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Third Measles-Related Death in Pennsylvania; China Weighs in on A.I. Slowdown; Trump Calls AOC/Mamdani Exchange at 9/11 Ceremony "Inappropriate". Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 14, 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: Been shut down after an attack. In the next hour, what this hit to the oil market means for you at the pump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CORNISH: OK. I'm going to turn to this a measles outbreak, and this time it's not kids. A 40-year-old woman in Pennsylvania has died from measles complications. As far as we know, she was not vaccinated. The thing is, this is the third measles related death there in the last month.

[06:35:00]

It's a fast-growing outbreak and it started a political firestorm between the state and federal officials at the CDC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HHS SECRETARY: We're doing a better job than any country in the world at controlling the measles outbreak. I've sent the CDC in to cooperate with the state health agencies and we've brought it to an end overnight. The only state that won't cooperate with us is Pennsylvania.

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): I was very, very blunt with him, and I made very clear that his actions and the rhetoric that's coming from this administration are having a negative impact on communities across America, particularly right here in Pennsylvania, that there's real life consequences to spreading misinformation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Bringing in Dr. Chris Pernell, public health physician, director of the NAACP Center for Health Equity. So, first, I want to start with this. This person was not vaccinated. For those of us who are vaccinated adults, should we be concerned about this outbreak?

DR. CHRIS T. PERNELL, PUBLIC HEALTH PHYSICIAN, DIRECTOR, NAACP CENTER FOR HEALTH EQUITY AND AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE FELLOW AND PUBLIC HEALTH PHYSICIAN: Good morning, Audie. I want everyone to know that if you have received both doses of your MMR or measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, you have a 97 percent effectiveness rate and likely have lifelong immunity. Even at one shot, you have a 93 percent effectiveness rate. So, this just again preaches the importance of protection, and it's very, very unfortunate and sad that this woman lost her life.

CORNISH: So, on its website, the CDC is not reporting any deaths this year. But we want to turn to this. The National Center for Health Statistic doesn't have any death records from 2026 that indicate measles is the underlying cause. And yet, at the same time, we know right now here are three deaths. Do we know what's going on?

DR. PERNELL: Yes, there is a almost total collapse in the public health infrastructure in the United States. If you look at 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, we had no confirmed measles deaths in the United States. In 2025, we had three confirmed deaths, and now already in 2026, we have three confirmed deaths. But you're seeing, unfortunately, a disagreement, which is rooted in the political determinants of health, meaning that political actors, political decisions and policy actions are impacting how people receive health and in particular public health information. And unfortunately, it's costing lives and will continue to do so unless we stop it.

CORNISH: So, Chris, I want to show you this yearly measles cases. So back in 2024, the number of cases we're not talking deaths here, just outbreak in cases 283. In 2025, we're already up in the 2000s. And in 2026, we're way above that. So, this is the tenure under which the current administration's health infrastructure. This is what they have to show for this. Just a straight-line graph.

But the thing is, I don't understand the Pennsylvania governor just saying we don't even want your help here. I don't understand how that is helpful. CDC workers can obviously still be helpful in these situations no?

DR. PERNELL: CDC workers can be helpful. But when the leadership, when the secretary of HHS does everything in his power to undermine the effectiveness in the safety of vaccines, it signals to states that because we don't have a science back evidence-based leader at the helm of the federal agency that we might not be able to trust the recommendations or the guidelines that come out of it.

And frankly, that is sad, that ended up itself is preventable. And we in public health have to do everything in our power to reassure the masses that your local physician, your local health system and even your state and other medical organizations, we are holding the line.

CORNISH: OK. That's Dr. Chris Parnell. Thank you. Appreciate it.

DR. PERNELL: Thank you.

CORNISH: Next on CNN this morning at last check, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was recovering from a health scare. So, the question is, is he actually going to show up at work this week? And what happens if he does not?

