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Rubio: Deal with Iran "Still a Work in Progress"; U.S. Official: Deal with Iran Could Take Days to Finalize; GOP Iran Hawks Voice Concerns Over Possible Deal; Pope Addresses A.I. in Letter Titled "Magnificent Humanity". Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 25, 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: 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, deal or no deal? If the U.S. and Iran are really on the brink of ending the war, why are the countries describing the terms so differently?

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MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: As the president said, he's not in a hurry. He's not going to make a bad deal.

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CORNISH: And the Secret Service kills a gunman near the White House. This is the third time this month that shots were fired near the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The unknown is really scary and only time will tell.

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CORNISH: A toxic tank in California could spill or explode. Could the discovery of a crack on the surface actually be good news? And now, the pope, artificial intelligence and humanity, has Leo joined the growing resistance against A.I.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They call Paxton ethically challenged as to call Jeffrey Dahmer separating from an eating disorder.

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CORNISH: Tomorrow, Texas voters head to the polls as Trump doubles down on endorsing Ken Paxton. Is he handing Democrats a win this November? And AOC takes more steps toward a 28 White House bid. She says she won't run, but we've heard this before.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I will serve out my full six- year term.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you will not run for president or vice president in 2008?

OBAMA: I will not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: We have what I think is a pretty solid thing on the table in terms of their ability to open up the Straits, get the Straits open, enter into a very real, significant time limited negotiation on the nuclear matters and hopefully we can pull it off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Progress, but a U.S. official tells CNN a deal with Iran could take a few more days to finalize.

Good morning on this Memorial Day. I'm Audie Cornish. And I want to start with the major sticking points in this proposal. The two sides don't seem to agree on some of the major issues, at least publicly. So, on the Strait of Hormuz, Trump says it must be reopened. Iran says it must be under their control. On Iran's enriched uranium, the U.S. would only go into talks if Iran agreed to give up its stockpile. Iran says it won't start negotiations on uranium until the war is over.

Now, the president says whatever deal is made, it will be, quote, "a good and proper one." He wrote on Truth Social, unlike those before, I don't make bad deals.

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ESMAEIL BAGHAEL, IRAN FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): Bringing views closer together does not mean that Iran and the United States are going to reach an understanding on issues of such importance, but rather that, based on a set of parameters, we can reach a middle ground solution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now, Peter Bergen, CNN national security analyst. I'm glad you're here, because once we start throwing around, like, deal and proposal and these phrases that make it sound like it's closer than it really is, what do you know at this point? What can we say is on the table, so to speak?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST AND VICE PRESIDENT FOR GLOBAL STUDIES AND FELLOWS, NEW AMERICA: Well, on the closing or opening of the Strait of Hormuz, you could imagine a situation where both sides could claim a victory, where it does begin to open. But Iran continues to do things like you have to register to cross the Strait. You may be charged a service fee. They're doing some kind of deal with Oman, which is on the other side of the street, perhaps, of the Strait, perhaps to make some kind of deal along this line.

So, both sides could maybe claim some kind of victory, where Iran does really kind of pick up a fee, but the Strait is open.

CORNISH: And then when it comes to nuclear material, I'm under the impression, listening to Rubio there, he says, enter into a time- limited negotiation on nuclear matter. So, that's not a deal. That's like, we agree to talk more going forward.

BERGEN: Yes. And, Audie, as you recall, it took more than 18 months for the 2015 nuclear agreement to be negotiated between the Obama administration and Iran. So, you know, 60 days may not be enough time to really hammer out any kind of deal.

CORNISH: Here's what Democrats are saying over this weekend. This is Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Senator Cory Booker, their take on what's going on with Iran and Trump.

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SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): This war has been a blunder from the very start. It sounds to me like what this agreement will do is take us back, really, to the pre-war status quo.

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): He's got us in a situation that's worse than it was before, a more extreme regime. The Strait of Hormuz now is a leveraging point for them. This weak nation has put America in a stalemate, and Donald Trump is being played as a fool that he is for getting us into this in the first place.

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[06:05:00]

CORNISH: Especially that first line, I remember the German chancellor using the word humiliation. But can you give us a better sense of the point of view, I think, within international watchers?

BERGEN: Well, you know, Trump has said that his deal will be the exact opposite of the Obama deal. Well, you know, he's --

CORNISH: And the Obama deal involved unfreezing Iran's assets that had been under sanctioned and then later giving them that money, notably in cash.

