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Tributes Pour In After Sudden Death Of Kyle Busch; Iranian Hackers Targeting U.S. Aviation, Oil And Gas Companies; Rubio Wraps Up NATO Meeting Aimed At Easing Tensions; NFL Analyst Mina Kimes To Host Cripps National Spelling Bee. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired May 22, 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]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: As we think about his legacy, what should fans of the sport and what should those that are perhaps unfamiliar with racing take away from the life of Kyle Busch?

JAY BUSBEE, SENIOR WRITER, YAHOO! SPORTS: He was a true character. He was he was a racer and that's the highest compliment that drivers pay to one another is he was he was true to himself. He was true to his talent.

He maximized every single bit of his talent and he made you enjoy it. Whether you whether you loved him or whether you hated him or whether you loved hating him one way or the other he made you feel something and that's not something that a whole lot of athletes can say you had a reaction to Kyle Busch. Positive or negative and in the end, I think all the reactions were positive because no matter what the guy could still drive a car like no one else.

SANCHEZ: Sad to report the death of Kyle Busch at 41 Jay Busbee. Thank you so much for sharing part of his story with us.

BUSBEE: Thank you for having me.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

So there is whiplash in Washington. 5,000 US troops are now headed to Poland just days after a planned deployment was reportedly canceled what this means for the U.S. Alliance with Europe when we come back.

[14:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Cybersecurity researchers tell CNN that Iranian hackers are targeting U.S. aviation, Oil and gas companies. The researchers say they elaborate espionage scheme involves big job postings and videoconferencing software infected with malicious code. CNN cybersecurity reporter Sean Lyngaas joins us now with more on the reporting. What are you learning about this hacking plot -- Sean?

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Boris. It's pretty elaborate for wartime stuff when literally us and Israel have been dropping bombs on some of these compounds where Iranian government hackers are. So what they did was basically set up these personas where they're posing as you know, job recruiters saying, hey, you look like a perfect match for this job.

We've all gotten those unsolicited texts or e-mails, but this is a little bit more convincing. They used AI to write a sample job opportunity and it just it they rattle off corporate lingo like collaboration synergy things that we're used to seeing on job ads. And what they've been doing is -- according to the research from Palo Alto Networks is a U.S. cybersecurity firm -- is the Iranian hackers have been saying OK posing as a US airline in one case and saying we want to recruit you to come work for us as a senior software engineer.

So they're targeting these people with very high-level access to corporate networks at aviation companies, oil and gas and what the researchers think they're doing with that trying to do with that is to glean insights that might be useful for the war.

Right now anything that Iran is doing with its with its cyber teams is for about survival. And in this case, it could be helpful about flight manifest to the to the Middle East. Data on how us oil companies are dealing with the energy crunch right now and all the all that sorts of things.

So it's very -- I would say I was a bit surprised by how meticulous this was given the war going on. It's been happening over the last couple months and continues to this day -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Wow! Sean Lyngaas, thank you so much for that reporting -- Omar.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: Well meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Sweden meeting with NATO leaders just a day after he blasted that alliance. Rubio's visit is aimed at calming allies who are unsettled by the increasingly strained relationship they have with the United States. Speaking to reporters, Rubio says some progress has been made on peace talks with Iran, but said, quote, we're not there yet.

Joining me to talk more about this is Jim Townsend. He's a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for European and NATO policy. Good to see you. You know, this morning, Secretary Rubio also said if change the president has been clear he has other options. But I don't know if you saw but the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Republican Roger Wicker said this afternoon in part that Trump's instincts have been to finish the job he started in Iran but he is being ill-advised to pursue a deal that would not be worth the paper it's written on. Our commander-in-chief needs to allow America's skilled armed forces to finish the destruction of Iran's conventional military capabilities and reopen the Strait.

On that latter portion do you see that as a viable solution here?

JIM TOWNSEND, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR EUROPEAN AND NATO POLICY: I really don't, and I don't think many people do except for the senator. In the Pentagon we call it bouncing the rubble. If we were to go in there with more airstrikes and hit the same targets, we're essentially bouncing the rubble up and down. We're not really moving the ball towards the goal line here.

I think Iran has proven that they are able to absorb these kinds of blows. That that they have not been weakened in terms of their military capabilities by all these strikes, and it's not going to get us any closer to opening the Straits. It's not going to be a military solution to this. It's going to have to be negotiated and keep the military as leverage, but it's not going to be a military tool that's going to get us over the goal line.

JIMENEZ: Well, and you mention it as leverage. We have heard it obviously threatened at many different points by the president and otherwise. I mean, what would a hypothetical resumption of conflict mean at this point, especially for control over the Strait?

TOWNSEND: Well, I think it would mean heavy, heavy casualties, certainly on the Iranian side and probably on the U.S. side too. Iran has recovered a lot of its military capability. The Navy that they still have a float or these small boats along the Straits. We would have to put troops on the ground in the Straits if we're going to try to make sure the Straits stayed open and that ships could pass through. We'd have to have a large number of ground forces there making sure that they are able to keep the Iranian threat at bay.

