Rare September Nor-Easter 

0:00Every day, animals across the country face abuse and neglect. And every day, the ASPCA shows up to rescue animals in crisis. But they can't do it alone. Visit ASPCA.org slash need. Become a donor today to provide the care and shelter these animals urgently need. And for a limited time, the ASPCA will send you a free gift as a special thank you. Visit ASPCA.org slash need. happening now rare september nor 'easter more than 40 million people are bracing for a powerful storm that's expected to bring a month's worth of rain for some as well as heavy flooding and powerful winds we are live as it strengthens and moves up the east coast and summit finale president trump and chinese leader xi are wrapping up their historic meeting after last night's star studded state dinner.

0:56CNN is live at today's events for the first time since a judge temporarily blocked the president's press ban.

1:03Pamela Brown: Housing trade-off. New CNN reporting shows that some homeowners are selling their homes right now in exchange for AI stock. And did a forbidden affair lead to murder? The woman at the center of a secret relationship with former American Idol contestant caleb flynn takes the stand as jurors hear messages prosecutors claim show hatred obsession and intent 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

1:46Pamela Brown: This is CNN Breaking News. And we begin with the breaking news. Right now, more than 40 million people along the east coast of the United States are in the path of a very powerful rare September nor 'easter storm. It's expected to bring flooding as winds and rain lash coastal areas. Some areas could see a month's worth of rain in just a day. North Carolina's Outer Banks are already seeing huge waves as the storm gains momentum. And in Virginia, you can see roads have already been flooded in some places with residents bracing for more. The worst of it, though, is expected to be in New York and Massachusetts, where the storm is aiming to make a direct hit starting today.

2:30Pamela Brown: New York City has already issued a travel advisory warning. There are concerns that flooding could hit areas from Queens all the way out to Long Island, where you see they've been working on building up natural barriers. Let's go live right now to CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. She's over at the CNN Weather Center. And Derek Van Dam, who's in Massachusetts for us. So, Derek, what are the conditions like where you are right now? The winds howling out of the northeast. They picked up this morning very significantly since we started. And remember, that is the defining feature of a nor 'easter.

3:08It is the wind direction. So let's just kind of paint the scene here. The winds coming directly off of the Atlantic. And now this has been happening for several days. We are reaching high tide just after 11 a.m. this morning. And because of this consistent northeasterly wind that's been battering this area, we're going to see this push of the Atlantic impacting some of these low-lying and very vulnerable areas across the coast of Massachusetts. The Outer Cape, these areas were right in Hall in Massachusetts and Plymouth County, but there are so many other locations that have these coastal homes and businesses that line the entire area.

3:47I'm going to bring you down here. This is the important feature about a Northeaster is that this is going to stick around for several days. And so when we get this battering of wind for 48, even 72 hours, that is going to go through multiple high tide cycles like we are going through now. And so as we get this push and pull from the tidal cycles and the winds pushing off of the ocean, That is why we have this exaggerated coastal erosion threat here because we've got high tides. We've got a full moon cycle as well. All of these working together to kind of bring in an exaggerated tidal level. That is why we are so concerned about coastal erosion.

4:30We've already seen flooding from this storm in the Outer Banks. Highway 12 in North Carolina, they're closed for a 500-foot section, washed away already. and that hasn't even been brought on by the peak of the storm, which is still building across the Atlantic right now. 15 to 25-foot waves in the open ocean, yeah, that's going to translate into some massive breakers here on the coastline as well. Not only are the leaves in full bloom here, we've got full foliage. We haven't had that fall, full drop just yet from the leaves. So the winds, as they gust over 50 mph, are likely going to take down some branches, perhaps some trees.

5:09So the threat of localized power outages is a real concern, especially as we go down the coastline. If we get Tom, my photojournalist, to kind of zoom in behind me here, you can see some of the waves crashing up across the seawalls here. We're going to move up and down this coastline as this storm strengthens. And we know that this area is just so highly susceptible to these storms that batter the area. Nor 'easters, they're not fun. This is the first one of the season. And a good way to think of it, Wolf, is a no-named tropical storm, right? This doesn't have a name, but it has similar impacts.

5:43Pamela Brown: All right, Derek, stay safe over there. We'll be in close touch with you. Appreciate it very much. I want to go to Allison right now. Allison, New York has already issued a travel warning, and some places could see a month's worth of rain in just the coming next few hours. What can we expect as this plays out? Yeah, that's right. So we're already starting to see the impacts right now in the form of the wind. You can see we've got some of those wind gusts up around 15 to 20 miles per hour, gusting even higher than that, about 30 to 35 miles per hour. And those numbers are only going to go up from here.

6:15Even as we get into this evening and especially into Saturday, you're going to start to see those wind gusts jumping 40, 50, even 60 miles per hour, peaking in some spots late Saturday and into the day early on Sunday. So again, that's going to start to increase. but so are the rain bands as this system slowly and I emphasize slowly rides up the east coast. You're going to see more of those outer bands begin to spread inland to portions of the northeast and into the mid-atlantic. So by about 8-9 o 'clock pretty much everything from Maine all the way down through Maryland looking at some type of rain.

6:48It may be light, it may be heavy, but that's going to be on and on off and on for the next few days because notice even by Sunday morning notice how very little that low pressure system moves. And so it's the fact that it's not moving. It's going to allow a tremendous amount of time to dump a tremendous amount of water over these areas. Rainfall alone looking to be widespread about four to six inches along the coast. Not to mention that wind taking all of that water from the ocean and pushing it inland. That's going to be the big concern with coastal flooding as well.

7:18Pamela Brown: Allison Chichar, thank you very much, Derek Van Dam. Thanks to you as well. Appreciate it, Pamela. All right, Wolf, we have some breaking news, a snapshot of how Americans are feeling about the economy. Consumer sentiment fell 7 percent from August to September to its second lowest level on record. This is according to the University of Michigan's monthly survey confirming its preliminary reading earlier this month. So let's get straight to CNN senior reporter Matt Egan to break down the latest numbers for us. What do these numbers tell you, Matt, about how people feel about the economy right now?

7:53Well, Pamela, these numbers show that the vibes on this economy are weak, historically weak, right? So these new numbers out from the University of Michigan, they do show that consumer sentiment fell by 7 percent between August and September, down 13 percent from September of last year. But what's really striking here is just how low consumer sentiment is historically. So the University of Michigan has been tracking this measure since 1952. And as you mentioned, this is the second lowest reading for sentiment ever. The only time it was weaker was in June of this year. And I think that chart really shows just how weak sentiment is right now.

8:34And think about it. I mean, that means it's weaker now than it was four years ago during the inflation crisis, during the Biden administration, lower now than during the 2008 financial crisis, lower than during 9-11. It's really striking. So why? Well, University of Michigan pulled out a few reasons here. They said that the short-run outlook for business conditions plunged this month. And they blamed worries about elevated fuel prices. That's gasoline. That's record diesel. And they also cited re-escalating trade disputes and a concern that those two factors could really pass through to the rest of the economy.

9:08So, look, Pamela, obviously this is not good news for an economy that's driven by consumer spending. and it's not good news for the political party in power just a few weeks out from the midterm elections. All right, Matt Egan, thank you. Wolf?

