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Luigi Mangione Appears in Court; Iran Peace Talks Stall Again; Ebola Outbreak; Trump Targets Disloyal Republicans. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired May 18, 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: Republican revenge tour, next stop, ruby- red Kentucky, the president targeting yet another critic from his own party. And, in a highly unusual move, the secretary of defense is hitting the campaign trail.

And ticktock. President Trump says time is of the essence if Iran wants to reach a deal to end the war. But are the repeated threats losing their effect?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And a new hot zone. A global scramble now under way to contain an Ebola outbreak, with hundreds believed infected and dozens dead.

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

KEILAR: Bluegrass battle.

Any moment, we expect to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the campaign trail in Kentucky, as President Trump is looking to unseat another Republican rival. Hegseth is there to campaign against Congressman Thomas Massie, who is locked in a tight primary fight with Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein.

Massie has been a longtime thorn in President Trump's side. He's bucked him on a whole host of issues, including the release of the Epstein files and the Iran war. And he's one of several Republican incumbents who Trump is targeting this election cycle.

On Saturday, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy lost his Republican primary, and that came roughly five years after Cassidy voted to convict Trump in his impeachment trial over the January 6 Capitol riot.

Let's go to CNN's Jeff Zeleny, who is in Kentucky.

Jeff, where does Massie's race stand right now?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, the month of May, as you said, features many competitive races. This is one of the most, at least since Saturday. You mentioned that Senator Cassidy fell short in his primary race.

Now all eyes are on Kentucky. There is no congressman, no Republican, at least, who has infuriated President Trump more than Thomas Massie. He is on the ballot tomorrow here in Kentucky, running for an eighth term to represent Northern Kentucky. But there is no doubt he would say that he is in the fight of his political life.

More money has been spent in this House primary than in any other primary that we have seen yet. Much of it's outside money. So this is very much a close race. The question is, is this going to be one more example of retribution, one more example of revenge that the president is trying to exercise?

We will see. As I have been talking to voters here, many voters are looking at this through a very local lens. They respect and are loyal to their congressman, who has represented them since 2014. Others are ready for a change.

But the defense secretary will be speaking behind me here shortly. This is very unusual for a secretary of defense during a time of war to be out on the campaign trail. But he is going to be propping up the Republican candidate, the challenger in this race, Ed Gallrein, who spent about three decades of his life as a Navy SEAL, so his military service front and center in this race as well.

Of course, it should be noted that Thomas Massie is a sharp critic of the Iran war, so I do expect that contrast to come up as well. There's no doubt, of all these primaries in May, the White House and the president are focusing on Kentucky. He's trying to make Thomas Massie one more example in his list of retributions -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much.

And let's go to another developing story now. Right now, the CDC is not saying whether any Americans have been infected in a growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and also in Uganda, only that it's helping to relocate a small number of Americans who are -- quote -- "directly affected."

The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a global health emergency. It warns that nearly 350 suspected cases have been reported so far, but that that is likely an undercount.

SANCHEZ: Adding to the concern is the fact that the outbreak is being driven by a rare strain of Ebola with no approved treatments or specific vaccines. The World Health Organization believes this strain circulated for weeks before the outbreak was confirmed.

Let's discuss with Jeremy Konyndyk. He served as director at USAID and oversaw the U.S. response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. He's now the president of Refugees International.

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Jeremy, thanks so much for being with us.

You may have to help me with the pronunciation of this rare strain. It's Bundibugyo?

JEREMY KONYNDYK, PRESIDENT, REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL: Bundibugyo.

SANCHEZ: Bundibugyo.

KONYNDYK: The Bundibugyo strain, yes.

SANCHEZ: Talk to us about how that is different from 2014.

KONYNDYK: Well, the biggest difference is that there are not medical countermeasures for it.

So, in 2014, and again when there was a large Ebola outbreak in a similar region of Congo in 2018 and '19, it was the Zaire variant. So we have vaccines for that. We have therapeutic treatments for that that are reasonably effective.

We don't have any of those tools this time. And so that's a big handicap for the response.

KEILAR: And so, if this -- if you don't have those tools, if this was, as officials believe, circulating for weeks before they were able to say there's an Ebola outbreak, how does that affect transmission?

KONYNDYK: It's really, really worrying.

This response starts out pretty deep in the hole relative to virtually any other Ebola outbreak we have ever seen. So, to put this in context, the sort of numbers that you're flashing up on the screen there three days post-declaration, West Africa 2014, largest Ebola outbreak ever in history, that started out at point of detection with just 29 deaths and 49 cases.

