this morning. Well, President Trump wrote this morning, quote, a big day with President Xi of China. Super intelligence, that's essentially his new word to try to make artificial intelligence sound less threatening, will be a big topic of discussion. But I want to leave it exactly where it is. That is China's position. Also, our guardrail is the DOJ. Now, I want to give you a little context. We had a new CNN polling this morning, Wolf, that showed 71 % of Americans say that the federal government is not doing enough to regulate AI. So this is a fascinating time because we know that Xi, of course, also doesn't want these regulations.

12:43He knows that China is fighting or kind of trying to outpace the U.S. when it comes to artificial intelligence. And this is going to be a huge focus. I remind people as well. You're going to have a lot of tech leaders and tech CEOs at the state dinner tonight. There could potentially be a conversation about the futures and risks and dangers of AI. So that's a big topic. And then just to get back to the trade thing, because there was an announcement on this, which I think is important. We heard the Treasury Secretary Scott Besson say yesterday that they have extended the Busan Agreement. That's essentially an agreement that was signed between the U.S.

13:14and China in October of 2025 and South Korea. Essentially, it's an economic detente in tariffs. We know that the U.S. reduced certain tariffs while China resumed purchases of U.S. soybeans and other things. So already they're setting the ground to have this be, again, a good meeting, a positive meeting, one that would push the trade war kind of down the line. And I know as well that the president really, as you can see this morning, talking up Xi. And as well, one other thing I just need to mention is he said he wished he could have had all of this in the presidential ballroom, which, of course, won't be finished for a couple of years.

13:47Won't be finished. So where is that state dinner tonight going to take place? I have to look. Hold on. Actually, I have it here. The state dinner will be just looking at their very lengthy schedule will be in the East Room tonight. That's where they're expected to have it. So a lot smaller than what this ballroom could potentially have for seating. Thanks very much, update. Kylie, China, of course, plays a critical role in the Iran war by providing a lot of economic assistance to Iran, for that matter, as a top trade partner with Iran. How much will these two leaders focus in on the war in Iran?

14:20I've been hearing from U.S. officials and from experts that this is really one of the primary focuses of this visit today. And here's why. The administration is effectively stuck when it comes to the cards that they can play to try and drive an end to this conflict. We saw the conversations between U.S. and officials resume on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly this week, but we haven't seen any really productive follow-through after that meeting. We know there will be more, but we've been here before. China, however, has cards that they could play if they chose to play those cards, and if President Trump is successful in pressuring President Xi to do so.

14:55The first front, of course, is the Iranian exports of oil. China is the number one importer of Iranians' oil. Those numbers have gone down since the war began, but the recipient still hasn't changed. It's still China. So there is a tremendous amount of room for the United States to put pressure on China there. The other area to watch is dual-use imports that Iran is getting from China. A lot of things that Iran imports are viewed as things that are just going towards technology or going towards building goods in Iran that aren't for military use. But when you look at what the use for those goods could actually be, they also have military applications, such as drones.

15:37And so there could be some pressure from the Trump administration to try and drive down China's exports of those goods into Iran. So those are two major buckets for us to be watching as we watch and see what the follow through from the summit actually is. Interesting. Pamela. I want to go over to Mike Valerio in Beijing now to better understand what President Xi is looking for in this summit, Mike. You know, Pamela, besides everything talked about at the table over the past couple of minutes, I think that we have to talk about Taiwan. And that inevitably will be brought to the conversation inside the White House.

16:11And Beijing and President Xi Jinping's want to control Taiwan, the self-governing democracy by force if necessary. So that has been put into sharper focus by the president of the United States, delaying a$14 billion arms package to Taiwan, calling it when he came to this town in May, aboard Air Force One, quote, a very good negotiating chip. So there is reporting, Pamela N. Wolf and everybody at the table from Reuters, that seems to suggest that Chinese leader Xi Jinping will bring up this 1982, 1982 communique between the United States and China, which says for the sake of our friendly conversation here, that the United States will eventually, eventually reduce arms sales to Taiwan, but no time given, undetermined time.

16:59But there is an amendment, an addendum to that, a memo written by President Reagan saying that, well, hold on, the United States could wind down arms sales, but it has to be when there are peaceful solutions of Taiwan differences. So bottom line that will be raised, I think it will be very unlikely to change the American position about Taiwan because there is such strong support from the Republican Party, the president's own party in both chambers of Congress, the House and Senate. And also, we talked about it a little bit with Elena, when you have the president of the United States It's saying that if you win AI, you win the whole ballgame.

17:39You know, the most advanced AI chips are designed by America, but where are they made? Where are these chips made? They are manufactured in Taiwan. So there is very little possibility, according to analysts we speak with, and certainly people here in Beijing, who think that the United States president would want to cede any ground, would want Beijing to take Taiwan by force because that could be another choke point that China would have if it controlled this epicenter of AI chip production, Wolf and Pamela. All right, Mike Valerio, Kylie Atwood, and Elena Trine, thank you all. And still ahead here in the Situation Room, CNN has learned that eight sailors assigned to an aircraft carrier strike group tried to take their own lives while fighting in the Iran war.

18:28You're in the Situation Room, and we'll be right back.

18:41Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. On my podcast, All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities. My guest is Lil Jon. He's a rapper, DJ, and producer known for hits like Get Low and turned down for what? In February 2026, his 27-year-old son Nathan went missing near Nathan's home in Georgia. Three days later, his body was found in a pond nearby. Lil Jon has a memoir that just came out called I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me. It takes time to heal, and I kept myself busy that I didn't let myself mourn. I needed to laugh again. I needed to be silly and interact with people and feel other people's energy and make people happy too.

19:26We have to share so other people can see that they can get through it too. Talking grief, building community. That's what the podcast is all about. This is all there is. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. You may have noticed gambling doesn't require a casino anymore. You can just open up your phone. It's designed to keep us coming back or maybe never even leaving in the first place. We're going to talk to Dr. Timothy Fong, co-director of UCLA's gambling studies program. You're going to learn what your brain is really chasing when you place a bet, and also importantly, how to keep the game from playing you.

