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Trump-Backed Paxton Routs Cornyn In Texas GOP Senate Runoff; Trump To Meet With Cabinet Amid Iran Peace Talks; Rescuers Find Five People Trapped In Laos Cave, Two Still Missing. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired May 27, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If Paxton wins the nomination could you vote for him in the general election?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hell, no.

RAJU: If he gets the nomination, Paxton, could you support him in November?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, absolutely not -- no.

RAJU: Would you vote for Talarico?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.

RAJU: Um-hum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: But that is a big question and that is only two voters there today.

Joining us right now, CNN political analysts Jackie Kucinich and Alex Thompson for more on what last night means for today.

Alex, this is the widest primary defeat for a sitting senator in nearly 50 years. How does last night now look today?

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS (via Webex by Cisco): It means that Donald Trump and his endorsement is still the most powerful force in politics, especially in the GOP, and that will continue not just this cycle but in the next cycle as well. You are going to see Donald Trump continue. My understanding from talking to sources is that he is already targeting people for this next cycle. And also, I think his endorsement will probably be the most important factor for who becomes the Republican nominee in 2028.

The other consequence here is Donald Trump still have stuff he wants to do in the Senate the next eight months, and he is going to have a very hard time with Sen. Cornyn and Sen. Cassidy and only 53 votes in the Senate trying to get really anything of consequence through.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. Let's talk about that in just a hot second.

Jackie, MAGA leaders don't seem to think beating Talarico will be easy. In a text to Politico, Steve Bannon predicted that Paxton would win by five points this fall but the way he acknowledged it in a text to Politico is "It's going to be a total grind."

What are you hearing?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE (via Webex by Cisco): It's going to be expensive, Kate. I mean, I think that's the conclusion here. The minute that Trump endorsed Paxton and it looked like that he might beat Cornyn, all you can think is -- that sucking sound you heard is all the money going to Texas.

We've already seen that Talarico has already broken records, I believe, with his fundraising -- $27 million for the first quarter. So we know on that side there's already a fundraising -- a huge pit of money. And you can only imagine that the same thing is going to happen with Ken Paxton.

And at what cost? Because the map isn't looking any better for Senate Republicans. You could see how awkward it was even with the National Republican Senatorial Committee's release last night. It didn't even mention Paxton. That's the committee that's controlled by Thune. It went after Talarico. So they're going to have to get past this awkwardness but it's going to take some time.

And listen, I think we've all heard Texas turning blue for many, many, many cycles. But I think back to, what, 2018 when Beto O'Rourke went up against Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz eked that one out by I think maybe under three percentage points if I'm remembering correctly. So it's not impossible to think that we could -- this could go right up to the line.

BOLDUAN: Hmm.

Alex, Cornyn says he's going to support the GOP ticket. But my question and kind of what you were kind of a little bit getting to is what is Cornyn going to do in his final months in office?

Because Sen. Ted Cruz, the aforementioned, said on his -- on his podcast recently that it is -- the way he put it is "It's fair to expect John's going to be less than thrilled if he loses re-election and could become more of the problems for GOP vote-counters."

And here is his -- here's how Cruz explained it, Alex. "Bill Cassidy, Thom Tillis, John Cornyn, Rand Paul..." -- obviously counting the Republican senators often critical of Trump. "Those are four senators. We have a 53-47 majority. If you lose four senators, you're below 50 and you can't get anything done. That is going to be a complicating factor for the rest of the year."

What are you hearing about that? THOMPSON: Well, he didn't even include, you know, Mitch McConnell who is retiring. You also have Susan Collins who is up for re-election and wants to show independence from the president. Lisa Murkowski has never been a huge Trump fan.

And there are a few, you know, items, particularly funding for the ballroom. This, you know, attorney general fund for people that Trump claims were targeted by the Justice Department.

And, you know, he has plenty of nominees that he also wants to get through. Many, many ambassadorships are still not even filled.

And I think it's going to be very unlikely that you are going to see Sen. Cornyn or Sen. Cassidy or any of those people I mentioned, you know, just go along to get along anymore.

BOLDUAN: What do you think, Jackie? I mean, Cornyn has been around in the Senate for a very long time. It's not like he really broke from the president on many issues, even though he did become -- that is what the president said -- kind of pointing to his lack of loyalty if you will.

Do you see John Cornyn is going to -- do you see John Cornyn being, I don't know, the good soldier or breaking out and going out in a blaze of glory?