[14:40:00]

And so we would have to escort ships. We still have mines. I mean it'd be a huge job. It's not going to be something that can be done quickly and it's not going to be cost free. Again, this is going to have to be something negotiated. It's not going to be a military tool that wins the day.

JIMENEZ: The buzzword being thrown around is quagmire. You know where conflict gets prolonged and difficult for any meaningful win. Do you believe that's where we are?

TOWNSEND: Well, I'm not sure we're in a quagmire yet, but we're on that trajectory, that's for sure. If we go back and try the military solution, we'll just dig the hole deeper and deeper for ourselves. And so that's what leads to a quagmire where we can't extract ourselves. I think we're at a point now if indeed we're making some progress and talks with Iran.

If the Pakistanis are actually being helpful in terms of brokering something between us. If we can get China and others to put some pressure on Iran. And if we also can back off some of our requirements, which are pretty stark, and meet somewhere in the middle. We'll be able to extract ourselves.

But right now both parties are still pretty far apart and having the military come back in is not going to really get us anywhere.

JIMENEZ: And I just want to ask a little bit about Europe, too. Because the president said overnight that the U.S. will send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland. This is just a week after Secretary Hegseth stopped the scheduled deployment of a combat team expected to rotate through Poland. And after an announcement by Trump earlier this month that he was pulling 5,000 troops from Germany after the German chancellor said the U.S. was being humiliated in its war with Iran. Trump is now saying this deployment to Poland was based on his good relationship with the country's president.

How are you reading all of these troop movement announcements that seem to be going back and forth?

TOWNSEND: Well, it's a great confusion. I don't think anyone really has a clear idea of where these troops are coming from. Are they being shifted from one country to another? Or are they going to be new troops coming out of the U.S. going to Poland? It's very unclear where this is going.

And I think There's a couple things here. One is they want to try to do what the president wants. The president wants to pull some forces out and he wants to punish the Germans. I think there have been some overeager staff officers or civilians maybe in the Pentagon who have been proposing various schemes to deliver to the president once what he wants. And they haven't been looking at all the ramifications of pulling a deployment that was scheduled and now canceling it. And understanding that there are secondary and tertiary impacts coming from that type of move that can make the situation worse.

The Polish example is what you can see right now, how that happens. Certainly the presidents of Poland and the president of the United States have a good relationship. But I think they're using that as an excuse to find somewhere, some forces to send to Poland to placate the Poles, who are certainly very good allies of the United States and were mystified. Why suddenly they were the ones to be losing forces that were announced a few days ago. So they're trying to unscramble something that should not be as complicated as it is now, except for some pretty shoddy staff work in the office of the Secretary of Defense.

JIMENEZ: Jim Townsend, got to leave the conversation there. Thank you for being here. Thanks for the time.

TOWNSEND: You're welcome.

JIMENEZ: All right, coming up, NFL analyst Mina Kimes knows all about studying the competition. Now she's using those skills to host a battle between the nation's most elite spellers, Mina, N-E-X-T.

[14:45:00]

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SANCHEZ: Mina Kimes is well regarded for her sharp NFL analysis, perhaps most famously as she's on a zip line on the Dan LeBotard show, Squealing, yes.

JIMENEZ: Yes, yes.

SANCHEZ: But her next assignment might be even more fierce than football, the Scripps National Spelling Bee. We're talking about hundreds of the nation's top spellers in one place, battling for be glory just days from now.

JIMENEZ: And Kimes will be leading it all at the most intense time. Scripps just named for the host for the semifinal and final rounds. She wouldn't want it any other way. Pressure is what she lives for.

New host, Mina Kimes, joins us live. Good to see you, Mina. I mean, look, you are normally analyzing game tapes, going back and forth, figuring out where people are going to get drafted, everything in between. How are you preparing for this competition? Anything, any crossover there?

MINA KIMES, HOST, 2026 SCRIPPS NATIONAL SPELLING BEE: Well, first I'd like to say I think of the spelling bee as the Super Bowl of academic events.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

KIMES: So my role in all of this as host is to get (INAUDIBLE). I think these kids are elite competitors and deserve to be treated as such, and that has become incredibly apparent to me as I've watched their tape, particularly the last few bees. I've been trying to nail the cadence of the event, understand how they prepare for it, and perhaps most importantly in my role as host, I want to get their names right. I am not pronouncing the words for everybody involved. That will be the head pronouncer, Jacques Bailly. I will be saying their names and introducing them to viewers, and that to me is the most important part.

SANCHEZ: We should expect no less from someone who won a few spelling bees herself. Here's Mina Kimes, a second grade champ with her trophy. What would be your advice to some of these spellers as they try to, you know, live up to your expectations?

