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Cornyn and Paxton Face Off in Texas GOP Senate Primary Runoff; Source: Top Iranian Officials Meet in Qatar for "Intense Talks"; Study Warns Parts of Louisiana Could Became Unhabitable; Rescue Teams Racing to Reach Seven Villagers Trapped in Laos Cave. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired May 26, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: -- when he was running for reelection back in 2024 for term number one, look at that net approval rate. It was plus 68 points in terms of how they viewed, Republicans viewed inflation and Trump and term number one.

Look at this. Look at this collapse minus five points. Now, this is just the "IPSOS" polling. I will note, but look at this. Even in "FOX," he was at minus two points. So, it's not alone. He is on the wrong side of the ledger. And this is not voters overall, let me remind you. This is Republican voters.

That call, absolutely coming from inside the House on the key issue of inflation. There are now multiple polls showing that Donald Trump is underwater within his own Republican Party.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's a 73-point swing. I just did the math right now.

ENTEN: That is 70 and three. And I actually drew that pretty gosh darn well.

BERMAN: All right, Harry, the phone is ringing.

ENTEN: Hello?

BERMAN: And someone's calling about gas prices.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: Who's calling and what are they saying?

ENTEN: It's Republicans who are calling again and they are saying that they are underwater again when it comes to this particular issue. Look at gas prices. OK. GOP, Trump, net approval on fuel and gas prices. You go back to last summer, look at this. It was plus 51. Look at it now, minus four. Again, what are we talking about here? We're talking about a 55-point shift away from the President of the United States on the key issue of gas prices. So, again, something that is impacting Americans day to day. Inflation, a part of that is gas prices. Of course, the inflation on gas prices has been out of control. The President of the United States is underwater on the key issue of gas prices. This isn't just something about the center of the electorate. This is with Donald Trump's base as well. This is a huge shift. He's underwater again, the floor completely collapsing underneath him.

BERMAN: And this is just within the last year. That's a one-year shift, not even from before the election.

ENTEN: This is a one-year shift. It turns out as gas prices go high, your approval ratings go low, even within the Republican base.

BERMAN: OK, but how much do Republicans really care about these economic issues?

ENTEN: Yeah, OK. So, you know, we're talking about the collapsing floor. But, you know, if this is an old, ruddy house that we don't really care about, then who really cares?

But this is the house that is most important because you take a look here. OK, Republicans' top issue, the economy and the cost of living. You know, you go back to the beginning of this year, it was 43 percent it was the top issue.

Now it's even more of the top issue. The clear majority of Republicans saying the economy and the cost of living is the number one issue, an issue on which Donald Trump's numbers are absolutely falling through the floor of multiple polls, showing him underwater on inflation.

BERMAN: A creaky floor.

ENTEN: A very, very creaky floor.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'll take it.

BERMAN: I have a choice. I saw both of you. I'm like, I have a choice. I'm going to go to Kate.

Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, you've got all that over there, and now you've got Texas. Right now, polls are open, and there is one Texas showdown that everyone is watching this morning. Longtime Republican Senator John Cornyn, who's been in office for more than two decades, facing off with State Attorney General Ken Paxton, who just got that major boost from President Trump with an endorsement.

As "The Texas Tribune" puts it, nearly 14 months and $135 million later, Texas' blockbuster Republican Senate primary will finally be decided Tuesday, today. The President back Paxton despite Senate Republican leaders arguing that Cornyn, they believed, is the stronger candidate when you look at the general election. And here's what Senator Cornyn had to say about not getting that critical endorsement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN, (R) TEXAS: I really don't think it was about me. I think it's very different from the Cassidy and Massie situation, because I've been a Trump ally, as you point out. I think he got frustrated with the Senate, not able to get what he wanted when he wanted it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now is Leigh Ann Caldwell. She's the Chief Washington Correspondent for "Puck."

It's good to see you. Let's get to what Cornyn's suggesting there in just a second. Just in general, set the playing field for us. What are you hearing in terms of expectations for this race right now?

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Yeah, so when Donald Trump endorsed Ken Paxton, Senate Republicans, kind of the whole Senate establishment in D.C., were really beside themselves. And the reason is, is because while Paxton is much more popular, we'll find out today, but likely to be much more popular with the Republican base, there's a lot of concern about how Paxton will perform in a general election against a strong Democratic candidate. In this case, it's James Talarico.

