Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Inmate Says She Witnessed Ghislaine Maxwell Get Special Treatment; Health Officials Worldwide Scramble To Track Deadly Hantavirus; U.S. Disables 2 More Iranian Tankers Attempting To Run Blockade; Rubio: U.S. Expecting Response From Iran Today On Peace Plan; Pentagon Releases "Never-Before-Seen" Files On UFO Sightings. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired May 08, 2026 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: -- about Maxwell. And pretty much immediately, she was kicked out of Bryan. This inmate overlapped with Maxwell for a number of weeks at Bryan and she says that she did see Maxwell getting some special treatment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Within a day of her arrival, we had armed guards, marshals patrolling. If she had a visitation, she would get to -- they closed the chapel and the indoor rec and allowed her to use that building for her personal visits. When we had visitation, you know, that happened in the visitation building, which is good. We didn't, you know, no one wanted her around the kids or anything. She'd get bottled waters and clamshell meals delivered to her room.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: A BOP spokesperson told CNN that the bureau doesn't discuss details related to specific inmates. They did also say that "The BOP is committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity, impartiality, and professionalism in the operation of its facilities." They did say that inmates can communicate with members of the media, but needs prior approval.

The one prison expert I spoke with, Brianna, said it is absolutely not typical for somebody to be punished simply for talking to a reporter. Should also say a DOJ spokesperson and lawyers for Maxwell did not respond to requests for comment.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Really interesting reporting, MJ. Thank you so much for this.

Still to come, health officials tracking the cruise ship passengers potentially exposed to hantavirus. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us to answer your questions about the virus and this outbreak.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:36:07]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: The cruise ship hit with a deadly hantavirus outbreak is expected to arrive in Spain's Canary Islands on Sunday morning. Teams with the Centers for Disease Control will be there. The CDC is classifying this outbreak as a level 3, their lowest level of emergency.

Remember, three people have died, but additional cases are suspected. Today, Americans in these five states who actually left the cruise early are being monitored. So far, none of them have shown symptoms.

CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now to answer your questions. And Sanjay, here is the first one. Dallas Ashley from Orange Park, Florida wants to know, could this cause another shutdown similar to COVID?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, you know, look, a lot of people have been commenting on this. This is the most common question we get, and all the major medical organizations, they're not that concerned about this.

I feel like we should timestamp everything to sort of say at this point, 2:35 p.m., there's not a high level of concern. But there's a lot of things that people are watching for, such as those suspected cases that you mentioned. If somebody who wasn't on the ship becomes infected as a result of spread, that obviously would heighten the level of concern.

But Boris, let me just tell you, I think there's three primary reasons why people are not that concerned right now from a scientific perspective. Let me just talk you through this. One is something known as the reproductive number, which basically is saying, if somebody has it, how many people are they likely to spread it to?

And that number is 1.19. To give you context, during COVID, at the height, you know, the number was somewhere between two and four. So, you know, significantly higher, doubled higher.

A small window of spread. With COVID, people could spread the virus even if they weren't sick. With this, it seems to be a very narrow window through which they can spread it when they are sick. And that usually lasts, in terms of the spreading timeframe, a couple of days.

And finally, you know, we looked at this last night, Boris, but if you look at the genome of this virus, going back to 1996, really is not that different than today, 30 years later. COVID was mutating all the time. You remember all those variants?

In 30 years, this hasn't mutated that much. That could change, again, as more people get it. But so far, I think these are the three reasons people are not that worried.

SANCHEZ: Sanjay, Kristen from Alabama wants to know more about that transmission rate. She asked, what is the transmission rate? In other words, is it very contagious like the flu? Do you have to be in close, prolonged contact with an infected person? GUPTA: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Also, a big question, given some of what we learned regarding COVID, is it transmissible before symptoms show up?

GUPTA: Right. So the answer to the last part of the question seems to be no. You need to be sick, typically with fever, when you are spreading this. COVID, I think one of the big challenges was, again, asymptomatic spread.

Let me show you something, Boris, because I think this tells a story of how they evaluate the real world sort of behavior of a virus. So this is a story from 2018. I don't know if you can zoom in on that, because I want to really be able to see this. But basically, a guy walks into a birthday party, Boris.

He's sick, he's having symptoms, he has fever. He walks into a birthday party. He's there for 90 minutes. During that 90-minute timeframe, this is the guy on the upper left, he infects five people, which you can see just to the right of him.

Those five people then, some of them go on to infect other people. And at the end of this super spreader event, 11 people have died and 34 people are infected.

SANCHEZ: Wow.