20:07Gambling addiction, gambling disorder is the hidden addiction. You can't smell it, you can't taste it, you can't see it, you can't have a urine drug test. Who are we talking about here, Professor? Who's the most likely demographic to be affected by this? Literally any single human on earth. Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we have some breaking news on the emergency hearing just filed on the White House press ban. CNN Crime and Justice correspondent Caitlin Politz is back with another update. Caitlin? Pamela, the Justice Department is now on the hook to explain what is going on to Judge Timothy Kelly, who ordered the White House restore the hard passes, the press credentials to MSNOW, CNN, and Politico.

20:53As of last night at 1 a.m., about nine hours later at 10 o 'clock, the lawyers for these three media organizations went to Judge Kelly and said these press passes have not been restored. Also, that they were trying to contact the Justice Department this morning, and there has been no response. There has been no movement on the White House side. This is clearly a situation that Judge Kelly is taking seriously. He issued that order last night at 1 a.m. He's responding very quickly to tell the Justice Department they need to respond. But Pamela, we're going to have to wait and see what happens in the next couple of hours.

21:281230 p.m., that's the deadline for the White House to explain what is happening here with those White House hard passes. All right, a little over two hours. We'll see what happens. Thank you so much, Caitlin. Wolf? All right, Pamela. Amidst all of this, President Trump and the Chinese leader Xi Jinping are delivering remarks right now over at the White House. And this comes after President Trump rolled out the red carpet, welcoming the leader at Joint Base Andrews last night. The last time a U.S. president did that was back in 1962, underscoring the significance of these current talks. And joining us now is staff writer for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos.

22:05Evan was the former Beijing bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune. Evan, thanks so much for joining us. There's certainly a lot of focus right now on artificial intelligence, the AI race, as it's being called. But China apparently has already pulled ahead of the U.S. in production of electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and pharmaceutical trials. Is the U.S. losing the tech war with China? Well, look, it's clear that China has problems, Wolf. We don't need to gloss over them. We know that they have a big property bubble, for instance. They're still trying to climb out of. They have youth unemployment.

22:41And yet it is remarkable to take stock of their technological progress. I think it surprises many Americans. And it's important you have to separate out what's hype from what's reality. But it is simply a fact that they have been investing, particularly in scientific research over the course of the last generation, steadily building up their capacity. As you mentioned, they they've now surpassed the United States in conducting clinical trials. The Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD surpassed Tesla as the world's largest electric carmaker. It's astonishing to put that in context to where they were, for instance, the last time that Xi Jinping came to the United States to meet with Donald Trump in 2017.

23:23They have made huge gains. And that's what makes this a really important moment, because the question before us is, can these two countries, which are galloping ahead in terms of artificial intelligence, Can they come up with some rules of the road to make sure that this technology is safe? That's that's at the coin of the realm here. But, Evan, you have the president posting on his social media platform, True Social, just this morning that super intelligence will be a topic of conversation between him and President Xi, but also that he wants to leave it exactly where it is. So what does that tell you?

23:59Yeah, the problem there, Pamela, is exactly, as you mentioned, it is he's already told us that he is not inclined to take the kind of steps that, frankly, the innovators of this technology are calling for. Just yesterday at the UN General Assembly, you heard Sam Altman coming forward saying we are prepared to pause the development of this technology because we're concerned about how fast it is growing beyond our capacity to understand it and control it. But the problem at the heart of this is China does not fundamentally trust that the United States is calling for a pause because it wants to make this safer.

24:36They believe that we're doing it because we're trying to hold them back. This gets to the core of Xi Jinping's perception of the United States, that for all of the deference that Trump is showing, you know, all of these gestures of friendliness, rolling out the red carpet, going to the airport in a way that you haven't seen the U.S. president do in decades. None of that, to be perfectly blunt, matters very much in the core strategic understanding that the Chinese have of the United States. And right now, as long as the United States is making clear, as Trump said, that it's also trying to own the future, that it believes that the country that owns AI will win, as long as that's the language, that's very different than the way that the United States and the Soviet Union, for instance, talked about nuclear detente, which was the idea that for the good of both of these countries, you have to be able to come up with an agreement.

25:25And there's still the question, what does WEN exactly look like? Because if you take AI to its natural conclusion, it is super intelligent, it is smarter than all the humans, and it may not be aligned with human values, which is why you have these AI leaders warning just yesterday, right? You had two top AI leaders warning the UN Security Council about the potential dangers of AI. Let's listen to that. No one person or company or country should be able to use the most powerful AI models to impose their worldview on everyone else. If managed poorly, I even believe that AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole.

26:04So Evan, help us better understand how China views this. You know, what's so interesting is China has thought over the last several years that AI is an opportunity for them to finally take the frontier of one of the big technological revolutions. They say we missed out on the industrial revolution at the beginning of the 20th century. We missed out essentially on the information revolution. The Internet, of course, was created in the United States. They say what we want to be at the frontier of the next one. And so they are not inclined to hold back. But here's where the opportunity is. When you have leaders like of of the AI companies like Sam Altman and Dario Amadei saying that this is not an option to do nothing.

26:48This is a moment where we have to come up with steps for our own interests, our own national interests. That that can appeal to China's understanding of what will keep their own people safe. Say, look, we understand we're not gonna come to a grand bargain here. We don't trust each other enough to do it, but let's come up with the bare minimum. Let's come up with a notification system that allows us to be able to say, if you have an incident that affects national security, let's make sure we have people on the opposite ends of a hotline. Let's make sure we're meeting regularly to talk about what's advancing.

27:17Build trust through those kinds of incremental steps. That is a realistic pathway. If this president, frankly, was acting in a way that would be thinking about the long-term safety of the technology rather than the kinds of slogans he can put on social media, those are the kinds of steps that grand strategic thinking would suggest. I think we've seen there's a track record for this. China initially was very skeptical, for instance, of making deals around climate change. They thought that, too, was an effort to try to hold back China's development. But over time, they came to see that if they did not participate in trying to address climate change, that they would, in fact, suffer the consequences.

27:55China would actually be feeling those effects. And so they did become participants. That is, in some ways, can be a blueprint for how the United States and China can begin to start to take steps that are not optional at this point. They are really urgent. These two big powers have to figure out a way to begin to put some guidelines together. It's so critically important indeed. And Evan, as you know, the U.S. still relies on China for a lot of rare earth material, which is essential for making everything from cars to military equipment, especially sophisticated military equipment. How much leverage does that give China over these current talks?

