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DOJ Files Criminal Charges in Baltimore's Key Bridge Collapse; Hantavirus Cases From Cruise Ship Rise to 11; Three U.S. States Monitoring Hantavirus Cases of People Not on Cruise; Hantavirus Cruise Ship Heading to Netherlands to Be Disinfected; California Mayor Admits to Acting as Illegal Agent for Chinese Government; Trump Heads to China as Iran War Looms Over Crucial Talks. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired May 12, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- He's actually believed to be in India right now and it is not clear if he'd ever be extradited for this. So we just don't know.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Really interesting to follow. Gabe, thank you so much.

Still ahead, the World Health Organization reports new Andes strain Hantavirus cases linked to that cruise ship outbreak. We'll have the latest on the race to contain the spread next on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": The number of Hantavirus cases linked to the deadly cruise ship outbreak has risen to 11 today. The World Health Organization says all of the cases are among passengers or crew members who were on board the MV Hondius. Health officials say that right now there's no sign of a larger outbreak, but they add that that could change.

Joining us now is Bryce Warner. He's a research scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan and has extensively researched Hantaviruses.

[13:35:00]

Bryce, thank you so much for being with us. The Andes strain is rare. By some estimates, there's only like 3,000 documented cases of it. Perhaps the most well-known outbreak was back in 2018 at the small village in southern Argentina. What did scientists learn there?

BRYCE WARNER, SCIENTIST WHO HAS EXTENSIVELY RESEARCHED HANTAVIRUSES: Yeah, so I mean that -- you're right, that was the largest outbreak that has been documented and that was really, you know, by far the largest person-to-person spread that we've seen. It was over 30 cases and, you know, a high case fatality rate and that was spread through, you know, a person attending a birthday party and so that was really the first sort of transmission to humans that we've seen that we think of in the typical context.

Most of the previous cases of human-to-human transmission had been sort of in the hospital setting and so this was really evidence showing that, you know, this virus can transmit human-to-human although it is rare.

SANCHEZ: So when we hear about human-to-human transmissibility requiring close and prolonged contact, perhaps not a coincidence that not far from where this boat docked, there had been this outbreak, and then you have people on board an enclosed space in which they're constantly interacting with each other and the folks that prepare the food are interacting. And so, I guess, my question is how do we know what that kind of close proximate contact means outside of a cruise ship?

WARNER: Yeah and so I mean, you know, before this happened, I mean, we would normally have thought of it as like in the context of that previous outbreak or really in the context of someone caring for someone who is sick like a health care worker or a loved one taking care of their family member or something like that.

This cruise ship is, you know, a unique situation obviously and so where we're seeing, you know, a married couple in the same cabin but then people, you know, interacting in close quarters on the ship, probably in the dining hall and things like that. And so, you know, this is just another, you know, mechanism that adds to our understanding of how the virus can transmit.

SANCHEZ: And just so that we're clear, the virality and transmissibility of it, how exactly is it that it jumps from person to person and in what window of time?

WARNER: Yeah, so, you know, the evidence there, you know, really indicates that the period of transmissibility is maybe a day or two before you start to show symptoms and then through that symptomatic period, and then it would really be in, you know, bodily fluids, you know, close contact with, you know, saliva, any sort of secretions, things like that. So you really do have to be in close contact with the person that's not, you know, through speaking and through airborne transmission like we think of with influenza or COVID-19 was.

SANCHEZ: And so after several days of observation, the folks that are being carefully watched, officials are going to decide whether those 15 will actually get to go home for the rest of their 42-day monitoring period or if they'll stay under medical observance. I wonder which you think is more advisable, how they go about even making that decision?

WARNER: Right, and that's really one of the main questions we've been getting the last couple days is, you know, which is preferred and, you know, it's a difficult question to answer and it's really up to each jurisdiction and what their tolerance level for this risk is. You know, I think both there's, you know, both ways make sense.

