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The Situation Room

Trump Celebrates "Consequential" Relationship with China; Obama Defends His Iran Nuclear Deal; Huge Wave of Russian Strikes Targets Ukrainian Cities; Rising Lung Cancer Rates in Women. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired May 14, 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]

JAKE SULLIVAN, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER, PRESIDENT BIDEN: Congress passed this law, and what the law says is that the United States has to continue to support Taiwan's self-defense. And since 1979, we have actually provided weapons to Taiwan, or sold weapons to Taiwan, year in, year out, over the course of the past now, you know, several decades.

President Trump, in fact, did a Taiwan arms sale at the end of last year, but of the last few months, there have been questions raised as to whether he will begin to consult with Beijing on those arms sales, or reduce those arms sales, or punt those arms sales, and I think we have to wait to see the outcome of this summit, and what follows from it, to see what happens with U.S. policy towards arms sales to Taiwan.

Then there's these chips, and honestly, the single most central way in which Taiwan plays on the global stage right now is that it produces more than 90 percent of the most advanced semiconductors that power the global economy, that power the American economy, that power the A.I. revolution.

And if China were to take military action against Taiwan, or otherwise strike or strangle Taiwan, this would have a major impact on the United States' ability to continue to get access to those chips, so it remains a very, very important priority.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: It would give China a lot of leverage.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Critically important, indeed. Jake, I want you to stick around. We have more questions coming up. We'll continue this conversation right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:35:00]

BROWN: Jake Sullivan is back with us. He previously served as President Biden's National Security Adviser and is the co-host of the Long Game podcast. All right. so I want to talk about A.I. a little bit. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the U.S. and China are working on developing guardrails for artificial intelligence. As you know, the U.S. and China are locked in this A.I. race. How big of a national security threat is A.I. when it comes to competition from China?

SULLIVAN: Well, A.I. is a critical national security priority from the point of view of the United States and has to be one of the top priorities in this summit with China. And I'm glad to hear Secretary Bessent actually come out and say that the U.S. and China are going to try to create a diplomatic dialogue to figure out some of these guardrails, because we're going to compete intensively with China.

There's just no doubt about that across the technology, across economics, across military relations. But we also need to work together so that these advanced models that would allow hackers in third countries to attack both of us don't fall into the wrong hands. So, I think it is really imperative that the U.S. and China find a way to establish some basis of cooperation, some set of principles to ensure that whatever models are released out into the public have the kind of guardrails around them that they cannot be used for intense harm against either the United States or China.

BLITZER: The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, Jake, who's traveling with the president in China, said President Trump raised the issue of Iran with President Xi, but he, quote, "Didn't ask them for anything." His words, didn't ask them for anything. Was that a missed opportunity, or was it a strategic decision?

SULLIVAN: I think probably part of the reason they didn't ask is because they expected that China would not come to the Trump administration's aid when it comes to Iran. So, they were nervous about basically getting turned down, even if turned down politely.

I think the way China looks at this is that it's going to try to cut its own deals with Iran to get its ships out, and we're already seeing some signs that Chinese ships are moving through the Strait of Hormuz. I think also from China's perspective, having the U.S. bogged down in another Middle Eastern war plays to their strategic advantage.

So, if they can have their cake and eat it too, have the U.S. continue to struggle in the Middle East while they're making their own deals with Iran, that would be their preferred outcome. And I think the administration recognizes they don't have a huge amount of leverage with China when it comes to the Iran file. So, it was hard for them to make a really specific ask.

BROWN: What about the idea of China using Iran to get the U.S. more on the table with them, more in alignment with them on Taiwan? Do you think that that could also be part of the negotiations, though?

SULLIVAN: You know, some people have raised this question. Could the Chinese side come to the table and say, look, if you do what we ask on Taiwan, we'll help you out on Iran? And there's some logic to that, but I don't think that that is something that Beijing, that Xi Jinping would ever do, because from their perspective, the Taiwan question is non-negotiable. It's not a bargaining chip. It's not something that they can trade for something else. It's a paramount priority that kind of lives in its own space.

And so, that's why you heard Xi Jinping speak so forcefully, so emphatically on that point, but not link it to any other issue. He wanted to say, this is a special issue, and if we get this issue wrong, it could lead to confrontation. But I don't see them bargaining over with respect to Iran or anything else.

BLITZER: I want to play something that former President Obama recently said about how his administration's nuclear deal with Iran was playing out. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: There's no dispute that it worked. And we didn't have to kill a whole bunch of people or shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Now, --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, there was some dispute that it didn't work. Our present president believed that it didn't work, which is why he pulled out of it.

OBAMA: Well, it's not clear that he didn't believe that it didn't work. He just said it didn't work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Worst deal of all time.