They worry that the independent, the soft Republican voters even, will not support Paxton over Talarico. And so, they're worried that they are going to lose a Senate seat, one that should be easy for Republicans to keep in their control.

Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yeah, my colleague Arlette has been talking to voters in Texas as well, and kind of being flooded by lots of money from inside and outside, coming at voters there. It seems to be leaving some in the state in a state of confusion, if you will.

[08:35:03]

Let me play this, what one voter told Arlette.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYNDEE BALDWIN, TEXAS VOTER: There's some things on Cornyn that I really like, but then there's some things on Paxton that I like, and then I'm trying to discern between the lies that are being told on both sides and the truths that are being told on both sides.

I'm trying really hard not to let the personal side of things filter what I'm going to do or filter my decision. So, that's kind of the issue that I'm having right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Yeah, still trying to figure it out. I mean, how expensive has this race already been? And how much more expensive is this about to get?

CALDWELL: Yeah, so I mean, as you said in your opening, over $100 million, about -- nearly $150 million just in the Republican primary and runoff. And most of that money has actually been spent by John Cornyn and his allies. They had to spend a lot to boost his approval with these Republican-based voters.

But I'm told in a competitive general election, Republicans alone will probably have to spend $200 million in order to help Paxton over the finish line. And that, people are saying, could be -- could be the base, that it could be much, much more. That doesn't even take into consideration how much James Talarico is going to spend and the war chest he has to play a very aggressive general election campaign.

And so this is a state, Kate, that Republicans did not want to have to worry about. It is extremely expensive with several massive media markets. And they're going to have to spend money there, while they're also going to have to defend more than a handful of other Republican states before they can even try to pick up seats in places like Michigan.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. And then what do you think of what Cornyn was suggesting there in that soundbite that I played in coming to you, that Trump's endorsement of Paxton isn't about him at all? He thinks it's -- he says, or he's trying to make the case that what Trump's trying to do is send a message to the Senate that he's frustrated with them, that they're not getting done what he wants to have done. Do you -- are you hearing that that's a real element here? Or is Cornyn putting a good, trying to put a good spin on a tough situation?

CALDWELL: So, actually that matches my reporting from last week after this, after the endorsement. President Trump was extremely frustrated with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Republicans for getting rid of the ballroom. Remember, Trump wants a billion dollars for his ballroom of taxpayer money.

And John Thune told him it's not going to be possible to get that through the Senate. There's other things that Donald Trump is frustrated with, including voter I.D. and citizenship legislation. He wants to get rid of the filibuster. And I was told that Trump was so frustrated that he said, well, okay, then I'm going to endorse Paxton.

Paxton is the person that Trump is more ideologically aligned with anyway, the person he had always preferred, but he was going to stay out of the race. And he got so frustrated that he decided to endorse Paxton, just do whatever he wanted to do, and kind of really put it to Senate Republicans to send them a message, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Quite a thing. Great reporting, Leigh Ann, seriously.

It's great to have you. Thanks for coming in.

Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking news this morning. Iran now saying it shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone and opened fire on an F- 35 fighter jet and another drone that entered its airspace. And Iran says it will retaliate for any ceasefire violations. That warning coming after the U.S. military said it carried out strikes in southern Iran targeting missile launch sites and boats allegedly attempting to lay mines around the Strait of Hormuz.

And yet, according to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the two sides could be just days away from a deal to end the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: With something like this, it's going to take a couple of days to settle on, even down to the disagreements over a word, sentence. So, we'll have to work through that. If there's going to be a deal, we're going to have to work through that. But this is -- you know, it's either going to be a good deal or there isn't going to be one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right. Joining me now is Jane Harmon, the former Democratic Congresswoman from California who served as the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee in the years after 9/11.

You heard what Rubio said there. I mean, do you believe that this could be days away?

JANE HARMAN, PRESIDENT EMERITA, WILSON CENTER: No, I think it's very unlikely. And let's understand what a deal is. It's an agreement to make a deal in 60 days, maybe if there isn't sniper fire in southern Iran or something else doesn't happen and the Straits of Hormuz maybe will be fully open during the ceasefire and maybe won't be. I can see that that's on the top of Trump's agenda because his poll numbers, as just described by Harry Enten, are beyond below the floor in the Republican Party.

[08:40:15]

SIDNER: Yeah, we're at summertime gas prices are as high as they can be for right now at $4.50 a gallon or $4.49. I think we're at. But, you know, when you look at that and the struggle, they are going through what's called a memorandum of understanding, right? So, it's a pace of information to sort of hold space for an actual deal.

