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Judge Orders Trump To Restore White House Access To CNN, MS NOW And Politico "Immediately"; Trump Rolls Out Red Carpet For China's Xi Jinping; OpenAI Hacks Into Australia's Healthcare Database. Aired 5- 5:30a ET

Aired September 24, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:15]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish.

And we're following this breaking news. A judge makes an overnight ruling in favor of CNN, ordering the Trump administration to restore access to the White House, along with the credentials of MS NOW and "Politico". It comes after the president banned CNN late last week.

Now, in the ruling, Federal Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, wrote that the press badges were revoked without, quote, "constitutionally adequate due process". He went on to write, the general rule is that individuals must receive notice and an opportunity to be heard before the government deprives them of a constitutionally protected interest.

Now, earlier Wednesday, lawyers for the media companies had told the judge that Trump was attacking, quote, "The very essence of the First Amendment". And they stressed the lack of due process in revoking those credentials.

And attorney for the Justice Department had attempted to defend the ban, saying that it was for national security purposes.

Joining me now to discuss is Sara Fischer. She's CNN's senior media analyst and a senior media reporter at "Axios".

Now, Sara, you and I had talked about what could have happened with this temporary -- this restraining order. Let's just start with the basics. Would these news organizations be able to get back their credentials immediately as the ruling states?

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: That's the plan, Audie. And President Trump, by the way, has sort of alluded to the fact that, yes, he would likely let these outlets back in. I think it's because he knew that he was likely going to be ruled against. And we know that he knew that because he had said that, he indicated that he wanted to appeal the ruling before it even came out.

So, I think we should expect access to be reinstated quickly. And that also means, Audie, that all of the other outlets in the pool that had been boycotting, meaning they weren't publishing photographs and videos in solidarity with these outlets, they then can resume joining the pool. And the American people should expect to get access ahead of President Trump's meeting with Chinese Xi Jinping today.

CORNISH: Now, the judge actually ruled in terms of restoring these passes that it looked like, on the merits due process would have been an issue. He also wrote that plaintiffs in the public have an abiding interest in maintaining the status quo. Given the importance of the free press, which, quote, stands as one of the great interpreters between the government and the people.

It's worth noting that this judge has, in a way, been here before with a Justice Department asking them to ban a certain member of the press, in this case, a certain three outlets altogether.

FISCHER: Yes. So, in 2018, President Trump revoked access for then CNN correspondent Jim Acosta. And this judge, Judge Timothy Kelly, who's a Trump appointee. I should note, ruled that his access needed to be reinstated because of the Fifth Amendment. He did not get his fair notice due process from the White House.

And so, it was highly anticipated that of the three arguments that these plaintiffs argued to get their passes back, two on the First Amendment, that you can't restrict our speech because of our viewpoint, and you can't restrict our speech because of our coverage. And one on the Fifth Amendment, which was we didn't have due process. It was highly anticipated that this judge was going to rule on due process because of the precedent he already set with his ruling eight years ago.

So we -- to our knowledge and understanding, the only challenge here, though, is that that fifth process precedent is a lower court ruling, meaning that its not as binding as some of the First Amendment rulings that we've seen in the past, but its still very strong. And clearly, it's strong enough here that Judge Timothy Kelly felt as though it needed to apply, and thus it's a win for the plaintiffs.

CORNISH: I want to add one more thing, which is the judge had real skepticism of the argument for why the administration claimed it was revoking the passes. We have heard the president make his argument that he feels like the coverage is unfair, but when it came to what they actually had to say in court, they basically invoked that it was a matter of national security, that there were issues at hand related to national security, why they needed to be able to ban certain outlets.

And I just want to read one thing. This judge wrote, the court is skeptical, at least on this record, that the defendants interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by the revocation of the plaintiffs hard passes. And I want to just play for you now. Mike Waltz, the ambassador to the U.N., because he was asked about this by our Kaitlan Collins.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: How is reporting on the president a national security threat?

MIKE WALTZ, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: When we have outlets that are relying on anonymous sources and talking about the levels of ammunition we have in the middle of conflict, when we're talking about vulnerabilities that the United States have, when in fact, in fact, we're talking about deployment orders for our soldiers, our navy, our air force that are highly classified, that's absolutely a national security threat and should be investigated and prosecuted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: How did the ruling feel about the potential for that on the merit?

FISCHER: They didn't. Obviously, the judge did not feel that way. And one of the reasons, Audie, is because the president, when he announced this ban on Friday, did not mention anything about national security. He basically just said that he was banning the outlets because he didn't like their coverage.

