Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Framework Deal Between U.S. And Iran Being Worked Out; Russia Fires Powerful Hypersonic Missile In Mass Attack On Kyiv; Anti- Weaponization Fund Causing Political Revolt On Capitol Hill; NASCAR Remembers Kyle Busch Before Start Of Coca-Cola 600; Iran And U.S. Closing In On Deal To End Conflict; Interview With Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL). Aired 7-8p ET

Aired May 24, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: This is where I'm definitely not part of a plurality because 39 percent of Americans say that they say their favorite to, in fact, barbecue is beef.

These looks like some pretty decent burgers. I don't know if they come across on the screen, but there are some burgers up there. But I don't really eat red meat. I'm much more part of the 27 percent of Americans who say that their favorite food to barbecue is, in fact, chicken. I love chicken. I'll eat it grilled, I'll eat it baked. I love wings, I love thighs, I love it all when it comes to the bird.

Then of course you get this 11 percent who say pork is their favorite food to barbecue. But, uh-uh, that ain't for me. It's not kosher. I'm sorry. I just can't do it. I do like the 10 percent, though. Fish. Fish is pretty gosh darn good, and it's healthy for you, too. Perhaps you match it up with the 10 percent of Americans who say vegetables are in fact their favorite food to barbecue. I think that is a pretty good barbecue when you combine veggies, fish, and then a little bit of chicken.

So, look, the bottom line is this. Summer unofficially begins according to a lot of Americans. And I think there's going to be a lot of barbecuing that goes on in the backyards of Americans this summer.

Jessica, happy unofficial start to summer. Back to you.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you. It is nice to have summer on the horizon.

Harry Enten, thank you so much.

The next hour of NEWSROOM starts right now.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

And tonight, conflicting messages from the U.S. and Iran as the countries try to turn their ceasefire into a long-term peace agreement. The details of the negotiations still being worked out tonight. Both sides describing those details quite differently. After announcing last night that a deal was imminent, President Trump said today the U.S. is not rushing into a deal. A source telling CNN the agreement would allow for more time for the two countries to iron out additional sticking points, like Iran's nuclear program.

CNN's Julia Benbrook is joining us now.

And, Julia, you've been speaking with administration officials as they work through this. There are some very sticky sticking points that remain. What have you learned?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. As you pointed out, the details, the specifics of this framework are still under discussion. But a senior administration official tells me that the framework for an agreement between the United States and Iran, it would include 60 days to then reach a final deal. So this would be the first step here. They also said that a deal would make sure that Iran could not possess a nuclear weapon, and that they were committed to giving up their highly enriched uranium.

Now, that stockpile would be disposed of, that would be decided later on in the process of those 60 days. And when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, this official told me that it would be demined and open for business. They did not, though, go into detail about how that critical waterway would operate going forward.

Now, they did say that the way this is set up, that they believe that it would be a trust but verify on steroid situation, that they would want to make sure that Iran is making good on all of their promises. So that's what we know about a potential framework.

But taking a step back, just yesterday as we were speaking, Jessica, President Donald Trump, he made it sound like a deal was imminent. He said that it had been largely negotiated and that those details would be announced shortly. Today, he is saying that he is not in a rush for a deal. In fact, I want to pull up a post. This is from just a few hours ago now where the president said this.

He said, in part, "The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner, and I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side. The blockade," he said, "will remain in full force in effect until an agreement is reached, certified and signed. Both sides must take their time to get it right."

We do not expect there to be a deal signed today, again as many details and specifics are still being worked through -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Julia Benbrook there at the White House, thank you for your reporting.

CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen is joining us now.

Peter, nice to see you. Thanks for being here. The president posted earlier today in his words, whatever this ultimate deal is will be the, in his words, exact opposite of the Obama era nuclear deal with Iran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the ultimate goal is to ensure Iran never has a nuclear weapon.

Do you think these are realistic expectations they're setting?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Jessica, thanks for having me on. Let me start with President Trump's kind of mystifying statement about this will be the exact opposite of the Obama deal, because, Jessica, we wouldn't be having this conversation if Trump hadn't pulled out of the Obama deal in 2018. The deal, as you may recall, it was that in 2015, for 15 years, Iran would only be able to enrich just to 3.67 percent uranium enrichment.

