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U.S. Intel Shows Iran Rebuilding Military Capabilities Faster Than Expected; Acting A.G. Blanche Defends DOJ's $1.8 Billion Anti- Weaponization Fund; Defense's Turn in Trial of Ex-Assistant Principal After Teacher Shot. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 21, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with breaking news. Rapidly rebuilding, brand new CNN reporting that Iran has restarted its military production much faster than expected after strikes by U.S. and Israeli forces.

Also, who will get the last laugh? What we can expect from Stephen Colbert's curtain call tonight on The Late Show.

And check this out, terrifying moments when a car explodes near Wall Street. That was Fredricka, not terrifying at all.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: That's okay.

SIDNER: But this one --

WHITFIELD: I'm a ventriloquist today.

SIDNER: But what is behind her is a car explosion that shook Lower Manhattan.

I'm Sara Sidner with Fredricka Whitfield. John and Kate are off today. This is CNN News Central.

All right, breaking for you this morning, brand new CNN reporting on how quickly Iran is rebuilding its military nearly three months into the war. Sources say it's happening much faster than U.S. intelligence expected. And we're told that Iran has already restarted some of its drone production during the ceasefire that began last month. One U.S. official says Iran has, quote, exceeded all timelines and could restore its drone fleet in as soon as six months, according to some intelligence estimates.

But that picture appears to be at odds with what the Pentagon is telling Congress. The head of U.S. Central Command testifying this week that strikes destroyed 90 percent of Iran's defense industrial base. He added that Iran, quote, cannot reconstitute for years.

All of this comes as President Trump weighs his next move on Iran amid a clash with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the path forward. CNN's Alayna Treene is live this morning at the White House. There is a lot of details going on, a lot of different threads here. What are you learning this morning about this new reporting on Iran and what the president is doing when it comes to these peace talks?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, I'll start with this new reporting, excellent reporting from our colleagues, Zachary Cohen and Natasha Bertrand. So, what they have learned, or at least the sources in the U.S. intelligence community and who are familiar with these assessments have told them, is that Iran has already started some of its drone production during that six weeks ceasefire that began back in April.

Now, four sources told CNN that the U.S. intelligence indicates that Iran's military is reconstituting much faster than the U.S. intelligence community had predicted. The rebuilding of its military capabilities, including replacing missile sites, launchers, and production capacity for key weapon systems destroyed during the war essentially means that Iran continues to remain a significant threat.

Not only do they have these weapons at their ability, should major combat operations resume, but they remain a threat to a lot of U.S. allies in the region, the same allies, of course, I should tell you, who had spoken to Trump and told him to hold off on moving forward with a new attack because they were worried about retaliation. So, a lot of interesting things that they have learned in this new report. Sara?

SIDNER: Tell us about your reporting on this phone call between, you know, Donald Trump and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. What happened?

TREENE: Yes. Look, so this was a call that happened on Tuesday, and essentially what I was told from my conversations with U.S. officials and sources familiar with the call is that it was a very tense conversation. And part of that is because, one, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has long been far more aggressive in action, in wanting more aggressive action, wanting to resume strikes in Iran.

And we know that Trump and Netanyahu spoke on Sunday as well, and during that Sunday call, the president had informed him that they were -- he was expected to move forward with ordering an attack on Iran, essentially resuming the war after this lengthy ceasefire.

However, of course, we saw on Monday the president come out and say that he was going to delay that expected attack after speaking to allies in the region, like the Qataris and the United Arab Emirates, and the Saudis.

[07:05:04]

And so he essentially then spoke with Netanyahu on Tuesday, and during that call, Trump told him he was holding off. He wanted to continue to allow diplomacy to try and have a successful chance. And Netanyahu essentially, according to my conversations with sources, told him that was a mistake and that he believed that at this point Iran was only going to respond well to more attacks and to more aggression.

So, I think it just shows how these two have really different over the course of this war, kind of differing and diverging objectives for how they want this to go, just fascinating to see. And, of course, we did see Trump respond to some of this yesterday saying essentially that he believes Netanyahu will do whatever I want him to do, a fascinating statement there from the president. Sara?

SIDNER: Well, we will see what happens, but great reporting from you, Alayna Treene. Thank you so much for all your reporting there from the White House.

Fredricka, I am glad to have you here. I am sorry for stealing your line. It is --

WHITFIELD: I am here. I am part of your team today.

