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Marco Rubio Speaks Out; CNN Obtains DNC Autopsy of 2024 Election Loss; Tensions Between U.S. and Israel?; NBA Playoffs Heat Up. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired May 21, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:02]

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Thunder end up winning 122-113 to even the series.

But game two was rough for injuries for both teams. Jalen Williams, he exited in the first quarter, re-aggravated his hamstring injury. Then the Spurs rookie sensation, Dylan Harper, he left in the third quarter. He also hurt a hamstring. Both of those players, guys, their status going to be up in the air for game three of that series tomorrow.

Tonight, you have got game two between the Knicks and the Cavs. We will see what the Knicks have for an encore after that incredible 22- point comeback at Madison Square Garden. You know it's going to be rocking there once again.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: I will be watching.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I know you will be.

Andy Scholes, thank you so much.

SCHOLES: All right.

BLITZER: And the next hour of THE SITUATION ROOM starts right down.

BROWN: Happening now, breaking news: President Trump meeting with his EPA chief in the Oval Office. Details on their big announcement.

BLITZER: Plus, a one-on-one with the Florida Republican Congressman Byron Donalds. We will ask him about his party's strategy heading into the midterms, and we will get his take on the indictment of Cuba's Raul Castro.

We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown. And you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: And we begin with the breaking news. At any moment now, President Trump will hold an Oval Office event aimed at providing much-needed relief for inflation-weary Americans. BROWN: The White House says that it will push for lower grocery

prices by rolling back Biden era restrictions on the refrigerants used in supermarkets. That includes refrigerators, freezers, and air conditioning systems -- systems, we should say. The hope is that the stores will pass along those savings to shoppers.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House for us.

So, Alayna, what more can you tell us about this announcement and how it could impact an everyday American?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, as you mentioned, this is designed to roll back these Biden era regulations on refrigerants.

And the White House is arguing that this move is going to help lower grocery prices, although I should be clear up front here. I had a long chat with our business reporters here at CNN, who said this is actually unlikely to have a huge impact for consumers when it comes to prices at the supermarket.

Let me get into this announcement. The president is going to be joined by the EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, as well as executives from a number of major grocery trains. That includes Kroger, Piggly Wiggly, Food Fresh, Fairway.

The list goes on. And they're expected to extend the deadlines for supermarkets and businesses to phase out something that is called hydrofluorocarbons, that they're considered essentially harmful planet-warming pollutants that are typically used in a lot of refrigerators and conditioners.

So this is going to essentially allow them as well to keep buying some of these different refrigerators and use old refrigerators and old A.C. units, rather than having to comply with those restrictions that were implemented again during the Biden administration.

Now, I think what's important to notice is, this obviously comes at a time when we know that the administration has been working very hard to try and do anything that can combat some of the inflation and affordability issues we are seeing in the country right now, particularly with the impact of the Iran war driving prices higher as they look ahead to the November midterm election.

So stay tuned for this announcement. It should happen in the Oval Office shortly, Wolf and Pam.

BROWN: All right, we will. Alayna Treene, thank you so much.

And new this morning, some strain is showing in the U.S.-Israel relationship over the Iran war. Things got pretty tense between President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call earlier this week. A U.S. official told CNN the two leaders argued about how to proceed in the conflict.

The conversation followed Trump's decision not to launch new strikes on Iran and to leave more time for talks. Sources are also telling CNN that, since the April cease-fire, Iran has been using that time to rebuild some of its military equipment at a much faster pace than first thought.

BLITZER: All right, we got lots to unpack right now.

I want to go to CNN's Jeremy Diamond, who is joining us live from Tel Aviv.

Jeremy, so what are your sources there in Israel saying about this rather tense call? And has the new U.S. intelligence assessment changed anything for Israel?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, when President Trump and the Israeli prime minister spoke on Sunday, President Trump indicated that he was likely going to renew the war against Iran this week.

But two days later, on Tuesday night, when they next spoke, there was an about-face from President Trump, and that led to a tense conversation between these two leaders. The Israeli prime minister told President Trump, according to our sources, that delaying attacks, the planned attacks against Iran, was a mistake. He urged him to instead move forward with those attacks and to resume military action against Iran.

[11:05:00]

One Israeli source told me that there was a strong desire, that there is still a strong desire in the upper echelons of the Israeli government to renew the war against Iran and significant concern and frustration about the fact that President Trump is giving more time to diplomacy.