[19:05:04]

Now you need 90 percent for a bomb. So as soon as the Trump administration pulled out of that deal in 2018, the Iranians started enriching to 60 percent. So getting themselves much closer to nuclear fissile material. So, I mean, I don't understand what he's saying that this deal would be so -- you know, will be completely different than the Obama deal because at the end of the day, something like the Obama deal would actually be a fairly good outcome, unfortunately, in this case. But all of this could have been avoided if Trump hadn't pulled out of the deal in the first place.

And then your second point about Secretary Rubio. You know, I think there's a lot of different ways to look at it. I doubt Putin would have invaded Ukraine, if Ukraine still had nuclear weapons. I mean, most states understand that the ultimate deterrent is a nuclear weapon. So, you know, the idea that Iran will never get to nuclear weapon, you can look at it two ways. One, the ayatollahs may decide that, you know, that having some kind of nuclear deterrent is the only way to deter further attacks by either the U.S. or Israel.

On the other hand, they also may calculate that that's almost a guarantee of being attacked again. So then you get to the next thing, which is, what is the weapon that they really can deploy, which is the Strait of Hormuz, which I think they will continue to deploy in the future.

DEAN: Right. And which it seems like they've really learned the power of in this particular war. They've learned how to effectively use that. So knowing and listening to you just go through all of that, after months of war with Iran, do you feel -- do you assess that we're -- that the U.S. is safer, better off closer to these objectives that the Trump administration had named? Or are we kind of back to where it all began?

BERGEN: Well, if you go through the laundry list of strategies that the Trump administration has said they were going to employ, one was a popular revolution in Iran. That didn't happen. Two was regime change. That didn't happen. In fact, the regime is far more, I think, hardline than it was on February 27th before the war began. Two -- three, you know, the Strait of Hormuz, which was never up for negotiation during the Obama 2015 agreement, is now very much up for negotiation.

I do think, Jessica, that there is some sort of, you know, on the one hand, you've got the Iranians saying we're going to take -- you know, keep control of the strait basically. On the other hand, you've got President Trump saying, we're going to open the strait. Now, I do think that there is some daylight between these two seemingly opposite positions, which is you can imagine the strait being opened up slowly.

The Iranians having some kind of control in the sense of you have to register with your ships, with Iranian authorities and maybe Omani authorities who are on the other side of the strait and who are reportedly discussing some kind of joint resolution between the two countries for essentially either monitoring or possibly tolling the ships that are going through. So those things don't necessarily have to be contradictory. And certainly it's in everybody's interest globally for the strait to reopen, including, of course, for the United States.

And when Trump says, we have time on our side, yes, he does. But now, as you know, well, Jessica, I mean, with every passing day, you were adding maybe $0.02, $0.03 to gas. So by the time you hit the summer and this thing is unresolved, you're really looking at very, very high gas prices, even in the United States. Forget about Europe and Asia where already that's an issue.

DEAN: Yes. And we had a gas and oil expert on it said just that, just in the last hour.

Peter Bergen, thank you. Always good to have you on. We really appreciate it.

BERGEN: Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: At least four people were killed in one of the largest air attacks by Russia on Kyiv overnight. Russia using a new hypersonic ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple conventional or nuclear warheads. And it marks only the third time Russia has used that missile.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier visiting some of the areas damaged in those strikes, saying museums, schools and apartments were all targeted.

CNN's Sebastian Shukla has more now for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): A devastating night for the residents of Ukraine's capital as Moscow launched one of the largest attacks the city has ever seen. 600 drones and 90 missiles, including the highly kinetic and powerful Oreshnik cruise missile, one of the deadliest in Russia's arsenal, was launched at the city.

This attack appeared to be a retaliation strike ordered by President Putin that called on his generals to come up with an attack plan following a Ukrainian attack that Moscow claimed struck a college dormitory, killing 18 people. Moscow called that attack a terrorist incident, but last night's attack left at least four people dead and 60 people injured, according to Ukrainian officials, with the focus being of this attack on the capital city. The brutal nature of these attacks was also captured by CNN's teams on

the ground, which speaks to the brutality of the attack with plumes of smoke visible across the city from various different vantage points terrifying the city's residents.

[19:10:17]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I was so scared. Honestly, I thought it was my last day. The building shook, my windows were blown out, and only then I started running away. I reached the bathroom to hide myself at least there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The bathroom is intact, but every other room was destroyed. The windows were blown out together with their frames. If I had stayed in the bedroom, I could have been crushed just like that. I tried to get out. The doors were blown into the staircase. I had to climb over them. And then I saw the second floor had caught fire.

