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Erin Burnett Outfront

Now: CNN Denied Access To Arrivals For White House State Dinner; Iran's President Says He Met Supreme Leader, Claims He's "Quite Healthy"; WSJ: MAGA Podcasters Are Turning On Trump. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired September 24, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:20]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

The breaking news, CNN denied access, turned away from the Chinese president's arrival at the White House moments ago. Trump also lashing out, claiming CNN didn't cover his high-profile visit with Xi by choice -- false. That was because of his ban.

Plus, the Iranian president speaking out, telling me details about the supreme leader's health, even as the world has not seen the supreme leader, the Ayatollah, since the United States killed his father.

And erased by A.I. We speak to the Stanford student who was erased from a photo, replaced with an A.I.-generated student of a different race and gender for a university ad.

Let's go OUTFRONT.

(MUSIC)

BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news denied. CNN denied access moments ago to cover the guest arrivals of President Trump's state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping, blocked after a judge shot down Trump's ban to keep CNN, "Politico", and MS NOW out of the White House grounds.

Now, for the past 24 hours, Trump has pulled out all of the stops for the communist leader of China. But we have no video or images of the events because Trump's White House still refuses to confirm that CNN will be allowed to return in full to its normally scheduled reporting duties, meaning the TV pool that usually handles live coverage of Trump's events is still in a holding pattern.

Now, it's unclear if -- when CNN can return to its normally scheduled pool assignment. But this lack of coverage is getting to Trump. Just a short time ago, he fired off this message attacking CNN and MS NOW, saying that the two television networks, quote, "refused to cover one of the biggest and most beautiful events to take place in many years, the arrival at the White House of the highly respected president of China, Xi Jinping, and his beautiful wife, Madam Peng. The event was magnificent, actually made for television. But because they're fake news and because they knew how good it would be, they didn't want credit to be given to Trump. They refused to be there."

Well, when the president of the United States posts something like that about us, it's important to be clear on what really happened because CNN did not refuse to cover the event. We, like MS NOW and "Politico" were denied access to the White House grounds.

And it's not the first time that Trump and his team have misled about this ban. This morning, after a judge ordered Trump to restore CNN's access to the White House, it took five tries over nearly five hours before our reporter Betsy Klein was actually granted access. In fact, it was not until about 12:30 p.m., 11 hours after the judge's ruling, that Betsy was allowed back in. Even then, the administration told the court something false. They said her badge was activated at 9:07 a.m.

Just to be very clear here, Betsy was turned away three times after 9:07 a.m., even though the administration claimed that to a court of law. And even as Betsy stood outside the White House this morning, Trump did allow Chinese state media to cover him, even saying to President Xi Jinping today that the Chinese had the friendliest press corps because they actually asked Xi if they can ask a question.

Now, of course, they are friendly because they are state-controlled media. For example, I mean, here's a picture of Xi in a Chinese newsroom. The reporters surrounding him are clapping for him. And after all, if a reporter steps out of line, they could face severe punishment from something as simple to losing their credentials to actually being detained.

And Beijing state media today seized on Trump's red carpet welcome for Xi, reporting on the rare personal airport welcome from Trump, the B-1 bomber flyover, the 21-gun cannon salute, images that were great for Xi in public.

And that seems to be what Trump wants from his press coverage as well. Just listen to what Trump's former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, told me just last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE GRISHAM, TRUMP'S FORMER PRESS SECRETARY: I heard him on two different occasions in a bilat with China and in a bilat with North Korea. He told them on both occasions, the dictators, that is, that the press aren't they animals. They're animals. They're crazy. You have the right idea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Well, Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT live outside the White House and there's a reason for where you're standing Kristen. That is because the breaking news that we led the program with this denial of access to cover the state dinner.

You were there. You were going to cover it. You were denied. Can you explain what just happened?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and I do want to be clear because this is different than a pool event. This is what they call a pre-credential media event, which is all the media that wants to attend. They submit their names to the White House and then they wait for confirmation.

[19:05:03]

In the past, we have never had an issue with confirmation. We submitted our names last night. No response from the White House.

