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Prediction Markets Target Election; Trump Hosts Chinese President; U.S. Mortgage Rates Rising; White House Allows Banned Reporters Back. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 24, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:02]

REBECCA COOKE (D), WISCONSIN CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: And having a federal data center moratorium offers that. We need more trust in our local and federal elected officials' transparency in the process and time to really understand the impact that data centers are going to have on our communities.

Derrick Van Orden, meanwhile, voted, like you said, for an $80 billion tax break for these companies, taking the maximum contribution from Elon Musk, SpaceX.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: OK.

COOKE: He's the opposite. He's being bought and paid for by big tech.

BASH: Rebecca Cooke, we are out of time in this program. Thank you so much for being here.

We have asked Congressman Derrick Van Orden to join us too. He's welcome any time.

Thanks for joining INSIDE POLITICS on this very newsworthy day.

"CNC" right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And we're in. The White House allowing reporters from CNN and other outlets back on the White House grounds hours after a court intervenes in President Trump's ban. But why did the White House delay in following the judge's orders?

Meantime, also at the White House, a superpower summit, China's leader, Xi Jinping, meeting with President Donald Trump. Plenty of pomp, but will there be progress?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And hack attack. An OpenAI agent gains access to Australia's government network, the first known case of a hack like this.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: We begin this hour with breaking news in President Trump's battle with the press. CNN is now being allowed onto the White House grounds for the first time in five days, and that is after multiple attempts to get in today.

KEILAR: That's right. This follows a ruling from a Trump-appointed judge ordering the Trump administration to immediately reinstate access for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico while their First Amendment lawsuit proceeds.

We're joined now by CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter and CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig.

But we're going to begin with CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein, who is on White House grounds for the first time since Friday.

Betsy, walk us through your day today.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Brianna, it's been a roller coaster of a day. This, of course, began overnight just before 1:00 this morning, the judge granting that temporary restraining order.

And what that says is that the White House must immediately reinstate the credentials of reporters from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. So we arrived at the White House, which opens to the press around 5:30 in the morning. We first attempted to go to the Secret Service checkpoint at about 6:10 this morning.

When I was there, I presented my driver's license, my CNN I.D., and I was told that I was not in the system. A short while after that, however, one of our producers actually was able to be granted access. She went inside and stayed on the White House campus for the duration of this morning.

But then one of our other colleagues, a photojournalist, also presented his badge and was -- had that badge confiscated and was also denied access. So we tried again at 8:00 and again at 9:00 this morning, a little bit after 9:00, when business hours started.

And then the -- CNN and the other parties involved in this all lawsuit filed this emergency request. We tried once more at 11:28 this morning. I gave them once more at that Secret Service checkpoint my driver's license and was told I was not in the system. Then, later in that hour, closer to noon. I was allowed access.

I was taken by a White House press wrangler, taken to the main guardhouse and able to get into the White House for the first time since this Friday. We are obviously very, very happy to be back at work here. But all of this comes at a very critical moment for President Trump, as he is hosting China's leader, Xi Jinping, here at the White House for a very high-stakes state visit.

And because CNN and other outlets have not yet been permitted back at the White House, we were unable to cover that arrival ceremony, as well as speeches, from both President Trump and Leader Xi. So we were unable to see any of that. It's unclear at this stage what is going to happen to the network television pool, which so far has banded together and declined to cover any of these events with the state visit thus far today.

But I want to just note to you the president was given a photo-op with Leader Xi and with just still photographers, other cameras. It was called a spray, a brief photo opportunity. During that spray, the president, according to a pool report, made a joke about how the Chinese had the friendliest press corps.

And this also comes after Principal Deputy Press Secretary Taylor Rogers was asked in an interview with Spectrum News just yesterday, prior to the judge's ruling here, whether there was any symbolism to the U.S. press corps being banned during the visit of China's leader.

[13:05:10]

She said there is no comparison and went on to say in her words that President Trump is holding the fake news accountable. But, of course, this temporary restraining order is going to last for the next couple of weeks. We will have to see where this goes from here, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, those outlets unable to cover that event as Chinese state media did, important to note.

And, Betsy, just to be clear, even late this morning, there were outlets or there were some journalists who were having their hard passes revoked, who previously had not had their hard passes revoked. Is that right?

KLEIN: Yes, including a CNN photojournalist. He had his hard pass revoked around 6:40 this morning.

KEILAR: All right, Betsy, thank you so much.

SANCHEZ: So let's go to Brian Stelter now.

Brian, talk to us about how we got to this point and whether you think the White House was trying to send a message with this delay and this confiscation, because, if the judge issued the order at 1:30 a.m., you would think, by that point, the Secret Service, the press office got the message.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: We got to this point because Donald Trump, before he was ever elected president, began a war against the very people who wanted to report on him and explain what he was doing and help explain his views and his policies to the country.

And as everyone remembers, in 2017, it became even worse when he called the press the enemy of the people. Nowadays, he uses words like treasonous, as if it's just a casual word, to describe some of our colleagues.

So it's a slippery slope. It's been getting worse and worse. And, to me, this is the worst one of all so far, because those three banned outlets could have been anybody else. Could have been Axios and Reuters. It could have been NBC, and it could have been "The New York Times." And it might be next time. This is very much still a live issue. Right now, this is a temporary

restraining order that the judge has put in place. It's only going to last for 14 days. So there could well be a lengthy court fight that continues. Or, I don't know, maybe Trump will just move on to some other target. We know that that happens quite frequently with the president as well.

So will he focus on this or will he move on? That's one of the unknowns. I am well aware of the calendar, though, that we're heading into the midterm elections, and maybe the president thinks it's advantageous to pick fights with the media to energize his base.

But he is being deprived of the attention and airtime that he wants right now. The TV pool is still not in place, as Betsy just mentioned. I have some new reporting on what's going on about that. The major networks, NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX News, are still waiting on confirmation from the White House that CNN will be allowed to fulfill its pool responsibilities in the future.

As of now, that TV pool group does not have that assurance, so they're not covering any of Trump and Xi's events today. So you have Chinese communists, state-run media that are pointing their cameras and filming these events, but not the major American networks. It is a really stark contrast, and that's the state of play at the moment.

KEILAR: Yes, Elie, it's not as if -- I mean, this filing that came, it told -- the judge was told at 12:29 that -- 12:29 p.m., I should say, media access has been fully restored. That's the filing from the White House Press Office telling the judge that.

But this was done last night at a time where this isn't the DMV, right? The White House could have handled this urgent matter, which really raises issues about why they didn't do it sooner. And I wonder what kind of legal issues that raises for you.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Brianna, there are still many important unanswered questions. As you said, about 38 minutes ago, DOJ put in this one-page declaration submitted by Micah Stopperich, who is the director of the White House Press Office.

And, essentially what it does is lay out a timeline, but that timeline raises a bunch of questions. To boil it down, this person says that the White House was notified of the judge's decision at 7:10 a.m. and then, by 9.55 a.m., all the passes had been restored and were available for pickup and people were being welcomed back in.

Well, first of all, there's real questions as to whether that's true. You just heard Betsy Klein tell us that at 11:28, I think she said. So an hour-and-a-half or more after DOJ is saying everything was ready to go, everybody was cleared, she was denied. So there's questions about how that happened.

Second of all, to your point, even if it took them until 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 in the morning, that's six, seven, eight hours after the judge's decision came down. And I love your comparison to DMV, because, in my experience -- I was a lowly regular prosecutor at the Justice Department.

You know how many times I had to fix things and get things done at 2:00 a.m., at 3:00 a.m., go to a judge's house, get a warrant signed, make sure somebody got some document at 4:00 a.m., 5:00 a.m.? You don't close down if you're the White House between midnight and 9:00 a.m. or, as it is here, noon, until people can start getting in.

[13:10:04]

So there's questions about that too. When a judge gives a direct, unequivocal order, as this judge did last night, it's not optional. You don't get to drag your feet. You don't get to take your time and take seven, eight hours to get word down to the people who need to get it. You are charged with doing that right away.

And if you can't handle that, I think there's questions about, can you handle much bigger things than that?

SANCHEZ: Elie, it wouldn't be the first time that a judge has issued an order that the administration has chafed at or delayed or disobeyed, in the context of those deportation flights that went forward after a judge had ordered that they return, right?

So I wonder if a judge finds that there was some misbehavior, that his orders were at least temporarily ignored, who is held accountable?

HONIG: So the judge absolutely can issue contempt findings. He'd have to hold further hearings and figure out some of the details. But, yes, a judge does have the power to issue contempt findings.

Now, at the far extreme, and I don't think it's going to end up anywhere near there, the judge does have the power to lock people up for contempt. That has happened before in the past. But short of that, a judge can issue financial penalties.

But also it's important to just make a record so people know what happened. If I was the judge, I would not simply accept this one-page document that was just submitted and say, OK, I guess mistakes happened. What are we going to do? Let's move on.

There's still real questions that need to be answered. And so, look, I'm not sitting on that bench, but I wouldn't be surprised if Judge Kelly says, OK, I want the parties in for a hearing because we need to do a postmortem on this.

KEILAR: And, Brian, as we noted, this is a big day, a big news day at the White House, Xi Jinping visiting. What does it mean that you don't have the broadcast pool covering that kind of beginning of the day?

STELTER: It means that we're not getting a sense of the relationship, the body language, the demeanor, the expressions between these two leaders. Yes, there are reporters from the pool who are trying to observe. We are getting some information out.

As Betsy mentioned, there was that really, to me, chilling comment that President Trump made, making light of the lack of press freedom in China. We have seen so many times -- there's too many to count -- how Trump seems to be envious of the authoritarian way of running a country and how he sometimes seems jealous of foreign leaders who don't have to deal with a pesky free press.

But he is on the minority -- he is in the minority when it comes to that. When you look at polling, I know the press ain't very popular these days. Lots of folks have very legitimate questions about media fairness and bias. But when you ask people if they want and have a First Amendment in this country and have a free press, the answer is, of course, overwhelmingly yes, Trump maybe not so much.

But I think it's important to say we're doing play-by-play on this because it involves this particular issue. But these are -- this is the situation that happens a lot, as Elie said, with the president and with the administration defying court orders.

And, by the way, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press just speaking out, saying: "This ruling is an important win for the American public."

Let's keep that front and center. It's not about us today. It's about the public.

SANCHEZ: And important to remember this is a temporary restraining order. The case has yet to be fully decided.

STELTER: Yes.

SANCHEZ: We will see what comes next.

Brian Stelter, Elie Honig, thank you so much.

It's interesting this is happening with the backdrop of Xi visiting the White House, because a source tells CNN that Chinese officials privately expressed concern that this media ban would negatively impact coverage of the summit between Xi Jinping and President Trump, the two leaders holding bilateral talks at the White House today.

KEILAR: Yes, but you're not seeing images of that typical fanfare surrounding a state visit of this magnitude, as pool coverage was simply not there for TV audiences.

We have our Jim Sciutto monitoring the talks here in Washington.

A lot of pomp and circumstance, but not all to be seen.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No.

And just a quick point on the press freedom issue. Right now, China has imprisoned the publisher of a major newspaper in Hong Kong, Jimmy Lai, who's dying in prison right now. And it's actually on President Trump's list to Xi going back to the summit in Beijing to release him on humanitarian grounds.

There is no free press in China, right? And those polite reporters that President Trump was praising are state media reporters under the thumb of the Chinese government. So that contrast here, the land of the free, where we have press freedom, it's our White House that banned CNN and other and others in the midst of a Chinese visit, is truly remarkable.

China puts journalists in prison. And that's just -- it's a remarkable propaganda victory, I think one can say, for China. Big picture for the summit, I think you can say it's a all pomp, no breakthrough summit, that the best outcome when I speak to diplomats involved is just a continuation of the truce that Xi and Trump reached a little more than a year ago.

And it's interesting because they're not even talking about continuing the truce, extending it another year. Scott Bessent said yesterday, two more months. They have agreed to extend it into January. That's not exactly stabilization of this major great power relationship.

It shows that both leaders, their best hope here is just, let's try to keep things steady so we don't make things worse. And they both have incentives to do that because President Trump certainly doesn't want more economic troubles at home, midterms approaching, high gas prices, trade war. That's not good for Trump.

[13:15:19]

And Xi Jinping has his own economic issues at home, big youth unemployment rate, big debt issues as well. But, again, extending it for two months, it's not exactly a breakthrough.

SANCHEZ: Part of the reason that the press, the American press, would want to see their interactions is because President Trump has some legitimate gripes and legitimate concerns when it comes to China, not only what's been argued as industrial-scale theft of American intellectual property and AI, but also the fact that it's been widely reported that China's provided intelligence to Iran...

SCIUTTO: Yes.

SANCHEZ: ... that has led to the death of U.S. service members.

SCIUTTO: And yet President Trump, as with Russia, right, has not publicly condemned or called them out on that.

It's part of his coddling, I think accommodationist approach to both regimes. Now, his defenders and advisers will say this is Trump negotiating a big deal, right, similar to the red carpet welcome we saw yesterday, just like we saw the red carpet welcome for Putin in Anchorage, the idea being this can draw out concessions and agreements.

But we have seen these red carpet welcomes with no concessions. So you're just wondering what you're getting in return and why he's repeating the same strategy without any real changed outcome.

SANCHEZ: Jim Sciutto, appreciate the perspective.

SCIUTTO: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Thanks for joining us.

Still to come: It's a milestone that no president wants to hit, especially now just weeks out from the midterms, the latest on mortgage rates rising again.

Plus, the first known hack of a government network by a rogue AI agent. What we know about the breach and how long OpenAI reportedly sat on the information.

KEILAR: Then, later: More than 167,000 pounds of meat are being recalled. What you need to check for in your fridge.

We will have that are much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:21:05]

KEILAR: We have breaking news into CNN, mortgage rates hitting a number that we haven't seen since before President Trump's inauguration, 7.03 percent for a fixed 30-year mortgage. That number is enough to make any buyer think twice before putting down a deposit on a new home.

We have CNN's Matt Egan with us now on this.

Matt, that's tough just going over that 7 percent mark here, tough for homebuyers and also for sellers.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: That's right, Brianna.

Look, this is just pushing the American dream even further out of reach, because, right now, first-time homebuyers, they're not just dealing with all-time highs for home prices. They're dealing with very expensive borrowing costs.

So, as you mentioned, we just learned that the average rate on a 30- year fixed rate mortgage is now 7.03 percent, first time above 7 percent since January 2025, just as the president was starting his second term in the White House, five straight weeks with mortgage rates going up.

And this is clearly a trend that's moving in the wrong direction because, at this point last year, mortgage rates were around 6.3 percent, and, two years ago, just before the election, closer to 6 percent. Now, this is most painful for first-time homebuyers, people who want to buy, but feel like they can't, not at these prices, not at these borrowing costs.

It's also painful for people who do have a low mortgage rate and they're looking to sell, but they feel like they're locked in because they don't want to give up their low mortgage rate. When you look at the trend here, back in 2019, mortgage rates were around 4 percent. In 2020, during COVID, some people were fortunate enough to get a mortgage for under 3 percent.

And then rates skyrocketed, as the Fed had to fight historically high inflation. Got to almost 8 percent in 2023, and you can see mortgage rates remain very high. Now, when we look at what this actually means, let's say, back in February, just before the war started, you were in the market to get a $500,000 home with 10 percent down.

Monthly mortgage payments were around $3,500. But now, because of the sell-off in the bond market, because mortgage rates have surged, you're looking at $3,800. So it's about $300 more per month. Over the course of a year, that's almost $4,000.

And, Brianna, remember, that money that you're paying extra every month, it's not going to get you a nicer kitchen or another bedroom, right? It's all going towards interest. So, bottom line here, this is just another example of the affordability problem in this economy.

And it's something that is clearly going to be a factor on the minds of voters heading into the midterms -- back to you.

KEILAR: Yes.

Matt Egan, thank you for that.

Next: the impact of prediction markets on the midterms, how hundreds of millions of dollars could be wagered on these races.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:09]

KEILAR: The November like no other, with some calling the midterms the first ever prediction market election, traders betting big on everything from control of Congress to individual races.

A CNN analysis finds more than $750 million in total trading volume on election outcomes on Kalshi and Polymarket.

SANCHEZ: And campaigns are watching all of this very closely, though some election officials warned the boom in political betting could spread misinformation, discourage voters, and also raise the risk of insider trading.

CNN's Marshall Cohen is here with us.

Marshall, what are you learning?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: This has deeply seeped into the culture of this country over the last year. There's now $750 million in total trading volume on Kalshi and Polymarket, like you mentioned, on midterm election markets.

And to increase engagement and also increase their own profits, they have created markets for every inch of this election, every House race. You can bet on every Senate race, governors, mayors, the margins, turnout, how many Democratic seats, how many Republican seats. There's a lot out there, and people are participating.

But you mentioned the campaigns. There are some strange things happening in those campaigns. We have already seen examples of insider trading, with candidates betting on themselves, which is strictly prohibited, and they have been fined and suspended from Kalshi for doing that.

We have also heard that campaigns are closely watching the markets. They're keeping tabs. So are the donors. One person told us that they know a candidate who's been checking their own odds every single hour. And then also the election officials, they're concerned. They see this as just another challenge for them to grapple with, possibly creating heaps of new disinformation.

We saw that earlier in the summer. It happened. The poster child for this was the L.A. mayoral primary. Tons of prediction market fueled false claims about election rigging and ballot stuffing. I spoke about this with the top election official in L.A., Dean Logan.

Here's what he said was his message to the prediction companies.