SHUKLA: Attacks like these are becoming more prevalent as the war in the east in the Donbas dries to an attritional phase. Neither side is able to make small gains, let alone take huge swathes of territory. Ukraine, though, has been recently able to deflect insane amounts of damage on Russia's oil and gas facilities, with Western intelligence officials telling CNN that they have managed to wreak billions of dollars of damage on those facilities.

Sebastian Shukla CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Sebastian, thank you so much for that.

Still ahead here, some in President Trump's own party are not happy right now. The $1.8 billion problem causing a major divide on Capitol Hill. Plus a somber Sunday in Charlotte as NASCAR pays tribute to a fallen legend. The tributes happening today for Kyle Busch. We're going to take you there.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:16:24]

DEAN: There is a new push to block President Trump's controversial Anti-Weaponization Fund from moving forward. It is coming from Congress. It's a settlement for Trump agreed to by his former personal criminal defense attorney now acting Attorney General Todd blanche. So Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick and Democrat Tom Suozzi plan to force a vote on a bipartisan piece of legislation to block taxpayer dollars from being used by the Trump administration in what many critics call this slush fund.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): What Tom and I's bill does is it amends that -- first of all, it takes that appropriation immediately and says it cannot be used, not a dime.

REP. TOM SOUZZI (D-NY): It's wrong. It's stupid. Whatever you want to pick. But it's our job in the Congress, in the Senate and the House, to hold the Executive Branch accountable. Now, people have been clamoring for that for a while. I think the dam is finally starting to break the closer we get to the elections, and the more people see that they're going to be held accountable to the voters. The voters don't want this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Our political panel joins us now, and it's a good one. We've got Republican strategist and former Trump campaign adviser David Urban and Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, Chuck Rocha.

It's good to have both of you here.

OK, David, let's start first with you, because what was interesting to watch play out on Capitol Hill this week is President Trump has had a very firm grip on Capitol Hill Republicans for a very long time. Then he went and primaried a number of GOP senators who didn't like that very much and it includes John Cornyn in Texas, who's very well-liked by his colleagues. And we saw them really push back hard on this weaponization fund on the -- the $1 billion request for the ballroom. They left town without passing that legislation on ICE and immigration that they wanted to do.

How real would you categorize what has been called this kind of revolt on Capitol Hill?

DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, Jess, I think, look, you know Brian Fitzpatrick's district up in the Philly suburbs, north of Philly suburbs, he's in about an R plus one, D plus one seat. So very, very tough situation. So it wouldn't be -- doesn't surprise me that he's leading the charge to kind of, you know, smother this very unpopular move for this Anti-Weaponization Fund.

It also took place during a week, as you note, Jess, that the president came out and endorsed John Cornyn's opponent in this Texas primary. Chuck will know a little bit about this. But, you know, John Cornyn may not be the most exciting guy in the world to a lot of voters, but he would have cruised, I think, over Talarico in the race and not cost the Republicans another, you know, a couple hundred million bucks they're going to have to spend to now beat Talarico.

I think his Senate colleagues were very sensitive to that. People like Susan Collins in Maine and there are all these races, you know, be pretty close where 10 million, 20 million, 30 million bucks makes a difference. And so if the Senate now suspends several hundred million to keep what was a safe seat in Texas safe, you know, it kind of got the hackles up of those senators. Listen, the "Wall Street Journal" reports that liberals like Tom

Cotton and Ted Cruz were pushing back against Todd Blanche on this fund. So when Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton are the guys who are squawking, you know there's trouble in the Republican caucus on this fund. And I doubt that it's going to survive because of that.

DEAN: Yes. I mean, you're exactly right. When you have people like Cruz and Cotton who are pushing back and they had dispatched, as you know, Todd Blanche to the Hill to try to talk through this with the senators who clearly, based on what Ted Cruz was saying in that closed door meeting, did not take kindly to this at all.

[19:20:13]

Chuck, I know you're -- we want to point out, I know you're advising the Talarico campaign there in Texas, but from a Democratic perspective, how do they capitalize on this dynamic that we're going through, what we were just talking about with David?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, one thing you do when you when your opponent is digging himself a hole, you don't run over there and grab the shovel from them. You let them keep going. So that's the first thing. And so there's been this onslaught of advertising in Texas with Republican-on-Republican crime over there. And what you get there is advertising that went to all Texans.

