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Suspected Ebola Cases Growing in Central Africa; Crews Find Crack in Chemical Tank at Risk of Explosion; Secret Service Kills Gunman Who Opened Fire Near White House; Trump Doubles Down on Texas Senate Race Endorsement. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired May 25, 2026 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you for joining me on this Memorial Day. It's half past the hour.

Here's what's happening right now. The director of the World Health Organization saying that the number of suspected Ebola cases is up to more than 900 with nearly 180 deaths. Doctors say the outbreak began in a rural area of the Democratic Republic of Congo but has now spread to major cities and neighboring Uganda. Experts believe the epidermic risk remains low on a global level.

And oil prices are dropping as the U.S. and Iran negotiate a deal. The deal would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, allowing oil to flow and maybe bring gas prices down. And gas this Memorial Day weekend, just a reminder, is the most expensive in four years. The national average for a gallon up to $4.51.

And happening today, the president expected to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery as part of the nation's annual Memorial Day observance. The Armed Forces Full Honor Wreath Ceremony is scheduled to begin at noon Eastern at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

And in Orange County, there are fire crews that are expecting a crack in an overheating chemical tank, which is at risk of exploding. So, this crack is actually kind of good news for officials because they're hoping that it will relieve some of the pressure in the tank. And as fire crews work to cool the tank, tens of thousands of evacuated residents are now in shelters, uncertain when they'll be able to go home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel really stressed out because I'm not sure what the future has to tell for us. I don't know how long this is going to be, how long we're going to have to be displaced, where we're going to be, if we're going to have the money to be able to provide for our kids and our family.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: Joining me now is CNN's Senior National Security Analyst, Juliette Kayyem. And you just heard the voice of someone there from Huntington Beach, California.

[06:35:00]

Can you talk about this kind of how to warn people, how long they need to stay away from their homes? How do emergency officials think of this kind of thing?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY AND HARVARD PROFESSOR: Yes. So, toxic chemical leak is scary. It's a chemical called MMA. It's quite dangerous to the respiratory system.

So, basically what happened is they found one particular tank on this facility was too hot. That's not good. And the worst news for them was the pressure was increasing inside the tank. So, they're worried about an explosion. They then evacuate appropriately 50,000 people. It's a huge evacuation. Governor Newsom of California has declared an emergency.

The good news, as you noted, is that you need to release the pressure in the tank to make sure it doesn't explode while doing so, that there's no leaks. And that's basically the tension they have right now. It appears overnight, nothing, obviously. Catastrophic happens.

And so, it might be that they're reducing the pressure in the tank, lower the temperature, and then figure out what the problem is. But people will not be able to reach until they know that this is not going to be catastrophic.

CORNISH: I want to play for you the interim fire chief of Orange County. Here's how he described the operation to try and release the pressure in that tank.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TJ MCGOVERN, INTERIM FIRE CHIEF, ORANGE COUNTY FIRE AUTHORITY: We are doing our operation tonight to confirm that the pressure has been released and the BLEVE threat is eliminated. So, that is our goal tonight. Because that is a catastrophic, worst case scenario that we've all been talking about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, it turns out the crack is a good thing. Is this something that can be repaired or just the fact that it can actually release some of the pressure?

KAYYEM: Both. So, you want to release the pressure. As we know in critical infrastructure, you simply just don't want to pressurize tank. And then get the heat down. That's the challenge right now. There's a whole system of critical infrastructure mitigation. Because, of course, as you see here in Orange County, you've got, you know, massive factories next to homes, next to Disneyland, which was not evacuated.

And so, there's a lot of knowledge about these kinds of threats that live amongst us. We tend to think of threats that come in from outside. Critical infrastructure, chemical, oil, energy, all of it is often in near residential areas. So, the good news is they caught this before it exploded and are relieving that pressure.

CORNISH: I want to ask you one more thing before I let you go. On Saturday, Secret Service agents, of course, shot and killed this man that the agency said. Shot at them at a security checkpoint. This comes, obviously, a couple of weeks after the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting. I also heard that they had dealt with him before.

And can you help me understand? Are we looking at just like kind of one mad person that is a continuous threat, or are we seeing increased violence against this White House?