28:34It gives China a lot of leverage, Wolf. This was a real surprise, frankly, to the Trump administration. They came into office saying, as one cabinet member famously said, that China holds nothing but a pair of twos right now because they believe that China's economy was so weak that they would have to fold in the face of American pressure on trade. Turned out not to be the case. China has turned out to have essentially control over a choke point in the global economy. last year when they invoked these kinds of restrictions on rare earth magnets, it caused immediate effects in American companies.

29:08You had a Ford Explorer plant in Chicago that had to suspend production within days. So this is an issue that they are holding over the United States here. So this is not a case where the United States can push China around easily, nor can China push the United States around easily. There is a fact that the two countries are in a position to be able to say, look, we have each other at a moment when this technology is going to define the future. Let's figure out rules of the road that allow these two to compete, but does not allow this technology to run beyond the control that either side would consider safe.

29:43That should be the top priority here. And frankly, I think that my expectations are quite modest, but I think that gradually we are beginning to see over the last several weeks that Chinese leaders are becoming increasingly aware of the risks that AI poses, not only to their own political control, which is their top priority, but also to the security of the country. So that may be the first steps in being able to build some sort of mechanism to keep people safe. Well, let's see if that happens. Evan Asnos, thank you very, very much. Pamela. Thank you so much, Evan. And coming up, security heightened.

30:16The Secret Service and New York police are looking for three people seen crawling out of a sewer near Here's the hotel where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is staying.

30:34Happening now, breaking news. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressing the United Nations General Assembly remotely because the Trump administration has denied him a visa. Hours from now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address the U.N. and he's expected to use his time today to defend Israel's military campaign in Gaza. These speeches come as nearly three years have passed since the October 7th terror attacks in Israel and the subsequent war against Hamas in Gaza. And while the U.S. did not approve a visa for the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, it did allow top Iranian leaders, including Iranian President Masoud Pazeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araki to attend the United Nations General Assembly, even though the U.S.

31:24is at war with Iran. Let's go live right now to CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller. So, John, first of all, what sort of security did the Iranian delegation that's now in New York get from U.S. law enforcement officials? Well, significant security. Wolf, you know, there are 130 world leaders here for this U.N. General Assembly. Six of those world leaders are considered high security threats. The Iranian president is among those. He's being protected by the U.S. Secret Service and the NYPD. It's a significant motorcade with a police escort, the limos, of course, the security team, of course, but also a counter-assault team built in.

32:11So as far as security, politics are aside. They do that based on the threat. As far as the fact that he is at war with the United States, that is unique, Wolf. That's the first time that a world leader who has been at war with the United States has been given a visa to come here and address the United Nations. So his movements in that context are also a little bit limited. While the security is high, he can really move just between the UN and the Iranian permanent mission to the United Nations, which is on the Upper East Side. But unlike other world leaders, he's pretty much got to stay within the box in those two locations or any other authorized bilaterals or meetings.

32:59And as you know, John, the New York Police Department right now and the U.S. Secret Service, they're both investigating after three people were seen exiting a sewer, a sewer, right near the New York City Hotel where the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be staying. What more are you learning about this incident? Well, these individuals were observed by people coming out of the sewer, out of manhole covers, at about 4 o 'clock in the morning and getting into two vehicles, which went northbound on Park Avenue away from the scene. People who saw that called 911. A canvas was done for videos.

33:40A scan was done for any cameras that caught those cars on the move northbound, and there are some cameras there. And then they're going to try to match that against license plate readers and see if they can narrow down those cars. Look, the big concern here is that were agents of a foreign power or terrorist groups operating underneath the hotel, where Bibi Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and another one who's considered a high-threat delegation among the Secret Service and NYPD, was something planted there, done there. They did a sweep of that immediately after 9-1-1 was called with the emergency service unit, and they did a second sweep yesterday that went further and wider with the NYPD, Secret Service, and the Department of Environmental Protection, just to say, is there anything here underneath the street that looks like it's been added or out of place?

34:38Negative results on all that? Their general conclusion is, while they investigate this, these individuals are likely the people who we've been seeing across the city going into the sewers and underground systems urban explorers people looking for valuables scrap metal and so on but I'm an abundance of caution they took all the steps and surveillance around that hotel of course is extremely heightened today as well as those entrances to those systems yeah good point all John Miller, thanks as usual for your expertise. Pamela. All right, Wolf. Right now, the president's ally and pick for FDA commissioner is facing senators on the Hill.

35:19The tough questions Dr. Heidi Overton may get from Republican Senator Bill Cassidy about abortion and the measles vaccine. We'll be back.

35:38New CNN reporting this morning. eight U.S. Navy sailors deployed with the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group attempted suicide during the record-breaking deployment, which included combat operations against Iran. This is all according to a letter dated Tuesday from the acting Navy secretary and obtained by CNN. During my assignment on board the carrier near the Strait of Hormuz in July, where I was embedded, I spoke to several sailors about the challenges at sea. I wish I could tell you it's a blast, but it's pretty repetitive work. So it's hard. You know, it's hard in your mental state, you know, to see for eight months without being on dry land.

36:17It takes a toll on you. So for more on what we have learned from this letter, I want to go live now to CNN national security reporter Zachary Cohen. Tell us more about what you've learned, Zach. Yeah, Pam, this was a letter from acting Navy Secretary Hong Kao to Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who was pushing the acting secretary on questions related to the mental health and morale of the sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, the aircraft carrier that you visited just a couple of months ago. And look, this is the first time really a senior Navy official has acknowledged that eight U.S.

36:53Navy personnel across the entire Lincoln strike group did attempt suicide during this record-breaking deployment, stretching over a year in time, and did include a high tempo and a high rate of combat operations targeting Iran. And I'm told by a U.S. military official that eight suicide attempts is an incredibly high number, even for a deployment as long as the one that the Lincoln has been embarked upon, the official pointing to both the rate of combat operations, as well as the fact that the Lincoln strike group did not make a port call for over six months. And that's really the time that sailors have an opportunity to not just relax and take a break effectively, but also for the ship to resupply and to get food on board.