And that's largely because Israeli officials view the diplomacy that has been taking place over the last few weeks as foot-dragging from Iran, that it's giving them more time, as this intelligence report suggests, to reconstitute their military capabilities that they can then use against not only Israel, but also the Gulf countries, where the United States has several military bases.

There is also concern in the Israeli government that President Trump could potentially make a bad deal with Iran, one that doesn't achieve all of Israel's objectives in this war. And we have seen, of course, since this cease-fire came into effect, the extent to which U.S. and Israeli interests may diverge in this war, as Prime Minister Netanyahu has repeatedly made clear that the objectives in this war have not been reached.

And privately, at least, he has urged President Trump to resume military action against Iran. But it is quite clear that, from President Trump's perspective, he is in the driver's seat. Just yesterday, he said that Netanyahu will -- quote -- "do whatever I want him to do."

That's certainly not going to be the way that Netanyahu is going to characterize the relationship. But Netanyahu has been quite frank that President Trump is in the driver's seat here, and ultimately Israel needs the United States in order to resume this war against Iran, in terms of refueling capabilities and a variety of other capabilities that the U.S. can potentially bring to bear.

But this new U.S. intelligence report certainly continuing to raise alarm here in Israel about the extent to which Iran is rebuilding its capabilities and, should there be a resumption of the war, what that could mean for the next phase of this conflict -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, a tense situation indeed.

Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Wolf, still ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM, CNN has obtained the long-private document about what went wrong for Democrats in 2024. The man who helped get Barack Obama elected president will join us to talk about it.

BLITZER: Plus, a judge tosses the case against a former school official after prosecutors accused her of failing to prevent a 6-year- old, a 6-year-old, from shooting a teacher. We have new details just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:12:10]

BLITZER: The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is at the airport in Miami. He's getting ready to fly to Sweden for official government business.

But he's speaking to reporters. And he opened up with some questions about Ebola and how that potentially, God forbid, could impact the United States. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: ... Ebola. You told us two days ago when you stopped by the bullpen that the WHO was a little late, were your words, I think, in identifying this strain.

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes.

QUESTION: The WHO chief has now responded. He said it might be because you don't understand the global health policy system.

RUBIO: Yes.

QUESTION: Do you have a response to that?

RUBIO: Well, the World Health Organization has, unfortunately, not done well around the world. I think they failed miserably during COVID. They covered for China. And that's how we're getting out of it.

That said, we're going to work with anybody who wants to fix that problem. Our number one objective on Ebola, before anything else -- and we think it's terrible what's happening there to the people. We have been very involved with DRC on the peace deal with Rwanda and so forth.

But our number one thing has to be, we can't have it affect the United States. We can't have Ebola cases coming here. So, you saw we're now not allowing people to come in. In fact, I think we had a flight last night headed to Detroit that was diverted, because we have to protect the American people.

So, objective number one is to make sure that Ebola never reaches the United States. Objective number two is do what we can to help the people of DRC and neighboring countries, so it doesn't spread. And I think we're up to 600 confirmed cases or probably more.

We will learn more about it. We're providing -- I think we have offered to fund the first 50 clinics that pop up and are ready to step forward. So I wish we would have gotten started on this two weeks ago, that the alert had gone out sooner.

I also recognize that this -- the outbreak began in a war-torn country in a very rural area that perhaps doesn't have some of the support networks that some of the other places have. But, again I want to repeat to everybody, we care about Ebola. We don't want anyone dying or being affected by Ebola.

But our number one priority will always be making sure it doesn't come to the United States. That's our number one obligation.

Go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: On NATO, Mr. Secretary...

RUBIO: On what?

QUESTION: On NATO.

RUBIO: NATO, OK.

QUESTION: There are some reports that the U.S. is going to say this week that it will reduce its contribution to the NATO force model, to shrink the number of forces available...

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: Yes, well, that wouldn't -- first of all, any changes to our posture in NATO would not be for me to announce. That's something that the president, the Department of War would do.

This is a foreign ministers meeting. We will talk about some of those issues. I don't think anyone is shocked to know that the United States and the president, in particular, is very disappointed at NATO right now and what it has meant. Understand that I have been a strong supporter of NATO my entire

career. I have defended it. I believe it's important. I believed it's important. But the number one thing I used to tell people was, the reason why NATO is good for America -- because that's the question.

Any time you join anything, you have -- the number one answer has to be, why is this good for America? The reason why NATO is good for America -- I know why NATO is good for Europe. But why is NATO good for America? Because it gives us bases in the region that allow us to project power during a contingency in the Middle East or somewhere else.