And then to retroactively, back in an excuse of national security, only once you have been sued is pretty obvious to any legal scholar, including this judge, an argument that is being made just to defend yourself, not because it's the actual reason that you're defending -- that you're kicking out these outlets. And so, one thing I'm very curious to see, Mike Waltz was not the only administration official that was sort of on background to reporters and publicly trying to, you know, push forward this reasoning and this will obviously come back to bite them if they were to ever themselves be caught up in some sort of a press freedom suit.

I imagine that the judge in those cases is going to look at them peddling this excuse from the administration as undermining any future defense that they have to go after the press.

CORNISH: One last thing, because you mentioned China in passing with this meeting coming up with Xi Jinping, I think it's worth talking about.

And Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, is very much a critic of Trump, here is what he had to say, kind of tying these issues together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): It's discrimination against media entities that insist on telling the truth. It is pro-truth media entities that are being punished by the president, the ones who are willing simply to publish whatever the president says uncritically and unquestioningly. Well, they're fine. That is essentially to reduce all private government media into state media like China. And it's interesting that all of this is taking place against the backdrop of the Chinese president coming over here.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: Talk about that backdrop. I mean, are we going to see I don't know, any kind of, how is the moment going to feel different with the press having had this kind of legal victory?

FISCHER: Well, I'm sure that Xi Jinping is going to feel a lot more pressure on his visit now because he's going to have more press coverage and scrutiny. And to Congressman Raskin's point, it's not something that he is used to at home, although he is used to that when he travels abroad.

One thing I'd say about this is that when you think about the press freedoms that American outlets get to enjoy every day, they are baked into our constitution. The constitution is the reason that this judge was able to reinstate access for all these reporters. There is no sort of framework like that in China.

China is considered a surveillance state. It's considered a state that is highly prosecutorial of the press. And so, this meeting, every time any president meets with China, it's on the backdrop of that reality that we have a vested interest in defending ourselves against any sort of national security threat from China, because we have different values, Democratic values from China.

And so, I think actually the press getting its access back today reinforces those values ahead of this meeting. And that's always an important thing, Audie.

CORNISH: Okay. Sarah Fischer, thank you so much. Appreciate it. I'm sure we're going to hear from you more this morning as we get up to date on this news.

For instance, our reporters do plan to show up for work at the White House today. We're going to find out how that plays out.

Plus, as we mentioned, President Xi wakes up in Washington for a state visit. So, can the Chinese leader push for a more stable economic relationship with the U.S.? We're going to have some live reporting, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:13:48]

CORNISH: It is a red carpet welcome for Chinese leader Xi Jinping continues today at the White House. The schedule includes a series of talks before tonight's state dinner ahead of those talks. China is already setting up what it is calling red lines.

In an editorial published in a communist party newspaper yesterday, China's ambassador to the U.S. writes, quote, "China's sovereignty, security and development interests must not be violated. The four red lines concerning the Taiwan issue, democracy and human rights, China's political system and its right to development must not be challenged."

Well, joining me now is Mike Valerio, CNN international correspondent, live to us from Beijing. Now, what are you going to be watching for today ahead of what is

probably going to be a very lavish state dinner later tonight.

MIKE VALERIO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and it's going to be interesting, Audie, how much of it we're going to be seeing? Because in the discourse here in China, people are well aware that it's Chinese state media, not the American press pool that has been broadcasting images to China of everything that's happening so far.

But I'm going to be looking at economic issues. And the biggest headline that we have for everybody back home, starting to wake up, is that the trade truce that is preventing tariffs from going through the roof has been extended, but only extended for about two months.

[05:15:09]

It was set to expire after the midterms on November 10th. It's now expiring January 10th, key because as were entering the holiday season, the average tariff on Chinese goods, Audie, could have gone from 30 to 54 percent again, as the holiday season was just around the corner.

But in terms of what we're looking for, three main bullet points. We're going to be focused on whether or not any other tariffs come down. And that is the signal that we're getting late this afternoon and early evening here in Beijing, that they do expect some other tariffs to come down. TBD on what exactly those are. Were going to see whether or not Xi Jinping tries to get access to more advanced United States chips that have been off limits since the Biden administration, in the name of competition and national security, according to the American government.

And more specifics on this A.I. dialogue, what exactly are they going to be talking about? Bessent said in Midtown Manhattan over the weekend that this A.I. dialogue is going to be meeting two months from now, but the story escalates like every two hours. So as two months from now really good enough.

Somebody who is not happy though, about this meeting, the senior U.S. senator from Mississippi, were talking about Roger Wicker, very powerful name in Washington in terms of U.S. defense policy. He said this on the Senate floor, this soundbite. So, you know, censored in China are Chinese viewers will not be able to hear this.

