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Captain Sully Sullenberger Opens Up About His Alzheimer's Diagnosis; Three People Seen Exiting Sewer Near Netanyahu's Hotel in New York; Trump to Greet Chinese President Xi with Arrival Ceremony. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired September 23, 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: For the first time, Captain Sully Sullenberger is speaking publicly about his Alzheimer's diagnosis. You'll recall he's the hero pilot who made an incredible emergency landing in the Hudson River in New York back in 2009 saving 155 people on board.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, Sullenberger first revealed his Alzheimer's diagnosis over the summer and this morning he and his wife revealed that his early symptoms, they talked about them during a sit- down interview with Good Morning America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. CHESLEY "SULLY" SULLENBERGER, MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON PILOT: One of the first things I noticed was it was harder and harder to remember people's names, even people we knew.

LORRIE SULLENBERGER: A lot of what I think people see in the news are late-stage Alzheimer's symptoms. They were so little that it was easy to dismiss in the beginning. And my advice to someone would be it's what's unusual for your person.

C. SULLENBERGER: An early diagnosis is so critically important. If you have doubts, get tested.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right, let's talk about this now with Dr. Salman Azar. He's the Regional Vice Chair of Neurology at Northwell Health. Dr. Azar, thanks for being with us. What we're hearing there, it was really interesting to hear her sort of stress the individuality of this. Is that pretty common, what she's talking about here?

DR. SALMAN AZHAR, REGIONAL VICE CHAIR OF NEUROLOGY, NORTHWELL HEALTH: Yes, I think especially in the early stage of Alzheimer's or even before that, mild cognitive impairment, it's the small things that disappear. There's some people who, myself included, never remembered people's names. If that changed, that would not be a new finding for me.

That would not be new. But for him, as he said, he was very good at remembering people's names. And so that was enough of a change that led to sort of an investigation that led to his diagnosis.

So that's important. The idea that something has been different, something has become different.

SANCHEZ: And when it comes to that something that is different, what does that entail? It's not just forgetfulness, right? It goes beyond that.

AZHAR: In the early stages, it may just be primarily forgetfulness, or, you know, you put an item somewhere, you don't remember where you put it, or you don't remember that you're telling somebody a story and you tell them, maybe later in the conversation, the same story.

[14:35:00]

So it is around forgetfulness that we start to notice this stuff, although there are other changes in the brain that are happening at the same time. But oftentimes, the first thing that we think about is, oh, I'm not able to do something I was able to do a few years ago or a year ago or six months ago.

KEILAR: It may not just be recalling something -- but I just want to zero in on something you said. I'm not able to do something I was able to do six months ago because we're talking about Alzheimer's, but dementia can take all different kinds of forms. And sometimes, it seems that there is a loss of skill that perhaps isn't just a memory, right?

It's how to do something. So it isn't the name of a loved one, but it's the ability to actually do something that seems pretty rudimentary. Is that how you look at it?

AZHAR: Well, I'll give you an example, right? So about 60 percent of Alzheimer's or dementia is Alzheimer's, right? The rest of these many other types of dementia, including one of the most common causes of dementia, which is having silent strokes in your brain.

We'll talk about that because that's something that you can actually prevent. So with Alzheimer's, you might not remember a name, but you might also come out of the subway in the city and not recognize where you just came out to even though you've done this every day on your way to work. So it's recognizing landmarks.

It's remembering names. It's remembering how to do certain things. Think about all the things that the brain does and then recognize all of a sudden not being able to do some of them, right?

But you're the person and your loved ones are the people who can tell that something is off. I get this question all the time. I'm forgetting names. Is that, you know, something I should be worried about?

Again, for a lot of people who've never had good memory for names, that's not something to worry. But if it's a change, that's when we want to get that looked at. The reason is that early identification leads to earlier treatment. SANCHEZ: Yes. If you hear this and you recognize some of those symptoms that you're describing or change that you're describing, what should people do?

AZHAR: Yes, I think they have to go and see their physician and oftentimes see their regular physician and then a neurologist. And now we have easy blood tests to be able to tell if you are having dementia and especially Alzheimer's.

So one of the things that has really changed in the last decade has been that instead of having to do a fairly involved testing with PET scans and MRIs, et cetera, we now have a blood test that can tell us that if you have symptoms, and we do this blood test and it comes back positive, then you have a diagnosis of Alzheimer's. So it's much easier to make the diagnosis and therefore you might then be eligible for some of these treatments that are now available.

KEILAR: How can you prevent some of these causes? You mentioned the mini strokes. What can you do?

AZHAR: There was a number of studies that have looked at this that if we start to pay attention to our numbers, and I like to say this is know your numbers, know what your blood pressure number is. Most of us go to the physician, to our physicians, and we're told we have a normal blood pressure. What does that mean?

So I like to tell my patients, know your numbers. You want your blood pressure, even in your 40s and your 50s and earlier, to be under 130, the top number. Know what your cholesterol is, know what your bad cholesterol is.