KAYYEM: We're seeing -- yes, we're seeing the increased violence. I think what happened here is they had two previous encounters with him. They viewed it as mental health. They actually commit him at one stage. Neither of them is violent. Then he goes away for a little bit. Comes back violent. So, that is not uncommon. This was a scary incident for everyone in the White House. And it was an attack on our democratic institutions. Even if he wasn't close, even if the threat was terminated, I think, in a very effective way by the Secret Service.

Look, we built the Secret Service believing that political assassinations could happen, but that they were random and rare. That this was such a unique, this doesn't happen in a democracy. We are now looking at consistent violent attacks against the president. But, of course, within our political discourse, right? Violence is the extension of political discourse for a small percentage of people. And the Secret Service is not built for that. And I think they are assessing their capacity and their focus.

CORNISH: OK. That's Juliette Kayyem. Thank you so much.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

CORNISH: I want to turn to Texas now. Senator John Cornyn trying to downplay Donald Trump basically supporting his opponent in tomorrow's Republican primary runoff. So, Cornyn has been facing off against the attorney general there, Ken Paxton. And Trump just endorsed Paxton a few days ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): I think it's very different from the Cassidy and Massie situation. Because I've been a Trump ally, as you point out. I think he got frustrated with the Senate, not able to get what he wanted when he wanted it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: All right. But here's the thing. A few hours later, Trump then goes online and basically says on social media that Cornyn is very disloyal. And he adds that he, quote, "didn't fight hard enough for what Trump wanted passed through."

[06:40:00]

So, I'm bringing back the Group Chat. We started the show talking about with friends like these. And in this case, John Cornyn is looking for a life raft and he is not getting it right now. First, can you talk about that back and forth? Like why Cornyn would try and make it sound like, no, it's not that bad. And then Trump comes out and is like, no, it's that bad. I hate you.

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST AND SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER, AXIOS: Well, of course, Cornyn is going to say it's not that bad. Because what we are seeing is that people who are aligned with Donald Trump are doing well in these primaries. Now, that is actually counter. But he is aligned with Trump. To his mind, he is. And he's voted with him 99.9 percent of the time.

I mean, he is technically. But reputationally, Donald Trump is trying to create distance between himself and Cornyn. And there's a few reasons for that. It could be sort of his Warhawk positioning. It could be that President Trump wants to align himself with Paxton, who's taken big swings against opponents in a way that Trump might feel is Trumpian. I think about big tech.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: In that ironic example.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: And so, for Cornyn, it makes a lot of sense that you're going to come out and say, no, no, no. Our relationship is not that bad. The challenge that he faces is that his megaphone is nowhere near as big as Donald Trump's megaphone. Even if Trump's posting that on Truth Social, that's getting picked up to his 80 bajillion followers on X and other platforms.

CORNISH: The flip side is Paxton is someone who I think charitably a few years ago people would call a flawed candidate, or we're talking about candidate quality in vague, euphemistic terms. I'm going to have someone describe him not in vague or euphemistic terms. This is Senator Tillis on Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): And to call Paxton ethically challenged is to call Jeffrey Dahmer separating from an eating disorder. This guy is an empty suit and will do us no service by being in the U.S. Congress. When they go to the polls on Tuesday, I hope that they know that they've got a great American who deserves reelection. And the other guy is going to be nothing but an anchor on our conference for as long as he's in the U.S. Senate. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. So, just so we know, Ken Paxton, he has battled state securities fraud charges, even as he's been a very aggressive attorney general for the state. He was impeached in 2023 and then accused by infidelity by his ex-wife, which I usually would never mention. But it's come up in this campaign. Why is it so vicious?

JOEY GARRISON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, USA TODAY: Well, I mean, look, Democrats preferred to go against Ken Paxton when it comes to James Talarico.

CORNISH: Talarico. Right now. I'll show you the polling while you're talking.

GARRISON: So, that's what was so interesting about Trump endorsing here at the last minute. I mean, early voting had gotten underway. He could have just remained quiet. But I think he felt sort of like he needed to come to the defense of the guy he saw as more of the MAGA candidate.