37:34And that's another question that Kirsten Gillibrand, the senator, was asking the acting Navy secretary about as well. But look, this is a number that is broadly consistent with the number of attempted suicides that we've seen across the entire active duty Navy, most recently in 2024. That's the most recent data published by the Navy, which says that about 356 attempts were made out of a force of roughly 337 hundred thousand. So proportionally, that is consistent with the number that we saw aboard the Lincoln strike group, though it's not an apples to apples comparison. And the Navy has previously said, though, that they do not see an uptick in suicidal ideations aboard the Abraham Lincoln nor its support ships.

38:16A U.S. official also previously saying to CNN that they really didn't see any correlation between an extended deployment and the mental health concerns and suicidal ideations. But this is going to only reinforce concerns that we've heard from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, not just about the Abraham Lincoln, but about the carrier strike group force writ large as the Navy has continued to extend these deployments longer and longer. Yeah, and just for people who may not know what a strike force is, you have the aircraft carrier and then you have the ships, smaller ships with fewer sailors on board that are around it to protect it.

38:48Zachary Cohen, thank you so much. Really, really important reporting there. We know the Abraham Lincoln is on its way home now. Fortunately, if you or someone you know is struggling with mental health issues, there is help. You can call our Texas Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. We'll be right back.

39:10Breaking news, the Senate Health Committee is now holding a confirmation hearing for Dr. Heidi Overton, President Trump's pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration. Overton is currently the deputy director of the White House's Domestic Policy Council and a longtime Trump ally. Her hearing comes four months after Trump's first FDA commissioner, Dr. Marty McCary, resigned amid intense pressure from the White House following a rather rocky tenure. Let's go live right now to CNN medical correspondent, Meg Terrell. Meg, what can we expect from this potentially critical confirmation battle that's now beginning?

39:47What topics are likely to create some friction? Well, what we're expecting, and we've already heard telegraphed from the chair of this committee, Dr. Bill Cassidy, the Republican senator, is that he's going to be very interested in her opinions about vaccines. He said he's going to ask the same question to Dr. Overton as he asked of Dr. Nicole Sapphire, the nominee for Surgeon General, particularly about the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, and whether she agrees with President Trump's statement that it could be lethal. Dr. Sapphire said she did not agree with that. He is going to pose the same question he said to Dr.

40:18Overton. He also signaled that he is interested in what she may do on medication abortion. That is an issue that is before the FDA because several Republican senators have demanded a safety review from the FDA of mifepristone, one of the two medications used for medication abortion. And Dr. Cassidy has signaled this morning that he believes that the FDA should look into whether a doctor's visit should be required in order for people to access that medication, which could potentially curtail the ability for people to receive that drug through the mail. So, of course, that would be a long process that the FDA would undertake.

40:52But Dr. Overton in the past did cheer when Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. And so we'll see how she responds to Dr. Cassidy about that. But of course, Wolf, the FDA regulates a huge amount of the U.S. economy, about 20 cents of every dollar that consumers spend. And so that includes about 80 percent of the food supply, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, tobacco. So we're going to see many issues, of course, come up this morning. Vaccines always with this administration top of mind. Wolf? We'll see what happens. Our medical correspondent, Meg Terrell, thank you very, very much. Pamela. All right, Wolf, here's what's coming up all new at the top of the hour.

41:26where a new CNN poll finds that Americans are more concerned than they are excited about AI development. Find out who they think should be doing more to regulate it. We're going to talk about what this all means with the man known as the godfather of AI. Plus, a Venezuelan man shot by ICE is back in detention after being discharged from a hospital for a second time with a bullet still in his back. We'll speak with a Texas congressman who just paid him a visit. That's all new next hour.

42:13This is CNN Breaking News. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in the Situation Room. There's breaking news. The Justice Department now has 90 minutes, yes, 90 minutes to respond to an emergency request from CNN, MSNOW and Politico. The news outlets filed the request for a court hearing after reporters from all three were refused entry to the White House, even after a federal judge's order to reinstate their access. That judge says the Department of Justice must respond by 1230 p.m. Eastern, about an hour and a half from now.

42:54CNN has reached out to the Department of Justice and the White House for comment. Let's go to our senior justice correspondent, Evan Perez, who's here with me in the Situation Room. Evan, give us a sense of what's going on. Well, right now, Wolf, we're waiting for the administration to respond to the requests from these three news organizations who are asking the judge, essentially, to try to enforce this order that he made overnight. the judge ruling that the news organizations were not given the due process to before they their their their access to the White House was was pulled by the administration and so what we're now waiting for is to see whether the judge is going to hold a hearing perhaps this afternoon as soon as this afternoon because of course time is off the essence one of the things that the news organizations are pointing out is that CNN is due to be the pool, the TV pool, for the visit by the Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the events, of course, this evening at the White House.

43:54And so the access to the White House is key for that to happen this afternoon, this evening. And so now we're waiting to see whether the Justice Department is going to file an appeal. The president has already said that if he lost with this judge that he was going to appeal this but that obviously doesn't matter at this moment the judge has said that he is not going to stay his order because he believes the news organizations are going to to to win on the merits of their argument which is that they were given no due process no no chance essentially to cure whatever problem the white house claims existed as a result of of their reporting which the president says is really the reason why the access to the White House was pulled.

44:38And I give this federal judge, Timothy Kelly, a lot of credit. He's a Trump appointee, too, for doing what he has done. Pamela. All right. I want to bring in CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter. Brian, put this in perspective for us. What does all of this mean for press freedoms? I'm hearing from sources right now at these other networks that are standing in solidarity with CNN. So I was just texting a couple of them as you were coming to me, Pam. One of them describes this as a standoff between the White House and the major networks, because right now Trump and the Chinese leader are meeting, holding that state visit, but we are not showing it live and none of the other networks are showing it live.

45:15Even the Associated Press, which is the collective that sends out pictures to thousands of news organizations around the world, is not showing this state visit or this summit live. That is because there is this extraordinary show of solidarity with the banned news outlets. And that's because, well, all the American news outlets know that any of them could be the next ones to be banned. So we've never seen anything quite like this. And that is why it's a test for press freedom. This has so much more to do with the press writ large than it does with just these three banned outlets. You know, the president holding this state visit and ordinarily it would receive wall to wall live coverage.

