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President Trump States He Will Decide by Tomorrow on Whether to Resume Military Attacks against Iran If No Acceptable Peace Deal Proposed; NASCAR Driver Kyle Busch Reportedly Died from Complications of Severe Pneumonia and Sepsis; Tank Holding Toxic Chemicals at Risk of Exploding in Southern California, Putting 40,000 People Under Evacuation Orders; Ebola Outbreak Spreads to Second African Country; Congressional Republicans Push Back against President Trump's Proposed Anti-Weaponization Fund; Texas Firefighter Conducts Rare Hot Air Balloon Rescue; Film Documents U.S. World War Two Veterans Returning to Normandy Beach. Aired 2-3p ET.

Aired May 23, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:33]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump says he'll likely decide by tomorrow whether to resume the war with Iran. He also says both sides are getting closer to a deal. We'll have all the breaking details.

Plus, a tank holding toxic chemicals is at risk of exploding in southern California, putting 40,000 people under evacuation orders. Officials described the substance as highly flammable and volatile as crews race to prevent a blast or leak just a few miles away from Disneyland.

And just in to CNN, we've now learned NASCAR driver Kyle Busch died from complications of severe pneumonia and sepsis. The new statement from his family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

WHITFIELD: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Saturday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin with breaking news in the effort to end the war between the U.S. and Iran. Today, President Trump said he will likely decide whether to resume military action against Iran by tomorrow after he reviews that country's latest peace proposal. He told "Axios" in a phone call today it was a, quote, "solid 50-50 chance" that he could reach a good deal with Tehran or else, quote, "blow them to kingdom come", end quote. Trump says he will meet with his top advisers later on today to reveal and review the latest proposal put together by mediators in Tehran. And he's holding a call with Gulf leaders at this hour.

CNN's Julia Benbrook joins us now from the White House. Julia, what more can you tell us? JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we do know that that high

stakes call with top advisors as well as Gulf leaders is underway as we speak. In fact, our team spotted Vice President J.D. Vance arriving here at the White House just about an hour ago.

Now, I do want to take a little bit of a step back here, because it was just a few weeks ago that the United States sent a proposal to end the conflict with Iran over to Iran. Iran responded, and Trump called that response totally unacceptable. He made it very clear he was not happy with what was in it. He said that after reading the first sentence, he knew that it didn't go far enough in addressing his red lines, which include nuclear ambitions.

Now, today, he is expressing that he could make a decision by Sunday tomorrow on whether to resume military action in Tehran. At the same time, he is expressing some optimism that they could reach a deal. So he had these brief interviews earlier today with various news outlets. When he spoke with CBS, he said that there was a draft agreement. He confirmed that he had read the draft agreement, but would not say specifically if he had signed off on it.

Then in that interview with "Axios", as you pointed out, he said that there was a 50-50 chance that there could be a good deal or that he could take further action against Iran. The exact quote there was that he could "blow them to kingdom come."

Now, he also emphasized that he was only going to agree to something if the United States gets everything that he wants. That's something that he has said repeatedly throughout this process.

And then earlier in the day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that they could be closer to a framework agreement after those mediators from Qatar and Pakistan had meetings in Tehran. And then just kind of adding to that language, he said, there's a chance that we could hear an update today, tomorrow or in the coming days. I want you to hear the way he framed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Theres been some progress done, some progress made. Even as I speak to you now, there's some work being done. There is a chance that whether it's later today, tomorrow, in a couple of days, we may have something to say. But this issue needs to be solved, as the president has said, one way or the other. Iran can never have a nuclear weapon. The straits need to be open without tolls. They need to turn over their enriched uranium.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: So he lists out there once again what the United States is looking for, with that first mention being that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and emphasize that diplomatic efforts are underway. Again, that call is happening now. Fred?

[14:05:00]

WHITFIELD: All right, Julia Benbrook, keep us posted on it as you learn more details on that call.