9:21Pamela Brown: And still ahead, and I'm quoting now, Love Me, it's a TV ad featuring President Trump, paid for with taxpayers' money. Is it a political ad or a PSA, a public service announcement? And a mass walkout over at the United Nations before the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu's speech. What he says would have happened had Israel not attacked Iran. Stay with us. You're in the Situation Room.

9:53Pamela Brown: Hey, 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 Turn 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.

10:38Pamela Brown: We 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.

11:19Pamela Brown: Gambling 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. happening now the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is denying his country committed genocide in gaza telling world leaders at the united nations that israel prevented it this is video of leaders walking out just before his speech yesterday he says attacking iran was quote and i'm quoting him now one of the easiest decisions i've ever had to make and he predicted that it's only a matter of time before the Iranian regime is toppled.

12:09Pamela Brown: Let's go to CNN's Jeremy Diamond for us. He's in, he's our Jerusalem correspondent. I think he's in Tel Aviv right now. Some other takeaways from Netanyahu's address. He was very forceful. How did it play out, first of all, in Israel? Well, listen, the Israeli prime minister was speaking to a room of diplomats. Many of them, as you saw, dozens of them walked out as he made his way to the podium. But his audience, his intended audience really wasn't the diplomats in that room anyways. It was more so the Israeli public. The prime minister is now a month away from Israeli elections that he is currently projected to lose based on the current polls.

12:48And so the prime minister was trying to remind Israelis of something that he has done during one election after the next, which is to talk about his ability to kind of defend Israel on the world stage and to carry the Israeli public's message to the world. And certainly the prime minister was doing a lot of that during the speech at the United Nations yesterday, insisting that the claims that Israel is carrying out a genocide are the lie of the century. He assailed the countries that walked out on him for their moral cowardice. And he also touted a series of what he described as foreign policy and diplomatic successes, national security successes.

13:28He talked about the war in Iran, for example. He assailed Palestinian terrorism, in his words. And he also sought to downplay a lot of what Israel is being criticized for, including, for example, settler violence in the West Bank. He did so by claiming falsely that only two or three Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by settler violence, when according to the United Nations, That number is actually at least 23 Palestinians who've been killed by settler violence this year. But the prime minister, even as he was certainly making an attempt to pitch himself to Israeli voters, talking about Israel's strengths, the public's resilience and courage, he didn't get one thing that he was hoping to have in New York, and that was a meeting with the president of the United States, which could have certainly helped bolster him in these elections.

14:17Instead, after only a few hours in New York, the prime minister flew back to Israel.

14:22Pamela Brown: We also heard, Jeremy, from the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, who delivered a pre-recorded address because he was denied entry to the U.S. who wasn't given a visa by the Trump administration. Mahmoud Abbas said Palestinians in Gaza were being subjected to killing, destruction, and attempted forced displacement. He also says Israeli policies now threaten, and I'm quoting him now, the very life and existence of the Palestinians. Here's what he told the United Nations General Assembly. And Jeremy, explain to us what is happening right now in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Yeah, well, these were two completely different speeches and two different versions of reality that the Prime Minister Netanyahu was describing and that we then heard President Abbas describe.

15:13As you said, the Palestinian Authority president decried what he described as a genocidal war against the Palestinian people. He said that Israel is trying to make life unlivable for Palestinians, not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank, in an attempt to force Palestinians to leave their homeland. But the Palestinian Authority president was both defiant and conciliatory, defiant in saying that Palestinians will not be forced off of their homeland, and conciliatory in the sense that he was still striving for a two-state solution, something that has been nearly forgotten altogether in Israeli politics at this moment.

15:51Abbas called on the nations of the world to continue to apply more pressure on Israel to ultimately lead to that shared reality of a two-state solution, which, as I said, Wolf, seems very far away right now at this current moment in politics in this country.

16:08Pamela Brown: Certainly does. All right, Jeremy Diamond reporting for us from Tel Aviv. Thank you very, very much. Pamela. All right, Wolf, coming up, AI stocks. It is the new crypto. A new CNN report shows how some homeowners are selling their homes not for cash, but for ownership and AI companies.

16:31All right, forget cash or even a mortgage. One California homeowner put his multi-million dollar vacation property on the market, but he preferred to get paid in AI stock. CNN's Natasha Chen has more on this unconventional sale and how it's part of a growing trend of people hoping to cash in on the AI boom. Some people want to stake in AI so badly, they're willing to sell their homes for stock. Like 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 Chata Valley. We've been here since 2012.

17:11Vijay Chata 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. Shut the 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, stock 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 going to impact all of our lives, but we are training the data.

17:53We'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. Real 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.

18:28There 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? I 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.

19:09So 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.

19:28Pamela Brown: And coming up, it's the last day of the Trump-Chi summit. CNN's Kristen Holmes is live at the White House and has a preview. Kristen? Yeah, any moment President Xi and his wife will be pulling up to the White House for day three of this three-day state visit. We'll tell you what we've seen so far and what to expect next, coming up.

19:55Happening now, tea time at the White House. On the final day of Chinese leader Xi Jinping's visit to Washington, And it caps a trip that has touched on trade, AI, Taiwan and the war in Iran. President Trump hosted Xi last night for a state dinner where the two celebrated U.S.-Chinese ties despite sharp differences. And these are the first pictures right here. We are seeing a president's Trump and Xi right outside the White House together through the television pool. Since the network suspended pool coverage amid the White House's decision to bar CNN, MSNOW and Politico, a ban a federal judge has now temporarily blocked.

20:31CNN's access to the White House has been restored and the TV pool appears to be functioning as normal. You see all the reporters out there waiting for them to come out. So let's go live now to CNN's Kristen Holmes at the White House. What are we expecting from both leaders today, Kristen? Well, other than a lot of video, which, as you said, is going to be something, given that we have not had network pool coverage of these events since the beginning of this three-day state visit, We are expecting the two couples to meet here on the back south portico of the White House. They will have tea together, and then they will go over to the National Archives.

21:06Now, of course, the National Archives are home to some of the most sacred texts that are really the foundation of U.S. democracy, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. And President Trump and President Xi are going to tour the vault of records in which these documents are housed. Now, of course, there is going to be an interesting juxtaposition there, given that he is giving this tour to the leader of the biggest, largest communist country. Now, this visit has been marked with a lot of pomp and circumstance, a lot of lavish elegance that we saw at the dinner last night, glitz and glitter. But there are still few criticisms as to what is actually coming out of this in terms of substance.

21:44While we do know that they have touched on artificial intelligence and Iran, as well as trade, we're still not really sure if any deliverables are going to come out of this. And just to go back in time, that was the same as what we saw last time when President Trump was in China for his state visit. The same kind of thing, a lot of platitudes, a lot of compliments from each of the men, particularly from President Trump to President Xi, but not as many actual deliverables. We'll see if the White House announces anything coming out of this final day. And even though you were denied press access to last night's state dinner, Kristen, can you tell us more about what happened at the dinner and who was there?

