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Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) On Key Primary Races Across Six States; Sources: Cuba's Raul Castro Expected To Be Indicted In U.S.; New Video Appears To Show Teen Suspects Firing Near San Diego Mosque. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired May 20, 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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[07:31:10]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, President Trump's pressure campaign to oust incumbent Republican Congressman Thomas Massie in Kentucky -- it succeeded. This, of course, after Massie led the charge to force the Justice Department to release the Epstein files.

But the biggest powerplay from the president might have been in Texas where he endorsed Attorney General Ken Paxton over Republican Senate incumbent John Cornyn ahead of a runoff next week. As Politico puts it, "Senate Republicans are angry and alarmed over Trump's Paxton endorsement leaving them afraid Democrats could win their first statewide election in more than 30 years."

With us now is Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan. Good to see you this morning, Congresswoman.

My question to you is President Trump has showed enormous strength in Republican primaries -- almost complete and total dominance. But what does that mean do you think for you for Democrats in November and what does it mean for the country?

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): So I've been thinking a lot about that all night. It's good to see you this morning, too. Because my -- I'll be blunt because I always am. My fear was that if Massie lost last night that Republicans were going to lose any courage to stand up to the president. It was just going to be a very difficult rest of the year.

But in talking to many people -- I haven't gotten much sleep last -- this -- last night thinking about it all. And I think Tom Massie gave a very good speech last night about the importance of what it means to be an elected member of Congress and the responsibilities that you have.

I think Democrats are just angry, but it's not Democrats. People are upset with both parties. But people -- Americans in the country are angry with where they are seeing the country going.

He -- Massie was not afraid to stand up for the Epstein survivors. He was not afraid to demand accountability of the White House on ethical issues.

And I think, quite frankly, that it could turn out -- result in a lot of people turning out with anger about how they want to see change in Washington.

So I think it's going to be a really rough few months in the Congress. Not going to get a lot of things done. But in November this could really lead to very big wins for Democrats in both the House and the Senate.

BERMAN: So you praised Massie's speech. In that speech last night he did talk about the need to stand for people over party and issues, but he also took a swipe at his opponent who had received some support from pro-Israel groups. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): Listen, I would have -- I would have come out sooner, but I had to call my opponent and concede, and it took a while to find Ed Gallrein in Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So what do you think about that out in the open with all the cameras rolling?

DINGELL: Well, AIPAC clearly put a lot of money in against Tom Massie. I think he was trying not to show the bitterness that he obviously has a right to feel.

Look, right now I'm living in a state that is torn by all of these issues. I have Jewish constituents; I have Muslim constituents. They are both being attacked by hate right now. And I think that as elected officials all of us have got to start trying to find some ways to dial down the hate in this country which, quite frankly, isn't being helped with some of the vitriolness that comes from the White House.

BERMAN: Um, also yesterday -- I should say overnight, gas prices up to a near wartime high this morning. This is, of course, ahead of the holiday travel weekend -- $4.56 roughly a gallon.

[07:35:05]

I want you to listen to what the president said about those prices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is peanuts. And I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while. It won't be much longer. But if you didn't have -- frankly, there is so much oil out there. One of the things that is happening is these big ships are coming up to Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska and they're loading up. But I don't even think about that. What I think about is you can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: Is it peanuts to your constituents?

DINGELL: It is absolutely not peanuts to my constituents. About two weeks ago it hit over $5.00 a gallon in Washtenaw County, which is the core of my district. People are hurting. People are coming up to me no matter where I am -- at a farmer's market, when I'm in the union halls. I was in six union halls last week. People are screaming about what the cost of living is.

The president -- when he made that comment -- shows the bubble that he lives in in Washington, D.C. How he doesn't have to go to a grocery store and try to feed a family of four. He does not understand what is happening in everyday America with real working men and women.

And our job is to do something to help them because they are struggling right now. And I hear it because I go home and I go out, and I listen to them.

BERMAN: One area where the federal government does appear to be spending money is the creation of a fund of $1.7 billion to compensate people who feel they were unfairly investigated in past administrations.