GUPTA: So that was a birthday party, close quarters. A sick person shows up. You can see what happens with hantavirus. But I think there's an important coda to this story as well, which is that there were 80 healthcare workers, Boris, who cared for those patients on the screen there, and none of those healthcare workers tested positive for the virus. None of them got sick.

So I think that goes to show that with basic precautions and also that very narrow window of infectious risk, you know, this just doesn't spread as much. Those patients probably showed up at the hospital after they were not infectious anymore.

[14:40:14]

SANCHEZ: Yes, that is good news, especially as we await this boat docking in the Canary Islands, the --

GUPTA: Yes.

SANCHEZ: -- potential treatment of those passengers that are still on board.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, appreciate the expertise as always.

GUPTA: You got it.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, the U.S.-Iran ceasefire is still holding, at least on paper. It is being tested once again, as the White House waits for a response for its new proposal to end the war. We've got the latest on that in just a few minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:45:04]

SANCHEZ: We're standing by as the Trump administration awaits a response from Iran to the U.S. peace proposal put forward earlier this week. President Trump insists the shaky ceasefire is holding despite new flare-ups around the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. U.S. Central Command says this new video shows American forces firing on two Iranian-flagged oil tankers trying to get around the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.

Let's get some perspective with Leon Panetta. He served as Defense Secretary and CIA Director under President Barack Obama.

Secretary Panetta, thanks so much for joining us. Based on these recent strikes, what are you anticipating from Iran's response?

LEON PANETTA, DEFENSE SECRETARY UNDER PRES. OBAMA: Well, Boris, I've got to say this is probably one of the most confusing and uncertain processes to ending a war that I've ever seen. But the main problem here is you've got two sides that don't trust each other. Each is trying not to appear weak. Each is trying to wait for the other side to blink first.

And there isn't that process that you need of negotiations in order to arrive at an agreement. So I guess what I'm hoping for, what would be the best result, is that they agree to open up the Straits of Hormuz. It may not be a permanent solution to it, but at least open up the Straits of Hormuz and then engage in a 30-day process of negotiations, particularly on nuclear, but on other issues as well, in order to arrive at the kind of agreement that can ultimately bring this war to an end.

SANCHEZ: As President Trump is vowing more strikes if Tehran doesn't reach an agreement, how do you think the Iranians would respond to that? With concessions?

PANETTA: No, I don't think so at all. I think that if the United States strikes at Iran, Iran is going to strike back at the United States or strike at the UAE or strike at Saudi Arabia or strike at other targets. And this is going to go on. And both sides will say somehow that it's not a break in the ceasefire, when the reality is it is a break in the ceasefire.

So it becomes a process where neither side is seriously sitting down and trying to negotiate an end to this war. And that kind of process of hit and miss is going to do nothing else but prolong this war.

SANCHEZ: President Trump has described one of the biggest hurdles to securing this memorandum of understanding as there being a divide within the leadership in Tehran. How are you reading those reports, the way it's been characterized on the U.S. side, especially as we see that for the first time, the new Ayatollah has actually sat down with Iran's President, the first -- reportedly the first face-to-face meeting that he's had with the political leadership of Iran.

PANETTA: Well, you know, it's been hard to really trust remarks on either side, very frankly. The President for weeks now has said that the United States is within a few days of getting a deal. But I don't know how you can get a deal simply by exchanging one page proposals on each side.

Now, there is some kind of contact here. It's taking place, obviously, in Pakistan. So there must be some group of individuals that we are communicating with to try to see if we can at least arrive at some kind of agreement. So there is a there there. It may be confusing, but at the same time, we've been able to get some responses to the proposals that we've made.

I just think right now, you got to cut through this. You got to agree to open up the straits. That's absolutely essential to getting anything else done. And you've got to agree to a period of negotiations where two teams sit down at the same table and negotiate a resolution to this war.

That's the only way it's going to work. It isn't going to work by simply hoping that somehow an agreement is going to fall out of the sky. It's not.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Secretary, speaking of falling out of the sky, a completely different topic, but I have to ask you about this because the Pentagon just released what they're calling never-before-seen files on UFOs. I imagine that as a member of Congress, as the Secretary of Defense, Chief of Staff of the White House, you've held a lot of jobs, CIA director, is this stuff new to you? What do you know about aliens, Secretary? Tell us.

[14:50:15]

PANETTA: Well, Boris, I can't tell you how many times when I was Secretary, I was asked about, are there really aliens out there? Do we have an alien ship? You know, some of the movies that portrayed that kind of thing going on, people were infatuated with that.

