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Trump Turns to "Disloyal" Massie After Ousting Cassidy; Will Trump Revenge Campaign Work on Massie?; Ebola Outbreak in D.R. Congo Kills 80 People; Cubans Brace for U.S. "Invasion". Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 18, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00]

BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: The pair had been in the water for about 40 minutes when the crew found them. Rescuers say they got there just in time as conditions at sea were quickly getting worse. Just in time indeed. I wonder if they saw any whales up close and personal.

That does it for CNN Headline Express. I'm Brad Smith. CNN This Morning with Audie Cornish starts right now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, President Trump gets revenge again. Who else could pay the price this week for standing up to him?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I'm the one they haven't been able to bully, so they're putting all the brunt, the force on me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, two fighter jets collide at an air show. How did four Navy pilots manage to eject and parachute to safety?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I think they're going to have to come to us. It's a failed nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Cuba fears a U.S. invasion and reportedly stockpiles drones. What kind of fight could the island put up? And one lawmaker wants college athletes at Southern schools to take a stand for voting rights by transferring out. Is that a fair thing to ask of them?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're kind of trying to fight to be able to live in the city that we work for.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: It's going to be a rough commute for many New Yorkers today. Why workers at the biggest commuter railroad in the country are on strike this morning. And a first look at the damage from that powerful tornado that tore through Nebraska. We're on watch for more dangerous spring storms today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): You can disagree with President Trump, but if you try to destroy him, you're going to lose because this is the party of Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And a senator from Louisiana found that out the hard way. Could a congressman from Kentucky be next? Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish.

And we begin in Louisiana, of course, with the downfall of Republican Senator Bill Cassidy. He is the first Republican senator to lose a primary in nearly a decade. Cassidy voted to convict Trump for impeachment and Trump doesn't forget. Cassidy didn't mention the president in his concession speech, but he did give a veiled jab on the way out the door.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): Our country is not about one individual. It is about the welfare of all Americans and it is about our Constitution. If someone doesn't understand that and attempts to control others through using the levers of power, they're about serving themselves. They're not about serving us. And that person does not qualify to be a leader.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. The president already turning his eye to his next rival, Thomas Massie, posting early Sunday morning urging voters in Kentucky to, quote, "Get this loser out of politics in Tuesday's election." Massie is confident it won't work there."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASSIE: I'm the one they haven't been able to bully, so they're putting all the brunt, the force on me. But you can tell that I'm ahead in the polls and they're desperate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: All right. So, we're going to bring in some folks who know in our group chat. Sarah Fischer, CNN senior media analyst, senior media reporter at Axios. Nia-Malika Henderson, CNN senior political analyst, Bloomberg political and policy columnist. And Seung Min Kim, CNN political analyst, White House reporter with the Associated Press.

Seung Min, can I start with you? Because when I look at the race in Louisiana and then I look at those Indiana Republicans, which were on the state level, who lost against the primary challengers backed by Trump. Trump is feeling pretty good, right, about the power of his endorsement.

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: I mean, he has to be feeling really good right now, at least when it comes to his own party, because defeats by or losses by a sitting senator are really rare. You mentioned at the top that this is the first loss by a senator in nearly a decade. That was Luther Strange in Alabama in 2017. He wasn't even an elected senator. He was an appointed senator. And before that, it was Dick Lugar in 2012. That is all to say this just doesn't happen very much.

What I do think it shows, I mean, not just the Indiana Senate races and the Louisiana primary over the weekend, but it shows just how much the president has had a grip on his party. Because either you're aligned with him if you're Republican or you've kind of had to contort your positions to get in line with him or --

CORNISH: I was going to say, the weird thing about this story is I thought this purge had already happened. You know what I mean? The congressional reporter in me is like, this is a 10-year-old story. What's different about this moment?

[06:05:00]

SARAH FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST AND SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER, AXIOS: I think the midterm sort of foreshadowed some of what we're seeing here, which is how polarized this is. Either Donald Trump loses overwhelmingly or the Republican Party loses overwhelmingly as Democrats continue to expand their tent.

We saw that with Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, or it's the complete opposite and the Trumpiest candidate wins. And what we're seeing now heading into the midterms is that polarity, I think, is still going to exist. The Trumpiest candidates are going to continue to prevail. And then in other cases, they're going to continue to completely fall flat. This is why I'm continually watching redistricting, because I think that's going to have a major impact on how this polarity plays out.