You know, some jurisdictions are sending people home like in Canada, that's what we've done and they're isolating. I think, you know, still the critical aspect is really monitoring daily, you know, and making sure that if you do have symptoms, then it's really, you know, a matter of getting medical care and alerting the proper authorities because that would, you know, that would lead to potentially more spread.

SANCHEZ: Bryce Warner, thanks so much for sharing your expertise.

WARNER: Great, thank you for having me.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Still ahead, a Southern California mayor resigns after agreeing to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government. We have new details straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:43:48]

SANCHEZ: A Southern California mayor has resigned after agreeing to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. Justice Department officials now say that former Arcadia Mayor, Eileen Wang did the bidding of Chinese officials for years before being elected to city office.

CNN Senior Correspondent, Josh Campbell is in Los Angeles, not far from Arcadia. Josh, what is Wang accused of doing on behalf of China?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a really interesting case because, you know, when we talk about spy cases, people often think about, you know, the Chinese government trying to steal classified information or sensitive technology. This case is about propaganda and accusations that China is attempting to shape public opinion inside the U.S., especially news that is consumed by the Chinese American community.

Now, Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to acting on behalf of China. She's resigned from her position as mayor. She was charged last month with one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government, as you said, essentially doing the business of Chinese officials without prior notification to the United States government as required by law.

She faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison. Now, a colleague that she had worked with on the scheme, a man named Mike Sun, he pled guilty last year to the same charge and is serving four years in prison.

[13:45:00]

I'll read you part of the plea agreement that she's agreed to, according to officials. It says that Wang operated a website called U.S. News Center that purported to be a news source for the local Chinese American community.

Defendant and Sun received and executed directives from PRC government officials to post pro-PRC content on the website and sometimes sought approval from PRC government officials to circulate other pro-PRC content.

Now, the plea agreement says that she would actually receive direction from a Chinese official to post articles, sometimes to edit articles. In one instance, they say she messaged that official saying, look, this post has gotten over 15,000 views. That person responded, great. She responds to that person, thank you, leader.

Now, the timing, of course, is interesting on all this. President Trump is set to leave for China in order to meet with officials in high-level talks. I want to read you part of the statement that we got from her attorney in this case.

Wang's attorney says we want to be clear, this investigation concerns individual conduct and the charges are for conduct that ceased after Ms. Wang was sworn into office in December 2022. She apologizes and is sorry for the mistakes that she has made in her personal life. Her love and devotion for the Arcadia community have not changed and did not waver.

Again, she faces, Boris, up to 10 years in prison.

SANCHEZ: Josh Campbell, thank you so much for that reporting. Brianna?

KEILAR: Right now, we're standing by for President Trump to depart the White House for his trip to China. It's a trip that was delayed because of the Iran War. And while we're learning, the president is seriously considering resuming combat operations against Iran, sources tell CNN a decision on how to move forward was unlikely before today's departure.

Retired U.S. Army Major, Harrison Mann is with us now. He's Associate Campaigns Director for Win Without War.

So we are looking toward this visit between President Trump and President Xi. What are you looking for?

MAJ. HARRISON MANN (RET.), FORMER DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY OFFICIAL: I'm expecting Trump to try another last ditch effort to try and extricate himself from the mess he's created in the Middle East. In the past weeks, he's kind of made appeals to China already to try and help open the Strait of Hormuz, to try and help pressure Iran.

I think that's the remaining silver bullet. He hasn't really tried yet. He's going to ask Xi, and I think he's going to probably be quite disappointed with the response. There's a misconception that Trump has. I think a lot of folks in D.C. do that. You know, China is a really close ally of Iran, and China can apply this leverage that will make Iran open the Straits.

