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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump Doubles Down On Pre-Summit "Financial" Remarks; Interview With Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA); Penile Implant Specialist With History Of Far-Right Comments Led Hantavirus Presser; New Ebola Outbreak Confirmed In A Remote Congo Province; DOJ: Iraqi National "Directed And Urged" Attacks On Americans And Jewish People Over Iran War; Understaffing, Poor Medical Care Drives Deaths In ICE Detention. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired May 15, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: No, I like pickles. You know what? A little bit more on, it's sour to start off with. But then as a creamy texture.
SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's the banana.
ENTEN: It's the banana, so pickles comes in, gives you sour and then you have a little sweet banana at the end. Maybe that's a new ticket for you, bananas and pickles, Sara Sidner.
SIDNER: It's bananas, we like the pickle smoothie.
ENTEN: There we go.
SIDNER: Cheers to you.
ENTEN: Cheers to you.
SIDNER: Happy Pickle Day, America. Harry Enten, thank you and thank you for joining us. AC360 starts right now, delish.
[20:00:32]
PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: So, what did President Trump get from the Beijing summit? What did he give up? And what will he do next about Iran, now that his trip to Asia is over?
Good evening, Pamela Brown here sitting in for Anderson. The President returned to the White House shortly before airtime tonight. He did not take questions but he did say this about his two-day visit with Xi Jinping.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: All I can say is, that was a great success. It was fantastic trip. We made great deals, we did great trade deals, we had great relationships, and a lot of things have happened that you'll be hearing about them, but that was a tremendous success. I think it really was a historic moment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: So, the President had a big ask for China's President going into the summit, pressure on Iran to come to terms on ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. What he seems to have gotten as far as Beijing has indicated so far is nothing much on that front. China's foreign minister today simply restated his country's desire to see the conflict ended through negotiations and the Strait reopened. And unlike yesterday, when the President said Xi Jinping offered, "any help at all with Iran," he struck a different tone aboard Air Force One today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Did President Xi make any firm commitment to put pressure on the Iranians to reopen the Strait of Hormuz?
TRUMP: I'm not asking for any favors, because when you ask for favors, you have to do favors in return. We don't need favors. We've wiped out their armed forces, essentially. We may have to do a little cleanup work because we had a little month-long ceasefire, I guess you'd call it. But we have a blockade that's so effective. That's why we did the ceasefire. We really did the ceasefire at the request of other nations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: So, whatever the President is signaling about resuming combat operations, which he called "to be continued" last night. What you just heard him say there does not suggest he got anything concrete from Beijing on Iran. He's coming home, though, with a commitment, he says, for China to buy 200 planes from Beijing and options on 500 more, something China has not yet confirmed if true, it's certainly not nothing, though some analysts had expected greater.
He also said farmers would be, "very happy" with the agreement. He says he got for China to buy more American soybeans, but gave no further details on that. As for what he might have given up or given ground on, there's Taiwan.
Just a day after China warned that the U.S., "must exercise extra caution" in handling the Taiwan question, the President seemed to do just that. Here he is today, talking about whether he would greenlight a $14 billion defense package for the island.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: What about the arms sales to Taiwan?
TRUMP: I'll make a determination over the next fairly short period of time.
REPORTER: You're not necessarily going to go ahead of this, you're proposing --
TRUMP: I'll make a determination --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Speaking with Fox News, he went further, explicitly tying it to talks with China.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm holding that in advance and it depends on China. It depends, it's a very good negotiating chip for us, frankly. It's a lot of weapons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: So, the President is saying is ringing alarm bells today in Taipei and other parts of the region. Is his admission that he discussed the matter with President Xi, in his words, in great detail, actually, which contradicts American policy on Taiwan observed by Presidents of both parties since the early 1980s?
Theres that, and there's also this, the President lashing out at the reporter who pointed that out. "The New York Times'" David Sanger, we should also mention that David is a CNN political and National Security analyst. Here's the President attacking his reporting on Iran.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We've had a total victory, except by people like you that don't write the truth. You know, you should write, I actually think it's sort of treasonous, what you write.
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: On another war --
TRUMP: It don't matter because -- Your editors tell you what to write, and you write it you should be ashamed of yourself. I actually think it's treason, when you write like they're doing well militarily and they have no Navy, no Air Force, no anti anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And before leaving Beijing, the President also doubled down on the remark he made on his way over to China about not thinking about American's financial situation when pushing to end the war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL CHIEF POLITICAL ANCHOR: You were asked on the, when you were leaving -- What extent are American financial situations motivating you to make a deal?
