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Rubio: "Other Options" If There's No Deal With Iran; Colbert Bids Farewell On Final Episode Of "The Late Show"; U.S. Orders Health Screenings Amid Ebola Outbreak In Africa. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired May 22, 2026 - 04:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like, I think it was like eight or nine days. I was like, we're on spring break. We'll figure this out. I did go, but the rest of the family did, like it was the quick, hurry up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't even ask the softball question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, that's like, no, shut up.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: It was short notice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But the family, short notice. But I was like, you take the whole family fast, it's pretty hard to do.

DEAN: All right, well. So all right, for anyone out there looking for excuses, there are some options. Thank you to all of you. We appreciate it.

Thank you for watching NewsNight. You can stream the show anytime with an all access subscription in the CNN app or cnn.com/watch. CNN's coverage continues next.

[04:00:38]

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to CNN Newsroom. I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. Here's what we have ahead. U.S. senators are starting their holiday break early, why some Republican leaders revolted against the Trump administration. Marco Rubio is meeting with NATO leaders, what they're set to discuss during the summit in Sweden.

Plus, Stephen Colbert says goodbye. We'll show you how the late night host wrapped up his last show.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from London, this is CNN Newsroom with Salma Abdelaziz.

ABDELAZIZ: Backlash is growing to a slew of unpopular initiatives from President Trump, and some of it is coming from his own Republican senators who are calling it a galactic blunder and, "stupid on stilts." They've ditched plans to vote on a huge funding bill that President Trump desperately wanted to see passed and instead have opted to leave early for the long holiday weekend so that measure will not get a vote before June. Now Senate Republicans are angered by the administration's plans for a nearly $2 billion anti-weaponization fund that's meant to benefit his allies and could even put money in the pocket of January 6th rioters. The President was asked about the growing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you losing control of the Senate, sir? Are you losing control of the Senate, Senate Republicans?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know. I really don't know. I can tell you I only do what's right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: We have more now from our Kevin Liptak at the White House.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: A new toxic dynamic is emerging between President Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill after they chose to delay a vote on an immigration package over widespread consternation nation over the President's $1.8 billion anti- weaponization fund that was announced this week by the Justice Department. Many Republican senators not able to stomach that particular fund. And in a contentious meeting on Capitol Hill, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche unable to allay some of those concerns. The Republicans leaving town delaying vote on this key priority of President Trump's until they return at the beginning of June.

And it really did just add to a number of contentious issues that have placed a divide between the President and some of his Republican allies, not just on this fund, but also on his planned ballroom, this $1 billion funding request for security in the new construction. Many Republicans saying that they're unable to support that, in part because the president originally said that the ballroom would be constructed using only private donations. The President's decision this week as well to endorse in the Texas Senate race not the senior Republican senator from Texas, John Cornyn, but his rival, Ken Paxton, also creating a fraught dynamic between the President and some Republicans on the Hill.

Now, how all of this proceeds remains to be seen. Some Republican senators looking to find a way to rein in some of how the money will be spent for this anti-weaponization provision. But it's not precisely clear how they expect to do that. But it's clear President Trump, his priorities now are caught in the crossfire in some ways as he looks to get this very critical immigration funding through Congress. It seems evident that he will have to find a way to massage the some of these other issues if he is able to get all Republicans on board.

Kevin Liptak, CNN, the White House.

ABDELAZIZ: Now let's go to the war with Iran. Sources say Iran is rebuilding its military capabilities faster than expected. The sources, citing U.S. Intelligence, say Tehran has already restarted some of its drone production and its drone attack capabilities could be fully operational in as soon as six months. This is as Iran's foreign ministry dismisses rumors about a breakthrough in peace talks.

One of the main sticking points is enriched uranium. The U.S. is demanding Iran give up its stockpile, but Iran has refused to discuss it. But U.S. secretary of State Marco Rubio says Washington has options if Iran keeps refusing to budge. He spoke before flying to a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, which is now underway in Sweden.