We're talking hundreds here. So we are -- we are already behind the eight ball.

SANCHEZ: So, we were just handed some information that the State Department has launched a task force to respond to the Ebola outbreak. This news is coming to us now. It was launched on Friday. They're apparently tracking all Americans in the region, getting in touch with them.

What do you see as the federal response so far? What do you think still needs to happen?

KONYNDYK: Well, I'm sure people are scrambling and standing things up right now.

In the before times, prior to the Trump administration and even, frankly, during the first Trump administration, when they contended with the last big Ebola outbreak in Eastern Congo, USAID was there. CDC was much more robust. Those tools are much weaker now. USAID is completely gone.

There used to be a response team at USAID that dealt with health outbreaks like this. That team has been demolished, along with the entirety of USAID. CDC is very weak. They're in the midst of this leadership turmoil. So the overall U.S. government capacity is just much weaker than it was even a few years ago.

KEILAR: You mentioned CDC. They're saying they're dealing with Americans who are directly affected, but they won't say if Americans have Ebola. Can you parse this for us?

KONYNDYK: Well, there's not a whole lot of information confirmed.

The rumors are that several Americans were exposed in a high-risk way. It's not entirely clear what that means. It's possible that they were -- I mean, in past Ebola outbreaks, that means generally either you went to a burial or you were given care in some form in a medical facility or in a home, so if they were caring for an infected person.

But I think that hasn't been released yet.

KEILAR: So it's not CDC being cagey? Are they restricted in some way? Can -- what is that?

KONYNDYK: They -- I can't for sure say.

I would speculate they probably know more than they're saying, and I don't know if this is about protecting the confidentiality of the patients or just poor communication on CDC's part.

But I think the larger issue here is, it's going to be really important for CDC and the administration to be straight with the American people about what they know and what the risk is.

SANCHEZ: Going back a moment to the specific strain...

KONYNDYK: Yes.

SANCHEZ: ... how do you then go about containing it? I mean, I imagine that at some point you have to restrict travel.

KONYNDYK: Well, they may have to restrict travel. They actually just announced today they're activating it's called Title 42 authority...

SANCHEZ: Right.

KONYNDYK: ... which will limit travel from three affected countries, Uganda, DRC, and, interestingly, South Sudan, where there haven't been any cases confirmed yet.

That strikes me as an appropriate precaution at this point, but I think, in the long run, that will need to be reviewed, because, if they -- if anyone who goes out there is going to struggle to come back to the United States, that also makes it harder to deploy people for a response operation.

KEILAR: Do you expect that we could see this in the U.S.? We did it in a limited way during the last big one.

KONYNDYK: If it gets really out of hand, that's certainly a risk. What we saw in the big West Africa outbreak in 2014-'15 was, that

gained such a scale, it got so out of control that some travelers did manage to take it back to the United States. I think we know more now about how to do effective travel screening.

So, if that is run competently, if the administration can activate good travel control protocols, work with the countries affected to implement border screening at airports and things like that, then it should be preventable.

But much of that too used to flow through USAID programs, and it's questionable whether that can be activated again.

KEILAR: Yes, big questions being raised by that.

Jeremy Konyndyk, thank you so much for being with us. We're obviously watching this very carefully.

Still come: a warning from President Trump, as Iran offers a new response to U.S. criticism of their last proposal. What the White House and Tehran are saying about the future of the conflict.

Plus, a judge making a key ruling on what evidence can and cannot be allowed in the state murder trial of Luigi Mangione. We will have new details next.

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SANCHEZ: And, later, bracing for severe storms, millions of Americans across several states now facing a threat of tornadoes, giant hail and flooding. Your forecast is on the way.

Stay with us.

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SANCHEZ: The peace push stalls again.

We're waiting to learn more after Iran's foreign minister says Tehran sent a response to Pakistan about the United States' latest criticism of their peace proposal, a proposal that Trump says he rejected after reading the first sentence.

The president also just 24 hours ago issuing a new threat, posting -- quote -- "For Iran, the clock is ticking and they better get moving fast or there won't be anything left of them."

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Let's go live with the White House with CNN's Kristen Holmes.

Kristen, what more are you learning?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris.

And, of course, that language is some language that we have heard before, but we are told at this point President Trump is actually more seriously considering some kind of military action in Iran if the negotiations continue to be at this kind of glacial pace that we have seen.

Over the weekend, President Trump meeting with his national security team on Saturday, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the head of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, as well as that special envoy, Steve Witkoff, all part of that meeting.