HARMAN: Yeah, it's an outline for a deal.

SIDNER: So --

HARMAN: It's not a deal.

SIDNER: What's in that so far that we can tell that's been made publicly available is opening the strait, unfreezing some of Iran's funds, and then Trump talked about sort of enriched uranium, saying that they're going to sort of clear the nuclear dust, as he calls it, and either be destroyed there, brought to the United States somehow, turned over to the U.S., destroy in place or having the Atomic Energy Commission sort of oversee this or its equivalent. What is this compared to the JCPOA that was in place that -- that -- that did have inspections, that did have stopped sort of the rebuilding?

HARMAN: Well, let me say I was supporting the JCPOA, which was not perfect. It was a 10-year deal. It didn't include missiles. But the IAEA was on site and in expecting. And it was not just a U.S. Iran deal. It was a joint deal among the P5 plus Germany.

And the good news about that was there were competent diplomats in the room. And we had an opportunity during that period to talk to Russia and China offline, things that would be very useful to have now, not in the glare of cameras and parades and the rest of it. And Trump just can't take yes for an answer. He should have built on that deal. He should have taken the 12-day war last year, which got kudos against Iran by Israel and the U.S. as a victory. Remember, our secretary of defense said we obliterated Iran's nuclear capacity.

But the other thing is the Abraham Accords. All of a sudden, there's now a conversation about that again. That was a Trump achievement in 2020 at the end of his first term. There were two countries in it, but building it to be better is a very good idea. Problem with that is the Saudis, for one, have said there has to be a path to two states. And -- and Bibi Netanyahu isn't agreeing to that.

Plus, Israel has become a lot less popular in the region due to some of its recent activities and a lot less popular in the United States, which is heartbreaking to me.

SIDNER: When you look at -- speaking of which, when you look at what's happening, Israel, Netanyahu says that there are plans to intensify strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, which, of course, Hezbollah being Iranian backed. Do you think that's going to play a role in all this? Is the region playing a full role in all of this?

HARMAN: Well, I mean, what should happen is there should be a deal, which I thought was another deal between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah and Israel to remove Hezbollah from the Lebanese government. And which would be a very good achievement by Bibi Netanyahu, helped by Donald Trump. I mean, again, let's -- let's take victories, not -- not create losses. But that seems to be going nowhere with this intense bombing along the border. And Hezbollah is still there.

And oh, by the way, so in Gaza, too. I mean, there is not any progress toward a deal there. And there was a very good idea. I think it was by the Committee of Peace or whatever to create a different government for the Palestinian Authority built by built of technocrats. That would be good. And that might lead a path to something better than what we have now. And I just I good luck tonight in the Texas election. I don't think they're very good omens right now for Donald Trump.

SIDNER: Well, it is always good to see you, Jane Harman, and talk us through. There's a lot of complexities here. We'll have to see how they kind of play out over the next few days. Appreciate it.

HARMAN: Thank you, Sara.

John?

BERMAN: All right. This morning, crews are at work at the White House building the octagon for the UFC fight in the South Lawn in a few weeks. June 14th, Flag Day, which happens to be the president's birthday.

Officials say parts of the set were built in Pennsylvania, shipped to Washington, where they are now being assembled. There will be limited seating at the White House and screens set up on the mall in D.C. for thousands to watch. I should note that someone has a big CNN special on this event, which is airing soon. And that big CNN anchor, her name rhymes with Schmara Schmidner.

All right. We've got new video this morning. New Jersey Senator Andy Kim moments after he says he was pepper sprayed by ICE agents during a protest outside an ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. Overnight, protesters formed a human chain and the protests are continuing this morning, it all follows reports of alleged poor conditions and a hunger strike that's said to be going inside the facility.

[08:45:18]

The Department of Homeland Security says about 125 protesters surrounded it and blocked people from entering or exiting. So, they suspended visitations out of a, quote, "abundance of caution." New Jersey's governor and some other Democratic lawmakers who were among those denied access. DHS says no individuals were directly struck by pepper ball projectiles. And the DHS Secretary says, there are, quote, "no subprime conditions at the facility."

SIDNER: All right, John Berman, thank you. A new dire warning for New Orleans. Why scientists are saying people living in the Big Easy need to start relocating before it's too late.