All right, with me right now to talk more about these developments is retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. He is a CNN military analyst. Colonel, always great to see you. So the president says he'll likely decide by tomorrow whether to resume military action after reviewing the proposal. What kind of message is he sending at this very critical moment in these talks?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think, Fredricka, and it's great to be with you, as well. It's one of those messages where he's clearly considering the diplomatic alternative. He has a lot of pressure to move in a diplomatic direction, as opposed to a military direction. But if those three things that Secretary Rubio mentioned, you know, basically no Iran nuclear weapons, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and transiting the 440 or so kilograms of enriched uranium outside of Iran to another country, that, if those items are not met, then it looks like the agreement might be off.

The Iranians have been very reluctant to agree to those kinds of terms. And if there's some halfway point, it's kind of not discernible at this particular moment in time, because both sides seem to have fairly maximalist positions on at least one of those issues. So if that's the case, then either there's an agreement that comes out of this that maybe gets one or two of those items that they can agree to, but it looks unlikely that they would get an agreement that would have all three of those items that would be agreed to beyond, you know, beyond the two -- between the two powers.

WHITFIELD: And I realize we should be talking military strategy, but that's not, you know, consistent with how the president, the commander in chief, seems to be prioritizing messaging.

So what kind of options are U.S. military leaders, including Joint Chiefs, giving the president likely when he says, if diplomacy through a peace proposal doesn't work, execute a plan to blow things up, how are they either dialing that back or what kind of options might they be offering to him?

LEIGHTON: Well, I think there'd be several options. And usually when the Pentagon presents options to the president, there are three or four options that he can choose from, and then he may decide to modify the final choices as well.

But those options would include just going after their infrastructure once again. And he's particularly indicated, I think President Trump seems to be pretty keen on going after things like bridges and power plants. So he's looking at targets that at best are dual use targets, both military and civilian use targets. They could also opt to do something like occupy part of the ground near the shoreline near the Strait of Hormuz. How effective that would be would be certainly in question. And it would require a lot of troops, probably more than what is currently aligned and arraigned in the Middle East.

But that's one aspect of this. So that those would be potentially two options. Another one would be, we've talked about this, you know, a few months ago, would be taking over Kharg Island. That again, is something where it would impact the production of Iranian oil and the ability to ship that oil to another country, to export it, in other words. So those are options that they could take.

The other thing, of course, would be to go in line with the Israelis and their goal of eliminating the Iranian ballistic missile threat. That's a very difficult thing to do, and given the newest intelligence reports that were seeing, they're basically saying that Iran has been able to reconstitute anywhere between 70 to 75 percent of its rockets and the launch capability associated with those rockets. So Iran has been able to reconstitute things during this ceasefire. That should also weigh on the president's decision matrix.

But if he decides one way or the other, it's going to -- they're going to be some compromises that are going to have to be made, I think, in either case, whether it's military action or whether it's the diplomatic path.

WHITFIELD: Right. And reportedly this week, Iran has been able to, you know, reinvigorate its drone production as well. All right, Colonel Cedric Leighton, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you so much.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, and this just in to CNN on the sudden passing of racing superstar Kyle Busch at the age of 41. His family has announced that the two-time NASCAR Cup series champion died from complications of severe pneumonia that progressed into sepsis. According to the CDC, sepsis is the body's overwhelming and life- threatening response to an infection, and it can be triggered by any type of infection, including a minor one, and can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death.

[14:10:01]

The Associated Press reports that Busch was on a racing simulator on Wednesday when he became unresponsive and was taken to a hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina. According to a 911 call obtained by CNN, Busch coughed up blood and had shortness of breath while getting ready for Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

All right, still to come, Republicans, using words like "utterly stupid" and "stupid on stilts" to describe Trump's anti-weaponization fund. Is the GOP revolt just the beginning?

And next, tens of thousands of people in southern California told to evacuate as crews raced to prevent a potentially disastrous toxic explosion. We'll have the latest.

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[14:15:27]

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back.