22:26It was a who's who of artificial intelligence. All of these big tech leaders were there, Sam Altman, Elon Musk. There was a number of donors and close friends of President Trump's. The Dells were there. Jeff Bezos and his wife were there, as well as a number of cabinet officials, special envoys, and some Fox News personalities were there as well. And the only part of the dinner that anyone saw was the toasts to each other. This is the same as what we saw again back in china and president xi sounded very similar to what he said uh in his toast back last may i think the interesting thing to note is that president xi has really stayed on message this idea that everything about this visit is geopolitics that the u.s and china are intertwined on a number of interests of course we've heard from president trump is a lot of praise and especially talking up the friendship that he and president xi have all right kristen holmes thanks so much.

23:27Wolf?

23:28Pamela Brown: All right, Pamela. Joining us now, CNN political commentator and former Trump White House director of strategic communications, Alyssa Farrah Griffin. Alyssa, thanks very much for joining us. First of all, what's your reaction to the news media pool being restored as we get ready to see the two leaders, President Trump and President Xi, have tea time together on this, the final day of this significant meeting? Well, listen, Wolf, it's critically important. It's actually astounding that for the first day of this very historic and important summit, there was no American pool coverage. The Chinese media was able to cover it, but because of the president's ban on the press, we didn't have our independent American media there.

24:09Now, the courts were always going to rule against the White House on this. There was precedent from back when Jim Acosta, then if CNN's credentials had been revoked. So we knew where this was going to end. I think it's important that we've got American press there today, at least getting the back half of this summit. But it is a shame that they weren't there on the first day of it.

24:27Pamela Brown: Certainly is. As the U.S. rolled out the red carpet for Xi, the White House was simultaneously blocking American news organizations from accessing the White House despite a court order. One of those organizations was CNN. The news outlets were eventually allowed back in. But big picture, what kind of message do you think, Alyssa, this is sending? Just incredibly mixed messaging about American values and about who we are as a democratic republic versus communist China. The freedom of the press is the backbone of our constitutional republic. And this should be a moment where we're showing the world our values.

25:06We're showing the Chinese government our values. And so to have this this sort of standoff with American press while standing next to one of the most repressive governments in the world really does not reflect well upon America. But there's also a lot in this backdrop. I think there's been quite a bit of criticism of just the degree to which the president and the White House are wanting to really celebrate the Chinese president, whether it's the president greeting him at the airport when he arrived, something that was not an honor that the Chinese government had given to President Trump, whether it was literally rolling out the red carpet when you know that there are human rights abuses taking place.

25:43You know that there are people who are being held as political prisoners in China. There is the Uyghur Muslims who have been detained and abused and some really horrific things happening. It's an odd moment when we're trying to signal what American values are. And I'm not sure that they're coming across in this summit.

25:58Pamela Brown: While I have you, Alyssa, I want to turn to another story we're following. Sensitive story. This new video spot the Trump administration is calling a public service announcement, a PSA. Watch it. Listen to this.

26:13He'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.

26:23Pamela Brown: What's your initial reaction to this commercial? American taxpayers are paying to have it broadcast on various TV networks? I've never seen anything like it in America, where tax dollars are essentially doing state propaganda on behalf of the federal government. Listen, it's one thing when this White House wants to do hype videos on Twitter. I think they have every right to do that. I think that's within the realm of normal political speech. But to be paying to put ads on the air that are essentially touting the U.S. government feels very, very similar to something you'd frankly see in China, in Iran, and in other much more repressive regimes.

27:00Pamela Brown: In North Korea as well. Alyssa Farah Griffin, thank you very much for your analysis. Pamela. Speaking of analysis, Wolf, a new CNN analysis shows more than$750 million has been spent trading on the prediction markets about the 2026 elections. Kaoshi and Pali Market, Multiple election officials tell CNN this has contributed to a surge in disinformation. CNN's Marshall Cohen joins us now with all the details. So tell us more, Marshall. Hey, Pam. You know, these prediction markets have really seeped into the culture. More than$750 million, like you mentioned, in total trading volume on Calci and Polymarket, on markets about the midterms.

27:42And there are markets for everything you can imagine. Every Senate and House race, the governor's races, mayoral races, the margins, the turnout, the list goes on. And we've heard from campaign staffers and political operatives that they're keeping close tabs. They are looking at this stuff really closely. We've also heard that donors are watching the markets to possibly influence their spending decisions as well. But it's really the concerns from the election officials that are the most striking here. We spoke to election officials across the country, and they are afraid that this could create new avenues for disinformation.

28:17People don't really understand how odds work perfectly. And, you know, if you see that your candidate has a 95 percent chance to win and they don't win, it's creating some confusion. And that's exactly what happened earlier this year. There was a poster child for this, the Los Angeles mayoral primary. There was a lot of prediction market fueled disinformation on the Internet. false claims about rigged elections and ballot stuffing. I actually spoke about this with the top election official in LA, Dean Logan, and I asked him, what's your message to the prediction companies? Here's what he said.

28:54Don't do this. Stay out of this particular field. There are plenty of other areas for you to do what you do, but you don't really belong here. It's not, it's not appropriate because it does strike at the fundamental purpose of an election and Anything that is creating a lack of public confidence in that is destructive. Now, Pam, for fairness here, we reached out to both Calci and Polymarket, and they push back pretty strongly on claims that they are hurting the election. They think that their products are better than polling and provide a public service. Let me read for you this from Benjamin Freeman.

29:28He's the head of politics growth at Calci. He says, polls are backwards looking. They're expensive to run. They can be biased. Markets are always live. They're 24-7 and can price in new information. And then, Pam, we heard from Polymarket. A spokesperson there said that they provide transparent, accurate, real-time information. They said it's an antidote to all the disinformation that's plaguing our society. And, Pam, one last note for full disclosure. CNN has a partnership with Calci. We use their data to cover major events, including elections. But they don't influence our coverage, and we don't trade on prediction markets.

30:04I want to just follow up with you on this lawsuit from the New York Times against Polymarket. Tell us about that. Yeah, from the New York State Attorney General, Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Polymarket yesterday, in addition to previous lawsuits that she's filed against Calci and other prediction sites. She, like many attorneys general across the country, believe that these prediction markets are unlicensed gambling. They are regulated federally by a federal agency, but they don't get licenses from state gambling regulators. And 44 states across the country think that they should. New York is one of them.

30:43And obviously, in this case as well, Polymarket denies all wrongdoing. They say that their federal regulation is all that they need. And they actually countersued New York to push back against this case. So very early in this case, Pam, we'll obviously see what happens in court. But there are lawsuits all across the country about these prediction markets. There certainly are. And thanks for clarifying. New York, not New York Times. Appreciate it. Marshall Cohen. Wolf?

31:08Pamela Brown: And Pamela, coming up right at the top of the hour at 11 a.m. Eastern, a new lawsuit accusing several AI companies of making an illegal deal to slow down development. We're going to ask one of the plaintiffs about these accusations. That's all new in the next hour.

31:30Pamela Brown: All right, you're looking at live pictures coming in from the White House right now. The president of the United States getting to personally welcome the leader of China, Xi Jinping. His car has just pulled up there on the White House grounds. And it's interesting, we're finally, finally seeing the U.S. news media showing these live pictures. CNN is the pool camera there right now. Finally back allowed in yesterday. today not allowed back in, but a federal court judge ruled that CNN and these other news organizations must be allowed to report the news freely and fairly. There you see the two leaders right there.