[04:05:07]

The White House has blasted allies for refusing to help the U.S. in Iran. Rubio said the U.S. wants a diplomatic solution, but there are alternatives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think we've made some progress, but obviously we're dealing with a system that itself is a little fractured, the Iranian system. And so, but that said, there'll be a couple visits. I understand -- I believe the Pakistanis will be traveling to Tehran today, so hopefully that will advance this further. The President's preference is to do a good deal. That's his preference. It's always been his preference. If we can get a good deal done, that would be great. I'm not here to tell you that it's going to happen for sure, but I'm here to tell you that we're going to do everything we can to see if we can get one. But if we can't get a good deal, the President has been clear he has other options. I'm not going to elaborate on what those are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, Melissa Bell is following the latest developments on the NATO summit from Paris. But first let's go to Abu Dhabi, where our Leila Gharagozlou is watching the diplomatic efforts between the U.S. and Iran. Good morning, Leila. Thank you so much for joining us. Now we've seen President Trump for weeks now vacillating between resuming bombardment of Iran and holding out for a potential peace deal. Where do those mediation efforts stand now, and do they have any shot of reaching an agreement soon here?

LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN PRODUCER: Yes. So we're hearing some really interesting back and forth between the Iranians and the Americans. The Americans and President Trump, namely, have taken a rather positive tone when it comes to these negotiations. Earlier this week, President Trump said that he felt that there had been positive developments, which is why he wasn't going to attack Iran. We heard that same sentiment from Vice President J.D. Vance and now from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Now, the Iranians, for their part, are taking a slightly more cautious approach to these negotiations. They are still engaging in dialogues. Just this morning, the Iranian foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, did meet with the Pakistani interior minister, but they say that there's still some pretty big gaps when it comes to those key issues, like the nuclear program and the missing enriched uranium.

President Trump this week and in previous months has made it very clear that enriched uranium cannot stay in Iran. The new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has contradicted that, saying that enriched uranium has to stay in Iran. So you can see, we're at a bit impasse when it comes to some of these key issues. Salma?

ABDELAZIZ: And I want to break down this new reporting that we have that Iran has already restarted drone production and that it could be up to the same levels in just as little as six months. What does that tell us? Has -- have the U.S. and Israel failed to degrade Iran's capabilities to any significant degree here?

GHARAGOZLOU: Yes. So we learned a couple of things from this report. They are, as you say, rebuilding their military capabilities, in particular, ramping up their drone production. And these drones have been very critical to Iran's strategy in the region and its retaliation against the U.S. and Israel.

These drones, it has to be noted, are very cheaply made and can be produced very, very quickly, which is why we're seeing this happen in just about six months. The other thing that we learned from this report is why Iran has been able to rebuild its military capability so much faster than U.S. officials actually estimated. And they say that comes down to help from Russia and China, but also from the fact that the U.S. and Israel actually did not degrade the military capability as much as they had previously thought.

And I think it's important to note that a lot of Iran's military capability is very heavily fortified and underground, so it is difficult to access and requires quite a lot of attack to do so. Now, President Trump did contradict this report. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have total control of the Strait of Hormuz, as you know, with our blockade. The blockade has been 100 percent effective. Nobody's been able to get through. It's like a steel wall. It's our navy. We have the greatest military anywhere in the world. We wiped out their navy. We wiped out their air. I think they're down to about, I would say we knocked out 85 percent of their missile capacity. It's very hard for them now to build missiles, to build drones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GHARAGOZLOU: Now, this missile capability is one of the key issues both in the nuclear negotiations and has been a key issue for the U.S. and Israel in general. According to newer reports, they still have quite a lot of their missile launchers that haven't been impacted by the U.S. strikes. So we're just going to have to see how things shake out. Salma?

ABDELAZIZ: Thank you, Leila, for breaking that down and just displaying that challenge of destroying what is a cheap and simple technology in those drones.

Now to Melissa, we heard that message there from the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. He clearly has some tough words when it comes to Iran. What can we expect when it comes to the tone and the message that he's carrying into this NATO meeting today?

[04:10:07]

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's expected to be fairly frosty. Remember, of course, Salma, that this is probably the lowest point that the alliance has had in terms of its future, its cohesion. And we saw, we know that this is, of course, a meeting that's taking place between the foreign ministers ahead of a leaders meeting that will take place in, in Turkey over the course of the summer. The idea is really to try and see how they can smooth things over in this very tested relationship between the United States and its NATO allies.