In southern California, 40,000 people are under evacuation orders over concerns this tank containing a highly toxic and flammable chemical might explode. Orange County authorities have been working to cool the tank after it started overheating Thursday, but officials are now saying the tank is not cooling and has risen to 90 degrees. The aerospace manufacturing facility where the storage vessel is located is about five miles from Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. Both parks are outside the evacuation zone, and for now, remain open.

CNN national correspondent Rafael Romo is following these developments for us. Rafael, what can you tell us about this dangerous chemical and what is being done to try to cool the compromised tank?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Yes, dangerous indeed, Fredricka. Authorities responded Thursday to the plant after there was a vapor release from a tank containing a toxic chemical. According to the Orange County fire authority, one of the three tanks at the site that belongs to GKN Aerospace had increased in temperature and activated a relief valve in overhead sprinklers, a system designed to cool the tanks. Evacuation orders were initially issued for the area around the plant on Thursday, but they were lifted that night after the vapor conditions improved. According to Orange County fire authority interim Fire Chief T.J. McGovern, as crews tried to remove and contain the chemical known as methyl methacrylate, or MMA, they realized that the tank had a damaged valve, so the chemical could not be removed, which prompted authorities to reinstate evacuation orders.

Those orders, Fred, were issued to those in the nine square mile area around the facility involved, affecting over 40,000 residents. Some of southern Californias main attractions, as you mentioned, including Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and Angel stadium, are all located less than ten miles from the plant but are outside the evacuation zone, and both parks told CNN they remain open and operational, and there's a game scheduled at Angel stadium tonight.

A top Orange County fire official earlier said that firefighters had been able to lower the tanks temperature, but in an update, said the temperature is now again increasing. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CRAIG COVEY, INCIDENT COMMANDER, ORANGE COUNTY FIRE AUTHORITY: Yesterday afternoon, I did report that we had some positive intel in that the tanks were stable and we were keeping the temperature cool, and actually we thought we were reducing it a little bit. Unfortunately, I have to say, thought. Those temperatures we were doing is via a drone doing readings on the external vessel. Unfortunately, I do have to report that the temperature was 90 degrees. Yesterday morning it was 77 degrees when we backed out. It's been averaging about a degree an hour, increasing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Looking now at live images from the site, an Orange County health official said MMA, the toxic chemical leaking at the plant, can cause major respiratory issues, including significant irritation to the lungs and nasal passages, as well as dizziness and nausea. This is how a local resident described what it smells like in the affected area to CNN affiliate KCBS and KCAL.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This reminds me of the burn pits in Iraq, you know, the smell. It's just ridiculous that we have to just sit here not knowing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: In a statement, GKN Aerospace, the company that owns the plant, apologized, quote, "for the significant disruption to the many local residents and businesses who have had to be evacuated. We are fully focused on working with emergency services, specialized hazardous material teams, and the relevant authorities to ensure the safety of the local community, our employees, and everyone else involved." The company said Chief Covey with the Orange County Fire Authority said that if efforts to cool the tank fail, two possible scenarios include the tank cracking and leaking 7,000 gallons of MMA into the surrounding parking lot, or, worse, the container could explode. Authorities say these risks underscore the importance of people evacuating from the designated area. There are six shelters now open. Fred, now back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, pretty frightening. Rafael Romo, thank you so much.

Of course, we've got a lot of questions that come from all this. And with us now on the phone, we're joined by Captain Steve Concialdi with the Orange County Fire Authority.

[14:20:05]

Captain, glad you'd be with us. I mean, this is pretty alarming and frightening, a very different picture unfolding today compared to yesterday, with the temperature increasing now with this tank. Readings, what earlier in the week or even yesterday was in the 50s or so and now in the 90s. What are your options in trying to cool things so that there isn't a potential explosion or leak?

