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War With Iran; FBI Raided Virginia State Senator's Office; Ted Turner 1938-2026. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 07, 2026 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:33:12]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Back to our top story at this hour, a source says that Iran is expected to respond today to a US proposal to end the war. US President Donald Trump says that Iran wants to make a deal and has touted what he described as good talks between the two sides. He also says that there is no deadline for when he expects an Iranian response. And all of that coming after he issued a new threat that the bombing would start again if Iran does not agree to a deal.

Israel says that it killed the commander of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force in Beirut on Wednesday. It's the first strike in the city since a ceasefire in Lebanon. An Israeli official telling CNN that the deputy commander is believed to be wounded.

Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters have continued to target each other in Southern Lebanon. Israel claiming that their operation in the region that they don't violate the truce.

We're currently watching oil prices, which seem to be responding pretty favorably to this plan for ending the war, some new promise there. But don't expect gas prices to drop, at least not anytime soon. CNN's David Goldman explains why that may be more of a marathon than a sprint.

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN REPORTER: So the oil market's certainly taking a big tumble Aad this is because of a lot of optimism that we could be nearing the end of the war. Now, we've been here before, certainly about a month ago, there was a lot of optimism in the oil market about the ceasefire and oil tumbled below $100, but then crept all the way back up as it became clear that, you know, peace negotiations don't generally happen in the matter of days or weeks, they tend to happen over the course of months.

[04:34:59]

Now, the oil market again is believing that there could be some good news coming down the pike on the Iran war. But even if the war were to end and the Strait of Hormuz were to open tonight or tomorrow, it doesn't necessarily mean that oil is going to be free flowing right away. There's a lot of things that need to happen before we get there. First of all, all of the tankers, 160 odd tankers, need to be cleared out of the Strait of Hormuz. That is not something that happens right away, they move as fast as an oil tanker. That could take weeks. And then empty tankers need to come in and then start drawing down the stockpiles, and all the warehoused oil that we've been storing in the Middle East during the war.

Once those tankers are filled, production can start to come back online but that is not an easy process. It's not like turning on an oil switch. This is a very complex engineering feat that involves a lot of coordination across multiple nations and companies. Pressure needs to be maintained across all of these very close by wells and they could explode. You don't want that to happen.

So once production is back online and that returns to normal, there's all of the exploded inventory and the infrastructure that needs to be fixed. That could take years. So are we going to get back down to $60 oil and $3 anytime soon, no. It doesn't seem that way. This could be a matter of years before we get back to that. Back to you.

SANDOVAL: An FBI raid on a Virginia state senator's office is prompting new claims of political targeting. Federal agents searched the office in the cannabis store of Louise Lucas in Portsmouth on Wednesday. And this comes just two weeks after Lucas led a successful effort to redistrict the Virginia electoral map as CNN's Sunlen Serfaty reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Louise Lucas is a longtime and very prominent Democratic state senator in Virginia. On Wednesday morning, the FBI executed a search warrant of her personal office in Portsmouth, Virginia, as well as multiple businesses of hers. One just very close across the street called Cannabis Outlet that sells marijuana products.

Now, at this time, the intended target or scope of the investigation is still unclear. A person close to the state senator told me that she has not been charged. They say federal agents were there when she arrived in the parking lot outside of her office, and they seized electronics and other items.

Now, very notably, Lucas recently helped lead the Democrats successful redistricting efforts in the state that could help them pick up seats in the midterm elections. And Democrats are already raising alarms over what prompted the timing of this. Congressman Bobby Scott, a Virginia Democrat, he noted that the searches indeed come just two weeks after Lucas led that effort saying "while we await the full facts of the investigation, it must be acknowledged that this FBI raid occurs in the broader context of President Trump's repeated abuse of the Department of Justice to target his perceived political opponents."

And Don Scott, who's the speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, he also said in a statement, "people should take this with a grain of salt and allow the facts to come out before jumping to conclusions given the politicization of this administration."