It is the first time that this meeting will take place ever since President Trump threatened to leave the alliance and since the American administration has announced this drawdown of some of its troops on the European continent. So Europeans are going to be wanting a lot of -- a lot more clarity on that than they've had so far. So specifically because there have been contradictory messages on this.

The United States, we know, is coming to tell them once again that they want increased spending. And I think the Europeans are very keen, of course, to get Ukraine back on the agenda, very keen to get the United States to pay attention to that once more. And so we expect that there will be attempts on the part of the Europeans really to try and placate both by pledging to up their spending, but also in terms of suggesting the help they might bring to securing the Strait of Hormuz. Although the position remains that none of them intend to get involved in this war. And so far, that has been a major issue for Washington.

ABDELAZIZ: Melissa, if you could help me break down this other issue around troop numbers. So the U.S. did this turnaround. President Trump did this about face, saying that there would be 5,000 troops sent to Poland. But then there's reports that there might be troop cuts when it comes to the U.S.'s position on providing troops in case of crisis. Tell me what's going on here. What does this look like for NATO leaders? Do they have a clear answer? Are we expecting a clear answer?

BELL: I think that's exactly what they're going to be wanting because to that question of the troops in case of crisis, that is the point of NATO. So if there is any shift on that from Washington, that would be very worrying for the alliance. On the troop drawdowns, we know that 5,000 or so soldiers are meant to be leaving the European continent, that, of course, hugely worrying for Europeans as well.

And then you had this statement from President Trump suggesting that in fact several thousand would be going to Poland as a result of his friendship with the right wing Polish president. So there have been contradictory messages and Europeans are absolutely going to be wanting a lot more clarity on that because it is again, their continent's security that they're talking about. What role does the United States intend to play in that going forward, Salma?

ABDELAZIZ: Thank you so much Melissa Bell in Paris and Leila in Abu Dhabi, thank you both so much for breaking down those details for us. Stephen Colbert has said farewell on the final episode of "The Late Show." It featured a slew of cameo appearances, including Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Tim Meadows and Ryan Reynolds. The final surprise guest was Paul McCartney, who performed on the same stage with The Beatles back in 1960. Colbert has hosted "The Late Show" for 11 years and he has been a vocal critic of President Trump and his policies. In the final episode, Colbert went out with a smile and gratitude for his staff, the studio audience and his viewers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": This show, I want you to know and you to know, has been a joy for us to do for you. In fact, we call this show The Joy Machine. All right. Louis stole it from us and we are currently in litigation right now. You better lawyer up, buddy. We call it The Joy Machine because to do this many shows, it has to be a machine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

COLBERT: But the thing is, if you choose to do it with joy, it doesn't hurt as much when your fingers get caught in the gears.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: Now, after the show ended, Trump wrote on social media, "Amazing that he lasted so long. No talent, no ratings, no life. Thank goodness he's finally gone."

Joining us now live from Los Angeles is Kliph Nesteroff. He is a comedy historian and author of two books, one of the history of showbiz and culture wars and the other about the history of American comedy. First of all, thank you so much for joining us this morning. I want to begin by speaking about that final episode because Stephen Colbert started by saying it's not going to be a special episode because all of my episodes are special. But it was pretty special, right? What was your impression? How did it leave you feeling?

KLIPH NESTEROFF, COMEDY HISTORIAN: I really enjoyed it. You know, there's been anticipation all week. All eyes were on this show. And the one thing that I thought was really fun, really cool, it's very rare that there's any television program that we're all paying attention to at the exact same time anymore.

So this is sort of a throwback for me when I think about the historic moments in late night, whether it was the Letterman, Leno wars, whether it was Johnny Carson's last week and Bette Midler singing or Drew Barrymore dancing on Letterman's desk. This sort of feels like one of those moments which we haven't had in years and years and years.

[04:15:19]

And the thing that I really appreciated about the show tonight was all the hat tips to that history. The show opened with, with a mashup, a collage, if you will, of all the late night hosts that came before Steve Allen, the first host of "The Tonight Show," Jack Paar, Dick Cavett.

And something that I realized as I watched that mashup is that Stephen Colbert's program was on the air longer than Steve Allen did "The Tonight Show," longer than Jack Paar did "The Tonight Show," longer than the Dick Cavett show on ABC. So that's quite the accomplishment, despite the fact less of us are watching it. And it doesn't have the same magnitude perhaps that it would have during the three network era, but tonight it did have that magnitude.