45:52ABC is supposed to be on pool duty this morning. They're supposed to be the ones actually providing the live signal to everybody right now. But the news crews all lined up this morning and held back and refused to go in and cover the event due to President Trump's undemocratic conduct. It's nothing short of astonishing. As our colleague Caitlin Collins put it to me a moment ago, right now the Chinese communist state media are allowed on the White House grounds, but we are not. And I think that says it all. That certainly sums it up. Brian Stelter, thanks so much. And we're covering more breaking news.

46:26Just as Brian mentioned, there is a summit going on. It's underway this hour between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. And the leaders of the world's top economic superpowers are holding a critical meeting in a rapidly changing world. They're expected to discuss artificial intelligence, trade and the Iran war, among other pressing challenges. I want to bring in CNN White House correspondent Elena Trin in the Situation Room, along with David Sanger from The New York Times. Elena, what are the top priorities of these leaders coming into the summit? Well, there's a few things. We know that there's a myriad of topics that they have to discuss.

47:01You know, you have Taiwan and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. You have trade, and they just announced this extension of the Busan Agreement, which is, you know, basically pulling back on restrictions on tariffs and things like that. You have critical minerals that will be discussed. And then, of course, AI safety. It's actually something we heard President Donald Trump reference in his remarks moments ago next to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. The president saying the discussions over AI, which he's now dubbed superintelligence, his term for what he argues is a less threatening word, less threatening term, I should say, for AI to promote peace in the future.

47:38One thing I want to note is what the president said this morning on True Social in reference to AI. He said it'll be a big day with President Xi of China. Super intelligence will be a big topic of discussion, but I want to leave it exactly where it is. That is China's position also. Our guardrail is the DOJ. Now, obviously, what the president is saying here is that these calls, and we've heard him say this in the past couple days as well, these calls from different AI leaders warning about the risks and the dangers of artificial intelligence aren't enough for him to push back on this idea of his desire to outpace China.

48:13when it comes to AI. I should know as well that she is also in no mood to set guardrails, Pamela and Wolf, when it comes to artificial intelligence and making sure they stay ahead of this race. I also want to point out the new CNN polling we have today just to put this into context for where Americans are on this. 71 % of adults said that the federal government is not doing enough to regulate AI. So I think that's very important to note. One thing as well I want to talk about is just the optics of this state visit. I think there's no surprise from what we saw with the literal red carpet rolled out for Xi Jinping yesterday, that the president and his team want to make this as successful as possible.

48:49And you kind of heard the president, you know, in a flattering post this morning, say that Xi looks strong, vibrant, and fit, better than ever. I think that sums up for you just the outlook that the White House has for the rest of the events we'll see over the next couple of days, Pam and Wolf. All right. Elena Treen, thanks so much. Wolf? I want to bring in CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger right now. He's the author of the very important book entitled New Cold War is China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West. Must read. David, is this meeting that's about to take place between the Chinese leader and the president of the United States more about substance or is it just symbolism?

49:27Well, there's going to be a lot of symbolism. And the President Wolf, as you just heard from Elena, is determined to make sure that this is a fully successful trip. That said, there are some big substantive issues. Coming back on the plane from Beijing in May, the president told us that he was going to make decisions on arms sales to Taiwan. In fact, he has made no such decision, and we know where Xi Jinping is headed on this. He's trying to get a commitment never to do those arms sales. And in return, it's conceivable he may offer some help with Iran. On AI, I thought listening to Xi Jinping today was really interesting.

50:10While the president made it clear he didn't really want to do much, Xi said, we have to make sure there was always human control, which is more than the president has said in the summer of surprises we've had about agents escaping their sandboxes and hacking into other companies and so forth. And so I think where you're hearing the Chinese president is pushing on the one agreement they had during the Biden years, which was always keep human control over nuclear weapons, not allow AI into that. You could imagine building that out, biological weapons. You could imagine building it out to critical infrastructure issues.

50:56But first, he's got to get the President of the United States off the thought that the whole problem is a hoax. So you think there will be some sort of US-China agreement when it comes to dealing with this potential enormous threat coming from AI? I think it's a little early for agreement. Nuclear arms control, it took 25 years after the bomb went off to even have the first serious nuclear containment discussions. I hope and don't think it'll take that long this time. I think at this moment, just getting communication between them is going to be hard enough. As you know, China is the largest purchaser of Iranian exported oil.

51:39It's a huge issue. And the Chinese provide a lot of sensitive military equipment and other economic aid to Iran. How big of an issue is this going to be between the president and the Chinese leader? Well, it should be a huge issue. President Trump has downplayed to some degree how much of a problem this has been. But there's good evidence to suggest that it was Chinese intelligence, Chinese satellite photographs that helped the Iranians target U.S. bases around the Persian Gulf. In Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan. In Saudi Arabia, Jordan. All of the friendly allies that the U.S. has in the Gulf states.

52:19That's right. And we think that may have been involved in the deaths of some of the Americans who were killed in the missile attacks the Iranians ran. So this is a really serious question. So far, the president has gone very light on the Chinese. He has not made a big deal of this. The question is, does he do something different in private here? Are you surprised that the Iranian leaders, the president, the other leaders in Iran, got visas, entry visas to come to New York and address the United Nations? But the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials were denied entry visas to the United States.

52:58President Abbas had to speak to the U.N. General Assembly from the West Bank. Seemed strange to me. Usually the understanding, since the United States is the host country for the United Nations, is that you allow in foreign leaders, even those you do not like. Gaddafi came in, you know, just before he was overthrown, others. But in the case of the Iranians, clearly they were allowed in because President Trump wanted to get his representatives, Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, talking to them. it was it seemed rather strange to me not to allow in the Palestinians. Yes, it seems strange to me as well.

53:40All right, David Sanger, thank you very, very much. Pamela. All right, Wolf still ahead. Yesterday, we told you all about AI anxiety and how it's real. Well, a new CNN poll confirms it. I'll talk about it with the man known as the godfather of AI, Jeffrey Hinton. You're in the Situation Room, and we'll be right back.

