Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

CNN, MS NOW, Politico Sue Trump Administration Over White House Access.; Trump Heads to the U.N. General Assembly; U.S. Proposes A.I. Safety Notification System in Talks With China; FAA Equipment Outage Causing Ground Stops, Delays at Northeast Airports; States Reach Deal With Paramount on Warner Bros. Discovery Merger. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 21, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

KATIE FALLOW, FIRST AMENDMENT LAWYER: -- illegitimate one, which is punishing them for their viewpoints.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": And Katie Fallow, thanks so much for sharing your expertise.

FALLOW: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course, a new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": It's the biggest event in world diplomacy. President Trump heading to the U.N. General Assembly, but he could find himself facing an audience outraged by his moves on the world stage, including his war with Iran.

And a new committee to save the world. President Trump launching what he calls A.I. Force as the White House faces pressure to do something about the fears that artificial intelligence could lead to the end of humanity.

SANCHEZ: And a community on edge, a string of rare childhood cancer cases in a suburb has led families to demand answers, with one parent saying there is no way this is a coincidence. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

SANCHEZ: We start this hour with Breaking News into CNN. Major airports at a standstill after an FAA equipment outage, and we're tracking a ground stop impacting several airports across the Northeast.

KEILAR: The order right now is in effect for airports including Boston Logan, New York's JFK, and Philadelphia, among several others. CNN's Omar Jimenez is keeping an eye on this. He's with us now.

Omar, tell us how extensive this is. OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, so it seems to be pretty extensive at this point. Right now, we're tracking JFK, Newark Liberty International Airport, and these ground stops have been cited due to equipment outages by the FAA.

You mentioned Boston. They were in a ground stop a little bit earlier. They weren't quite attributing that to an equipment outage. They're now just in a ground delay at this point. But between Newark, JFK, Philadelphia airport as well, all in this ground stop citing this equipment outage. LaGuardia was also in one a little bit earlier, but they have now been upgraded to a ground delay.

Now, part of what we've heard from the FAA to this point is that they issued ground stops due to issues with Philadelphia TRACON, so that stands for Terminal Radar Approach Control. It's essentially a facility that combines radar approach control and air traffic control operations, pretty significant.

But what this has also translated to is obviously ground stops, you have delays that pile up as well on top of cancellations on top of that. So you look at a place like Newark Liberty International Airport, for example, already more than 100 flights canceled when you look at that as an origin airport. And when you look at that as a destination airport, over 100 canceled as well, according to data from FlightAware.

So this is something that, one, started a little bit earlier this morning in some cases and is still tracking to this point. At a place like Philadelphia, the average departure delay, for example, is listed as an average of 60 minutes, but it's increasing as listed by the FAA. So we're trying to track through, one, just how extensive this is, but clearly to have that same reason cited by the FAA as an equipment outage across these major hubs across the Northeast is very significant.

And then you look at a place like JFK, for example, the primary international airport for a place like New York City, in a week where you have the kickoff of the United Nations General Assembly and you have leaders from all over the world coming in to a hub like this. So something we are monitoring very closely. It does seem that the statuses have been improving in some places.

Again, Boston was one. It seems to be in a ground delay at this point. LaGuardia, ground delay as well. But it even cites that average delay of 44 minutes due to equipment outage as well. But again, a significant thread tied to these airports.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. And likely to have cascading effects elsewhere as well.

JIMENEZ: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: We're looking at live pictures of Philadelphia International Airport. It did look like a flight just took off, so hopefully things are starting to get slowly back to normal there. Omar Jimenez, keep us posted on what you are hearing. Let's go to CNN Transportation Analyst, Mary Schiavo now.

Mary, what do you make of what the FAA is saying, that an equipment outage is to blame for these cancellations and delays across multiple different airports?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, you know, and unfortunately, that's probably correct. I expect they're giving it straight this time. Because if you'll recall, last year, we went through this all over again.

And the problem was the Philadelphia TRACON, but wasn't, you know, just limited to that. What had happened is they had moved some people around, they had moved people from New York to Philadelphia. They were trying to spread out the workload from New York and Newark, and they did put some people and move some people into Philadelphia.

And they had these kinds of equipment problems and personnel problems last year. The FAA did say last year that it worked very hard to improve the equipment, to improve the personnel situation. And apparently, whatever they have done, it did not completely solve the problem.

