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Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) On Axios Reporting U.S. And Iran Closing In On One-Page Memo To End War; Trump Gets Payback On Indiana Republicans Who Defied Him; Three Suspected Hantavirus Patients Evacuated From Cruise Ship. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired May 06, 2026 - 07:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[07:32:33]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning oil prices falling after President Trump said there had been "great progress in talks with Iran," signaling that a diplomatic end to the war is still on the table. Brent crude, the global benchmark, hovering right below a hundred bucks a barrel. Gas prices, however, went up again overnight. The national average now $4.54 a gallon. The U.S. exports millions of barrels of crude oil every day.

The Trump administration does have a so-called nuclear option to try and drive prices down, but some industry analysts say that option could actually backfire.

CNN's Matt Egan is joining us now with your reporting on this. What are you learning?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well Sara, hopefully there's a diplomatic breakthrough and the Strait of Hormuz reopens soon. But if diplomacy fails here, some in the oil industry do worry that the White House could resort to an extreme move like limiting oil experts.

Now here's the thinking, right? The U.S. is this energy superpower producing so much oil that millions of barrels per day get sent overseas, right? U.S. oil exports have skyrocketed 87 percent so far this year as countries in Asia and Europe that were relying on oil from the Middle East turned to the U.S. instead. But this raises an obvious question, right? If we're making so much oil here that we're sending some overseas, why not keep some in America to keep a lid on these surging prices, right?

Just as the war started, 50 percent increases for diesel and gasoline. Jet fuel, 67 percent more expensive.

But most of the analysts that I've talked to -- they warn that limiting the export of oil and petroleum products -- that this would backfire. They say that any sort of impact -- any sort of benefit to prices would be short-lived and it would come at a huge cost.

Because the problem is that U.S. refiners -- they rely on both imports and exports, right? They cannot just make their gasoline and jet fuel relying on really light U.S. oil. They blend it with other oil from Latin America, from the Middle East, and from other countries as well. And so a lot of that extra oil gets shipped overseas in the form of exports.

Now, the problem is that if you end up crushing refinery profit margins, they're going to produce less gasoline. So that's less supply here in the U.S. and higher prices for consumers.

[07:35:00]

Now the White House has said that this is not an option --

SIDNER: Yeah.

EGAN: -- that's on the table at all, and that's more believable with numbers like this --

SIDNER: Right.

EGAN: -- with oil futures plunging this morning.

But the oil industry -- this is something the oil industry would fight very significantly. I talked to one oil industry source who told me that this would be very bad policy and there would be forceful and vocal opposition because you'd be essentially killing the golden goose here.

Now, I did talk to Bob McNally. He's a former adviser to George W. Bush. And he said look, I've been in the White House when the walls were closing in. And he worries that prices will get high enough that eventually this is something that the White House could consider.

Again, hopefully not. Hopefully, diplomacy wins here and we get a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. But if not, you could see more talk about some of these more extreme moves.

SIDNER: Yeah. I mean, look, they were talking about gas being $5.00 on average a gallon across the country. While California is used to that, places like Georgia would freak out, right, if you -- if you consider that might be able to happen. And we're seeing the gas prices going up again overnight. We'll see what happens as oil starts to come down and if diplomacy takes over.

Thank you so much.

EGAN: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: It was great reporting from you, Matt Egan -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about the status of this war right now. Joining us is Democratic Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire. She serves on House Armed Services and is also a former Navy intelligence officer. Thank you for being here.

I want to ask you about this new Axios reporting from Barak Ravid saying that the U.S. and Iran are closing in on a one-page memo to end the war. A memorandum of understanding is how they're reporting it, to end the war and set a framework for more detailed nuclear negotiations.

And here is an important quote I'm seeing on the screen now. "Among other provisions, the deal would involve Iran committing to a moratorium on nuclear enrichment, the U.S. agreeing to lift its sanctions and release billions in frozen Iranian funds, and both sides lifting restrictions around transit through the Strait of Hormuz."

If this pans out -- if they're close to this one-pager, what's your reaction?

REP. MAGGIE GOODLANDER (D-NH): Well, thanks so much for having me.

You know, look, the devil is going to be in the details here and from what we've seen in public reporting over the last several weeks the two sides are far apart.

I hope and pray that we will reach a solution quickly because the American people are paying such a high price every single day for this war of choice that the president launched unilaterally and without congressional authorization.

You know, this was about setting back and stopping -- obliterating Iran's nuclear program. The Secretary of Defense came before the House and Senate Armed Services committees last week. There's nothing to suggest that we've made progress on that front because of all of this military action that we've taken. And the American people are paying the price of it every day. I pray they really reach a solution soon. This is something the president has got to get done.