32:05Pamela Brown: I don't know if they're going to say anything now before they go in, but we hear some questions being thrown. Let's listen if he answers. Mr. President, why are you banning media outlets? Why should U.S. taxpayers pay for ads about you, Mr. President?

32:26Pamela Brown: All right, so you see the president and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, walking into the White House right now. They're going to have tea and presumably another formal discussion of various events that are underway right now. And it was encouraging, Pamela, as you know, to see our cameras finally allowed back in following this federal judges. decision yesterday? Yeah, these were the first pictures we're seeing of the two leaders since the press pool for TV, at least, has been reinstated. So an important moment right there. It was hard to hear exactly what Trump said to the question about banning the press, but we'll continue to monitor what's happening there at the White House.

33:04I'll take it from here. Well, we also have an important story that we're covering this week. Yesterday, CNN reported that eight sailors from the Abraham Lincoln strike group attempted suicide during its record long deployment in the Middle East. This was according to a letter dated Tuesday from the acting Navy secretary and obtained by CNN. The strike group was a pivotal part of the U.S. forces in the early days of the war with Iran and with the ongoing blockades as well of Iranian ports. So during my assignment, you see right here some of the coverage on board the carrier and a destroyer right near the Strait of Hormuz in July.

33:39I spoke to several sailors about the challenges at sea, and here's what some of them said. Then I miss my family, and I'm ready to go home. It's like, you know what, like, you wake up and you're like, this is like another day. It's like, oh, my God, again, you know? So does that feel like Groundhog Day? Yes, Groundhog Day is literally every single day. Same thing every day, yeah. 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. It takes a toll on you. You have to mind your P's and Q's even when the days are long and you're not running a lot of sleep.

34:17Sometimes, sometimes the sleep is rough out here.

34:20Pamela Brown: You try to rest as much as you can. All right, let's talk more about this with two military veterans, CNN military analyst and retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Layton, as well as Brent Sadler, a retired U.S. Navy captain. He He is now a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. And you both served more than a quarter of a century in the military. So we want to start off by thanking you for your service. Colonel Layton, I just want to first get your thoughts on all of this, just the context around these attempted suicides and how you view this report. Yeah, Pamela, I think it's one of the most difficult things that any commanders have to deal with because what you're talking about here is the welfare of the sailors on board the Abraham Lincoln.

35:00Pamela Brown: but it really pervades throughout all military services. And one of the key things that commanders have to look at, and also the enlisted leadership has to look at, is how their troops are doing at any given moment in time. And when there are extra stressors, like deployments that seem to be without end, it really makes a big difference from a mental health perspective. Even really solidly performing troops have a tough time when things that were once certain now all of a sudden become uncertain. And that, I think, is the most difficult thing that the sailors on the Lincoln had to deal with. And I think that's true for anyone who deploys anywhere, and especially if those deployments are extended with inadequate forewarning.

35:43Edbert, can you just describe the kinds of pressures and stresses that sailors encounter on a battleship, particularly when you're on the front lines of a conflict like this during a long deployment? Well, absolutely. I mean, any time you go to sea, the ocean's unforgiving. and it's a dangerous job. So you always have to be aware of your surroundings and you have to be very technically competent. That's the number one thing because if you're not, death is always just around the corner at sea. And that's just in peacetime. Now you have someone shooting at you, it actually goes up. So the stress is very real.

36:16These men and women are patriots. It was very good that you were able to kind of meet them and talk to them freely and roam about the ship for some time because this is what it's like. What you saw there is what it's like. It's not easy. It's not for everyone. These are patriots, and it is a dangerous job. And, you know, one thing that kept coming up over and over again is just the length of time, the uncertainty of when they're coming home. Now we know that they are on their way home. But it was the fact that their deployment kept getting extended. Colonel, did the Pentagon have much alternative to leaving the Lincoln strike group in place for so long?

36:54Pamela Brown: I think one of the things that you have to look at is how this operation was planned. And when you look at war planning, one of the things that has to be part of it is the logistical part. How long do I have for my ships? How long can they remain on station? How long can aircraft go to a certain area? And how long can they be deployed? And then it also comes down to the troops themselves, whether they're soldiers, sailors, airmen or marines. You have to look and see what kinds of things they've done beforehand and how many of them can actually be put forward without damaging readiness across the force.

37:26Pamela Brown: And I think in this particular case, there would have been some alternatives had things been planned far enough in advance. They clearly weren't in this case, and I think that negatively impacted the sailors on board the Abraham Lincoln. I spoke to one former sailor who had served on the Abraham Lincoln, but in a prior deployment, not on this deployment. And he said he was really prepared to do the job of an engineer on board this ship, but not prepared for ship life. And he really struggled once he got on board. Brent, do you think there are enough resources on board most ships to help sailors who are in need of help?

38:03Oh, absolutely. I mean, you're surrounded by shipmates, and you've got an officer corps that is responsible for all of the enlisted sailors, and the officers also pay attention to each other. And I think it's important to note that, you know, life at sea, as dangerous as it is, also is unpredictable. And so these sailors are ready for changes in schedule. That's one of the strengths of our U.S. Navy, to be able to move from, in this case, for the Lincoln, from an East Asia deployment in the South China Sea and fairly quickly relocate into the Arabian Sea. A lot of lessons were learned because Fifth Fleet headquarters was bombed early on, which meant that the Navy had to adjust its logistics tail.

38:40And that took about two weeks to adjust. But again, that's one of the strengths of the Navy and our sailors, the ability to adapt quickly under trying circumstances. And now you've got a shipmate and a classmate of mine, Hong Cao, that's leading the Navy as the secretary who's been on these deployments, knows firsthand the trials and tribulations, and his family's gone through this. So they've got an advocate at the very top as well as on the deck plates. All right, Brent Sadler and Cedric Layton, thank you both so much. We appreciate it. And if you or someone you know is struggling with mental health issues, there is help.

39:12You can call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. We'll be right back.

39:22Happening now, slamming the East Coast. A monster nor 'easter is getting stronger as it bears down on several states. 40 million people could get dangerous flooding and damaging winds.

39:36Pamela Brown: Caleb Flynn's ex-mistress reads thousands of their texts in court. Prosecutors want to prove the former American Idol contestant killed his wife and staged the crime scene. 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.

40:03Pamela Brown: Happening now, the final day of Chinese leader Xi Jinping's state visit to Washington. It caps a trip that has touched on trade, AI, Taiwan, and the war with Iran. The TV pool coverage of the White House is now back on after the temporary court order blocking the White House's decision to bar CNN, MSNOW, and Politico. And you can see that moments ago, the president and the first lady greeted Xi and China's first lady as they arrived at the White House for tea. Let's go to CNN's senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes. Kristen, what are we expecting from both leaders today? Well, actually, the pool just opened up another event, or the White House opened up another event to the pool.

40:46So we should see some more live pictures here any moment of the actual tea between President Xi and President Trump and their respective spouses. That was not originally going to be an open event. But we also know that President Trump wanted robust coverage of this visit from President Xi, which he did not get because the TV pool hasn't been operating normally. Now, what we expect to see today after that tea is that the leaders will go to their final stop during this three-day state visit. They'll go to the National Archives. That is home to some of the United States' most sacred texts on U.S.

