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Livestreamer Facing Attempted Murder Charge; Deaths at ICE Detention Centers; Interview With Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA); Trump's Position on Taiwan Unclear?. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired May 15, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Summit send-off. President Trump's meeting with Xi Jinping wraps up, but with no major deals announced. So what did the president actually achieve during his discussions with the Chinese leader?

And CNN exclusive reporting on the consequences of the immigration crackdown, how a lack of medical care is leading to a record number of deaths inside overcrowded immigration facilities.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And can artificial intelligence help you find true love? We're going to talk about how modern matchmakers are using tech to help singles make a love connection.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: President Trump leaving Beijing and leaving world leaders guessing on two critical issues. After two days of talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the president taking questions on Air Force One, refusing to share whether he would defend Taiwan if the Chinese invaded the island. His answer: "I don't want to say."

And he's tight-lipped when it comes to the $14 billion worth of U.S. weapons that China does not want Taiwan to have.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: What about the arms sales to Taiwan?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will make a determination over the next fairly short period.

QUESTION: So, you're not necessarily going to go ahead? It was your proposal.

TRUMP: No, I'm going to make a determination. I'm going to see. I have to speak to the person that right now, as you know -- you know who he is -- that's running Taiwan. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Also, some new questions on the war with Iran, President Trump saying he did not ask President Xi to help him reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but added: "I think he will."

Just a short time ago, China's foreign minister weighed in, saying -- quote -- "China encourages both the U.S. and Iran to continue resolving their differences," adding that China advocates for the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened as soon as possible.

CNN's Julia Benbrook is live for us at the White House.

Julia, what else is President Trump saying?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, taking a step back here, Brianna, it was right before this trip that the United States had sent a proposal to Iran to bring the conflict to an end.

Iran had responded, and Trump had made it very clear that he was not happy with that response. In fact, he called it totally unacceptable, and he said the cease-fire that is in place was on major life support. Now, as you mentioned, he did speak with reporters on Air Force One as he travels back from this high-stakes summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

And during that time, he spoke about the Iranian response to that proposal. He said that he knew it wasn't going to cut it just by reading the first sentence and that he could just throw it away from what he read in just that first line. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Have you rejected the latest proposal from Iran, or where does that stand?

TRUMP: Well, I looked at it. And if I don't like the first sentence, I just throw it away.

QUESTION: What was the first sentence?

TRUMP: An unacceptable sentence, because they have fully agreed no nuclear, and if they have any nuclear of any form, I don't read the rest of their letter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: Now, this was a topic that loomed over this summit. And Trump did say that China was aligned with the United States on bringing the conflict to an end.

He spoke about preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. He used those as examples of that alignment. In an interview with FOX News, he did say that he believed that Xi wanted to help resolve this conflict and that he had pledged not to provide Iran with military equipment. Now, in a separate interview, this one on NBC, Secretary of State

Marco Rubio emphasized that the United States was not asking for specific help from China when it comes to this conflict. Now that Trump has visited China, we do expect Xi to come visit the White House. That is scheduled for the fall, and that official invitation went out for September 24.

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KEILAR: And the president also said he and Xi made fantastic trade deals. Julia, what are we learning as far as specifics?

BENBROOK: That is what he's saying, fantastic trade deals. But the specifics are scarce. He has not really provided concrete details here, as he says that the two leaders, they worked out a number of problems.

Again, those details are scarce, but we do know that several business tech CEOs representing Boeing, Apple, Tesla, and many more did travel with Trump on this trip. And Trump announced that Xi said that he had agreed to purchase 200 Boeing jets. He had also said that he plans to invest hundreds of billions in U.S. tech companies.

But what might be most important here is what he says wasn't discussed. He said that the two leaders, they spoke about a number of issues in great detail, but tariffs wasn't one of them. I thought that was an interesting one to leave off of the agenda for this meeting -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Definitely.

Julia Benbrook, thank you -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: There are still some lingering questions after the president's trip to China.

Let's discuss with Democratic Congressman and Ranking Member on the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith of Washington.

Congressman, thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us.

What would happen if President Trump decides not to sign off on the $14 billion in arms -- in weapons that Congress already approved for Taiwan?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): I think it would send a dangerous signal to China.