BERGEN: Well, we wouldn't even be having this conversation, Audie, if Trump hadn't pulled out of '28 -- you know, the deal in 2018, because the 2015 deal kept enrichment at a very low level for 15 years until 2030. So, you know, the whole thing would have been moot if Trump hadn't. This is a completely self-inflicted wound by Trump. He pulled out of a deal that his own intelligence agency said that the Iranians were observing. So, here we are. And, you know, he's going to be lucky if he gets something like the Obama deal at the end of the day.

CORNISH: Will they be able to plausibly -- I guess, what can you call a victory in this scenario? I mean, you can say that there are nuclear materials that are now under rubble. You can say that Iran has been damaged in terms of its infrastructure and its leadership. So, there are like actual verifiable changes. What would it take for it to be called a victory by the Trump White House?

BERGEN: Well, what you outline might be probably the victory that you can kind of claim, because I mean, clearly, I mean, in June 2025, their program by Trump's own account had been obliterated. Certainly, he'd been very much set back. Certainly, they weren't restarting. And so, you could say, well, you know, and the missile program they have, the drone program, all of that is being damaged. So, you know, take the win and move on.

CORNISH: Yes. But what we've lost in the meantime maybe is the Strait of Hormuz in terms of being a clear and open waterway.

BERGEN: Indeed.

CORNISH: OK, Peter, stay with us, obviously. I'll be talking to you later today. Still ahead on this morning, we're going to continue this conversation because the president is saying any agreement with Iran would be better than Obama's deal. And there are some similarities, unfortunately, for him.

Plus, some of Trump's allies are worried the president is about to make a cut and run deal. We'll get more on that from the Group Chat coming up next.

And families in California forced from their homes after a chemical leak.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pressure is building up in this tank, kind of like a soda can that you leave in your car. And if you leave that soda can in your car too long, it will explode if it gets hot enough.

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REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): We don't know what the terms of it are, but if Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz are crashing out last night, I'd say it's probably a pretty good deal.

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CORNISH: OK. We're still trying to get a full picture of what is in the proposed deal to end the war with Iran, but that's not stopping some Iran hawks in the Republican Party from weighing in. You've got Senator Ted Cruz worried about a quote disastrous mistake. Senator Lindsey Graham posted it makes one wonder why the war started to begin with. And Senator Roger Wicker saying it could make the war, quote, "for naught."

Now, President Trump's former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the proposed deal is quote not remotely America first. And then White House spokesman Steven Cheung responded, quote "Mike Pompeo has no idea what the F he's talking about. He should shut his stupid mouth."

So, we're bringing in the Group Chat. Sara Fischer, CNN senior media analyst and senior media reporter at Axios, Joey Garrison, White House correspondent for USA Today and Michelle Price, White House reporter for the Associated Press.

So, with friends like these, who needs enemies? A few months ago, when I talked about this conversation, I would be talking about the Tucker Carlson's and the wing of the party that we're just anti-war in general. Joey, let's start with you since you're new to group. Why have what's the sense why these other people like Graham, right, who were totally on board are suddenly saying, well, I don't know about this.

JOEY GARRISON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, USA TODAY: Well, I think they're worried about, you know, some of the stipulations that has leaked out so far regarding this possible deal. One of those is that they would essentially the negotiations on nuclear weapons program and uranium enrichment would essentially be kicked down the road further for 60 days. So, you're talking about essentially --

CORNISH: Yes. That's what Rubio said, time limited negotiations.

GARRISON: Right. You're talking --

CORNISH: Which he's saying is a good thing.

GARRISON: Yes. Well, you know, essentially now would be reopening the Strait, but -- the Strait of Hormuz, but the more difficult things are pushed back further. And then you have to ask yourself, what exactly did the Trump administration get out of this war. Right now you have --

CORNISH: Well, that I understood. It's just mostly Democrats had been asking that question, but not other like war hawk types. And so, is the White House aware or feeling like this is getting away from them a little bit?

MICHELLE PRICE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: I mean, what's also interesting is you're seeing some of that praise from some of those people like Rand Paul, who were very critical of this Thomas Massie, that they're saying, well, there might be something to do here. Give the president space.

CORNISH: What?

PRICE: But what was interesting -- CORNISH: What am I even looking at --

PRICE: Like (INAUDIBLE) upside down right now.

CORNISH: -- here anymore. Yes.