He's going to also early this week to meet with that same group again. And questions as to what exactly happens now. We haven't heard from the White House on whether or not they have a response to the Iranian response to the criticism. President Trump, as you noted, calling it completely unacceptable, the last deal that Iran sent over.

It was about a 14-point plan to end the war. He said he read about one line of it and threw it in the trash. Now, it's not clear if there has been any kind of movement between then and this, Iran saying that they had responded to the criticism.

But, at the same time, we're hearing from officials that President Trump is growing increasingly frustrated, just, one, with the way that Iran is handling these negotiations, but also, two, with the Strait of Hormuz and the continued closure at the Strait of Hormuz and how that is obviously affecting global oil production and the price of global oil, which we have seen completely spike across the world.

This is a main thorough oil -- main oil thoroughfare here. And the other thing just to keep in mind among all of this, we are told that the Pentagon has provided President Trump with all of these options. As of yesterday, the White House was still saying that they were hoping for a diplomatic resolution.

But it's just unclear, because what we're hearing from officials across the world is that Iran doesn't really seem ready to move in the way that the United States and President Trump wants them to, that they're fine and firm in holding their current posture. So, where we go from here, that's clearly the big question.

SANCHEZ: All right, Kristen Holmes, live for us at the White House, thank you so much.

So, a judge just ruled that some evidence found in Luigi Mangione's backpack at the time of his arrest will be excluded from his state trial, while some other key items will be allowed. We will break down what jurors are going to be able to see.

And an unbelievable video captured during an air show in Idaho. See the moment that four crew members are forced to eject during a midair collision. We will show you the footage and explain what's happening when we come back on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[13:22:09] KEILAR: We're following some significant developments in the upcoming

state murder trial of Luigi Mangione, and that includes a potential setback for prosecutors.

A judge just ruled on what evidence can and cannot be presented in the case, and the items at the center of the ruling were discovered, of course, in Mangione's backpack during his arrest for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

CNN's Kara Scannell has been following this case from the start.

Such important evidence when it comes to this case and what the prosecution needs to do here. What stays and what goes, Kara?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Brianna, this was a split ruling, where the judge found that the search for some contents was fine and that the search for other contents at a different point was illegal.

And so I will break it down for you. What is in at the trial is the alleged murder weapon, the 3-D-printed gun that was found in Mangione's backpack that authorities say they can trace back to the crime scene, also in a red notebook with Mangione's handwritten notes which authorities say shows some of his potential intent for murdering the health care CEO.

In the notebook, Mangione writes about the target is the insurance industry. He also talks about bean counters. And the shooting took place just before the CEO was expected to address investors at their annual conference. That is in.

What is -- and the reason that's in is because it was conducted -- it was searched after Mangione had been in -- sorry. There was something happening here.

The search was done pursuant to the Altoona Police Department's inventory, and they're allowed to go through items after a defendant is in custody. The -- what was not found to be a legal search was the search of his backpack when the authorities first came into contact with Mangione at the McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

According to the prosecutors, they think that that search should have -- stand. The judge said, no, there was no warrant and so that information, that evidence should not have come in. What was in that element of the backpack then, when they searched it, that is not allowed to come into the trial includes his cell phone, a magazine of ammunition, his passport, his wallet and a computer chip that they found.

The reason why, there was no -- there was no warrant, and the judge said that there were no exigent circumstances, meaning that there wasn't a risk to public safety or to the police officers that would have required them to search the bag to ensure their own safety.

The judge pointed to the bodycam footage from the McDonald's that showed that the officers were more casually standing around and that they had quite a distance separating Mangione from his backpack, including an officer standing there. And so that was deemed not to be a public safety issue, and so the judge said, that is out of the case.

KEILAR: So, does that mean that prosecutors can't use the cell phone's metadata or the search history that he may have on his computer?

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SCANNELL: So the judge ruling didn't explicitly get into that, but, usually, in these cases, there are multiple warrants, including for the cloud information of a cell phone.

There are search warrants that go to telephone companies, where they're able to get some of that data that shows who he was in contact with. It would mean that the contents that are only limited to that cell phone, that the only place you could find them would be on the cell phone, would be something that's out.

But it is routine in these cases that they have already received information through other warrants that they have obtained from the provider of the e-mail services and other apps that could have been on the cell phone that they might have been able to search -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Kara Scannell, live from New York for us, thank you.

And still ahead: A midair collision caught on camera, it is really amazing to see. And investigators are looking into what went wrong after two Navy fighter jets crashed into each other during this air show. You see those parachutes, the crew members all ejecting safely. But what happened here?

We will break down that next on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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