CORNISH: Nia-Malika, I want to play for you Pete Buttigieg, former transportation secretary. He is looking at this moment as an opportunity for Democrats. Here's how he makes the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, FORMER TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Senator Cassidy is a normal, honest and very conservative Republican. And it turns out people like that have less and less of a home in Donald Trump's Republican Party. We are seeing more and more extreme candidates put forward in their House and Senate races, which does create a big opening for Democrats.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: I don't think the kind of person who votes for Democrats is going to vote for Thomas Massie. I'll put up his voting scorecard this session. He's a Republican and a Republican who more or less has voted for Trump on many things. These are the numbers from the Heritage Action.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST AND POLITICAL AND POLICY COLUMNIST, BLOOMBERG: And for most of the time he's been in Congress, has gotten Donald Trump's endorsement, right? Despite him being a libertarian and voting against Republicans and the president --

CORNISH: But he's like loudest on the things Trump most wants.

MALIKA HENDERSON: Yes, yes, yes. And Trump loves revenge. He loves to display his power over his voters. In some ways, I think this is overkill, the amount of money and time they're spending on this.

CORNISH: I was about to say. Well, one thing about Massie is the amount of money that's going in is also bolstered by a Republican- Jewish coalition, AIPAC. They're pouring a lot of money into this race. Right there is some reporting from Politico because of the votes he's taken there.

Let me play something for you because what gets at this, somebody was asking him, I think it was Laura Loomer. This was back in January. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congressman, in the last two weeks, you repeated AOC's talking points on Venezuela and Jasmine Crockett has retweeted you. When will you change your party affiliation to Democrat?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): I thought you did. I vote with Republicans 91 percent of the time. And the 9 percent I don't, they're taking up for pedophiles, starting another war or bankrupting our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Yes, you know, listen, like some elements there, a Democrat would be like, ah. And then others, they'd be like, what?

MALIKA HENDERSON: Yes, yes, yes. Exactly. And Democrats have been in this position. It's like, you know, looking at Marjorie Taylor Greene. Oh, can you, you know, fold her into the big tent of the Democratic Party? No, you can't.

CORNISH: Yes.

MALIKA HENDERSON: You know, same with Thomas Massie.

CORNISH: And the never Trumpers did not produce any kind of win for Democrats, obviously, during the Kamala Harris period. Like to me, that contingency is very loud, but I just don't see them actually creating an opening for Democrats. FISCHER: No, I think that what Pete Buttigieg is aspiring to is seeing the polarity, seeing the polarization and wondering, can Democrats take advantage of that? And I think it's going to be very hard in historically conservative districts like we're mentioning here with Thomas Massie.

One thing that's notable about Massie is like this also is an example of small, not small things, but single positions, really dogging candidates. So, on the Cassidy front, it was health care. He's a doctor. He came out swinging against RFK and what was happening with vaccines.

MALIKA HENDERSON: But this is impeachment, right? The impeachment though.

FISCHER: And of course, impeachment, but I'm thinking most recently that was his single thing. With Massie, it was Epstein. If Donald Trump sees one lane for one thing, it does not matter if you have voted with him 99 percent, 9 percent of the time. He will find that one thing. He will take it. And that is the end for you.

CORNISH: Well, we're going to have a lawmaker here. And I'm excited to talk more about this, because what does it mean to have an opening when both parties are dealing with polarization? I want to turn to this, though. We have some reporting on those two fighter jets that collided in midair. The dramatic moments right after that saved the lives of four crew members.

Plus, today, there's going to be jury deliberations in the case of Elon Musk and Sam Altman, that trial over OpenAI. But there will not be a final decision just yet. And from reality TV villain to L.A. superhero, can Spencer Pratt turn his fame into votes?

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do know that he has become wildly famous again, but a lot of his support, I don't know how much of it is in L.A.

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[06:10:00]

CORNISH: OK. It's almost 15 minutes past the hour. Here is your Morning Roundup. The president is warning Iran that the clock is ticking as a ceasefire between the two country holds for now. President Trump spent part of the weekend meeting with his national security team, plotting a path forward on the war, including potentially restarting attacks. Trump told Tehran they, quote, "Better get moving fast or there won't be anything left of them."

And right now, this that you're looking at is the moment that two Navy jets crashed during an air show in Idaho. Four crew members ejected and opened their parachutes as the planes went up in a fireball. It all happened as dozens of people who were there for the show watched the chaos. The show was canceled. The crash is under investigation.