Plus, the rush to rescue several people trapped inside an underground cave for a week. The latest on this risky operation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:00]

SIDNER: All right, this morning we're learning more about a new climate study raising concerns about coastal Louisiana. Researchers are warning parts of the region could become unlivable by the end of the century. And some say communities may need to start relocating.

The findings published in Nature Sustainability point to rising sea levels and rapid erosion threatening the coastline. Coastal Louisiana is one of the lowest-lying regions in the world. And New Orleans, as you will recall from Hurricane Katrina, is particularly exposed. The city relies on surrounding wetlands to help protect against storms, but those natural barriers are disappearing.

Joining me now is CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir. This is really sort of a lesson in what can happen in trying to prevent potential deaths here by warning people to do something that we just are not apt to do. Nobody wants to leave their home.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, managed retreat are not words that are in American vocabulary. It's not very good politically. It's not very good for business or real estate values or any of those things. But it's the reality for pretty much the oldest city in North America and the most vulnerable to the water that gives it so much charm. And New Orleans is a big bowl, most of it under sea level, below sea level, as Katrina brought to bear in most stark terms when those levees failed, the Lower Ninth Ward failed. But now this new study out of Tulane.

These are world-class experts on this topic, you can imagine. But studying their own backyard, they're saying it is time to move now. It is time for New Orleans to start planning the retreat now because there's 360,000 people who live there. It's going to take a long time. It's going to be expensive. You have to decide what can be saved and what cannot.

But this new study finds, predicts that when it comes to sea level rise, that comes from both the polar ice caps melting and the expansion of water as it warms up, and subsidence, the land in southern Louisiana is actually sinking because the Mississippi River doesn't bring down the sediment to recharge it.

So, they say sea level rises could be between 10 and 23 feet in the next 75 years. About 75 percent of what's left of the wetlands would be lost. The shoreline could retreat inland by up to 62 miles, completely surrounding New Orleans with water. They've got Lake Pontchartrain on the north, and these wetlands sort of to the southeast.

And a couple of years ago, there was a big project announced, a big sediment diversion that was going to recharge those wetlands and protect the city, but Jeff Landry, the governor of Louisiana, canceled it a couple of years ago, claiming the cost to that as well. And so, this report says that basically writes off most of the New Orleans we love right now.

SIDNER: Well, I mean, this sounds really expensive. Is this the entirety of New Orleans, or are some bits of it potentially, you know, able to sort of be saved?

WEIR: Well, they find that right now, if there was another Katrina, 99 percent of New Orleans would flood, not just pockets there, as a result of what's happened in the time since, yes. So, yeah, I mean, there are small examples of this. Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, down in the bayou, they tried to move this small, mostly Native American community. It proved to be hugely expensive, tens of millions of dollars. A lot of people didn't want to give up their land and move. So, there's the social idea of this, but it's just a huge project. But them saying, now's the time to start, is just trying to wake people up to the realities of what's happening every day.

SIDNER: Yeah, these are hard, hard decisions that need to be made. Bill Weir, it's always a pleasure to have you sort of explain to us exactly what's happening with this climate change. Appreciate it.

Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, rescue teams are racing right now to get to seven villagers trapped inside a flooded cave in Laos. They have been trapped in there for a week now. They went into the cave looking for gold, but heavy rain triggered flash flooding and landslides that then blocked their exit.

CNN's Mike Valerio has much more on the very risky operation now to try and get to them and save them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rescue teams squeeze through narrow, flooded tunnels in rural Laos. Their goal, reaching seven people trapped underground for almost a week.

We're told local villagers often visit the site to search for gold deposits. Videos recorded by rescue divers from Thailand show them navigating a more than 1,000-foot-long tunnel. For most of the way, they have to crawl.

In some places, they have to submerge completely to find a way through. One of the groups coordinating the rescue says that at its narrowest point, the tunnel measures just 23 inches.

Outside, other team members run cables through a gap between the rocks to guide rescuers to its lower reaches. Three divers from the crew were involved in the dramatic 2018 cave rescue of 12 Thai boys and their football coach.

VALERIO: No word on this latest incident from Laos Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Southeast Asian nation is a one-party communist state that often closely regulates the release of information.

Mike Valerio, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:55:13]

BOLDUAN: Mike, thank you so much for that update. We'll keep you updated as that rescue operation continues.