So for me, it was sort of a fun thing to enjoy. And I love the fact that so many of us worldwide are discussing it at the exact same time.

ABDELAZIZ: And that magnitude that you mentioned, that comes with controversy. Of course, many fans of "The Late Show," and I think even Colbert sort of tipped his hat to this during that last episode, think that this is a capitulation to President Donald Trump. Why was the show canceled? Straight answer here.

NESTEROFF: Well, of course, I mean, only a fool would deny. But it's not just Trump. It's media consolidation, it's corporate power and the influence that they have not just on American politics, but international politics. And so all week long when I've done interviews, people have asked me, like, what's the future of late night?

And to me, it's not that important of a question compared to what is the future of America? What is the future of antitrust laws? What is the future of lobbying, bullying and pushing dissenting voices out of view? And really the views, the voices that are opposed to media consolidation or to Donald Trump or to this sort of bully tactic is not really a dissenting view. It's the majority view. It's the mainstream view, not just in America, but worldwide.

But ultimately, Stephen Colbert will survive. Comedy will survive, even as corporations consolidate more power. Of course, there's more of us who agree than not, so.

ABDELAZIZ: And you've hit so much on this impact in this magnitude and this being an opportunity or a place in which that criticism, not just of the president, but of media consolidation, as you mentioned in other aspects of American culture. What are we missing here by losing this show? Because it's not just comedy, it's not just an end of late night television. It is so much bigger. What gap does this leave in American political dialogue and culture?

NESTEROFF: Well, I don't know if it does leave a gap per se in that sense, when I look back at Stephen Colbert's career so far, it's obviously not over, but his career. When I look at the previous show, "The Colbert Report," his previous program on Comedy Central was a much more hard hitting, much more vicious satirical political comedy show. This show, "The Late Show," for much of its run, wasn't that political.

Of course, he talked about current events, just as Johnny Carson did in the 70s, but it was made more political by the political environment and of course, by being attacked by the man in charge at the White House. I think Stephen Colbert will still be a voice. He will be less censored in a podcast format on the live stage. Let's not forget that long before Donald Trump, network television has traditionally been the most sort of concern.

ABDELAZIZ: I'm so sorry to interrupt you, Kliph. Thank you so much. I'm sorry. We have some breaking news. The Secretary of State is speaking right now just at that NATO summit. So we're going to break away to listen to him.

RUBIO: We continue with cooperation. You saw the President's announcement last night with regards to Poland and deployment. That said, we obviously, the United States continues to have global commitments that it needs to meet in terms of our force deployment. And that constantly requires us to reexamine where we put troops.

This is not a punitive thing. It's just something that's ongoing. And it was preexisting all these recent reports and tensions and so forth. So that's a process that will continue that I think in a very positive and productive way. And collaboration with our allies can reach decisions.

But in the end, you know, like any alliance, it has to be good for everyone who's involved. It has to be a clear understanding of what the expectations are. And so certainly we'll try to lay the groundwork for that. One of the areas where I think we definitely can cooperate on is the defense industrial base.

[04:19:55]

It is clear to the world, to all of us in the alliance, and beyond that, we simply are not able to produce munitions today at a rate that are necessary for future needs. That's something that has to be addressed. That's something that we can work together on, that's something we want to work together on. I think it's key, not just to production, but to interoperability. And so I imagine that will be a topic of conversation.

On the issue of Iran, the news this morning, I know it's early on the it's still in the United States, a little later in the region, in the Middle East. But we await word on those conversations that are ongoing. There's been some slight progress. I don't want to exaggerate it, but there's been a little bit of movement and that's good. The fundamentals remain the same. Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.

It just cannot. This regime can never have nuclear weapons. And to achieve that, we're going to have to address the issue of enrichment. We're going to have to address the issue of the highly enriched uranium. And then added to this, of course, is the issue of the Strait. Iran is trying to create a tolling system. They're trying to convince Oman, by the way, to join them. There's not a country in the world that should accept that.

I don't know of a country in the world that's in favor of it except Iran. But there's no country in the world that should accept it. Right now at the United Nations, we have a resolution that is sponsored by Bahrain. We've been very involved with it. It has the highest number of co-sponsors of any resolution ever before the Security Council.