SIDNER: Thank goodness. Save us. Save us.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much, Sara.

New this morning, police officers who protected the Capitol on January 6th are suing the Trump administration, hoping to block the creation of the nearly $2 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund. The reason, the slush fund, as critics call it, could very well benefit the people who attacked the Capitol and its police officers that day.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche strongly defending the fund in an interview with CNN's Paula Reid.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: One of the factors the commissioners have to consider is what the claimant did, the claimant's conduct, okay? So, in the hypothetical you just described, the claimant would have to say, I assaulted a cop and I want money. So, whether the commissioners will give that person money, that claimant, it's up to them, but that's one of the factors they have to consider for the very reason that was raised yesterday, which should be raised, which is that President Trump, this Department of Justice, does not stand for assaulting law enforcement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN Senior Reporter Marshall Cohen is with me now. Marshall, I mean, you have new reporting. What are we learning?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Fred, good morning. For Trump's strongest supporters, this fund is a huge relief. Now, you just heard the acting attorney general refuse to rule out potential payments to violent actors who attacked police on January 6th. That should tell you a little bit about how potentially broad this fund might be.

And we spent the last couple days speaking to a lot of people in the January 6th community and beyond that are hoping to get some money. January 6th rioters, remember, there were 1,600 people prosecuted in connection with January 6th. They all got pardons, but they want more. They want restitution. The former leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, his lawyers told us that he is intending to file a claim.

There's also the 2020 fake electors that tried to subvert the Electoral College process. They could get in on the action here. There are also prominent election deniers, like Mike Lindell and Tina Peters, who's currently serving the last few weeks of her prison sentence in Colorado for an election systems breach. And, of course, there's also even pro-Trump media outlets that want to potentially tap these funds. I spoke to the lawyer for One America News, OAN. They said they lost a lot of business after 2020, and they are looking to be made whole.

But, Fred, for a lot of the people who were at the Capitol on January 6th and participated in the fake electors plot in states across the country, this has been a long time coming. They said they were de- banked. They lost friends. They were ostracized. Their businesses took a toll. Their retirement funds were drained paying for legal fees.

Let me read for you something from the fake elector from Michigan, Meshawn Maddock. She told me, quote, "I faced the real possibility of prison time. The trauma to my three kids and the thought of being separated from my grandchildren, it took a lot out of us.

And, Fred, there were others that we spoke to that were even more defiant. They said they want payments, and they said they want everybody, everybody charged on January 6th to get some money, no matter what you did.

WHITFIELD: Wow. All right, Marshall Cohen, thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, Fredricka.

Major flash flooding in Atlanta and New York leaving drivers stranded as millions of people get ready to hit the roads for the holiday weekend. We'll take you there.

Also not helping, gas prices hitting a four-year high. That happened overnight. Average price $4.56 a gallon, and there is one very worrying sign that it is not going to be over any time soon.

And incredible body camera video, take a look at this. An officer catches a baby from the second story window of a burning home.

[07:10:02]

Those stories and more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: This morning, it is the defense's turn in the trial of a former assistant principal. Ebony Parker is accused of ignoring warning signs that a six-year-old may have had a gun before the first grader ended up shooting his teacher. She has pleaded not guilty to several felony charges. CNN's Jean Casarez following every moment of this. She has been pretty emotional at the trial, I think, so far. Correct? What are you expecting that's going to come from the defense today?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The whole trial is emotional, right? You're exactly right. Well, the defense will present or will not present a case, so we don't know. They've really presented their case in cross-examination.

But to remind everybody, this is a case of first impression in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and we think across the country. Never before has an administrator, an assistant principal, been criminally charged, not with the shooting itself, but with the duty of care that she had to the students, this circumstance, elementary students.

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And the violation of that duty of care amounts to child abuse, child endangerment. And that is the situation here.

Well, yesterday, there's one thing that's been established. The emergency protocol was that Ebony Parker, assistant principal, was responsible when there was an emergency, when there was a crisis at the school, and she was the only one that could allow the search of a person, the search of a student, a body, right? And so the counselor came in and he said, and this is 18 minutes before the shooting, he said, his little friend saw the gun, saw the bullets. It's in his pocket. I want to do a body search. She said, no, his mother is going to come soon. And the shooting happened after that.