And in terms of not liking Cornyn, I mean, never saw Cornyn as a real MAGA guy. And he never forgot in 2024 when Cornyn offered some skepticism about Trump being the Republican nominee again. He referenced that in his post. And so, you know, Paxton just has an array of things that Talarico and the Democrats can attack over. And now, you've seen Trump and Republicans try to cast Talarico as weird. They're going to say he's a far lefty that's --

CORNISH: For instance, he's a vegan.

GARRISON: A vegan.

CORNISH: And a -- Talarico.

MICHELLE PRICE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: Vegan is how you pronounce it.

CORNISH: Oh, vegan.

PRICE: Vegan.

CORNISH: You pronounce it correctly, then you are one.

GARRISON: There's some remarks he made about six genders.

CORNISH: Yes, exactly.

GARRISON: That is in -- there's already a Super PAC --

CORNISH: Plus, there was a TACO thing.

GARRISON: Right. So --

CORNISH: Every few years I have to write a story that's like, Democrats, Texas, the white whale, they're going to get it this year. Are we actually looking at a moment, maybe even because of this infighting, splitting the vote, that Talarico could be facing a candidate that he has a chance against?

PRICE: I mean, if Ken Paxton wins, his chances are obviously much greater. There's a lot of time before November.

CORNISH: Yes.

PRICE: But what was so stunning about this decision by the president to endorse Paxton, though, was we have seen that the president values loyalty. He does have some pragmatism about where he picks --

CORNISH: Yes. He likes to pick a winner --

PRICE: -- his place. Yes. And like you see, Susan Collins in Maine voted to impeach him. He did not run somebody against her. He has not been posting things about her like he is about John Cornyn. And Republicans working on this race, you know, the president has gotten private counsel about the stakes here.

He seems to think that Ken Paxton can pull it off in the face of what seems to be a lot of evidence to the contrary. And what was very stunning about that was his own campaign manager who helped him have this comeback win in 2024 is working for John Cornyn. And it was there were --

CORNISH: I'm sorry, what?

PRICE: So, there was somebody that the president trusted, whose political advice he has relied on. And yet, the president chose to go in another direction.

CORNISH: I'm going put up those poll numbers one more time right now. If it were a matchup between Paxton and Talarico. Talarico is -- got a higher figure here. But I want to draw your attention to the bottom. No opinion, 19 percent. So, those are the people that everybody is fighting for over these next couple of very long months ahead after this primary.

Next on CNN This Morning, as the conflict with Iran continues, Republicans insist kitchen table issues will decide the midterms.

[06:45:00]

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I'm so grateful to be here in this moment and in this fight alongside each and every one of you shoulder to shoulder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: All right. What's going on with Democrats? Well, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, people are looking at whether or not she might be gearing up for a presidential run.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Obama gave them $1.7 billion in cash. Green, green cash. Took it out of banks from Virginia, D.C., and Maryland. All the cash they had. Flew it by airplanes in an attempt to buy their respect and loyalty, but it didn't work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: President Trump, as recently as April, still criticizing former President Obama for the deal the U.S. made with Iran. But is Trump about to make a similar one?

[06:50:00]

The deal now in the works would unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian funds for nuclear concessions, or as one U.S. official simply put it, no dust, no dollars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): And this deal alone, easing of sanctions on Iran, allowing them to get billions of more, the same deal he criticized, he's already doing worse than. Giving Iran more money, as he has said, will allow them to do things like fuel their terrorist proxies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Here's the president posting just minutes ago. Quote, "The deal with Iran will either be a great and meaningful one, or there will be no deal. It will be the exact opposite of the disaster negotiated by the failed Obama administration." Again, that Truth Social post just happening a few moments ago.

We're bringing into the Group Chat Ravi Chaudhary, former acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy. Thank you so much for being here.

RAVI CHAUDHARY, FORMER AIR FORCE ASSISTANT SECRETARY AND FORMER ACTING DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY FOR ENERGY: It's an honor to be here, Audie.

CORNISH: So, the reason why we have someone who knows about energy is because coming out of this, these strikes, we are now in an energy crisis, right? With the Strait of Hormuz pretty much at a stalemate. Can you talk about what would look like victory in terms of this deal when it comes to the Strait of Hormuz?