TRUMP: Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters is we're not talking about Iran. They can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about American financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon, that's all.
That's right, that's a perfect segue to make it again.
BAIER: You can imagine how many people stopped the soundbite at, "I don't think about America." They played that situation, so what's your response to that framework?
TRUMP: Very simple, when people hear me say it, everybody agrees. Short term pain. It's going to be short term pain, but the pain is much less than people thought, because people thought that the oil would go up to $250.00. You know, it was $99.00 yesterday, $99.00 a barrel. I thought it might go up to $200.00. I was okay with that, not that I wanted it, but you cannot let them have a nuclear weapon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:05:55]
BROWN: All right, A lot to talk about tonight. Let's begin with former U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas burns and randy Phillips, formerly the CIA station chief in Beijing. Great to have you both on, gentlemen. I want to start with you, Ambassador Burns. Now that President Trump is back from China, what is your takeaway from this summit? What did the President achieve?
NICHOLAS BURNS, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO CHINA: I think the President achieved a good working relationship with President Xi Jinping. That's actually very important. We're trying to have a stable relationship with China, and you've got to deal with the number one leader there.
Second, you know, the agricultural purchases, we'll see what the details are. But if It's in excess of $10 billion which is what Jamieson Greer was indicating the U.S. Trade Rep. That would be very significant for our farm economy. And that's a very important objective of ours.
You noted the Boeing deal third, 200 planes is not what a lot of people had hoped for, but at least It's a start. And there was something little noted, Pamela, that President Trump mentioned today and Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, mentioned yesterday that the U.S. and China might be beginning talks on artificial intelligence security because of the powerful mythos model of Anthropic. There is this fear that cyber terrorists, cyber criminals, could get hold of this ai technology and wreak havoc with the global financial system.
It makes sense for China and the United States as the two leading A.I. countries to be talking about that.
BROWN: Yes, I mean, it is certainly a National Security priority. And actually, on that front, when it comes to cyberattacks, I want to play some sound where you heard President Trump really sort of brush off the concern of Chinese cyber-attacks. Let's listen to that and Randy, we'll talk on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The question was asked to me yesterday, I guess, what about the fact that China is spying in the United States? I said, well, it's one of those things because we spy like hell on them, too. It's very possible that they do and were doing things to them. I told them, we do a lot of stuff to you that you don't know about, and you're doing things to us that we probably do know about, but we do plenty. It's a double, it's a double-edged sword.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: So, I'm wondering what your take is on that, considering the risk that Chinese cyber-attacks potentially pose to U.S. National Security?
RANDAL PHILLIPS, FORMER CIA CHIEF OF STATION IN BEIJING: Thank you, Pamela. I think it's very important issue. Obviously, the fact that China has been engaged in cyber-attacks against America and others for many years now are quite adept at it is something that should concern every American. It would have been better, in my opinion, if the President maybe didn't say that out loud on Air Force One. But the fact is, China is a very important issue for the United States. We certainly pay great attention to what China is doing, and China obviously has the U.S. as it's number one target.
So, I think the cyber issue is something that we can't ignore. And I think we're going to need to see what comes out on the other side of this, whether there's a reduction in China's cyber activity based on this summit. I doubt it, but let's hope or if it's a situation, you know, the status quo continues.
BROWN: And just to follow up with you, as the ambassador pointed out, both sides are also touting that this visit helped with stability with the U.S. and China. Help us better understand, Randy, the significance of that and what that actually means tangibly.
PHILLIPS: Well, I think it certainly sounds good on the face of it. Who could be against stability in the relationship? The thing is, the construct that China has put out there and that apparently Secretary of State Rubio mentioned on NBC last Friday that the U.S. has agreed to, is something called constructive strategic stability. And it's a framework in which China is acknowledging that there will be competition between the U.S. and China, but we will manage it, and then we will also seek a stable relationship.
The problem with this is that China has used constructs like this in the past to basically, draw us in to a situation in which, you know, they can then say were in violation if we do something that we think is in our national interest, for example, on tech restrictions, that would be against that whole framework.
And especially coming out of this meeting, it certainly seems like that China has set itself up into a position to be able to be that, that arbiter of making the of whether something does violate that, whatever type of U.S. action might happen in the future.
[20:10:20]
BROWN: And obviously, Taiwan was a big issue on the table. President Trump made clear that that was a big point of their discussions. And Ambassador Burns, Trump said on Air Force One that he made, "no commitment either way on Taiwan." He also told Fox that he wants to see things in China and Taiwan, "stay the way it is."