That can help. But it's also other things, exercise, diet, sticking close to a Mediterranean diet type of thing, making sure that you are socially engaged. What happens as we get older?

We start to get less socially engaged, and we know that can actually hasten the likelihood of worsening cognitive function. Also, don't smoke. That's a big part, right?

So there are all of these things that we can do that can improve the health of your brain and prevent strokes, and at the same time -- and this is the thing that people don't quite realize -- most people who are older and who have dementia oftentimes won't just have Alzheimer's, they'll have another dementia like stroke-related dementia. So if we can start to reduce these risk factors, even in your 40s, exercise. If you exercise 150 minutes a week, you know, of some form of exercise, maybe walking, maybe more than that, and some weights lifting, a little bit of strength training, that's really good for you.

So these are things that are in our control, right? Starts off by knowing your numbers, working with your physicians, and really identifying healthy behavior. And studies have clearly shown that that can reduce your risk of going on to develop memory loss and cognitive difficulties. KEILAR: All right, Dr. Azhar, we're on it. We're on it. Our team is very, we're obsessed with these stories. We're going to be checking on each other to make sure that we're checking off your list.

AZHAR: I want people to leave, walk away, not feeling like they don't have any choice or any hope.

KEILAR: Yes.

AZHAR: There's a lot of things that we can do to prevent dementia, and it's really important that people realize that. That's really important to think about.

[14:40:00]

KEILAR: That's right. I think that is so important, and we appreciate you sharing that with us.

AZHAR: Great. Thank you so much.

KEILAR: Next, we do have some breaking news. The NYPD and Secret Service are looking for three people seen crawling out of a sewer near the hotel where Israel's prime minister is expected to stay.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Some breaking news ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to New York City for the U.N. General Assembly.

[14:45:00]

The NYPD and the Secret Service are investigating a report of people seen crawling out of a sewer near the hotel where the Prime Minister will be staying. CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller is on top of the story for us. John, the NYPD is pointing out that they've seen several cases over the months of people entering sewers, but do they have any sense of what's happening in this particular case?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, in this particular case, it fits into the pattern they've been seeing citywide in Brooklyn and down by Madison Square Garden and lower Manhattan. The thing that's setting off alarm bells here, of course, Brianna, is these are men who are seen crawling out of the underground tunnels and the sewers that run beneath the hotel, which is typically the hotel that the Israeli Prime Minister stays in a day before he's due in New York. They escape in two different vehicles.

They're using license plate readers and video and everything to try and identify these vehicles and ultimately these people. Investigators believe they probably entered --because people saw a group of five men, which is two more than the three they saw exiting -- at a subway emergency entrance that is in the ground at 63rd and Fifth Avenue. But that would have been putting the same team underground for hours.

So what were they doing there? The NYPD believes if they're part of the larger pattern, they have been looking for metals, copper piping, things that could be stolen and resold. But because of the sensitivity of the U.N. General Assembly, the suspicious activity, they're handling this as a full scale investigation out of an abundance of caution.

KEILAR: And John, the United Nations is also presenting this remarkable moment as the U.S. is at war with Iran. The Secret Service is providing security for Iran's president. Tell us about that.

MILLER: Well, this is the first time, Brianna, in the law of unintended consequences that a head of state of a country with which we are currently at war has visited the United States to speak at the U.N. As the President of Iran, you could imagine there may have been a time when he was on a target list for one of our hits in Iran to eliminate leadership. But right now, as a visitor to New York and the United Nations, he's under the direct protection of the U.S. Secret Service as a head of state and the NYPD moving him around New York to make sure that no harm comes to him.

But his movements will be limited between the U.N. and those meetings and the permanent mission of Iran to the United Nations on Fifth Avenue. He won't have the range of movement of other world leaders.

KEILAR: All right, John, thank you so much for the report -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: So in just a few hours, President Trump will greet Chinese leader Xi Jinping when he arrives in the U.S. for a highly anticipated summit. In a rare move, Trump is making the trip to Joint Base Andrews rather than waiting for Xi's arrival at the White House. Technology, trade, and of course, the U.S. war with Iran will loom large over the visit, which will include a state dinner attended by several top tech leaders.

Let's discuss the relationship with Evan Osnos, a staff writer for The New Yorker covering politics and foreign affairs. Also the author of the book, "The Haves and Have-Yachts, Dispatches on the Ultra Rich." Evan, thanks so much for being with us.

The last time that Trump and Xi were face-to-face on U.S. soil was 2017. A lot has changed since then. Walk us through what you think are the most significant changes in the relationship.

EVAN OSNOS, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: Well, as you say, Boris, it's been almost a decade that these two have been meeting, sizing one another up. There are a number of big issues at the heart of the relationship where the U.S. and China, frankly, don't see eye to eye, whether it's on Iran, which has been a longtime source of oil for China, or on issues of global trade, or of course, artificial intelligence, which is really the topic of the day. And so there are a lot of things that these two leaders could be talking about.