[11:15:05]

So, when that is the key rationale for why you're in NATO, and then you have countries like Spain denying us the use of these bases, well, then why are you in NATO? That's a very fair question.

Now, in fairness, other questions -- other countries in NATO have been very helpful. But we need to discuss that. That needs to be addressed, and that's what I hope to address and to set the table for the leaders meeting, which will be happening in Turkey, I think next month, if I'm not mistaken, or in July.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Does the administration still believe that your NATO allies are cowards?

RUBIO: That what?

QUESTION: Does the administration still believe that your NATO allies are cowards?

RUBIO: Well, I -- the president's been -- he's been very disappointed.

Understand that there are many countries in NATO that agree with us that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon, that Iran is a threat to the world. So, the president said, fine, I'm going to do something about it. He's not asking them to commit troops. He's not asking them to send their fighter jets in.

But they refuse to do anything. That -- and I -- so I think the president looks at that and says, hold on a second. If all these countries around the world agree with us that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon, that this regime is a threat to world peace and security that already have missiles that can reach Europe -- they don't have missiles that can reach America yet, but they have missiles that can reach Europe.

We're -- actually stepped forward and do something about it, and everyone goes into hiding. Yes, I think he -- we're very upset about that. The president has made that very clear.

(CROSSTALK) QUESTION: What can the U.S. do for India? India has been deeply affected by the energy supply, the shutting of the Strait of Hormuz. Can the U.S. provide more energy itself?

RUBIO: Yes.

QUESTION: Or what else can the U.S. do with that relationship?

RUBIO: Well, we want to sell them as much energy as they will buy.

And, obviously, you have seen -- I think we're at historic levels of U.S. production and U.S. exports. We want to be able to do more. We were already in talks with them to do more. We want this to be a bigger part of their portfolio.

We also think there's opportunities with Venezuelan oil. In fact, it's my understanding that the interim president of Venezuela will be traveling to India next week as well. So there's opportunities. There's a lot to work on with India. They're a great ally, a great partner. We do a lot of good work with them.

And so this is an important trip. I'm glad we're able to do it, because I think there will be a lot for us to talk about. And we will also meet with the Quad there, which is important, something -- I think my first meeting as secretary of state was with the Quad.

So I believe, like, I went, I got sworn in, I did the thing in the lobby, and then I went right upstairs and that was my first meeting. And I'm glad we're able to do it now in India. And we're going to do one later in the year as well.

All right, let's...

QUESTION: Can I just come back -- can I come back to Iran finally, just the latest on the negotiations?

Iranian state media suggesting that the U.S. proposals close some of the gaps or is potentially closing gaps. Do you...

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: Yes. Well, I don't want to get ahead of it to make -- here's -- here's -- I think we have made some progress, but, obviously, we're dealing with a system that itself is a little fractured, so -- the Iranian system.

And so -- but, that said, there will be a couple visits. I understand, I believe the Pakistanis will be traveling to Tehran today, so, hopefully, that will advance this further. The president's preference is to do a good deal. That's his preference. It's always been his preference.

If we can get a good deal done, that would be great. I'm not here to tell you that it's going to happen for sure, but I'm here to tell you that we're going to do everything we can to see if we can get one. But if we can't get a good deal, the president's been clear he has other options.

I'm not going to elaborate on what those are, but everybody knows what those are. But his preference is always a deal. His preference is always an agreement. His preference is always diplomacy. So, let's see if we can get there. There are some good signs, but we understand -- I don't want to be overly optimistic as well. So let's see what happens over the next few days.

QUESTION: And how do you intend to get Raul Castro to the United States?

RUBIO: Well, that was a -- a grand jury in South Florida returned an indictment on Raul Castro. It has nothing to do with us. It's the grand jury. The evidence is clear. He admits to it.

Raul Castro openly admits and brags about he shot down civilian -- gave the order to shoot down civilian airplanes. And...

QUESTION: How will you get him here?

RUBIO: Well, I'm not going to talk about how we're going to get him here, if we were trying to get him here. Why would I say to the media what our plans are about that?

I know you have to ask, but why would I answer that? The bottom line, there's a lot -- he's -- at that point, he becomes a fugitive of American justice. And we will -- if there's an announcement on a possibility, we will tell you -- we will tell you afterwards, not before.

OK, a couple more and I got to get on. Let's go.