Is that basically a continuation of the U.S. principle of strategic ambiguity when it comes to Taiwan in your mind, or is the President going further?
BURNS: Well, the principle of strategic ambiguity refers to the fact that the United States has never been explicit about what we would do in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
What President Trump said on Air Force One today, however, on the arms package for Taiwan was extremely worrisome. He equivocated, he said that he had talked and now is in negotiations with President Xi Jinping about it. No American President has negotiated our arms sale packages for Taiwan with the Chinese government in Beijing for 50 years.
And there is the Taiwan Relations Act, which is the law of the land from 1979, that requires American presidents and the executive branch to provide arms for Taiwan. So, I'm worried about this. Imagine, Pamela, the signal It's sending to the 25 million people who live in that very real democracy in Taiwan. And imagine the signal it sends to Japan and South Korea and the Philippines, three treaty allies. You know, that we might be pulling back on a commitment to Taiwan. What's the message to them?
So, I really hope that President Trump's going to reconsider what he said on Air Force One. Go ahead with his arms package. It has tremendous support on Capitol Hill in both parties.
BROWN: Yes, he called it a good negotiating chip and that he'll make a determination soon. We shall see on that front. Ambassador Burns, Randy Phillips, thank you both.
And up next, new reporting on a plan the administration is considering to turn $1.7 billion of your money into a fund for paying the President's allies, including hundreds of people whom the President pardoned, charged or convicted in connection with the attack on the Capitol on January 6th.
And later, a CNN exclusive on computer hacking that U.S. officials suspect gave Iran access to gas stations across the country. So, what did this actually do? We're going to discuss after this break, stay with U.S.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:17:04]
BROWN: Stunning news out of Washington tonight, the Trump administration is reportedly weighing the creation of a $1.7 billion fund, that's billion with a "B," to pay the President's political allies, who were investigated by the Justice Department under then President Biden. This is all according to "The New York Times." The move, first reported by ABC, would come in exchange for the President dropping his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS stemming from that 2019 leak of one of his tax returns to "The New York Times."
Now, sources familiar tell, "The Times" that the plan is being fast tracked, but it hasn't been finalized yet. It's not clear where the money would come from exactly, but the program would reportedly be based on this landmark $760 million settlement fund established by the Obama administration to compensate native American farmers deprived of federal subsidies for decades.
And according to "The New York Times," the nearly 1,600 Trump supporters charged or convicted and then pardoned for their role in the January 6th, 2021, attack on the Capitol, would be eligible for a payout from this fund. This would be just the latest attempt by President Trump to rewrite the history of that day.
We are joined now by Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts. Congressman, nice to have you on. So, this fund, if It's approved, certainly raises a number of ethical questions. Critics say it sounds like a political slush fund financed by the taxpayers. Is that how you see it?
REP. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS (D-MA): Yes, I don't actually think it raises that many questions. I think this is pretty clearly a political slush fund. The President, over the last 18 months has been explicit with the American people about what he uses power for. He uses power to enrich himself and his family with his cryptocurrency scheme and, you know, with his private equity funds that Jared Kushner is raising from Middle Eastern Countries.
He is hooking up his donors with trillion-dollar tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. And now he is handing money out to felons, many of whom have gone on to recommit crimes after being prosecuted for insurrection against the United States Government.
I think most Americans see this for what it is. The question for Democrats, though, is if we are entrusted with power in the House and the Senate after the midterms, how are we going to show Americans what we do with that trust? And to me, it has to be focused on American's number one issue, which is the economy.
We've got to deliver on more affordable homes, more affordable energy, and more affordable health care. That is the mandate that we have to execute against.
BROWN: And just to be clear, Trump isn't handing out anything yet. This is something that that the administration is heavily weighing and trying to fast track. But, you know, the President already took a lot of heat, even from some in his own party, for pardoning the January 6th rioters. Do you believe he'd actually go so far as to pay them out as well?
AUCHINCLOSS: Yes.
BROWN: You do, is there anything Democrats can do to stop this from happening if It's ultimately approved?
[20:20:10]
AUCHINCLOSS: Yes, Democrats have a number of occasions successfully pushed back on this administration's worst abuses of power. We've done so with funding for basic research. We've done so with ICE actions in Minnesota.
We've done so with the incompetent leadership of the Food and Drug Administration, just got Marty Makary fired. He was regulating 20 percent of the American economy and he's out now.
So, even as the minority party, we have been able to box in some of the worst impulses of this administration. But, I mean, let's be plain here. We're having to do it with two hands tied behind our backs because our Republican colleagues in Congress refuse to do anything to stand up to this President as members of a separate and co-equal branch of government.