I mean, people are very worried about whether or not President Trump is going to basically sell out Taiwan for -- well, presumably for something else, but maybe just sell out Taiwan in general. That would send that signal and I think it would embolden China and make the risk of conflict in the strait greater.

Look, we recognize One China. There will be reunification at some point. We don't get into the details of how, but we also say it cannot happen by force and we reserve the right to provide Taiwan with the necessary arms to defend itself to prevent that.

That's the policy, and I think we should stick to that policy.

SANCHEZ: So you're not of the position then that the president should be more forceful with Xi and vow that there would be a defense of Taiwan should there be an attack by China?

SMITH: No, I am not. For, gosh, decades now, we have had a policy called strategic ambiguity.

SANCHEZ: Right.

SMITH: And, look, I have been highly critical of President Trump and a lot of things he's been saying about Middle East. He makes stuff up. He bounces all over the place.

But, on this one, he answered the question correctly. We don't talk about that. It is strategic ambiguity. We are not committed to the defense of Taiwan, but we're also saying that we won't. I think it's the right policy. To go one way or the other is to risk an increase of tensions.

So, no, I do not think we should explicitly say that, no matter what, we would come to the defense of Taiwan.

SANCHEZ: Sure.

SMITH: But, again, that's different than saying...

SANCHEZ: Well...

SMITH: ... that we will provide arms to them to defend themselves.

SANCHEZ: Right.

The president did say to Xi: "I don't think there's a conflict, other than we don't need their strait. We don't need Taiwan."

I mean, it sounds like there is flexibility on his negotiating position when it comes to Taiwan. You're suggesting that he answered the question correctly. I just wonder if you think he should have been more forceful.

SMITH: Well, whoa, whoa. Sorry. You bait-and-switched there a little bit.

When he -- asked a question, are we going to come to the defense of Taiwan, and he said, I'm not answering that question, that was correct. But if he then said, we don't need Taiwan, we don't need the strait, that is not the correct answer.

That is showing weakness and again, encouraging President Xi in a way that shouldn't be encouraged.

SANCHEZ: Got it.

SMITH: Again, we have reserved the right to provide them with weapons to defend themselves. And we should be adamant on the point...

SANCHEZ: Yes.

SMITH: ... no military force to reunite Taiwan with China.

President Trump did not say that as forcefully as he should have.

SANCHEZ: Understood.

My intention wasn't to bait and switch. I just wanted to get clarity on your statement.

SMITH: Sure.

SANCHEZ: I want to ask you about Iran, because President Trump floated the idea of lifting sanctions on Chinese companies buying Iranian oil. If he does that, what happens? What should the U.S. get in return?

SMITH: Well, I mean, the U.S. should get a pledge from Iran to discontinue their nuclear program. They should certainly get the strait reopened.

And, look, that's the huge problem. Starting this war in Iran was an enormous strategic mistake. It has weakened the U.S. It has weakened the U.S. in our competition with China. It has also weakened us in terms of the economics, not just in the U.S. but globally.

Look, President Trump stumbled into this war thinking that a shock- and-awe four-week bombing campaign could fundamentally break the Iranian regime. That was wrong. Everyone could have told him that was wrong when he started. Now Iran has survived. They have taken control of the strait and we're in a much weaker position.

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And anything that he does to sort of open that up and empower Iran without getting any concessions on, at a minimum, opening up the strait, but on their nuclear program, is a huge loss for our country.

SANCHEZ: If the U.S. is now in a weaker position, do you think there's an avenue, a mechanism of pressure the U.S. can use to walk out of this in a stronger one?

I mean, the threat of more military force is out there and the president has vowed that he wants to get his hands on all that buried enriched uranium. Is there no path for the U.S. to walk out of this in a stronger position?

SMITH: Yes, I don't see a good path.

And, certainly, the options that President Trump has tried to date, which is an aggressive bombing campaign, that has not worked to fundamentally change Iran. It's weakened them, no question, but it hasn't fundamentally changed the equation in our favor. The blockade also has not succeeded in that regard.

So I think force is not likely to get a different result from Iran. The only option we really have on the table is to work with the rest of the world to try to pressure Iran to reopening the strait. There are some 40 countries that the U.K. and France have brought together who are pushing forward that negotiation.