The attorney general -- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche would not rule out that money going to January 6 rioters -- even those -- some who may have attacked law enforcement officials.

How do you feel about that?

DINGELL: How do I feel about that? I think this is one of the most outrageous, unethical things I have yet to see this administration do. And all indications are that they clearly are targeting -- some of the January 6 people that have been convicted are talking about taking this money and using it to compensate people that were then victims of other crimes that they did.

And this deal that he's cutting for immunity is absolutely outrageous -- absolutely outrageous. We've never seen anything like this in the history of the United States. We all, if you are elected, should be meeting ethical standards and this is -- I'm going to everything working with my colleagues to try to keep this fund from not happening. It is wrong.

BERMAN: Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, sorry you didn't get much sleep last night. I hope you have a more restful --

DINGELL: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- holiday stretch ahead. Thank you so much for being with us -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Debbie Dingell doesn't need sleep.

BERMAN: I guess not.

BOLDUAN: I mean, you've known her and you know she does not, that's for sure. But that was a great conversation, John.

This morning the Justice Department is also preparing to indict former Cuban president Raul Castro. Sources tell CNN that the criminal charges to be announced today in Miami focus on the 94-year-old's alleged role in ordering the shootdown of two civilian aircraft belonging to the Cuban American group Brothers to the Rescue. This was back in 1996. Four people, including three Americans, were killed in that.

But this is also all going down as Cuba is facing a spiraling energy crisis -- a crisis that the Cuban government blames on the United States and fuel blockade -- and the increasing threats that we've been hearing from the president and the Trump administration of potentially taking over the island nation.

CNN's Patrick Oppmann is in Havana, and he's got much more on this. Patrick, what are you learning about this? What could today mean?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF AND CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is not happening in a bubble. And we say former Cuban president Raul Castro but let's be clear. Raul Castro still runs the military here and he's considered to be the leader of the Revolution and even in retirement he's still the most powerful figure on this island.

So this is very clearly part of a pressure campaign to try to get the Cuban government to make major concessions, open up this island politically and economically, and perhaps for some of the leadership to step aside.

And the question really becomes now does this help with that goal of the United States by indicting Raul Castro for this shootdown that took, as you note, 30 years ago. Does this bring them back to the negotiating table because we're hearing that negotiations have not progressed at all.

And, you know, the issue though becomes does this cause the Cubans to circle the wagons and decide that like their ally Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, that they're under the threat of a U.S. invasion? And that appears to be the way things are going. The government here is warning the population to prepare for an invasion. That this island could be attacked at any point by the U.S. That they are getting farther away from a deal, not closer to a deal.

And so you hear Cuban officials warn the U.S. that if they are attacked, they will fight back. They are not letting Raul Castro go anywhere -- certainly not a Miami courtroom. And that any U.S. attack would result in "a bloodbath."

[07:40:05]

BOLDUAN: Hmm. Patrick, quite a day. It's great to see you, buddy. Thank you so much for your reporting always.

Joining us right now to talk much more about this is Michael Bustamante. He is the associate professor of history, chair of Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami. Thank you so much for being here.

Talk to me. What's your take on what this expected indictment does and what it will do now in light of this already mounting pressure and tension that Patrick was just laying out between the Trump administration and Cuban leaders.

MICHAEL BUSTAMANTE, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND CHAIR, CUBAN AND CUBAN-AMERICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI (via Webex by Cisco): Thanks for having me.

I think Patrick laid it out well. I think the big question that I'm asking is how does this fit into the administration's broader strategy and whether it works in concert with that or could work against it. I think this is an administration that still would like to get a negotiated solution here.

Let's not forget the United States is still pretty much engrossed in a -- in another foreign policy front in the Middle East. The idea of having sort of two military operations going on at the same time is not something that I think even this administration would cherish.

But if this indictment sort of, you know, pokes at the Cuban government symbolically to such a degree that, as Patrick said, they circle the wagons, I think we could -- it'll be difficult to find an off-ramp here.

BOLDUAN: And that, I think, is the next question -- is what decides -- you know, what do you think the factors are here and how the Cuban people respond to an indictment like this?