I mean, look at this Iran war. This war was illegal on day one. Republicans have been murmuring that, oh, maybe on day 60 we'll do something about it. Well, day 60 came and went, they did nothing about it because they don't have the political courage of their convictions.
BROWN: What do you say to Republicans who are arguing? Look, it's all worth it. You know, this short-term pain, if Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon. You just heard Republican Jim Jordan try to make that argument.
AUCHINCLOSS: There have been many notable periods in America's history in which public leaders have asked the American public to collectively sacrifice for the greater good. We all know that, from the Revolutionary War through World War II, and it's righteous, this is not one of those instances.
This President has failed to consult Congress or allies, has failed to articulate a strategy, and has failed to execute against that strategy. Right now, Iran still has nuclear enrichment capabilities, still has access to 30 out of its 33 ballistic missile sites, still has a hardened and hardline Ayatollah, and now has a new strategic deterrent, which is choke point control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world's oil transits.
This President has started a war by himself, he has lost a war by himself, and it has been an expensive failure for the American public.
BROWN: All right, Congressman Jake Auchincloss, thanks for your time and sharing your perspective.
And a quick programing note, a longtime Democratic Congressman, Steve Cohen, joins Abby Phillip on News Night at 10:00 Eastern to discuss what led to his surprise retirement announcement, today.
And up next for us tonight, a change in location, cross country for two cruise passengers being monitored for hantavirus. Also, new reporting on one of the public faces of the administration's hantavirus response. Our K-file uncovering that he's got a little public health experience but considerable experience with penile implants and conspiracy theories.
And then later, the arrest of an Iranian aligned militant leader authorities say is responsible for terrorist attacks across Europe, who was planning, they say, strikes in this country, including on a synagogue in New York.
We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:27:16]
BROWN: A change in locale for two cruise passengers who were initially being monitored for hantavirus and treated for viral symptoms at Emory University in Atlanta, and they are now with the other 16 at the National Quarantine Unit in Omaha, Nebraska. The reason for the move? They no longer require ongoing medical treatment.
Meantime, there's new CNN and K-File reporting on the official you might have seen fronting the federal antivirus response recently. Dr. Brian Christine, before joining the administration, Dr. Christine was an Alabama urologist with little experience in federal public health. He specialized in penile implants and once hosted a YouTube show called the "Erection Connection".
K-file also found a history of far-right commentary and conspiracy tend remarks. And with that as a backdrop, Africa's top public health organization confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in the Congo. Joining us now to discuss all of this is Brown University public health researcher and Ebola survivor Dr. Craig Spencer. Thanks for coming on, Dr. Spencer. What is your reaction, first off, to the CNN reporting about Dr. Christine, who is essentially running point on the U.S. hantavirus response. And what does it reveal about how public health is being handled overall by the Trump administration.
DR. CRAIG SPENCER, BROWN UNIVERSITY: Good question, look, I'm in full support of penile health. I think that's great, I'm glad that he's an expert. But right now, the fact that that is who is running our response should be concerning, particularly when we have leadership gaps all over the rest of our federal public health infrastructure.
We don't have an FDA head. We have the same person running the NIH that's running the CDC. We don't have anyone in the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response, and we've pulled out of the WHO. So, in normal circumstances, maybe I wouldn't be too concerned that a urologist with no infectious disease background is running an infectious disease response right now. But right now, I'm a lot more concerned.
BROWN: How much does it surprise you that those roles aren't filled, given the fact that the pandemic happened, the COVID pandemic happened under Trump's first term? SPENCER: I think it's a massive failure. And look, I came on the show a year ago and I said all the things that we were cutting, USAID, pulling out of the World Health Organization, the CDC, all these things that we we're doing with research at the NIH, this was all going to come back and bite us. And I'm afraid to say that I think that's exactly what we're seeing right now.
We have abdicated our leadership on the global stage. We had the World Health Organization thankfully leading the hantavirus response, and we were flat footed and kind of caught a few weeks behind.
But right now, what we're seeing is that domestically, were not prepared either as well. We have great folks at the CDC. They're doing incredible work, but there's not enough of them. We have some of our incredible Ebola folks that should be abroad that are now in Nebraska. They're great, wonderful people.
We just don't have the resources we need because we've cut a lot of them and laid them off.
BROWN: Let's talk a little bit more about Ebola, because as you know, there are reports of a new Ebola outbreak in a remote Congo province. As someone who survived, Ebola and is also an expert in public health, how concerning is this outbreak?