[06:15:00]

And jury deliberations begin this morning in the case brought by Elon Musk against OpenAI. Their decision will be advisory with the judge making the final call on the verdict. Musk is suing the A.I. giant and its CEO, Sam Altman, over allegations that the company breached its original charitable trust.

And this morning, an international effort to contain an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At least one person has been arrested. At least 80 suspected deaths have been reported and 246 cases. The World Health Organization has since declared the Ebola epidemic a, quote, "public health emergency of international concern."

Bringing in CNN's Larry Madowo in Nairobi. Larry, if you can start just by telling us the state of play here with this public health emergency.

LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Audie, experts are extremely concerned and the region here on high alert after these 88 deaths from Ebola in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The CDC is saying that there are 10 confirmed cases but more than 330 suspected cases. And there's also been a case reported in Uganda, next door. Two confirmed cases in Uganda. One person died and was sent across the border. The other is receiving treatment, the government in Uganda tells us. And the neighboring country of Rwanda is saying it is adding extra vigilance at its border, border checks, just making sure that this does not travel across the border.

But the reason why experts are concerned, the first case was reported about a month ago and a 59-year-old man died from that. Now, this huge outbreak in an area of the eastern DRC where it's suffering from major conflict and displacement and that means people have been traveling quite a bit. That is why the World Health Organization has declared it a public health emergency of international concern but falling short of declaring it a pandemic emergency.

The Africa CDC is supporting the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo and of Uganda to deal with this. Here's what the director told CNN this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JEAN KASEYA, AFRICA CDC DIRECTOR GENERAL: We need to open borders. We need people to fly. But what we need is to make sure that we are screening each person. We are isolating those who are at risk and we are taking all public health measures that can protect all of us. I think for now, we are on top of things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADOWO: That's going to be a major issue for a lot of countries if there are people traveling from the DRC or from Uganda, from the region who might have been infected or who are directly affected. The CDC is saying it is helping relocate a small number of Americans who are directly affected. It didn't offer any more than that, but it says it's working with interagency partners to make sure that it's providing support to the DRC to deal with this so that, you know, viruses have no visas, Audie, they do get around and they're making sure that this is nipped in the bud.

CORNISH: OK. That's Larry Madowo speaking to us from Nairobi. After the break on CNN This Morning, tensions between the U.S. and Cuba heating up. How some on the island are actually preparing for a potential invasion

Plus --

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GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): The bottom line is no one wins in a strike. Everyone is hurt.

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CORNISH: -- talks to end a strike at the largest commuter rail system fail a Monday morning commute sure to be a nightmare in New York.

In the meantime, good morning to St. Louis. We've got a beautiful picture of the sunrise onto the arch.

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[06:20:00]

CORNISH: People in Cuba are on edge this morning. There's a fuel shortage, escalating tensions with the U.S., and it's plunged the island into fear of what comes next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The children don't have food to eat and aren't going to school. We're desperate. The women, we've already lost 20 pounds, and we are anxious because we don't have a way of supporting our kids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Frustrated Cubans are demanding help from their government. Fuel supplies from Venezuela were cut off back in January, and then this happened. The CIA director visited Havana last week. Now, Axios reports U.S. intelligence is concerned about the threat of military drones from the island as the Trump administration pressures Cuba's government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is Cuba going to turn to us and make a deal?

TRUMP: I think so. I mean, I think so. I mean, look, I've been hearing about Cuba since I'm a little boy. They've been saying, what's going on with Cuba? And I think we'll be turning it. Marco's been very effective, and the whole group has been very effective. It's, yes, I think they're going to have to come to us. It's a failed nation. It's a totally failed nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, bringing into the group chat, Becca Wasser, defense lead at Bloomberg Economics. There's no doubt the U.S. has put maximum, maximum pressure on Cuba. It is affecting the people who live there. People are worried about a humanitarian crisis.

I want to ask you about the military aspect of this. Does Cuba have, really, a military that could put up any kind of response to U.S. boots on the ground or even strikes or aggression?

BECCA WASSER, DEFENSE LEAD, BLOOMBERG ECONOMICS: So, let's break this down first and foremost, which is, yes, Cuba has a military. It has a military with aging equipment, largely old Soviet-era equipment. But, as Axios reported, they have recently acquired some new advanced drones. But that doesn't mean that the drone threat to the United States is necessarily an imminent one. And it doesn't mean that Cuba is ready to launch any type of preemptive action against the United States.

