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Trump Looms More T.V. Talk Shows to Pull Out Following the Axing of Jimmy Kimmel's Show; Peru's Machu Picchu in Danger of Losing New Seven Wonders Designation; Trump Calls For U.S. To Reclaim Afghan Base From Taliban; Trump Expected To Discuss TikTok Sale With Chinese Leader. Aired 2-2:45a ET

Aired September 19, 2025 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."

President Trump threatens more U.S. T.V. networks. We'll look at who could be next after the Jimmy Kimmel suspension.

Hamas has a new warning for Israel as the IDF ramps up its invasion of Gaza City.

And a decision about the future of TikTok could just be hours away. We're following the latest on a highly anticipated phone call.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: President Donald Trump is adding fuel to the debate over free speech that has ignited across the U.S. He's now suggesting that any broadcast networks that air negative coverage of him could lose their license. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: They give you wholly bad publicity or press. They're getting a license, I would think maybe their license should be taken away. It would be up to Brendan Carr.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Now his comments come after Disney's decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel's late night talk show over his remarks about Charlie Kirk's alleged killer. President Trump said networks should have to reapply for licenses periodically, he added that not airing conservative views could be reason enough for losing their license. Here he is again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: That's something that should be talked about for licensing too. When you have a network and you have evening shows and all they do is hit Trump. That's all they do.

If you go back, I guess they haven't had a conservative on in years or something, somebody said. But when you go back and take a look, all they do is hit Trump. They licensed (inaudible), they're an arm of the Democrat party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The head of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, is praising President Trump for creating a massive shift in the media ecosystem. He's also warning that Kimmel's suspension isn't the last shoe to drop.

Carr even floated the idea of targeting another ABC show, "The View," which is heavy with opinions from its hosts. He says if any programming is disputed, it warrants an FCC complaint.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRENDAN CARR, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION: Our goal and our obligation here is to make sure that broadcasters are serving the public interest. And if there's local T.V. stations that don't think that running that programming does it, then they have every right under the law in their contracts to preempt it. And we'll see how this plays out.

But I do think that, again, we're in the midst of a massive shift in dynamics in the media ecosystem for lots of reasons, again, including the permission structure that President Trump's election has provided. And I would simply say we're not done yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: For more on President Trump's reactions, CNN's Kristen Holmes reports from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Now, President Trump, on his way back from the United Kingdom to the United States, continued to attack Jimmy Kimmel, saying that he was talentless, adding that he didn't have any ratings. But he actually took this a step further, saying at one point that he believed that broadcast networks could get their broadcasting licenses revoked if they aired mostly negative content about him. Here's what he said.

TRUMP: Well, I read someplace that the networks were 97 percent against me. I got 97 percent negative, and yet I won easily. I won all seven swing states, popular, I won everything.

And if they're 97 percent against, they give me wholly bad publicity or press. I mean, they're getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away.

HOLMES: The President also said that he would endorse moves by the Federal Communications Commission to pull those licenses, noting that he believed that these networks should have to reapply every so often.

He also added at one point that maybe perhaps not airing conservative views could be part of a rationale for revoking those licenses, ultimately saying that he would leave it up to his FCC chair, Brandon Carr, who, of course, as we know and have reported, is at the center of everything that has been going on with Jimmy Kimmel.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: A source familiar with the situation told CNN Disney is hopeful there's a path to bringing Kimmel's show back to ABC, but they said the temperature of the comic's monologues needs to be taken down. The decision to suspend Kimmel had been brewing since Kimmel commented on his show on Monday about Charlie Kirk's suspected killer.

[02:05:03]

He called Trump supporters the MAGA gang and said many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk. Now, the matter escalated on Wednesday after the FCC chair threatened to pull ABC affiliate broadcast licenses.

Some former and current late talk show hosts are showing their support for Jimmy Kimmel. Here's what former late show host David Letterman had to say about ABC suspending Kimmel's program.

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DAVID LETTERMAN, FORMER "LATE SHOW" HOST: My good friend Jimmy Kimmel, I, you know, I just, I feel bad about this because we all see where this is going, correct? It's managed media. And it's no good. It's silly.

