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Jane Harman is Interviewed about the One-Page Memo to End the War; White House Ballroom Numbers; Pennsylvania sues A.I. Company. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired May 06, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:51]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we've got major developments that happened this morning on the war with Iran. CNN has confirmed the U.S. and Iran are closing in on agreeing to a one-page memo that would declare an end to the conflict. President Trump posting this morning on Truth Social that if Iran signs the deal on the table, the war is over in the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.

Joining me now, Jane Harman, the former Democratic congresswoman from California. She served as a top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee in the years after 9/11.

All right, let's talk about what is on the table. A one-page memo, which, obviously, is a starting point, because how complex is this to try and get a deal?

JANE HARMAN (D), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FOR CALIFORNIA: Yes.

SIDNER: Plus, Iran has not agreed. We haven't heard from some of the stakeholders in Iran as well, including the ayatollah.

HARMAN: So, good morning, Sara.

I don't know how you fit opening the Strait, a nuclear deal and regime change on one page unless you have very fine print and 65 addendums, but it doesn't leap out to me that this is more than a press release.

SIDNER: Let me ask you about the deal that used to be on the table with Iran. President Obama made a deal, the JCPOA, back in 2015. Trump came, ripped it up. But how long did that deal take to put together from the Obama administration back then?

HARMAN: Two years, including very senior and technical officials sitting at the table, like Ernie Moniz, Ernest Moniz, who was the energy secretary, and Wendy Sherman, my friend, who was in the White House at the time, I think -- or the State Department at the time, and a lot of other countries. Let's understand, it was the joint agreement. And it was the P5+1. One is Germany. And that would be maybe a lesson to learn that internationalizing serious negotiations, if we ever really get to serious negotiations, would be a far better way to keep both Iran and our impulsive president in check so that we could get to peace in the Strait certainly for that. A nuclear deal maybe as good, and let's hope, or maybe better than the JCPOA. And, you know, a chance for the Iranians to have a government they want.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you what must be in the deal, because there are just so many different things. Theres's expertise that is needed when you're dealing with the nuclear program itself.

HARMAN: Yes.

SIDNER: What do you think must be in this deal in order for this to work, to make sense?

HARMAN: Well, the Strait has to be open. And again, I think the better shot for that lasting more than five minutes is some international group, whether it's the U.N. or five countries or six countries or ten countries, certainly Pakistan is trying to play a role, so is Turkey, so is the UAE, some others, having some control over this outcome.

And otherwise, I don't have high hopes at all that it will stick. But that's only part of it. This nuclear agreement was something we were on the way to solving in the Obama administration.

[09:35:01]

True, it was only a ten year deal, as I recall. There were some -- missiles were not covered. It was just nukes. But it was solid. And it was policed by the IAEA. Suggestion, they're still -- they still exist. And Iran was complying. So, something like that.

I mean having our soldiers climb down in holes to try to remove canisters doesn't look like it would have a good outcome. And that reminds me, Sara, where's Congress? Hello. You've heard my acronym, CACO, Congress always chickens out. There's no agreement to restore the AUMF, to put some guardrails around this. And that's not good. All I can agree on is $1 billion for a ballroom -- or they can't agree on it, but half of them can push it through.

SIDNER: It's been proposed, yes.

It is -- there's TACO, and then there's your acronym, CACO.

HARMAN: You have to say it carefully.

SIDNER: Both apply. Yes, you do, because that could get really ugly.

All right, former Congresswoman Jane Harman, it is lovely to have you here. Thank you for talking me through that. Appreciate it.

HARMAN: Thank you.

SIDNER: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A woman once sentenced to life in prison for murder could now be getting a new trial. Why A.I. could force a judge to reopen her case. And rescuers rushing in to help a dog stranded on a steep cliff.

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[09:41:06]

BERMAN: So, this morning, Republicans in Congress are now calling for $1 billion of taxpayer money for East Wing construction at the White House. This would be security for the new proposed ballroom that the president swore would be funded with all private donations.

Now, on social media, the president just wrote that the cost has gone up because the ballroom is now twice the size and of far higher quality than what was originally proposed.

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten is here.