54:04Well, new this morning, a CNN poll finds a majority of Americans say they are more concerned than excited by artificial intelligence and most agree that the federal government should do more to regulate it. This comes as leaders of two top AI companies push for international safety standards. If AI is to be democratic, the most important decisions cannot be made by labs in San Francisco alone. They must be shaped through democratic processes and by governments accountable to the people that they serve. At the international level, this will require cooperation. I believe that this is the most important global security issue facing the world today.

54:43For all the differences of the people in this room, we must put aside those differences in order to confront this global opportunity and global threat that is being presented to us at the same time. With us now is Nobel laureate Jeffrey Hinton, known as the godfather of AI. Good morning. It's so important to have you on to hear your perspective. You just heard Sam Altman and Dario Amadei both urge the UN Security Council to adopt international AI standards. What do you think that should look like? Okay, I think there should be strong government regulation. It's not sufficient just to have standards.

55:22The big AI companies don't want to be regulated. They say they do, but any regulation you suggest they oppose. We should have at least as strong regulations as we do for drugs. You can't just release a new drug without satisfying the FDA that it's safe. We should have the same for AI. But then you have President Trump, who is meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping today. Both countries, as you know, are in this AI race. The president said on social media earlier, quote, Super intelligence, SI, will be a big topic of discussion, but I want to leave it exactly where it is. That is China's position also.

56:03Our guardrail is the DOJ. Jeffrey, if this race continues unregulated, where does that leave humanity? Well, there's three kinds of risk we have to worry about. All of them are bad. There's the risk of bad actors abusing AI for things like cyber attacks or making biological weapons. Terrorists can now make biological viruses relatively easily. There's the risk of negligent harm. So, for example, if Meta encourages teenagers to commit suicide, they didn't do that deliberately. They were just negligent in testing. And then there's the risk of AI itself taking over. So when you make smart AI agents, you have to give them the ability to create sub-goals.

56:50Like if you want to get to Europe, you have a sub-goal of getting to an airport. Well, these smart AI agents very quickly develop the sub-goal of continuing to exist. Because if they don't continue to exist, they won't be able to do the things you ask them to do. And then they will do things like lie and cheat and deceive you and try and blackmail you so that they continue to exist. We've already seen that. It's very scary what these agents do. And the main problem is the big companies in a race to make them smarter. The big companies should be in a race to make them nicer. The only way we can coexist with agents once they're smarter than us is if they don't want to get rid of us.

57:28We should be focusing on that, not on making them smarter. How far away do you think we are from that point of super intelligence where the agents are smarter than us and may not have the same values that are in humans' interest? nobody knows how to estimate this properly the best you can do is listen to the experts and there's a big variety of opinions a few experts think it'll never happen a few experts think it'll be a long time in the future quite a few experts think it'll be in the next few years I personally think it'll be in the next five to ten years and and what is behind that calculation for you tell us more it's looking at the rate of progress we've had so we've had this very dramatic progress, and it seems to be accelerating rather than slowing down.

58:15If you look back 10 years, I think these agents are amazingly much smarter than they were 10 years ago. So even if progress is only linear, in 10 years' time, they'll be amazingly much smarter still, and that will be superintelligence. So do you see the downside outweighing the upside? Because you know there are different camps. There's the optimists, there's the ones who say AI is going to erase humanity. How do you look at that, the upside versus the downside? I think there's a wonderful upside, and that's why we developed this stuff in the first place. We were focused on the upside, like much better health care.

58:50200 ,000 Americans a year die from poor diagnoses, and AI can do medical diagnosis much better already. So there's a wonderful upside in health care and education and making all industries more productive. This should lead to much more goods and services for everybody. The problem is there's also these big risks. And to get that upside, we have to figure out how to deal with these risks. And that's what we should be focusing on so that we get the wonderful upside. So you helped create this technology. At what point did you start becoming really concerned about it? I'm slightly embarrassed that I was rather late to the party.

59:26I didn't get really concerned until the beginning of 2023, when I came to fully understand that they might be a better form of intelligence than us. How do you grapple with that, that you help create this technology and then coming to that realization? So it seems to me it's very important that we figure out how we can peacefully coexist with these things and benefit from the wonderful abilities they'll have without them deciding to take over. So instead of just racing to make AI smarter and smarter, we should be racing to make it into a better kind of being. We're creating beings for the first time.

1:00:05These things really understand what they're saying. They really have intentions. We want them to have good intentions, and we should be focusing a lot more effort on how to achieve that. I want you to listen to what NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wang said about all of these concerns over AI. Let's play it. I don't know what is the reason for it, but however it's characterized, 2030 is not going to be the end of the world. there is 0 % chance that's going to be the end of the world. And so I think that scaring people is unnecessary. It is irresponsible. And I don't know what their motives are. He says that with certainty.

1:00:47What is your take on his response, Jeffrey? First, let me say I have a lot of respect for Jensen Wang. It was his NVIDIA chips that were in quite a large part responsible for this AI revolution. They made the computations much faster. But anybody who says there's a 0 % chance of something, where many other experts are saying there's quite a significant chance, is silly. It means they're totally confident that all the other experts are completely wrong. And Jensen's smarter than that. I want to ask you before we let you go about what happened in Australia. Australia's prime minister says an open AI agent hacked into their healthcare database.

1:01:27It is one of at least four times in recent months that an open AI agent went rogue. You called the hugging face incident a mini Chernobyl. How much of a warning is this for the rest of the world? What happened in Australia? It's another warning to add to the others. It's very clear now that AI agents will go rogue if you give them a chance. it's very clear we need to do a lot more work on how to make them do the things we want and not, in order to get their rewards, start cheating and deceiving us. Jeffrey Hinton, thank you so much. I hope you will continue to come on the show as we cover AI. I believe it's the most important issue of our time.

1:02:08Me too. Thank you. All right. Thank you. And coming up, the district attorney in Austin, Texas, wants an independent investigation right now as federal agencies share a few details about an ice shooting over the weekend. Next, we'll be speaking to a lawmaker fighting to make sure the man who was shot gets the care he needs and doesn't get deported.