KUCINICH: I think we're going to have to wait and see, Kate, and I think it depends on the issue. I mean, one of the things he wouldn't bend on is the Save Act that the president very much wanted and Cornyn did not. So I think Alex is right. This creates a big problem.

[07:35:05]

The other thing they're going to be missing with John Cornyn is access to his donor network. Cornyn was a massive fundraiser for the Senate GOP and, you know, is he going to stop funding his colleagues? I doubt that but certainly the fundraising juggernaut that is John Cornyn will not be there in the same way that he was for, you know, some folks.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, he might be fitting some other things into the schedule rather than call time if you will.

It's good to see you, guys.

KUCINICH: Right.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, Kate.

A high-stakes day at the White House. Just hours from now President Trump will meet with his cabinet as the U.S. pushes to lock down a deal to end the war with Iran. As the talks drag on, the fragile ceasefire is under growing strain. But Vice President JD Vance told NBC that he's "extremely hopeful" Iran will agree not to develop a nuclear weapon as part of any deal. Joining me now is CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier. What do you think might be achieved in this cabinet meeting as we look towards this memorandum of understanding, which isn't actually a deal; it's piece of paper to say hey, we're going to make a deal, correct?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yeah. And, you know, the risk with these cabinet meetings is they're usually largely televised, at least the first part, and Trump risks saying too much.

If he makes predictions about what will be in the deal before it has actually been signed -- and we're just talking about the memo that would lead to a future deal -- every time he does that, he hands Iran a rhetorical weapon. All they have to do is publicly say no, dig in their heels, and then Trump is left scrambling to explain.

That affects markets. The markets are losing confidence. We see that futures for oil are back up to $100 a barrel.

So the trick will be not saying too much, which has never been Trump's strong suit.

SIDNER: Look, it used to be that the nuclear program was the main thing being negotiated. Now you've added in the Strait of Hormuz and the nuclear program together.

How different of a scenario are we in from when President Obama managed to negotiate that deal -- the JCPOA -- which took a couple of years?

DOZIER: Well, this military action has caused Iran to weaponize the Strait of Hormuz in a way that it is unlikely to let go of anytime soon. It's going to keep using this lever. You even had a senior Iranian military leader over the weekend describing the strait as a strategic asset that it is using to protect Iran from more bombs.

So the only thing driving Iran to sit at the negotiating table is it needs money. It needs access to its frozen funds. The thing driving Trump is that he needs that strait opened and more military action. He's not convinced that will change the position with the strait because Iran has shown itself dug in and even with a far weakened military strength it's still able to hold that territory.

SIDNER: Yeah, certainly, and is rebuilding as we speak -- or trying to as we speak.

Kim Dozier, it is a pleasure to see you. Thank you so much -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. New video this morning of a tornado ripping across northern Mexico. Look at that. You don't get a close-up view of a storm like that that often. There were dangerous storms going across the region. Luckily, it was a lightly populated area. No major injuries or damage reported so far.

Now in the U.S., millions are bracing for a new round of damaging weather. The possibility of heavy rains and flash flooding in the South and the East. Let's get to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam for the latest forecast. Derek, what are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And it all occurring this morning across the Texas coastline. I want to show you just how active the radar is across this area. Lots of lightning associated with the kind of two different thunderstorms moving through: one that's just powered through the Houston region. But look at what's approaching the Corpus Christie area. Seven hundred lightning strikes here in the past couple of minutes -- incredible.

Right now though this line of storms -- you can see kind of that leading edge bowing out there -- Padre Island into Corpus Christie. A lot of people located here, perhaps for summer vacation, summer break. That's got a considerable tag on that. What that means it he potential for 70 mile per hour winds as this approaches Corpus Christie, and the potential for inch or greater sized hail.

There's also a lot of rain that's falling from the sky. Some National Weather Service employees reporting between two and five inches has already fallen from this line and there's an additional two inches on the way. So that could exacerbate some of the localized flash flooding in and around Corpus Christie this morning.

[07:40:00]

So heads up. Turn around, don't drown. We don't want to see more flooding incidents like we've seen across the Deep South. We've just been plagued with so much rain.

So there's a look at our flood watches this morning and our flood warnings across southern Texas. This is what happened here in the past day or so in Mississippi. The roads getting inundated by water. Just too much too quickly. and unfortunately for the afternoon, we have yet another slight risk of excessive rainfall across the Deep South, including New Orleans.