That advertising isn't just going to Republican primary voters, even though that's their target. So some of that is starting to be built in. And what you and David were just talking about with the White House and these primaries are important for somebody to know, which is Donald Trump is not on the ballot in '26. But these congressmen have now woken up and been like, we're past the primaries now. He can't primary any more of us, and we need to step up and fix some of this if we want to win back or keep the majority in '26.

DEAN: Yes. And so, David, what is the Trump administration -- what is your sense of how open they are, let's call it, to this pushback? Do you think they would change course on some of the obvious things?

URBAN: Yes, I don't think open is a word that's descriptive there. Listen, I think what's going to happen is the door is going to be closed. Right? As was put forth by, you know, Cotton and others. They're going to need to vote, there are going to be amendments in these bills, in the ICE-DHS funding bill where this money was going to be spent. I'm sure the House is going to send something over.

You heard, Congressman Fitzpatrick, there'll be riders that say no funds shall be expended to pay these things out. Right? They'll put legislative language in text, in bill language text that will preclude money from being paid out. So I don't think at the end of the day the administration will be open to it. I think that they stated -- the president stated what he wants to do. And as Chuck points out, some of these, you know, a lot of members are looking at their numbers saying, hey, we got to run. This is pretty unpopular. People are worried about paying for gas and other things, and they don't want to see $1,776 billion go to something they don't deem as appropriate. DEAN: Yes. And, Chuck, staying in Texas for a second because we're

looking ahead to that primary runoff on Tuesday. It would seem to me, as I was talking to somebody about this last night, that Talarico would love to run against Paxton, that that's a best-case scenario for him.

ROCHA: Look, Texas is tough for any Democrat, but I think Talarico is a unique -- at a unique time and place. He had a choice of these two folks. He could run against crazy and corrupt, or you could run against old, and looks like we may get crazy and corrupt, and I'll take that battle every day. And the big difference between now and Beto O'Rourke of 2018, David was on to something here, is how mad people are.

I have never seen an electorate as upset as I'm seeing going into these midterms. That's the big difference in '18. In '18, there was not this upswell like there is now, even though there was a lot of pushback and we had all the folks in the street. Now, people are upset so much that 12 percent of the folks who voted in the Democratic primary in Texas had a Republican voting history in a Republican primary.

That shows that something has happened, and people are sick and tired of being sick and tired. And it mainly focuses around the affordability and the price of gas.

DEAN: Yes. And David, to that end, the president has been talking this weekend about trying to get this deal with Iran done, trying to wind this war down that poll after poll shows is just generally not popular with Americans. But beyond that, the gas prices, as you both have noted, that are, as a result, going up.

Do you think that that kind of schism that you're talking about between where the president is and where all of the members of the House and then the Senate candidates who are going to be up for reelection, are they going to continue to kind of butt heads as they get closer to the midterms?

URBAN: Look, Jess, I think the White House's message on everything else is going to line up here, right? I think the White House is focused on appropriately on people's pocketbooks. I think that the president is very sensitive to the gas prices and how that affects average Americans, but he's also sensitive to is the fact that a country that's been shouting death to America for 47 years continues to push forward to develop a nuclear weapon, which we just can't allow and continues to push forward with.

You know, its proxies doing bad things in countries around the world. We can't allow that to continue. And now they've discovered that they can shut down the world's economy by holding the Straits of Hormuz hostage. So we're in a little bit of a pickle here. I do think that the president is appropriately focused on, you know, people's pocketbooks and the messaging will become much more so focused on that as we move forward.

[19:25:07] People -- as Chuck said, right, people are tired of being tired. They're angry, but I still think in Texas and many of the other states, we're pushing a big rock up a hill. Chuck is, you know, there will be a Democratic senator in Texas someday. It's just not going to be this day, 2026. I think you'll see that. And -- but, you know, we're going to have to spend a lot of money. And some of these races are just not going to be as easy as Republicans once hoped.

The Republicans will have a big -- have a big money advantage currently. And you know, the DNC's autopsy didn't help the DNC figure out, you know, orange man -- the DNC autopsy geniuses said orange man bad is not a great message for winning races. And so that's the message I still hear. Maybe Chuck and his colleagues are going to have a different message from Talarico. But until they do, Republicans will keep winning.

DEAN: Chuck, I'll give you the last word. We got to -- we don't have a ton of time, but I'll give you the last word on all that.