[20:30:30]
SPENCER: Well, for your average American, it's not concerning at all yet. But in terms of outbreaks that I'd be concerned about, this is a big one. We learned a lot today in a short period of time, and we learned way too much too quickly for me to not be concerned. We saw that the size of the outbreak was over 200 cases. That would put this at one of the 10th largest outbreaks of all time.
We saw that there were cases not only in Congo, a place where I've worked, that is really difficult to work. Transport is tough. There's instability and conflict, people going back and forth across borders. And on the same day, we saw a reported case and a death in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, hundreds of miles away, in addition to cases throughout Congo and other places, meaning that this has likely been spreading for quite some time.
And more concerning, this is an Ebola strain that we don't have a vaccine for. We don't have a treatment for it. It's different than the 2014 outbreak that was caused by the Zaire strain. This was caused by what's known as Bundibugyo. We don't have a treatment for this. We don't have anything investigational. We have nothing in research. And so that's what would make me most concerned right now.
BROWN: Just really quickly, just to drill down on that, what does that mean for the everyday American? I mean, are you concerned? You know, I know you said not in the immediate future, but in the long-term future when it comes to this strain?
SPENCER: I'm most concerned about spread in the region. I'm most concerned about the fact that a year ago, Elon Musk cut our Ebola response team at USAID. And that means that I don't know that Uganda and other countries are going to have the resources to stand up things like airport screening at the airports there to make sure a case does not get on a plane and travel further abroad, including to the U.S.
And quite frankly, I would be concerned our ability to respond here in the U.S. with all the cuts that we have made over the last year. If we have a case here, the fact that we don't have good, strong public health leadership in place at our most important public health agencies would mean that our outbreak response would probably be suboptimal.
BROWN: All right, Dr. Craig Spencer, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.
And up next, how American justice caught up to the Iraqi national accused of doing Iran's bidding and terror attacks across Europe and the plans he allegedly had for doing the same here.
Also, what a CNN exclusive investigation uncovered about deaths at ICE detention centers when AC 360 continues. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:36:57]
BROWN: An Iraqi national has been arrested by federal authorities and charged with coordinating at least 18 terrorist attacks across Europe, targeting Americans and Jewish people of all nationalities. He is also charged with attempting to carry out an attack on a New York City synagogue. Reprisals, prosecutors say, for the war in Iran.
Joining us now with more of CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller. Hey, John, so what was the scope of this alleged operation?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, this was a fascinating construct, Pam. You had an individual, Al- Saadi, who was working for the IRGC, the Iranian Special Forces, seen here with Qasem Soleimani, the designer of the Iranians' Axis of Resistance, where he recruited smaller groups, including Al-Saadi's group in Iraq, to do Iran's bidding when called upon.
And in this case, organizing the 18 attacks with Jewish targets, fire bombings, bombings, arsons, the burning of the Jewish ambulance corps in London, was meant to sow fear and destabilization across Europe. Upping the ante was this plot to come to New York and to attack a New York synagogue, another in California, another in Arizona.
BROWN: How was the recruiting done, and is there concern that there are others like him out there?
MILLER: Well, Al-Saadi will be replaced by somebody else from the group that he's in in Iraq, which is Kitab al-Hizballah. But the recruiting was the other fascinating part of this, which is, this is a new technique. It's what the Soufan group referred to in an intelligence report today as disposable recruits, disposable agents. Instead of radicalizing someone, getting through a training camp, and finding true believers, they're finding criminal elements and groups online, and they're just offering to pay them to do the job. And that way, if they're caught, they're caught. They don't know enough about the organization or even the people who hired them to give much intelligence to law enforcement.
BROWN: So that makes it much more easy to replace someone like him, is what you're saying.
MILLER: Yes.
BROWN: I want to ask you about something else real quick. The FBI is offering a $200,000 reward for information on this former Air Force intelligence officer, charged in 2019 with spying for Iran. Authorities believe she defected to Iran in 2013. Here's a picture. And they're still trying to locate her. Tell us more about what she's alleged to have done here.
MILLER: Well, Monica Witt was a sergeant in the Air Force, was deployed in the Gulf War, was an airman and an intelligence officer with a top secret clearance. And after she left the Air Force, she was assigned to the Office of Special Investigations in the Air Force and then came back as a contractor, continuing to do classified work. But she converted to Islam. She studied in school.
She met an Iranian individual who the U.S. government believes was a Iranian intelligence officer. And she was lured deeper into this web and eventually ended up in Iran, where the U.S. government has an Iranian intelligence officer. And she was lured deeper into this web and eventually ended up in Iran, where the U.S. government has charged her espionage by simply sharing highly classified military secrets with the Iranian government.