BUSTAMANTE: Well, to be frank, I don't think average Cuban people on the ground are necessarily going to pay too much attention to this indictment per se. And I say that because they're in the midst of an economic crisis the likes of which they have not lived in at least 30 years and perhaps never in their life. People are just trying to, you know, figure out how to get by day-to-day, hour-to-hour.

If the lights are out for up to, you know, 30-plus hours a day I don't really know if you're sort of watching network news all the time and following sort of the -- every detail on this front.

But I think Cuban are at a place where they're sort of desperate that, frankly, some are open to kind of a dramatic action even from the United States and would prefer that -- this kind of purgatory of sanctions that they're in at the moment.

And so I think people are just looking for relief, you know, wherever it might come from.

BOLDUAN: I was going to ask you just how -- you know, kind of the proverbial question of just how bad is it? Because I think that's something that -- how much conditions have deteriorated for people on the island and what they really are facing in this moment and what assistance the U.S. government has said they could offer, you know, but with a catch -- a big catch obviously. BUSTAMANTE: Yeah. I mean, things are as bad as they've ever been. I mean, you have to go back to the 1990s in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union to have anything like this crisis. At that time Cuba's GDP declined by about a third in three to four years. On a percentage basis, Cuba's GDP has not declined as sharply in the last few years, but you have to remember Cuba's economy never recovered entirely from the post-Soviet crisis to begin with.

And so people are feeling this more intensely I would say. And it's also happening in a moment where you've got one, two generations that, you know, don't have any sort of -- or very little residual loyalty to a kind of a political project that the Cuban Revolution once represented. So, you know, that's the reality on the ground and that's the reality that people are facing.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, it's quite a moment.

And it's great to have you. Thank you so much for joining us this morning -- John.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning the U.S. Coast Guard says a shipwrecked mariner may have started one of California's wildfires. He wrote -- well, you saw it just a second ago -- SOS in the ashes. The man reportedly fired off emergency flares to alert rescuers and authorities think that started a fire on Santa Rosa Island.

More than a dozen fires are raging across California, and thousands are under evacuation orders. Four people were injured in one about 50 miles east of Los Angeles.

Let's get to CNN's Derek Van Dam for the latest on all this. Derek, what are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, John. That SOS story is absolutely wild. But we dug a little bit deeper. The Santa Rosa fire has already burned a huge chunk of the island. Nearly a third of the island has been scorched already. And there aren't a lot of structures there but what's unique about it is that there are species that are only found on that island, some historical structures. There's forced evacuations of national parks and individuals as well.

This is the Verona fire, so we're talking about Southern California and now inland. And some incredible video coming out of this area. This is known as a smoke devil. It's like a dust devil. It's intense, rising hot air from smoldering ash from wildfires. And that that draws in the smoke and it starts to stretch vertically in the atmosphere and rotate at the same time, creating the funnel that you saw there.

This is the Bain fire, so we're working our way inland. And you can see the Sandy fire still attacking this from all fronts, including from the air. The large air tankers, the Chinook helicopters -- everything that they have in CAL FIRE's arsenal.

[07:45:00]

Take a look at the four largest fires in Southern California. There's the Santa Rosa fire. Again, 26 percent contained but look at that acreage. Nearly 27,000 acres.

This is an incredible satellite image, and I want you to take note of the last few frames. Watch how the offshore winds change to more of an onshore flow, and that is what's complicating this for firefighters on the ground.

Here's another way to look at it. This is the forecast wind gusts for today. We've got our Santa Ana winds. They're not particularly strong but look how they change directions from an offshore to an onshore. So the forward progress of a fire is actually creating the difficulties on the ground because it changes with the drop of a hat as the wind directions alter throughout the course of the day.

Humidity levels -- they're dangerous low. They're dropping into the single digits across Southern California. Something they're used to but temperatures there are five to 10 degrees above average.

So all of these coming together to put the perfect recipe for wildfire growth. And, of course, that is degrading the quality of the air in and around Los Angeles. You feel it. You smell it. You know it's the season -- John.