China, India, other countries have an interest here. And President Trump has pushed all of them aside and said, no, we're going to do this on our own, when we have proven beyond any shadow of a doubt we can't do it on our own. So that's the option, is aggressive diplomacy.

I would also suggest, use our diplomats. Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have accomplished exactly nothing, which is not surprising, because they're real estate guys. Look, if I'm looking to buy an apartment building in Manhattan, those are the guys I want to talk to.

If I'm looking to negotiate a nuclear deal in the Middle East with Iran, we have got a State Department full of people who are vastly more capable, and the world does too. That's who we should be using to negotiate and get to a better diplomatic outcome.

SANCHEZ: Congressman, before we go, you have been critical of the U.S. policy on Cuba in this administration.

And I do want to ask you about this CBS report that the DOJ is moving to indict Raul Castro in connection to the deadly shoot-down of unarmed planes operated by a humanitarian group in 1996. There were four men that were killed, three American citizens.

International investigators, a commission that was hired by the U.N. found that they were over international waters. And, according to "The Miami Herald"'s Spanish sister paper, "El Nuevo Herald," there are recordings of Raul Castro taking responsibility for it.

We should note that CNN has not verified those recordings, but they have been cited as evidence before. Do you think Castro should be held accountable?

SMITH: Yes, I mean, there's two things about that.

I don't know the full details of it, but, certainly, if you're looking to hold people accountable for a crime like that, I think that's perfectly appropriate. That's different than putting a blockade on Cuba and effectively trying to starve the entire Cuban population.

So, yes, we should look into that. And he should be held accountable if they -- if we do find that crimes were committed. Now, I will also point out that, as the U.S. is busy blowing up boats down in Latin America without any authorization from Congress and killing now hundreds of people -- now, we say we had a reason for it.

But, look, we have to try to impose -- not impose -- work on a rules- based international order. And we can't have a different set of rules for ourselves than we have for everybody else. So, that question is very complicated. But my criticism of Cuba policy is not trying to hold someone accountable for that type of a crime, if it was committed and if there's proof.

My criticism is, we are treating Cuba like a country that we can crush and take over. And that's contrary to international law and I don't think what we should be doing.

SANCHEZ: Congressman Adam Smith, we have to leave the conversation there. Look forward to the next one. Thanks for joining us.

SMITH: Thanks, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Still to come: A CNN investigation finds that understaffing and poor medical care are driving deaths at immigration detention centers.

Plus, a Tennessee judge setting bond at more than a million dollars for the racist livestreamer charged after a shooting outside a courthouse.

And, later, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth abruptly canceling planned deployments and removing military personnel from Europe. We will explain why in just moments.

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KEILAR: Ten minutes, that is how long a witness says it took emergency staff at a remote ICE detention center in Southern California to respond to an inmate who had collapsed even as his cell mates called for help; 52-year-old Jose Ramos had entered the U.S. nearly three decades earlier.

He left the ICE facility where he was being held on a stretcher covered by a blanket. Ramos is one of nearly 50 detainees who have died in ICE custody since President Trump took office.

And a CNN review of autopsy reports, court records and interviews has found that many of these deaths appear to have been preventable.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has this exclusive reporting for us.

Priscilla, tell us more about what you found.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what me and the investigative team found here was that deadly outcomes in more than a dozen cases could be linked in part to substandard treatment by, at times, understaffed facilities.

These are facilities that saw a growth in their populations happen very abruptly. Now, as you lay out there with the numbers, nearly 50 detainees dying under President Donald Trump's second term. As a point of comparison, more died in ICE custody in 2025 than any year in at least two decades.

2026 is already, the month of May, on pace to be higher than that. Now, one of those deaths was Jose Ramos in March of 2026. He had been detained for about a month before he was found unconscious, according to the ICE detainee report, and pronounced deceased at a medical center.

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But we also spoke with a detainee who witnessed all of it and said that the response, he alleges, was inadequate to the emergency that Ramos appeared to be having at that time.

Now, we know a little more too about the facility that Ramos was in, Adelanto. That is in a remote area of California just outside of Los Angeles. Now, the California attorney general shared with us an exclusive report on their findings of their inspections of these facilities.

The California attorney general has this unique authority as of 2017 where they can go into these facilities and conduct their own inspections. And I want to tell -- share one part of this report specific to Adelanto, because we are aware of the death there of Ramos, one of four deaths.