CAPT. STEVE CONCIALDI, ORANGE COUNTY FIRE AUTHORITY: Well, yes, yesterday the temperature rose to about 77 degrees. Late last night we had experts, hazmat experts, and technical experts go into the area, and then they were able to get an internal reading. They were initially basically putting in some stabilizer and neutralizing it. So there's liquid, there's three tanks there. The first tank, which we call tank number one, had about 7,000 gallons of this chemical. And that's what was off gassing on Thursday afternoon. And that tank started bulging.

So last night we started working on tank two and tank three. So tank two, we were able to neutralize that, had a lot of chemical in there. So it basically is gelling up this, this chemical. We were working on tank three when the reading came back from tank one. It's raising to 90 degrees. And that's an unsafe temperature for all of the personnel that are working. So our plan is, is we're working nonstop. Stop. We have experts across

the nation that are working together to come up with a solution for this. And that's why it's unfortunate these people are being evacuated. It's to protect them. It's an inconvenience. We realize that's Memorial Day weekend. There was weddings and graduations and parties that were planned and all around the area. But just we want to keep everybody safe, because, you know, a couple things could happen. It could gel up, and that's what we're hoping it does. The tank could crack and start spilling out that, all that 7,000 gallons of chemical, or there could be a catastrophic explosion, and the other two tanks would be affected as well.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Well, Captain, this seems really dangerous for, you know, these first responders, you know, including members of your team as well to be so close to this in such a volatile situation. So while there have been evacuations thus far, do you see widening the evacuation order, because it doesn't seem to be, you know, cooling or gelling as fast as you'd like it to. But, you know, the danger of a potential explosion is, is very much there. At what point will you determine to widen the evacuation area?

CONCIALDI: Yes, we already widened it. It's basically, it's affecting about 79,000 residents. So that is -- it's the parts of Garden Grove, Stanton, Westminster, Cypress, Buena Park, Anaheim, and the unincorporated areas of Orange County. That's just a portion. It's not the whole city. It's small areas of each of those cities where this is in the city of Garden Grove, where the three tanks are. But we think it's a safe distance. We evacuated those roughly 79,000 people out of the area --

WHITFIELD: But could you determine to widen it even further -- could you determine to widen it even further, I mean, especially if the temperature continues to escalate?

CONCIALDI: Right, so right now, our experts all got together and said this is a safe distance. So this, basically this area, the one mile plus in each direction of these tanks, it's safe for them. And so as long as they stay out, we're hoping it will gel up and get hardened in there. It's kind of like the ice cube scenario. It basically gets hard from the outside first, then inside there is still liquid in there until it completely ices over. And that's what we're hoping will happen.

If it starts failing, we have some containment areas, secondary containment, diking and damming with sand that will be set up or have already been set up. If there's an explosion, that would be the most unfortunate problem, and that would affect the other two tanks, possibly, and the area. That's why we're keeping people back.

WHITFIELD: And what would be that -- what would be that temperature where inevitably it would explode?

CONCIALDI: This -- these chemicals that are in there, MMA, they're highly volatile, highly toxic, and highly flammable. So as the temperature rises, so it was -- it's normally a lot lower. Yesterday it was 77. It got up to 90 percent last night. But we're unsure at what point that it will actually get hot enough to where there would be a fire and there would be a possible explosion.

[14:25:02]

WHITFIELD: All right, Captain Steve Concialdi, thank you so much. Continue to be safe. And this is a very volatile situation, especially for those who are up close in order to try and tame this chemical situation, this threat. Thank you so much.

CONCIALDI: Thank you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, straight ahead, growing concerns about the rising cases of Ebola in central Africa and now spreading to east Africa. We'll talk about efforts to stop the spread as the World Health Organization elevates the risk alert.

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WHITFIELD: All right, new today, the Ebola outbreak is continuing to spread to a second African country. Uganda's health ministry confirmed three additional cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in that east African country to five. But the bulk of the outbreak is rooted in the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa, with 750 suspected cases. And today, the director general of Africa's CDC spoke about the latest developments in the outbreak, saying ten other African countries are at risk of being affected by the virus.

