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Acting A.G. Blanche Talks $1.8B Fund with GOP Senators; More Than 600 Suspected Ebola Cases in Central Africa. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 22, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:09]

BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: Rocket, live your best life. 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, the GOP revolt over Trump's anti weaponization fund has torpedoed a deal to fund ICE. So, could the president be forced to back down?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): I mean, this is just stupid on stilts.

We've also got some shocking news out of NASCAR. Kyle Busch, the driver with more wins than anyone, suddenly dead at age 41.

Plus --

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ELON MUSK, FORMER HEAD OF DOGE: One of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola. Ebola prevention.

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CORNISH: The Trump White House dismantled USAID, pulled out of the World Health Organization, and made cuts to the CDC. So, shortsighted, now that Ebola looms?

And the long-awaited autopsy of Kamala Harris's election loss is out. What should Democrats do with this information?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It shouldn't -- it shouldn't be like this. Like Jesus Christ, you're losing money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Getting away this holiday weekend, it's going to cost you. Gas is more than $4 per gallon in all 50 states.

And Stephen Colbert took his final bow. Does this mark the end of late night's cultural influence?

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STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, CBS'S "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": We were here to feel the news with you. And I don't know about you, but I sure have felt it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): But I just don't know how this puppy-dog will work.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): I do not support the weaponization fund as it has been described.

TILLIS: This is -- I mean, this is just stupid on stilts. This is bad policy. It's bad timing, and it's bad politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. The fight over President Trump's anti-weaponization fund now putting his other priorities at risk.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and we're going to start with this growing Republican revolt. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Senate Republicans on Thursday. Didn't go well.

Senator Thom Tillis told "Semafor" it was a "'S' show." And another GOP senator told "Punchbowl," quote, "Our majority is melting down before our eyes."

Now, the issue has become so toxic that they actually had to call off a vote on another different bill, different topic. Tens of billions of dollars for ICE and Border Patrol.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you losing control of the Senate? Senate Republican?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't know. I really don't know. I can tell you, I only do what's right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Today in the group chat, Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor; Rob Bluey, president and executive editor at "The Daily Signal"; and Lulu Garcia-Navarro, CNN contributor and host of "The New York Times" podcast, "The Interview."

Let me tell you all, this has been a journey. I started this week on Monday, like, hey, there's been a small deal hatched by the Justice Department that would create a fund, if you will, a reparations fund for those wronged by the government. And in the five days since we first reported this story --

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's five? I think --

CORNISH: Is it four?

WILLIAMS: I feel like I'm aging, in this week, years right now.

CORNISH: Exactly. And you've got Republicans cursing this thing out.

So, McConnell says, "So, the nation's top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong. Take your pick." Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell.

Can you just talk about even the Justice Department part of this, because Todd Blanche is the front.

WILLIAMS: He really is. And, you know, Senator McConnell has made the politics point. Look, just looking at it as a straight-up legal matter.

No. 1, how do you define who gets paid here?

No. 2, the concepts of weaponization and lawfare. Many people believe in them. Many people think they're a thing. And OK, that's fine if people wish to believe that.

They're not defined in law. And so, you're compensating people out of a fund. You're going to have to put a dollar amount on how much someone had been, I guess, weaponized against.

CORNISH: Made by a commission that the president has control over.

WILLIAMS: It's just not workable. And by way of example, Audie, there are victim compensation funds and other types of funds in the Justice Department.

But No. 1, they're established by Congress. Congress said this is how much money we're setting aside. That's why these senators are so mad. This is how much money we're setting aside for it. And more importantly, this is the process by which people will get money.

That's the kind of thing that ought to be laid out by Congress. The one I've used on air a couple times this week is the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund.

CORNISH: Yes.

[06:05:00]

WILLIAMS: It's a big one.

CORNISH: Yes. That one, as well.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Congress -- CORNISH: Went through Congress; independent leadership.

WILLIAMS: All of the above. So, yes.

CORNISH: All right. So, let's turn over here, because Rob, Republicans were starting the week on a high. It was like some of these guys who went against Trump in the primaries. You're out of here.

And then this fund comes up, which also includes an addendum that says that the president and his children can't be, like, audited on their taxes forever. Which is kind of strange.

Talk about how and why this has come to backfire on the other priorities. Like, now this is messing up your ICE funding, which is -- you've been fighting about for weeks.

ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE DAILY SIGNAL": Right. Well, weeks, if not months.

CORNISH: Yes.

BLUEY: Remember, they had the opportunity to pass the -- the spending bills. And then what happened? We had the tragic shooting over the --

CORNISH: Yes.