PRICE: But the president over the weekend at first said that, you know, that they -- that there were only a couple of final details that they were kind of working on. And then yesterday he seemed to kind of almost be responding to some of this, not only calling the critics losers, but saying, like, you know, we're not -- we have time on our side. We have plenty of time to work through, seeming to show that this may not be as final as he said it is, which has been a story throughout this, that --

CORNISH: He did say --

PRICE: -- like this is --

CORNISH: Just so people don't think you're riffing there, to quote his Truth Social posts. "It isn't even fully negotiated yet. So, don't listen to the losers who are critical about something they know nothing about. Unlike those before me who should have solved this problem many years ago, I don't make bad deals."

[06:15:00]

Sara, I want to play for you. Megyn Kelly, who's been pretty much on a tear about this since the beginning. She was on the Hodge twins podcast over the weekend, and she said what we've heard writ large from this wing of the party.

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MEGYN KELLY, HOST, "THE MEGYN KELLY SHOW: The people who voted for him, that was not a small thing. That was not a throwaway line. That was a massive part of his campaigning and his promising that those people on a dime were like, yes, we're pro war with Iran. Yes, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. We all know that that's a lie. It's so obvious that that's a lie to get us into this conflict, that they were not on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST AND SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER, AXIOS: That's one of the strongest statements that she's made about the Trump administration, calling them out, saying that they lied about whether or not Iran was on the brink of obtaining a nuclear weapon. So, I'm looking at that and thinking, wow, they're taking it to a new level.

My overall sense of this conflict, Audie, is that the pro war Trump and Republicans have sort of lost sight of the original point, which was when we brokered in a deal with Iran in 2015, the Iran nuclear deal, the whole basis of that was that this is a country that doesn't do indefinite deals. They like to do deals that last within 10 years, within 15-year deals, right? They are timestamped for a reason because it allows them to go back and renegotiate later on. Trump coming in was essentially so that he could end that plan.

CORNISH: Cycle, yes.

FISCHER: That he could do something definitively. And now, when I hear Secretary of State Rubio, when I hear Trump allies saying, well, this is a time delayed negotiation, you are essentially doing the same thing that the Obama administration did and that others did before you, which is trying to put a timestamp on a resolution in this region.

CORNISH: Yes. Although ironically, they're saying, look, we're not in a hurry. And I'm kind of like, well, Iran isn't in a hurry. I'm not sure you really have a choice in terms of how this is going. How can they do this negotiation when they have the people who even were once on-board kind of turning their back on it?

PRICE: Right. I mean, I think the politics of it and the Iranians are very astute. They know that the politics are not good for the president. The midterm elections are coming. The price of gas is a thing that everybody's feeling, in addition to the price of fertilizer, food, time is not on their side. But the other thing to keep in mind is that that Iranian deal that the Obama administration, that took, I think, 18 months to negotiate.

CORNISH: Yes. And once people start lining up the bullet points of each deal, once the Trump one comes out, I think they're going to find more similarities than not. And if they don't, there will be more questions like this. You guys stay with me. We're going to talk more about this today.

But coming up in California, you've got authorities scrambling because of this dangerous chemical leak. We're going to talk about what crews are doing to contain essentially toxic fumes in the danger zone.

Plus, Pope Leo, he released his first teachings on artificial intelligence. We're going to talk about how he's trying to shape the moral debate around A.I.

And on this Memorial Day, here's a look at a re-flame ceremony in Washington, D.C., to honor fallen troops.

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[06:20:00]

CORNISH: OK. Moments ago, Pope Leo releasing his first encyclical as Pope. And it is focused on artificial intelligence. So, there he is at an event in Rome. It's still underway right now.

Now, the Pope named the letter "Magnifica Humanities," Magnificent Human. His teachings are focused on just that. Preserving human dignity in the face of AI. And in his letter, he writes this, quote, "We cannot consider A.I. to be morally neutral. Every technical tool embodies choices and priorities through what it measures, ignores, and optimizes. And how it classifies people and situations."

So, he's presenting the guidance in person, which is a first for the church. And next to the Pope as he gets ready to address the world, Anthropic co-founder Christopher Olop.

Joining us in the Group Chat, publisher of the Substack letters from Leo, Christopher Hale. OK, this is a fascinating story. Because there are a lot of Silicon Valley types who sometimes call themselves prophets. Who talk about A.I. as creating a consciousness or an all- knowing kind of god or godhead figure. And one of the most high profile of those is Peter Thiel, who's also Catholic, right?