41:21democracy, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. And the two of them will go through a tour of the Vault of Records, which, of course, will cause such a juxtaposition knowing that President Xi is the leader of the largest communist country as he is looking at these various documents about democracy. After that is when President Xi will go back to China. The question, of course, being what was actually achieved in terms of deliverables during this trip. We know that there has been pomp and circumstance. There has been glitz and glimmer at that state dinner last night. And you could hear some of the reporters trying to get answers on those deliverables.

42:00Did they come up with any solutions on artificial intelligence? Did they have any conversations about Iran? There have been multiple reports that China is still doing business with Iran during this war, which is something that President Trump and his entire cabinet have explicitly warned against and threatened various countries for doing. There's also the race for artificial intelligence, which President Trump has been discussing quite a bit, saying you don't want to put any guardrails on it because of China and the success that China has had. So there's still a lot of questions as to what actually came out of this, other than the kind of celebratory aspect.

42:34We heard both of these leaders speak, but it did sound an awful lot like what we heard from them back in May, this idea of geopolitics, that they have intertwined interests, as well as President Trump touting the friendship that he has with Xi Jinping.

42:49Pamela Brown: So what is really being accomplished from this state visit here to the United States? Has there been any progress at all on some of these key issues since both leaders discussed the key topics like AI, Taiwan, Iran? Well, that's a big question. We're not sure. I mean, the one real deliverable we know is that China is going to loan the United States, and specifically Atlanta, Georgia, Zhu, to pandas, which they have done in the past. But in terms of anything else, we have not seen any kind of details or substance. We know from China state media that in one of these meetings that President Xi said that he hoped that the United States would not support Taiwan independence, but nothing in terms of what was said back there.

43:34We also know that the trade truce has been extended, which will alleviate some questions about this potential for another up rocking of the global economy, which is what we were seeing in the lead up to that May visit. But one of the things they had said when they first put that trade truce in place was that they were going to expand upon it. Instead, it's just been extended past the one year mark. So we also know that the U.S. is going to reduce some tariffs. There are still questions, though, on what the United States is going to actually get out of this, again, in terms of deliverables.

44:10Pamela Brown: Kristen Holmes reporting from the White House. Good to see you back over there on the North Lawn. Thanks very much, Kristen. Pamela. All right. Well, for more on the lawsuit over White House access, let's bring in former federal prosecutor Barrett Berger. Barrett, good to see you. So Ted Boutros, who is the lawyer for CNN, MS Now and Politico, said in an interview on the lead with Jake Tapper that the plaintiffs in the ongoing lawsuit over White House access believe that pool access is covered by this temporary restraining order. How do you see this playing out? Yeah, so it's a really interesting question.

44:44And just because Judge Kelly's order granted this or revoked the administration's taking away the press passes doesn't necessarily give them access everywhere. And this is where we're seeing a little bit of the law being unsettled. So we know that the D.C. Circuit has previously said that there's a difference between areas that are open to all of the press, like the briefing room and other more invitation only areas like coming into the Oval Office, for example. So the D.C. Circuit said if you open up areas to every reporter, you can't exclude some. So for certain areas like the press room, that is pretty clear it would be a violation if you only excluded some other more specific areas like an office or a special event.

45:30That's where you get into a little bit more of the gray area. So this may be for the next stage when we're before Judge Kelly again. This may be where we see a little bit more of the fight. And we're looking at some live pictures here of President Trump, First Lady, President Xi, his wife having tea right now at the White House. It's notable because the TV poll had been blocked, but now we have access again because of this restraining order. And I'm wondering what you think about what happens next, because this restraining order blocking Trump's ban on these three outlets only lasts 14 days, Barrett.

46:07Oh, yes, there'll be another hearing. Hold on, Barrett, he's talking right now, so let's listen in.

46:35and the waifat 감사합니다 and thebei of countries I am very happy. I want to thank the Honorable President and the First Lady for everything they've done for myself and my wife during this visit. Everything is done to the highest order of perfection, and there is thought in every little detail, and it's greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. I can say that the President

47:32Pamela Brown: for the鹏icked spokes and it wasuming of bothlingt, with the confidential international affairs incident. We decided that middle - accomplished our understanding anddoor fair practices. We don't have any help here so that we are highly MORE specifically different kinds of Ն of South America history. The future we consider that is more or more prominent that it is. The president e. głóndan are like two people that's charting the course for the great shape of China-U.S. relations. When the President visited China in May, we agreed on the vision of building a constructive China-U.S. relationship of strategic stability.

48:33This time, we've agreed to add new substance to it, that the relationship will be a constructive one of strategic stability on the basis of respect, fairness, and reciprocity. So from this one can see that the prospects for this relationship will get more brighter.

49:16Pamela Brown: to China.

49:20Looking ahead to the remainder of this year, there will be two more opportunities for us to meet each other. Firstly, the APAC meeting in China, and then the G20 Summit in the United States. I do welcome you, Mr. President and the First Lady, to visit China. Well, thank you very much. We will. Very much. And we'll be speaking a lot. I think our farmers are going to be really happy. A lot of very positive things happened. But America is very happy about this visit, and I'm sure China is very happy also. Great things for both countries, and it's been just very, very productive. And thank you very much.

50:14I'm very happy to see the results of international interviews. Because many things have happened. The Americans are happy. The Chinese are happy. We can see the difference between the two countries. We can see the international interviews. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much. It's exciting. Thank you so much. I'm very excited. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. We just heard from President Trump and President Xi for the first time since the TV press pool was reinstated. We heard them exchange those pleasantries. Wolf, you heard President Xi there really striking an optimistic tone about the relationship between China and the U.S., saying that they added to new substance based on respect and fairness.

51:05President Xi inviting President Trump back to China this year. As you know, President Trump was there earlier this year in May, and President Trump, for his part, said that they made tremendous strides during this visit. But details, as you know, Wolf, are scarce in terms of what those strides are, what the substance is on some very important topics, including AI and trade. Wolf?

51:29Pamela Brown: You know, it sounded as if two very close allies were getting together at the White House, very close friends, very close allies. A lot of praise from both sides about each other, even though there are some very, very serious differences right now, very serious issues that have been coming up between the United States and China under the Trump administration and President Xi's rule in China right now. But they were only praiseworthy of each other. It sounded like two great friends getting together for tea at the White House. It was very unusual. You didn't hear a lot of discussion about some of the very sensitive issues.

52:07Pamela Brown: For example, China's helping Iran, for example, and the accusations that China is providing intelligence information where U.S. bases in the Gulf states, whether Kuwait or Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, or Saudi Arabia, are located that could help the Iranians target U.S. facilities in those countries. Also not brought up, and we don't know what happened in private conversations, but as you'll recall, Wolf, back in July, President Trump held this press conference saying that the Chinese stole voter rolls and talked about how it was a national security issue. And, you know, the question remains whether that was brought up if it was something that was so important President Trump wanted to hold a press conference about it.

52:50I want to bring in Kristen Holmes to get your reaction to what we just heard. I mean, we still don't have an idea of what the substance was. One of the things that we heard from President Xi was that back in May, what they had agreed upon was to kind of normalize relationships and set up this kind of stable relationship. Now, President Xi says with the basis of that, the foundation of that, they added substance. But I'm still not entirely sure what the substance was. We heard President Trump there saying it was very productive, that they got a lot done. He said at one point farmers would be very happy.