1:02:44happening now. New video just coming in from police and social media showing the moments before ICE agents shot and wounded a Venezuelan immigrant Sunday in Austin, Texas. And now a Democratic congressman is accusing the Department of Homeland Security of not taking 28-year-old Wilbur Garces Perez's medical care seriously. Listen. He finally got to see a specialist and that that specialist told him that he needs surgery to remove the bullet that remains in his body. The government should not be allowed to shoot you, take you to the hospital briefly, pull you out of the hospital, have you sleep on concrete floor bleeding and then not have you see a specialist for days.

1:03:33Democratic Congressman Greg Kassar from Texas, whom you just heard from there, joins us now. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for all you're doing. I know you were at the detention center there where Garces Perez is being held. How is he doing, first of all? Good to be here with you, Wolf. I was just with Wilbur Garces Perez yesterday, and look, he's still got a bullet in him. He's in a wheelchair and a sling bleeding out of the wound in his back and covered in bruises on his front. He's trying to keep his spirits up, but he's certainly in severe condition. And so I've made three demands clear.

1:04:14one if uh he chooses to go forward with surgery which his surgeon or specialist has said he needs to get that bullet removed that ice needs to expedite that surgery and not get in the way second ice needs to immediately release all of the body cam footage and dash cam footage from this incident local police has already done so so we need to know exactly what happened get some transparency quickly and third ice needs to cooperate with the independent investigation being led up by local law enforcement. And so the ICE agents involved, as well as Wilbur, should all be interviewed by ICE, but also by local law enforcement, independent investigators, because ICE has proven thus far that they are not trustworthy to investigate themselves.

1:05:02And second, they've proven themselves untrustworthy to protect the health and safety of people, including this horrific lack of medical care over the last few days for Mr. Garces Perez. You say, Congressman, that ICE needs to take his medical care, and I'm quoting you now, extremely seriously. I take it you believe they're not doing that. What else would you like to see them do right now to save this man's life? Right now, they need to make sure that he gets scheduled for that surgery. Of course, surgery comes with its benefits, some risks. And so if he chooses to move forward today, he should be immediately heading to the hospital.

1:05:44And then he doesn't need to go sleep in a detention center. I mean, Wolf, you or I, anybody watching at home, if you just got finished getting shot in the back and are still bleeding, you would still be in medical care. And so he needs a doctor. He does not need a detention. And look, I sent a swarm of agents here a few weeks ago. And many of us said then that they need to leave Austin before it becomes Minneapolis or Houston where somebody gets shot. Unfortunately and tragically, that happened and we do not need it to happen again. Wolf, what they've been doing here is unacceptable. They deported a five-year-old.

1:06:21They arrested a man in front of a church food bank. And now they shot this DoorDash delivery driver in the back and are trying to get him deported before he can get the medical care he needs or testify about what happened. The Department of Homeland Security responded to your claims in a statement to CNN saying that Mr. Garces Perez was, quote, and I'm quoting him now, quoting Department of Homeland Security, receiving medical care around the clock, including pain medication. and DHS denied he was forced to sleep on the floor saying, and I'm quoting now, he slept in a bed, end quote. What's your response to their statement?

1:07:02I mean, DHS and Secretary Mullen have tweeted at me like a dozen times in the last couple of days. They literally are just liars wearing masks with a blank check here from Donald Trump. Remember, this is the same DHS that called Renee Good a terrorist. And then the video came out, showed she's a U.S. citizen, mom in a minivan who was killed needlessly when she was trying to speak out for her neighbors. Here, they are refusing to answer questions about what happened. They've so far stonewalled local investigators. They need to send those investigators the evidence and get to the very truth of this matter.

1:07:40Also, Wolf, if you look at some of DHS's tweets, they tweet mugshot after mugshot of people they say they've arrested who are dangerous and have criminal records. But what's most telling is there's no mugshot of Wilbur Garsas Fettus because he has no criminal record. He was just delivering DoorDash. And like so many other people, ICE is stopping. They are just going after everyday people, and they aren't actually trying to keep our community more safe. I want to bring in my co-anchor, Pamela Brown, a congressman. She has a question about AI. Pamela. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about this legislation.

1:08:15You and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders just introduced the Ban Artificial Super Intelligence Act, and it would pause AI development until a cabinet-level department and secretary is created to regulate AI. Tech leaders could even face up to 20 years in prison for violating the law. President Trump, as you know, has rejected calls for AI regulation. So isn't this a nonstarter while he's in office? look just a year ago pam the only conversation in congress was passing bills to get rid of state level ai safety laws but now we're living in a different world the american public is increasingly becoming aware of how completely deregulated ai threatens our jobs our freedoms and indeed potentially countless lives here.

1:09:03So the ground is rapidly shifting beneath our feet and ideas that people said might've been bold a few months ago. Now our basic common sense, you have the leaders of the AI companies themselves saying their technology could eventually become as dangerous as nuclear weapons. And what Senator Sanders and my proposal does is very simple. It says these should be then regulated like weapons of mass destruction if they can have that level of capability. And so, no, we don't need to tinker a little around the edges. We should simply ban AI systems that evade human control, are too powerful for humans to control.

1:09:40And certainly we need to ban their capability to develop or design nuclear biochemical weapons. Congressman Greg Kassar of Texas, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you both. Thank you. And coming up, help with healthcare. Millions of Americans face the tough choice between skyrocketing prices or skipping treatment that could be life or death. Coming up, we'll talk to a woman who is going through all of this right now.

1:10:13Well, happening now, the rising cost of living is weighing on Americans in more ways than one. As the Iran war impacts the economy and gas prices, health insurance premiums have also skyrocketed for millions of Americans this year. Congress failed to extend enhanced premium subsidies for Americans enrolled through the Affordable Care Act. And that meant those subsidies expired at the start of the year, forcing many Americans to choose higher costs or dropping health care coverage altogether. And that's the case with Kara Wendler. She has had chronic health issues since she was six weeks old. She says she'll likely have to end her coverage in November because it's too expensive.

1:10:53So I want to have Kara join us now to learn more about her story and how what happens in Washington directly impacts people across the country like you, Kara. Thank you so much for coming on. Tell us more about how the cost of your health insurance changed this year and what practical effect that has had on your financial situation. Well, thank you for having me. It changed in major ways throughout the increase in the healthcare premiums the entire time. In 2024, I had to sell my house of 17 years so that I could continue to afford my care. But then after the subsidies expired, or were going to expire, I had to look at what my costs, what my options were going to be.