But this is what he said. We'll talk more on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ROGER WICKER (R-MS), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Quite frankly, had the White House asked me for advice, I would have suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington for such a lavish welcome, our commander in chief should keep in mind that his guest is a brutal, unelected and oppressive dictator.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VALERIO: Okay, so in terms of stabilizing the relationship, that is certainly not what Beijing wants to hear, but in terms of what were expecting, this is it. So, the main three events are happening in the morning, beginning at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, with a greeting on the south lawn. Trump and Xi make remarks.

The Oval Office meeting is set to start at 11:30 a.m. Then we have a little bit of an intermission, and then we have the state dinner also before the state dinner, Audie, we're expecting to hear from the two leaders, President Trump and Leader Xi. So, we have two opportunities to hear from them today about what exactly happened.

So, that's the foreground. And before we go, you know, the background certainly is very apparent to people in China because, you know, when were talking about the trade truce in South Korea, that was with the backdrop of a historic government shutdown happening the longest in American history that the president had to deal with in Beijing. He had to deal with the Iran war and turmoil and tumult from that. The Beijing meeting in May, postponed because of the Iran war.

So that was happening in the background as China was, ratcheting up a record $1.2 trillion trade surplus. And with this meeting, we have Xi Jinping preparing for a fourth five year term, which is something certainly new in terms of modern Chinese leaders and the president of the United States 40 days from now, potentially poised to suffer defeat, becoming either a lame duck president or being politically damaged because of the results of the midterms. So, all that to say that Xi Jinping walks into this thing with a lot of confidence because of what's happening in the White House and what's happening in the background, Audie.

CORNISH: Okay. Mike Valerio delivering that report from Beijing.

Now, after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, we've got another case of A.I. gone rogue, an open A.I. agent hacked into an Australian government website.

Plus, Benjamin Netanyahu says he will use the U.N. stage today to defend Israel and to answer his critics. We're going to have our reporter live from the Middle East next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:23:32]

CORNISH: Developing story this morning, another A.I. agent goes rogue, this time in Australia. The country's prime minister reveals that an OpenAI agent hacked into the country's health care database. It's one of at least four times in May and June, where one OpenAI went rogue, hacking into government and university websites without permission.

Now, if you're getting nervous about ai, you are not alone. A new CNN poll finds that three out of four Americans are fearful and concerned, while only one in four feel hopeful and excited about ai surpassing human intelligence. CNN's Hanako Montgomery has more on the latest exploits.

Let's talk about Australia. We know that Australia's leader, Albanese, has spoken about what happened, but what are the details? What kind of database was this?

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Audie, we know and believe that this is the first case of A.I. breaching a government network. And it's just the latest example of an A.I. agent going rogue and acting in ways that their human operators didn't intend.

And Australia's prime minister, Anthony Albanese, described what happened to reporters on the sidelines of a United Nations General Assembly meeting on Wednesday.

Here's what Albanese said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: No personal information is believed to have been accessed at this stage, but investigations are ongoing. Evidence currently available is there is no broader compromise to the Services Australia network. Nonetheless, this situation is obviously unacceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MONTGOMERY: And, Audie, as you heard the prime minister say, there's no evidence currently that any personal information that any medical records were breached.

But we do know that this OpenAI agent got access to Australia's Medicare statistics database. And we also know that an access both public and nonpublic files, including aggregate health statistics and internal file names. And according to an OpenAI spokesperson, the agent even wrote files into the system.

And, Audie, we're getting some more details about exactly how this breach happened and the timeline of events. But according to OpenAI, this breach happened back in June, when this ai agent was conducting some research about health care costs and systems. And then when it was conducting this research, it encountered some security blocks and bypassed those security blocks and then got access to that information that it actually wasn't authorized to get access to.

Now, OpenAI, however, only found out about the security breach in august, two months after it actually happened, after it was conducting some tests and some research into its models activity. Now, Audie, Australia found out even later about this breach on September 10th, after the company OpenAI sent a notice to a generic inbox. And Albanese has called this delay unacceptable. And he's also called OpenAI to provide better information more quickly, given the severity of the situation.

Albanese has also called for a forensic investigation. He's also said that the government is considering legal action and that potentially three other government entities might have been affected. And, Audie, this just adds to the widespread concern, the growing concern we've been hearing about A.I., about these A.I. agents going rogue, especially at the United Nations general assembly this week, even from tech companies and CEOs, the ones who created this A.I. itself, Audie.

CORNISH: Okay. That's Hanako Montgomery. Thank you so much.

And I want to turn to this, straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, we're continuing to follow this breaking news. Our chief media analyst, Brian Stelter, on the judge's overnight ruling on that media ban from the White House.

Later, there's new video showing the moments before an ICE agent shot a delivery driver in Texas. When a look at the timeline

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