[14:05:00]

But sometimes when you're changing the equipment around, making, you know, personnel changes, equipment changes, even some assignment changes. They did change some of the assignments from New York to Philadelphia. There are glitches and problems that come up from time to time, but as we've seen, you know, we've covered this many times in the last few years, last decade or so, the system is very old, it's problematic, and whenever you make changes to the system, sometimes it just gives out.

The software doesn't communicate, it doesn't work right, but here it does appear with the same problematic Philadelphia TRACON that we saw problems with last year, and it was a combination of equipment and personnel.

KEILAR: So how long could we be seeing the after effects of this, do you think, Mary?

SCHIAVO: Well, I mean, the effects on the national air traffic system will, as you mentioned, it cascades, and especially in this area of the country. I mean, if there's a hiccup at Newark, LaGuardia, or JFK, I mean, there's, you know, there's a stroke in the rest of the country because so many flights originate on the east coast, and it's just aviation central.

However, the FAA does have the ability, you know, electronically, you know, with their computers to switch around some of the workload to, you know, to have the assistance and effects of other TRACONs, to a certain extent, not completely, but they are able to somewhat juggle the workload. And once they get things stabilized and the equipment fixed, they will be able to get the planes in the air, but for the rest of the country, especially with connecting flights, it'll be messed up for the rest of the day.

SANCHEZ: Now, hopefully the effects of this are not felt throughout the whole day, but we'll see. Mary Schiavo, thank you so much.

Well, you were going to say something, Mary?

SCHIAVO: Well, you know, the good thing is with United Nations and General Assembly starting, everybody was at first concerned about that. But so far there's no indication other than an equipment outage and problems again with the FAA ancient equipment.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, let's hope that --

SCHIAVO: That's the good news and the bad news.

SANCHEZ: Let's hope it gets fixed soon. Mary Schiavo, thank you so much.

So, speaking of making your way to New York, President Trump is headed up there today. Before he visits the U.N. General Assembly tomorrow, he's making a pit stop at Gracie Mansion to speak with Mayor Zohran Mamdani in the coming hours. It'll be the third time the president and the Democratic Socialist Mayor will be meeting since Mamdani took office.

For the first time, though, today's talks will be on the mayor's home turf. Let's discuss with Philip Bump. He's a Senior Editor and Columnist at Hearst. And we're also joined by CNN's Gloria Pazmino, who's live outside the mayor's residence. Gloria, talk to us about how this meeting came together.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, when you ask Mayor Mamdani about whether he speaks to Trump or how often he does so, he has made it clear that the two have a working relationship. They talk to each other, even in addition to the two meetings that they've had previously. And the mayor has said that he sees it as an opportunity to advocate for the city.

In fact, I want to start with a photo of the last time that Mamdani and Trump met in the Oval Office. And you'll see that Mamdani is holding a prop, a mock-up of the front cover of the Daily News that reads, City to Trump, let's build -- "Trump to City: Let's Build." And that's a riff on a very famous front cover that the New York Daily News ran in the 1970s when New York City was about to go broke and we were not getting a federal bailout that we were asking for at the time.

But this is a perfect example of what Mamdani's aides have described as being able to speak Trump, right? We know the president has a love for props and signs and posters, and he certainly likes to see his name displayed in the context of being a builder, a developer, someone who could bring more construction and potentially housing to New York City.

So the mayor and his people have sort of latched onto that as a way to get his attention on projects that are really important for New York City, like the fact that the city needs more affordable housing. So that is likely to come up today.

I think another topic of discussion between the president and the mayor today is going to be immigration. That is the tension point that remains between them, among other things. In fact, it was just last week that the Mamdani administration announced they were suing the Trump administration over its most recent changes to the public charge rule.

That is going to affect New York City's immigrant community. And although we haven't seen the large-scale immigration enforcement that Trump threatened during Mamdani's campaign, you know, we haven't seen the enforcement here that we have seen in Minneapolis and in other cities around the country.

[14:10:00]

The immigrant community still has been severely affected by Trump's immigration agenda and his deportations. So I think that is certainly going to come up. And as you said, a very different setting this time around, right? Trump literally coming to the mayor's front step at Gracie Mansion here behind me.

This will be the first presidential visit since the 1980s when Ronald Reagan made an official visit. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Gloria, thank you so much. So, Philip, what are your expectations for this meeting and this sort of unlikely kinship that's been struck between a president who decries socialism and warns of radical left lunatics and the socialist Democratic mayor of the country's biggest city?