OBAMA: Yes, because I did it, which is fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, Jake, what's your reaction to that? And how does the Trump administration ultimately resolve the Iran nuclear issue if that's in fact even possible?

[11:40:00]

SULLIVAN: Well, Wolf, as you know, I'm biased on this because I was part of the team that launched the secret negotiations that led to the Iran nuclear deal. And I believe that the Iran nuclear deal, when it was in place, was working to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, that Iran was complying with it, and we could verify compliance with it. Because we had inspectors on the ground, around the clock, making sure that they were complying with it.

And we were able to achieve that, to put Iran's nuclear program in a box without firing a single shot or without having the Strait of Hormuz closed. I think President Trump deciding to pull out of that deal in 2018 set the stage for the challenge we find ourselves in today, that there is only one real way to verifiably over the long term ensure that Iran can't get a nuclear weapon. And that should be our goal. And that is to actually do a diplomatic deal.

So, to your question, is a deal possible? A deal was certainly possible before Trump launched this war. The Iranians put proposals on the table in Geneva before the strikes kicked off this past February. I think a deal is still possible, but it's been made more difficult by what the Trump administration has chosen to do in terms of military action here. Nonetheless, it is, in my view, the only way forward for the Trump administration to find a diplomatic endgame with Iran that involves certain understandings on the nuclear program. And in the end, I think President Trump will agree to a nuclear deal that looks a lot in structure like the deal he pulled out of that President Obama and John Kerry negotiated.

BROWN: We'll see. Quickly, I want to turn to the Russia's war against Ukraine. There were these massive drone strikes that we've been reporting on in Kyiv, including overnight as President Trump and Xi are meeting in Beijing. The Ukrainian foreign minister says the timing of the attack showed Moscow is not interested in peace. What do you think? And do you still think Russia has the upper hand in all of this?

SULLIVAN: Well, first, I think it's absolutely clear that Vladimir Putin is not interested in peace. And President Trump has repeatedly returned to the notion that it's President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians who are the obstacle to peace. This is just one more piece of evidence that he's flat wrong on that and that it is, in fact, the Russian side and especially President Putin, who is not at all interested in peace. He's interested in one thing, which is trying to continue to break Ukraine.

But I think Ukraine has shown that it will not be broken. It will stand tall. It will stand firm. And April was the first month in quite a long time where Ukraine has actually taken more territory than Russia has taken. And it's shown that Russia's efforts to achieve the subjugation of Ukraine on the battlefield are simply not going to work.

So, from my perspective, the thing the United States should be doing is providing more support to Ukraine and putting more pressure on Russia. The problem is that because of this crisis in Iran, the war that President Trump launched in Iran, oil prices have gone up. That's a benefit to President Putin because it means more money for his war machine. I think getting a resolution to the Strait of Hormuz crisis will actually be helpful to the Ukrainians in getting a just and sustainable peace to this war.

BLITZER: Jake Sullivan, thanks so much for joining us in our Situation Room. I assume you might one of these days be back in the other Situation Room down the street. We'll have more news right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:45:00]

BROWN: Happening now in our Women's Health Watch, it is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths for women in the U.S., more than breast cancer and ovarian cancer combined. One woman is on a mission to spread awareness about rising lung cancer cases, especially for young women and non-smokers.

Joining us now is Shira Kupperman Boehler. She's a lung cancer survivor, and she's also the author of "One Scan Saved My Life: How One Woman's Story Will Change the Way We Detect Lung Cancer." Shira, thank you so much for coming on.

This is so important. Just reading about your story, you take your health very seriously, and you did even before your diagnosis. You're a daily runner. Tell me more about how you found out you had lung cancer. I mean, you're also the daughter of a lung cancer doctor, right? You've never smoked a cigarette in your life. How did this happen?

SHIRA KUPPERMAN BOEHLER, AUTHOR, "ONE SCAN SAVED MY LIFE: HOW ONE WOMAN'S STORY WILL CHANGE THE WAY WE DETECT LUNG CANCER" AND LUNG CANCER SURVIVOR: You're right. My husband and I have been in the healthcare industry for a while. Both my parents are doctors. My dad's a lung doctor. My brothers are doctors. And so, we've always signed up to do all the scans, all the genetic testing, all the genome sequencing because we find it interesting. And it was a random scan that I did that ultimately found my lung cancer.

I was shocked because, you're right, I've never puffed a cigarette. I've never been around secondhand smoke. And oftentimes, we think that's who gets lung cancer, smokers, and it's not. They're finding these young, healthy women are getting lung cancer and dying from it more often than breast and ovarian and colon cancer combined. And we're not screening for it, and if we catch it in stage one, we can beat it.

BROWN: Yes. And you had to really be your own advocate, right? When the scan showed that there was something going on, but you really had to be your own investigator.