Unfortunately, a couple of countries on the Security Council are thinking about vetoing it. That would be lamentable. We are doing everything we can, though, to achieve the sort of global consensus that's necessary to prevent this from happening. And we're trying to use the United Nations. Let's see if the United Nations still works. That's a place that we're going to try to get an outcome for.

And obviously, I think almost every country represented here today has signed on as a co-sponsor of that resolution. And if they haven't, I'm sure they soon will, because I don't know of anyone in the world that would -- that should be in favor of a tolling system in an international waterway. That's just not acceptable. It can't happen.

If that were to happen in the Straits of Hormuz, it will happen in five other places around the world. Why would countries all over the world say, well, we want to do this too, not to mention how vital and critical that strait is to every country represented here today, but frankly to countries not represented here today, particularly the Indo Pacific. So we'll have a good meeting today. I hope it will be productive.

I expect it will be. And it'll set the groundwork for the leaders to meet in about six weeks. And we have a lot of work to do between now and then. OK, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

ABDELAZIZ: Now to a growing Ebola outbreak in Central Africa, which is prompting the U.S. to take new preventative action. Health screenings are being done at a Pacific airport for some travelers. Details on the outbreak and the response are just ahead.

And a shock death in the world of motorsports. NASCAR champion Kyle Busch has died just hours after his team said he was sick. We'll have all the details for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:26:37]

ABDELAZIZ: The World Health Organization is stepping up its response to the deadly Ebola outbreak in Central Africa. Two cargo planes have delivered 14 tons of medical supplies to the Democratic Republic of Congo. The DRC says at least 160 deaths are thought to be linked to the disease. Thirteen new confirmed cases were reported on Thursday, with dozens of suspected cases in one northern province. Neighboring Uganda is suspending all public transport with the DRC to help prevent the disease from spreading.

Now, protesters clashed with authorities at an Ebola treatment site in the DRC on Thursday. Some family members reportedly tried to forcibly reclaim the bodies of their loved ones, but authorities refused. That escalated with protesters setting fire to two hospital tents. Now, police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse the crowds.

And the U.S. is taking new precautions to try to keep Ebola out of the country. The government is now requiring health screenings for some international travelers. Air passengers who were recently in the region of the outbreak must land at Dulles International airport near Washington, D.C. for testing.

CNN's Brian Todd is on the scene.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here at Dulles Airport. We've been speaking to several passengers who have been coming in the international arrival section, asking them about the experience of possibly being screened and just kind of what they went through in the customs area where they landed. Several passengers, almost all of them, told us that people are asked when they come into the customs area whether anybody has flown in from Africa. And if someone raises their hand and says they have, they are then asked which country in Africa they have flown in from.

If they have not come in from one of the three countries in question, meaning Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo or South Sudan, then they're allowed to go. I spoke to two women, one of which, one of whom said she came in from Lagos, Nigeria. Another one said she came in from Sierra Leone. When they told officials where they had come in from, they were allowed to proceed on out.

So the screening is taking place here at Dulles. It is ramping up. According to a CDC person with knowledge of the plan who spoke to CNN, at least 10 CDC staffers are here at Dulles to help with the screening process. Again, this directive just coming down from the CDC, the State Department, and the Department of Homeland Security that all U.S. bound flights carrying passengers from an Ebola infected region must now land here at Washington Dulles International Airport, where they will undergo screening.

The State Department requirement applies to all passengers, including U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents who have come in from one of these three countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and South Sudan. Now, we have to say that this screening procedure, the possibility of being screened, it does not necessarily mean that these people who have been actually infected or exposed that we know of, it's just people who have been flying in from those areas just to make sure.

The CDC issued a statement not too long ago saying that to date, so far, no suspected, probable or confirmed cases of Ebola have been reported in the U.S. and that the risk of Ebola domestically here in the U.S. is low. But they say that this is just part of a layered process that they want to make sure that people are screened. We're told that passengers who are going to undergo the screening process will be escorted to a screening area. They will be asked to fill out a questionnaire about their travel and about possible symptoms and that they then would be observed by CDC staff for signs of illness and that they would have their temperatures taken.

[04:30:07]