KIMES: Yes, well, first of all, they shouldn't be taking any spelling advice from me because even though I win my second Scripps.

[14:50:00]

That was with the word receive, which is so much easier than the words you will be seeing in the spelling bee. And after learning a little bit about how these kids prepare, I really am just in awe of them. It's not just memorizing words the way they learn how to puzzle out words on stage. I think is incredible by asking for roots and parts of speech and things like that. I have very little advice to give in that regard.

However, as someone who does live television, I do think the other part of this is pressure, especially at a young age and to that end I would just urge them to breathe. Take a moment to try to stay calm, pay attention to your breaths. Focus on someone you know in the audience. And remember you are here for a reason. You already have won so many (INAUDIBLE) and remembering that in the moment for these kids is going to be (INAUDIBLE).

JIMENEZ: I mean just that mini pep talk right there I felt like --

SANCHEZ: I'm going to use that advice.

JIMENEZ: I know, it's like, all right put up some words right now let's go.

Mina, can you just tell us the back story here and why Scripps thought you would be a good fit? Obviously, you know the game a little bit.

KIMES: So there is a little bit of back story. I just completed on Celebrity Jeopardy for the second time. And in that process, I got to know the company Embassy Row, which -- OK, yes, so I want Celebrity Jeopardy.

(CROSSTALK)

KIMES: And they will be producing for the first time. You put up the picture, right? They will be producing the spelling bee. So they got to know me a little bit in this process. And I've got to know you, Omar, a little bit on my own. And I know that you are a very clever guy. And I was wondering if you like a little miniature spelling challenge?

JIMENEZ: Right now? Yes. Right now?

KIMES: Right now on the spot.

JIMENEZ: Yes, you gave me that pep talk. Let's do it. Let's do it. I hope I don't regret this, but let's go.

KIMES: OK, so I chose a word that was the winning word from the very first National Spelling Bee, 1925. It is a lot easier than the words I think you're going to see, no pressure, in the finals next week if you tune in. The word is gladiolus. You can ask any questions about it as the case is.

JIMENEZ: Gladiolus, origin. Is that a question?

KIMES: Actually, I think it's Latin, actually.

JIMENEZ: OK, gladiolus.

KIMES: So gladiolus definition is that it is a flower of the iris family.

JIMENEZ: OK, all right.

KIMES: It's a noun.

JIMENEZ: OK.

KIMES: And the plural is gladioli if that's helpful at all?

JIMENEZ: Gladioli, OK, all right. I've got a guess. And you know what? The Latin base did not help me at all. So I'm going to go G-L-A-D-I-O- L-U-S. KIMES: You got it.

JIMENEZ: You know what? You know what?

SANCHEZ: That is impressive.

JIMENEZ: That was because of your pep talk.

SANCHEZ: I tried to spell it on the side. I wonder with like a why? Yes, I'm not the right way to.

KIMES: The other word that you're suggested and you share. I'm free to see this on television sharing (INAUDIBLE).

SANCHEZ: The audio broke up there, I can't even --

JIMENEZ: Yes, I have no idea what that said, but honestly, I'm glad we chose Gladiolus. Oh, there it is.

SANCHEZ: Oh, yes.

JIMENEZ: There you go. You know that I want to say I would have gotten that, but I would not have.

SANCHEZ: I'm pretty sure that's an expletive, and we're not allowed to say that.

JIMENEZ: Yes, I think we got to blur that out just based on how it's shown.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Mita Kimes, thank you so much, and good luck as you're hosting.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

KIMES: Thank you so much.

JIMENEZ: Of course. We're going to keep an eye out for her.

All right, coming up for us, Wayless Waymos. The company is pulling robotaxis from several major cities after their cars were seen driving in floodwaters. You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SANCHEZ: Here are some of the other headlines we're following this hour. A sinkhole at one of the busiest airports in the country has snarled air traffic as the Memorial Day travel rush begins. The hole, several feet wide, was found Wednesday on a runway at LaGuardia. That runway, one of only two at the airport, remains closed. Now, areas of concern were found during repairs extending the closure. If all goes well, it is expected to reopen tomorrow.

And Waymo is temporarily suspending service of its robotaxis in parts of Georgia and Texas after the cars were caught in high floodwaters this week. The impacted cities include Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Austin. This week in Atlanta, an unoccupied Waymo car got stranded in high water when the area experienced flash flooding. Atlanta, along with Houston and Austin, Texas, do face more flood risk this weekend. This pause follows the company's recall of 3,800 robotaxis earlier this month after it was found the cars could enter flooded roads at higher speed limits. Waymo says the service will soon resume.

And in just a few hours, SpaceX will make another attempt to launch its Starship mega rocket. Yesterday's test flight was scrubbed after last minute issues triggered a series of holds. This is the third version of the rocket and the most powerful one yet. SpaceX is hoping the Starship can eventually be used to send astronauts to the moon.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.