It's ridiculous. And you can't go around firing somebody because you're fearful or trying to suck up to an authoritarian criminal administration in the Oval Office. That's just not how this works.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: And "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart was outspoken when his own parent company, Paramount, canceled "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" over the summer. He made a rare Thursday night appearance to speak out about free speech and the Jimmy Kimmel suspension. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": But in America, we have a little something called the First Amendment. And let me tell you how it works. There's something called a talent-o-meter.

It's a completely scientific instrument that is kept on the president's desk. And it tells the president when a performer's T.Q., talent quotient, measured mostly by niceness to the president, goes below a certain level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The influential publication "The New Yorker" is taking a shot at President Trump with its latest cover. The cartoon "Remote Control" was designed by Barry Blitt. The magazine says it attempts to capture Trump's unprecedented attacks on the media, destruction of federal programs, and abuses of executive power that have ushered in a new era of political vengeance.

Hamas warned the new ground offensive in Gaza means that Israel won't get back any of its hostages dead or alive, it's the group's strongest warning yet against Israel's incursion. Hamas says the Israeli Prime Minister has effectively issued a death sentence for the hostages. CNN has reached out to Benjamin Netanyahu's office for comment.

Meanwhile, Palestinians continue to flee the Gaza City offensive. The Israeli military says fewer than half of the city's residents still remain.

One Palestinian woman says her family set up a tent shelter on the side of the road after walking for days because they have no supplies and nowhere safe to go. Here she is.

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ZAHAR KAFARNA, DISPLACED PALESTINIAN MOTHER (through translator): There aren't any life necessities. The children woke up from their sleep and I wanted to prepare them a kettle of tea, there's no water. I want to prepare breakfast for them and there's nothing, I want to buy them bread and it's not available.

There aren't any life necessities. Life here is non-existent, we are alive but not living.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more details now on the latest warning from Hamas.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, as the Israeli military makes its opening moves to invade Gaza City, Hamas is issuing a dire warning, a threat really, about the lives of the hostages. In a new statement, Hamas has said that Israel's invasion of Gaza City amounts to Israel throwing away its chances of getting Israeli hostages back alive or dead.

Hamas has now said that it has spread out the hostages across Gaza City's different neighborhoods and, quote, "will not be concerned for their lives as long as Netanyahu has decided to kill them." That is, of course, a reference to the fact that the Israeli Prime Minister has signed off on this invasion of Gaza City despite the fact that there is significant evidence that Israeli hostages are indeed being held there. The Israeli military spokesman for his part says that the military

will do, quote, "everything to avoid harming them, will operate responsibly and in coordination with Israeli intelligence services." But this speaks directly to so many of the fears that we have heard from the families of those hostages who have been crying out in Israel almost on a daily basis now, in particular in protests in front of the Israeli Prime Minister's residence, expressing their fears that their loved ones will be killed amid this Israeli military offensive in Gaza City, with some of them even accusing the Prime Minister of essentially signing these hostages death certificates and calling for this offensive to be halted and a ceasefire to be reached instead with Hamas.

Now, as all of this is happening, we're also monitoring a situation that took place at the Allenby crossing between Jordan and the West Bank, controlled by Israel. According to reports, a driver of a humanitarian aid truck that was headed from Jordan to the Gaza Strip opened fire at that crossing, killing two individuals.

[02:09:54]

The Israeli military calling this shooting a terrorist attack and as a result, halting all humanitarian aid shipments through this land route from Jordan to the Gaza Strip, while there is an inquiry that is completed and the implementation of what they're describing as revised screening procedures for Jordanian drivers. And so that suspension of aid from Jordan to Gaza will likely impact about 100 to 150 trucks of aid per week, according to an Israeli military official, but nonetheless will undoubtedly have an impact inside of the Gaza Strip.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. has vetoed yet another draft resolution by the U.N. Security Council on a Gaza ceasefire. This was the sixth U.S. veto over the war. The resolution would have called for an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire, and that Israel end all restrictions on aid to the territory. It would also have demanded the release of all hostages.