53:25We have not gotten an indication of what exactly was agreed upon when it comes to farmers, although China has obviously played a huge role in some of the enormous amount of issues that farmers have had with various products, including soybeans. So we'll see what kind of deals they actually make in terms of an announcement after this. I do want to say, you know, you mentioned all of these things. You mentioned President Trump months ago saying that China tried to interfere with the 2020 election, that they seized all this data and a major data hack. They talked about the reporting that we have that China has helped, or Chinese groups have helped Iran target various U.S.

54:05bases and U.S. personnel. These are really things that President Trump has kind of tried to downplay, particularly leading up to this event. He's kind of brushed off. He was asked specifically at one point about these revelations about China and the election. And he said, you know, we do stuff to them, too. On Iran, he says that he's talked to them and that he's made it clear not to share information. But it does seem from everything that we know that China is, one, still doing business with Iran, which was something that Secretary of Treasury Scott Besson had warned about when he was talking about this kind of economic D-Day.

54:42and also that China still supports Russia in the war in Ukraine. And so how many of these kind of touchy subjects came up? It's just unclear. We know that it wasn't necessarily President Trump's number one priority to talk about touchy subjects. Part of what he likes about these kind of state visits is the pomp and circumstance. But it will be interesting to see if we do get a readout at any point, which we still have not gotten, as to what the actual deliverables, and I know I keep saying this, are out of this because the only thing that we've actually seen that is tangible is these two pandas coming to the Atlanta Zoo as well as the trade extension.

55:22Yeah, and it's also worth noting that even Republican senators have criticized this sort of red carpet rollout and the pomp and circumstance that the White House has offered the Chinese leader and his wife amid these ongoing sensitive issues that we just touched on, particularly with the Chinese sharing intelligence with Iran to target U.S. sites, U.S. service members, and that nationally televised address where Trump said China interfered in the 2020 election. So, Kristen, stand by. I want to go back to Wolf.

55:52Pamela Brown: All right. Thanks, Pamela. The New Jersey Democratic Senator Andy Kim is joining us right now. He's here with me in the Situation Room. Senator, thanks very much for coming in. First of all, what was your reaction to what we just heard? These very, very loving statements coming from the President of the United States and the leader of China as if they're very close allies? What is missing there is the fact that, again, we have information that China's been providing support to Iran, targeting intelligence to Iran, and the idea that they're having that type of cordial discussion, heaping praise on one another.

56:26It's just so out of touch with what the American people feel. One thing that really stood out to me when I was watching that here is that this is clearly something on President Xi's terms. You could see how confident he was. He very much feels like he is in the driver's seat of this relationship between the United States and China. In fact, even the language that was used, if you listen to President Xi just now, he said about constructive strategic stability. He said that several times, and you see President Trump just nodding his head. That is China's way of framing this relationship. this is all coming down to how China wants to be able to do this.

57:05And that's just something where Trump is just playing into his hands. So you could see China, President Xi was very happy, very comfortable, because he is getting everything out of this. He's certainly coming out of this summit with a win, whereas the American people, what are they left with? Are prices going to go down for American families? No. Is this Iran war going to end? No. In fact, the Republicans just voted yesterday to keep this going. So that's something that we see happening here, and it's something that the American people are on the losing side of this.

57:39Pamela Brown: Earlier this week, Senator, you and several other Democratic senators actually wrote a letter to President Trump saying, and I'm quoting now from the letter, we write to you regarding our deep concern over China's posturing in the South China Sea and its renewed island building campaign. You went on to urge the president to raise this with Xi. What specifically do you want to see for President Trump on this very sensitive issue? The President Xi, for example, wants the U.S. to end any arms sales to Taiwan. Well, look, right now we want the president, we want our government to stand up for our national interests.

58:16Instead, the Trump administration has been ceding ground all over the world, but especially in the Indo-Pacific. We're ceding our leadership there. And we see President Xi and Trump have been meeting several times. But the fact that China is moving forward on doing the island building again, that Trump in the last summit said that arms sales to Taiwan are a bargaining chip when he's talking to China. That's unacceptable. China, President Xi should never have a say in how we operate when it comes to Taiwan, when it comes to arms sales. So, so much of this is being eroded. And when we see that Trump has only twice ever met a leader plain side, one was for Vladimir Putin, the other one was for President Xi.

59:06That sends a signal not just to those countries, but to our allies and our partners. When you contrast that with how Trump's been going after the prime minister in Canada, the NATO alliance, and, you know, this is something that is sending a really strong signal about where Trump sees his place in the world. And clearly he thinks it's right next to Vladimir Putin and President Xi.

59:27Pamela Brown: He went to Joint Base Andrews and literally rolled out the red carpet when President Xi's plane arrived and he welcomed him to the United States. Which is an honor that Trump himself never received from Xi when he went to China. You know, I know that sometimes that might seem like, you know, just logistics to the American people. But I've worked there at the White House before. I helped set up presidential summits. And this is important in terms of what the takeaway is. And again, President Xi has been providing weapons support and intelligence to Iran, targeting the United States. And what does he get in response?

1:00:03He gets a plain side welcome by President Trump, red carpet rollout, and clearly just Trump rolling over on some of the most important issues facing our nation right now.

1:00:14Pamela Brown: A very warm relationship with China, a communist nation, the largest communist nation in the world. Compare that with our closest ally, Canada, which is getting a very, very harsh treatment from the United States right now. President Trump also said that he and President Xi are discussing artificial intelligence this week but has said he doesn't want any major changes to how the technology is regulated. Some lawmakers in both parties have been hesitant about putting more guardrails in place because it could allow China to take the lead in developing AI. What role do you think Congress right now, and you're a key U.S.

1:00:50Pamela Brown: Senator, what role should Congress be playing here? Congress needs to play a big role here because clearly President Trump is on the wrong side of the American people. When I held a town hall the other week, overwhelmingly people were concerned about what's happening with AI. And this was in a deep Republican part of the state of New Jersey that Trump won. Here's what I'll say, is that we want to make sure that we are leading on innovation. And I have a legislation, a bipartisan legislation called the Match Act, that would allow us to ensure that China doesn't get the latest and greatest manufacturing equipment for semiconductor chips.

1:01:26I urge President Trump to support that legislation. I urge Lydia Thune to pass that legislation in the Senate alongside several other expert control bills that will help us build out our lead and our strength when it comes to innovation and give us more space to be able to have the safety and the security that the American people demand right now. They don't want just want it. They are demanding that we meet this moment and we take action to be able to ensure the safety of them and their families.

1:01:54Pamela Brown: Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey, thanks very much for coming in. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it very much. Pamela. All right, Wolf. Up next, what we learned after days of testimony from Caleb Flynn's ex-mistress, the former American Idol contestant now on trial, accused of murdering his wife. Caleb Flynn is accused of murdering his wife and making it look like a break-in.

1:02:23happening now in ohio more testimony in the murder trial of former american idol contestant and church worship leader caleb flynn he is accused of killing his wife earlier this year we've been listening to testimony from an fbi special agent but much of the focus this week has been on the woman flynn was having an affair with at the time she spent two days on the stand testifying about more than 100 ,000 text messages the two exchanged. CNN's Jean Casares is covering the trial for us and joins us now. Tell us more about what she said, Jean. Well, this is Alia Botner, definitely the star witness of this trial, and she was forced to take the stand in this case.