BOLDUAN: The -- this -- speaking of the Secretary of Defense, this comes after the president -- this new reporting comes after the president has now put a pause on the effort that he started really basically just on Monday, saying that they going to help guide vessels through the strait. He shelves this operation hours after Hegseth and the Joint Chiefs chairman outlined the role that the U.S. military would play in doing just that. And then the Secretary of State told reporters that the combat operation against Iran has ended.

What does this add up to then if you think that they're still far apart and far away from ending this war?

GOODLANDER: Well look, the whiplash of the last 48 hours has really been emblematic of what we've seen since this war of choice began. The president contradicting his senior advisers, the -- his cabinet secretaries, changing course within a matter of hours. It's -- it is dizzying.

But the fact is here -- look, we've -- there is bipartisan bicameral support in the United States Congress for preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. The diplomatic path is the pathway that needs to be pursued at this moment.

This war the president launched has been at great cost in American lives. Fourteen American patriots have given their lives in this war. Taxpayer dollars spent -- billions of dollars. The price at the pump, the price at the pharmacy.

And the Strait of Hormuz has become a renewable resource and a complete asymmetric advantage for this Iranian regime to turn on and off. And this negotiated solution is going to have to deal with this new crisis of President Trump's own creation by handing Iran a new tool in their arsenal and one that comes at great cost to each and every American taxpayer.

BOLDUAN: So when the -- when the Secretary of State then says the operation is over, Epic Fury -- we are done with that stage of it -- just that -- do you think that is good news or ill advised?

[07:40:05]

GOODLANDER: Well look, it's hard to square with the realities that we're seeing on the ground right now. You know, yesterday the chairman of the Joint Chiefs said publicly that we've been on the receiving end. There -- missiles have been fired. We've been on the receiving end of Iranian fire more than 10 times since the ceasefire was announced last month. It's hard to square with the realities on the ground.

And this is no way to run a way. And this war -- from day one, the president has been unclear about what the objectives are and that has real consequences on the ground.

We have the greatest military that the world has ever known, and I pray for the success and safety of our -- of our troops every day. They are doing extraordinary work, but they have a person at the helm who has been unclear day after day about the objectives of this war, and that has an impact on the ground. That's unacceptable.

BOLDUAN: Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander, thanks for coming in -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking overnight revenge and retribution for President Trump in Indiana. The president swore payback against seven Republican state senators who rejected his demands to redraw Indiana's congressional maps. He certainly got that revenge. At least five of those seven who defied him were defeated in their primaries Tuesday by Trump-backed challengers. Just one candidate the president endorsed lost. Another race still remains too close to call.

With us this morning CNN senior political commentator David Urban. David, good to see you.

It's his party. He can cry if he wants to. That's the clear message.

But what I want to ask you is about what this means going forward. What might this mean in, say, Kentucky for Thomas Massie, who is on the ballot? In Louisiana for Bill Cassidy, a Republican senator who is on the ballot. The president endorsing an opponent there. And then maybe other states led by Republicans considering redistricting. DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISER (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah, John, perfect questions. Those are the exact questions you'd be asking this morning to Thomas Massie when you wake up. You've got to have pit in your stomach if you're Bill Cassidy when you wake up. You've got to -- you can't be feeling too strong about your positions.

And I would say, John, others who are looking, like you pointed out to, other legislatures who are looking to redraw their maps. They would do so -- they would reject the president and do so at their own peril because he is clearly, you know, King Kong at the top of the Empire State Building -- you know, roads, whatever. Pick your superlative. This is like you said and he dictates it. The base is with him and they're willing to go along with what he -- with what he wants to do.

So if you're Massie, it's going to be tough. If you're Cassidy, tough. But, you know, not impossible but it's going to be really tough. And it'll be very interesting to see how these -- how these elections play out. I would say if I was a betting man it's not going to look too good for Massie and Cassidy and others who crossed Donald Trump to this point.

BERMAN: Uh, just very quickly, yes or no. Does any of this help Republicans though heading into general elections or is this all, you know, inside the Republican Party politics?

URBAN: Yeah. Look, I think it's still inside Republican politics but winning begets winning. It's this muscle memory of how to turn people out and how to get the base excited. Um, we need base voters to show up and win. Um, you know, the Republican Party is not going to win if our team stays at home. If the couch wins and people are just apathetic. So I think it --

BERMAN: I feel like the couch may have just won in our discussion with David Urban right there. Lost the connection. But we got the gist of what he was saying. David very much suggesting that Republicans who defy President Trump need to be concerned going forward. Not much space for them -- I'll look over here. Not much space for them left in the party -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: And then bring it -- and then bring it over here. Thanks, J.B.