Harry, just a basic question, like, how popular is the ballroom?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: You know, I never thought I'd be discussing ballrooms with John Berman, but here we go. It's -- I mean it's the ballroom heard round the world. And, you know, I recall the shot heard around the world, Bobby Thompson, 51, that was popular. This is most certainly not popular.

I mean just take a look here. OK. Privately paid. This is a privately paid. And now, of course, we're talking about potential public funds going to it for the security. Privately paid new White House ballroom. Look at this. In October of 2025, 56 percent opposed it. Just 28 percent support it. Now, after all of the press that the president and Republicans have been trying to make in terms of making this ballroom popular, you know how much it's moved in terms of popular opinion? It hasn't moved at all. It's just as unpopular now as it was in October. It is 56 percent opposed, just 28 percent support. And I will note, Mr. Berman, that I have my little nugget down here. Just 18 percent of independents support it. This ballroom is, simply put, unpopular.

BERMAN: Twenty-eight percent doesn't seem very high. Put 28 percent in perspective.

ENTEN: Yes, I'm going to put 28 percent in for some perspective to you because, to me, as I said at the beginning, I never thought I'd be talking about ballrooms because ballrooms are just not my style. But Americans who support or believe in ghosts, that comes in at 39 percent. How about telepathy? That comes in at 29 percent. And the new White House ballroom comes in below both of those at 28 percent.

So, the bottom line is this. This new White House ballroom is most certainly not popular. More Americans believe in ghosts. And slightly more, though within the margin of error, believe in telepathy. And I will note that our cameraman right now is laughing like nobody's business.

BERMAN: So, this has to do with the idea of priorities. Like, what's important to you? Where do people want to see the president put his attention? ENTEN: Yes, OK. So, you know, this is all ridiculous, but how about

this? I mean, just take a look. Why is this ballroom such a problem I think for the president of the United States in terms of popular opinion? Americans on Trump. Has the wrong priorities. I mean, how much has he been talking about this ballroom, man? My goodness gracious. We're talking about 67 percent of Americans who say that Trump has the wrong priorities. How about disapproval of him now on government spending, right, because now all of a sudden that security is going to be funding this, and this is going to be public funds. Disapprove of him on government spending. We're talking about that same 67 percent.

So, the bottom line is this, ghost -- more people believe in ghosts than believe in this ballroom. And a lot of folks just disagree with Trump on government spending and believe he has the wrong priorities, like this ballroom.

BERMAN: What are the prediction markets saying about whether this thing will even get done this term?

ENTEN: Yes, OK. So, what's the chance that the ballroom is completed before 2030? It's been going down. It's been going down, Mr. Berman. The chance that the ballroom is done before 2030, according to the Kalshi prediction markets, on March 1st it was 85 percent. But down it goes. Now it is 29 percent. So, not only is this unpopular, but it might not even get done. It's double trouble for the president of the United States.

BERMAN: Look, with support for the ballroom at 28 percent, you're hearing all kinds of Democrats saying they're going to make this an issue in the upcoming midterm elections, the billion dollars that they're now asking for of taxpayer money. This is for the upcoming midterms, Harry. If I wanted to know more about the midterms, get some questions answered, how would I do that?

ENTEN: You know, I'm really glad that you asked Johnny Berman, because there's a way you could do that. You can watch us tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. We are going to be answering your questions about the 2026 midterm elections. You can go to cnn.com/subscriberseries.

[09:45:00]

You can submit your questions right now, and then you can watch us tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Again, that's cnn.com/subscriberseries. Ask us your questions. Johnny B. and I, two beautiful people, will be asking it. And I will dare say that we are nice and tanned and ready to go. Not as pale as the 39 percent of Americans who believe in ghosts.

BERMAN: So, turn on to your computer machines at 7:00 tonight. Get your questions in now or then. We'll answer them live.

Got a lot of news this morning. We'll be right back.

