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Trump Dismisses A.I. Safety Fears as a "Hoax"; Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Plan to Restrict Mail-In Voting; Newsom Wouldn't Run Against Harris. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 15, 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]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump once again brushing aside concerns about rogue artificial intelligence, venting his frustrations about those warnings on the phone to the CEO of NVIDIA in front of a live audience. Jensen Huang was on stage at a summit Monday when he got a call from the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: They're just playing right into the hands of a lot of people that don't want to see it happen. And that could be political people. It could also be China and we're not going to let that happen. It's a hoax.

I also have common sense about Al. The robots will not be taking over. The A.I. will not be taking over the rest of the world. The whole thing is a hoax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Trump also rejecting the idea of guardrails for the technology, saying the only control needed is a, quote, "strong and smart high IQ president." Meantime, tech leaders continue to speak out and to call on Congress to step in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARIO AMODEI, CEO, ANTHROPIC: So, the one thing that we're asking for from government right now, it can sit down in the room and with all the industry players, and we can all talk together, and the government can make sure that we're -- you know, we're not doing anything nefarious from the perspective of antitrust and collusion.

JD VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I have to say just personally, I feel a little bit weird about the fact that you have so many frontier A.I. tech companies kind of coming to the government and begging the government to regulate them. It feels a little bit to me like a bit of a Trojan Horse. So, I think we just have to be careful about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So, bottom line, who should you believe at this point? Joining me to discuss Ashley Gold, senior tech correspondent for Semafor.

There you go. A pretty simple question to kick things off with you, Ashley. Who do we believe here? I do think, though, there is a legitimate question, right? Is this about business, right? And America first and making sure that America stays at the forefront. Is it about this very real threat to humanity that the CEOs tell us is happening in this moment? Like, which is the motivator here?

ASHLEY GOLD, SENIOR TECH CORRESPONDENT, SEMAFOR: It depends who you're talking about. So, for the president and the vice president, America leading the A.I. race, as it's always called, is a real point of pride for them. They want American companies and American-built A.I. to be the dominating A.I. that is used throughout the entire world. They want American A.I. companies to be able to sell their products and be used in Europe and in Asia and all around the world. They want to beat out Chinese A.I., which is also making its way around the world that way.

So, this is a great opportunity for Trump in advance to sort of call a geopolitical win if A.I. tech is dominant throughout the world. However, at the same time, there's very real safety concerns coming from the leaders of A.I. companies, from Congress and from regulators across the globe.

[06:35:00]

It's -- for President Trump, he's seeing sort of winning the race, having the companies be profitable, head towards an IPO, prop up the stock market. That's a win for him. And in the Biden administration, they were a lot more concerned about A.I. safety. He doesn't want to go that way. So, he is bound to go in the opposite direction here.

HILL: There would need to be some international agreement too, right, when it comes to some of these guardrails. And so, it's interesting too, that could potentially also be a win for this president. But what we're seeing is because there's a chance that maybe it pulls back on the development a little bit, it appears to not be very attractive.

There's also, you know, questions about the tech companies themselves, if they're so concerned, right? Is this sort of a CYA move? Why are they not already doing something on their own? Are things happening behind the scenes that we don't know about?

GOLD: So, there's been reporting that the major A.I. labs are coordinating with one each other to sort of talk about a slowdown that maybe they will all do together. But the thing is, it's going to be really hard for them to agree to do that unless there's some sort of blessing from the government. They're legitimately concerned that colluding that way might violate antitrust rules.

But the real thing that they're worried about is they want to all slow down together. If only Anthropic slows down or if only OpenAI slows down, one of them is going to surpass each other in development. So, they want to all do it at the same time so that nobody suffers competitively. HILL: They're calling on Congress to step in here. They want lawmakers to take a role to give them those guardrails. Is this body of lawmakers, however, actually equipped to make the kind of decisions that need to be made? Do they understand the technology well enough?