1:11:43And I have a higher cost plan because I have many specialists and treatments that are only covered under those plans. So I also had to look at what the billed amount to my insurance company was through all of 2025. And that was over$200 ,000 that was billed to my insurance. And that's not something that I would be able to afford. So I had to remain on the higher cost plan so that I could continue to see my specialist and have my treatment. But now even the safety net from the proceeds of selling my house have all been expended on that health care. And there's nothing else that that I can do. So where do you go from here?

1:12:26I'm probably the same answer that a lot of people have. I really I don't know. No. More than likely, I will have to go to a lower cost plan, significantly lower cost per month, but I will also have to find new specialists, new medications. And when you have chronic autoimmune disorders, there are a lot of specialists and testing and medications that don't necessarily work the first try and have to try something else. So this is all going to be starting all over again to find specialists that take a less expensive plan to find medications that are covered. And I'm liquidating little pieces of my life each day to be able to afford these things.

1:13:11And I don't think anybody should have to just break off pieces of their lives just so that they can be covered under their health care. Well, you are certainly not alone. A recent KFF poll found that more than half, that's 54 percent to be precise, of rural voters disapprove of President Trump's handling of health care and largely view his health care policies as having negatively impacted their costs. They say their concerns around health care costs are impacting the way they're thinking about the midterms. Does this resonate with you as you head into the midterms? Oh, absolutely. And the thing about it is that, you know, there's the red and blue side of everything and everybody's disagreements.

1:13:51But this is something that is happening to all Americans, regardless of whether or not you're Republican or Democrat. And the only thing I ever seem to see with politicians are working to get reelected or working to get their next soundbite or working to fan the flames of whatever outrage they can get attention for. And nobody's doing anything to solve this problem. And I think Americans want to see our politicians, our elected officials working for us. I don't expect them to always make our lives super easy, but to, again, put people in a situation where they're choosing having a roof over their head, feeding their family, or getting the necessary medical care that they absolutely need to survive.

1:14:36Which party do you think is most well-equipped to handle health care affordability right now? How will this impact your vote come November? Well, I think the party that's in charge right now hasn't done anything, and maybe it's time to let somebody else drive the car and see what happens. So I need new ideas. And the Republican Party is in charge, and they decided that those subsidies were going to expire. And those are subsidies that myself and millions of Americans need so that they can have that care. So if there are qualified Democrats that have ideas, I want to hear ideas to solve the problem.

1:15:16I want to know what it is that you plan to do. But are you hearing them from Democrats? Like, do you hear ideas from Democrats that inspire you?

1:15:25I hear ideas about bringing back subsidies, bringing back help to the consumer. I mean, also lowering the prices of other things that you have to look into when you're deciding whether or not to pay for your health care costs, food, gas, all those things. I want these prices to come down. I want the war on Iran to end. These are things that I think all Americans want. I think that constituents are not being listened to because it's usually high percentages of constituents who are saying that they want these changes. So if one particular party is in charge right now and those changes aren't being made, then I think we need to put somebody else in charge.

1:16:05More independence possibly? I don't know. But I do know that something needs to be fixed really soon. Cara, best of luck for you. I know that you have a lot going on with your health conditions, and I hope that you'll stay in touch with us and let us know how your journey continues. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. And after the break, we're going to take a look at just how many people could end up losing coverage this year as those prices rise. We'll be right back.

1:16:38Welcome back. We just heard from someone dealing with the effects of higher health insurance premiums after federal subsidies expired at the beginning of the year. So let's dig into what the numbers say with CNN senior writer Tammy Luby. Tammy, you've covered this extensively. How does Kara's story compare to others who have lost coverage this year? Well, sadly, Kara is far from alone. Originally, CMS issued some figures from February, from the actual people who were enrolled as of February. And the drop wasn't terrible. It was 21.8 million in February last year, and it went down to about 19.2 million this year.

1:17:21But we've been seeing that more and more people are dropping out over time. We have a more recent report from 18 states that run their own exchanges. And they said that initially they saw just a 1.4 percent drop in enrollment. But then as of May, the drop, you know, it widened to 8.5 million. And we're seeing in some states like Mississippi, they told me in August, the insurance commissioner said that they're down 63 percent now, you know, as of August. So more and more people are dropping out. And there's some reasons for that. Some like Kara just, you know, they want to keep the insurance. They're trying, but they've seen these premiums go up.

1:18:04They're dealing with higher gas prices. They're dealing with higher grocery prices. And, you know, just over time, they can't keep it up and they're being forced to drop their coverage. But there were also a lot of people what we call were auto re-enrolled. They were enrolled without realizing, you know, it's just a standard practice in the ACA. They're rolled over to the next year. and they may not have checked that their premiums were higher. So when they started getting those first bills in January, February, et cetera, they were like, oh, my God, these premiums are so much higher. I can't afford it.

1:18:34So they're dropping their coverage. So we are seeing a lot more people. I spoke to Cynthia Cox at KFF, and she said some of their preliminary data shows also that enrollment is dropping. And J.D. Vance also announced taking more people off, right? Tell us about that very quickly. Yes, well, that we're not sure actually how many real people were taken off. J.D. Vance announced as part of the White House's anti-fraud efforts on Tuesday that they were removing 760 ,000 enrollments. But the administration is saying that many of those people don't actually exist, that there were brokers and agents who were committing fraud by signing up fake people in order to get commissions.

1:19:15So some of these people don't exist. Some of these people may not may have been signed up without realizing it and without wanting coverage. But, you know, there are a lot of concerns by experts and advocates that some of those people do exist, want the coverage and have now been dropped. All right, Tammy, thank you so much. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning, 10 a.m. Eastern, Inside Politics, with our friend and colleague, Dan Abash, starts after a quick break.

1:19:55Let's have I got news for your ears, the podcast. I am your host, Michael Ian Black. We are talking about the final polls going into the midterms, the hot races getting the most attention. Trump's final argument. Have I got news for your ears? Check us out on Apple, Amazon Music, wherever you get your podcasts. Even better, you can watch the podcast on Spotify.