BLUEY: -- you know, ICE situation in Minnesota. So, you -- you've had a series of political miscalculations along the way over the last several months on the part of Senate Republicans not getting this done, which led to them being in the position.

And now, you've had people like Senator John Thune say the timing of this -- this anti-weaponization fund isn't helping anything. But the other note --

CORNISH: That's not a Senate Republican thing. That's a White House thing.

BLUEY: But well, so is Trump's endorsement of Ken Paxton instead of John Cornyn, which also riled up a lot of these Senate Republicans who wanted to support one of their own. John Cornyn has been in the U.S. Senate since --

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.

CORNISH: There's a hilarious mix of people, by the way, saying that they are going to go for this fund.

WILLIAMS: Oh, yes.

CORNISH: You've got some people who are quite serious: Moms for Liberty, for example. They're like, I think the Biden administration went after us somehow, right? Like, we're going to go for this.

Then, like, Michael Cohen. You know what I mean?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: My Pillow guy.

CORNISH: And Mike Lindell.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Enrique Tarrio, who was in prison for 22 years --

WILLIAMS: What about --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: -- for legitimate reasons?

WILLIAMS: What about kids or young men who were found with a brick of crack cocaine in their pocket and were shaken down by a police officer as a way of making drug enforcement a political -- Can they sue the government? You know, it's just --

CORNISH: Now's the time to try.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But this is an invented thing, right?

WILLIAMS: Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: This is a completely self-dealing, corrupt, invented thing, which the president has, you know, decided he was going to sue his own government for $10 billion.

Let us all remind ourselves: that is taxpayer money. That is -- comes out of my pocketbook. And then, when that didn't quite work out, this fund was sort of created --

CORNISH: Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: -- in a fever dream.

And I keep on repeating this over and over again, because you know, I think people don't fully understand how bonkers this is.

CORNISH: No, they do. That's why there's backlash.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: No, I do, but I mean, I'm just -- I just -- it just bears repeating.

CORNISH: Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Completely.

CORNISH: Well, I think the thing that for me is, was this stepping on a political rake? You have a bunch of angry senators who don't like you now.

Let's say someone like Cassidy, right? Louisiana already flipped his vote on the war powers resolution.

Then you've got these other guys just having to go home on an issue that should be a win for them by now because of the backlash to something that, like, nobody asked for.

BLUEY: And the other thing that I think has conservatives a little bit uneasy about it is the lack of transparency. You heard that in some of the comments from the Republican senators.

But the other thing, Audie: conservatives for years have criticized the Judgment Fund because left-wing groups and environmental causes have used that to sue the government and then settle. And a lot of that money then went to bankroll those organizations, which were working against conservative causes.

So, you can't be in a position where you've criticized the government for setting up a fund like that, and now be in a situation where you're talking about this weaponization fund. So, I think it's --

(CROSSTALK)

CORNISH: I know. We're going to talk about this more, because the fallout from it, as we said, has rippled into other issues. So, you guys stay with me.

Also coming up on CNN today, we're going to be talking about Stephen Colbert's final report.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I came all the way up from the Deep South to come witness the death of free speech.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The monologue, the guest, the goodbye in his last show.

In the meantime, could cuts to public health programs leave the U.S. vulnerable amid this Ebola outbreak?

Plus, NASCAR mourning a legend. A mystery surrounding the death of Kyle Busch.

Then, Dems left high and dry. Republicans get out of dodge. What does that mean for the rest of us?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And these chicken (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Made-up bull-(EXPLETIVE DELETED) procedural reason to not have a vote. To not let every American know, where does your representative stand?

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:13:56]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUSK: We will make mistakes. We won't be perfect. But when we make a mistake, we'll fix it very quickly. So, for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola. Ebola prevention. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: All right. Fast forward, 15 months from those DOGE cuts, and a deadly Ebola outbreak in central Africa is escalating.

There are now more than 600 suspected cases, 139 deaths. Medical personnel in the Democratic Republic of Congo say they just don't have the capacity to contain it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. TOM FRIEDEN, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR: The U.S. has stopped paying dues to the World Health Organization. We also abruptly removed dozens of professionals who were working side-by-side with WHO staff to improve the ability of that organization to respond effectively.

And in any organization, if you remove a bunch of people overnight, it's destabilizing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Under the Trump administration, U.S. foreign assistance to Congo has dropped to about $21 million for fiscal 2021 [SIC], but that's sharply down from 430,000,000 in 2025 and 1.4 billion in 2024.

[06:15:06]

So, here in the U.S., we've also seen deep cuts to the CDC.