And I'm sure these pictures that are being released will raise a lot more concern about whether or not, in fact, there are aliens. I just have to tell you, I'm not aware of the United States ever having decided that there, in fact, are aliens and that there are spaceships that have come into our territory. So, I haven't seen evidence to that effect, but what the Pentagon is now doing is basically letting the American people make up their own minds.

SANCHEZ: What about your mind? Is your mind made up? Do you think there are aliens out there?

PANETTA: I have not seen any firm evidence that there are aliens out there. I do think that some of our adversaries, very frankly, have technologies that have been used against them that appear to be alien, but in fact are efforts by our adversaries to basically breach our security. That's what I think has happened.

SANCHEZ: Secretary, I thought this was going to end on a lighthearted note. You just scared me with that one, man.

Leon Panetta, thanks so much for joining us.

PANETTA: Good to be with you, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Appreciate it.

As I mentioned, the answers are online. The Pentagon opening its UFO files. We'll dig into this after a quick break. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:56:28]

SANCHEZ: It's a question humans have pondered seemingly forever. Are we alone in the universe? The answer may now live on the internet. Today, the Defense Department began releasing new never-before-seen files on unidentified anomalous phenomenon, also known as UAPs or UFOs.

KEILAR: Yes, that UFOs, easier to say here.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: The first batch includes reports from astronauts on board the Apollo 12 and 17 missions, along with more recent materials from the FBI and the military. So let's talk about all of this with Adam Frank, professor of Astrophysics at the University of Rochester. He's also the author of "The Little Book of Aliens," and he writes the newsletter "Every Man's Universe."

All right, Adam, do these files definitely tell us anything about what else could be out there?

ADAM FRANK, AUTHOR, "THE LITTLE BOOK OF ALIENS": Well, you know, this is my day job looking, you know, searching for alien life, thinking about alien life, and I have to say, I'm pretty disappointed once again.

KEILAR: Once again.

FRANK: Because these files are simply -- so, you know, based on what I've read so far, there's a lot in there, but I've been looking at it all morning. This is just more of the same. It's more fuzzy blob videos like the one you're showing.

It's more stories of people who said they saw something, more reports, you know, going back decades, but there's nothing in here that we haven't seen before. And, in particular, because of some of the startling congressional testimony, I was really expecting for something more, something harder hidden.

SANCHEZ: Adam, we were just talking to former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. He says that he's never seen any evidence that the U.S. confirmed there was alien life. He thinks that some of these images, and especially some of the more recent ones captured on jet fighters, for example, may be technology from American adversaries, the Chinese, the Russians.

I wonder if you think that's the case, if there's some documentation, some evidence somewhere that would lead you to validate that theory.

FRANK: Yes. So, you know, in my work on this, I've looked at like people who work in e-signals intelligence, people whose, you know, main job is to think about, you know, what kinds of data we get from these cameras, et cetera. And they never talk about aliens. They always talk about -- and this is where I learned this word, peer state adversaries.

You know, simple drones, there's so much in the sky right now, and it's so easy to put things in the sky that, you know, one thing a peer state adversary could do is have something that looks anomalous so that the fighter pilots will crank up their electronic detection equipment so that then the peer state adversary can soak up those signals and figure out exactly what capability we have.

So, yes, so I think that is the much more plausible explanation. And also it's important to understand that even the military right now, the Pentagon looking at all of the reports comes to the conclusion that everybody else has, which is that 95 percent of all the reports are easily explained, right?

So that means that the sky is not full of things that we don't understand. There's only a small percentage that is in the unexplained category. Many of those, they just don't have enough data to even begin an explanation. And then there's a few of them that still resist explanation, but those are -- what we have is not enough to make any kind of firm conclusion about anything.

KEILAR: That's sad. Why do you think they're releasing these files now?

FRANK: Wait, wait.

KEILAR: Yes, yes, go.

FRANK: Wait, I just have to say, science, you know, the astronomy, we are within a decade or two of actually answering this question, right? Where do you want to look for aliens? Not here, but on alien worlds. And we have lots of amazing revolutionary new technologies that can see into the atmospheres of distant alien worlds 100 light years away.

And soon, you know, if people just have the patience that you need to discover the most important thing in the universe, we will have some kind of answers about this question. I won't -- I can't tell you what they are, but we're going to have real data.

KEILAR: All right, let's go to the aliens. We can't just be waiting for them to come to us. We have to go out there and explore.

FRANK: You got it.

KEILAR: Adam, Frank, always the best. Thank you so much for being with us.

And a new hour of CNN News Central starts right now.