But the Chinese side and the United States have something in common right now, which is both leaders have reasons to want a quiet visit. There can always be a curveball, Boris, when you're dealing with President Trump and a foreign leader. But going into it, there is a strong sense that these two want to come out of here more or less with what's being described as a tactical truce, trying to put aside the big questions for now and see if they can just maintain a moment when neither one of them wants a huge distraction.

Donald Trump, of course, low approval ratings going into a midterm election. He has this war in Iran dragging on. Xi Jinping has a property crisis in China, he's still trying to climb out of, high youth unemployment. So a reason for them to try to play it quietly.

[14:50:00]

SANCHEZ: You recently wrote in a piece that Chinese leaders believe that Trump's struggle to dominate the world is actually aiding China. And you talk about China outpacing the U.S. when it comes to funding patents and talent. You also cite experts that point to Trump's policies contributing to China's ascent. What do you think should change from a policy perspective to blunt that ascension?

OSNOS: Well, it's been quite striking to watch. You know, I lived in China for eight years, Boris. I was back recently.

I was there for Xi Jinping's visit with Donald Trump in May. And the dominant message that one gets when you're there, it's quite noticeable, is that they have spent the last several years investing in the technologies they think will define the rest of the 21st century. Things like electric vehicles, solar cells, drones.

They now dominate 70 percent of global production on those issues. And the big question today is whether or not the United States can fortify the things that made it as powerful in the 20th century. Things like being a magnet for global talent, managing to attract people from around the world, or whether the United States, because of current immigration policy, for instance, is turning away some of the people that helped develop our science and technology infrastructure.

Our commitment to funding major institutions that develop science and technology here. It's really an amazing fact to consider, Boris, that China recently surpassed the United States as now the world's leader in clinical trials. So in some ways, the takeaway is the United States to have leadership in the years ahead, it needs to refocus on some of the core things that have made this country very strong and try not to get bogged down in the kind of political short-term distractions that seem so common these days.

SANCHEZ: A really important point. What would the world look like if China wound up winning the race towards superintelligence, if they won the AI race?

OSNOS: It's a great question. Look, this is at the heart of some of the most important geopolitical conversations in the world right now. A scholar named Rush Doshi at Georgetown said to me that if China comes to dominate artificial intelligence and biotechnology and robotics, which are the coming generational technologies, as thoroughly as they have things like we talked about a moment ago, electric vehicles, that will fundamentally change the balance of power in the world. And I think one of the things we know is that a country that leads economically and technologically also sets the standards. And so it matters if that country is a democracy or an authoritarian country. For the United States to be in the position to lead in the decades ahead, it should think about the things that made it strong in the 20th century, things like fortifying its alliances, investing in research and development.

In China today, they're frankly surprised the United States is not doing that. There was a think tank report that came out early this year assessing Donald Trump's first year plus in office. And the title of that report, Boris, was telling. The title was "Thanks Trump," because from their perspective, it has in fact aided China's interests over the last year or so.

SANCHEZ: And the kind of competition that we're talking about here, inevitably, historically, not to lean too far into Thucydides, but it leads to conflict. So I wonder if you think there is a path toward cooperation between these two powers that keeps things peaceful going into the next few decades.

OSNOS: There absolutely is a path. The fact is that history is not destiny here. And the fact that we're having a conversation in which we talk frankly about the risk of confrontation, about the idea that these two countries could find themselves in the kind of pattern of history that goes back to the Peloponnesian War is all the more reason to have these two countries talking to each other.

It's not perfect. They don't have a lot of trust between them. But one of the key things that they can do, and we may see this come out of the summit, is beginnings of a conversation about the future of AI, making sure, for instance, that when one country has, let's say, a crisis around AI with implications for national security, that they can pick up the phone and reach somebody on the other side.

That's something the United States is pushing for. We should all be looking to see what comes out of this summit, because those kinds of dialogues are essential to keeping the peace in the years ahead.

SANCHEZ: Yes, we'll see what kind of outcome this summit yields. Evan Osnos, appreciate the perspective. Thanks for joining us.

OSNOS: My pleasure.

SANCHEZ: Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

[14:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: From the Hill to home plate, the House may be on recess, but that is not stopping a bipartisan group of lawmakers from coming together for a great cause tonight. It's the Congressional Women's Softball Game, pitting members of Congress against female members of the D.C. Press Corps, including yours truly, to raise funds and awareness for the fight against breast cancer. In 2009, Congresswomen Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Joanne Emerson, and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Susan Collins came together to captain the first congressional team after Wasserman-Schultz revealed her own battle with breast cancer.

That year, they faced off against staffers, and suffering a brutal loss to those young whippersnappers, they decided to try their luck against us, journalists, the next year. But we also beat them. And ever since, we have been trash-talking and trading the champion's trophy back and forth.

This event has raised nearly $5 million for the Young Survival Coalition. First pitch is tonight ...

END