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China's Xi Jinping to Land in U.S. Ahead of Trump Summit; Iran's President Prepares to Address U.N. General Assembly; CNN Poll Shows 28 Percent Say Economic Conditions are Good. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 23, 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, new video and new questions. The Austin ICE shooting, what really happened in the moments before an agent opened fire? What investigators are revealing this morning.

Plus, face-to-face, two superpowers, one White House meeting. Can President Trump and Chinese leader Xi ease tensions, or are they headed for a new showdown over trade, technology, and Taiwan?

Also, stunning IVF mistake. We're talking to the Florida couple now suing the clinic they used for using the wrong man's sperm.

And CNN investigation, dozens of people now claiming a record-setting rollercoaster gave them brain injuries. We are looking into the ride's up and down history.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Pamela Brown. Wolf Blitzer is off, and you're in The Situation Room.

Happening today, Chinese leader Xi Jinping is due to arrive in the U.S. this evening for a summit with President Trump. The world's top economic superpowers come face to face as they compete for AI dominance, and as the wars in Iran and Ukraine drag on.

Some Republican lawmakers are criticizing the red carpet welcome for the Chinese leader, including the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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SEN. ROGER WICKER (R-MS): Had the White House asked me for advice, I would've suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington for such a lavish welcome.

Our commander-in-chief should keep in mind that his guest is a brutal, unelected, and oppressive dictator who seeks to dominate his neighbors, and whose massive military arsenal is aimed directly at the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BROWN: CNN White House Correspondent Alayna Tran, is here in the situation room. So, Alayna, how much does this A.I. race that we've all been talking about loom over the summit?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It looms hugely over the summit. And, look, there's going to be a number of topics that they need to get through. I think actually one of the things we should point out from the top here is also just the red carpet greeting that the president has. I mean --

BROWN: Meeting him at the airport, yes.

TREENE: I was going to say, when was the last time you've seen a president go to Joint Base Andrews to pick up a world leader? We know there's a lot that's going on to really make this a good meeting. The president wants this to be a successful meeting with Xi. And among the topics, of course, there's Taiwan, there's trade the war with Iran. But A.I. is, of course, a huge issue, particularly at a moment when we're hearing a lot of the leaders in the space sound the alarm on the future risks and potential dangers that A.I. poses.

Now, we know that Xi is really in no mood to set guardrails or limits to artificial intelligence. He recognizes the same thing that the president does, which is that this is kind of a race to see who can come out on top before more regulations and more order comes to this.

And we heard the president kind of push that line yesterday as well during his speech at the U.N. General Assembly. He essentially said, look, any talk of dangers of A.I. is a hoax. That is the word that the president used. He also said that he's not going to stifle growth of something that he thinks will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution.

But I will say, despite the kind of rhetoric we're hearing from the president, there is talk among his top advisers about how to find a way to ensure that there are some guardrails. And you did hear the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, say they're actually thinking about a potential hotline, an A.I. hotline to set up with China, similar to what they had during the Cold War, in case a really big moment, really dangerous moment arises.

Listen to what he said.

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MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: And one of the things that Scott has talked about, and I saw him do interviews about this as well, is some, like the equivalent of a hotline that we had during the Cold War, where if there is an A.I. incident that's dangerous and could impact economies or societies and even lead to a conflict between nation states, we would have the ability to immediately hotline the Chinese and warn them about it or vice versa.

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It's not a bad idea. It's one we'll explore with the Chinese among others.

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TREENE: So, look, what is interesting as well is that it's kind of an awkward topic for a meeting, because both of these leaders have recognized that they want to beat the other. You know, Xi wants to beat the U.S., the president wants to beat China when it comes to this idea of an A.I. race, of who's going to build A.I., the A.I. of the future.

But still White House officials I've spoken with said it is definitely going to be discussed, and I think a hotline like Rubio mentioned, could be one of the, the key things they try to work out over the next couple days.

BROWN: And the Trump administration had considered this meeting with A.I. executives on the sidelines of the summit. Do you know if that's been decided?

TREENE: Yes. So, my colleague, Hadas, and I, our colleague, Hadas, and I, reported on this last week. We know that a number of tech CEOs are actually coming to Washington around this state visit. They'll be part of the dinner tomorrow night.

This is some of the leaders we know are coming, Tesla's Elon Musk, OpenAI's Sam Altman, Google's Sundar Pichai, Amazon's Jeff Bezos. We also know NVIDIA's Jensen Huang, someone who's been in the president's ear a lot about A.I., the former Apple CEO, Tim Cook. There's a number of other leaders you can see on our screen.

And the conversations I've had with Trump officials was essentially that because they're already here, it might be a good opportunity to get a meeting that many of these leaders have been calling for on the books.

