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The Situation Room

Lawmakers Make Bipartisan Push for Urgent Hearings on A.I.; News Helicopter Crashes in Los Angeles, Three People Killed; Confirmation Hearing Underway for Trump Surgeon General Pick. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 16, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, fiery and deadly crash. A Los Angeles news helicopter goes down, killing three people, including a reporter and a veteran pilot. What we're learning about the crash.

Plus, pushing for more A.I. regulations. Ashley Judd is joining politicians and tech leaders and calling for more guardrails, and she'll be right here in The Situation Room.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And growing Republican pushback. Why more and more of them are now criticizing the president and the war with Iran. We'll speak to one of them Congresswoman Nancy Mace. That's ahead.

And later, pitching religion. Why some Democratic candidates are now leaning into their faith on the campaign trail, despite polls showing Democratic voters are split on whether religion is a positive influence. And a former minister and chaplain now running for Congress will join us. That's coming up as well.

Welcome to 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.

Happening now, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is now calling for urgent meetings on artificial intelligence and its potential threat to humanity. This morning, members of Congress are sounding the alarm on A.I.'s rapid development and the need for regulations to slow down the industry.

And here's a sign of how dire they view the A.I. threat. They want these additional meetings scheduled even if they keep lawmakers off the campaign trail before the all-important midterm elections in November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LORI TRAHAN (D-MA): Tomorrow, the House is scheduled to leave town until after the midterms. That's 53 days. That's how long we'll be gone. 53 days before Congress can take up legislation to put guardrails on A.I. Nothing, in the meantime, to address the serious risks detailed by Jacob Cox and, and other safety researchers like him. Nothing to mandate the placement of independent verifiers inside frontier labs to evaluate the dangers their models pose, and nothing to make sure that when a model poses an imminent risk, the federal government has a clear, nonpartisan, court-backed process for halting its release.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Leading tech CEOs are also calling to slow down A.I.'s development, but believe adequate safeguards can be implemented to reduce the risks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM ALTMAN, CEO, OPENAI: The world is right to be afraid of this.

I am very confident in our company's ability, our industry's ability, to do this safely, to make sure that we keep alignment and safety and monitoring way ahead of capabilities to slow down or stop if we get to a point where we can't. But I'm disappointed by how it's been framed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, this comes after two political polar opposites, Senator Bernie Sanders and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, united at the so-called Pro-Human Summit here in Washington to call for stronger government oversight of A.I. Actor and activist Ashley Judd also spoke at the event to share her concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEY JUDD, ACTOR, ACTIVIST: This enormous opportunity for individual participation.

So, vote for those who are treating others as well as you with dignity. And so the individual does have incredible agency and choice in all of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And Ashley is here with us in the Situation Room, and I should also note a fellow Kentuckian as well. Always great to have fellow Kentuckian here.

JUDD: Thank you.

BROWN: So, Ashley, you have traveled the world advocating for women's rights, women's health, and, and ending sexual violence. Why was it so important for you to be a part of yesterday's event on the risks posed by A.I. and what those risks are for women in particular?

JUDD: Crime against women is the most frequently committed crime on a daily basis in the United States. And to me, A.I. is just an evolution of the expression of preexisting sex inequality, which is often also racialized. So, for example, you had Betamax. We're old enough to remember Betamax, and then VHS, and then cable, and then pay-per-view. Now, we have pornography on the internet and virtually. But what it is doing is only accelerating and amplifying the torture of the female body, whether it's a real woman and a real man, and she is a real woman, and she's really suffering, and, no, she doesn't like it, at sexualized humiliation and dominance, or whether it's being done virtually, it has the same effect on men's neurobiology and physiology, and it really harms real women.

[10:05:03]

And so I'm so grateful for those who are looking at legislation, and Gail Dines, who's talking about a lot of guardrails at Culture Reframed, but I'm looking at the inequality that was already baked in, that it's just accelerating and is totally normalized.

BROWN: So, you spoke about how A.I. has helped spread sexual abuse and disinformation. What do you see as the biggest danger in this moment with A.I.?

JUDD: It's -- you know, it is the normalization. So, sexual abuse, it happens in the home, right? We women know our perpetrators. And this idea that there's some individual monster who's an exception or the bad apple is part of the male protection racket, where I need the protection of some men to help keep me safe from other men who are violent.

And what A.I. does is suppress the fundamental conversation that maybe not all men are violent, but most men are silent about other men's violence. And it's just so ubiquitous and pervasive, like 42 million -- 42 billion men visit Pornhub every year. That's a lot of looking at sexualized violence against women.

And so A.I. is just continuing to deaden the nervous systems and empathy of men while normalizing the humiliation and torture of girls and women. And we know that 92 percent of all scenes of pornography, including on A.I., include violence against women. And I don't mean the movies or the content from start to finish, each individual scene, cursing, spitting, slapping.

And, you know, it's important, like I'm in people's living rooms and I'm talking about violence, which in a way replicates violence. This is very difficult content, and I hope that I watch it so that other people don't have to, so I can be credible and know the material. But this is so normalized, right?

