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Erin Burnett Outfront
Fed Chair Defies Trump; Sheeran Tour In Jeopardy?; Russia Helping Iran? Aired 7-8p ET
Aired September 16, 2026 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:22]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
The breaking news, Trump dealt a blow, his own Fed chair, hiking interest rates for the first time since 2023. Trump tonight angry, posting, and he's about to speak live.
Plus, Macklemore challenges Robert Kraft tonight after the Patriots owner Kraft pulled him from Ed Sheeran's tour following his free Palestine remarks. Will Sheeran be forced or choose to cancel his tour?
And a CNN investigation revealing Russia likely provided crucial satellite information about U.S. bases, those bases that have been so greatly decimated, giving Tehran a major advantage.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, Trump versus his own Fed chief. Trump posting, Lower the interest rates for the United States of America and fast. Every single word of that was in all caps, every single word, after Trump's own handpicked Fed chair, Kevin Warsh, voted to raise interest rates, something that Trump sees as an act of personal defiance.
In fact, Trump then posted that rates should be at one percent or less, which is outside the realm of reality by any stretch of the imagination. But the president tonight has a conspiracy theory about the vote on interest rates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'd like to see lower interest rates.
We should actually lower interest rates.
I think we should have lower interest rates.
Interest rates should be lower.
Well, I'd love him to lower interest rates.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay, so the decision to raise rates to three and three quarters to four percent was unanimous. Every single voting Fed governor in America voted to raise them, which means that two other Trump nominated members of the Fed board besides Fed Chair Warsh voted against Trump.
Now, of course, they didn't see it as voting against Trump. They did what they felt was best for America, not what Trump wanted. So, Trump was standing next to former Fed Chair Jerome Powell, as you saw there a moment ago, when he said that. Trump has made it clear again and again and again that he wants rates to go down.
Now, Powell got left in part because he wouldn't lower rates, and Powell's replacement, Warsh, stood firm and rose rates today, despite what Trump said about Warsh when he nominated them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'd like to see lower interest rates. We should actually --
He certainly wants to cut rates. I've been watching him for a long time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right, sorry about that.
Warsh was clear today that the decision to raise interest rates was because inflation in the United States is still too high, a reality made true because of Trump's war with Iran, a reality that remains real despite Trump's claims to the contrary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: To cut rates, I've been watching him for a long time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right, sorry about that again.
Trump has said repeatedly again and again and again that inflation has been defeated. On August 14th, he said inflation is way down. He said inflation has been defeated. He said we've largely taken care of inflation on August 30th.
Of course, all those dates were weeks ago, and inflation has not been defeated. This week, though, Trump has. Interest rates are up. Again, an act of personal defiance to Trump as he sees it. The Supreme Court ruled against Trump's mail-in voting plan. The Kennedy Center is still the Kennedy Center. And like with interest rates, Trump's mail-in voting fell at the hands
of his own appointed people. And he unleashed on them on social media, saying the justices he appointed are, quote, "merely a shell of their original selves". He added, "It is a court that will go down as having rendered some of the most destructive, hurtful, and damaging decisions in our country's history," which is pretty incredible when the justices that he named voted against him.
As for the Kennedy Center, it's fenced off tonight. Trump shutting it down indefinitely because a judge rejected his effort to put his name next to Kennedy's on the building.
And there is another challenge to Trump, who is about to campaign in just a few moments, as I said, and speak live in North Carolina, this time from his own party. In just the past 24 hours, Republican Congressman Tom Massie introducing articles to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. To avoid a crisis, Speaker Johnson forced to announce an early recess today to prevent from actually coming to a vote because of fear that Republicans could vote to impeach Trump's man leading the war.
That puts the House out of session now until after the election. To be clear, yes, that is November.
Betsy Klein is OUTFRONT from North Carolina, where Trump is about to take the stage in just moments.
Betsy, Trump defending his handpicked Fed chief tonight as he voted to raise interest rates.
[19:05:05]
So that's after slamming the decision on social media. What's going on?
BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, Erin, it's clear that frustration is mounting at the White House. President Trump arriving on site here just a few moments ago, his motorcade just to my right, as he is making it very clear that some of the ways that he has reimagined the use of executive authority is hitting some limits. The latest move of that is the Federal Reserve's unanimous decision to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point.
Now, according to President Trump's handpicked Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh, the goal of that is to ease rampant inflation, but a relatively muted response from President Trump. He had previously threatened to stop the U.S. from trading with other nations unless the Fed lowered interest rates. Instead, he stopped short of criticizing Warsh.