Plus, America's top A.I. bosses saying it's time to slow down. And then overnight, China entered the chat. We've got a reporter live from Beijing next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00]

CORNISH: All right. So, is this all a Cold War tactic, this chat about A.I.? That's what China thinks. We've been hearing from A.I. tech leaders in the U.S. that A.I. is a threat to humanity. But a Chinese-backed Global Times wrote that the call from Anthropic's CEO to slow down A.I. development is, quote, "an attempt to curb China's A.I. development through technological barriers and regulatory monopolies and uphold Washington's monopolistic hegemony in cutting- edge technology and exclude China from the global A.I. governance system." And they went on to call it a silent A.I. Cold War.

So, I'm bringing in Simone McCarthy, CNN's senior China reporter. I wanted to talk about this because you've got people in the U.S. saying that we need to regulate more. And people like Senator Bernie Sanders, they're starting to speak up as well. He's got a bill that would permanently ban what's called superintelligent A.I.

[06:45:00]

And he tweeted, this was a start, it's not enough. And then he's saying that Trump and Xi should negotiate a treaty to pause A.I. and ban superintelligence before it's too late. So first, can you just tell me a little bit about China and the idea of some kind of treaty?

SIMONE MCCARTHY, CNN SENIOR CHINA REPORTER: Absolutely. I mean, of course, this is a thorny issue on both sides, given how intense this A.I. competition is right now. And frankly, how quickly China's A.I. models are nipping at the heels of their Silicon Valley competitors.

Now, that said, one of the things that's really struck me as we've seen this conversation really exploding in the United States in recent days in terms of what are the risks from A.I., should we be slowing down its development, is that there have been similar concerns raised in China from government officials.

Now, the China media ecosystem is very different from the United States, of course, so we're not seeing the same level of public discussion about this. What we are seeing instead is government officials making some of the most direct comments that they've made to date about some of the A.I. safety concerns. And I'm just going to read a quick excerpt here from China's top intelligence officer, the head of the Ministry of State Security, who said, we must properly balance development and security. We should establish systems for technology monitoring, risk early warnings and emergency response to strengthen the assessment and prevention of potential risks.

Now, that's very bureaucratic language, of course. But what it also signifies is that there are these kinds of conversations which are happening within China as well. China has also proposed an A.I. global security initiative where it wants to have A.I. governance and China really, to frankly, take a lead in that. Now, the question is whether or not the U.S. and China are able to see eye to eye on this, that question of a treaty. We are expecting to see talks between the two sides in the lead up to the visit from Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Washington later this month. But there's so much mistrust on both sides. And that gets very much to the comments that you alluded to from The Global Times where what China doesn't want is to be categorized as a threat. It doesn't want to be seen as an act as a bad actor in this space. And instead, it very much sees itself as being constrained by the U.S. because the U.S. wants to maintain its own lead.

We can take a listen to what China's foreign ministry had to say specifically when asked about some of the conversation in the U.S. over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUO JIAKUN, CHINA'S FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): The development of artificial intelligence concerns the common well-being of all humanity. All parties should work together to advance A.I. in a manner that is open, inclusive, beneficial to all and oriented towards the good. Spreading various threat narratives and engaging in confrontation and malicious competition will only disrupt the global A.I. governance process and serve the interests of no one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Simone, there's this conversation in tech about the boomers and the zoomers and the doomers, the people who are saying the robots will kill us. Is there any kind of corollary to the U.S. backlash among average people in China? Would they even be able to surface those concerns given the free speech sort of limits in China?

MCCARTHY: It's such an interesting question. And it really says a lot about the difference in how I think the two governments are approaching this technology. Of course, in China, there is absolutely the aspect that speech is moderated, especially across social media platforms. That is absolutely the case. But at the same time, there's just very much a difference in the way that the governments are talking about A.I., that companies are talking about A.I.