A CNN KFILE exclusive this morning and it has to do with deleted tweets again. But this time it's not a Michigan Senate candidate; it's the president's new pick to be U.S. Surgeon General. That nominee, Dr. Nicole Saphier, in past deleted messages that KFILE finds, criticized the president and HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. and did so as recently as two months before she was formally nominated.

Dr. Saphier is a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and she's a former Fox News medical contributor. She became Trump's choice for surgeon general, as we reported on, after the White House withdrew the previous two nominees. KFILE now finds that weeks before she was now nominated, Dr. Saphier

suggested on X that the administration was hiding that measles was spreading widely enough for the United States to lose its elimination status. Saphier wrote that in -- now in that deleted post that acknowledgment may not come until after the midterm elections.

[07:45:05]

And in other deleted posts, Saphier repeatedly criticized the president's message to women to tough it out and not take Tylenol, especially during pregnancy. She posted in September the following. "As a mom of three kids, I don't love a man telling me to 'tough it out' when it comes to pregnancy. Words matter. Facts matter too."

The president has called Saphier an incredible communicator and a star physician. She still needs to be confirmed by the Senate before taking on this new job -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, Kate.

Taxpayers could end up footing some of the bill for that ballroom that President Trump insisted they wouldn't pay a dime for and instead would be funded by private donors and himself. Senate Republicans are now requesting a billion dollars for the project's security upgrades. The funding is tucked inside a broader immigration package with specific wording, saying it can't be used for "non-security elements of the construction."

Using taxpayer money goes directly against what the president has said since he bulldozed the East Wing and started this renovation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I'm paying for it. I'm paying for it. The country's not --

We're donating a $400 million ballroom. Myself and donors are giving them free of charge -- for nothing.

We did this at no charge to the taxpayer whatsoever.

Rich people and people are putting up the money. Zero taxpayer dollars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Trump originally said the new ballroom would cost about $200 million. That has ballooned, as you heard him say there, to $400 million. And now Republicans are asking for a billion for security purposes.

All right. Just ahead, a new lawsuit accuses a popular chatbot company of posing as a doctor to make people think that they were talking to a licensed professional. What happened in this case.

And new details after a suspected drunk driver is caught in camera -- this is nuts -- chasing after a child on a dirt bike down a sidewalk. That story and what happened next ahead.

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[07:51:30]

SIDNER: New this morning three suspected hantavirus patients have now been evacuated from the cruise ship where an outbreak killed a Dutch couple and a German citizen. The three who were evacuated this morning from Cape Verde where the ship remains at sea. Officials say the evacuees are now bound for the Netherlands where they will be treated.

The tour operator says the ship is now expected to set sail from the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago. The plan is for Spanish authorities to conduct a full epidemiological investigation and full disinfection.

Joining us now is Dr. Ashish Jha, a senior fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Dr. Jha is also the former White House COVID-19 response coordinator.

First of all, let's just do the very basics here because a lot of people are talking about this. Obviously, the pandemic, you know, is top of mind to people in how this virus got out.

So how do you get hantavirus?

DR. ASHISH JHA, SENIOR FELLOW, HARVARD BELFER CENTER FOR SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, BIORADAR (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah. First of all, good morning and thanks for having me back.

Look, this is a hard disease to spread. It almost never spreads human- to-human. It's usually from rodents. Usually, aerosolized particles of rodent feces and urine.

SIDNER: Yeah.

JHA: And so you have to have some level of close contact. There is one strain that does spread from person-to-person but even there you have to have very close contact for a longer period of time. So this is not like flu or COVID where it's going to spread a lot.

SIDNER: What are the -- what are the symptoms and why was it so deadly in this case? Three people died on this -- on this cruise ship.

JHA: Yeah, hantavirus is a very deadly virus. You know, the mortality of this virus is somewhere around 50-70 percent -- that's what the literature says -- meaning almost half the people or more than half the people who get infected end up dying.

It can cause all sorts of symptoms. Early, it can be like any other flu-like symptoms like fever, cough, and there's a respiratory version that can be quite deadly. And there are other side effects as well. So a rare virus, very deadly, hard to spot early.

SIDNER: How does this work on a cruise ship? I mean, you have to eat. Can we assume that it was in food or -- I don't know how else you would -- you would ingest it or get it? And what do you do in a scenario where you're all in very close quarters?

JHA: Yeah. This is -- this is a real problem.

So first of all, we don't know how this virus got onto that cruise ship. What I remind people is that this was a very unusual cruise. Your typical Caribbean cruise is not going to set you up for hantavirus outbreak. Remember, this was visiting remote islands off of South America and Africa, so I think that's probably what happened. Rodents might have gotten onto the ship. Maybe the rodent droppings had got on and that got aerosolized.

So this is a pretty unusual situation. Obviously, we need to learn more. We need to disinfect the ship.