Now, Lucas has not commented on all of this yet, but a source close to her tells me, quote, she is a fighter. Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And we are remembering CNN founder Ted Turner who passed away on Wednesday at the age of 87. Just ahead, our chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour pays tribute to the media maverick and billionaire businessman.

[04:39:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANDOVAL: We are remembering Ted Turner this morning, the legendary and outspoken media maverick who revolutionized television news when he founded CNN. Well, he passed away Wednesday at the age of 87 after a long battle with Lewy body dementia. But the billionaire businessman will be remembered for so much more than just this network.

You see, he was an international statesman, a philanthropist, a conservationist, and a huge sports enthusiast. CNN's Wolf Blitzer looks back at the life and the legacy of one of the greatest visionaries of our time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TERRY MCGUIRK, FORMER CEO, TURNER BROADCASTING SYSTEM: He broke every mold. He changed the world.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Known as the "Mouth of the South" and "Captain Outrageous," Ted Turner built a media empire that changed cable news forever.

TED TURNER, CNN FOUNDER: I don't know how to quit. It's not in my genes.

BLITZER: Ted got his start working for his dad's billboard company in his early 20s, but tragedy struck when his father killed himself.

TURNER: He went against everything that he that he taught me. You know, be courageous and hang in there.

BLITZER: Ted took over the family business.

TURNER: He said, set your goals so high that you can't achieve them in your lifetime.

BLITZER: When Ted wasn't working, he turned to the sport he loved, sailing.

TURNER: We got to go as fast as we can here. BLITZER: And won the sport's top race, the Americas Cup. He put that same drive into expanding the business. In 1970, Ted bought a struggling TV station and it became the country's first superstation.

MCGUIRK: He was going to transform UHF television into this new world of satellite television.

BLITZER: As he built the superstation, he set his sights even higher on a 24 hour news channel.

TOM JOHNSON, FORMER PRESIDENT, CNN: Most of the leaders of the world thought Ted was nuts.

TURNER: I dedicate the news channel for America, the Cable News Network. Take a letter, Mike. Cue them.

BLITZER: CNN aired its first broadcast on June 1, 1980. It took five years to turn a profit.

TURNER: I live for 20 years in my office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see her there. She's --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ted didn't care as much about ratings as he did about being the most trusted name and news.

BLITZER: Ted also cared about the world. He donated a billion dollars to the United Nations.

TURNER: I'm no poorer than I was nine months ago and the world is a lot better off.

BLITZER: And he expanded his empire, launching networks like TNT and Turner Classic Movies. In his personal life, Ted was married and divorced twice with five children before he finally met his match, Jane Fonda.

JANE FONDA, TED TURNER'S FORMER WIFE: I've never met any human being that thinks the way Ted does.

BLITZER: In 1996, he sold his networks to Time Warner. He got almost $8 billion. Five years later, Time Warner merged with AOL and Ted was out.

[04:45:02]

JOHNSON: Ted used the description, I've been fired. Ted got shafted, and it hurt.

BLITZER: He lost his umpire and the love of his life. After 10 years of marriage, he and Jane parted ways. But Ted never gave up his final act, saving the planet. He created the UN Foundation and the Nuclear Threat Initiative. He made it his mission to save the bison.

TURNER: Hi.

BLITZER: And he opened restaurants to ensure their survival.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ted's love of the outdoors has made him perhaps the number one environmentalist that I've ever known.

BLITZER: Before his 80th birthday, Ted revealed he had Lewy body Dementia, a progressive disease. He spent his final years treasuring private moments, his ranch and his family.

JOHNSON: We have never seen a man quite like Ted Turner before on this planet. And I don't think we'll ever see another one like him again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:50:07]

(MUSIC)

SANDOVAL: That's American country music star Kacey Musgraves performing with three Texas teenagers known as the Mariachi Brothers. Meet Antonio, Caleb and Joshua Gamez-Cuellar, 18, 15, and 12 years old, respectively. They are celebrated young mariachi musicians.