BERMAN: It is the season and a dangerous one so far.

Derek Van Dam, thank you very much.

Gas prices up overnight. The holiday weekend approaching. We just heard it from Congresswoman Debbie Dingell. The president talking about it saying the burden on your wallet is "peanuts."

A potential step to resurrect lost species. Scientists hatch live animals and the process that they hope leads to de-extinction. What could possibly go wrong?

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[05:50:45]

BERMAN: Developing this morning, gas prices up to a near wartime high with a record 39 million Americans expected to hit the road this Memorial Day weekend. The national average now stands at $4.56 a gallon.

President Trump says again he's not thinking about these rising prices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This is peanuts. And I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while. It won't be much longer. But you're going to have -- and frankly, there is so much oil out there. One of the things that is happening is these big ships are coming up to Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska and they're loading up. But I don't even think about that. What I think about is you can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: CNN's Matt Egan is with us now. Peanuts, he says.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, John. Look, this is a challenging situation. You've got high demand colliding with low supply. That's never a great combination and that is why drivers this holiday weekend should be bracing for historically high prices.

So GasBuddy projecting the national average will be $4.48 a gallon on Memorial Day. That would be a 42 percent increase from last Memorial Day. And, in fact, $4.48 a gallon -- this would be the second-highest on Memorial Day on record. The only time higher was four years ago after Russia invaded Ukraine under former President Joe Biden. And this would be miles away from the pre-COVID level well below $3.00 a gallon.

And look, that $4.48 a gallon forecast from GasBuddy -- that could prove to be optimistic because as you noted, the AAA forecast is now up to $4.56 a gallon. So that means that it's quite possible that Memorial Day could actually be an all-time high. We're going to have to wait and see how this plays out.

But, of course, this is happening because the unthinkable hasn't just happened, it's been happening for 11 weeks, right? The Strait of Hormuz closed. It has completely destabilized the global energy system, and the longer that it remains closed the higher that gas prices are going to go.

And I know the president dismissed this as peanuts, but Brown University has been tracking in real time the impact to consumers, and they found that higher energy costs are costing Americans $43 billion just since the war started. That's on gas. That's on diesel. And on a per family, per household basis that works out to $325. That, of course, is hardly peanuts.

And what's notable is that the three states that are experiencing the biggest price increase over the past year for gasoline are all three states that Trump won in 2024 -- Ohio, Alaska, Michigan. All of them more than $1.60 a gallon more expensive than this time last year.

And I talked to a retired mechanic from Illinois, which is the state experiencing the fourth-biggest increase over the past year. And he told me that he's living off of Social Security with his wife, and he said these high gas prices are just killing him. He said he wants to go visit his great-granddaughter living a few hours away in northern Illinois, but he feels like he can't because it's just too expensive.

So I think this is just another reminder that four people who are living off of a fixed income, for lower-income families, high gas prices -- it's anything but peanuts. It's all too real.

BERMAN: Yeah. I'll tell you, Ohio, Alaska, and Michigan there all have big Senate races in November --

EGAN: Yes.

BERMAN: -- as well. I bet you that might come up. EGAN: It might.

BERMAN: All right, Matt Egan. Thank you very much --

EGAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: -- for that -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Breaking overnight the final two bodies have been recovered of the five Italian scuba divers killed while exploring an underwater cave system in the Maldives. The group died last week after somehow getting trapped in this maze-like section of caves. Body cameras recovered from the divers have been handed to authorities as investigators are now working to determine exactly what went so tragically wrong.

And the son of a Spanish fashion mogul arrested in connection with that man's death. Isak Andic, the founder of the clothing brand Mango, was 71 years old when he died, falling more than 300 feet down a ravine in Barcelona. This happened in 2024 and was originally ruled an accident. But now his son Jonathan is under arrest and appeared in court yesterday. A spokesperson for the Andic family says that they are confident that Jonathan is innocent.

[07:55:12]

His father, Isak Andic, founded the company in 1984. Last year it saw almost $4.5 billion in sales.