GOLD: I think there's some individual members who are pretty smart on A.I. who have genuinely tried to understand the technology. In general, Congress has made a lot of strides since they first started litigating social media on Capitol Hill about a decade ago. However, this technology is really complicated. And only the most sort of involved A.I. researchers that see this stuff every day truly, truly understand the extents to what this technology can do. So, as with any other technology that Congress tries to regulate, it's a very, very hard task.

HILL: Real quickly, before I let you go, do you see any movement happening on this in the near future?

GOLD: Not before the midterms, not before next year. I don't think so.

HILL: All right. Ashley, really appreciate it. Thank you.

GOLD: Thank you.

HILL: Still ahead here on CNN This Morning, the Supreme Court blocking Trump's effort to significantly alter mail-in voting just before, of course, the midterm elections. Will this, though, actually end Trump's push to take control? We're going to ask the chair of the Texas Democratic Party.

Plus, Senator Mitch McConnell back on the Hill after months away. So, is his return this week enough to put questions about his health to rest?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00]

HILL: The Supreme Court just blocked President Trump's plan to change how mail and ballots are sent just weeks before the midterms. Those new rules would have given the Postal Service the power to withhold ballots that didn't meet new federal requirements. Election officials, including some Republicans, argued that attempting to implement the rule now would almost certainly lead to mistakes, delays, and confusion for both voters and election officials.

So, did the Supreme Court just avert a midterm crisis? Joining me to discuss, Kendall Scudder, chair of the Texas Democratic Party. Nice to have you with us this morning. I know you've called this dangerously disruptive, but the reality is the fight here likely not over, especially when you read that dissent opinion from Justice Alito suggesting that the next step, of course, could be Congress. Is that what you're preparing for?

KENDALL SCUDDER, CHAIR, TEXAS DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Well, I mean, we always have to prepare for just about any scenario in this administration, but it's administering elections is very clearly delineated for states. This has been hashed through a lot, but of course, Donald Trump, the confines of the law never stops him from doing what he would like to do. In a state like Texas, our secretary of state can't even turn over an accurate voter roll.

So, I don't know how they think the federal government would be able to effectively administer it when our elections administrator can't even give you an accurate list of who can and can't vote.

HILL: Some of the numbers that we're seeing certainly raise eyebrows, if not concerns, when it comes to the confidence that Americans have in elections. It's important. I don't think we can restate enough. The instances of voter fraud are incredibly small in this country. Issues with mail-in voting, also incredibly small when we look at this.

But if we look at this latest Quinnipiac polling, in terms of where things stand, the number of voters who said that they were somewhat concerned there would be widespread voter fraud in the upcoming election really jumped from what we saw in 2022.

In 2026, it was -- it's now at 29 percent say they're very concerned. More than 50 percent say they're somewhat concerned. That's up 10 points from 2022. Have Democrats been doing enough to counter that messaging?

SCUDDER: Well, I mean, I think it's really hard to counter that messaging when you constantly have misinformation flying all over the place. I mean, it's strange, really, to hear a party that is in control of every lever of government because they won elections challenging whether or not elections can be fairly conducted. It only seems to be after they lose elections that they get upset. But for some reason right now, they're complaining about elections that they all won. They've become conspiracy theorists, and those conspiracy theories are starting to permeate.

[06:45:00]

So, what's important on all of us, I think, who are just trying to make sure we have free, fair, effective elections, is to just make sure that they are run efficiently and that people are having access to legal ballots as much as we possibly can, because this is what our system is. And until folks like Donald Trump can actually pinpoint what the problem is, there isn't really one to fix.

HILL: A bipartisan committee of over 250 current and former members of Congress sent a letter last week urging the Supreme Court to block the legislation. Do you see an opportunity here to work across party lines moving forward?

SCUDDER: I mean, I sure hope so. Of course, I thought that gerrymandering reform was something we would have been able to work together on last year after the Texas Democrats did the quorum break. So, I'm starting to lose a little bit of hope of Washington, D.C., and their ability to work together. But this is certainly something where we should. I would think that we would all hope that any legal citizen should have a right to be able to get their ballots cast. We should make it as efficient and easy for them to do that as possible.