[14:30:07]

The outbreak is also prompting the U.S. to expand health screenings at airports. Passengers who have in the infected areas will now be directed to specific U.S. airports, including Atlanta Hartsfield- Jackson, Houston's George Bush airport, and Dulles Airport outside of Washington, D.C.

For more perspective, infectious disease specialists and epidemiologist Dr. Celine Gounder is joining us right now. So is that an effective kind of preemptive diagnosis strategy?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST AND EPIDEMIOLOGIST: I think for a lot of people the idea of closing borders makes a lot of sense. It gives people a sense, a false sense of security as the problem, is that you're not really addressing what is putting us all at risk, which means we're not addressing what is happening in the region on the ground.

It is for the same reason we have military bases overseas. We don't wait for someone to attack us here in the United States. We try to address all kinds of conflict, whether it is armed conflict between people or, in this case, what you could call an infectious disease conflict, an infectious disease threat, the best way to address that is by doing so in a country where the outbreak is happening.

WHITFIELD: So what should those things be? Because when the World Health Organization says this outbreak is rapidly spreading and it raises the risk level, what are the options to either stop it or slow it down? GOUNDER: So just a reminder that we have pulled out of the World

Health Organization, the U.S. has, and we did so when we still owed over $300 million in dues. So they are short -- they're strapped in terms of resources to help respond. But they are not the boots on the ground response. And in fact, USAID was a huge part of the boots on the ground response, which in particular includes contact tracing. So identifying who was exposed on the ground in country and monitoring them for symptoms and getting them prompt treatment if they develop symptoms of Ebola.

We don't have that contact tracing capacity right now. And currently, health care workers have only followed up on about 20 percent of the identified contacts, which means the spread is accelerating and we're not able to reach these folks.

WHITFIELD: And so right now, we know, like Dr. Stafford, the American doctor who is being treated in Germany. You know, he's been treated with this monoclonal treatments, which is administered intravenously. But that also means it's too difficult to get to the hardest to reach and the hardest hit. So what, if anything, you know, can assist, you know, some of these areas where perhaps they have not been able to receive the kind of aid they've been accustomed to, but what can, you know, help address the slowing of the spread?

GOUNDER: Well, we don't actually know that the monoclonals are even going to help Dr. Stafford, because those are not specific to Bundibugyo, which is the specific species of Ebolavirus that we're dealing with right now. We know it works for other species of Ebola, but not this one. So it's really a Hail Mary of sorts. It's not that we know it's going to work, but it is not something that is available to people on the ground. No. And it's really the basics of being able to provide supportive care. That is the key to managing people with Ebola. So it's fluids. It could be oral fluids or I.V. fluids. Very often oral is what we try to emphasize in these settings because you can hydrate many more people with limited health care worker capacity orally than you can using I.V.s.

And then it's other measures like treating other infections that come on top of the Ebola and supporting them in terms of organ failure. It could be kidney failure, liver failure, and so on, that happens when you have a severe Ebola infection.

WHITFIELD: Wow, incredible. All right, Dr. Celine Gounder, thank you so much. I know you raised the alarm last weekend when we were talking about other matters, and here we are talking about it again. But thank you so much for all these new details.

All right, still to come, a GOP pushback putting new pressure on Trump's proposed anti-weaponization fund. Why Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had to try to shore up support on Capitol Hill.

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[14:00:00]

WHITFIELD: All right, right now, growing GOP fury against President Trump's new anti-weaponization fund. After this week's announcement of nearly $1.8 billion in taxpayer dollars to people who claim the legal system was weaponized against them, acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche is not ruling out payouts to those convicted of crimes during the January 6th attack on Capitol Hill. That's sparking rare opposition from some within the president's party, with one Republican lawmaker even vowing to end the fund.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK, (R-PA): It's absurd on its face. I think everybody that's a, you know, objective and viewing this through objective eyes knows that it's absurd. And it's our job in Congress to not to sit by. It's a bad policy. It's a bad idea. It's bad for our country. And I'm going to step up and I'm going to do the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:40:04]

WHITFIELD: Lets discuss more now with "Axios" senior politics reporter Marc Caputo. Marc, great to see you. So, calling this fund stupid on stilts and utterly stupid, some Republicans say there is no way they're supporting this. So why is this the issue that put them over the top?