[20:40:17]
BROWN: What a case. All right, John Miller, thanks as always.
MILLER: Thanks, Pam.
BROWN: And tonight, there's another investigation with a possible Iran connection. According to multiple sources, U.S. investigators suspect hackers linked to Tehran are responsible for a number of breaches of computer systems monitoring fuel and storage tanks at gas stations across the country before you get to fill your gas tanks.
Our cybersecurity reporter, Sean Lyngaas, joins us right now with his CNN exclusive. So what do we know about this hack? And what is the impact for those of us who are going to fill up our cars at the gas station?
SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: Right. So what we know is that these critical systems, many of them were unfortunately sitting online. They shouldn't be online, right? They should be off the internet, but didn't have passwords on them. So it was pretty easy for whoever did this. My sources indicate that it very well could be Iran. And what they did is they broke into them and in some cases, manipulated the readings.
So when you look at the monitors, it tells you how much gas is in the tank. And, you know, in a situation like this, they could manipulate the readings to say something completely different. So the gas station may think they're out or they're full.
In terms of the impact on the consumer, it's not going to be immediate or direct. It's more a psychological play during a war, obviously, that the U.S. and Iran and Israel are at. But it's an attempt by Iran to use its asymmetric capabilities, right? They can't reach the U.S. homeland with missiles or drones, but their hacking capabilities are good enough to do things like this to say, we know the U.S., you have some very vulnerable critical infrastructure, and here's how we can do this.
BROWN: How tough is it to attribute this to Iran? Because I know that can be a challenge, but they do believe it is Iran.
LYNGAAS: Something that -- I should say that Iran is the leading suspect, according to the sources I talked to. That could change. However, Iran does have a history of targeting these very tank systems. Over a decade ago, researchers did a mock simulation where they put some of these systems online, these very same tank things online in 2015. And some of the first people to hack into them were Iranians.
More recently, the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that John was just referencing, they have singled out these systems as specific targets, according to reporting from Sky News. So we have a body of work here, a malicious work, that points to this. What they don't know, they being U.S. officials, is they haven't recovered the forensic, the fingerprints, the digital fingerprints to directly point the finger.
Because the systems were so poorly protected, the hackers were able to waltz in. They didn't have to leave a big footprint. And so some of the digital forensics that you normally use to say, aha, I think I know exactly who did this, it's missing right now in this case, according to my sources. So they are working under the theory that it's Iran. And given the geopolitical situation Iran is in, it's quite concerning.
BROWN: But it's also concerning that these systems were poorly protected.
LYNGAAS: Absolutely.
BROWN: So, Sean, thank you so much. We appreciate you bringing your reporting to the table.
And we have another exclusive, an investigation into deaths at ICE detention centers, including this one in a remote area of Southern California, all happening since the start of President Trump's immigration crackdown last year. Priscilla Alvarez talked with one family of one detainee who died and is seeking answers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANTONIA TOVAR, HUSBAND DIED IN ICE DETENTION (through audio translation): Very hard. That is why I tell my tree. I tell it my husband won't be eating its avocados anymore.
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Antonia Tovar's husband, Jose Ramos, died in March, only about a month after being detained by immigration officials. He's now one of nearly 50 ICE detainees who have died since President Donald Trump's return to office.
TOVAR (through audio translation): They used to call him "big hands" at work because he was muscular, right?
ALVAREZ (voice-over): Ramos came to the U.S. nearly 30 years ago. Last year, he was charged with theft and possession of a controlled substance and was placed in a diversion program, which meant that if completed, those charges would have been dismissed.
ALVAREZ: We know from ICE that Jose was arrested on February 23rd. His wife said they were making a stop here at the Superior Courthouse in Torrance so he could deliver some paperwork.
TOVAR (through audio translation): There's his truck. That one.
ALVAREZ (through audio translation): This one?
ALVAREZ: OK. That's their car.
ALVAREZ (voice-over): Antonia told us she briefly stepped away and when she looked back, she saw this.
[20:44:58]
Antonia worried about Ramos' medical conditions, diabetes and high blood pressure. He was sent to the Adelanto ICE processing center, about two hours from where they lived. According to ICE records, Ramos went through a medical intake and was prescribed medications.
GLORIA RAMOS, FATHER DIED IN ICE DETENTION: I don't think it really hit me until I walked into the room and I saw him.
ALVAREZ: What was that feeling like?