But it didn't stop them from interfering when they were trying to steal seats in Congress last summer. I don't think it's going to stop on this time. I think it's going to take Democrats capturing levers of government for us to be able to do this. It's a shame that being responsible stewards of government falls squarely on the shoulders of Democrats these days. But here we are.

HILL: I also want to ask you about something that's certainly getting a lot of attention coming out of your state. The Republican nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner, Bo French, posted an image after Saturday night's University of Texas football game. Big win, of course. Wasn't looking good until they came back to beat Ohio State. Writing, as you can see there, I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn't believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined.

In response, Congressman Chip Roy had this to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): I haven't actually looked at anything in great detail. But look, what he's elevating are concerns, obviously, about the immigration impact, about the visa impact, about what that's doing to the student body in Texas. And look, that's the question that a lot of people in Texas are concerned about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: That is a lot to take out of that picture. What was your reaction to that initial post?

SCUDDER: I mean, Republicans are mad that Bo French said the quiet part out loud. The reality is that Texas is a state that's majority minority. We don't take kindly to people talking about our neighbors like that, to talking about the people that we work with, we worship with, we go to the bar with. Texas is a very diverse state. People like Bo French may not like it. If you don't like it, you can leave. Go to Oklahoma, OK?

The reality is we have lots of different types of folks in this state, and they all deserve to be treated with baseline dignity and respect. Bo French is a person who has a long history of treating people like this. I mean, he tweeted at one point, who's worse for Texas, Jews or Muslims? The guy is beyond, OK? And the Republicans have nominated him to run all the oil and gas industry in the State of Texas. He had a contested primary. They knew who he was, and they picked him.

And so, this is this is them having to sleep in the bed they made. And I'm sure it makes them feel really uncomfortable in a majority minority state. But until they decide that they're going to get good ideas, this is how they campaign. And they're going to have to live with this. It's really disgusting. Most Texans know it's gross. And that's why Republicans are trying to run away from it.

HILL: Kendall Scudder, thanks for joining us this morning. SCUDDER: Hey, thanks so much for having me.

HILL: As California Governor Gavin Newsom contemplates what's next, maybe a possible run for president in 2028, he says there is one Democrat he will not run against, former Vice President Kamala Harris. Newsom spoke with JNN's Jake Tapper when the two went fly fishing at a family ranch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: It's going to be a lot of people.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Yes.

TAPPER: It's a lot of Democrats.

NEWSOM: 31 flavors, and --

TAPPER: You're not even the only Californian.

NEWSOM: No, right. Yes.

TAPPER: You got Ro Khanna.

NEWSOM: Yes.

TAPPER: Kamala.

NEWSOM: Yes. I don't know if she runs, but we'll see.

TAPPER: I know she's called around.

NEWSOM: Yes. But I wouldn't run if she ran.

TAPPER: You -- if she runs, you will not?

NEWSOM: Of course not. Why would I? I wouldn't do that to her. I wouldn't do it to -- why would I -- I wouldn't do that to you. I wouldn't waste everyone's time. Who needs that?

TAPPER: What do you mean? That's not going to make sense to me.

NEWSOM: I just -- I wouldn't -- well, no, I wouldn't. First of all, electorally, it's a gift from God for everybody else. They'd enjoy the hell out of it, mutual assured destruction. It services no greater good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The Group Chat is back, Chuck. I feel like you have to take this one first because it's fly fishing. And we know how much you love your fly fishing. But before I let you talk about your hobby, you know, I was struck by that moment. It's getting it's getting so much attention, obviously. But are either Newsom or Harris the right person for Democrats to have on the ticket in 2028?

[06:50:00]

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: There's no doubt Democrats are looking nationwide for some kind of dramatic change in our party. We want to look forward to the next generation. And oh, by the way, Jake Tapper, when you got your fly rod, don't break your wrist. It's kind of like you're painting the wall. You go back and forth like this. And also, I'm as sure that Gavin Newsom is running for president of the United States as I am sure that Ashley Davis is wearing some pretty shoes next door to me. But they're very uncomfortable. That's how confident I am about this.

HILL: Ashley does have -- Ashley has an excellent shoe game. I confer.

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: I do. I do.