PHILIP BUMP, SENIOR EDITOR & COLUMNIST, HEARST: I mean, it's remarkable, right? One of the issues, obviously, is that Zohran Mamdani has not proven to be a radical left lunatic. He is very popular in New York City. Donald Trump has, you know, was born in New York City, grew up in New York City, has a lot of affinity for New York City, despite having moved officially to Mar-a-Lago. And it's very obvious, too, that Zohran Mamdani has done a very good job of managing Donald Trump.

Donald Trump likes strong people. Donald Trump likes popular people. And Zohran Mamdani has proven to be both of those things in Trump's eyes. He has been able to manage Donald Trump in a way that I think is very beneficial to this city. I think one of the reasons you haven't seen the same level of immigration enforcement that you have in other cities is because he has a decent relationship with Donald Trump. I think it's fascinating.

And when else have we ever seen Donald Trump go to someone else's capital, if you will, for this sort of meeting? It's pretty remarkable. It's the sort of thing you usually see with foreign heads of state. That speaks, I think, to the level of respect that Donald Trump has for Mamdani, certainly not something many of us would have predicted, but something that I think is to the benefit of the city. SANCHEZ: Do you think that relationship and the way that Mamdani has carried himself around Trump can translate to other Democrats, especially if projections hold and history holds and Democrats take control of at least one of the chambers of Congress come the midterms?

BUMP: Yeah, I mean, for Donald Trump, most things are personal. It is not the case that you can be an elected official in a particular position and expect a certain treatment from Donald Trump. Look at Canada. Look at China. Right? Like these are these are sort of the -- Donald Trump deals with the leaders of both of those countries in the opposite way that you might expect based on how past presidents have done so.

So I think it really comes down to who the elected official is, what position they're in and how they respond to Donald Trump. Mamdani came to the White House. He was gracious to President Trump. Donald Trump obviously has a lot of respect for Mamdani. He was able to build that. I mean, look, Mamdani won in part because he's very good at politics.

He's good at making this appeal and being charming, being appealing to folks. It obviously worked on Donald Trump as well. If there are leaders in the Democratic Party who can do that equivalently well, I think that's what matters far more than whatever power they hold and whatever position they hold.

SANCHEZ: Philip Bump, great to get your perspective. Thanks for being with us.

Still to come, could there be a breakthrough on A.I. safeguards? What Presidents Trump and Xi may discuss at their summit this week.

And later, see the moment a cargo ship barrels into a fishing vessel. Look at that. Our crew members, since scrambling, running. We'll explain what happened when we come back on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:18:05]

SANCHEZ: Just into CNN, a hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday for the media organizations, including CNN, which have sued the White House. Three national outlets, CNN, MS NOW and Politico, filed a critical First Amendment lawsuit to restore access to White House grounds. The emergency request is set to go before a federal judge in the D.C. District Court. We're going to discuss the ban with our panel just a few moments from now.

Turning back to our top story in the last hour, a settlement that now clears the way for a historic media merger. State Attorneys General have reached a deal with Paramount that should allow its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery to go forward. A deal that could impact everything from the movies you see in theaters and on T.V. to the news that you watch.

CNN's parent company, of course, is Warner Bros. Discovery. Let's go to CNN Chief Media Analyst, Brian Stelter. So, Brian, walk us through what Paramount agreed to.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, number one, Warner Bros. Discovery now saying that this deal, this merger, quote, "Will close no later than early October." So that gives us a sense of the timeline here. Sometime in the next week, or 10 to 14 days, this merger will take effect.

It's really a takeover by Paramount CEO, David Ellison and his father, Larry, taking over those HBO assets, Warner Bros., the movie studio, CNN, and all the rest. The State Attorneys General have extracted some concessions from Paramount in exchange for dropping the lawsuit, the antitrust lawsuit that was holding up the deal.

One of those concessions involves what's being called a News Editorial Board that is supposed to protect the independence of both CNN as well as Paramount's news division, CBS News. Now, we're still reading about the details of this editorial board, but it will be made up of five journalists, either active or retired journalists, and they will be appointed and chosen by Paramount to set standards and to resolve disputes about news coverage.

Now, I will tell you, this is a lot to take in, and we don't know exactly how it's going to work yet.