The U.S. delegation explained its veto, saying the draft resolution, quote, "fails to condemn Hamas or recognize Israel's right to defend itself, and it wrongly legitimizes the false narratives benefiting Hamas, which have sadly found currency in this council."

France and the U.K. say a ceasefire is desperately needed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME BONNAFONT, FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS (through translator): France also reiterates its opposition to any plan of occupation of the Gaza Strip and forced displacement of its population. It calls on Israel to put an end to this destructive campaign, which is no longer of the military junta, and to resume as quickly as possible negotiations with a view to a ceasefire and the release of all the hostages.

BARBARA WOODWARD, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM TO THE UNITED NATIONS: We need a ceasefire more than ever, and yet Israel's reckless expansion of its military operation takes us further away from a deal which could bring the hostages home and end the suffering in Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Ukraine is warning that Russian troops are closing in on the key city of Kupyansk. Officials say the situation has become critical, with Russian forces less than one kilometer from the outskirts. The city sits on a key crossroad, and its capture would allow for further Russian advances in northeastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump is sending mixed signals about the future of his efforts to reach peace. His push for peace talks has largely stalled, and his deadlines to Moscow have come and gone without major consequences. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: It's been a month since our meeting with President Putin. Is it time for a ceasefire to come?

TRUMP: Doesn't feel like it. But at the right time, if I have to do it, it'll be harsh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: All right, still ahead, have the future ownership of TikTok. Presidents Trump and Xi are set to speak as their country is trying to finalize a deal to sell the social media platform.

Plus, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World is in danger of being too popular. Just ahead, we'll talk to an expert on Peru about how tourism is affecting Machu Picchu. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Parts of France are cleaning up after a day of protests against planned budget cuts by the government. Hundreds of thousands of people took part, demanding more public spending, higher taxes on the wealthy, and the reversal of an increased retirement age.

CNN's Melissa Bell reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was a day of largely peaceful protests across France, but this is exactly what authorities have been warning about. This is where the march ended at Nation, and what the interior minister had been saying, where there were groups from the far-left, black blocs, he said, that were threatening violent acts by the end of the day.

And these clashes are what we've seen by the evening here at the Place de la Nation. Riot police lined across the Place de la Nation as protesters tried to take them on, projectiles, a lot of tear gas here this evening.

It was for the first time in a long time, not since 2023, had we seen these large-scale trade union protests coordinated across the country with a large-scale march. But this was what they'd warned about.

These were the images that authorities had been fearing, that the so- called black blocs, the groups from the far left, some of them had come from outside France, were trying to cause trouble by the end of the day.

And this is exactly what is happening at this hour. It had been a long time since we'd had these kinds of coordinated trade union protests, but also these kinds of images of clashes on the streets of Paris, not since the pension reform protests of 2023. But as we look ahead to that budget of 2026, with the new Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, trying to get through what we expect to be an austerity budget, and all this opposition to it, you can expect a lot more of these scenes again on the streets of Paris in the coming weeks.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Peru's Machu Picchu is in danger of losing its designation as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. Several issues are at play, including over tourism, limited conservation policies, and social conflicts.

Machu Picchu was named a new world wonder in 2007 as part of a global competition, but its popularity has caused problems. Just this week, protests over conflicts with travel companies left hundreds of tourists stranded. The agency behind this seven wonders project says its future depends on Peru's key decision makers and how they implement changes.

Joining us to talk about this is Mark Rice, an author and associate professor of history who's written extensively about tourism in Peru. Thank you so much for speaking with us here today. I really appreciate it.

[02:20:02]

So, as I mentioned, we've just seen tourists evacuated from Machu Picchu after protests blocked access to the site. Can you walk us through exactly what happened over the past few days?

MARK RICE, ASSOCIATE PROF. OF HISTORY, BARUCH COLLEGE AND CUNY GRADUATE CENTER: Sure. This all stems to conflicts over transport from Machu Picchu. To arrive to Machu Picchu, tourists have to take about a three-hour train ride to the bottom of the archaeological site, and then from there, buses transport tourists up about 450 meters to the archaeological site.

As you can imagine, this is a pretty lucrative business, transporting tourists up and down this mountain, and it's been enjoyed by a monopoly of one bus company for really the past 30 years.

At the start of the month, this monopoly -- the concession for this monopoly expired, and a new bus company was supposed to come in, and the conflict is about this bus company refusing to give up its concessions, which have pitted different economic and political factors against each other.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, let's talk about those economic factors. Explain exactly why locals are so fired up about who gets to run these buses to Machu Picchu. What's at stake here?

RICE: Well, at stake is millions of dollars over who controls transit to Machu Picchu. For many years, the Peruvian government, while doing a great job of promoting and celebrating Machu Picchu, has been pretty hands-off with the actual tourism management of transport to the site. So as a result, when these monopolies kind of come into conflict, this can pit these local actors against each other.

BRUNHUBER: All right. So as I mentioned earlier, we're hearing that this New Seven Wonders organization is threatening to strip Machu Picchu of its status as one of the New Seven Wonders of the world. So what would that actually mean for Peru if that happened?

RICE: Well, it's a little hard to say. The New Seven Wonders Foundation is a non-profit foundation based in Switzerland, which named Machu Picchu a New Seven Wonder of the world in 2007, mainly through an online voting competition.

So it's a bit unclear the exact scientific or academic kind of criteria they would use to either bestow or strip Machu Picchu's status. It's important to note that UNESCO, which has listed Machu Picchu as a World Heritage Site, while having some concerns about its management, still has not threatened to put it as an endangered site or remove it. But that being said, if this foundation removed Machu Picchu, it's certainly bad press for Peru and Peru's tourism economy and couldn't be good.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, it's a huge factor in the economy. I think some 1.5 million visitors expected to visit.

Now, in terms of sort of what's at stake here, I mean, this isn't the first time we've seen protests shut down access to Machu Picchu. There were similar issues last year, I believe the year before. So what does that say about some of the deeper problems here?

RICE: Yes, that's a great point. I think the fundamentally deep problem here is that there's a conflict between the national government in Lima and regional governments in the Andean interior of Peru. And a lot of these conflicts, whether it could be over management of transport or the management of the site, stem down to these longer-term conflicts that people living in Cusco often claim that while the national government in Lima is more than happy to celebrate and promote the symbolism of Machu Picchu, it's somewhat uninterested in the day-to-day operations of the site and preservation of the site and the lives of the people that depend on tourism in Cusco.

BRUNHUBER: All right, so protesters, they've agreed to 72-hour truce for negotiations. Do you think some of these issues will be sorted out? I mean, the way you describe them, they seem pretty deeply entrenched and perhaps intractable.

So I wonder, looking down the road, will Machu Picchu still be a world wonder or at least somewhere that people will want to go a year or a couple of years from now, given all the issues?

RICE: That's a really great question. I still have a little bit of hope. Machu Picchu has had lots of conflicts in the past that have been resolved. The current regional governor of the Cusco region has proposed to kind of create a much more involved government authority to manage transport and lodging and the management of the site.

So perhaps this crisis might be, hopefully, a turning point for Peru to have a bit more active management of the site, because it really is a great tourist site and a beautiful place to visit.

BRUNHUBER: On that, I mean, I haven't been, it's on my bucket list to go. So what makes it so special? What keeps drawing visitors year after

year and what makes it so important to preserve?

[02:25:08]

RICE: Well, it's a site that really represents the remarkable engineering accomplishments of the Inca Empire. So not only does it have tremendous architectural and engineering beauty, the fact that it's built in this very challenging and beautiful natural environment makes it a really appealing site.

BRUNHUBER: All right, we'll leave it there, I really appreciate getting your expertise on this. Mark Rice, also author of "Making Machu Picchu, the Politics of Tourism in the 20th Century Peru." I really appreciate getting you on this, thank you so much.

RICE: Well, my pleasure. Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Well, TikTok's fate could be determined later today. President Trump hopes to seal a deal when he speaks to President Xi. More details just ahead, please stay with us.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They just went through the Afghanistan total disaster for no reason whatsoever. We're going to leave Afghanistan, but we're going to leave it with strength and dignity. And we're going to keep Bagram, the big air base that -- one of the biggest air bases in the world. We gave it to them for nothing. We're trying to get it back, by the way. Okay? That could be a little breaking news. We're trying to get it back.

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. president there making a surprising announcement about a major Afghan air base. Sources tell CNN he's been pushing since at least March to find a way to get Bagram back from the Taliban.

The group took control of it following the U.S. military withdrawal in 2021. The Trump administration wants the base for a number of reasons, which include the ability to surveil China, fight terrorism in the region and gain access to rare earth minerals. But that would require U.S. troops on the ground, which goes against the deal Trump made with the Taliban in 2020.

Well, President Trump is set to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping in the coming hours. And high on the agenda is TikTok. The U.S. and China agreed on a framework for the sale of TikTok earlier this week, with U.S. investors expected to own roughly 80 percent of the platform.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: U.S. President Donald Trump said he would speak with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday, which will be the first direct engagement between the two leaders since June. On the agenda, trade, a potential face-to-face meeting, and TikTok.

Now, Xi and Trump are expected to strike a deal on TikTok. In fact, earlier this week, the U.S. and China reached a framework deal on keeping TikTok running in the U.S. Now, Chinese state media praised that framework deal and called it, quote, "mutually beneficial."

Now, on Wednesday, a commentary in China's state-run "People's Daily" said this, quote, "China reached the relevant consensus with the United States on the TikTok issue because it's based on the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation," unquote. It also said China will review the export of TikTok's technologies and I.P. licensing.

Now, TikTok is one of China's biggest high-tech success stories. It's owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, it's used by over one and a half billion people around the world. In the U.S., it's used by more than 170 million people.

And the core of its success is its A.I.-powered algorithm that keeps users hooked to their smartphones. It's also partly why TikTok was threatened with a ban in the first place.

U.S. lawmakers are concerned that TikTok could be used by China to spy or to conduct influence operations on Americans.

Now, if this call goes ahead and Trump gets his deal done with Xi, we know who the new U.S. owners of TikTok are going to be. It's going to be a consortium of investors, including Oracle, Andreessen Horowitz and Silver Lake. But it's not clear how a divested TikTok would use the algorithm.

And analysts say that Xi will use Trump's desire for a deal to score points on trade. In fact, William Young of International Crisis Group says this, quote, "Xi will seek to capitalize on Trump's desire to secure a major deal with China and push the U.S. president to make more concessions as trade negotiations continue."

Now remember, the U.S. and China are in a trade truce. They have suspended those sky-high tariffs against each other as trade talks go on, the latest deadline is in November. And TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment about the status of a deal.

Kristie Lu Stout, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The case of the pharaoh's missing bracelet has been solved. Still ahead, well tell you what happened to this priceless antique after it vanished from a museum in Egypt. That's coming up.

Please stay with us.

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[02:38:58]

BRUNHUBER: Egyptian authorities say they now know what happened to this 3,000-year-old bracelet. The gold trinket belonged to a pharaoh and disappeared from a museum in Cairo earlier this month. Authorities traced the theft as it moved from person to person, ending up with a gold smelter who melted down the historic artifact. The suspects were arrested in the proceeds from the bracelet sale were seized. In the end, the once priceless artifact fetched a mere $4,000.

Well, lady bugs of the sea is the winner of the Ocean Photographer of the Year Award. Competition organizers say this image shows two tiny amphipods resting on a piece of coral. Absolutely gorgeous. It was chosen from a field of more than 15,000 submitted by photographers from all over the world. Nine category winners were also selected.

And this image took price for -- took the prize for the adventure category. It shows a personal watercraft navigating the massive waves off the coast of Portugal.

And the prize for the human connection award went to this photo of a group of people trying to save a stranded humpback whale. Really touching. I hope they succeeded.

That wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back in just a moment with more news.

"WORLD SPORT" is next.

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