ROCHA: Look, as folks gather around their supper tables tonight, many on a Sunday night, maybe having their friends over to play some spades, what they're talking about is the war and about the price of gas. They're talking about how the utility bill used to be 100 bucks. Now it's 300 bucks. They're talking about, are we going to be able to afford to send the kids to certain school?

That's the advantage for Democrats. If Democrats could get out and talk about what you're for, not just about what you're against, and that's the future of success, Democrats.

DEAN: All right, Chuck and David, two of our favorite people here. Thank you so much for coming on. We appreciate it.

URBAN: Thanks, Jess.

DEAN: Yes. Good to see you both.

Still ahead, we are live from Charlotte as NASCAR honors Kyle Busch during one of the biggest race weekends of the year. What fans are saying about his legacy and sudden death.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:31:09]

DEAN: NASCAR's longest race of the season has a different feel to it tonight. Fans and fellow drivers are using the 600-mile event to remember and honor Kyle Busch. The two-time Cup Series champion passed away Thursday following what his family says were complications from severe pneumonia that turned into sepsis.

CNN's Rafael Romo is live inside the Charlotte Motor Speedway with more on all of this -- Rafael. RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jessica, the race is well underway here. You can hear the roar of the engines all around me, and there was a somber and solemn moment of silence before the race started here at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, followed by bagpipes playing "Amazing Grace" for the crowd of nearly 100,000 gathered here for the Coca-Cola 600 Race that Kyle Busch would have participated in.

NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell spoke publicly here at the racetrack, sharing words of encouragement for Samantha Busch, Kyle Busch's widow, and their two children, Brexton and Lennox, aged 11 and four.

This was his heartfelt message to the grieving family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE O'DONNELL, NASCAR CEO: You and your children are NASCAR family forever.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

O'DONNELL: And Brexton and Lennox, your dad loved you with all his heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And Jessica, there have been many emotional tributes here at the Charlotte Motor Speedway from officials, fans and fellow race drivers like Tyler Reddick, who said that, "Wherever the bar was, Kyle was constantly racing," and we also heard from a foreign driver, Mexico's Daniel Suarez, who told reporters that in his 2015 season, Busch would call him every week just to make sure he was doing okay, which made him respect him to a whole different level.

As a driver, Busch often reveled in playing the villain and was given the nicknames "Rowdy" and "Wild Thing," something that fans we spoke with were remembering here at the racetrack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTER SHERRILL, KYLE BUSCH FAN: I mean, it was hard to lose him so unexpectedly. I want everyone to know and respect him. Rowdy Nation, he's someone that will never be forgotten, like Dale Earnhardt. I think that's my generation's loss like that. It's going to be hard to forget. It's going to be hard to continue on with the sport. It's going to be different.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: In a post on X, NASCAR published a photo of an empty seat with a sign inscribed with the name of Kyle Busch who today would have been sitting there with fellow drivers for a pre-race briefing. The caption for the photo read a seat that simply cannot be filled.

Kyle Busch's legacy was also honored and recognized today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on lap 18. Jessica, now back to you. DEAN: All right, Rafael Romo, thank you and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:38:54]

DEAN: Tonight, U.S. official telling CNN, it could take days for the U.S. and Iran to agree to a Memorandum of Understanding in the efforts to end that war. The sticking point still being negotiated include some big ones, including terms around the reopening of the strait of Hormuz and Iran's nuclear program.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis telling CNN he thinks it's doomed to fail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. THOM TILLIS, (R-NC): There are a lot of things that need to be explained, and as I've said before, any agreement with Iran that isn't subject to ratification by Congress is going, I think, going to be doomed to fail, just like the agreement were trying to replace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: We're joined now by Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez of Florida. He serves on the House Homeland Security and Armed Services Committees.

Congressman, thank you for being here with us tonight. I want to begin there with Iran. We just heard from one of your Republican colleagues in the senate, Thom Tillis. Do you think that any deal needs Congressional oversight, as Senator Tillis suggested there?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): I'm not sure, I think that I want to see what the deal is all about. To me, it's more important what's in the deal. Look, we went to war because we wanted to make sure that Iran never got a nuclear weapon. And that's got to be number one objective. Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.

Second objective is to make sure that the Straits of Hormuz is open to, you know, free the free flow of ships through that that passage and that Iran will never, ever, you know, charge a toll.

And so, those are the two major objectives. And let's see what happens with these negotiations and see if we can actually obtain that.