And in China, the focus really is on using A.I., implementing it in everyday life in terms of things like elderly care or enhancing manufacturing in order to make that more efficient and improve the economy. So that messaging is really wall to wall in China about the benefits of A.I. So, there's certainly a difference there. The other difference, too, is that China's government already has a very tight regulatory environment over A.I. So, some of those concerns are perhaps not as poignant as they are in the United States.

CORNISH: OK. That's Simone McCarthy talking to us from Beijing. Thank you.

And then I want to turn to this a viral moment taking off on social media. It's just a four second clip. It's showing AOC and New York mayor Zohran Mamdani at the 9/11 memorial. This was on Friday. And then the president said this about their meeting over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I think it's terrible. It's not a place to be laughing, especially in that case. I thought it was -- the fact that they were laughing together in a very important part of the ceremony was inappropriate.

CORNISH: The Group Chat is back. So, I wanted to actually show this video of you because, you know, I'm sure people will be like, what are we talking about? Like this memorial was a few days ago.

[06:50:00]

Here's the moment from the service on Friday. And then these are the moments immediately before and after the interaction for context. So, of course, it's showing them hugging. They exchanged smiles. And at what point you do see a laugh. And then both of them returned to neutral expressions after the exchange.

Can I start with you? Do you see a problem?

KATIE FROST, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GEORGIA FREEDOM CAUCUS: Well, I will say it is a very somber occasion and someone, especially someone like Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez or Mayor Mamdani who are social media natives, you would say, should understand that things can be clipped very easily, potentially taken out of context. And everybody -- when you are such a high-profile figure, everyone's paying attention to every single gesture you make. There was also significant pushback to Mayor Mamdani even being at that ceremony.

CORNISH: So, you're saying he was vulnerable to attack going in --

FROST: Absolutely.

CORNISH: -- because of the pushback.

FROST: Absolutely.

CORNISH: What do you, Geoff?

GEOFF DUNCAN, FORMER DEMOCRATIC GEORGIA CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR: Right, wrong, or indifferent optics are what politics are made of. I think it's so interesting when you're behind the curtain and I've been behind the curtain as a candidate multiple times. So much of what we see play out on commercials and social media is not actually what reality is. It's all about the spin. And certainly, they got caught in a moment of lightness in their eyes.

But look, the reality is I'm glad they were there. I'm glad that they were there to support such a tragic event. And, you know, I think that's a -- but politics is going to be politics.

CORNISH: I know. Let me just get ahead of it so that you guys can adopt a board posture when people bring it up today. Here's JD Vance, smiling, talking to the person next to him. It is believed that the person he is talking to is the former mayor, Mayor Bloomberg. Again, this is during the same period. The names of victims of 9/11 are being read. Of course, we're talking about more, almost 3,000 people.

The former head of security for Rudy Giuliani of all people, Michael Ragusa, posted this, the videos of Mayor Mamdani and AOC laughing are not true. I was standing next to them the whole time. The camera just caught her greeting him. Hello. Multiple other politicians were laughing and joking behind me, Republicans and Democrats. And for the record, I'm a lifelong Republican who has been very critical of these two. I'm just sick of this fake news and people just saying whatever they want.

PATRICIA MURPHY, SENIOR POLITICAL COLUMNIST, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION AND EDITOR, POLITICALLY GEORGIA NEWSLETTER: Yes. I think if you look at the video, I don't even see anything more than two professionals exchanging pleasantries on a really difficult day. These are two native New Yorkers. These are people who have seen the worst thing happen to this city and seen the city unite and overcome that by being kind of one people. Even Mayor Giuliani went to every funeral. He did not ask if the person was a Democrat or Republican. I think this is -- it is not true what they're saying about this very short clip. They're exchanging pleasantries and that's all it is.

CORNISH: And I have to say, I was shocked at the way. I understand politics. I understand optics, but it's 9/11. It's the 20th anniversary. And the amount of time people spent, not on the victims, not on terror concerns, not on where our infrastructure is now was shocking politically.