MARC CAPUTO, SENIOR POLITICS REPORTER, "AXIOS": I think it's a cumulative number of things, but just on its face, the comments made about it just really give an indication of how lawmakers view this. In the end, the legislative body to do the old, you know, Schoolhouse Rock rules and song, the legislative body appropriates, right? It's the one that's supposed to decide how many gets spent. And having the president unilaterally come in the executive branch and say, oh, I'm going to find this $1.8 or so billion dollars, and I'm going to spend it this way, That's not the intended purpose And it's not something that lawmakers like seeing.

Now, whether they're going to really take this the distance, we'll see. But Trump has sort of had it with the Senate anyway. He's had it with the legislative body. So the degree to which he truly cares about stuff like that from an individual member, again, has yet to be seen.

WHITFIELD: Well, the president says, you know, he's not changing the anti-weaponization fund. So is this about, you know, for him paying back people, including January 6th defendants who were convicted of doing bad things to support him, or is it also Trump securing support for him for the time ahead?

CAPUTO: I mean, maybe it's both. Remember, it's not just January 6th. There were a number of people in Trump's first term who got hauled before Congress in the Russia-gate probe. They were accused of being Russian assets. They were subject to lots of investigation. They had to hire lawyers and spend a lot of money. And some of them are pretty aggrieved by that. And they want to be compensated. And these are the president's allies. Some of those allies are much closer to the president, say, than in the case of the January 6th rioters, protesters, or whatever phrase that people want to use is. But in the end, Donald Trump likes to exercise power. And setting up

this fund enables him to do it. Trump also likes to occupy the center of the stage of the news environment, and he's doing that here as well. So, so far, that checks two pretty big checklists, or boxes on his checklist.

WHITFIELD: This GOP revolt, you know, is not just about the anti- weaponization fund. I mean, House Republicans abruptly canceled a vote on a resolution directing Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from Iran or get approval from Congress to continue the war. What kind of fractures is this really revealing?

CAPUTO: I think it's revealing that the president was able to hold together this Congress under a pretty tight iron grasp for a period of time. But just inevitably, the rules of political gravity start to bear on a president. It's a bad year, at least polling-wise, for Republicans. Looks like they're going to lose the House. And so what we're probably seeing also is a number of members just saying, look, I didn't sign up for all these things. Like, there's some things I just cannot do. And this is one of them.

WHITFIELD: All right, Marc Caputo, thank you so much. Great to see you. Have a great holiday weekend.

CAPUTO: Thanks. You too.

WHITFIELD: All right, still to come, new signs that diplomacy may be gaining traction between the U.S. and Iran. We look at the chances that a broader peace deal could be within reach.

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[14:48:14]

WHITFIELD: All right, this is not your typical rescue. And if you're afraid of heights, you may want to look with caution. In this week's "Beyond the Call," Ryan Young interviews a Texas firefighter who pulled off a stunning rescue hundreds of feet in the air.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a hot air balloon that got popped by it, and they're stuck on the phone tower.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're stuck up there. They're close to the very top.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As the 911 calls started coming in, Longview firefighters rushed toward the tallest structure they would ever climb.

CAPTAIN STEPHEN WINCHELL, LONGVIEW FIRE DEPARTMENT: So, I think it was about five miles out on the way to this call when I looked up the road and saw, there's a big, colorful balloon and a tiny little basket very, very high up in the air. YOUNG (voice over): Captain Steve Winchell was off duty taking care of his daughter when he got the call. In a region known for balloon racing, his station trains extensively for high-angle rope rescues like this, but normally at around 250 feet. This balloon was dangling over 900 feet in the air. And the only way to save them, climb.

