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Three Killed in Shooting at San Diego's Largest Mosque; DOJ Sets Up $1.776B 'Anti-Weaponization' Fund for Trump Allies. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired May 19, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: -- those children, going forward.

[06:00:03]

Well, 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 defends a $1.7 billion taxpayer-funded reparations fund for his allies. Does a divided America need this right now?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CO-HOST, ABC'S "THE VIEW": He ran on draining the swamp. And this is the swampiest thing I could possibly imagine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Fast-moving flames engulf parts of the Simi Valley. The race is on to get people out of harm's way.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will leave no stone unturned.

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CORNISH: So, police think two attackers teamed up for a deadly hate attack on a mosque. We're going to talk about how rare that is.

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PETE HEGSETH, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Real courage means stepping up when the mission matters most, when we need that tough vote.

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CORNISH: And the defense secretary on the campaign trail, deployed for a high-stakes primary. Is today's race in Kentucky now a referendum on the war in Iran?

And Elon Musk loses the OpenAI lawsuit to Sam Altman. Why Musk says the fight isn't over yet.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's being investigated as a -- as a hate crime at this point. There was definitely hate rhetoric that was involved.

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CORNISH: So, three people are dead after a shooting at San Diego's largest mosque. What were the warning signs that were missed?

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and we're going to start with that investigation in California, which is being called a hate crime. A security guard among those killed at the Islamic Center of San Diego.

Now, the suspects, two teenagers, are also dead. Police say their bodies were found near the scene, killed from self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

A motive is still under investigation, but officials tell CNN hate speech was scrawled on one of the weapons.

Now, people who live there say tensions have been brewing in the city for a while now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They went in there looking for people gathering there for religious reasons. And I don't think that the mayor, Todd Gloria, is doing enough to condemn the hatred towards Muslims.

And there's a lot of hatred going around. I'm not happy with the political climate. I've been visiting my representatives, my House of Representatives that are in Congress, and I've been begging them to please condemn the genocide. Please condemn the hatred against Muslims. And they refuse every time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And San Diego's mayor is facing fierce pushback. Could the city have possibly done more to prevent this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR TODD GLORIA (D), SAN DIEGO: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) direct result of your leadership! Your leadership! Our Muslim brothers and sisters have been talking to you for how long? You have to (EXPLETIVE DELETED) listen to them, Todd.

GLORIA: Hate has no home in San Diego. Islamophobia has no home in San Diego. An attack on any San Diegan is an attack on all San Diegans, and we will not stand for it in America's finest city.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: OK. I'm bringing in now retired NYPD Officer Jillian Snider. First, I want to talk about what we know related to this investigation so far.

Basically, that the -- one of the suspects was 17, that apparently one of the parents called police to tell them that guns were missing from the home.

What else have you been hearing and that you're listening for out of law enforcement?

JILLIAN SNIDER, RETIRED NYPD OFFICER: The other thing I've been hearing is that the mother did find a note and did have knowledge that her son may be suicidal. So, besides taking the weapons from the home and taking the car from the home and teaming up with what we believe to be his partner in crime. That's all we know for now.

I know that there were writings on the weapon. That's, again, not confirmed, but we've heard that from multiple reporting sources.

But I think what they're going to do now is obviously with the age of these offenders, going to be doing a deep dive into social media, Discord, text messages, their online platforms. Because honestly, this age bracket typically is radicalized through online means.

CORNISH: Often when I'm reporting a story like this, it's a lone wolf. Can you talk about how unusual it is for there to be a pair of shooters?

SNIDER: Yes, you're absolutely correct. Generally, in shootings like this, especially with a target of a religious institution, we generally do see lone wolf actors.

But this is not uncommon, particularly, again, for this age bracket. Very unique to see a 17- and 18-year-old come together and attack a religious institution. It's quite uncommon.

We've seen this in the past. Columbine is, like, a very honest and good example of two teenagers coming together and carrying out a crime like this. But in that case, the motives were different. Obviously, they were bullied in that case.

[06:05:11]

So, understanding why these two did come together. And that's going to be a huge thing for law enforcement: to try and figure out what drew these two individuals together to carry this out.

CORNISH: It's not unusual for a religious institution in a neighborhood in America to come under gunfire in this way, to be attacked.

What I found unusual is the outcry, almost immediately. We saw it at the press conference, of people saying that they had concerns that something like this would happen, and they didn't feel heard by leadership. I want to give an example right now, just of kind of what's at stake

here. Here was one of the police, talking about one of the security guards, who basically -- a father whose child was in the mosque at the time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know that he knew he was sacrificing his life for the kids, because if he didn't take that bullet, they would easily walked up stairs. And then there's just innocent eight and younger and women and, you know, people that couldn't defend themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Are religious institutions on their own here, with their own security, to prevent this? Or do local police have to take more, stronger action?

SNIDER: I can tell you, I retired a few years ago, and over the course of my career with the NYPD, we were often placed at houses of worship, particularly around synagogues, during high holy days. So, this is not uncommon to have law enforcement presence at places of worship.