Now, the White House has not formally scheduled that. It's not clear if it's 100 percent happening, but I've been told they really are hoping this would be a good opportunity to get them to meet. But, again, almost would be a little bit awkward to coincide with the Xi meeting. I was told if there is a meeting, the Chinese president likely wouldn't be there.

BROWN: All right. Alayna Treene, thanks for bringing us the latest, busy week for you, for sure.

And happening now, Iran's president is preparing to address world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly. He is speaking as the U.S. war with Iran shows no signs of ending, and just a day after President Trump spoke from that same podium and threatened to annihilate his country.

CNN's Jim Sciutto joins us now. So, Jim, do you expect Iran's president to take a more combative tone in his address or lean more toward diplomacy?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, listen, he has to respond. The President stood at the podium, you know, at a body that was intended, right, to prevent war in the world, the United Nations, and threatened to annihilate his country, not for the first time, right? I mean, you go back to language President Trump has used before, going for instance, in April, We will bomb them into the stone ages. So the Iranian president has to respond.

But I will say, in speaking to diplomats here at the U.N. General Assembly, there aren't many people who took that threat seriously, right? First of all, President Trump has threatened before. There's a boy who cried wolf element to that. But the perception is similar to perception you have in this country, that President Trump is impatient to end this war, and that he does want a diplomatic solution, and that the economic costs of the war diesel prices gas prices, et cetera, are impacting Trump's domestic interests, particularly as the midterms approach.

So, the Iranian president will have to respond to it, but might leave the door open to diplomacy as well, as President Trump did. And it was quite significant as we reported yesterday, that President Trump did meet with -- or, well, he had his advisers, I should say, meet, Witkoff and others, with Iranian -- members of the Iranian delegation here in New York.

So, another attempt at a diplomatic track to end this war, but, Pamela, the president finds himself in the same situation he's been to in previous attempts at negotiations, and that is that while the Iranian president, Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Araghchi may be open to negotiations, there are harder line forces in that country, particularly the IRGC, that does not appear so interested in negotiations.

And who wins out? Can the Iranian president push those forces aside? It's not clear, right? So, you might have negotiations, but you might not be able to get to diplomatic solutions to the key issues here because of that resistance inside the country.

BROWN: Yes. And sources I speak to say the IRGC really is largely in control. And so that is a fair question of what could actually be accomplished with the president of Iran.

I want to talk about the Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, who is also speaking today. What is his message likely to be?

SCIUTTO: Listen, it, it'll be a familiar message. He will say they need help, right? Particularly they need help defending their skies, and it's notable that just hours before his speech, Russia was again attacking civilian targets in his country. He needs help from the US, he needs help from Europe.

He will also quite deliberately say, this is Russia's war, and Russia can end it, right? Russia invaded, and they could end the war tomorrow. Which is a, a message that he's been giving to President Trump as well, and it's something of a counterpoint to Trump, right, because oftentimes when you hear him speak.

[10:10:00] And even Secretary of State Marco Rubio or the U.S. ambassador to the UN, where they both sides this war and say, well, we want to end the war and both sides have to come to the table, et cetera. Of course, Zelenskyy, you know, being the victim of this invasion, will push back against that.

And I think a final point is something we heard from him yesterday as he was speaking to reporters, Zelenskyy also will say, listen, we're interested in negotiations. Ukraine is, if Russia would be. But let's be practical here. Putin has shown no real interest in negotiations from the very beginning.

And I think that's also a message to Trump himself, right, that -- don't think that Putin is your friend. Don't think that Putin is a fair, good faith negotiator in this process here. It's up to him, but hasn't shown any real evidence of being serious about negotiations. And that's something I've heard from European officials here as well. They just don't believe Putin is ready.

BROWN: All right. Jim Sciutto, I've been hearing that as well. Thanks so much. Great to have you on the show.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

BROWN: And still ahead here in The Situation Room, brand new CNN polling out this morning finds a new record low approval rating for President Trump as more Republicans distance themselves from the Oval Office.

And then later, protecting children from A.I. We're going to talk with someone fighting to make sure any rules or regulations keep young people top of mind.

We'll be right back.

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BROWN: All right. Well, take a look at this. According to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas today is $4.47. That is just about $1.50 more per gallon since the Iran war started. And according to a new CNN poll released this morning, voters say they are concerned about the economy. Only 28 percent say economic conditions are good, and 73 percent say they disapprove of the way President Trump is handling the economy. All of this is fueling fresh concerns for Republicans ahead of the November midterms.

Let's bring in CNN Political Director David Chalian. So, tell us more about these, this latest poll and what you're learning, David.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Yes. Well, Pam, all of those very rough numbers for the president in his standing on the economy has created an environment that in our poll shows that the generic Congressional ballot, who would you vote for if the election were today for a member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, Democrats have an 8 percentage point advantage on that score. 49 percent today say they'd vote for the Democrat, 41 percent say they'd vote for the Republicans.