[19:40:33]

DEAN: Iran still has that nuclear grade uranium. And as you know, they are trying to sort out some sort of deal around the nuclear program. Do you think that it's realistic that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon? Do you think that's a realistic goal at this point?

GIMENEZ: I think it's the only goal that, look, that's why we went to war. I mean, they were a couple of weeks, if not days away from constructing a nuclear weapon. They had 60 percent enriched uranium, which, you know, takes days, maybe weeks to enrich the 90 percent weapon's grade.

And so, they still have it. I don't think at the end they can they can maintain it or if they have and its somehow, you know, way underneath rubble and hard to get to make sure they never get to it.

But look, all those are the details of, of the plan. But for me, you know, one aspect of that plan has to be that Iran cannot now, and in the future, never have a nuclear weapon. That's number one and then number two is the Strait. So, you know, let's see what comes out of these negotiations. The President has said he will not negotiate a bad deal and he's given diplomacy every chance. And if diplomacy doesn't work, then he's going to try other means. And so, let's see where this where this takes us.

DEAN: Some critics of the President pulling out of the Obama nuclear deal with Iran said that if the U.S. would have just stayed in that, that would have stopped Iran because of the terms of the deal from getting to that enrichment level that you just noted. What do you say to that?

GIMENEZ: What would I say to that is that's, I don't believe it and I don't believe that's true. I think that that that deal allowed Iran to begin a program and maintain a program.

The inspections, et cetera, the verification was non-existent. Iran could tell you that they needed advance warning of when you're going to inspect them. And then they could tell you, no, you can't do that.

And so, that deal was not a good deal for the United States. We have to make sure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. And whatever comes out of that, you know, if it's -- if we have to inspect it, it has to be a robust inspection where we can inspect that at any time of our choosing, anywhere we want to go and they have no way to stop it.

And so, you know, again, devils are always in the details. Let's see what comes out of this. If anything at all comes out of out of these negotiations.

DEAN: I also want to talk to you about Cuba. I know that is an issue that you are very passionate about.

The DOJ has charged former Cuban leader Raul Castro over his alleged role in the 1996 shootdown of two civilian aircrafts that killed four people, including three Americans.

This is something I believe you have pushed for. What are your, in your view, what are the next steps when it comes to Cuba?

GIMENEZ: Well, I think we can continue the pressure that we have right now. The regime is collapsing, you know, right in front of our eyes. They cannot maintain electricity. They don't have the money. It's completely corrupt and incompetent government. There's a government inside a government. So, you know, there is GAESA, which is the military-run enterprise that basically has 70 percent of Cuba's economy, is controlled by GAESA. You know, they have all the good stuff and they put that money in their pocket. They actually have about $18 billion in reserves, but they won't spend it on the people. And so, the people are lacking food and medicine and gasoline and the basic necessities while these guys get rich, you know, off their misery. And so, what I expect is for us to continue the pressure.

Now, we have Raul Castro and others that are under indictment by the U.S. government, and we've seen what's happened to other leaders of other countries. Noriega in Panama, Maduro in Venezuela, when they're under U.S. indictment. I'm not sure were going to do that, but it certainly is an option that the President can take.

DEAN: I want to ask you about how you balance kind of these two pieces of this, which is the Trump administration's pressure in the form of sanctions, the enforced oil blockade, obviously, trying to put to your point the pressure on the Cuban government. The Cuban people, in the meantime, also have to deal with the repercussions of that. So, how do you balance exerting pressure on the government with a growing humanitarian crisis?

GIMENEZ: Well, the government is a cancer. And so, you know, sometimes the cure is hard on the patient. But at the end, the cancer is gone. And so that regime has to go.

That regime has been and is causing the pain and suffering of the Cuban people and has for the last 65 years, they got thousands of political prisoners. There is no freedom of expression. There hasn't been an election in Cuba in over 65 years. Cuba deserves to be free and democratic, and we need to turn Cuba from an enemy and a National Security risk to the United States into a friend.

[19:45:31]

Right now, they harbor spy stations from China and Russia. They're allied with our biggest adversaries around the world, like Iran and North Korea, China, Russia, they're all there working 90 miles from our shore. They have always been. They are today and they will be a national security threat to the United States.

We just found out they have over 300 drones that they purchased, so they have enough money to purchase drones, but they don't have enough money to buy oil or to give money or to feed their people.