But I do see, more and more frequently, private security being hired to keep that area safe, because local law enforcement does not always have the bandwidth to provide services there for protection.

But something that I do want to just make sure is clear. Although we've seen increases in houses of worship being under attack, it is still quite uncommon statistically. But when something like this does happen, when lives are lost, when children are frightened, it is just an ultimate tragedy.

CORNISH: OK, that's Jillian Snider. Thank you so much. We're going to be checking in later today with more reporting about that shooting in California.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about the big lawsuit between billionaire titans. Why Elon Musk's case against OpenAI collapsed.

Plus, we have new reporting on President Trump's plan to pause attacks in Iran. His warning if a deal isn't reached.

And Trump financially backing his allies, including those who may have been involved in January 6. And you're paying the nearly $1.8 billion price tag.

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[06:12:11]

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: This is reimbursing people that were horribly treated, horribly treated. It's anti-weaponization. They've been weaponized. They've been, in some cases, imprisoned wrongly. They paid legal fees that they didn't have. They've gone bankrupt. Their lives have been destroyed, and they turn out to be right.

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CORNISH: So, President Trump told his supporters on the campaign trail that he would, quote, "be their retribution." Now we are asking today if a new fund set up by the Justice Department is footing the bill.

On Monday, the president ended his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS. In exchange, the Department of Justice created a $1.776 billion fund to compensate those who claim they were unfairly treated by the Biden administration.

Now, there are hardly any constraints on who's eligible for the fund, including the nearly 1,600 people who were pardoned for their role in the January 6th Capitol attack.

There are critics who are calling this a slush fund for the president's supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): It's bad enough that he pardoned people involved in the first violent attempt to, essentially, overthrow a free and fair election, but now he wants to pay them? It's obscene.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst and national political correspondent at Axios; Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and former senior advisor to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns; and Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project.

Terry, we're going to start with you, because according to my notes, you're into this.

TERRY SCHILLING, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN PRINCIPLES PROJECT: Yes.

CORNISH: So, I want you to -- to sort of make the case. So, one of the things that's interesting about this is the money will be doled out by a commission that the president will pick. Well, Todd Blanche will pick them. And he was the president's former attorney. And the president will have the right to fire them.

The thing I'm curious about is they didn't take it to a court to look at. They just said, we've come up with a thing. We've settled it. Bye.

And even the judge was like, what? Like, why wouldn't you bring this to me?

Can you talk about the process? What do you think their thinking is there?

SCHILLING: Well, I'm -- I'm not too sure about what the exact process is at this point. It's relatively new, but I do think that the -- the framing of this is exactly backwards.

Trump is not paying his allies. His allies were targeted by the government, because they were allies of President Trump.

CORNISH: Through the IRS? Because, like, it's not people who have tax issues who can apply for this. Anyone can apply for this.

SCHILLING: And I think that's exactly right. Look --

CORNISH: So, how is that not a slush fund?

SCHILLING: Because it was -- it's a redress of grievances. It is a redress, and it's a fixing of injustices that were done by the weaponization of government. This is --

CORNISH: Reparations, if you will.

SCHILLING: So, to speak.

CORNISH: Let's discuss the reparations.

SCHILLING: That's fine. But -- but if you look at the guys that were ruined during the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, right? Mike Flynn had to literally sell his home and mortgage it to pay for his legal battles.

[06:15:05]

Michael Caputo, a very good friend of mine, had to move from New York with his two daughters and wife down to Florida because of all of the targeting.

And it turned out that that was a complete hoax, that there was not the scale of involvement from -- but also, I think this is a real theme of the Trump administration, is they're fixing a lot of wrongs. There was just a case --

CORNISH: We don't mind that. It's more like, who pays for it? And I want to know, from your position covering the White House, is there a sense that -- they call this an anti-weaponization fund. Is there a reason why it's structured to not, like, go through Congress?

For instance, there was a 9/11 Commission. There are ways that the government creates funds for citizens to get redress. And this is not typically how it's done.

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, Trump is clearly shown a preference for doing things unilaterally, rather than go through Congress. Just look at what's happening in Iran, the Strait of Hormuz.

I would also say --

CORNISH: Unilaterally, you're saying, because it's all structured under him.

THOMPSON: Under him. Exactly. Which is, you know, the -- the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, who you mentioned before, was -- it's not a coincidence the acting attorney general was Trump's personal defense attorney.

And since Pam Bondi left, Todd Blanche -- this is part of a larger pattern of Todd Blanche doing what he believes the president wants to do.

Donald Trump sees the attorney general as, essentially, his own personal attorney, representing not just, you know, the United States government, but him personally. And that's why -- part of what's being --

CORNISH: Or he sees himself as a symbol of -- of all that is wrong. And if he can help all the other people who are wronged in the same way, that's how he's going to do it.

THOMPSON: That's fair.