This story out of Wisconsin is wild. A driver traveling through a tunnel -- driving -- she heard a loud bang. Her car violently started shaking and here is why. This three-foot steel beam apparently fell from the tunnel, slamming into her car narrowly missing, clearly, her head by about two feet. The woman is OK. And an inspection into how this happened -- how this beam fell in the first place is now underway.

I mean, can you imagine?

BERMAN: They should have an inspection, I think.

BOLDUAN: Maybe slightly. Maybe someone should look into this? I mean -- and she should buy a lottery ticket. Like, I mean, what? OK.

Then there's the age-old question, John Berman -- back to this camera -- what came first? The chicken or the egg? Well, there may soon be a newfound twist thanks to new technology on that one. How one company is trying to bring back extinct species.

Here is Giana Asterito.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GIANA ASTERITO, CNN 5 GOOD THINGS PODCAST: Could these chicks be the key to bringing back extinct birds such as the giant moa? These chickens were hatched using artificial eggs. That's according to the scientists at Colossal Biosciences.

The Dallas-based biotech company says its 3-D printed shell and silicone-based membrane can grow an embryo without supplemental oxygen. The company says it has hatched 26 chicks using this technology, ranging from two weeks to four months in age. The next step is now seeing if they develop normally.

The company is known towards de-extinction of species like the resurrection of the dire wolf using ancient DNA to alter the genes of the gray wolf. It is also working towards resurrecting the dodo, the wooly mammoth, and the Tasmanian tiger.

According to the company, the artificial egg technology will help to recreate extinct bird species, particularly the giant moa, which was so large there's no suitable living surrogate, but some scientists are skeptical. And though Colossal claims the artificial egg is scalable the company would still need to overcome significant challenges, such as decoding the moa's unique genetic makeup to achieve its long term goal of bringing it back in some form.

The artificial egg technology, however, could help conserve endangered birds.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Remarkable.

All right. In San Diego, authorities released Ring doorbell camera footage from the mass shooting at the mosque, which they say appears to show one of the teenage suspects firing into a nearby neighborhood. All right. We'll get that to you when we can. Investigators say the attackers livestreamed parts of the assault online. Three people were killed.

With us now is CNN's Josh Campbell with the latest on all this -- Josh.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, John. You know, I'll warn our viewers that a lot of this is going to be disturbing but we are getting new details about the suspected gunmen in Monday's mosque shooting, specifically the apparent motive here.

Now, police say that they appear to have been motivated by a wide range of hateful grievances. And we've actually reviewed writings -- in particular, a 75-page hate-filled screed. I'm not going to quote from it. A lot of these killers want notoriety long after their death. But it includes a lot of vile things about a wide group -- a large group of people.

We're also learning, as you mentioned, that the suspect livestreamed the attack on video. I'm not going to play that video either. But from an investigative standpoint we actually see written on the guns that they were using there were reference to Naziism as well as messages about previous shootings. One expert in extremism that we spoke to said that to him there are strong indications that these two were neo- Nazis.

You mentioned that Ring doorbell camera footage. That was actually in the aftermath of the attack. The suspect appeared to be going through a neighborhood and firing. You could actually see people fleeing.

Now afterwards, the suspects, according to the video livestream -- they pulled over. One of them shoots the other and the shoots himself. So all of that obviously very disturbing.

As that investigation continues though, John, we are also learning new details about the heroism of a security guard who was killed in the attack. Police say the Amin Abdullah saw the two gunmen, engaged them in gunfire. He radioed to the mosque to lock down the building. To use those procedures. Then police say that it was those precious moments when he was in this gun battle with suspects that allowed the people inside, including children, to flee to safety.

The police chief said that not only Amin Abdullah but also two other men that were there that were also killed -- they were pivotal in distracting those shooters. Take a listen here to the police chief speaking yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF SCOTT WAHL, SAN DIEGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: His actions, without a doubt, delayed, distracted, and ultimately deterred these two individuals from gaining access to the greater areas of the mosque where as many as 140 kids were within 15 feet of these suspects.

(END VIDEO CLIP)