And so the people who are working on the guardrails around A.I., that's how they're pulling us forward, and what I'm doing is sticking together with my sisters in community, like stop beating our bodies, stop spitting on us, stop cursing on us and calling it entertainment. It is -- and in the political scene, it would totally be torture, right? But we just call it pornography, and that's a false First Amendment protection, whether it's in person or virtually.

BROWN: I want to go to the sound from independent Senator Bernie Sanders and also former Trump White House adviser. Strange bedfellows, right? Normally, they would not be in the same room, but they are --

JUDD: And it was a hoot to watch them all backstage, by the way.

BROWN: Was it? What was it like?

JUDD: Well, of course, Mr. Bannon, when I was going to run against McConnell, did this silly video of me like I was an airhead with all this nonsense coming out of my head, and I'm like, you all come take my class at Harvard. You might learn something, you know? They're just so self-important. They're so self-important.

BROWN: So, you talked to Steve Bannon. You had --

JUDD: Oh, I heckled him.

BROWN: Oh, okay. You heckled him.

JUDD: I couldn't get anywhere near him. We're all hanging out all day like a bunch of equals, so many different people, and they were just like God, get over yourselves.

BROWN: All right. So let's take a listen to what some of them said.

JUDD: All a bunch of humans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): If the lives of every man, woman, and child are going to be fundamentally changed by this technology, then the people of this country must make the decisions about AI and not just a handful of oligarchs.

STEVE BANNON, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: We're not doomers. We're Americans. We're optimistic. We think this could be a great technology, but we're not going to give these guys carte blanche.

We need time. And this is not legislation. This is going to have to be executive action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, you're nodding your head during that. What do you think about what they said?

JUDD: I agree with them.

BROWN: Yes.

JUDD: I agree with them, and it's also taking a look at male demand. Like what is the content? It's male demand for sexualized violence that is the content. And so I want to make sure that we continue to discuss masculinity and healing the male psyche as part of the conversation.

I think they're totally right, but I would also add to the senator, women's and children's lives are changed every day by male sexualized violence, and this is just an acceleration and amplification of it.

BROWN: So -- but they view -- they vary on terms of how to regulate A.I., right?

JUDD: It's buckshot, right? It's going to take everything.

BROWN: Yes.

JUDD: It's going to take men getting their act together and to stop insisting on entitlement to female bodies, which creates female compliance and obligation. It's going to take regulation. It's going to take guardrails. We can look to what they're doing in the E.U. It's going to take all kinds of stuff, including us women coming together in solidarity and telling our stories ala Gloria Steinem in consciousness-raising circles, and like this is the up with which I will no longer put.

BROWN: I'm going to go to this post from President Trump where he said on social media, the claim that A.I. is going to take over the world is a hoax, just like global warming. What is your reaction?

JUDD: It's so silly. There's nothing to say. It's silly to engage with nonsense. And that's a kind of crazy-making to try to make sense out of something that doesn't make sense.

BROWN: All right. Anything else you want to add?

JUDD: Go Cats.

BROWN: Go Cats. I like that.

JUDD: First exhibition game in the 16th.

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BROWN: You're the biggest Wildcat fan right here. I remember growing up in Kentucky, we were always at the games cheering.

JUDD: It's so important to have joy, right?

BROWN: We have to have outlets, right?

JUDD: And joy is happiness with backbone. It's not dependent on circumstances. We live in a long redeemed, spirit, and have me back when you're having the conversations about religion and spirituality. I'd like that.

BROWN: We will, because you're having a podcast soon on that.

BLITZER: Two Kentucky grads.

BROWN: And actually, that's right. And I actually think just on that note, the thing that separates us from A.I. right now is joy and emotion that we have that these A.I. bots don't.

JUDD: A conscience. BROWN: A conscience.

JUDD: Empathy.

BROWN: Yes.

JUDD: Compassion. The indefatigable human spirit that longs for wholeness, connection, and belonging.

BROWN: All right. Ashley Judd, thank you so much.

JUDD: Thank you both.

BLITZER: Excellent interview.

JUDD: Nice to see you.

BLITZER: Thank you very much from me as well. And still ahead, three people are dead after a news helicopter crash in Los Angeles. What we're now learning about the victims and the investigation.

JUDD: And then later, a new legal notice whom Charlie Kirk's family is now blaming for his death. Details ahead in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: Happening now, federal investigators are now trying to determine why a news helicopter crashed last night in a Los Angeles suburb. Three people were killed and at least two others injured.

BROWN: In audio obtained by CNN, other pilots can be heard trying to figure out which news helicopter went down.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And TV5 and 9 or Police 10, if you could confirm that was TV 4, just advise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: TV 4 is not up here with us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry, say that again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: TV 4 is not up here with us. We believe it's TV4 that went down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So sad. CNN's Pete Muntean has the latest.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, here's what we know right now about what LA Mayor Karen Bass called a heartbreaking night for Angelinos. This helicopter from KNBC was covering a fatal collision with an SUV and a city bus, and witnesses nearby said it was clear that something was wrong with the helicopter as it came crashing down not far away from that scene.