CORNISH: I want to play for you Republican senators. Some of their reactions as they were asked about this yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): I think when the federal government abuses its citizens, they owe the citizens some compensation. So, I'm supportive of it.

SEN. JONI ERNST (R-IA): I would really have to take a look at it, because I do want to understand the financials behind this. Where is it coming from? Where's it going? We've got to start counting those dollars.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): I'm not saying it's a bad idea. I like the concept, but I like it less if we've got to go borrow the money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Look, the power -- I'm a Democrat that would say any time the U.S. government goes after anybody unlawfully, there should be some type of retribution. Democrat, Republican, whoever.

The government is a powerful, big force. And American folks like me and you and everybody at this table is just paying taxes.

The visual of this, though, as a Democratic strategist, is what I want to talk about. Because when you go to people and you say that there's a $1.7 billion fund -- I won't even call it a slush fund -- but money that's my tax dollars that's going to be doled out to folks that was on January 6th, that were doing whatever the government may or may not have done.

And folks right now can literally not pay for gas and groceries. Then I'm going to win that argument every stinking time.

CORNISH: OK, to your point, I just want to play one more thing. The voices of "The View." Just playing it because it's, you know, middle of the day and middle of America. And here's how they viewed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: This is so extraordinary that he ran on draining the swamp. And this is the swampiest thing I could possibly imagine --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

GRIFFIN: -- is a slush fund for your allies.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: While Americans can't afford gas, health care, food, groceries, and this. And now we're going to put -- enough, man. Enough with the grift and the corruption.

SARA HAINES, CO-HOST, ABC'S "THE VIEW": Black Americans who talk about reparations. But we're going to do --

GRIFFIN: I would like the reparations, yes.

HAINES: We're going to do reparations for January 6?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Didn't expect to see that come up on "The View."

But the thing I wanted to ask you before we go is every time you spend money that isn't on people who are economically hurting in the moment, do you have to justify that? And does it become a harder message to sell going into midterms?

SCHILLING: Look, again, I think the whole point is being missed. There are people that were economically -- economically ravaged by the weaponization of government.

Again, people had to sell their homes. They had to mortgage them just to pay the legal fees.

CORNISH: I'm just asking, because this headline says farmers' fears rise across --

SCHILLING: Yes. Yes, but --

CORNISH: So, to a farmer, they're going to be like, I don't care about that.

SCHILLING: Agree. Agree, and we should be more concerned, I think, about the 19 billion that's alleged to have been mishandled in Minnesota and the fraud that's going on in California. There's a lot of fraud -- waste, fraud and abuse that's going on out there.

And this 1.776 billion going toward people that were weaponized -- had the government weaponized against them, I think that's the least of our concerns.

CORNISH: Not that much money. OK. Group chat, stay with me. We've got a lot more to talk about on CNN. We're going to mention this fire emergency in California, because

there are many of you there who are being forced from your homes. The latest on the effort to contain the Sandy Fire.

Plus, you've had this rare shutdown and now a deal to end the strike at the Long Island Railroad.

Good morning. The state Capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. We'll be right back.

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[06:24:01]

CORNISH: It is now 23 minutes past the hour. Here is your morning roundup.

This morning, firefighters are racing to contain a fast-moving bushfire in Simi Valley, California. More than 33,000 people have been ordered to leave their homes. Another 10,000 are under evacuation warnings.

Strong winds are fueling this fire, and officials say that the Sandy Fire has burned more than 1,300 acres so far.

And there's a new twist in the Alex Murdaugh case, just days after his murder convictions were overturned. The disgraced attorney is now suing the former court clerk.

Murdaugh claims the clerk tampered with jurors and denied him a fair trial. He remains charged with the murders of his wife and son, and does face a possible retrial.

The commute in New York expected to get better today. The Long Island Railroad will resume operations at noon. This after reaching a deal with the MTA, ending the three-day strike.

The details behind the agreement were not specified, but union workers wanted better salaries and better health care premiums.

And Elon Musk comes out the loser in the battle of the tech bros. It turns out Musk waited too long to sue OpenAI and Sam Altman.

That's what a jury decided after just 90 minutes of deliberations. The judge agreed. They say his lawsuit was barred by the statute of limitations.

Musk helped co-found and fund OpenAI, giving $38 million. He sued CEO Sam Altman and other leaders within OpenAI, accusing them of taking a nonprofit mission and turning it into a cash machine for themselves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM SAVITT, OPENAI ATTORNEY: The finding of the jury confirms that what this lawsuit was, was a hypocritical -- hypocritical attempt to sabotage a competitor. And the facts are that OpenAI is a not-for-profit, mission driven

organization that has been and will continue to be faithful to that mission.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Now, Musk's attorneys say that they plan to appeal this decision.

Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, it is primary day. How Republican Representative Thomas Massie in Kentucky is fending off attacks from President Trump in the final hours of his campaign.

Plus, more severe weather in the Great Plains. And a rare tornado touches down in Nebraska.

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