CHRISTOPHER HALE, PUBLISHER, LETTERS FROM LEO: Yes. So, Peter Thiel, actually, he is Lutheran, but he's obsessed with Roman Catholicism. So, if you recall, throughout the fall last year, he hosted these Antichrist lectures that he had in San Francisco and Rome.

CORNISH: As one is one to do.

HALE: Yes, exactly.

CORNISH: And who was he calling the Antichrist again?

HALE: Well, he said anyone who slows down the development of artificial intelligence is a tool of the Antichrist. And he was very clear back in the fall that Pope Leo XIV could in fact be a tool of the Antichrist. And I think with what happened today, he's only going to double down on that.

CORNISH: So, needless to say, Leo speaking out. OK.

HALE: Correct.

CORNISH: Can you give me -- based on what was released today, what is his point of view on these technological tools?

HALE: I think his point of view is that they are not neutral moral actors and that they need to be developed for humanity and also regulated by humanity. There's this fight in Silicon Valley about the accelerationist versus decelerations.

CORNISH: We heard the Doomers versus the Zoomers.

HALE: Yes, he kind of falls -- I think he would call himself a skeptic. I think he would call himself it's inevitable, it's going to move forward, but he wants humanity to play a role in how it's developed. I think that Christopher Olop was there is actually the most underappreciated part of this story. Anthropic, as we know, in February, the Pentagon's contract, the Pentagon's contract with him was stopped. And the White House put him on the blacklist. So, I think it shows that Leo is unafraid to put himself with players that cause consternation to this administration.

[06:25:00]

CORNISH: Well, let's underscore that. You know a lot about what's going on with Anthropic. Daria, their CEO, is somebody who's been very outspoken about the need for regulation. I don't think it's an accident. These are days after the White House pulled back on its executive order on A.I. All of a sudden, it didn't release it. What does it mean that they're not just stepping forward, but even being side by side with the Pope?

FISCHER: They're trying to chart their own path and their own future. That's why they're getting ahead of any issues in Washington. Calling for regulation, Audie, is seen by a lot of people as them trying to position themselves as those that know what's best. And so, that they can shape the regulation, not necessarily so that they can just get almighty sort of oversight from Washington.

Appearing next to the Pope sends a similar signal. It's not that we necessarily -- we just don't -- we want to be ruled on our terms, is what it signals.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: And that's not just from a regulatory perspective here, but it's also from a moral perspective around the world. That is a very unusual step, by the way.

CORNISH: It is. I don't think the robber barons, when they were building the railroads, were just like, you know, this is -- we are Godhead. This is what we're doing, creating something. And I feel like there's this weird thing with Silicon Valley and these tech CEOs where they believe this technology, they do speak about it in a religious and spiritual way.

FISCHER: Well, I think one of the reasons is because A.I. is becoming fundamental to how we power war. And so, it is something that is going to be used to potentially target human lives. That's why Pope Leo is coming out and saying this cannot be a tool that we are using to execute on war. That's one of those big red lines.

I think that Dario wants to make sure that he can move ahead with his tools being used by not just the U.S. government from a defense perspective, but governments around the world. That's why he needs the pope's endorsement.

CORNISH: One other thing, he likens it to the Tower of Babel. Not everyone's caught up on that story, but obviously the basics. Humanity tries to build a tower to the heavens to be equal to God before the project collapses because God says, no, thank you. You're going to speak different languages. That is the cliff notes, folks. Don't quote me.

What do you think he's doing by bringing this story into this today?

HALE: I think he's making a very clear reference that, in fact, that Silicon Valley does think it's building God. I think that that's actually the original sin of Silicon Valley in Pope Leo's 14th. My of your call, the Garden of Eden, the original sin being that creation, Adam, he thought they were God or could replace God. And I think he's saying that we're actually facing the same battle again and again. But to Sara's point, the longest part of this document is not economics. It's not theology. It's war. He's very concerned about the use of A.I. in war. And I think that's why Christopher Olop is here today. I think the pope appreciates that Anthropics stood up to the Pentagon.

CORNISH: OK. As always, Chris, thank you so much for being here, Sara, thanks for jumping in.

Straight ahead on CNN This Morning, global health officials are still monitoring this rise in Ebola cases. So, what is the risk to Americans here in the U.S. at this point? We're going to find out.

And the latest on the armed man who had been taken down near the White House. Is the Secret Service equipped to keep handling threats like this?

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