But the final witness, because also important here, is the defendant's knowledge. Susan White, she was the kindergarten teacher of the six -- this first grader who was a kindergartner at the time, and she testified that the previous year, and Ebony Parker knew it, she was in charge of it after it happened, she was strangled by that child. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN WHITE, FORMER TEACHER AT RICHNECK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: I was sitting in the chair, and I was talking to the class, and not about behavior, about the instruction we were doing, and he walked up behind me and put both of his arms in front of my throat and locked them together and pulled back and down hard. I couldn't breathe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: So, the defense is really very basic here, Sara. It is that you the teacher, you the counselor, you the reading specialist, you could've taken him out of the class. You could've walked him down the hall. You could've taken him yourself to the front office. But I've been thinking about this a lot, and if a child saw the gun and the bullets, and it was in the pocket, maybe the little first graders in that classroom, they don't have that threat anymore, but anybody in the hallway has a threat. Anybody in the counselor's office has a threat. The only way is to get the gun away from him. SIDNER: This is -- there's tragedy all the way around in this -- like literally every person that has been touched by this, that whole school, it's such a tragic situation. But it is also historic, depending on what happens in this case.

CASAREZ: It is.

SIDNER: But just that she's charged has never been done before. It's a fascinating case, but it really is tragic.

Jean Casarez, thank you for following it.

CASAREZ: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: It's really important.

All right, ahead, new details on an American doctor being treated for Ebola, how doctors say he's doing at this moment.

And it is show time. Shohei Ohtani does it all for the Dodgers against the Padres.

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[07:20:00]

WHITFIELD: All right, way too much excitement. The NBA Western Conference Finals now tied up. The Thunder eked out one more win over the Spurs before getting back on the road.

Joining me right now, Andy Scholes. Andy, oh my gosh, what a series so far.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: I mean, Fredricka, the Thunder and Spurs certainly living up to the hype. I mean, game two, another awesome physical game, and, you know, what a treat if we get seven games of this.

It's been highlights galore through two games in OKC, Stephon Castle, maybe the dunk of the playoffs in the second quarter. Look at him rise up, throw it down on Isaiah Hartenstein. I mean, look how he caught that ball back. And Wemby's reaction to that dunk was great. Look, he was impressed.

Third quarter, a tight game, Wemby is going to miss here and then immediately throw it down. Then on the other end, Wemby blocked Alex Caruso. Wemby finished 21 points, 17 rebounds, 4 blocks.

But it wasn't enough. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, an MVP performance. He scored a game high 30, including this bucket here with under a minute to go to put the game away. Thunder win 122-113 to even that series at a game apiece.

And it was a rough one for injuries in this game for both teams. Jalen Williams, he exited in the first quarter as he aggravated his hamstring injury. Then the Spurs rookie sensation Dylan Harper he also left in the third quarter as he hurt his hamstring as well. Both of those players' status up in the air for game three tomorrow.

Meanwhile, in hockey, the Avs and Golden Knights taking the ice for game one of the Western Conference Finals last night. Colorado to the end of a power play, but they give the puck away to Ben Hutton, who just comes out of the penalty box. And his shot ends up getting blocked, but Brett Howden there to score off the rebound. That made it 3-0. Vegas, they would go on to win 4-2, take a 1-0 lead in the series.

And, finally, Shohei Ohtani doing it all for the Dodgers last night against Padres. Very first pitch of the game, he unloads on this one. That was his eighth home run of the season. And Ohtani was also pitching in this one, and he was fabulous on the mound once again. He threw five innings of shutout ball, striking out four. Dodgers ended up winning 4-0. Ohtani's ERA this season through eight starts is 0.73, which is just ridiculous, Fredericka. And, really, he is the only player in baseball that can single-handedly win a game all by himself because he's the only guy who bats and pitches. But, I mean, incredible performance once again from the Japanese superstar.

WHITFIELD: It's crazy. All I keep thinking is like, what is he eating? I mean, how does he have this kind of power on the field? It's insane.

SCHOLES: Oh, impressive.

WHITFIELD: Andy Scholes, yes, indeed, thank you so much.

All right, getting an A at Harvard is about to get even more difficult, the new effort to end grade inflation.

[07:25:03]

And good night to Late Night, Stephen Colbert prepares to say goodbye. He's signing off for the last time. What we know about his final show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Growing backlash this morning to the anti-weaponization fund established by the Trump administration. Democrats and some Republicans are slamming the nearly $2 billion fund that designated to compensate people who claim they were unfairly targeted by the government.

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Those who could be eligible for the money, any one of the nearly 1,600 people.