QUESTION: Do you still have conversations with Raul Castro's grandson or (OFF-MIKE)

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: Look, we remain in -- here's the problem we have. We will engage with the Cubans. We have. Our ambassadors met with them recently. The CIA director was down there a few weeks ago. There's some State Department communications that occur.

I just don't see a lot of -- at the end of the day, they got to make a decision. Their system doesn't work, right? Their economic system does not work. It's broken. And you can't fix it with the current political system that's in place. They just don't comprehend how to do it.

And it's a failed state. Like, their economy and the model they're trying to follow in Cuba doesn't resemble what anyone is doing anywhere in the world. I mean, there are other ways to do it that can provide the people of Cuba prosperity and opportunity.

And it's what I said in the video to them the other day. You look at Cuba and the Bahamas and Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, here in Florida. Cuba's surrounded by places where people have the right to do things like own a business, work for themselves, and be able to vote, and for the leaders that govern them and/or replace them.

[11:20:00]

So, if that's possible all around Cuba, why is it impossible -- why is that not possible inside of Cuba? And, right now, there just doesn't seem to be people over there in charge of the regime who are in any way open to any of those changes.

And the things they talk about economically are cosmetic in nature. They're not real, because that's what they have gotten used to all these years, is just buying time and waiting us out. They're not going to be able to wait us out or buy time. We're very serious. We're very focused.

As I told you a moment ago in the context of Iran, the president's preference is always a negotiated agreement that's peaceful. That's always our preference. That remains our preference with Cuba. I'm just being honest with you. The likelihood of that happening, given who we're dealing with right now is not high.

But if they have a change of heart, we're here. And, in the meantime, we will keep doing what we need to do.

QUESTION: Secretary, it sounds a lot like nation-building, and the administration doesn't believe in using force for nation-building.

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: No, it's not nation-building. It's not nation-building. It's -- we are addressing something that's directly related to the national security of the United States.

We are involved in places all over the world. You're asking me about Ebola. Important, but Ebola is in Africa. Cuba is 90 miles from our shores. So, if you have a systemic meltdown in that country, which is where they're headed -- their power plants, by the way, the reason why their power plants break down, they have been having blackouts for years.

They had major blackouts last year, and they were still getting free Venezuelan oil. They haven't spent a penny in fixing their energy production, their electrical grid. They don't spend any money on that stuff. They pocket. They have a private military company named GAESA who's sitting on $18 billion of assets, and not a penny of that transfers over to the state budget.

Not a penny of that goes over to help the people of Cuba, not one cent. So, even if they had all the diesel in the world, they still wouldn't be able to generate energy, because they have stolen the money and haven't invested in their energy infrastructure.

So you're heading for a failed state. That's what you have now. But it's 90 miles from our shores. So, we will be impacted by the migratory crisis, by any violence and instability that happens there. It's a direct -- it directly implicates the United States' national interest. So the future of Cuba belongs to the people of Cuba, in terms of how they're governed, what the system looks like and so forth. But the national security threat, that's 100 percent something we're going to focus on, because that's about America.

All right, last one, guys. Come on.

QUESTION: The likelihood of -- do you see the likelihood of the use of U.S. force to achieve a change in the Cuban political system as growing?

RUBIO: Our -- our preference in Cuba and anywhere in the world is a negotiated diplomatic settlement, OK? And that's what I would say to you.

The president always has the option to do whatever it takes to support and protect the national interest and national security of the United States. He has the option to do that if there's a threat to the national security of the United States. And he has shown his willingness to do that when he identifies such a threat.

That said, our preference is always a diplomatic solution, always, and a negotiated agreement. That's always our preference. But to answer your question, if there's a threat to the national security of the United States, the president not just has the right; he has the obligation to address that national security threat.

All right, let's go. You guys ready? All right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right, that was Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He is heading to Sweden.

And you just heard him there answer questions from reporters amid these questions of whether the administration is setting the stage, the pretext for military action in Cuba. And you heard him there defending the indictment of Raul Castro.

BLITZER: Yes, and he made up other news as well. Like, President Trump, he was critical of several of the NATO allies because they have been refusing to get directly involved in helping the U.S. deal with Iran.

As far as Iran is concerned, he said they are making now what he called -- quote -- "some progress." But he said it's not a done deal by any means. All options remain on the table. The preference, he said, for Iran is to make a good deal with Iran and move on. And, as you correctly point out, he spoke at length about what's going on with Cuba and the indictment of Raul Castro.