The report found that there were fewer physicians and advanced practitioners that worked in Adelanto and a neighboring facility in February of 2021, when there were about 100 detainees, than in July of last year, when they held more than 2,000 detainees.

So that gives you a sense there that they had the same number for a small portion compared to a larger portion. We also spoke to the attorney general of the state. And this is what he had to say:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB BONTA (D), CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Our finding was that they were unprepared.

And, look, if the federal government is going to be surging its ICE enforcement and detaining more and more Californians and putting them in these facilities, they need to provide them the basics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, we took our findings to the Department of Homeland Security.

And a spokesperson said -- quote -- "There has been no spike in deaths." They went on to say that: "As bed space has rapidly expanded, we have maintained higher -- a higher standard of care than most prisons that hold U.S. citizens, including providing access to proper medical care. For many illegal aliens, this is the best health care they have received in their entire lives."

I would say, on that last part, the families and attorneys that we spoke with would dispute that. They say that there was improper care that was provided. In the case of Ramos, again, one of four deaths at Adelanto over the last year, we don't have a cause of death yet.

The family is still waiting for notification on that front, but they were in shock when they learned that their otherwise healthy dad -- he had some medical conditions, but otherwise healthy dad was suddenly dead a month after being detained.

So, certainly more questions that they have, but our investigation has found that, as you mentioned at the top, some of these deaths may have been preventable.

KEILAR: All right, Priscilla, great reporting. Thank you so much for that.

Ahead: A livestreamer known for posting racist content makes his first court appearance. He's facing an attempted murder charge after a shooting outside a Tennessee courthouse.

We will have the latest on the case.

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SANCHEZ: A judge has set bond at more than a million dollars for the live streamer who's been charged with attempted murder.

Dalton Eatherly was in court this morning facing multiple charges for a shooting outside a Tennessee courthouse two days ago. Eatherly calls himself Chud the Builder online and he's known for posting racist videos of himself hurling epithets at black people and other minorities.

A witness told the AP that a man loaded into an ambulance after the shooting was black. Watch his reaction hearing this bond in court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE REID POLAND III, TENNESSEE GENERAL SESSIONS COURT: I'm going to set initial bond at $1.25 million, based upon the fact of how many people were in the courtyard, were here at the courthouse, and the seriousness of all these felonies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Isabel Rosales is following this case.

So Isabel, what more did we learn from this hearing?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boris, we just got a hold of an arrest warrant for Dalton Eatherly that reveals new details, including the name of the man that he got into an altercation with and is alleged to have shot, that he's facing this very serious charge of attempted murder. He -- that other man has been identified by Montgomery County

officials as Joshua Fox. We also got a narrative here within the affidavit. They gave a lot more details into what happened outside of that Montgomery County courthouse on Wednesday.

Officers noted that they watched surveillance video. And, in that video, they saw that this started out as a verbal fight, that Eatherly turned toward Fox and then reached for his firearm, and then a physical fight ensued.

Eatherly, according to this affidavit, then shot Fox multiple times. Fox was then airlifted over to Vanderbilt Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery. The officers also noted that video shows what appears to be rounds that ricocheted off of nearby walls there where innocent bystanders were nearby.

Of course, this is a courthouse, a busy traffic area. Now, Eatherly livestreamed himself. The interaction, it's caught on audio, the interaction that he had with first responders shortly after he's alleged to have shot Fox.

Listen to what he said happened.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DALTON EATHERLY, DEFENDANT: I walked past him. He was sitting on the corner. I walked up to him because they -- they were pointing at me. They were laughing. They were pointing at me.

And I said: "What's up, guys? How you all doing?" I said: "You all like the -- do you like the new suit?"

He said: "Walk away from me."

I walked away from him. He came back up to me. He literally said: "I have PTSD. I feel like I'm in" -- he said: "You start saying all that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) to me, I'm going to hit you."

He hit me, started wailing on me. Even after I had to defend myself by shooting him, he's still wailing on me.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROSALES: Now, in that livestream, Eatherly says that he didn't start shooting until Fox started to beat up on him.

But it's important to note that, in the actual narrative of the affidavit, officers note that, in the surveillance video that they witnessed, this never turned physical until Eatherly pulled out his gun.