RAMOS: And when I walked into the room, his back was towards us and we walked in and I walked towards him and he was just sitting there looking down.
ALVAREZ: We're driving to the Adelanto detention facility. This is where Jose was held for several weeks and it's one of many facilities across the United States where ICE holds detainees. As you can see in this case, it is in a pretty remote area of California, about an hour and a half or more outside of Los Angeles. Now, Adelanto had stopped accepting new detainees because of a federal judge during the coronavirus pandemic, but that was lifted in January of 2025. And since then, the population ballooned from around three people to nearly 2,000.
ALVAREZ (voice-over): A CNN investigation found that deadly outcomes in more than a dozen cases could, at times, be linked to substandard treatment at facilities where populations are rapidly growing. At Adelanto, four people in detention have died since 2025.
A spokesperson for GEO Group, the private company that operates Adelanto, did not answer questions about Ramos's death, but told CNN that the company provides detainees with, "around-the-clock access to medical care" and is, "independently accredited by industry groups."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This call is subject to recording and monitoring. Press 1 to accept the call.
ALVAREZ (voice-over): We spoke to one of Ramos's cellmates, Marco Martinez, who called for help when Ramos collapsed.
MARCO MARTINEZ, ICE DETAINEE: The guard didn't do anything at all. Like he just sat there and watched him shake, and it got to a point where his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he still didn't do anything. The medical showed up, but they didn't show up until another 10 minutes.
ALVAREZ (voice-over): According to a public ICE detainee death report, a registered nurse arrived one minute after a guard first noticed Ramos in medical distress and began providing aid. Emergency medical care services arrived 10 minutes later and began administering care. Ramos was transferred to a nearby hospital and was pronounced dead three minutes after he arrived.
ROB BONTA (D), CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Lack of adequate health care staffing has been a theme across the facilities, including in Adelanto.
ALVAREZ (voice-over): The California attorney general has the unique authority, as of 2017, to inspect detention facilities in the state. The AG's office exclusively shared those findings with CNN.
BONTA: I think a big part of the really difficult set of results and data that we're seeing, including the deaths, is the surge in number of detainees and the complete inability and unpreparedness of the facilities.
ALVAREZ (voice-over): Ramos' family still has not been notified of the cause of death. The uncertainty over what happened is a living nightmare.
TOVAR (through audio translation): My god. We want justice. Let justice be served, because my husband did not deserve to die.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: So how has DHS responded to your reporting?
ALVAREZ: Well, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security disputed that there is a spike in deaths, and they also provided this statement. I'll read it here. "Consistent with data over the last decade, as of April 30th, death rates in custody under the Trump administration are 0.009 percent of the detained population. As bed space has rapidly expanded, we have maintained higher a standard of care than most prisons that hold U.S. citizens, including providing access to proper medical care."
But of course, Pamela, the family of Ramos is -- does not believe that he was provided the proper medical care while he was in Adelanto, and they are still seeking answers as to what happened in his final hours.
BROWN: Really important reporting. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much.
Joining us now with former acting ICE director during the Obama administration, John Sandweg. John, you just heard the reporting from Priscilla. Are you surprised by what you learned in that reporting that almost 50 detainees have died since President Trump began his second term? Why do you think this is happening?
JOHN SANDWEG, FMR. ACTING DIRECTOR, U.S. IMMIGRATION & CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT: No, Pamela, unfortunately, I'm not. This really was a very predictable outcome. You have a number of factors that led to this. The first would be, as the AG said, this rapid expansion of immigration detention. Remember, during the Biden administration, we had roughly 30,000 people on average in detention. That spiked up to 70,000 in January of this year.
Secondly, you have a reduction in the oversight mechanisms that are designed to make sure that ICE is adhering to policy and making sure there's proper medical staff, that you have proper trained prison guards or detention guards, excuse me. That, you know, the Trump administration closed the Office of Immigration Detention Ombudsman. They gutted the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. They've really put pressure on, fired a lot of IGs. All of that reduces the oversight that's available.
[20:50:19]
But, Pamela, ultimately what happens is you have this rapid expansion, all these new facilities. That means new people who are just either poorly trained or just lack that experience to know when medical care is necessary. Let me just say one final factor, and that is policies that basically require the field officers, regardless of whether someone has a criminal history or not, regardless of whether of their age or their medical condition, to detain those individuals. Throw that all together and this is the natural outcome, an increase in deaths.
BROWN: What do you say to that DHS statement that Priscilla read, that the numbers haven't really changed and that these detainees are getting even better care, medical care, than at some prisons? What do you say to that?