ROCHA: Absolutely. I think he's running. I think he's trying to be a politician. And I think there's going to be him, one of 50 others running.

HILL: Yes. I would say it's likely to be when I look at my magic eight ball, it says, oh, yes, this will be a crowded race in 2028, Paul.

PAUL KANE, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON SUN: Yes. I just got to compliment Tapper just for having the courage to -- you know, he's a Philadelphia guy like myself. The fact that he's able to go out and fly fish. I'm sorry, Chuck, if his form wasn't great.

Look, what Governor Newsom is acknowledging there is something that is true. He and Kamala Harris come from the same political roots out of this. You know, the San Francisco political mafia that goes back to the Pelosi's from 40 and 50 years ago, the Getty family, Jerry Brown's family. They're in the same sandbox. They come from -- their donors are similar to have them in the primary together. It would be kind of divisive for them.

And also, he has to broaden his appeal beyond Californians, especially to the South and Southern black women in key states like South Carolina. He can't go out there and say, I'm going to try and elbow her aside. If, in fact, you know, he really needs to appeal to black women in South Carolina. So, there's sort of an acknowledgment of reality there. But deep down, I think he's betting that she will not run.

HILL: Ashley, how much of a gift is either one of those potential candidates to Republicans in '28?

DAVIS: I was just going to say, I hope they both run for sure, because I think that's who we would want to run against. I've been saying for months now, Erica, and Chuck knows this. I think that our toughest candidate right now is AOC because of the excitement she brings. I'm not necessarily saying her policies, but Newsom and Kamala. They are folks that we can run against easily, especially because of kind of some of the disastrous policies in California that you can run on and make a lot of TV ads off of.

But -- so, yes, I think actually Newsom would have a better chance, though, than Kamala. And so, I think he's exactly what Paul said, betting on the fact that she doesn't run.

HILL: It is it is fascinating to watch all of this unfold. Also, a lot of fun to watch the fly fishing and get your take on it, Chuck. So, if you would like to further critique Jake's form or hear more of the conversation with Governor Newsom, be sure to watch "Out of Office." Jake's going to have more of these unconventional interviews of political figures from both sides of the aisle. It's streaming now with your all access subscription on CNN.

So, it turns out Mitch McConnell has been cited back on the Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): I must admit, after two years -- two decades, actually - dodging your questions, I wasn't sure how many of you would be here today, but I'm glad to see you, time to get back to work, finish the job for this Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Ashley, well, as we know, McConnell has been absent for nearly three months. A lot of questions here about his ability to serve in a statement on social media. He wrote that while he's not quite 100 percent, he'll, quote, "do my best to be president for tough votes when our conference needs me."

Ashley, he's back. But overall, when you look at the way this has been handled, including the lack of communication from McConnell and his office, does this answer any of those questions about whether he's fit to serve?

DAVIS: Well, I think that's the biggest issue, Erica, was kind of the lack of communications. And one of the things I really want to make sure he is our longest serving leader, whether you believe in his politics or not. I just hope that the last three months don't identify him of all the good that he has done, at least on our side of the aisle over, you know, his tenure.

And I think that number one issue is we've seen this happen before, and this goes back to term limits and when people should leave. We've had many people over the years be rolled out in hospital beds for important votes and everything else. The important thing for Mitch McConnell, though, is I don't think his mental decline is happening like his physical health. So, from everything that I've heard from inside baseball here in Washington, his mental state is still solid. [06:55:00]

But listen, he's done really in a couple months. He's back this week for the farm vote coming out of committee, farm bill vote coming out of committee, and probably maybe one or two appropriations committee votes. And so, that I don't know how much longer he'll be here unless there is an important vote, as he said. HILL: You know, you bring up the farm bill, it failed to advance out of the agricultural committee. Planning to reconvene to discuss later this week. Paul, how important is it? You know, he talked about being there for the tough votes. How important is it that he is there for this specifically?

KANE: This is a more party line, a bill that they have crafted. And without McConnell in that committee, it is the falls to a tie vote and it can't advance. If he shows up, it's it advances to the full Senate. But there, it's still going to face a filibuster 60 vote hurdle. So, this isn't super crucial.