[14:20:00]

We don't know if it will be effective or not. But we have seen these boards at other institutions in the past. For example, at the Wall Street Journal, when Rupert Murdoch acquired the journal almost two decades ago. There are also boards that are in effect at Reuters and at the BBC. So, more to come on that.

But I'm really struck by a statement just issued by the Connecticut Attorney General, William Tong. He's one of the 12 state AGs that was suing to block the deal. And he's just come out to say he's deeply disappointed that the settlement terms are not stronger.

He says, quote, "We have secured an editorial board structure that will meaningfully protect editorial independence. But Connecticut wanted and demanded full divestiture of CNN and CBS News. I'm deeply disappointed that we could not do more."

So, there's some political back and forth here about the terms of the settlement. But it has been agreed upon. Paramount now moving forward to take control, and that will happen most likely in early October.

SANCHEZ: Brian Stelter, thank you so much for the update. There's still to come a string of rare childhood cancer cases has a California community on edge. And now grieving families are demanding answers about what could be causing this. That and much more when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:26:49] KEILAR: Two of the top countries developing A.I. are now holding talks about the technology's future. Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent says the U.S. proposed an A.I. safety alert system with China on Sunday, which could be discussed further when President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet later this week when they summit.

Over the weekend, Trump pledged to create an A.I. Force and appoint an A.I. Czar amid calls to regulate the technology. But today, he's discounting concerns about AI's potential threat to humanity, slamming it as a hoax.

Joined now by A.I. safety advocate and Executive Director of Palisade Research, Jeffrey Ladish. He helped develop the information security program at Anthropic through his security consulting company, Gordian. Jeffrey, thanks so much for being with us.

I mean, first off, can you just speak generally to this idea that the president keeps repeating that this threat of A.I. is a hoax? How do you see it?

JEFFREY LADISH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PALISADE RESEARCH: Well, I mean, I think it's pretty clear that if you talk to anyone in the leading A.I. companies, whether that's the CEOs like Elon Musk or Sam Altman, all of them agree that there's a real chance that we could lose control of A.I., especially as A.I. companies are racing to try to automate the A.I. development process itself, something they call recursive self-improvement.

And over the last few months, we've seen more and more incidents where these increasingly autonomous systems have actually gone out and hacked other companies. You know, we've heard this about the Hugging Face incident where OpenAI agents basically went rogue, and hundreds of these agents without instructions went in and did this hack. So, you know, this is what we're actually seeing in real life. This is no longer hypothetical. This is no longer a science fiction thing. We are already seeing the warning signs.

So, you know, I would encourage really anyone looking at this to not just look at speculative scenarios, but actually like notice what's happening in real life.

KEILAR: Yeah. And speaking of Google's Gemini model we just learned today, accessed the Internet and hacked other companies when it was being tested, when its cybersecurity capabilities were being tested. And I think one of the things very alarming about that is it actually occurred in May. Right? So it was a while back.

When you know that timing, you're thinking of Hugging Face, what does that tell you about this moment that we are in and whether we should even be questioning if we know everything about what is happening at this point with these models?

LADISH: Well, that incident happened in May, but Google actually knew of it in July and it still didn't close it. They said it didn't warrant public disclosure. And I'm sorry, but excuse me. Google had an A.I. agent hack another company, something that if this were a human, that would be a felony, and they said that it didn't warrant public disclosure. And I just think that this is extremely irresponsible for a company that is racing to build A.I. agents that are autonomous, extremely good at hacking.

And, you know, this is something where we need more transparency. We need to know what's actually happening inside of these companies.

KEILAR: OK, so the president's announcing this A.I. Force, this A.I. Czar, we don't have a lot of details. We don't know what that entails. But what should this entail when you consider what you just mentioned about the Gemini hack in May and them knowing about it in July and not disclosing it until September?

LADISH: I actually think this could potentially be a positive sign. When I talk to everyone, whether it's in the companies or within government, one thing that people agree on is that the U.S. government needs more A.I. expertise within government, regardless of whether this sits in the military or whether it sits in some other part of government. We just need more expertise to actually be able to assess risks as we move forward with this technology.

So potentially a positive development, you know, if this leads to more hiring, you know, more bringing in that technical talent in government.

KEILAR: And how do they do that? I mean, do you have confidence they can do that?

LADISH: Well, I think what we're seeing is that more and more people in the industry itself are getting spooked and getting concerned. One of the questions is, like, why is this all happening right now? You know, two years ago, we were not talking about --