But here, it's really important to note that Cuban military has some aging equipment, but it really comes down to not just materiel, but what have they learned and what can they actually do. And it's worth noting that there were Cuban forces protecting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro when the U.S. came in for a raid.

[06:25:00]

CORNISH: Yes, but that didn't go so well for Venezuela.

WASSER: That didn't go so well for Venezuela. But I think, again, we have to think about what this might look like. There's maximum pressure. There's a blockade. It looks a little bit like the playbook that we've seen President Trump use in Iran. But what type of action, if the United States were to do anything, what would it look like? And I think it's just going to be continued economic pressure more than military action.

FISCHER: Just to follow up to that, what would be the U.S. objective for Cuba if there were to be some sort of military action? Because as we've seen with Venezuela and then Iran, the plan B after a major military aggression, where you take out a leader, has not historically been there.

WASSER: No, and I think here we have seen President Trump perhaps learning some bad lessons from his relative success in Venezuela.

CORNISH: Yes. Because we should say they're already eyeing a Department of Justice indictment maybe for Raul Castro. And we know that was the pretext for going in to get Nicolas Maduro. And I think a lot of people are asking the question of, like, A, I mean, to be Maduro should not become a verb. But I had someone on set last week say that Trump administration is looking at this through Caracas- colored glasses.

And I thought that was really interesting because there's -- it's not like the oil in Venezuela. I'm not sure what you really get with Cuba that the administration would be interested in.

WASSER: And I think there it is more of a political question. And you have members of Trump's cabinet who feel very strongly about the Cuban question, you know, Marco Rubio in particular. And so, I think we need to have that lens when we're talking about what might occur and why it might occur.

CORNISH: Let me play for you Robert Gates, former secretary of defense. I think this will get to the point I can feel you about to make. Here he is on Face the Nation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GATES, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I think that actually the biggest risk is that we end up with another Mariel evacuation from Cuba that has tens of thousands of Cubans heading to the United States out of desperation, as happened a number of years ago. So, I think that's actually, at this point, the biggest threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: A lot of young people may not remember that, what it's like to see a mass exodus. Is the administration thinking about these kinds of things?

KIM: I think that there's a look at all the potential consequences, but we also know even when the administration may be aware of the potential consequences of what may happen with the military action, they don't necessarily kind of enact whatever their plan B is in response. We're seeing that happen right now with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. So, if they do have backup plans or contingency plans, we don't necessarily know that they're going to be executed. And just remember the geography.

Cuba is, what, 90 miles from the coast of Florida. The -- your history that you mentioned is why there is such a giant Cuban diaspora in South Florida. There -- it is a very key political -- I mean, there are so many questions surrounding what they may or may not do, but I also think it's really difficult to ignore kind of all the different, you know, little pieces that are building up. You have the Castro potential indictment. You have Ratcliffe's visit. You have the sanctions that the State Department has placed on Cuba over the last several weeks and the fact that they're just really struggling.

CORNISH: And there's supposed strikes throughout the region.

MALIKA HENDERSON: And, I mean, how many wars can the American military handle at once? I mean, you see sort of the fallout of the Iran excursion, as the president calls it, and, you know, sort of blowing through these expensive munitions. I mean, what's your sense of that?

CORNISH: And Hegseth was super upset last week when someone asked about it. Is there enough munitions? Is there enough supply?

WASSER: Listen, what it comes down to is the U.S. military is meant to be a global military, but the cost, the readiness costs of potentially having two wars on multiple fronts, right? We have everything that's happening with the Iran war. We have the military buildup in the Caribbean still. We have global response actions, including deterrence operations in Europe still.

So, when you look at that global stretch, prosecuting multiple conflicts at once is going to create even more overstretch for the U.S. military and leave them less prepared for some of the real consequential, you know, crises that could emerge in the future, where you might want to have that readiness still. So, actually making a move on Cuba, in some ways, it's mortgaging the future. And that's really important for folks to realize. And what it might mean for our men and women who serve in the military all over the globe.

CORNISH: OK. Becca Wasser, as always, I really appreciate you being here. Thank you so much.

Straight ahead on CNN This Morning, we're going to talk about the Congressional Black Caucus, which is at a crossroads, thanks to the redistricting wars. I'm going to be talking with Congressman Jonathan Jackson about their fight to stay in the game.

Plus, a dangerous twister touches down in Nebraska, and the threat's not over.

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