1:03:02I'm sure she did not want to, but she testified that there were 107 ,000 texts between the two of them. That is more than 300 per day during the course of their relationship. And in so many of them, Caleb Flynn said he hated his wife. He couldn't stand her, couldn't stand her family, wanted to get rid of her, said several times that he wanted to kill her. Divorce was talked about, but he never left his wife. And she kept giving ultimatum after ultimatum. And they also made it a science to delete the text. Now, unfortunately, at one point, unfortunately, I say in quote marks, they transferred over to a device in the home.

1:03:45And we do know that his wife saw a photo from Botner right there with her hand with a ring on it saying that she wanted to be his wife. We also know that Ashley actually reached out to her and said, we need a talk. We need a face to face. and she never responded to her. She would not meet with her. But she had to admit something on the stand yesterday that was really unbelievable, out of her mouth. It was in a text. And this is as Ashley's family is sitting in court watching. Listen to what she had to admit she said. I said, do you know how badly I want to say F it to any rules and any barriers and just love you with my entire heart for the rest of my life?

1:04:34Next message.

1:04:45Sorry.

1:04:5064 ,281. Sorry.

1:05:00I just wish I didn't say this.

1:05:06Pamela Brown: What was the message said?

1:05:12I didn't mean it. It says, it says I want to kill her, Caleb.

1:05:19Pamela Brown: Who said that? Me. Next message. I said it so bad. Next message. He said that makes two of us. On cross-examination, they really had an aggressive cross. They focused on one month before Ashley Flynn was killed by someone, that she was in Florida, and her iPhone fell into the ocean and she lost it, and then she left her computer, she thinks, on the airplane. We just heard with the current FBI examiner that she actually filed a claim for that lost computer. But the defense says it's an intruder. And in their closings, we've got to see where and who they hone in on if it is a specific person. All right, Gene Casares, thank you so much.

1:06:05Wolf?

1:06:06Pamela Brown: All right, Pamela, just ahead. Realistic warning or coordinated effort. Why a new lawsuit accuses several AI companies of making an illegal deal to slow down development?

1:06:23Pamela Brown: New this morning, President Trump is calling his meeting with President Xi, quote, very productive and pushing to rebrand artificial intelligence, posting this on Truth Social. Quote, like almost everyone else, he, President Xi, seemed to like calling the poorly and inaccurately named artificial intelligence to a far more accurate name, an important name, super intelligence, end quote. It remains unclear if any substantive conversations were actually held between the two leaders about the technology safety and regulation as the two countries remain in a very tight battle to win the AI race. Last night, my colleague and friend Anderson Cooper sat down with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Wang to discuss the growing calls for government intervention to rein in AI companies before the technology surpasses human intelligence.

1:07:17Pamela Brown: Listen to this. 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. They're publicly admitting it. They ought to just not release it. Okay. And so now if they're saying that they're unable to have self-restraint and they need regulation to do so, it's surprising to me. All right. Joining us now to discuss is Cheyenne Hunt. She is a political strategist and one of the plaintiffs in a complaint against AI giants Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceX, AI, and Google.

1:08:04Her suit alleges that the company's recent calls for industry-wide coordination to slow down AI advancement amounts to an illegal business agreement between competitors. Cheyenne, good to see you. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Before we start, I just want to note, we reached out to all these companies for their statement. We haven't received a response yet. But if you would, explain why you think these AI giants are colluding when they would argue that they're just agreeing on setting safety standards. Look, businesses are not allowed under the Sherman Act to make deals together and to collaborate to avoid market pressure that otherwise they would have to face and be responsive to alone.

1:08:43In this case, we're seeing clear demands from the market, from consumers to have safer AI products. There's an understanding of these harms that go far beyond what they're talking about with risks of human extinction. In the short term, what we've seen is grotesque. We've seen bots trained on child sexual assault material. We're seeing AI nudification of young girls destroying their lives in school. We're seeing rampant harms to our environment. And to think that we should trust these guys to regulate against their own profit margins is just a farce. So then why do you think that they have made these public pleas?

1:09:18Well, I think the timing tells us a lot. They made this PR announcement about their backroom deal right as Mike Johnson was dealing with pressure from a bipartisan coalition for the first time ready to regulate AI in a meaningful way. And instead, this deal gave him cover to adjourn the House of Representatives and really stop that before we got meaningful safeguards in place. Well, there was also the impeachment articles for Pete Hegseth, which was a big reason they went on on recess. But just when you say backroom deal, can you be more specific on what you're talking about there? Absolutely.

1:09:54So really what we're looking at here is a group of unaccountable billionaires who are saying that they've reached a certain agreement on safety standards to regulate themselves when they've now gone out in public. And as Jensen Huang said in that last clip, they can't regulate this. They are saying that they have products going out that could risk human extinction, and they're begging the government for help. In the same breath, they're asking us to believe that a deal they made among themselves is sufficient to really address these safety risks. It's a deal that they have met that really makes sure their business interests are protected and that they can change when it suits their needs.

1:10:32and there's no transparency on whether or not it's being met and no consequences if they violate it. That doesn't sound like regulation or safety standards to me. That sounds like a grift. So we know that there have been those public pleas. And this was after Jacob Coxon really sounded the alarm. He's the former anthropic AI researcher who was concerned that AI could lead to the extinction of humanity by the end of the decade. But in terms of an agreement between these companies, do you have evidence that they've actually been behind the scenes reaching an agreement? Well, they've talked about it very publicly.

1:11:08All the way back to July, we have public statements about representatives from these companies coming together and talking about what that agreement might look like. We saw the anthropic whistleblower coming forward and calling for this slowdown within hours. We saw Elon Musk and Sam Altman publicly saying that they agreed to these terms. It's a pretty blatant violation of the Sherman Act. They're coordinating and colluding out in the open for all of us to see. What do you say to critics who argue that the Anthropic CEO's public plea earlier this month was a good faith effort to rein in AI, that it's actually a positive thing for these companies to cooperate for humanity's survival?

1:11:47The thing about it is these companies don't have to cooperate to do the right thing. They don't have to collude to avoid market pressure. When we know that consumers are looking for safer versions of these products, we saw when Anthropic took a step back from the White House because they didn't want their AI being used in military operations. There was a massive shift of consumers from OpenAI over to Anthropic's Claude. This is something that they should be competing on. People care which of these products is safer, the most moral and ethical. But instead, they're now getting together to say, these are the rules of the road.

1:12:18We're all the same. Nobody has to strive to do better than this. And they're not competing on safety standards, which they really should be. So they don't need to make a deal in order to move forward and do the right thing. But what about the argument that if one slows down, like Anthropic, hypothetically, right, says, OK, we're going to slow down. But then the other companies don't. don't. I mean, you know, then what would be the incentive for the one company to slow down and letting the other companies beat them in the marketplace? I mean, that is what they would argue why they want a joint agreement so that they're not behind, that one of them doesn't get left behind.

1:12:56What do you say to that? Companies can compete on a number of things, and public trust is something that consumers care about when they choose a product. Like in that prior example, the shift over to Anthropic wasn't necessarily because people found it to be or that Claude was better or more advanced than ChatGPT. They agreed with the values and the ethics that the company espoused when they made that decision that was ultimately a harmful business decision on paper. And so I think that these companies really can compete with putting safety and morality in the front, in the forefront of what they're doing.