It was becoming pretty clear throughout the day that all the other outlets had received a response saying that they were pre- credentialed, but we had not. Moments before the press was called to gather together to go watch this greeting between President Xi and President Trump, we did receive an e-mail from the White House asking for who would be attending. We responded that like the other TV pool or network pool, that we would only be sending editorial. That is what the agreement has been. That's why there's no TV pool camera, but the networks have been in these events, just not with the actual video pool feed.

We submitted my name and Kit Maher's name. She is a producer here at the White House. We didn't hear back after that. We walked up with our credentials and we were told to talk to the White House press office.

We were told that we did not have access. We asked specifically why not? They said your invitation was only for a television camera and audio. Again, no editorial presence. just a camera and audio, which certainly seems like a reaction to President Trump saying that he wanted the CNN coverage of this event.

Again, though, what had been agreed upon was this editorial stance of sending in just a producer or correspondent, no camera, and they clearly were not okay with it.

BURNETT: Right, the made for TV event that they wanted right without the editorial. What we're hearing behind you, Kristen, is that the pomp and circumstance of what's happening that you're not able to cover that we're hearing?

HOLMES: That's -- yes, and what's interesting about it too is that you can't see it, but right behind me, actually kind of kind of in the corner here, you can see that the press pool is really far back and up on these risers. So, you know, it would have -- we would have been out there, but very high up and away from this location.

So, clearly, they just wanted the CNN camera so that they would have the pictures on the 24-hour news Network, but no ability to have anybody potentially ask questions or -- again, I don't even know how close we would have been at this point. They certainly didn't want Trump to see a CNN reporter or editorial presence there as well.

BURNETT: Well, that's significant what you're saying, right? That they wanted the camera, but that they didn't want him to have to see you, Kristen, right? I mean, you were going to be -- going there, you and Kit.

All right, Kristen, thank you very much.

And of course, this story moving very quickly because that just happened, Kristen's denial. So, if there's a development here, Kristen's going to come right back up the second she can.

In the meantime, I want to go OUTFRONT now to preeminent constitutional scholar and Harvard Law professor emeritus, Laurence Tribe.

And professor, so are reporters finally allowed back on White House grounds 11 hours after they were supposed to be? But just now, you heard Kristen explaining how she was denied access to the state dinner and the media coverage of it. What do you think is happening here?

LAURENCE TRIBE, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR EMERITUS: Well, what's happening is that the president of the United States is playing cat and mouse with the American people. It really is an outrage.

He says that he's going to comply with judicial orders, but he defied them this morning. And even though hours, many hours after the court ruled that access cannot be selectively denied to CNN and CS -- MS NOW and "Politico", it was being denied, and in the morning when President Xi arrived at the White House, none of you were able to cover it, just as you're not able in any meaningful way to cover the state dinner.

This president does not recognize that he is subject to the law. I was trying to think of parallels in history, but there really are none. George III didn't have this kind of power. He tried to control coverage, but he was responsible to a parliament.

This Congress basically does, because of the MAGA element, does what the president wants. Even King Louis XIV didn't go this far. He said, L'Etat c'est moi, I am the state. But even the state is subject to the law.

Whereas Trump specifically said, I am the law. He used the word code, the code that controls him. He said, I am the code. We can't have this in this country. That's dictatorship.

[19:10:01]

BURNETT: So, when you give those analogies to George III or Louis XIV, I'm thinking about Trump's former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham. She's going to be with us in just a moment.

But she told me that she believes Trump will not give up here. And she said this before even this development that just happened. She said he wouldn't give up. She said he would be willing to even defy the Supreme Court if this ever got there and simply proactively pardon the people who violate a court ruling by, you know, not letting the media in.

What happens if she's right? TRIBE: Well, the pardon power only deals with criminal offenses. We're not talking about a crime. We're simply talking about civil defiance. And people who defy court orders can be locked up until they comply. They can certainly be subject to escalating fines.

I think at this point, Judge Kelly, who though a Trump appointee has been following the law, ought to convene an emergency hearing and hold all of the Trump officials who have been playing this ludicrous game, hold them in contempt, fine them. He can fine them $10,000 an hour with escalating fines. If they don't fully comply, those fines can double every hour.

There's no reason, in a society like ours, where we are all supposed to be free and get unfiltered news, no reason for any judge to tolerate this.

And I think this defiance, both of due process and of the freedom of speech and press is so blatant that even the current Supreme Court would not have it. And when the Trump people said there was, oh, after all, there was some national security reason for all this nonsense, the judge this morning said that was an afterthought.

The president didn't name national security as a reason. He said he didn't like what CNN and MSNBC and "Politico" had to say about him. So, he's basically the best witness against himself in this case.

BURNETT: So, when Trump was joking and saying how much he appreciated the Chinese press, right, that they have the friendliest press corps, obviously you see that as much more than a joke?

TRIBE: Well, I think that the president has really got to be held up to the law. What he's doing is typical autocratic fare. When he praises Putin, who has no meaningful freedom in his republic, who assassinates people who go against his will. When he praises Xi, because his press corps is fawning and basically when they're told to jump, they ask how high, he makes it clear what he would like this country to be. He would like us all to be his subjects, not citizens. He would like basically to be not just King Trump, but Emperor Trump.

And I'm not having it, and I don't think the American people are having it either. I think he's gone several steps too far, and it does look like people are finally catching on. And I think that's a good sign. That means that people are going to be active, they're going to vote, there's going to be a huge blue wave in November.

And even though he's going to do his very best to interfere with the election, to have government agents lurking around the polls in violation of the law, maybe to seize ballots, and to get Mike Johnson to refuse to seat Democrats in January. But I don't think that's going to work.

It's not going to work because the victory against dictatorship, I think, is going to be so strong that he will not be able to resist.

BURNETT: Yeah, we will, of course, see what will happen.

And Professor Tribe, I appreciate your time, obviously. So significant to have your weigh in here on the breaking developments.

Jamal Simmons and Stephanie Grisham were with me.

Okay, both of you have been in a White House, okay? Stephanie, you were press secretary for Trump. Jamal, you were chief communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris. You're sitting with me, Jamal, so can I just start with you with what just happened to Kristen?

Okay, after 11 hours, and I laid out our Betsy Klein went, right? And was -- it took five tries to get in after -- after the court order, 11 hours. Then Kristen applies to what is a normally a rote check the box. Here's your credential and is denied moments ago.

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, kind of echoing with Professor Tribe just said, the American people deserve a free press. They deserve the freedom of speech. We fought a revolution for that. We got civil awards so that we could give those rights to other people. We had World War II to push back against this kind of, to defend democracy.

So, for the president of the United States to do what Professor Tribe just said, just play cat and mouse with the court system, cat and mouse with the American people, isn't the way that our country is supposed to operate. And I think at this point, at this point, it's time for all of us to have a really, really frank conversation about where do we go from here and what principles tie us together around these freedoms.

BURNETT: So, Stephanie, knowing the players here, what do you think is happening? Interesting that gave a couple of nuggets I just want to highlight. She said the press corps that is covering this event, we could hear it because it was in the background, right? She said they're quite far away, and it appeared clear that what they wanted if CNN came was merely the camera, but no editorial presence, as in no reporter, no Kristen, because the president didn't want to see editorial there.

GRISHAM: So, Erin, I could pick up my notes right now that I wrote 20 minutes ago that say the next way he's going to start messing with you guys to put it very casually, but is the with the due process situation and that they will probably -- I'm going to read it, maybe take correspondent out of the room is literally what I wrote down, thinking and preparing for the show.

So that doesn't surprise me at all and I think the next steps will be that they're going to try to put some kind of due process in place because the courts keep leaning on that and it's going to be something that tries to box the media into -- like I said no correspondent or no shouting questions or something along those lines. And then same with this morning, I was watching the whole thing play out, they could have had those badges reinstated.

What they did was dishonest. I think they lied to the court. And, you know, I think what the professor said earlier is true. Until there are true consequences, they're going to keep pushing the

envelope. It's like democracy is dying under the Trump administration, death by 1,000 cuts. And they do these little things, and they just keep pushing.

BURNETT: Just to point out, Jamal, as I mentioned at the top of the show, right, they said to a court today that they reinstated the badges at 9:07 a.m., which, by the way, it was 2:00 a.m. when they were supposed to, so they were already admitting that.

But Betsy Klein went three times after 9:07 before she was allowed back in, right? So that is not true when it comes to CNN.

SIMMONS: Absolutely. And when you work at the White House, I mean, your pagers, your phone number, your phone's always on, haven't pagers in a long time, but your phone is always on, you're constantly getting text messages. They can handle this stuff pretty easily in the middle of the night, have people ready to go in the morning. There is a legendary scene from Robert Gibbs when he was the press secretary for President Obama. He almost got into a fistfight in a foreign capital, but he was trying to get American reporters into an event.

How far we have come when the American government was trying to get reporters in. Now we have a president trying to keep reporters out.

BURNETT: And meantime, Stephanie, the White House is running a new ad on television, President Trump's favored location, which goes through a lot of pictures of Trump with a choir singing "Love Me" in the background.

I'll play a small portion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA WHITE, UFC PRESIDENT: Nothing was going to stop him from fighting so hard for the country he loves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Now, I just want to draw everyone's attention, Stephanie, to what's on the bottom of this, okay? "Paid for by the United States government". So, taxpayers funded the ad about Trump with a choir singing Love Me in the background. Is that normal for him?

GRISHAM: Well, sadly, yes, because that -- I mean, what they're doing is illegal. It is a Hatch Act violation, which means you cannot do any kind of electioneering essentially on with government resources or with government money. Now, as somebody who has had a Hatch Act violation, that would be me. I was told by the president of the United States not to worry about it because he's the boss of the Hatch Act.

So, it doesn't surprise me, but it does enrage me because he's literally -- they are literally taking money out of people's paychecks. Every paycheck we get taxed. And they're using that money to post these self-aggrandizing videos of the president of the United States. And I think it's really important that people need to understand why.

I mean, it's not just some little ad that he's taking your money.

[19:20:00]

BURNETT: And to that point, Jamal, their response was they called this a public service announcement. Now, it would be a public service announcement, regardless of whether you like Trump or not, running an ad about how great he is, you would acknowledge is your point of view, right?

SIMMONS: Sure.

BURNETT: It's not a public service announcement. A public service announcement is don't do drugs, right? That's a public service announcement. Smoking kills you, okay?

This is not a public service announcement, but they call it these public service announcements are about reminding Americans to love their country.

SIMMONS: Yeah, because here's what happened. Not only did they put this up for the American people, but that means government employees had to work on this to put it together. And I can't tell you how many days I sat in the West Wing of the White House with the White House lawyers sitting next to us, scratching out lines and speeches, coaching us on what we could say, what the vice president could say or could not say, trying to make sure that we did not cross over some line of politicking from the White House and from the federal government.

This is completely beyond anything that I've seen in government.

BURNETT: It's pretty incredible. All right, I appreciate both of you and thank you.

And next, MAGA podcasters have been turning on Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY FRISELLA, PODCASTER: Donald Trump, you've lost touch with your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) base.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Okay, so that's an incredible statement. But then who are they focused on instead? You may be very surprised. There's a "Wall Street Journal" reporter who has combed through all of this, broke the story, and she's OUTFRONT.

Plus, incredible rare access into North Korea. These are images from inside North Korea that we have never seen before. This is incredible stuff.

And Iran's president revealing his conversations with the Supreme Leader who has not been seen or heard from even once publicly since the start of Trump's war. Former U.S. Ambassador Nick Burns and Seth Jones are next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:26:18]

BURNETT: Breaking news, large groups of diplomats you can see on the screen walking out in protest during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to the U.N. today. A combative Netanyahu then urged any other moral cowards, in his words, to get up and leave, too.

It was a defiant speech, and in it, Netanyahu predicted that the Iranian regime's days are numbered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: One day, and it may not be far away, the Iranian people will be free. Their murderous regime will be toppled by its lies, by its corruption, by its cruelty. This evil regime will fall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, Seth Jones of CSIS and former U.S. ambassador to China, Nick Burns. Nick, of course, also led US-Iran nuclear negotiations under President Bush.

All right, I appreciate both of you.

Ambassador Burns, let me start with you. I spent time with Iran's president today, and he readily admitted that Iran has unprecedented problems, but he was just as defiant as Netanyahu was. And he said he'd had two meetings with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, He said the most recent one was about a month ago, seven to seven and a half hours, and he gave details. He said they sat on traditional floor cushions. He said they stretched their legs and stood up as a person would over a seven-hour timeframe as normal.

And he didn't respond to any more detail, though, Ambassador, to my question about why we have not heard the Supreme Leader's voice or seen his face in public even once, right? The description he gave was so normal. Why no face or voice? What do you make of his reply?

NICHOLAS BURNS, FORMER SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: I think it's very strange, Erin. You know, here we are since February before February 28th, there's been no sighting of the new supreme leader. And, you know, as you know, both starting with the Ayatollah Khomeini and the father of the current leader, Ali Khamenei, this is the supreme leader of all the 93 million American people -- the people -- Iranian people, excuse me, they're used to seeing the supreme leader. The fact that he hasn't been seen, that there are no photographs since February 28th is strange indeed.

It leads one to believe that there's been a real problem here, maybe an extremely serious injury wound in the American and Israeli bombing. And the irony here is that the American and Israeli plan, of course, was to take down the Iranian leadership in late February. They thought the Iranian regime would fall like a house of cards.

The people who have the power now are younger, more radical, more resistant to the United States and not about to give up anytime soon.

BURNETT: Yeah, I mean, it was defiance. I think it was a group of journalists and the Iranian president, and he was sort of saying, well, they thought, the U.S., this administration thought we'd fall on a weekend or in a couple weeks, and we will never surrender, right? But defiance, it continues.

He also -- it was interesting. He said that most U.S. military bases in the region are no longer usable. And by the way, that's consistent with what the former CIA Director David Petraeus recently said, almost word for word. He recently said that the bases are essentially inoperable.

So, what are you hearing?

SETH JONES, PRESIDENT, DEFENSE & SECURITY DEPARTMENT, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Well, Erin, first of all, the Iranian bases are inoperable in many parts of Iran after the U.S. and Israeli targeting. So, this is actually on both sides.

BURNETT: Yeah.

JONES: But on the U.S. side in the Gulf, U.S. has sustained significant damage to its bases. in the Middle East, particularly from Iranian drones, Shaheds. The reality is the U.S. has not had enough of what you call point defense counter-drone systems at enough locations, and it's the Iranians have been able to use that lack of counter-drone systems to strike targets across the Middle East. U.S. is largely out of Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, and so that is the reality right now.

BURNETT: And so when the Iranian president today said, as they consistently do, we want a deal, we're ready for a deal. Any day, yesterday, tomorrow, we're good for a deal, you've been in meeting after meeting here during these crucial U.N. talks, and you say not anytime soon for an end here.

JONES: I don't think, particularly after the elections, depending on how they pan out, especially if the Democrats win the House and potentially even the Senate, I think, the Iranians will push hard for enriched uranium on the nuclear side. They'll -- I don't think they're going to --

BURNETT: To gain leverage.

JONES: I think they're going to gain leverage, and I don't think they're going to give up their ballistic missile and other missile programs.

BURNETT: Yeah, certainly no indication of that. I mean, not that they would give one, but certainly none of that today.

Ambassador Burns, you know, I referenced a few moments ago what's going on at the White House, right? There's a state dinner, and Chinese social media has been effusive over the lavish red carpet rollout that President Trump is giving to Xi Jinping as the state visit goes on.

One person posted, Trump is showing Xi the highest level of respect by greeting his airplane, right? I mean, that Trump actually went to the airplane. That's almost unprecedented. Usually, the world leader comes to the White House, right?

So, Trump honored Xi by going to his plane in the tarmac. There was a flyover, 15-minute military review, marching band, all of it, the ultimate welcome.

Ambassador, obviously, it is important that the U.S. and China have a relationship. There's nothing perhaps more important in the world. But is this the way Xi should be treated by Trump?

BURNS: No, it's not. And listen, Erin, I agree that President Trump should be civil and polite as any American leader would be to the Chinese leader in Washington, D.C. But this has been over the top.

And I think if President Trump thinks that flattery can sway Xi Jinping, it's just not going to work. Xi Jinping is practical. He is unsentimental as a person. And I've spent a lot of time in meetings with him, observing him. And he sticks to the issues.

You saw this morning, President Trump said, we've got a great relationship with China. We don't. We have a very difficult, combative, competitive relationship with China. And then he said, you know, I've got a great personal relationship.

Xi Jinping did not return the favor. He did not say anything positive about President Trump. He stuck to China's position on issue after issue from Taiwan, and there were warnings in what he said.

So, you know, I think that President Trump should have had a state dinner this week for the Japanese Prime Minister, Sanai Takeichi, because American presidents before President Trump always favored treating our allies like the Japanese or the NATO allies better than authoritarian powers.

And here you have a president who's more focused on Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin than he is on the on the Canadian prime minister or other -- or other allies.

BURNETT: Thank you both very much.

And next, "The Wall Street Journal" went through 70,000 hours of podcasts. OK, wow. But what did they find? They found out that MAGA influencers are turning on Trump. Something very big has shifted, and they're going to tell you exactly what shifted and when. The reporter who broke this story is with us next, and you'll hear it.

Plus, Stanford University under fire for replacing a male Hispanic student in a photo with an A.I.-generated female Black student. Our Jason Carroll spoke to the student who got edited out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:38:22]

BURNETT: Tonight, President Trump disappearing from the conversation. New reporting from "The Wall Street Journal" analyzing nearly 70,000 hours of political podcasts, along with more than 10 million TikToks and a quarter million podcast episodes, right? This is an incredible volume of content. Finding mentions of Trump in all of that have plunged nearly 70 percent from their peak before the 2024 election.

And that dropped getting even steeper after Trump went to war with Iran. Monthly mentions of Trump dropping another 30 percent then, according to "The Journal".

Sabrina Rodriguez is OUTFRONT now, the political reporter at "The Wall Street Journal" who led this analysis.

And Sabrina, I mean, this is an incredible volume of material to go through. And, you know, it's not a poll, right? It's going through the actual content to see what people are doing.

So, you found mentions of Trump down nearly 70 percent from the pre- election peak. Can you walk through the points where you really saw the precipitous drop begin?

SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, POLITICS REPORTER, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Erin, I mean, I have to credit we have an incredible team that's helped develop this in-house A.I. tool that we've used. Going through 70,000 hours of this, I mean, is an incredible feat, really. And from the start of it is looking at the 2024 election.

Naturally, we saw that President Trump's mentions at that time were at a real high. That's partially, you know, him campaigning, him being out talking, his victory in the election. And then once you see him win and enter office, it sort of shifts where you start seeing his specific mentions of his name go down. And that coincides with talk of birthright citizenship, of immigration, of border security, of his cabinet picks.

[19:40:03]

You start seeing some of these podcasters talking sort of about the issues, the policies. But what was really notable for us was once you hit earlier this year, right when it coincides with the start of the Iran war, we see a sharp drop off that took place.

BURNETT: OK, so then there's the vacuum that is created by that, right? So, it's not as if they just stopped doing their podcast or they stop filling the time right? They're talking about him less, but it's also what they talk about instead, and also what they say when they do talk about him.

So, let's start about that and talk about that first. When they do talk about him. What do they say? Listen to this. Here's some examples that you found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRISELLA: Donald Trump, you've lost touch with your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) base. You've lost touch with reality of what people actually want to see.

MEGYN KELLY, PODCASTER: I don't know about you, but I am sick of this (EXPLETIVE DELETED). I'm just -- I'm sick of it. Can't he just behave like a normal human? I mean, honestly, like the president, I -- 3D chess -- just shut up. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) shut up about that (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

TUCKER CARLSON, PODCASTER: You wrote speeches for him. I campaigned for him. I mean, we're implicated in this for sure. You know, we'll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be. And I want to say I'm sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So, you know, it's not just that when they're talking about him less. When they do, there's more content like that. And you're saying that came right after the war?

RODRIGUEZ: Yes, 100 percent. I mean, we saw that the war coincided with some of the same podcasters who helped propel his victory in 2024, some of the ones that we were analyzing after the election and what role they played. Some of those same podcasters were coming out and being very vocally critical.

And a few like Tucker Carlson, for example, have broken with the administration and have really pointed to the Iran war as a breaking point for the relationship with Trump.

BURNETT: So, okay, now the other point that we are raising, which is the vacuum of space is not filled by nothing. It's filled with something. Okay, what are they talking about instead of Trump? Here's what you found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE ROGAN, PODCASTER: You need to run for president. Yeah, we need someone who's actually a good person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The entire internet is paying attention to this Democrat megastar.

ANDREW KOLVET, HOST, "THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOW": All eyes are now on Talarico, and we're going to play a lot of clips from Mr. Talarico.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Okay, this is interesting.

So, you found that Texas Democrat James Talarico, right, running in that Senate race against Ken Paxton, you found Talarico all over conservative podcasts as opposed to Trump being there. I mean, what's going on there? RODRIGUEZ: I mean, it's interesting. Talarico is the most talked- about Democrat other than a former president that we found in this analysis. And part of it really speaks to the moment we saw a Turning Point or kind of that spike in talking about Talarico came with the Republican midterm convention that took place in Dallas earlier this month.

Now, having reported from that convention, it wasn't totally surprising because we saw Republicans, including the president himself, talking about Talarico and attacking Talarico. The president himself has now come calling him Talafreako and has been railing against him. And we've seen other Republicans from not just Texas but across the country really pointing to Talarico as sort of their boogeyman in the Democratic Party.

And that really does speak to we see Republicans funneling lots of money and ads to really help boost Ken Paxton in that race. We see poll after poll showing it's a really tight race. But it speaks to sort of how all eyes are in the Republican Party sort of looking to Texas heading to November.

BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you very much. It's really fascinating analysis. I hope everyone will read your full report that you and your team did. And it's a great example of how A.I. can contribute to something positive. So, let's just take that away from it too, right? To learn something.

Thanks so much, Sabrina.

And next, CNN obtaining never before seen footage from inside North Korea. It's incredible, an incredible moment of time to get this.

Plus, Stanford University caught using A.I. to replace a Hispanic student with a black student. Our Jason Carroll found the student who is erased. He's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:49:07]

BURNETT: Tonight, growing outrage over Stanford University's use of A.I. to alter a student's race and gender in a campus ad. The male Hispanic student who was erased from the original picture and replaced with an A.I. generated female black student is speaking out tonight to Jason Carroll, who is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It may look harmless enough photos showing smiling, racially diverse group of students eating together on campus, but it's the same photo which appeared in a Stanford University banner last week that has left some students outraged and raised questions about the abuse of A.I.

This is what the original 2024 photo really looks like. Again, take a look to see how it was altered. The Hispanic student replaced with an A.I. version of a black female student, while the other two students features were altered.

[19:50:00]

BILL RAMIREZ, STANFORD STUDENT IN ORIGINAL PHOTO: I did feel pretty upset with the actions of the university.

CARROLL (voice-over): Billy Ramirez, who was majoring in biology, is the student in the original photo. He says he first found out about the A.I. photo swap from a friend.

RAMIREZ: I don't think it's mainly about the discussion of me being solved with like a black woman, but it's more about my Latino identity kind of being a race in that photo and how I pride myself in being Mexican.

CARROLL (voice-over): The Stanford Review, an independent student newspaper, was the first to break the story.

GARRETT MOLLOY, EDITOR IN CHIEF, THE STANFORD REVIEW: I think this story was a perfect storm of abuse of A.I., questions around diversity policy in universities.

ZAYD PATEL, WRITER, THE STANFORD REVIEW: The goal was diversity and they strayed so far from it.

CARROLL (voice-over): A university spokesperson said we have reviewed the matter and confirmed that A.I. was used to alter the image in violation of university policy. The banners with the image in question have been removed. Stanford's A.I. policy is clear. The use of A.I. in producing or altering images of Stanford people, events, research facilities or achievements is strictly prohibited.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of unacceptable. You know, Stanford is a place where we have -- they actually pride themselves on having students from like over 60 different countries in their incoming class. Like they have diversity that they shouldn't need to fabricate it.

CARROLL (voice-over): This isn't the first time have been caught altering photos in the name of diversity? Long before A.I., in 2000, the University of Wisconsin-Madison was caught using Photoshop in an effort to make the school appear more diverse, while in 2019, York College of Pennsylvania was accused of doing the same.

PATEL: It honestly doesn't seem that different than what has happened in the past. It's just a particular use in this age with A.I. that makes it so much easier to get to that point.

CARROLL (voice-over): Ramirez says this experience has taught him an unexpected lesson.

RAMIREZ: That's a wake-up call for Stanford to increase its diversity rates because if you pride yourself so much in diversity, you have to swap a student who's Hispanic into another race and gender to kind of showcase the world it's diverse. Well, actually, you need to take action. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Okay, this is a fascinating piece, and as you and I were saying, It's amazing how it even happened, because of course students would notice, so hey, you're on the front of this brochure or whatever, and then wait a second, who's that? So, have you heard from all the students involved?

CARROLL: I mean, look, in a sense, we did hear from the other two students in a way. I mean, they did pen an open letter to Stanford University saying a few things. First of all, that they were embarrassed. Two, they feel as though there should be some sort of a public apology, and they also wrote in this letter, they're saying, look, if you've got to do something like this, if you've got an alter, some sort of a photo like this, maybe it says something about how diverse your campus really is. And perhaps people should take a look at that.

BURNETT: Yeah, wow, that's a fascinating story. Jason Carroll, thank you.

And next, incredible video from inside North Korea. Video Kim Jong-un certainly doesn't want the world to see, but it has never before been seen. It is so rare this happens, and you're going to see it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:57:26]

BURNETT: Breaking news, North Korea refusing to halt nuclear weapons testing, rejecting new pressure by country's alarm by Pyongyang's latest advances, according to Reuters tonight. North Korea's foreign minister vowing the country's position as a nuclear weapons state will be everlasting, a direct quote, as CNN obtains never before seen footage from inside North Korea tonight through the eyes of an aid worker who visited the country 75 times. This is the real deal.

Will Ripley is OUTFRONT and we warn you that some of the images here are disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are images the North Korean government does not want you to see. Far away from the showpiece capital, Pyongyang. Inside the homes of everyday people struggling to survive, during the darkest days in the North Korean famine in the 1990s.

KATHI ZELLWEGER, SWISS AID WORKER: And this child had the same old face than her grandmother that struck me.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Kathi Zellweger is a Swiss aid worker who spent nearly 25 years running humanitarian programs in North Korea, 75 trips, five years living there. Foreign journalists have never been granted this kind of access, not even me on my 19 trips.

RIPLEY: We're looking at them, but they're looking at us as well. Every time I try to take a picture of those girls, they run away.

What is it like to be born and to grow up in North Korea?

ZELLWEGER: I think, you know, parents try their best to look after children well, but it's challenging, especially in the countryside to provide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thirty-two hundred tons of rice arrived several days ago.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Kathi brought in massive shipments of food, but she still had to verify where it was going. Following the food took her deeper and deeper into North Korea.

MIKE CHINOY, FORMER CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: There are thousands, if not tens of thousands of North Koreans who are alive today who would be dead if it wasn't for the work that Kathi Zellweger did.

RIPLEY (voice-over): In later years, she could feel the government tightening its grip, especially after diplomacy with the U.S. fell apart and North Korea was no longer interested in engaging with the West.

ZELLWEGER: The world control was used much more widely than before.

RIPLEY: So, you thought it was getting more restrictive and more controlling in more recent years?

ZELLWEGER: Yeah.

Bye-bye. Can you say bye-bye?

RIPLEY (voice-over): Then suddenly, the door slammed shut.

Kathi often thinks about all the people she met, people she may never see or hear from again.

Will Ripley, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Incredible stuff. Thanks for joining us.

Anderson starts now.