SANDWEG: You know, Pamela, this administration, and I will say two things. One is I think there's a change. Since Secretary Noem has left the scene and Secretary Mullin has come in, I am seeing a lot of signs that ICE is reverting back to, you know, detention population has gone down. So I want to say let's reserve judgment on this current iteration of ICE and DHS. But what I would say is this.
There's obviously been a lot of public statements that don't match the realities. This is clearly one of them. And, Pamela, look, the numbers themselves don't lie. And the second thing I would tell you is you ask anyone with any experience in this capacity, I would say the same, they would say the same thing. This rapid expansion is the number one, is going to lead to an increase in deaths.
If I'd say one thing very quickly, Pamela, I will say that the people, the men and women at ICE, in my experience, care. They don't -- they know it's a sacred responsibility when you have the health and safety of detainees that are in your custody. The problem, though, is not a lack of caring. It's just -- it's very difficult. Immigration detention is hard. You have a lot of people in a tight confinement, under a lot of stress, and you have to make difficult decisions about whether someone does need medical care or not. The problem is when you expand it this fast, it just becomes very difficult to do that effectively or do it well.
BROWN: And you say that this administration has eliminated almost all discretion in who they detain, and that could be driving this issue even further, in your view?
SANDWEG: Absolutely. I mean, listen, you don't need immigration detention to execute a mass deportation plan. We should all remember that there are alternatives to detention that have proven very effective at ensuring people show up for immigration court and leave the country if they are ordered removed.
One thing about those is they are a lot cheaper. Pamela, it's $4.50 a day on average to put someone on an ankle bracelet compared to $152 a day for immigration detention. This administration, though, has decided that this deportation, mass deportation effort, is going to be led with detention, right? So we've seen this massive, through the big beautiful bill, increase in the funding, giving them the capacity to get up to 100,000 beds.
We've also seen, though, importantly, not just elimination of those prosecutorial discretion policies where historically, if you had someone who's older or had chronic health conditions, I mean, in my experience, Pamela, I wouldn't want to detain those people because it's tough to provide them the medical care. But also, you've seen new legal interpretations that say greater part of the immigration population are subject to mandatory detention. And just this is a significant issue that's probably headed to the Supreme Court, but according to the new interpretation adopted by this administration overturning over 20 years of precedent, anyone who crossed that border unlawfully is subject to mandatory detention.
That spikes, you know, the number of people that are in immigration detention and reduces ICE's hands in terms of saying, hey, maybe we don't want to detain this person because they aren't well. It kind of forces those field officers to keep those people in detention.
BROWN: All right, John Sandweg, thanks for giving us your perspective.
[20:53:44]
And coming up, words of wisdom from North Carolina's very own country music star, Eric Church. His commencement address at UNC Chapel Hill striking a chord and going viral. Part of my conversation with him up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Turning now to country music star Eric Church's message for graduates at the University of North Carolina, my alma mater, a message that has gone viral and it's being called one of the best commencement speeches ever. That's him you see right here last weekend wearing those sunglasses and graduation gown as the Tar Heels state native strums his guitar during that speech and uses its strings to share six life pillars to guide the grads. Here's some of his message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC CHURCH, COUNTRY MUSIC STAR: String one, the low E, that is your foundation. Your faith is the low E of your life. String two is family. It's a string that makes you feel like you're not alone in a room. The D string is what you feel in the center of your chest. That is exactly what the right spouse and partner will do for your life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: So there was Eric Church at the UNC graduation and this morning he joined Wolf and me in The Situation Room and gave more context on his speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And here's the thing about this that I've said to everyone since this has went, you know, worldwide is I know about these things because I am guilty of not doing what I'm telling you to do. There's many times in my life that a number of my strings have been out of tune. But I've also lived long enough that I've had moments in my life when they've been in tune. And the difference is unbelievable and what I'm -- what I was challenging these kids to do is when you find where it is and something starts to go side one of those strings one of those pillars don't just let it stay there and keep playing louder and louder. Work on that thing to get it back in tune. Don't let more strings get out of tune. And listen, they're going to -- they're -- it's going to happen to them happen to me. So I think that being able to share that message in that setting which is one of the most beautiful places in the world and something that was dear to me is something that I'm very thankful that I got to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[21:00:16]
BROWN: A timeless message and of course congrats to all the grads. A quick footnote for you. Eric Church recently sat down with Anderson for his podcast on grief, All There Is. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch it at cnn.com/all there is.
That's all for us. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. The news continues with The Source with Kaitlan Collins now.