BOEHLER: You're right. I actually had a scan done in New York, and they told me it was a minor finding and not to worry since I was a big runner and a never smoker. I redid the scan in Tennessee. I was told the same thing, but it had grown over a two-month period. And ultimately, I gave the scan and showed it to my father and to a doctor friend of mine at Vanderbilt, and they called me and did a third scan.

[11:45:00]

I ran six miles that morning, laid in the machine for just a minute of a low-dose CT, and came out, and the pulmonologist looked at me and said, you have lung cancer, which of course, I couldn't believe it. I kept saying, wrong person, wrong scan. My hair is sweaty. I just ran six miles.

BROWN: That's pretty crazy, right? But the reality is more and more women like you are being diagnosed with lung cancer. The Lung Cancer Research Foundation estimates that more than 118,000 women will be diagnosed this year alone with nearly 62,000 dying from the disease.

From all the research you've done and what you experience as a patient yourself, does the medical field fully understand why women are so susceptible to this?

BOEHLER: You know what, they don't, and we need to figure it out. They have no idea why I or others are getting it, but what we've realized is the guidelines to just get that low-dose CT to see if we have lung cancer, since we don't feel it until it's spread throughout our body, is only for people over the age of 50 who've smoked a pack a day for 20 years, and that's what we need to change. We need to check people for lung cancer just like we check people for breast cancer and colon cancer, and that's what I set out on my mission to do.

What I realized was I was not unique in my diagnosis because it's killing so many people, but I was lucky that I found it in stage one, and that's part of why I wrote my book, "One Scan Saved My Life," because it did, and why I started my foundation, Cancer Doesn't Care, because we need to be paying for people to get this scan. It shouldn't only for -- be for people who can afford it.

BROWN: Very quickly, when should women start to get it, in your view?

BOEHLER: I think we should get a baseline at 40. Our lungs have nodules like our skin has freckles, and we need to understand how they change and grow, not just that they're there. And so, I would love to see a baseline, the A.I. we have now. We can tell people come back in a year, come back in six years, and we can have that part of our scan, part of our skin checks, part of our mammograms and colonoscopies.

BROWN: All right. Shira Kupperman Boehler, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story.

BOEHLER: Thank you, Pam.

BROWN: Wolf.

BLITZER: Very important interview indeed. Also happening now, a police officer is being hailed as a hero after saving a mother and two children from a burning home. New video shows Officer Eli Rogers first on the scene at a house fire in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Now, watch from his perspective as he goes inside the home. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER ELI ROGERS, CHATTANOOGA POLICE DEPARTMENT: Hey, come here, come here. You're OK. Come on, get up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Officer Eli Rogers is joining us now on the phone. Eli, talks us -- walk us through this moment. What were you thinking?

ROGERS: Well, there wasn't much time to really start thinking. One of the first things I heard once I got on scene was that there were still people inside the apartment, so I just knew I had to either get in there or they had to get out, and it was going to need to happen one way or another, and that was the main thing running through my head.

BLITZER: Did your training prepare you for a scenario like this?

ROGERS: Well, as a police officer, we're not typically trained to deal with fires, but I drug a lot of fire hoses in the academy, so I want to think that probably prepared me at least a little bit.

BROWN: Yes, if you would, just bring us there. I mean, you're outside the house at first. It's burning. You're hearing people are inside, and you're probably hearing the cries from children. What was that like for you just emotionally?

ROGERS: I think my mind was put to action mostly at the time and just knew that once the door was open and I could see them, but they weren't coming out, I knew I had to go in and get them out.

BROWN: And so, you got in, and there was a mother and her two children there at the home. What was their reaction in that moment, and do you know anything about how they're doing right now?

ROGERS: I can't speak for how they were feeling. I just distinctly remember the kids coughing from the smoke inhalation, and seeing how young they were, I knew they weren't going to be able to act on their own, so I had to jump in and do what I can. I know the Red Cross has reached out to the family and been able to assist them, and there's a GoFundMe for them going around, but I haven't been able to speak with them personally.

BLITZER: If you were able to speak with them in the next day or two or three, what would you say?

ROGERS: I'd just let them know I'm thankful that everybody made it out OK and nobody got hurt.

BLITZER: And we're thankful to you for your heroic work. We really appreciate it. Eli Rogers, thanks very much for what you did. Thanks very much for joining us.

BROWN: Yes. It's really -- pretty amazing. Putting himself in harm's way to save the family, and just to see that video and those little kids inside with the house burning.

BLITZER: That's courageous. You run into a burning home. You don't know if you're going to be able to get out.

[11:55:00]

BROWN: No, I know, and he got out safely and got the family out. It's incredible.

BLITZER: And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us here in the Situation Room this morning.

BROWN: Inside Politics with our friend and Colleague Dana Bash starts after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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