CHAUDHARY: Yes, absolutely. Audie, thank you so much for having me today. And on this day, Memorial Day weekend, we can't keep the sacrifices of the fallen further from our hearts. And that's why we talk about these things.

And what we've entered into is an age of energy warfare. That's brought on by the proliferation of drones, the proliferation and accuracy of ballistic missiles that Iran has been able to shift the center of gravity from fielded forces to the Strait of Hormuz. That's --

CORNISH: Meaning they could target the infrastructure of regional allies.

LAMB (on camera): Yes.

CORNISH: They could do a lot with like speedboats and create a lot of headache.

CHAUDHARY: Absolutely. And that's put us in a position to play catch up when it comes to negotiations with Iran to this date. And here we are another week, another week in which we are over promising and potentially over under delivering in this particular case. So, making sure that we get this right is going to be important.

But at the same time, I can see, especially in the Republican Party, an era of skepticism when it comes to how we're prosecuting this conflict and how we're getting to an actual deal.

CORNISH: Yes. We mentioned some of those earlier. Some of the people who are criticizing where the deal is going. So, the president's allies were out and about talking about this over the last week and specifically trying to allay people's fears around oil. I want you to take a listen. You can respond.

CHAUDHARY: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: I think that as soon as we get energy prices going back down, you could actually be looking at negative inflation because of the energy price going down.

REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): There appears to be a deal in place. We'll see what happens with the Straits. But I would anticipate that those oil prices will be tumbling down and gas prices with it here in the United States.

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), HOUSE SPEAKER: When this settles out, gas prices come back down to earth. That means your grocery prices come down again because of transport costs and all the rest. It's going to be a big factor. The kitchen table issues are going to decide the midterm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHAUDHARY: Yes, my reaction to that is that's kind of the definition of strategic paralysis, if you ask me. We had entered this on the premise that fielded forces and the 50,000 targets that we hit would bring us to a strategic end. But that's not the case. And when we talk about, you know, as a former military planner, what victory means, you'd think that a victory on the battlefield would result in you being able to compel an adversary to comply with your agreement or comply with your will. And that hasn't been the case.

So, we've got to think deeply about this and make sure that as energy prices come down, which will likely be very, very slowly, we're talking about months here, that energy is going to be on the minds of how we negotiate this deal.

CORNISH: Because it's their leverage.

CHAUDHARY: Absolutely.

CORNISH: I want to ask about one more thing, him comparing it to the Obama era deal. You know, Iran has consistently demanded unfrozen assets, right? Like they've always wanted money. I think they've even claimed restitution in this situation over the strikes. Is there any scenario where there's a deal that doesn't involve putting money on a plane, that doesn't involve, like isn't that something they want and that they think they have leverage for?

CHAUDHARY: Well, I think the U.S. didn't do any favors by not having its allies at the table with them negotiating this. And we're finding those challenges occurring right now. But in the end, I think Iran has a strategic advantage here with the Strait of Hormuz. And they're converting that into a monetary advantage as well.

And so, that puts us in an arena in which we're playing catch-up, just about with every single negotiation discussion. And as you can see with the agreement that yesterday we thought we had, and now has kind of turned into a agreement to start the discussion for an agreement.

[06:55:00]

It starts to get a little bit in the arena of American credibility and really what our troops, who some have made the ultimate sacrifice for, are wondering.

And I just talked to a military spouse just this weekend who's asking that very same question. They have a loved one that's deployed, and they're wondering exactly what strategic end we're marching towards and if it's worth it. If our blood, life, and treasure is worth this conflict that we've entered into.

CORNISH: OK. Ravi, thank you so much. I hope to have you back. Really appreciate it.

CHAUDHARY: Yes. It's an honor to be here.

CORNISH: We're going to turn and talk about one more thing before we go, what's going on with Democrats, and specifically Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of their marquee stars. Is she quietly laying the groundwork for a run for president in 2028? I know. We're not getting ahead of ourselves, we promise.