There's also a new police video in from Texas showing a baby being rescued from a car trapped in floodwaters. Just look at this very scary scene. Officers pulled the baby, still in its carrier. Just look how high the water is. They pulled the baby to safety. Other first responders were there helping rescue the other people who were in the car as the rushing water was actually pushing the vehicle away. Police say the driver entered a flooded low water crossing and quickly lost control. No one was hurt. Everyone seems to be safe and okay, thankfully.

There's also this. Ferrari now unveiling its first fully electric car. The four-door Luce, which is Italian for light, is also Ferrari's first five-seater. So, it's a family car, guys. Going electric is seen as a high-stakes shift for the luxury carmaker as competitors like Porsche and Lamborghini, they're scaling back their E.V. plans. Ferrari will start rolling out this new vehicle later this year. The price tag is $640,000. So, there you have it, J.B.

BERMAN: Which is about the cost of a World Cup ticket, actually. Which is a good segue. We're just 16 days away from the World Cup. In just a few hours, they're going to officially announce the 26-man roster for the U.S. men's national team. The thing is, the full roster already leaked. So, we know it already.

We spoke to center back Tim Ream about what goes into finding the perfect lineup.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM REAM, USMNT DEFENDER: We talk all the time about connection and -- and, you know, having this togetherness. And I equate it to a puzzle. There's so many different pieces and so many different things that go into it. And you start to put these puzzle pieces together and all of a sudden it has this feel of the end product, right? You have single pieces and it becomes this masterpiece.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, with us now is Senior Soccer Writer for "The Athletic," Paul Tenorio. He's also the author of the upcoming book, "The Messi Effect," which is out one week from today. I have it in my hands. I'm so excited to read it because I'm a longtime listener, first-time caller. Great to meet you in person here.

Let's talk about the men's national team. The roster, we know what it is. The stars, Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams. What does this mean to them, to these stars who've been waiting?

PAUL TENORIO, SENIOR SOCCER WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": Yeah, I mean, this is their legacy moment. We've talked about this generation of players for a long time now. Going back to the failure in Cuba in 2017, they were kind of seen as the saviors of this program.

The second youngest team at the World Cup in 2022. Now they're in their prime. So, what they do here at a home World Cup is what they're going to be remembered for. And I think they know it. They feel that pressure. They feel that expectation. And for them, it's such an enormous opportunity as well. There's only ever been one other American team that's played at a home World Cup in 1994. And we know the legacy that they left, right? They helped create a professional league. They helped to build the sport. What will the legacy of those players, Tyler Adams and Christian and Weston, what will it be coming out of 2026?

BERMAN: So, the news when this roster leaked, I think it was Friday. I can't remember how long it was Friday when it leaked out was the Snubs. A couple of names in the soccer world that does create a little bit of a stir. Tanner Tessmann, who plays in France, not on the squad. And Diego Luna, who plays in Salt Lake City, not on the team as well. What do you make of that?

TENORIO: I think I was most surprised by Tanner Tessmann snub because this is a player that a lot of us were talking about as a potential starter at the World Cup. Not whether or not he would be on the roster. And when you look at the team that Pochettino's picked, there are 10 defenders on the team, just four central midfielders.

So, a lack of depth at the position that Tanner Tessmann plays. And it leaves some big questions about what kind of lineup we're going to see against Paraguay in the opener and through the rest of the group stage. Diego Luna had become sort of the face of Pochettino's rebuild. He was an MLS player, broke his nose in the January camp, went back into the game. He had the desire, the want that Pochettino was looking for from his big-name stars. But he also plays at one of the deeper positions where there are a lot of stars.

So, that one a little bit more understandable. The Tessmann one is going to be one to keep an eye on throughout the tournament.

BERMAN: So, for fans like me who wait, you know, every four years for this, what are the reasonable expectations we should have for our team?

TENORIO: Look, I think the reasonable expectation certainly is to get out of the group. And I think the hope has to be at least to the round of 16, which means winning a knockout game because there is an extra round now in this World Cup. It's an expanded World Cup tournament.

And then anything beyond that, I think, is a bonus. Remember, the 2002 team went to the quarterfinals of the World Cup, and that was kind of the longest run we've seen in modern times around this national team. So, anything to the quarterfinals or beyond is a huge success.

BERMAN: What do you think of the accessibility? It's so expensive.

TENORIO: Yeah, it's too bad. I remember as a kid going in 1994 to RFK Stadium with my dad, and we would not have been able to go. It was an entry point for so many American fans.

[09:00:00]