And the group chat is back. This is a great conversation, because it's one thing to cut prevention in a vacuum, right? To say, like, we don't need to be spending that much in the Congo. Why do we care about the Congo?

But disease doesn't care about your politics, right? I mean, is there something to be said for, again, mistakes being made?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: If I get Ebola, I am going to go sit on Elon Musk's couch.

CORNISH: Really? You're going to ask for an interview at "The New York Times"?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: No. I'm not.

CORNISH: Handshake.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: No, no, no. Let's not make that a thing.

CORNISH: No. NO.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But what I'm saying about this -- what I'm saying about this is, you know, he's there laughing. He thinks it's funny. Oops. We did this small little thing.

CORNISH: Yes. And this was back when he was at DOGE. That was a meeting at the White House.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Right. Of course. But actions have consequences. And of course, like, you know, this is the thing that is so exhausting about this era, which is everything is done by people who don't think about the ramifications; don't play out what actually happens in real time.

And we've been talking for a long time. As someone like me, who spent a lot of time covering the world, I know firsthand what happens when you pull back on -- on things like this. These countries don't have the infrastructure and support.

The United States wasn't doing this because, you know, it's -- it's --

CORNISH: Yes, good vibes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's good vibes. They were doing this to help themselves.

CORNISH: They also heard directly, Congress, just this week from an Ebola survivor. His name is Dr. Kent Brantly. And here's what he told them.

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DR. KENT BRANTLY, EBOLA SURVIVOR: Many, including one of the senators today, used the analogy of a fire burning out of control to describe this unprecedented Ebola outbreak.

Indeed, it is a fire. It is a fire straight from the pit of Hell. We cannot fool ourselves into thinking that the vast moat of the Atlantic Ocean will protect us from the flames of this fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAMS: You know, it's interesting. And back to this idea of shutting USAID down, that Elon Musk was talking about.

In the United States here, this got framed as a question of firing a few thousand federal government employees and making American government smaller.

What it did globally was gut an entire sector. You're talking about health clinics overseas. You're talking about nonprofit organizations. You're talking about funders. You're talking about clinics and so on, all of which in different ways have nothing to do with these American employees, but are administering the very kind of health care that helps stem crises like this.

And so, I just think now we are seeing the short-sightedness of a lot of those very rapid cuts that were made, regardless of the basis.

CORNISH: Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But it's not just that. I mean, the thing is, people are dying. People have died because of the actions taken by a very small few people.

CORNISH: Let me let Rob get a word in.

BLUEY: Well, I would just -- I would just point out, I think this is the 17th Ebola outbreak since 1976. Are we going to go back and blame Jimmy Carter and every president since then?

I think the worst one actually happened under President Barack Obama in 2014.

CORNISH: That's for --

BLUEY: I'm talking about the Ebola outbreak.

CORNISH: We're not talking about the outbreak existing. We're talking about the capacity to fight it and whether or not we have from --

BLUEY: Sure. And my understanding, Audie, there -- there's no vaccine for this particular strain. The pharmaceutical companies are working on that.

But just like we experienced in our own case here in the United States during COVID, it's going to take 6 to 9 months for that to go through the process.

So, I'm not sure that, even if there was the USAID funding, that would have solved the question about a vaccine, which is ultimately what you're going to need to contain this in --

CORNISH: Well, let me -- I want to play one thing going out, and then we're going to leave, which is a couple of TikTokers with their observations and concerns with just the World Cup weeks away, who I think have what you said in mind.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: World Cup's in a month. And there's, like, no hype for it and stuff about how, like, the cities that it's actually in, there's like no preparation going on.

Especially, like, I think in Houston, it is. There, the roads are still, like, messed up, and all the infrastructure is all, like, terrible.

This is just a theory, but it's almost like they know it's not going to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then, we got the World Cup people, teams coming from where the Ebola outbreak is happening to the World Cup in the United States. Didn't Jesus tell y'all about this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Stay with me. We're going to be talking about more today, because it is now 20 minutes past the hour.

This is your morning roundup.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: On that happy note.

CORNISH: So, two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch has suddenly passed away at the age of 41, and this is hours before his death was announced.

His family posted that he had been hospitalized with a severe illness.

Now, these are live images of the Charlotte Motor Speedway, where he was scheduled to race at the Coca-Cola 600 this weekend.

Busch won more competitions than any other driver throughout NASCAR's three national series.

[06:20:04]

NASCAR called him "one of our sport's greatest and fiercest drivers" and "a once-in-a-generation talent."

And the mastermind of a scheme in Minnesota to steal hundreds of millions of dollars in government aid was sentenced to nearly 42 years in prison on Thursday.

Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock was convicted last year of wire fraud and bribery.