In just the past few weeks, the New York Congresswoman has been campaigning in competitive congressional primary in Philadelphia. There she endorsed her candidate, and that candidate won. She also spoke at a voting rights event in Alabama. She was invited to speak at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Mother's Day, the church where Senator Raphael Warnock serves as pastor. When recently asked, however, by CNN's Manu Raju about her future ambitions, she had this answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I think about how I can be most helpful in getting every American health care that they deserve, and how to increase our wages. And, you know, that could mean running for something else. It could mean staying put where I am. It could mean leaving politics entirely. But I -- my motivation and my ambition is to make sure every American has health care in this country.

That I look at what's happening in the country, and I make my decisions from there, but no, I don't have anything set in stone, for sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. Call it my trauma from Obama, but as a young reporter, over and over again, people kept asking a young senator from Illinois if he was going to run, and he was like, shucks me, no. And then there he was. I think this one is a little more, let's say, obvious in that she has been touring side by side with Bernie Sanders. Those are huge crowds, and she is now drawing crowds on her own.

FISCHER: She's a national name. There's no question about it. Myself and my colleague Carrie Flynn (ph) actually mapped out every single 2028 presidential hopeful's footprint in terms of online media. That's not just social media, but also Substacks and podcasts and books. She has such a massive reach advantage over any other contender.

CORNISH: So, just followers, plus where she appears and how frequently she appears?

FISCHER: Yes. And because of that, that's one of the reasons she's getting invited to these places, because the people who are hosting these events, they want national attention to be able to raise national fundraising dollars, even for some of these local races. So, that's why you're going to bring in someone like AOC.

The obvious benefit she has is she's getting on the ground local campaign experience, even if she's not trying to do that directly, she's getting it indirectly, which is a huge advantage.

CORNISH: Who else is getting it?

FISCHER: No one.

CORNISH: Who else is she acting in the same way?

PRICE: Not in that same level. I mean, she is somebody who can bring a lot of dollars, small dollar donations in. CORNISH: Yes. But Newsom's been at the opening of an envelope. I mean, --

PRICE: He has. But he's not --

CORNISH: He's got a podcast now, which we know is a sign of success.

PRICE: And he's been at Davos, but is he out speaking in churches in Atlanta? Like there's a distinction about would actually --

CORNISH: I don't know how that would go.

PRICE: -- gets you votes.

CORNISH: Anybody else? Kamala? Is Kamala back? She had a book tour, tours mean you plant down. Yes.

FISCHER: Again, let's go back to the big social media footprint. The only person who by far, no pun intended, trumps AOC is Kamala Harris. Because of the coconut tree. Because of the coconut tree, which is running for, you know, a big national office and being the VP gets you the following.

GARRISON: It does seem like AOC star is getting bigger than her congressional seat. You know, will she run for president or will she, you know, eventually run for U.S. Senate?

CORNISH: Yes.

GARRISON: And, you know, maybe that's the more logical step. But, you know, as -- when she was questioned about it, she certainly left the door open. She's - and she'd be foolish to close it right now given the -- how popular she is to the liberal base in the Democratic Party.

CORNISH: OK. We're going to talk Group Chats this Monday. How about you, Michelle? What have you been thinking about?

PRICE: There's been this trend of college commencement speakers bringing up A.I. and getting booed by students, which is just --

CORNISH: They bring up A.I. in a good way or they bring up A.I. in a bad way?

PRICE: And they speak positively about A.I., suggesting, you know, this is the future, this is something we should embrace.

CORNISH: Yes. Read the room.

PRICE: And they are not getting a great reception here. Especially for some of these students, they're about to -- they're questioning what career options are going to be open to them as there's fears A.I. is going to take their jobs.

CORNISH: They're in the process of getting rejected right now, I think.

PRICE: Yes.

CORNISH: OK. For you?

GARRISON: Well, when I thought about Group Chat and I thought about my Group Chats, what's in it right now are a lot of my baby photos of my daughter, Olivia, hopefully one day a future journalist herself, and I've been sharing a lot of those photos. She's three months old. She's doing great.

CORNISH: Oh, my goodness.

GARRISON: Look at that, with the Titans --

CORNISH: That is very -- yes. I'll get her a T-shirt that says, "I should be a lawyer."

[07:00:00]