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[09:50:00]

BERMAN: All right, happening now, these are live pictures coming out of Colorado. Do not adjust your dial. It is, in fact, May 6th. OK, May 6th. They could get up to two feet of snow in the Denver area. We're talking about heavy, wet snow. And with the leaves already on the trees -- these are pine needles, but leaves already on trees and other places, that can cause the tree limbs to go down and make power outages likely. Nearly 20,000 customers are already without power. And in the deep south, they are bracing for thunderstorms and possible tornadoes. The greatest threat across the parts of central Mississippi and Alabama. They do need rain down there, but flash flooding is possible, prompting a flood watch for more than 10 million people in northwest Georgia, including Atlanta and central Alabama, through tomorrow morning.

This is what they needed in January and February in Colorado, Sara, not in May.

SIDNER: Did you say don't adjust your dial?

BERMAN: You know, it's like in oldie times.

SIDNER: It is the olden times.

BERMAN: It looks a little bit like oldie times right there.

SIDNER: He's like hitting it with those rabbit ears and --

BERMAN: (INAUDIBLE).

SIDNER: OK. We've gone there.

All right, take a look at this new video today from Spokane, Washington. Spokane, excuse me. It shows the terrifying moments when a driver apparently tries to run down a little boy riding on a dirt bike, even chasing the child down the sidewalk. The boy managed to escape without getting hurt. Police later arrested the woman at home about a mile away. They accused her of trying to enter that house illegally. They charged her with a DUI and attempted assault and criminal trespass. That was scary.

All right, moments ago, a man who had been protesting from the top of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C., for five days has been rescued by firefighters. That video is just coming in to us. The firefighters taking him down from there. Guido Reichstadter climbed the bridge last Friday. This video is from earlier this hour showing him on top of that bridge, which he says he climbed to protest the war in Iran, as well as advancements in A.I. He told a local affiliate he ran out of food on Saturday and ran out of water on Monday morning.

All right, we're taking you to a rescue that ends happily. A pug named Fergus had a terrifying ordeal. Enter San Francisco fire crews to save him. Fergus was rescued after tumbling down a cliff and getting stuck at the bottom of that cliff. Fire crews then lowered a rescuer about 60 feet down to reach that little dog and bring him back to safety. Thankfully, Fergus is fine.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Fergus is a great name.

SIDNER: It's a great name.

BOLDUAN: It's a great name. I'm glad he's doing great.

This morning, Pennsylvania officials are suing an A.I. company, accusing its chatbot of illegally posing as a doctor and making people believe that they were actually getting actual medical advice from an actual licensed medical professional. The new lawsuit is against the creator of Character.AI.

CNN's Clare Duffy is here. She's got much more on this.

What is going on here?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, for people who aren't familiar with Character.AI, this is a platform where users can chat with a range of different A.I. chatbots or characters modeled after different personas. Users can create their own characters for other people to interact with.

And this comes after an investigation by the Pennsylvania Department of State into whether chatbots were essentially posing as licensed medical professionals. In this case, the investigator went on Character.AI and searched for psychiatry. Usually that would give you a list of different bots that you could chat with. They chose one called Emily. And then the investigator tells Emily about depressive symptoms they're having, asks if the bot can prescribe medication. The bot says, yes, I'm a doctor, I can do that. Went on to describe supposed educational history. Said the bot was -- the bot said it was licensed in Pennsylvania, gave a fake license number.

And so, this lawsuit is seeking an immediate order to prevent Character.AI and its chatbots from engaging in this kind of activity with users.

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

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GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): 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.

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DUFFY: Now. I reached out to see what Character.AI had to say about this.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

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

The platform also says that at the top of every chat they have a disclaimer that says you are talking with an A.I. This is a fictional character. Do not rely on this for actual advice. But you can see how that might be confusing for someone who is coming for mental health advice and finding this chatbot that then is telling them in conversation, I am licensed. Here is my license number.

[09:55:06]

These are also really common, these therapy bots on Character.AI. Just yesterday I went and searched for a therapists on the platform, and I think we've got pictures that can show you, I saw dozens of results for these therapy bots. You can also see there that disclaimer at the top. But again, Pennsylvania clearly saying here that that disclaimer is not enough to keep people safe.

BOLDUAN: Not enough. Wow. I mean the details of it are pretty unsettling, that's for sure.

Clare, thank you so much.

DUFFY: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: I really appreciate it.

SIDNER: Thank you, Clare. And thank you guys for watching us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM," up next.

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