Listen, giving him some political cover here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I mean, I'm relying on Kevin, but he's got, you know, very tough board. He's got a board that was put there by a lot of other people and the interest rates are too high, they're not appropriate. And I told -- I talked to Kevin and I said you might as well vote with the board because it's not going to matter. The board is very hostile, they're very political, they're doing the wrong thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KLEIN: The president went on to say that he believed this decision to raise rates was politically motivated, but making it very clear that he is not turning on Kevin Warsh for now.
I'll have to see if the president addresses this any further at this rally here in Gastonia or makes any sort of affordability message here. But that is not expected to be the crux of his argument. He is expected instead to focus on crime and law and order, according to White House officials, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Betsy, thank you very much in North Carolina.
All right, everyone's here with me.
Lulu, can I just start with where Betsy finished? So, the president comes out, slams the decision after he slammed his Supreme Court justices, but now it looks like he's trying to save face. He's saying, oh, Kevin Warsh, I told him to go ahead and vote. Wait, did he really just say what I think he said? Basically, I told him to vote to raise interest rates because they were going to vote against him anyway, so we might as well vote to do it.
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah.
BURNETT: Does he really think anybody's going to buy that?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, at this point, I'm not sure he's thinking that far ahead. I think, as we've seen, he is very improvisational and he just says things that come into his head at any given moment. This is really quite a big rebuke of the president's economy because this is a man that was put in place explicitly to replace Jerome Powell with the very direct mandate of lowering interest rates.
BURNETT: That's right.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And what he did instead was raise them because Economics 101 says if you have inflation, the Fed has one tool for that, and that is to raise interest rates.
So, this is reality hitting the imaginary illusion that Trump likes to project.
BURNETT: I mean, it is amazing.
Now, Dan Ives, when Trump first, now he's trying to say, I told him to vote to raise interest rates because, I mean, okay, that's absurd. It's literally absurd.
But earlier in the day, his real sentiment was made clear, which is, you know, what are you doing? And interest rates in the United States should be one percent or less. One percent or less, what would that world look like?
DAN IVES, PARTNER AND SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR, YORKVILLE IVES: That would be a twilight zone world if it was one percent. But I think the reality is, as you were talking about, the inflation is the reality. And the only way to control that, you got to raise rates.
And look, the bond market doesn't lie. And when you look at the 10- year -- Warsh, he saw what was happening in the committee in terms of the other Fed governors. He had no choice. He had to ultimately hike, and likely more hikes there.
Look, it's a gut punch because as you were talking about, if I said to you a year ago that a new Fed chair replaces Powell and you have a hike going into the fall, you'd say you're crazy, and here we are because of inflation.
BURNETT: I mean, Trump would see that as an incredibly damaging thing to him in the midterms, and it is, but it's by his own hand.
Interesting, Paul, what Trump said about the rate hike earlier. Right now, I'm sorry, I have to keep saying it. I told Kevin Warsh to raise interest rates because they were all going to go against him anyways, and now he's trying to own it.
But his real sentiment was made clear earlier. Let me play what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They're raising the rates to make Trump do as bad as they can possibly do. The problem they have is that we have the greatest economy in history. We have over $21 trillion being invested in this country, which is five times more than we've ever had before. So, they're raising that only for political reasons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: OK, they're raising rates to make Trump look as bad as possible. His signature third person address.
[19:10:02]
BURNETT: But that's what he feels this is about.
PAUL RIECKHOFF, FOUNDER & CEO, INDEPENDENT VETERANS OF AMERICA: Yeah, it's all kind of surreal. Listening to November Rain from Guns N' Roses play in the background.
BURNETT: I know that was also as I was trying to understand, did he really just say what she said, yeah.
But here's what's real and maybe the good news. It feels like the system is actually pushing back, right?
You've got the Fed rate hike, you've got the Supreme Court, you've got Tom Massie in Congress, and it feels like the body politic is actually activating its white blood cells to fight against the authoritarian virus that is Trump. Like, finally, hooray for some patriotism, people who are putting the country first, our economy, our national security, our best interests first, and Trump doesn't like it. It makes him feel very uncomfortable. That might be his new normal for the next couple of months.
BURNETT: I have to say, Dan, I was always very fascinated when Trump picked Kevin Warsh, that he thought Kevin Warsh was going to be a guy to do his bidding.
Covering the markets, you being in the markets, that is not a guy that I ever thought for one second was just going to come along and do Trump's bidding and now here he is.
IVES: And we talked about that. I mean, at the time, because when you go back to wars, there was a hawkish wars, and maybe someone said there was a dovish piece, but the reality is it's more of a hawkish wars that you're seeing. And I think that was one of the things when Warsh was picked, there was a big debate in the market. This is not someone that's going to come in, just cut rates.