BRAYDEN POINTER, LONGVIEW FIRE DEPARTMENT: It wasn't an easy climb. But, yes, you're just trying to look, again, into an abyss of just metal all the way to heaven, is what it looks like. So, you feel like you're just climbing to infinity.

YOUNG (voice over): Carrying 40 pounds of rope on their backs, it took over one hour for the first firefighter to reach the balloon's pilot.

POINTER: The basket still swaying pretty good, though, at this time, and there's just fear in his eyes. I ask him, hey, are you OK? He says, yes, we're OK. And I was like, oh, there's someone else in the basket? And then I see a hand shoot up. She was apparently laying on the floor, begging for her life, thought she was going to die.

WINCHELL: We had 20, 24 mile an hour gusts of wind up there. And this basket is swaying and moving and nothing really having it secured at that point.

[14:50:07]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Command, all units, second victim is out of the basket.

CLIFF PATRICK, LONGVIEW FIRE DEPARTMENT: We had started down climbing, but we're still hundreds of feet up. And you can just hear the roar erupt from the crowd as the victims hit the ground safely.

YOUNG (voice over): The basket now resides in the Longview Firehouse, donated by the survivors as an appreciation for the day they went above and beyond the call of duty.

POINTER: Just as a memento of why we train and why we do what we do, even when we don't get to do this every day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[14:55:41]

WHITFIELD: On this Memorial Day weekend, as we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, CNN is airing a new, powerful film looking at some of the last surviving veterans from the greatest generation who stormed the beaches of Normandy on June 6th, 1944, and returned there for the 80th anniversary of the landing. The film, titled "Why We Dream," follows this journey through firsthand accounts and rare archival material. But it's the film score that plays a huge role in guiding the viewer through deeply personal reflections. Here's a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE) (MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Papa Jake, look at the beach you came on right there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's crazy that I'm back.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness, that's so powerful.

Joining me right now to discuss this very moving music that you were hearing is the composer, Christian Lundberg. Christian, so glad you could be with us. I mean, how did you get involved with this project? And what did it mean for you to work on such a historically significant piece?

CHRISTIAN LUNDBERG, COMPOSER: Oh, it was one of those bucket list things for me. It was an incredible experience really from the get-go. The intimate way that our director, Meredith Danluck, is telling the storyline, I just really wanted to help tell the story and support this amazing, unique perspective of having someone that's still around to tell the story and looking back at their life and the 80 year span between World War Two and now. It's, yes, just an incredible opportunity.

WHITFIELD: I mean, it's incredible. I mean, you worked with Academy Award winner Hans Zimmer on that score for this film. And maybe, you know, give us an idea what the discussions are about, what you wanted to make sure this music would represent. Because, I mean, just listening to it from my, you know, very novice ears of music, I mean, just listening to the pauses, the pauses in between bars was so meaningful and seemingly very direct. What is it that you had in mind, you know, what kind of directed you on feeling this music?

LUNDBERG: Right. Yes, it's interesting that you say that, the pauses. I think the score was very much about their voices being the lead instrument and playing into the rhythm of the way that these veterans speak. And they all have a different, different vibe. So it wasn't necessarily a different theme per veteran, but it was more the flow and their emotions and how they dealt with the pain and how they dealt with the joy after the war.

And, you know, speaking to Hans, I think one of the things that he taught me and really bleeding fingers here as a whole, is there are no limits. If you have an idea, you just need to find a way to execute it. And I think it's better to go a little too far than not far enough. And I feel like we did that in an elegant way. We have some interesting sound design elements, and we were still able to maintain this traditional sound.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Well, how what an honor I'm sure it was to be a part of helping to underscore, you know, the importance of, of this history never being forgotten. And those pauses are powerful to hear those incredible voices of those individuals. I mean, Christian Lundberg, thank you so much. Congratulations on a beautiful project.

"Why We Dream" premieres this weekend, 8:00 p.m. on CNN --