DUNCAN: I think it speaks to the times that we're in. There's no subject off limits from political attacks and political spin. And I think if you were truly wanting to memorialize that event, you would not have tried to use that as a weapon of destruction. You would have seen it as an opportunity for unity.

FROST: Well, I would also counter though, that the Democratic Party should have also be -- Mayor Mamdani should have been more aware because there's a lot of discussions with the Democratic Party --

DUNCAN: Did you say the mayor or JD Vance?

FROST: The mayor -- hold on the mayor, because when you have a Hasan Piker out there campaigning with Abdul El-Sayed, who says America deserved 9/11, there are a lot of Democrats who are having to answer for some of that rhetoric. They need to be definitely on high alert.

CORNISH: So, I think what I'm saying, Katie --

DUNCAN: I see what you did there. You just spun the same issue.

CORNISH: What do you mean?

DUNCAN: I feel like you took that moment to expand that footprint, right? There was a light moment that was taken, whether JD Vance should not be attacked for having a quick chuckle or a laugh or some camaraderie with somebody to him, nor should the mayor or AOC, right? Nobody should be in that period of time. But you're taking that and wanting to expand it into a political narrative to just try to create an outcome for an election instead of actually doing what you're supposed to do, and that's honor the event.

FROST: The big difference is no one in the Republican Party has been seen campaigning with someone who said America deserved 9/11. This is a serious issue that Democrats are having to answer for, particularly in Michigan, where you see the brother of the pilot who was on the plane that was flown into the Twin Towers is now doing an ad for Mike Roger.

CORNISH: I think, Katie, what I'm saying though is -- I understand what you're saying. What I -- the footprint I think I'm processing is we're in the middle where we're concerned about A.I. cyber-attacks. There has been some attacks by Iran on water. We have the 9/11 event itself of which thousands of people died and I want to honor them, but I can't because we want to talk about the Michigan Senate race.

It's not that I don't think that people who are upset about Hasan Piker can't be upset. What I don't understand is is 9/11 not so massive on its own that we don't need to drag random Senate races into it though. I can't actually get an answer about whether we are better off safer today than we were then. I cannot get that answer.

FROST: I would say we are.

[06:55:00]

CORNISH: Because I have spent the entire time hearing about a mayor who's been in office for less than six months.

FROST: I would say we are safer than we were. And if you had gone back 25 years ago and said there would never be another significant terrorist attack on American soil in 25 years, no one probably would.

CORNISH: But why not take that win? Why spend this time spinning our wheels looking at foolishness that has nothing to do with whether or not we're safe for the lives of those people? It's been a news story that's been like actually driving me legitimately crazy. I don't like -- what? Like maybe I could hear about the toxic air that killed people that were sitting on those documents. Like why isn't OK for 9/11 to be 9/11? Why does 9/11 have to be 2026 midterms?

MURPHY: But this is the news. We could be talking about something different and we're not, mostly because the president changed the subject. But I think if you go back and look at those videos, I was on Capitol Hill on 9/11. I agree. I we never would have thought we would not have had major terror attack after that. But the moments after that were the best of this country. And unfortunately, it's been downhill since then. There's just no place for the rhetoric that the president lodged at those two professionals.

CORNISH: OK. We've got one more thing. It'll be quick because it's a story about a person who's not here. The Senate comes back. We want to know if Mitch McConnell will be back when they are back to. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): According to his staff they have all said it's their goal for Senator McConnell to be here when they -- when the Senate comes in next week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, that's Congressman James Comer. He thinks the Kentucky Senator will be back. That hasn't been confirmed. It's been three months. If he doesn't show today, will that be a breaking point?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): If he is not there on Monday, he has an explanation -- he owes an explanation to the American people, to the people of Kentucky. You can't not show up for work and not call and talk to your boss and his boss is, is the people of Kentucky.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. So, I'm looking at my notes from you guys and you oddly agree term limits and a maximum age for serving in office on this side of the table.

DUNCAN: It's like the most bipartisan thing out there. It's --

CORNISH: It's not. A lot of people say the term limits are the voters.