And then heads up across the Ohio River Valley. This location could also see some heftier thunderstorms move over the same locations for several hours at a time, and that means additional rainfall could fall from the sky.

So I want you to see this. This is a typical rinse-repeat weather pattern that we have been in for the past several days. Showers and thunderstorms erupting through the afternoon. We get the flash flooding events. But there's also the potential of some severe weather today.

So heads up. Keep an eye to the sky. Weather aware Washington all the way to Charlottesville, southward into Norfolk. This location here has a level two of five for severe wind and isolated hail. Not really a tornado threat but as the afternoon and evening progresses you might encounter some of these thunderstorms that move through. And when they do, they could produce -- or be some effective rainmakers, especially across the Deep South. We need it though, John. We've been talking about the drought. I

really believe that this has put a major dent in the drought, which is good news. I remember a couple of weeks ago we were on the ground talking about the wildfires in Georgia. Hopefully this will help extinguish them once and for all -- John.

BERMAN: One good thing that comes from storms like this.

All right, Derek Van Dam. Thank you so much for --

VAN DAM: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- that update -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also new this morning, New York's Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul is speaking out as she is running for a second term in office. She sat down with our Omar Jimenez for a wide-ranging interview on many topics -- obviously, hence wide-ranging -- including what the Trump administration's immigration crackdown means for New York.

Omar is here with much more on this. What did she tell you?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So as you mentioned, wide-ranging. We talked about a lot of things -- 3D printed guns, her relationship with Mayor Mamdani. But also, in particular, some new provisions in the New York state budget that she says are in direct response to what she describes as the overreach of ICE.

And so some of those provisions -- denying some key local and state law enforcement resources to federal immigration enforcement. Blocking enforcement in schools and places of worship. But also banning law enforcement from wearing masks when interacting with the public.

Just take a listen to some of our conversation here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: You met with Tom Homan earlier this year, as I understand. Um, and in response to some of the provisions in this soon to be signed budget, he did an interview with The Washington Examiner where he said he's working on a plan when he was asked whether New York could see any sort of crackdown.

And I wonder, have you heard from Homan recently at all, and if not, what is your message to him?

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL, (D) NEW YORK: My message is do what President Trump said. President Trump told me in a roomful of governors that he'll only have a surge of ICE in New York if I, as Gov. Kathy Hochul, ask him to do it. And I said that request is never coming.

I can handle law enforcement. We've got NYPD. I have state police. We have all the resources we need to keep our streets safe.

People that are going about working in pizzerias or are home health care aides, or working in construction, or contributing to society, creating jobs, who have been here 20-30 years -- they're here. They're part of our family. And I don't think that they should intimidated by ICE agents coming in with masks.

JIMENEZ: President Trump cited some of these immigration efforts when he was here in New York recently, saying you should watch yourself in the race for governor this year.

What is your relationship with the Trump administration or President Trump right now?

HOCHUL: Well, first of all, I will never be intimated by anyone, president on down.

Now, I have tried to have a productive relationship when it comes to ways that we can work to help New York State. For example, let's redo Penn Station. I'll work with the president on that. I'll work on bringing new energy sources like nuclear. I need federal government help to help us drive our innovation economy. So there are areas we can work together.

But you threaten me, that doesn't work well for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: You know, she also responded to the new rule that was announced by the Department of Homeland Security that to apply for a green card you'd have to do so from outside of the country. And she told me she was concerned 1) that it would separate people that are married. Potentially send one person to another country. But also that she believes it would cause the United States to lose a generation or two of innovators and people that she believes have been welcome in New York for a long time.

BOLDUAN: It's really interesting, and much more on that conversation.

It's great to see you, Omar. Thank you so much.

JIMENEZ: Good to see you.

BOLDUAN: I really appreciate it.

JIMENEZ: Of course.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, Kate.

All right, some business news for you. U.S. stock futures a bit higher this morning as investors remain hopeful about a deal between the United States and Iran to end the war despite signs a fragile ceasefire is being tested.

[07:45:00]

Oil prices slipping though this morning as well. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, falling almost four percent to $90 a barrel.

The S&P 500 hit a record high on Tuesday boosted by renewed optimism around artificial intelligence and chipmakers.

Asian markets also rallied overnight with a major memory chipmaker SK Hynix and Micron joining the exclusive group of companies that are worth now over a trillion -- with a "t" -- dollars -- John.