In February, the teens and their parents were detained by immigration authorities, and they spent nearly two weeks in immigration detention. While outcry from musicians from around the country, from Texas leadership as well, bipartisan leadership, well, they helped get the family released in March. A DHS spokesperson said that the family will have mandatory check-ins with ICE law enforcement, though their attorney says that they entered the country lawfully.

US Congressman Joaquin Castro, who met with the family when they were released, says that their case is still under investigation, their immigration proceedings pending. And earlier, I did speak with these Mariachi Brothers about how they went from ICE detention to center stage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANTONIO GAMEZ-CUELLAR: We're so excited for, like, this opportunity that Kacey, like, gave us. We're so thankful with her for everything that she has, like, done for us, because, honestly, she helped a lot with us or, like, our story. And thanks to her, like, we got, like, a beautiful, like, really beautiful experience.

We love to share stage with her and to have, like, these memories with her, like, we are so thankful with her.

SANDOVAL: Talk to me, any one of you guys could talk to me about maybe, like, the importance right now on holding on to who you are, your identity, and the way you express yourself through mariachi music.

A. GAMEZ-CUELLAR: I mean, we think that we have to hold, like, who we are because this is the thing. Our identity is the mariachi. We are the people that we are because what we have done, like, in these last couple of years, some before we got here to the US I wouldn't like mariachi at all.

Like, it was something very different for me. But find out, like, this is my identity. Thanks to Mr. Trevino (ph), my director, for me to be the person that I am right now. And we think that is very important, that we, like, how do I say it? That we, like, hold who we are because if we don't, like, accept who we are, so then what are we doing? We believe that our culture, it's who we are, too.

Like, all that we share, all the memories that we share is because our culture and everything that we have done tends to recognize what's our culture and our identity.

SANDOVAL: I mean, talk about the timing, too, and an opportunity to basically step into the spotlight and to share your story. I mean, it's obviously a deeply polarizing time right now, politically, obviously, immigration, it's a very polarizing topic. And so, as more people hear your stories about where you and your family came from, where you and your family are hoping to do in the United States and build their lives together as a family, I mean, what do you think? What do you hope, I should ask.

Should be the takeaway, especially maybe even for the man in the White House.

A. GAMEZ-CUELLAR: I mean, honestly, we don't want to, how do I say? We don't want to have any kind of trouble. We are immigrants that came here for a better life. The only thing that we would love to happen, it's to people, like, open their eyes to see that we're humans.

Like, every single one of us. We're not different. Maybe the place that we were born, but just this experience by going to green, it opened, like, a lot of eyes and a lot of, like, people's, like, brain to, like, understand that we are the same.

We're humans. And we just hope that people, more people open their eyes so they can see that all of us, like, I would love to call it that we're brothers because all of us have, like, hair. I'm not sorry.

SANDOVAL: Yeah.

[04:55:00]

A. GAMEZ-CUELLAR: But, like, mostly of us, like, have a life. We have, like a, like a heart. All of us breathe, like, all of us, like, have a heart that beats, and all of us have feelings. So we just hope, like, people can open their eyes to look at what's happening and look at us and see, OK, they're humans.

They're like us. They're not any different just because they came here to search, like, a better life. And we hope that our story, like, gives hope to more families that are, like, having the same situation, and to tell them to don't give up.

Because we're already here, and honestly, we have been here for three years and we hope that we're going to stay way more years because this country have given us, like, a lot. We have to be honest, we love this country. We love the people that is here.

We don't hate anybody. We love everybody. We're religious. We believe in God. And we know that the example that Jesus Christ gave us wasn't to hate anybody.

He wanted us to love each other and to not have enemies because we're like, we're brothers in Jesus Christ.

SANDOVAL: Well, it is also a remarkable gift that you, Antonio, and your brothers give not just your native Mexico, Texas, but really the world with every note that the three of you play and couldn't be any more thrilled to be able to speak to you and that you had the opportunity to share your stories again. Thank you.

So our thanks to Caleb, Joshua and to you, Antonio, as well for taking the time. Thanks, guys.

A. GAMEZ-CUELLAR: Thank you so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: We really appreciate you watching. I'm Polo Sandoval in New York. CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS is next.