MURPHY: I want to give a quick argument against term limits. When you have term limits, it is a function that in legislatures, then the staff become more powerful than the members. They are unelected. They answer to no one. And eventually they have more information and more power and more relationships with lobbyists than the members themselves do.

CORNISH: And I think a vote has been missed. We had this note from the American soybean association. A lot of farmers are operating in the red right now. If you're not able to be profitable, you're not going to be able to be sustainable solvent. Basically, there are people saying, right now I am affected by my lawmaker, not taking a vote that would have benefited me.

So, what does it take for this to become an actual problem, if not for McConnell, then for the Republicans in the Senate?

FROST: I mean, we've seen this happen time and time again, unfortunately, not necessarily at the level of Senator McConnell.

CORNISH: Yes. Not that many times and times again.

FROST: But, I mean, OK. Well, like Senator Feinstein was in serious --

CORNISH: Yes. Absolutely. And then, we didn't hear the end of it. So --

FROST: Right.

CORNISH: So, what should happen here?

FROST: Look, I'm not sure when Senator McConnell is going to make a return to the Senate. I have not spoken to a staff. I'm not as confident as they are. I will say I'm seriously concerned with the fact that the number one health problem for members of Congress is a fall. Like that's where they are in the age wise. They're like, Oh, one fall and there you go. That member of Congress is out for a long time.

CORNISH: All right.

FROST: We -- I'm on the side of maximum age limit, not necessarily a term limit because very much of the points Patricia was making, I don't like the idea of staff becoming a permanent bureaucracy that have all the information.

CORNISH: Right. Well, Washington will have its answer this week. Can I start with your Group Chat, Jeff?

DUNCAN: Yes. I think my group chat is most of my friends are talking about when's the stock market going to start to pull back. I think all these warning signs are going off.

CORNISH: Is it just emojis of bubbles or like what is the -- where are they on the side of this?

DUNCAN: It's stress. I think you got some worried about their college kids' savings or got folks worried about retirement. Yes. I think it's a, it's a pretty real thing.

CORNISH: OK. Group Chat.

FROST: So, my group chat was actually about 9/11. I was nine years old when it happened and I have three sisters who were born after 9/11. They have no knowledge of what that day was like.

CORNISH: Yes, yes, yes. Because I even felt the difference between the two of us and in terms of like, is this what I want to talk about?

FROST: Right.

CORNISH: Yes.

FROST: And really just, we were listening to like the voicemails that were left. We were watching those videos, but I will tell you it was the worst day for America, but it brought out the best in America. And I look back at all of that and I just hope that if I've never faced a crisis like that, I want to be in a world full of men like Todd Beamer and Rick Rescorla, Michael Weinberg. And if -- live out, live out that --

CORNISH: Hopefully. Hopefully people won't bring up the midterms. Yes.

MURPHY: Those are wonderful Group Chats.

CORNISH: OK.

MURPHY: Mine is --

CORNISH: Bring us down. Bring us down. There we go.

MURPHY: Mines is Harry and Meghan.

CORNISH: They're back. They're back.

MURPHY: That's what my friends and I, my sisters and I, my relatives and I --

CORNISH: Not wrong.

MURPHY: -- we cannot stop texting about it. Are they going to keep --

CORNISH: Oh, that's a very low count there.

MURPHY: -- making -- is the family going to fall apart?

CORNISH: Fall apart?

MURPHY: I mean, that's --

CORNISH: What are you saying?

MURPHY: The royal family?

CORNISH: Oh, well.

MURPHY: William and Harry. Like that's what my group text is about.

CORNISH: OK. Another chapter in the UK drama, over people who are not even royals again.

[07:00:00]

Looking forward to it, I'll be in your group chat.

Thank you so much for being with us today, we know there are a lot of places you can spend your time and I'm glad you chose to spend it with us. I'm Audie Cornish, and news headlines are next.