BERMAN: A record high, just like me.

SIDNER: (Laughing).

BERMAN: All right, breaking news. Five people trapped in a flooded cave for a week -- they have been found alive. Two are still missing. We're getting new video just in.

And a mother gets a call from a frantic daughter saying she's been kidnapped. The thing is it wasn't her. It was an AI simulation. The new scam that could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:50:45]

SIDNER: All right. Breaking overnight rescuers say five of the seven people trapped in that flooded cave in Laos have been found alive. New video showing the moment they are found. There it is. The villagers had been trapped underground for a week because of flash flooding. But there are two people still missing.

CNN's Will Ripley joining us now from Taiwan. These pictures are incredible. And the fact that they've been there for a full week, a lot of people thought they were lost. Here are five people rescued.

What are you learning this morning?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are just so many things that are incredible about this story, Sara. First of all, they actually have internet service in parts of the mine and that's how we were able to get the pictures almost immediately after they were taken.

And they were able to use special technology, including radar, to scan the interior of the mine and that's how they knew that there was an elevated chamber with an air pocket. And that's where they say they knew where to look for these miners.

Seven of them in the group that had been missing for the last week, five of them now located alive. The status of the other two remains unknown.

But for the -- for the more than a 100 people who have been there from Laos, from Thailand, in addition to Finnish and cave-diving specialists, the moment when they actually made contact was so emotional. I just want to show it to you right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKKO PAASI, DIVE, LAOS RESCUE MISSION: (Speaking foreign language).

(Hugging)

PAASI: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: So one of the guys hugging there on the right side of your screen is Mikko Paasi. I'm going to read you what he sent to us -- a brief statement just a short time ago saying, "The task so far has been far from easy, and everybody involved has done amazing work. Thank you all teams involved." But he says, "This is only a brief relief as the five survivors are still in the terminal chamber, all healthy and in good spirits, but the extraction is still ahead and it ain't going to be easy."

And he was actually saying to us earlier that in order to get into areas of this cave, Sara -- he's about 5'11" -- he actually has to take off his equipment, exhale fully, and then wiggle his way through. That's how narrow it is -- about 23 inches. Not even shoulder width.

And so for some of the rescuers who are a little bit bigger in stature it's actually quite a challenge just physically getting through these areas. And then they have to swim through pitch black muddy water. If they didn't have their headlamps, they would have absolutely zero visibility. And yet, amazingly, after about a week, they've gone through about a thousand feet of these submerged mining tunnels, and they have now successfully found these five alive.

So what happens next? They send them water. They send them food. They might even be able to establish internet signals for them down there. I mean, it's really incredible what they're able to do with technology these days.

But actually getting these people safely out of the cave is a challenge, especially because it's monsoon season in Central Laos right now, which means every day there are very heavy rainstorms. And that's why the cave flooded originally and that's why it continues to flood. In fact, the rescuers, when there is rain that sometimes comes on very quickly, they have to scramble to get out of there as quickly as they can because there could be flash flooding in those tunnels.

So still dangerous days ahead and a lot of hard work, but what a good, extraordinary piece of good news to share about these five who are alive and healthy this morning, Sara.

SIDNER: Absolutely. But I -- looking at those pictures and then listening to what you have to do to just get in there -- having to hold your breath and try to snake your way through -- gives me both a panic attack and, I don't know, just absolute terror thinking about that and how they're going to able to extract them. It is going to be quite a feat.

Thank you so much, Will Ripley, for all those details and for that statement from one of the rescuers. I do appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Really remarkable.

SIDNER: Ooh.

BOLDUAN: Really remarkable.

Ring cameras show a house exploding outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Here's the thing. Officials believe that was the result of an attempted murder-suicide. They say a man intentionally created a natural gas leak in his basement before setting a fire. The blast killed him. His wife, investigators say, was heard calling for help and was eventually pulled to safety by a neighbor and a teenage boy. She remains in critical condition.

[07:55:08]

And it was a scary scene at a Fort Lauderdale marina. Video -- just watch this video from -- it was livestreamed from EarthCam. It shows a boat making what appears to be a U-turn, then suddenly speeding up and slamming into another boat, and then catapulting onto a dock and hitting a second boat. And there's another angle of it showing the man from the first boat being launched onto the dock -- whoops. Investigators are now looking into what the heck led up to this. Luckily, no one was hurt.

And HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is adding another story to his already shocking storyage (PH) and list of strange animal encounters. I, like, mixed all my metaphors. Here we go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHERYL HINES, WIFE ROBERT KENNEDY JR.: OK, OK.

DR. MEHMET OZ: (INAUDIBLE).

ROBERT KENNEDY JR., SECRETARY, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Yeah.

HINES: Let him go. Oh my God.

OZ: Jesus. There --

HINES: They're biting.

OZ: Their mouths are huge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Kennedy decided to share this video himself of him chasing after and then picking up two snakes while at Dr. Oz's home. Kennedy says they were black racer snakes. And you heard his wife in the background being like knock it off. But the snakes are not venomous, which is a good thing since it appears he was getting bit over and over again while Cheryl Hines is telling him to stop. So just to recap, this now join -- these snakes now join Kennedy's

strange history with animals, like the whale head he apparently brought home in the '90s, the bear carcass he said he picked up and drove to Central Park in 2014, and, of course, who can forget his story blaming memory loss on a dead worm in his brain.

Customs officials in Argentina seized -- (laughing). I want a pop-up J.B. -- I want a J.B. pop-up video for all of my tales. J.B., stay right there.

Customs officials in Argentina seized more than 700 marine animals at the country's international airport as part of a major wildlife trafficking case. Investigators say the animals were headed for the ornamental pet trade. Exotic animals are bought and sold for private ownership. They recovered more than 100 species -- lionfish, octopus, pufferfish. Many of the animals were dead after being in transit for more than 120 hours from Kenya -- Jonathan.

BERMAN: It's possible Secretary Kennedy will now go and try to pick up every single one of them

BOLDUAN: Nope. Do not speak. Nope, nope.

BERMAN: No?

BOLDUAN: No. Don't you not make that connection.

BERMAN: The New York Times said that the snakes were likely mating in the corner when the secretary picked them up, which might explain why they were so disappointed --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- to be --

BOLDUAN: You may -- you may get bit.

BERMAN: Just saying. Thank you, Kate --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- for that. Those important news updates.

BOLDUAN: OK.

BERMAN: New this morning a California woman says she was scammed out of thousands of dollars after answering a phone call and hearing what sounded like her panicked, crying daughter on the other end claiming she had been kidnapped. The thing is the voice was not real. The mother believes it was an AI-generated clone designed to signed -- sound exactly like her daughter.

CNN's Clare Duffy is with us now. So tell us about what happened here.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN AI CORRESPONDENT: Well John, this mom got a call out of the blue. She answers it. First, she hears a man's voice saying I have someone you want to talk to, and then she hears what sounds like her adult daughter's voice.

Take a listen to how she describes that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH DEL MASTRO, VICTIM OF AI VOICE SCAM: This male voice said, "Who is this?" And I said, "Well, who is this?" And he said, "Someone that you need to talk to."

It was my daughter's voice having an absolute panic attack, trying to breathe, scared. Telling me that, you know, I'm -- "I love you, mom. I'm so sorry. I'm so scared." And then they just cut it off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: So this mom receives this call. The scammers tell her she has to wire thousands of dollars to several different accounts, which she does. Only then does she call her daughter. Her daughter answers right away and says she's at work, like normal.

This is unfortunately an increasingly common type of scam known as an AI voice-cloning scam where scammers find even just a couple of seconds of someone's voice on social media or elsewhere online and they can create this really convincing replica of a voice. So you get a call on the other end. It sounds like a distressed loved one. And scammers often urgently demand money in exchange for their release.

As I said, this is increasingly common, happening to people across the country.

BERMAN: So how do you avoid this? My wife, who is much smarter than I am about almost everything, is obsessed with this and says when the phone rings, don't ever answer. If you don't know who is calling don't ever answer the phone because they could be recording your voice.

DUFFY: Yeah, it scary, right, because this is a parent's worst nightmare. And this isn't just happening to parents. It's also happening to grandparents and other people, you know, about their loved ones.

A couple of important things. The first is that you can't, at this point, expect yourself to recognize what is an AI-generated voice. This technology has just gotten too good. And so it's important if you get one of these calls to slow down and take a breath as hard as that may seem in this moment.

The scammers will often say that it is urgent. They'll encourage you not to tell anybody else.

Try to contact your loved one through another means. So if you're on the phone you could try texting them.