BROWN: Yes, he kept emphasizing that the president wants to take a diplomatic path, but he also said it's unlikely, given who the leadership is in Cuba. So we shall see on that front. BLITZER: See what happens on all those fronts. Important information.

There's other breaking news we're following right now. After months of delaying its release, even an outright refusal to do so, a version of the Democratic National Committee's long awaited autopsy on the 2024 election is finally out.

BROWN: The closely guarded document obtained exclusively by CNN contains an array of reasons for how and why Democrats lost the White House a second time to Donald Trump.

So, with us now is CNN chief political analyst and former senior adviser to President Obama David Axelrod.

David, great to see you, as always.

So let's delve into what's inside this report, the version released to CNN, which, we should note, isn't complete. It says that Democrats have vacillated between stagnation and retrogression since Obama's big win back in 2008.

It says the "losses are a direct result of missed opportunities to invest in states, counties, local parties and candidates, and that Democratic candidates have proven incapable of projecting strength, unity and leadership and voters have drifted away" -- end quote.

[11:25:04]

Do you agree with that?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, let me say I lived by this principle during my 25 years as a political strategist. You're never as smart as you look when you win and you're never as dumb as you look when you lose, OK?

So, let's start with that premise. The second is that autopsy reports are of limited use, because we live in a dynamic political environment and things change very rapidly and there are unique circumstances surrounding every election.

And the third is, this is just -- the Democratic National Committee delaying the release of a report only creates more interest in it. And they created a month's (AUDIO GAP) controversy, rather than just releasing what I think is -- has some useful points and is in many ways a flawed report.

Here's what I do believe. They skipped the largest factor surrounding the '24 election, which was that (AUDIO GAP) was in a very difficult position, because Joe Biden put her there by hanging in as long as he did, instead of handing (AUDIO GAP) he said that he would and allowing for a Democratic primary.

The country wanted to fire the administration. They were angry about inflation, about the border. Trump seized on those issues. And she was the number two-person in that administration. So, even if she were a flawless candidate, which she wasn't, and even if they ran a flawless campaign (AUDIO GAP) I'm not sure the outcome would have been different.

They make a couple of points in that report. (AUDIO GAP) the whole report. I have read summaries of the report. But the Democratic Party can't survive as a party of blue -- blue metropolitan islands on an ocean of red.

Donald Trump carried close to 90 percent of the (AUDIO GAP) in this country. And Republicans tend to do that. And the party -- this report says the party has walked away from rural communities (AUDIO GAP) town communities.

And I think there's something -- there's something to that. And the second is, when you are running nationally, address yourself to those issues of concern that apply to the largest number of people. Don't try and (AUDIO GAP) by microtargeting various identity groups and communities in the country.

The issue of the economy, inflation obviously was big then. It's big now. But the survivability of middle -- of the middle class in this country is a major and sustaining -- sustained issue. And, certainly, the party that fashions (AUDIO GAP) party of working people ought to focus on that if it's going to have success.

So I think, in that sense (AUDIO GAP) right. But, listen, autopsies, the Republican Party had one in 2013, and it said the party ought to moderate and build its relationship with different groups of voters. Donald Trump came along, and he completely upended that (AUDIO GAP) different strategy.

BLITZER: Yes.

AXELROD: And Republicans won. So I don't know what this will yield.

BLITZER: The chair, David, of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, he's already come under a lot of fire for first promising to release this report, but then later opting not to do so.

AXELROD: Yes.

BLITZER: Martin was grilled by podcast host Jon Favreau earlier this month on a podcast. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON FAVREAU, HOST, "POD SAVE AMERICA": You criticized the DNC's refusal to release their 2016 autopsy as exactly what not to do.

You said -- quote -- "Was there any utility in doing that?" and then promised your 2024 autopsy would be different. Your exact quote was "Of course it will be released."

Why did you change your mind on that?

KEN MARTIN, CHAIRMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Well, look, I mean, what I said all along, even when I ran for this position, is that we were going to focus on the things that will help us win the upcoming election, right, making sure that we learn the right lessons that could help inform our victories.

And that's what we have done. We said this when we sent out the press release back in November, saying we weren't going to release the report. We were going to actually keep our focus on those lessons. And we released those lessons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: They released the report after CNN obtained it. I just want to make that point.

Seeing his waffling on this issue, David, do you think Ken Martin should stay on as -- in his role as the Democratic National Committee chair?

AXELROD: That's really not for me to say as a -- in my current incarnation as an analyst on CNN.