And so, there's growing frustration inside the island with the regime. And so, we just need to keep the pressure on and, and hopefully this regime will go away. And then finally, you know, we will have a free and democratic Cuba.

DEAN: All right, Congressman Carlos Gimenez, thanks for your time tonight, we appreciate it.

GIMENEZ: Thank you.

DEAN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:51:05]

DEAN: The Ebola epidemic is growing in Central Africa as health officials accelerate their surveillance efforts. The World Health Organization says there are now 101 confirmed cases of the virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but more than 900 suspected cases and violence in the region has complicated dealing with the outbreak.

Let's bring in epidemiologist, Dr. Carlos Del Rio, He is the chair of the Department of Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.

Dr. Del Rio, thank you for being here with us.

So, there's the confirmed number of cases. Then there's the hundreds more suspected cases. Where do you see where we are right now when it comes to what's going on with this Ebola outbreak?

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, PROFESSOR OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES, GLOBAL HEALTH AND EPIDEMIOLOGY: Well, Jessica, I think myself and many others are very concerned about this outbreak because it is growing very quickly. There's more and more cases.

This type of Ebola, this is the third time we've seen this outbreak in the history of humanity. So, we really don't fully understand how it works. It's a little different than the other type of Ebola, which we saw in 2014 and 2018. This type of Ebola spread as fatal. It's the disease. It's a little slower in spreading but, you know, the onset of symptoms is not as acute as in the other form of Ebola.

So, potentially somebody could be infected and transmitting others before you know it initially, they can have fever, fatigue, body aches, and yet still be fighting. So, really controlling this outbreak is critically important. And for that, we need a lot of contact tracing, a lot of isolation, quarantine, and we need support for those infected.

This requires a lot of work on the ground and that unfortunately is compromised by many things. But among many is the collapse and the closure of, you know, USAID at the beginning of this administration, because USAID really had a lot of boots on the ground that could, could, could do something at this point in time.

DEAN: Yes, and the risk is still relatively low here in the U.S. I'm curious if you're concerned about that changing at all, especially we have the World Cup preparing to start in a few weeks. A lot of inbound travel from all around the world here to the U.S. What do you think?

DR. DEL RIO: Well, I'm very concerned. You know, Ebola is in Africa. It's not going to cause a pandemic. It's not going to cause an epidemic. But cases could certainly happen in our country simply because we're you know, were at one plane flight away. And as you said, we're having the World Cup, the World Cup is coming and countries from all over the world are coming, and people from all over the world are coming. And, you know, somebody could be infected and be in a stadium, and there could be a lot of infections happening from there on at different places.

So, yes, the fact that we're having the World Cup happen just as its occurring, it's obviously very concerning. It's not only the players but the thousands of fans that are going to be traveling from all over the world.

So, yes, this is very concerning and this requires, again, a lot of surveillance. A lot of, you know, control and we simply need to be prepared. And well have to see, we'll see how we do. But I think those of us that work in this field are concerned and are worried that that we may be facing a much bigger problem than we actually think it is.

DEAN: All right, more to come. Dr. Carlos del Rio, thanks for being with us. We appreciate it. And well be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:59:05]

DEAN: On this Memorial Day weekend, we want to honor the 13 American service members who have died during the war with Iran, including six from an Army Reserve Unit who died when a drone struck a port in Kuwait. They are Sergeant First Class Nicole Amor of Minnesota, a mother of two just days away from returning home. Sergeant Declan Coady, a 20-year-old Drake University student from Iowa. He was on his first deployment. Captain Cody Khork, from a farm in Florida. Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens from Nebraska, Major Jeffrey O'Brien from Iowa, a loving dad to his three children, and chief warrant officer Robert Marzan of California, who served for more than 30 years.

Sergeant Benjamin Pennington died from injuries suffered in an attack on an air base in Saudi Arabia. He was an Eagle Scout who grew up in Kentucky, six additional service members died when an American refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq. They include Major John "Alex" Klinner of Alabama, who left behind three small children and Captain Ariana Savino of Washington, who was called an Air Force superstar. Technical Sergeant Ashley Pruitt of Kentucky, a devoted wife and mother and Captain Seth "Badger" Koval of Indiana, a father and a husband. Captain Curtis Angst of Iowa who was known for his joyful laugh and steady kindness and Technical Sgt. Tyler Simmons of Colombus, Ohio, a military boom operator who was known for his million-dollar smile. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten.