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The Situation Room

Secretary Rubio and Pope Leo Meet Amid Tensions with Trump; Monitoring Hantavirus Cruise Passengers; Multiple Tornadoes in Mississippi. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired May 07, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, happening now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio wraps his meeting with Pope Leo and other top officials at the Vatican. This is new video of Rubio, a practicing Catholic, meeting with the first pope from the U.S. Their meeting comes amid historic tensions between the White House and the Vatican. President Trump has attacked the pope several times for criticizing the Iran war.

Joining us now to discuss is Father Edward Beck, a Roman Catholic priest and CNN religious contributor. Hi, Father Beck. Thank you so much for being here with us. So, what do you think? Do you think that this is an olive branch from the Trump administration? Do you think Rubio smoothed over the strained relations here?

REV. EDWARD BECK, CNN RELIGION CONTRIBUTOR AND ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST: Well, I think it's certainly some damage control being done. I mean, it's a diplomatic repair mission, really, Pamela. I mean, the U.S. requested the meeting after weeks of Trump's attacks against Pope Leo. And it was a half hour private meeting scheduled. We understand that Rubio was in the apostolic palace for two and a half hours. Now, he was also meeting with Secretary Parolin. So, that may have been part of that meeting.

But it'll be interesting to see. I mean, they came out. The statements after the meeting was that it was a strong relationship, that they had a shared commitment to peace. I think the real issue is going to be, though, what's the end to that peace? That's where they disagree. The Trump administration seems to think it's warfare and more weapons and more killing.

[11:35:00]

And Leo thinks it's diplomatic solutions. It's talking. It's working toward peace. And so, we'll see if this moves the needle at all.

BROWN: We'll see. Secretary Rubio, for his part, said the meeting was never intended to reset the tense relationship between the White House and the Vatican. Obviously, this rift is unprecedented. I mean, how much do you think this meeting was actually business as usual?

BECK: Well, I'm sure some of that occurred. But remember, just this week, Trump doubled down criticizing Leo. He said that Leo thinks it's OK for Iran to have nuclear weapons and is endangering Catholics no less. So, Leo, of course, never said that. He responded firmly on Tuesday that the church has opposed all nuclear weapons for years and that critics, namely President Trump, should speak truthfully.

I mean, Leo never said Iran should have nukes. He called the peace talks. He criticized the war. So, I'm sure some of this is what was discussed as well. And I think the administration realizes that it's important for them right now. I mean, Leo's approval rating is at 60 percent. Our president's is at 36 percent. That's a problem. Two- thirds of Americans approve of Leo's peace message. 76 dis approve of what President Trump has said, especially that a whole civilization will die. I mean, what a threat, what a heinous threat.

And so, I think there's problems here that need to be solved. And I think they're doing some damage control to try to get there.

BROWN: There have been very few details of this meeting released so far. The State Department said this, quote, "The meeting underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See and their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity." Has that strong relationship -- how much has that strong relationship, in your view, been damaged by the president's attacks?

BECK: I think it's been damaged in the sense not only with Pope Leo and the Vatican, even Secretary Parolin said today it's kind of very strange to him that there would be these kind of attacks against the pope. But there's been damage with Catholic voters, which is what I think they care about. I mean, Trump's approval of Catholic voters is down to 38 percent. Just February of last year, he was at 63 percent.

I mean, the midterms are coming up. So, this is a problem. So, it is affecting his voting base. Even loyal Republicans did not agree with the president's criticisms of Pope Leo. So, I think all of this is coming into play here. I mean, Leo is not going to be intimidated by this.

You know, of course, tomorrow is his first-year anniversary as pope. Tomorrow marks one year that he's pope. And he has said he has no fear of the Trump administration. And he's going to keep calling for peace. And I think for him, it's politics. I mean, it's not politics. It's gospel mission. It's his mandate.

BROWN: That's what he has said. It's not politics. He's just going by the gospel. Father Edward Beck, thanks for coming on to share your perspective on this.

BECK: Thank you, Pamela.

BROWN: And just ahead, more people are being evacuated from the cruise ship hit with a deadly outbreak of Hantavirus. 17 Americans are among those on board and now health officials in several states are monitoring people who left the ship before the quarantine.

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[11:40:00] BROWN: Happening now, the Hantavirus hit cruise ship is on its way to the Canary Islands. So, far, three people on that ship have died and several more have fallen ill. Officials around the world are now scrambling to stop any further spread of the rare virus. Cruise passengers in six countries either have Hantavirus or are being monitored for it.

So, let's further discuss this with Dr. William Schaffner. He's professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Division of Infectious Diseases. Dr. Schaffner, thanks for being here. So, the World Health Organization is downplaying that Hantavirus is similar at all to COVID. Listen to what one official said earlier today.

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MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, EPIDEMIC AND PANDEMIC THREAT DIRECTOR, WHO: This is not SARS-CoV-2. This is not the start of a COVID pandemic. This is an outbreak that we see on a ship. There's a confined area. We have five confirmed cases so far. We completely understand why these questions are coming, but this is not the same situation we were in six years ago. It doesn't spread the same way like coronaviruses do. It's very different.

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BROWN: So, Doctor, what is your takeaway here? How contagious is this?

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE PROFESSOR, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Well, I think, Pamela, that this is indeed a rather contained phenomenon and it will not provide a COVID-like epidemic that went global as COVID virus did. This is a virus that usually is not transmissible from person to person, but this may be a distinctive Andes strain, a South American strain that can on occasion be transmitted from person to person. But so far, it's a very confined circumstance to the passengers on this cruise ship. Those who have been disembarked are being watched by public health authorities in their home countries.

BROWN: Right, because the last I read, it was announced by a Dutch official that nearly 40 people disembarked after the one passenger died and it became clear there was a virus.

[11:45:00]

And so, what is your concern in terms of tracing and going back and seeing who all those people came into contact with? And do you have concern that this virus could mutate and become more contagious?

DR. SCHAFFNER: Well, as to mutation, I don't think we have to go there. There's no indication that this is a rapidly mutating virus. This is another instance that emphasizes the importance of global public health, the World Health Organization, and then working with national public health authorities. They're following these disembarked patients very, very carefully. And I shouldn't call them patients. They're persons. They're healthy. At the moment, none of these folks who have disembarked have become ill. So, far, so good.

BROWN: What is your concern, though, that the incubation period is up to eight weeks? I believe it's one to eight weeks.

DR. SCHAFFNER: Well, it can get as late as eight weeks, as long as eight weeks. But again, the local health authorities can watch this very carefully. These people are being cautioned to be careful themselves not to get into crowded environments so that should they become sick, they won't transmit it. And remember, this is a virus, although it can be transmitted from person to person, it doesn't do so readily.

BROWN: So, the World Health Organization says that two top epidemic experts -- or two Dutch infectious diseases experts, I should say, were joining the ship. In your view, has this outbreak been handled appropriately so far?

DR. SCHAFFNER: I think so far very, very well. The -- this very unusual diagnosis was actually made while the people were at sea and then the passengers were put into isolation while at sea in order to prevent further, if any, person to person transmission. Local health authorities have been notified of everyone who disembarked. Those people are being monitored carefully. So, I think this is an example of international collaboration dealing with what we trust will be a confined circumstance. So, far, so good.

BROWN: So, far, so good. We hope it stays that way. Of course, we don't want to be an alarmist, but I think a lot of people have curiosity about this. But why would the ship allow nearly 40 people to disembark when you have this virus? Was that a good idea?

DR. SCHAFFNER: Well, at the time they disembarked, I don't think they were clear about what this infection was, that it was contagious. And so, this was a developing story at the time. These people who disembark probably signed up for only part of the cruise. So, they weren't intending to stay for the whole time.

Now, there are more people who would like to leave the ship, obviously. But I think the decisions that were made at the time were perfectly reasonable. And we also we always have to give people a little bit of confidence that as more information comes out, the recommendations may well change. And that's true of this circumstance, because it is a rapidly changing circumstance.

BROWN: All right. Dr. William Schaffner, thanks for bringing us the latest. We appreciate it.

DR. SCHAFFNER: My pleasure.

BROWN: And tomorrow, Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us for a Situation Room half-hour special devoted to learning more about Hantavirus and this very rare strain that appears to be at the center of the outbreak. We'll answer your questions. Send them using the QR code on your screen right here. And we'll be right back.

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[11:50:00]

BROWN: We're getting new video this morning of the damage from a string of possible tornadoes in Mississippi. This right here is what's left of a mobile home park. Officials say at least 17 people were hurt and more than 1,000 structures were damaged or destroyed in the storms. Here's how one man described just how quickly it ripped through.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was on my back deck and I went to the front deck, you know Because if we had started getting a little rough, well about 45 minutes it come through there was trees popping I had a tree coming down to my front yard. I went in the house because it get really got rough. I got on the floor. And when it come through, it come through. Pretty bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking the severe weather threat. Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. So, you can see from there at least daylight is out. We can now see a little bit more of the damage that was caused from these storms. This is a similar area, again, from that central Mississippi location. You can see the trees down in the background with the roadway right there.

But again, it wasn't the only place, there were numerous severe thunderstorms that moved through much of portions of central and even southern Mississippi over the last 24 hours. That system itself is still ongoing. We hope that we don't continue to see damage like this as we go in the coming hours.

But again, here, very similar location to where you just saw but this was the nighttime video from last night kind of showing some of that extensive damage there. It's all from this line. That's been moving off to the east. These are all the dots representing some type of severe weather report. So, we had about 14 total tornado reports, but we also had damaging winds and even some hail reports from those storms.

This cold front is the cause for those strong to severe thunderstorms as it continues to slide off to the east. We still have a tornado watch in effect until 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time today especially for extreme South Georgia and areas of Florida where we currently have some ongoing warnings. You've got at least one severe thunderstorm warning and one tornado warning right there in northern Florida as it kind of slides right there into in towards the Panhandle -- Panhandle region, excuse me, of Florida. As that line slides off to the east.

[11:55:00] Now, going through the rest of the day, especially now that the sun is out, you've got the heating of the day, things are warming back up. All of these areas have the potential for those strong to severe thunderstorms. The target is really going to be that yellow area. That's where you have the best chance for those damaging winds 60, 70 mph. Also, some small to large hail. You could also even see some isolated tornadoes, especially through the afternoon and evening hours.

Here is the timeline you can see. Now, farther to the north areas like the Carolinas in Virginia, that section of the front is going to exit relatively soon by about rush hour and early evening tonight, but you still have a lot of those showers and thunderstorms lingering across portions of Florida well into the evening hours tonight before all of that energy finally exits out over the water.

BROWN: All right. Hope everyone stay safe. Allison Chinchar, thank you so much. And thank you all for joining us this morning. Inside Politics with our friend and colleague Dana Bash starts after a short break.

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