Now, given the inflation, given what you see in terms of writing on the wall, this -- when you saw Warsh at the press conference today, this isn't just a one-and-done. He's signaling, like, I'm going to be an inflation warrior, and we're going to cut.
BURNETT: And you know what's interesting? He also is somebody who cares about the institution of the Fed and that the power and prowess of the United States come from an independent Fed, a dollar that is a dollar that other countries want to own, a country that people look up to. That's where that's coming from.
So, you have him standing up to Trump, and then you've got Supreme Court justices. Now, I guess all of them may view this as they're doing their jobs, but of course, Trump has made this, you're either loyal to me or you're defiant to me, that it's all about Trump.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: What's so interesting is actually what Warsh stood up and said, because he said one thing and he did another, right? So, he actually raises interest rates, quarter percent, not much, but raises them, sends a signal. But then he says, we have a strong economy, jobs are doing great. And that was directed to the audience of one, right?
That is the political message that he's trying to appease the president while actually doing what's best for the economy. So, I wouldn't say it's a straight shot here. It's not like I'm independent and I'm going to do whatever I want, because he does understand that, in some ways, he was put there at the pleasure of the president.
But he's trying to do two things at the same time, which is do what's best for the economy, but also send a message to Donald Trump that, you know, I'm on your side. I'm trying to -- I'm going to tell people that jobs are doing great when nobody feels that.
IVES: Tight wire balance.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's a tight wire balance, and you're just seeing that in real time.
BURNETT: So, Paul, when you look at this, though, you look at multiple Supreme Court justices nominated by Trump standing up to him this week on mail-in voting. You look at what you just saw from the Fed. Does it all add up to anything?
Because on the other hand, you have articles of impeachment for Hegseth, and Speaker Johnson circles the wagons as quickly as he possibly can to avoid an actual vote that could end in a catastrophe for Trump.
BURNETT: I think it shows Trump losing control. Now, it might be a little bit, it might be a lot, but he's obviously lost control of the war in Iran, he's lost control of the economy, he's lost control of the Supreme Court, he's lost control of Congress. You've got somebody like Massie who could, you know, break within the Republican Party or could even leave the Republican Party and be a formidable opponent or at least a problem for him.
And I think we have this new normal where Trump can't control everything, especially the narrative on things like the economy and the Iran War, which continues to be a sucking chest wound for our military and our economy. But that's also when Trump gets most desperate. So now is a time he often does a move that is unexpected and even radical, and I think it's not a time to have a failure of imagination.
BURNETT: How much do his words matter to the market right now, which I know has shown that it can completely, for now, ignore his treasury secretary, right? The famous meme going around is Scott Bessent with a little tiny bucket of water with a building on fire, throwing a couple drops on it for how effective he's been.
IVES: I think also market's much more focused on Bessent than Trump relative to how it reacts. When you look what's happening here, Warsh's words are really ultimately what matters to the market. And Trump's going to say what he said, and market will kind of take that with a grain of salt. But the reality is --
BURNETT: Because no one takes him seriously anymore?
IVES: Because it comes down to the bond market, because you can't bully the bond market. And that's really the reason Warsh had a hike, because the bond market's saying you got high 25 bips. And I think that's just the reality of the economics of where we are today.
BURNETT: Right. As we see bonds back to levels since the financial crisis all the way back in 2007.
All right, thanks very much to all of you.
And next, the CEO of Dollar General with a sobering assessment of his customers.
[19:15:03]
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
TODD VASOS, DOLLAR GENERAL CEO: We're hearing more and more from them is I don't feel like I'm higher income at $100,000 any longer.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: Plus, Macklemore and Robert Kraft speaking out tonight after Kraft pulled the rapper from Ed Sheeran's tour as the backlash against Sheeran is building. Will he have to cancel the tour?
Plus, the CNN investigation reveals Russian spy satellites are likely giving Iran top-secret information about U.S. bases, and that intelligence may have helped Iran take out American assets in the Middle East.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, the Federal Reserve raising interest rates as the CEO of a major retailer gives a sobering view of what Americans can afford.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
VASOS: High income for us is that that $100,000 plus crowd and I would tell you we're hearing more and more from them is I don't feel like I'm higher income
at $100,000 any longer.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
[19:20:05]
BURNETT: And of course, as price increases outpace wage growth.
OUTFRONT now, Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic advisor at Alliance and former PIMCO CEO, obviously largest bond manager in the world.
So, Mohamed, what does it tell you that this Fed vote was unanimous, right? There were no dissents of any kind, 12 to zero.
MOHAMED EL-ERIAN, CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER, ALLIANZ: Tells me two things. One is that the other members of the FOMC wanted to stand behind their new chair and show solidarity, because the comments going into the meeting certainly wouldn't have suggested 12 to zero in terms of votes.
But the second thing it tells me is the Fed felt boxed in. As you know, Erin, going into today's decision, the market had priced in 92 percent probability of a Fed rate hike, 92 percent is a very high number. Had the Fed done anything else, it would have destabilized the market.
BURNETT: So, okay, and in that context, expected, because of the inflation numbers, because of the bond market has been signaling, and we just played the CEO of Dollar General, right, talking about inflation, but the price that that is exacting from Americans, that even people making $100,000 a year are cutting back on shopping -- and shopping at Dollar General.
So what does -- what does a rate hike mean to American consumers when you already see the bond market sending mortgage rates and all other sorts of borrowing costs higher and significantly so?
EL-ERIAN: So American consumers feel under pressure. We've had five- plus years of inflation above the 2 percent Fed target, and that's cumulative. It keeps on going higher and higher and higher, so there's a price shock, a sticker shock.
They also, as you point out, now realize that the refinancing of their mortgage is going to be much more expensive. Mortgage rates have reached 7 percent. There is energy -- oil, gas, and diesel prices.
You know, I never thought, Erin, that every day I would look at where the diesel price is. But diesel goes into virtually everything we buy, and that price is almost twice what it was a year ago in terms of per gallon.
So, the average American feels that despite good employment, despite income, they just have headwind after headwind hitting them right now.
BURNETT: Yeah, I mean, you talk about, you know, twice the cost, I mean, 100 percent increase in prices for diesel. You talked about mortgage rates as well.
So, this is the first move by Kevin Warsh, okay? The first decision he's overseen when Trump put him in to cut interest rates, and he made his displeasure clear earlier today.
So, Trump made his displeasure clear. Here's Trump when he took questions at the press conference on Trump, right, and how Trump might react to Warsh doing the wrong thing.
Here's Warsh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARSH: I don't have anything for you on discussions with the president. And I'm not a Wall Street newsletter. Part of the independence of the Federal Reserve is we stay in our lane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So what do you think is happening here, Mohammed? In the context of, Trump's then got mad, right? But then, I don't know if you heard, but a moment ago, our reporter said that he is talking at this rally in North Carolina, and he said, okay -- and obviously this isn't true, but this is his spin. He said, oh, actually, I told Kevin Warsh to vote for higher interest rates because I told him everyone else on that panel would do it, so he might as well join in.
EL-ERIAN: Yeah, I don't know who spoke to whom. I don't know if it's true, if it's not true. What I do know is that Kevin Warsh has a very clear vision in his head, which is the implicit contract. He understands that the president will respect the independence of the Fed, and in return the Fed will stay in its lane. And you heard that.
So not only in the answer to the question you just showed, but in many other answers, he kept on repeating, we are staying in our lane, and that is part of respecting the relationship we have with the political independence of the central bank. He's trying to maintain this. And as Dan Ives rightly said, today, it showed that he is willing to stand up to the president.
BURNETT: Yeah, I'm fascinated by what happened in whatever conversation they had, because obviously before Trump said that he told Kevin Warsh to vote to raise interest rates, he said they're raising rates to make Trump look as bad as possible. They're raising only for political reasons. So now he's saying something different. I mean, it's really fascinating to know what happened there.
The other thing Trump's been talking about, as you know, Mohamed, is that he wants to send Americans $5,000 checks. He said 100 percent happen if Republicans win the midterms.
Now, put aside for a second that he's promised checks of varying amounts multiple times before and none of them have come to fruition. It just -- just this promise itself.
[19:25:01]
If it were to happen, what would it do, $5,000 checks?
EL-ERIAN: So, I would be shocked if it were to happen. I don't see it happening without congressional approval. There simply isn't enough headroom in the budget to make it happen. They would have to go to Congress. I don't see this Congress approving it.
But if it were to happen and, again, it's not going to, but if it were to happen, it would be inflationary. We got the retail sales number today. Demand is doing well. Our problems on the supply side, increasing demand even more would simply contribute to inflationary pressures.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Mohamed. I appreciate your time. As always, it's great to see you. Thank you.
EL-ERIAN: Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: And next, Emmy Award-winning singer Ed Sheeran caught in the middle of a firestorm. His opening act, Macklemore, dropped following his "Free Palestine" comments, and Macklemore is speaking out tonight.
Plus, traitors and treason. A Republican candidate in a crucial House race in Michigan deleted 13,000 posts and reposts, but KFILE found them, and he's going to show you what the candidate didn't want the world to see.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:30:46] BURNETT: Breaking news, Macklemore challenging Robert Kraft after the Patriots owner got him pulled from Ed Sheeran's tour and called the rapper out for, quote, "a broader history of anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community".
Macklemore tonight saying he will donate $1 million he earned from the tour to multiple groups that support Palestinians Then saying, quote, "I invite Robert Kraft to match my donations. Whatever we agree about -- disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this. Palestinian lives are worth protecting. A Palestinian life is no less valuable than any other life on this Earth."
Those comments coming in made growing signs Sheeran's career could be in jeopardy with fans fleeing in droves over his claims he had nothing to do with Macklemore's removal.
Nick Watt is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ed Sheeran, mild mannered, middle of the road musician to the masses, is embroiled in a very modern maelstrom. His tour now teetering over two words, "Free Palestine". Support acts have pulled out. He's reportedly hemorrhaging social media followers and now taking a kicking online.
"All that money and fame and still no balls," Younes Bendjima, model.
"It's wrong to be silent during a genocide," Ms. Rachel, YouTuber.
"I say this as a ginger. I hope you get a really bad sunburn," Hannah Einbinder, actor.
Sheeran plays Philly Saturday night. We'll see what happens there.
MACKLEMORE, RAPPER: I've been trying to figure out a way to say this all day.
WATT (voice-over): This all began about 6,000 miles from Gaza City in East Rutherford, New Jersey on September 4th. Macklemore, pop rapper with a social conscience, told the crowd one reason he joined his dear brother Ed on tour.
MACKLEMORE: Because I wanted to stand up here. on stages and stadiums across America and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart -- free Palestine.
(CHEERING)
WATT (voice-over): Not at my place, you won't, said billionaire Pat's owner Robert Kraft, who owns one of those stadiums. Gillette Stadium has a longstanding commitment to providing a welcoming environment Kraft wrote, not providing a platform for hate speech.
Sheeran says the promoter pulled the plug. Macklemore claims Sheeran threw him off the tour after a call from Kraft, who had rallied other stadium owners to issue an ultimatum. If Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.
Kraft also called out Macklemore's broader history of anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery. In 2014 he wore what looked like an anti-Semitic stereotype get up on stage, later described it as a "random costume" and an apology "to anybody that I may have offended".
Kraft critics have also dredged up his past, flagging his arrest for soliciting prostitutes in 2019. Kraft pleaded not guilty and the case was dismissed.
Sheeran critics highlighting his closeness to Kraft. He played "Perfect" for the first dance at Kraft's wedding. Sheeran explained why on Sirius XM.
ED SHEERAN, SINGER: He was my first stadium that I played in the U.S. ever, and I've always had a lovely relationship with him. He's super sweet.
WATT (voice-over): Sheeran now much maligned for his part in this and for his largely apolitical public persona. It's very hard to just smile and strum these days.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATT: Now, the way Ed Sheeran sums up his position, he said, listen, just because I don't speak about something publicly doesn't mean I don't have an opinion, doesn't mean I don't care.
Erin, you mentioned Macklemore laying down that gauntlet, donating a million, asking Kraft to match it. Well, Kraft then put out a statement saying, "Before Macklemore even said that, Ed Sheeran had called me and asked me to donate $2 million."
Listen, Erin, publicly, all these three guys, public at least agree that the Palestinian people need some help. Beyond that, there is a lot of noise, and it doesn't appear to be stopping -- Erin.
[19:35:02]
BURNETT: Yeah, no, it doesn't. Obviously, saying that is the tip of the iceberg for many. Thank you very much, Nick Watt.
All right, Paul and Lulu are back.
So, Paul, you were at the September 5th concert that Ed Sheeran gave in East Rutherford, New Jersey, which was the day after the soundbite we played there where he was saying the two words I want to say are free Palestine. You heard that and everything that went around it.
So, what did he say?
RIECKHOFF: So, first of all, this was my kids' first ever stadium show. There's 7 and 11, right? And we were excited to see Ed Sheeran, and we're going to hear "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore. And I did not, frankly, know about Macklemore's history or his politics. We were mostly there to hear Ed Sheeran.
He did pretty much what you heard there. He also overwhelmingly had a stance of love, inclusion. Everybody -- he said he respected Jewish people. I didn't hear anything overtly anti-Semitic.
He did go very strong in Free Palestine. He said pretty much what you heard there.
And he also asked the crowd to chant "free Palestine", which in a New York and New Jersey crowd is asking I think a lot in a crowd of 50,000 people that were there.
I never would have had Macklemore versus Bob Kraft on my bingo card for this year, right? In the middle sits Ed Sheeran, who is apolitical. I think he's been good on Ukraine. Maybe he is the person that can actually bring people together around this because it's not -- it's reflective of so much in this country. The far left on Palestine and Israel, the far right on Palestine and Israel.
And I think most of us are somewhere in the middle looking compromise and looking for unity, maybe Ed Sheeran can be the guy to do it. But it's not going to be by throwing Macklemore under the bus or by appeasing Bob.
BURNETT: But, Lulu, there is incredible outrage over this. Stories like this happen a lot. Most of them don't percolate into multiple days being talked about like this one.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: So the issue, I think, is actually a little bit more complicated. So first you have the first layer, which is the Israel- Palestine layer. And what you're seeing here is popular culture colliding with politics, right? Poll after poll has shown us that regardless, actually, left or right, that there is increasing antipathy towards Israel and Israel's role in our politics and Israel's role in the war in Iran.
So that's the first thing, right? And it splintered the left and it splintered the right. And so, when you have that with popular culture, it's going to -- all of a sudden, people have a way in. They're not talking about who's getting sent bombs there. They're not talking about what's happening in Congress. That for most people is kind of out of their purview.
This is something that they can actually understand. So that's the first thing. And secondly, people also understand, and this is something on the left and the right, when they feel like they don't have control over their free speech.
And that is something that was a huge issue on the right. If you remember from 2020, 2024 with big me -- with big social media companies, right? They felt like they were stifling speech on the left. And then now you're seeing it, rather speech on the right, and now you're seeing it on the left with the idea of free Palestine and the perception that pro-Palestinian voices get censored. And so, it's become a real S-storm.
BURNETT: So it has.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke out about this. So, I want to go to that sound bite if I can. You know, obviously, we know her general politics. Now she's being talked about as a presidential hopeful.
She talked to TMZ, D.C., TMZ, where pop culture meets Washington. And here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): When you see what Robert Kraft did to line up all of the stadiums to censor speech in that one specific way, it's become clear that this is not just about one music artist or two music artists, but this is about how just a handful of stadium owners and the elite can prevent an entire massive issue, in this case the genocide in Gaza. We need to be very clear about how dangerous a precedent this is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: So that's exactly what I was talking about, right? Because this is like where popular culture meets politics, and what you're hearing there is a sense that most people have, first of all, misunderstanding the First Amendment, which is actually like private companies can do whatever they want. That's not free speech. It's about the government censoring speech.
But also just people, because all our speech is intersects with all these companies and their opinions, it makes people angry.
RIECKHOFF: When this happens, we know where AOC is going to be, Trump will drop any minute now, right?
BURNETT: But Dave Pornoy of Barstool Sports says, oh, no, Kraft's totally in the right. He owns the stadium, so he owns it.
RIECKHOFF: Right.
BURNETT: So forget --
RIECKHOFF: Which is legally true. Free speech does not extend into a private stadium that a person owns. But I think the bigger question is here, and I'm not trying to just be a peacemaker here, like, what do we do now, right? And Ed Sheeran is in the crosshairs. He has to make a decision. Is he going to try to stay neutral? Can he stay neutral?
[19:40:00]
When I was at the concert, I did not know Ed Sheeran signed off on this, right? I was like, oh, I didn't know Ed Sheeran was such a big supporter of free Palestine. Now he's going to have to take a position. I don't think neutrality is going to work here for him.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: No. It's not going to work.
RIECKHOFF: But if anybody could do it, it's Ed Sheeran, the guy that everybody loves and has a tendency to bring people together. And I do hope we can focus on one thing.
Everybody cares about children. Everybody cares about civilian casualties. Everybody cares about people in conflict. And I do think there is a room in this country for voices to meet that moment and try to bring people together.
BURNETT: Right. The problem is people can say things, but what's happening doesn't match what people are saying. There's a lot of people who are saying, I don't think this is okay, but then they're actually fine with the things that are happening.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Ed Sheeran has like walked into a buzzsaw there.
BURNETT: What's he going to do? I mean, how does he that thing is, how does he do words, Lulu get him out of it.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, well, the question here is, he going to play those stadiums? And that's the first thing that has to be determined. And if he plays those stadiums, I mean, then he's then he is implicitly he's picked a side. So -- and if he doesn't play those stadiums, people are going to say he picked a side.
BURNETT: He picked a side, yeah.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: So he's in a very uncomfortable position. And I agree with you, neutrality and just saying, like, I didn't know --
RIECKHOFF: It's a huge generational divide.
BURNETT: Yeah.
RIECKHOFF: And you can see that at the show. The younger people tend to be on the left. The older people tend to be on the right. You saw that even in the audience at the show.
BURNETT: Which is fascinating, because you're saying people were very split.
(CROSSTALK)
RIECKHOFF: I think -- I would argue, I don't have the videotape, but it felt pretty split.
BURNETT: All right, thank you both very much.
And next, our KFILE with an exclusive report on a race that could determine who controls the House, the Republican candidate who won despite suspending his campaign literally won, deleting thousands of posts, including a pattern of anti-Muslim attacks and one that implied Trump's opponents be put to death.
And a CNN investigation tonight revealing Russian spy satellites are likely providing Iran with crucial information about U.S. bases.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:45:45]
BURNETT: Tonight, a CNN KFILE exclusive on a crucial House race in Michigan. Republican Thomas Smith, a retired General Motors engineer turned salsa seller, is running in a closely divided district. Now, he became the surprise GOP nominee last month, this in spite of having suspended his campaign before Election Day and beating Trump's own endorsed candidate.
After Smith's unexpected victory, his campaign adopted a polished mainstream image and scrubbed his digital footprint. Well, that is where KFILE comes in, because you can't do that when KFILE gets in the picture. He has uncovered some 13,000 of Smith's deleted social media posts and reposts made on a promotional Twitter account for his salsa business. They show a years-long pattern of far-right rhetoric, including birther-style conspiracies, attacks on Muslim Americans, and a call for treason trials.
Andrew Kaczynski, who broke this report, joins me now.
So, Andrew, what else did you find in these deleted accounts? I mean, that is a lot of posts.
ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Well, that is right, Erin. It is a remarkably controversial feed for Thomas Smith on, yes, his local salsa business account. The post came from the account under the name Jarhead Salsa, which is the name of a Flint area salsa business that Smith owns. And he repeatedly identified himself, we found, by name as the operator of the accounts on both X and Truth Social for this business.
So, we do know it's him. One of the starkest examples that we found of this sort of rhetoric came in February of 2025 when Smith's account reposted a message from another user. It was addressed to President Trump urging him to, quote, "do whatever it takes to take our country back," and then take a look at the rest of this screenshot.
It says, "There are traitors within who deserve to be put on trial for treason. What's the punishment for treason again? The punishment for treason is death or no less than five years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine," which, Erin, did actually seem kind of low for treason.
BURNETT: And, obviously, what's the punishment for treason again, you know, sort of the rhetorical question, obviously, of the point that he was making.
Okay, so you found those posts. You also found deleted posts that viciously targeted Muslim Americans?
KACZYNSKI: Yes, we found a lot of those. In fact, there was a December 2025 repost on his account. It was a message that read, quote, "Islam is a cancer that has no place in our Christian nation." Then, five weeks later, we found he shared another post from the same account calling to, quote, "eliminate every demonic, violent, liberal terrorist and deport the corrupt Somali infestation for American soil." Then, in May 2024, he posted this debunked image that falsely
purported to show Ilhan Omar, who is a Minnesota Democratic congresswoman, had claimed that she was at a al-Qaeda training camp, which is, of course, ridiculous, and denounced Satan's evil Islam, telling patriots to circulate it.
On August 2, which was two days before the Republican primary, when Smith had already suspended his campaign, but he was still on the ballot, the count posted, "Why is pedophilia wrong on Epstein's Island but not in Islam?"
He also repeatedly amplified posts, accusing prominent Democrats of being traitors to the country, including former President Barack Obama, who he repeatedly called, quote, "the Kenyan," and that he secretly ran Biden's White House. So, there are two false conspiracy theories there. Obviously, Obama was born in the United States, and he did not run the Biden White House.
He also attended the January 6th rally in D.C. Two weeks before the rally, we found that he urged others to join him in D.C., writing, "Having millions of supporters surrounding the Capitol will be epic. The left needs to see what they're up against."
Sixteen months later, in April 2022, he cited on Truth Social his own presence there to vouch for what happened. He said, "I was there on January 6th. The Capitol was surrounded before Trump quit speaking."
BURNETT: Okay, so you've got all of that, and he was not expected to be the nominee. I mean, nobody, I mean, this was completely out of nowhere that this actually happened. You talk about he'd been come off the ballot.
So, what about this campaign makeover that you're. I mean, this was completely out of nowhere that this actually happened. You talk about he'd been come off the ballot. So what about this campaign makeover that you're referring to? Suddenly, okay, I'm here.
[19:50:00]
I'm going to try to do this polished campaign.
KACZYNSKI: Yeah, so before he had won, if we can see it here, he had a bare bones website that just featured like a map of the district, a short biography, links to donations and yard signs. It looks very like basic internet.
That has now been replaced by this super polished red and blue site, volunteer signups, fundraising appeals, detailed issue pages. It looks very professional. It looks like a normal congressional candidate.
So, he is definitely trying to put up a fight in this district that Trump did win in 2024. We reached out to him. We asked about these posts, and he didn't respond to us on any of the posts, but he did give a comment on his attendance on January 6th, telling seen, Like thousands of peaceful patriots, I attended presidents from rally in Washington. After braving the cold for several hours and listening to the president, I returned to my hotel. I did not enter the Capitol or trespass on restricted grounds. My focus is delivering common sense results for Michigan and defeating Abdul El-Sayed's partner in socialism, Kristen McDonald Rivet, at the ballot box this fall.
So, be interesting to see if this far-right self-sale account makes a difference in this race.
BURNETT: Yeah, well, as you said, well over 10,000 posts, of which you're highlighting so many.
Thank you so much, Andrew Kaczynski of KFILE.
And next, a CNN investigation revealing Russia likely provided crucial satellite information about U.S. bases to Tehran, giving Tehran a major advantage, bases that are now in real trouble.
We'll be back.
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[19:56:10]
BURNETT: Breaking news, a CNN investigation revealing Russian spy satellites are likely giving Iran vital information about U.S. assets in the Middle East, helping Tehran target American bases and destroy key resources, including a plane worth hundreds of millions of dollars known as Washington's Eyes in the Sky.
Tamara Qiblawi reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TAMARA QIBLAWI, CNN SENIOR DIGITAL MIDDLE EAST PRODUCER (voice-over): This is the launch of Cosmos 2573, one of Russia's elite spy satellites currently collecting intelligence across the globe.
Now CNN has learned that these satellites have likely given Iran a considerable advantage in its fight against the U.S., capturing not just what U.S. military sites look like but also exposing their inner workings.
Our sources, including two U.S. officials, tell us they have evidence that those satellites are feeding some of that intelligence back to Iran, aiding at least some precision strikes. The apparent synergy between Russian satellites and Iran's rockets is laid bare here, Prince Sultan Air Base.
BURNETT: Then we begin with the breaking news, Iran striking a U.S. base. Iranian state media releasing this image, which shows a strike at the Prince Sultan Air Base near Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
QIBLAWI (voice-over): A major Iranian attack on March 27th. The U.S. has had a strategic presence here for decades. According to our sources, Russian satellites played a vital role in these strikes, which wreaked havoc on the base and injured 12 U.S. personnel. Now we do not have access to Russia's satellite images but we looked at the orbital data tracking satellites and assessing their visibility over sites of interest with help from space technology experts Project Aurora and Kayhan Space, who provided us with the images you see.
Here's the Cosmos 2573 again, just two days before the attack. It flies over the base, along with 13 other Russian spy satellites. Our analysis shows that these spacecrafts moved in both a perfect sequence and had a perfect view to collect rich, multi-sensory data.
Each of these satellites contributes a different part of the intelligence picture. Cosmos 2573 captures deep and detailed military- grade satellite imagery. These eight are signal satellites. They can intercept radio and radar emissions, allowing them to locate air defenses that can shoot down the incoming missiles.
These two are infrared satellites. They pick up heat signatures, the kind that comes from rocket launchers.
And finally, three synthetic aperture radar satellites, known as SAR. They're able to see through clouds and darkness and flag physical changes, showing, for example, where a movable, high-value asset might be repositioned, like this plane, the Airborne Warning and Control System, AWACS for short, America's eyes in the skies in the Middle East.
Crucially, the AWACS was not parked in its prewar location. On March 27th, Iran destroyed it, an aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars and very, very difficult to replace.
The scale of the damage to the base and the accuracy of the strikes would have been nearly impossible without Russian geospatial intelligence, according to our sources.
QIBLAWI: And this isn't an isolated incident. Now there is some debate among U.S. officials over just how consequential Russian support has been.
But our sources broadly suspect that Russian satellites gave Iran targeting information several more times over the course of the war, including at a CIA facility in the Saudi capital.
NAWAF OBAID, SENIOR FELLOW, KING'S COLLEGE: We wouldn't be in this situation today. The war wouldn't be where it is today if it wasn't for this unique capabilities that the Russians gave to the Iranians.
QIBLAWI (voice-over): According to experts like Dr. Nawaf Obaid, one of the reasons Russia has been helping Iran -- Moscow calls this fake news -- is because the U.S. is working with Ukraine in a similar way, through intelligence sharing, to support strikes similar to these.
OBAID: You have to see it in this way. This is Russian payback with interest. It's monumental in terms of the consequences of what this has done to not just to the U.S. standing in the region but to the security architecture of the region going forward.
QIBLAWI (voice-over): Tamara Qiblawi, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: And thanks so much to all of you for joining us.
"AC360" begins now.