I would just note, in 2018 when the Democrats flipped the House in Donald Trump's first term, the actual national popular vote was an eight-point Democratic advantage when they won those 40 seats.

BROWN: So, President Trump, though, when you look at his numbers specifically compared to his first term to now, he is even more unpopular now. Tell us about that.

CHALIAN: He is indeed. I mean, you can see his trajectory over this term how he's gotten more and more unpopular. We have him at a record low now, that blue line, of his approval rating handling his job as president, is now down at 33 percent. That is the lowest we've ever had Donald Trump across both of his terms.

You noted he still was unpopular in 2018. He was. At this point, he was at 36 percent approval, Pam. Not great, but here's the biggest difference. He still had strength on the economy.

BROWN: That's right.

CHALIAN: And now he's like 22 points lower on the economy than he was in 2018. So, it is the number one issue far and away for voters, and it's an issue that Donald Trump, compared to his first midterm, is now completely underwater and has tanked on.

BROWN: So, what about Democrats? What is the sentiment toward them with 41 days to go until the midterms?

CHALIAN: Well, part of the reason why I think we see them ahead in the generic ballot is they are more motivated to vote. There's an enthusiasm advantage for Democrats than there are Republicans. And, overall, you can see among all of our voters, the extremely motivated to vote, 57 percent of voters say they are, and that is, if you look inside that 57 percent, largely made up of Democrats. They're willing to sort of walk across broken glass to get to the polls, it seems.

But I will note this in our poll. We asked approval of Democratic leaders in Congress and Republican leaders in Congress. They're both in the toilet. Only a quarter of Americans approve of both of them, so equally unpopular. And we asked, if Democrats do win the House majority, what do you think? Is it going to be a positive effect or a negative effect on cost of living? And voters are pretty much split on that, positive and negative.

So, this does not seem to be an environment where Democrats have an advantage because it's something they're offering. It is an environment that Democrats have an advantage because the country, independent voters are turning against Donald Trump on his economic record.

BROWN: And what about Republicans? What do the polls show when it comes to how Republicans are viewing Donald Trump? CHALIAN: His approval rating among Republicans is now down to 75 percent. Now, I know you say, oh, 75 percent? That sounds like a great number. That is low for Donald Trump among his fellow partisans. We've not seen a number that low of Republican approval, and you see it also in the intensity.

So, when you look at his approval, sometimes we say, do you strongly approve, somewhat approve? Only 13 percent of Americans in our poll strongly approve of the job he's doing. A year-and-a-half ago, it was double that. So he has cut in half his most vociferous support in just a year and a half.

BROWN: Really illuminating. David Chalian, thank you, always great to have you on.

Coming up, why the man picked to announce the death of Dolly Parton is now locked in a fiery legal fight with her estate.

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BROWN: New this morning, Dolly Parton's business empire is in a legal battle against her nephew. The late country star's estate is accusing Bryan Seaver of violent threats and extortion. In court documents filed yesterday, the estate is seeking a restraining order to keep Seaver away from employees and business dealings. Seaver hasn't spoken to CNN about the new allegations.

For more on this, let's go live to CNN Senior Entertainment Reporter Lisa Respers France. And this is so surprising as well, Lisa, because Dolly Parton picked her nephew to be the one to announce her death.

LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN SENIOR ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: She did, Pamela, and they were extremely close. Back in 1993, she actually recorded a song called Romeo, which at the time she told Entertainment Tonight was inspired by her nephew, Bryan Seaver.

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And he offered security for her. He was in charge of her security for over two decades. But last week he was fired, and as you noted, the estate is claiming that even before she passed away in August at the age of 80 after battling cancer, that Bryan Seaver was threatening to try to destroy his aunt's brand if he was not paid. And so they're seeking a restraining order. They said that he portrayed himself as someone who had access to weapons, that he had military experience, and that he was threatening violence.

Now, we haven't spoken to him, but he has told other outlets, Mr. Seaver has, that these messages that were included in the court papers in which the estate sought this restraining order, that a lot of those messages were taken out of context and that, you know, he is not going to be intimidated. And it's just very, very messy, Pamela, especially because as you point out, people remember him as the person that his aunt handpicked to deliver to us the devastating news that she had left us. Pamela?

BROWN: Yes, this is the video right here.

All right, Lisa Respers France, thank you.

FRANCE: Thank you.

BROWN: Coming up here in The Situation Room, what we're now learning about the criminal investigation surrounding Camp Mystic, the Texas camp where 27 girls died during catastrophic flooding last summer.

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