McConnell has sort of not helped himself here by treating his health. And he's done this for at least a decade now, where he treats his own health as if it's the old Soviet Politburo. And he just refuses to talk about it. He mentioned yesterday in an official statement, the lingering effects of childhood polio. That's really what's been going on. It is a recurrence of what he battled as a kid. And there's all sorts of balance issues and falling and things like that. But he's just of a generation in which he refuses to talk about these things, hurting his own cause.

HILL: Yes. I mean, Chuck, it is -- yes, there's the generation -- there are generational differences in terms of what you share, what you don't. But as we've been discussing over the last several months, there are also the requirements in 2026 about your constituents and communicating with them. How much of a stain does this leave?

ROCHA: Look, I wish Senator Mitch McConnell nothing but the best. And I'm glad that he's back and I'm glad that he's healthy. But I also can at the same time say that this is a great example of why there should be age limits on Congress and senators. And I would go and say federal judges. And I'm not saying term limits of 57 like old men like me. I'm talking about like 70. That should be something to make sure that those folks can have everything about them all the time, because what you're seeing now is what can happen when somebody gets sick after they've been elected to a six-year term when they're already 75 years old.

So, I'm not wishing anybody any ill wills, but I think this shines a spotlight on what needs to be done with reforms in Congress.

DAVIS: If the age limit was 70, sorry, Chuck, we'd have like 10 senators.

ROCHA: That'd be good. We can start over. You can hire me to elect 40 more of them.

HILL: Chuck, I'm going to drum up a little business. So, we'll see how that goes. Keep us posted. How about a little Group Chat, my friends? Ashley, ladies first.

DAVIS: OK. So, I am actually going back to Congress this week, which is my real life. We actually are doing things. The Senate today is voting on the crypto bill and the market structure bill, which is very important. We don't know if it will pass. And then in the House, we're going to do another War Powers vote and also the data center bill that kind of curbs like taking electricity off the grid. So, I'm actually happy that Congress is doing their job.

HILL: We don't hear that a lot.

DAVIS: I know. That's why I brought it up. I usually try to do something fun, but, you know, I'm just happy today.

HILL: Speaking of things happening, Paul, you're watching very closely in the Senate to see if something can be done about college sports.

KANE: Yes, it's the Protect College Sports Act. And all of this whole new world in which college athletes are making more than some professional athletes. You had guys who got cut from their NFL rosters trying to get back into college sports because there's now so much money in it. And they bounce around from school to school to school. Nobody knows if they're going to class to begin with.

Ted Cruz, of all people, is the guy trying to pull together this bill. And he's even selling it on ESPN College Game Day, where he got roundly booed at the University of Texas game for that. So, it's just a really important thing. We're going to watch and see if they can get it across the finish line.

HILL: He got booed, ESPN taking a lot of flack also for that decision to have him on to talk about it. But it did happen in Texas. And, Chuck, that tees us up beautifully for your Group Chat.

ROCHA: My message is for Governor Beshear from the great State of Kentucky. You're the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. I want to bring light to you about a great governor's race happening in Texas. If you want to run for president of the United States, you're going to need the Latino vote. And Latino voters are excited about Gina Hinojosa down in Texas. There's been a letter sent.

Gina Hinojosa could be the first Latina elected governor. And it's not just because I am from Texas or that Xochitl is my best friend. It's because Gina Hinojosa can actually win. And the recent polling shows that. We need to get the Democratic Governors Association riled up and get him to send some money down to Texas because Texas has funded this for so long. We'd love to see this happen. Come to the Lone Star State. Governor Beshear heard are my calls. Bring Latino voters back to the table in Texas.

HILL: What do you think -- realistically, Chuck, what do you think you're looking at in Texas? And you've got five seconds.

ROCHA: Yes. We're going to win this thing and we're going to win it by a lot. Stay tuned. Screw your wig on tight.

HILL: OK. Words to live by. We can't top that. Screw your wig on tight. And we'll see you next time, my friends. Thank you all. Thanks to all of you for waking up with us. I'm Erica Hill. The headlines are next.

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