The helicopter was destroyed, to the point that LAFD firefighters said they could not make out the tail number of the helicopter. NBC4 identified the two people killed on board as reporter Eliana Moreno and pilot George Marciniw, both employees of contract helicopter operator, Angel City Air.

Moreno had been reporting over Southern California since about 2010. She and Marciniw had flown together since 2023. A third person on the ground was also killed.

Now, the flight tracking shows this helicopter departed from Van Nuys Airport, was airborne for about an hour and 15 minutes, mostly orbiting around the scene at a slow air speed. This was over a very populated area, so not a lot of clear areas to put down in case there was a problem.

I want you to watch this video from onboard the helicopter now. We'll warn you, it is difficult to watch, but it will contain some major clues for investigators, and I want you to pay close attention to the sounds in the background as well. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pull. Can you pull? You can't pull up?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: The sound's very telling there. You could hear the turbine engine begin to roll back, and then a horn sounding in the cockpit. That's the aural warning for low main rotor RPM, a critical problem, especially in a single engine helicopter like this. If the main rotor is not spinning fast enough, then there's not enough lift to keep the helicopter in the air.

Usually, pilots follow a procedure to make a controlled emergency descent. It's called an autorotation in helicopters. NTSB investigators will, of course, want to look at that video. They'll also want to look at the maintenance history of the helicopter. These are very complex machines, and at low altitude, there's not much margin for error. Wolf, Pamela?

BLITZER: Our deepest condolences to their families. May they rest in peace, and may their memories be a blessing. Pete Muntean, thank you very, very much.

BROWN: Yes. Well, coming up here in the Situation Room, in the hot seat, President Trump's latest surgeon general pick is testifying at her confirmation hearing. We'll break down her credentials and the criticism she's already facing.

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BROWN: Happening now, another death in a growing outbreak. Pennsylvania reports its fourth measles death this year. State officials say an unvaccinated teen died of complications from the virus.

The U.S. hasn't had this many measles deaths in one year since 1992, but we should note the CDC hasn't counted any this year. The agency says there isn't enough information to make the connection, and that has sparked a clash between state and federal officials about how measles deaths are counted.

And it comes as President Trump's third pick for surgeon general, a radiologist and popular health influencer, faces senators on Capitol Hill.

CNN Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell is keeping an eye on Dr. Nicole Saphier's confirmation hearing. So, Meg, what's standing out so far?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam, already the measles news has been front and center in the Senate hearing with Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican doctor who chairs this committee, saying that this is a, quote, terrible legacy for the Trump administration, having these four deaths, the most we've seen since 1992 in one year in this country.

So, now we are just starting to hear from Dr. Saphier, who, as you noted has been a very public messenger about health. She was a former Fox News medical contributor. She's a radiologist, a breast cancer specialist and she appeared on Fox, both on T.V. and podcasts, a lot over the previous several years.

And she shared some of her views, some of which have been divergent, particularly with RFK Jr., around vaccinations. Here is how she responded to Brian Kilmeade when he asked her about some comments from the former CDC director and declining vaccination rates. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. NICOLE SAPHIER, SURGEON GENERAL NOMINEE: We're already seeing it play out with measles. We're already seeing it with whooping cough. We have a rise in cases throughout the country, and that's because of declining vaccination rates. I think that there is a legitimate conversation to be had about the current childhood vaccine recommendation schedule, specifically birth doses of hepatitis B and also some of the other recommendations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TIRRELL: Now, that was in September of last year. And so you can see there she diverges in some ways, really emphasizing the impacts of the declines in vaccination rates on measles and whooping cough, while saying that there are ways to look at the childhood vaccination schedule.

We should note, Pam, she's also diverged with President Trump on things like his press conference later that month on Tylenol and autism, saying that as a mother and as a doctor, she was very frustrated hearing that come out and questioning the science behind it.

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BROWN: And we're going to hear from another big Trump health nominee this morning as well. Tell us about that.

TIRRELL: Yes, Chris Klomp is the other -- well, there's actually two other people, but the more high-profile one is Chris Klomp, who has been nominated to be the deputy secretary of HHS, RFK Jr.'s number two.

And he is a very influential person who many people may not have heard of but he has really been elevated after he was the director of Medicare, who did a lot of the drug pricing deals for the Trump administration this term. He really seemed to win the praise of President Trump and has been elevated through the ranks.

Now, he had a hearing yesterday in front of the Senate Finance Committee, which is actually going to be the one that votes on whether to confirm him. He was asked very starkly about the measles crisis in the country right now, and he said unequivocally that the MMR vaccine is the best way to stop these cases and even to win back our elimination status, which we haven't yet lost, but many expect we will. So, that diverges in many ways from RFK Jr. as well. Pam?

BROWN: All right, interesting. Meg Tirrell, thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: Very interesting indeed. And coming up, investigators now say these fireworks sparked a deadly wildfire. We have details coming up.

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