1:13:28And at the same time, regulation is essential, but we need real rules of the road with government oversight. If we're really talking about something that could pose a risk of human extinction, I don't want a group of billionaires colluding on what those rules look like, weighing against their profit margins. We need transparency, we need consequences, and we need real oversight. But what about the fact that you have the president and his family, according to the Washington Post analysis, heavily invested in AI? You have many members of Congress who have AI stock. So the same people who would be charged with regulating AI also have a vested interest in seeing it continue to progress?

1:14:09Some of them do, and I think that that's definitely a credibility issue that they're going to face with their constituents. We're seeing polling numbers that show that AI and some of the related technologies, including data centers, are rapidly unpopular, and people are looking for real accountability and leadership here. And again, I can't say that I trust this government. But what I can say is we can't take the pressure off the table because the truth is we've never been closer than we were before this deal was brought forward to strong bipartisan AI regulation. And that's a conversation that we need to push forward because that is the only way we're really going to stem this tide.

1:14:44I don't think these companies have done anything to earn public trust to regulate themselves. But I think that we are in a position to continue to apply pressure to the government to get this over the finish line. And frankly, their constituents, I believe, will make it painful at the ballot box if they don't. You and your fellow plaintiffs have signaled that you want to expand this case into a class action suit on behalf of others affected by potential action taken by the AI companies to slow down development. Who would be involved with that? Well, I think that class members could really be any consumers of these products.

1:15:16The truth is, if you're paying for this, then you are a class member, potentially, that could have a claim against these companies for this illegal collusion. It's a classic antitrust lawsuit. All right, Cheyenne Hunt, thank you so much. Appreciate you coming on the show. Thank you. All right, let's bring back former federal prosecutor Barrett Berger. So what do you think? Do you think Cheyenne and her co-plaintiffs have a viable case against these AI companies? Does she have a good point about the Sherman Act? Yeah, I mean, this is a really fascinating case that is really groundbreaking. We haven't seen courts weighing in on these new technologies so much in the antitrust area.

1:15:57And this creates really interesting tension, right? We, on the one hand, want companies to be responsible corporate citizens, especially in this area. And antitrust law specifically allows for companies to work together for safety measures. That is, safety cooperation isn't inherently unlawful. So we see competitors routinely collaborating across industries to come up with new safety standards, new ways of even restricting technology when safety is the primary concern. But they are obviously alleging that's an important difference here between saying, you know, let's develop common safety tests and let's not let's all agree not to release any more capable products.

1:16:38So I think that's going to create interesting case law that we haven't seen in this space before. The other thing I think they have that's going to be a unique issue is the sort of difficult injury and damages problem. You heard her saying they represent right now these paying customers sort of of chat GPT, Claude, others. But proving damages is not going to be simple. Right. They're going to have to show sort of something very speculative here. How much better would their product have been absent this alleged agreement? So I think they have some challenges, but it's a really interesting case that I'll be watching very closely.

1:17:18Could an argument of safety and public interest work as a defense, as these AI giants would likely attempt to argue? Absolutely. And we've seen this in different contexts, you know, over the years. And the Supreme Court has recognized, you know, time and time again that industries coming together to come up with safety standards and even working together sometimes for this is actually a good thing and does not necessarily violate antitrust laws. We just saw this happen somewhat recently with DOJ and FTC specifically saying that in the cybersecurity area, competing companies can share technical information about how they're dealing with cyber threats, things like that, because it actually, you know, this is such a new and fast moving area and that won't violate antitrust laws.

1:18:13So we have seen both the FTC, DOJ, and the Supreme Court recognizing that these safety standards are one sort of carve out sometimes from antitrust laws. No doubt the AI companies would point that out. Barrett Berger, thank you so much. More news when we come back.

1:18:33Pamela Brown: Happening now, people from North Carolina all the way up to New England are getting ready for a powerful and rare September nor 'easter. More than 40 million people on the East Coast are in the storm's path. Some areas could see a month's worth of rain in just a day. The effects are already being felt in North Carolina's Outer Banks. Huge waves are hitting those areas. Out on Long Island in New York State, they're building up natural barriers just ahead of what's expected to be a direct hit. CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam is in Scituate, Massachusetts for us. Derek, what are you seeing where you are?

1:19:14Well, it's the defining feature of a nor 'easter is the persistent northeasterly winds. And the fact that this storm is going to stall out off the coastline for days means that the winds that we're getting battered with is going to continue to push up the Atlantic Ocean over several high tide cycles. And that's important because we have a full moon this weekend that will exaggerate the high tides, not to mention this persistent northeasterly wind that is going to potentially cause some power outages. Look at this incredible backdrop. We're in situate, Massachusetts, an area that's vulnerable to coastal erosion, vulnerable to these powerful nor 'easters.

1:19:52This is an early September type storm or early season storm, I should say, the first of the season. And speaking of the first of the season, this seawall that I'm standing on right now is actually brand new. This is its first test. These homes behind us getting battered by waves that are splashing up and over this newly built wall. Let me show you the old seawall that they had to replace. I mean, this is the infrastructure that is put in place on these coastal communities because of storms like this. And, of course, the sea level rises that we are encountering here across the entire eastern seaboard of the U.S.

1:20:30It just makes these areas, the businesses and the homes here, more vulnerable. This nor 'easter is just really now starting to gather strength. It's really building into itself off the coast. And this means that the winds are not the only factor. It is also going to be the potential for inland localized flooding, especially near the coastline. And then on top of that, we have the potential for power outages. Remember, we haven't had the drop in the tree leaves just yet. Fall hasn't fully come to this area, so we still have full foliage on the trees. So that means that it's acting like a sail to kind of, you know, catch the wind as it gusts over 50 to 60 miles per hour at the peak of the storm, which we anticipate to be tomorrow and into Sunday.

1:21:15So we're kind of getting out here early to get just a lay of the land, understand this area, and get a better perspective of what these homes, what these residents are going to be contending with here in the days to come as this slow-moving, we'll call it a tropical storm without a name, this nor 'easter early in the season bears in on the East Coast. Wolf?

1:21:37Pamela Brown: All right, stay safe over there, Derek Van Dam in Situate, Massachusetts, for us. Appreciate it very much. and remember to use the CNN weather app to follow the storm and any weather that may impact you, you can find it now in the Apple App Store. And thanks very much to all of our viewers for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media at Wolf Blitzer and at Pamela Brown CNN. We'll see you back here Monday morning and every weekday morning at 10 Eastern for two hours. Inside Politics today with our friend and colleague Phil Mattingly starts after a quick break. Have a great weekend.

1:22:42of both. And she is also the sort of rare fashion writer who at this point kind of outside the system. And so the question that we're going to try to tackle is fashion terrible now. Well, no, I mean, I would phrase it as how do you develop a personal style in the age of AI slop? You know, on social media, like creators have to try a whole bunch of different things and see what catches and then they make it over and over and over again. The same thing happens with clothing. So they're sort of seeding the market, seeding the internet with all of these different ideas and then they can see what sells and then they can just make them really fast.

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