One of the things I also remind people is we often find out these things at the end after people have started dying. We need a really active surveillance system on cruise ships. Any kind of place where you can identify these infections early before it spreads and kills a lot of people.

SIDNER: Once people get off do you have a sense of how this is actually treated? Because to a lot of people the first time they heard this was the death of Gene Hackman and his wife.

JHA: Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, we don't have a treatment and we don't have a vaccine that's specific to hantavirus. By the way, we should be doing those. We should be making those kinds of investments. We've obviously seen from the administration a pulling back of treatments and vaccine investments. We should be doing more of those things.

[07:55:08]

SIDNER: Can --

JHA: Um --

SIDNER: Can I just --

JHA: -- the bottom line here is right now it's just -- yes, sorry. Go ahead.

SIDNER: I was just going to ask you because you're bringing up --

JHA: Right now --

SIDNER: You're bringing up vaccines and I just have to ask you about The New York Times reporting --

JHA: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- that the FDA blocked publication of research finding COVID and shingles vaccines were safe after looking at millions of patient records. That studies were pulled back before the release is what the Times has found. What do you -- what do you make of this?

JHA: Yeah, it's government censorship is what it is, and I think we should just call it what it is. This is not radical transparency as Secretary Kennedy likes to say. This is career scientists doing what they have been doing for years and decades under Republican and Democratic administrations. But never have the felt political pressure to suppress the scientific work they're doing.

It really shouldn't be acceptable in America. We don't do government censorship in America. We seem to be doing it right now at HHS.

SIDNER: Dr. Ashish Jha, thank you so much for kind of walking us through that because a lot of people including myself, wondering about this hantavirus but also very concerned about this reporting that we're seeing coming out of The New York Times. I do appreciate your time this morning -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Look, this is disturbing video that we've been talking about this morning coming out of Spokane County, Washington. It shows a driver -- and you'll see it pop up -- eventually taking their car, jumping on the curb, and driving down the sidewalk. Yes, kind of driving after a boy on a bike. Like, chasing him. So the boy does manage to get away unhurt, uninjured, thankfully.

Police came upon this driver after receiving other calls of reports of a burglary of a home about a mile away. A caller telling police that this woman was trying to break in. Like, enter illegally. And according to the sheriff, the woman told them after they picked her up that she had taken her dog for a ride to find other dogs to socialize with.

Apparently when she was asked about chasing the child with her car on the sidewalk, the sheriff's office said that she said she didn't remember it. She's now facing several charges, including driving under the influence, attempted assault, and criminal trespassing.

I don't know, guys.

There's also new video this morning of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano. Just take a look at that. Lava shooting 650 feet above sea level now. Hawaii's Volcano National Park says this marks the 46th eruption episode since December 2024.

And the National Parks Service is reporting also the first bear attack this year at Yellowstone National Park. Park rangers say two hikers were wounded by at least one bear on Monday on the Mystic Falls trial near Old Faithful. Both of them were airlifted to a nearby medical center. There's no word at this moment on how they are doing. Parts of the park remain closed now while authorities say they are investigating this attack -- John.

BERMAN: They are super active in that park.

All right. This morning Pennsylvania officials suing an AI company, accusing its chatbot of illegally posing as a doctor and making people believe they are getting medical advice from a licensed professional.

CNN's Clare Duffy here with this. So what's going on with this?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Well John, Pennsylvania officials are suing Character.AI. And just to set the stage for people who may not be familiar with this platform, this is a platform where users can chat with a range of different AI chatbots or characters that are modeled on different personas. Users can create their own characters for other people to chat with.

And this lawsuit comes after an investigation by the Pennsylvania Department of State into whether AI chatbots were pretending to be licensed medical professionals. And what they found in this case, investigators searched for psychiatry on Character.AI. Usually you get sort of a range of options of chatbots you can talk to.

He selected one named "Emilie" which was described as a doctor of psychiatry, and you are her patient. This person told it -- told the bot about their depressive symptoms and asked if Emilie could prescribe medication. The bot said it could because it's a doctor. It then went on to describe purported educational history. It said it was licensed in Pennsylvania and gave a fake license number.

And this lawsuit is now seeking to bar Character.AI and its characters from engaging in this kind of activity with users.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was on with our Jake Tapper last night talking about why he thinks this is such a big problem. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): It's these technology companies push these chatbots out there to be as real as humanly possible. To make it feel like you're engaging with a human being -- and in this case a human being that holds themselves out to be a doctor. That's what this chatbot did. And so I think it's really dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: Now, I asked Character.AI for comment on this lawsuit. Their head of safety engineering Deniz Demir told me "The user-created characters on our site are fictional and intended for entertainment and roleplaying. Character.AI prioritizes responsible product development and has robust internal reviews and red-teaming processes in place to assess relevant features."