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COLIN MCDONALD, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL, NATIONAL FRAUD ENFORCEMENT DIVISION: The common theme throughout these cases is fraudsters exploiting vulnerable programs and vulnerable people to enrich themselves, no matter the consequences to the programs or to the people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: More than $250 million in federal funds were stolen in the scheme. About $50 million has been recovered.

And federal prosecutors now dropping all charges against four activists arrested while protesting ICE activities in the Chicago area.

Chicago's top federal prosecutor dismissed the case after allegations of misconduct when presenting the case to a grand jury. They were arrested last September while protesting Operation Midway Blitz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICKI MINAJ, SINGER: It's a great name. Starship.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, how did you predict the future? Starships are meant to fly.

MINAJ: I do not know. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Unfortunately, these Starships were not meant to fly on this day, because the mission was scrubbed. Nicki Minaj had made a surprise appearance at SpaceX and their Starship launch attempt.

SpaceX had to call their launch Thursday of the massive rocket. The next window to try it is tonight.

And after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, British police want your help investigating a former prince. We'll tell you what they're looking for ahead.

Plus, President Trump suddenly canceling the signing of an A.I. executive order. Why did that fall apart?

Good morning to our friends in Atlanta. This is the view from the airport. And they are predicting 45 million Americans to travel this Memorial Day weekend.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:26:19]

CORNISH: President Trump now postponing signing a much-anticipated executive order over artificial intelligence.

Sources tell CNN the order would have called on A.I. companies to share advance models with the government before going public. And then versions of that order put that prelaunch window at around 14 to 90 days.

Then all of a sudden yesterday, Trump said he's concerned the order could get in the way of winning the A.I. race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I didn't like certain aspects of it. I postponed it. I think it gets in the way of -- you know, we're leading China. We're leading everybody. And I don't want to do anything that's going to get in the way of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. So, joining the group chat is Ashley Gold. She's a senior technology policy reporter for Axios. We were just talking about how I was like, come on the show and tell me about this executive order.

And what is happening here -- and tell me if I'm wrong -- is you have a world of A.I. people who are like, we don't need regulation, OK? We've got to win this race. We want to win in the technology.

And the people who are like, actually, pump the brakes. This is scary are, like, Anthropic, right? And Mythos. And the people who make Claude.

So, when this legislation, this E.O. gets pulled, what happened there?

ASHLEY GOLD, SENIOR TECHNOLOGY POLICY REPORTER, AXIOS: I think what happened here is that the people that have Trump's ear in the White House that are really, really pro-A.I. anti-regulation, think any sort of regulation is going to slow down the U.S. in the race with China on these top A.I. models.

They managed to get in his ear. You have David Sacks, who is a major Silicon Valley venture capitalist who, despite not having as -- as big of a role in the White House anymore, he still really has an outsized voice in these conversations.

So, we have reporting in Axios that calls were made last-minute to Trump in the last 24 to 48 hours, with David Sacks, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and they said, hey, pump the brakes on this. Even though it's voluntary. And this isn't an actual statute requirement for any company that might be involved in it, we still think it's too much, and it could lead to slowing down our race with China.

CORNISH: Yes, it's funny.

GOLD: And Trump listened.

CORNISH: These are the guys that have a ton of power because of all the capital. And frankly, the way A.I. and its bubble are propping up the stock market in the economy.

GOLD: Absolutely.

CORNISH: But then you look at Americans. I want to show you Gallup polling. The number of people who oppose -- just a concrete example -- A.I. data centers, like in their neighborhood. Forty-eight percent strongly oppose. And then another 23 percent somewhat oppose.

And there's this weird thing where, like, the American public is very, like, we'd like to pump the brakes on this.

And then here's an example. Kevin O'Leary, who's a Trump administration ally, came on our show to push a data center in Utah. Here's how he kind of defended it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN O'LEARY, CHAIRMAN, O'LEARY VENTURES: And I see it every day in every single one of our companies, whether they're insecticides, or real estate, or wireless charging. They're using A.I., and it's working. It's doing two things. Productivity goes up, margin goes up, creates more jobs, not less jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Why isn't this message working?

GOLD: There's too much money on the side of the -- the -- the A.I. people that really want to see this just take off in America.

But it's not resonating with the American people, because they're not seeing the proof.

They're seeing people lose their jobs. They're seeing mass layoffs. They're seeing students in school using A.I. to do homework and write essays. And recent college graduates feeling like they have fewer job prospects because of A.I. job cuts.

So, even in the Republican Party, there's a lot of conservative pushback to the acceleration of A.I.

I reported just this week on a group of 60 major.