It's true that they have a trade relationship that, from the Iranian perspective, China is a really important trade partner and oil importer. But China has tried to be a friend to everyone in the region, right? They also import oil from Saudi Arabia and UAE. They sell weapons to Saudi Arabia and UAE. A couple of years ago, China brokered a resumption of diplomatic relations between Saudi and Iran. And so, I think it's really unlikely that President Xi would decide to really weigh in heavy on Trump's side of this conflict or on any side at all.

KEILAR: The president keeps emphasizing that the ceasefire is in effect, but now, he's saying it's on massive life support. It's really up to him if he wants to pull the plug, though, I mean, that's in his power here.

So as he is making this appeal to China, are you seeing that at all from a position of strength? What does it tell you about his strength or weakness in this situation?

MANN: When it comes to finding some resolution to the war with Iran, Trump is operating from a position of incredible weakness. And I say, unfortunately, as a as an American who's bearing the costs of this war, he continues to be out of ideas. He continues to threaten to do the same thing over and over, whether it's bomb more or some kind of war crimes.

We already tried that. It didn't work. And he's going to try a kind of last ditch diplomatic route as well.

And so, you know, the hope could be coming out of this Trump despairs of doing anything other than serious negotiations with Iran. But I fear that instead he's going to say, OK, well, we tried asking China. It didn't work. Time to start bombing again.

KEILAR: When you look at the economic situation and how this is affecting Americans, we all feel it when we fill up our gas tanks. Right?

And when you look at new CNN polling and people are talking about the negative impacts of various policies, various things on their personal economic situation, they put the war in Iran, the top one here, look at this, 75 percent. And then you have the higher tariffs, 65 percent. Obviously, that has a lot to do with China there.

But how much of a limiting factor is this? How much runway does the president have left with that kind of frustration, would you say?

MANN: On one hand, it depends how much does he care about the suffering of the American people, and that's an open question. But when it comes to seeing gas blow past, you know, $5 a gallon, seeing meat and other groceries go up because of the fertilizer shortage, seeing cans of Coke and beer go up because of an aluminum shortage, all of these multiplying effects from the closure of the Strait Hormuz, you know, I'd say it's a matter of months.

[13:50:00]

I think it's really unlikely, you know, even if the Strait opened tomorrow, to see these effects reversed within the next year. And in reality, the Strait's going to stay closed for weeks because we're not making any progress with negotiations. And so, we've seen Trump already respond a little bit to pressure from Republican lawmakers. It's why he kind of pretended to do something around the 60-day deadline, which they thought made the war less illegal.

I think we're going to see a lot more of that. We're going to see his own party more and more overtly trying to push on him as their constituents continue to suffer.

KEILAR: And we're heading towards the midterm elections with a lot of political considerations for them. We are watching President Trump right now. He is walking out of the White House and heading to the North Lawn. We're going to see.

It looks like he's heading towards reporters. So let's go ahead and listen in as he walks over to the microphones. Clap of his hands there, indicating some readiness. Let's hear what he says.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At what point are you done negotiating with Iran?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, we're going to see what happens. We're only making a good deal. We have -- their military is gone. It's wiped out. And we're only going to make a good deal, and we'll see what happens.

But I believe that, one way or the other, it's going to be very good for the American people and, I think, actually very good for the Iranian people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you reconsidering the Pakistanis as mediators?

TRUMP: No, they're great. I think they're great. I think the Pakistanis have been great. The field marshal and the prime minister of Pakistan have been absolutely great.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, what is your message to President Xi as it relates to the Iran War?

TRUMP: Well, I think, number one, we're going to have a long talk about it. I think he's been relatively good, to be honest with you. You look at the blockade, no problem. They get a lot of their oil from that area. We've had no problem. And he's been a friend of mine. He's been somebody that we get along with.

And I think you're going to see that good things are going to happen. This is going to be a very exciting trip. A lot of good things are going to happen.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think he needs to intervene at all with the Iranians?

TRUMP: I don't think he does, no.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think he can help in any way?

TRUMP: No, I don't think we need any help with Iran. We'll win it one way or the other. We'll win it peacefully or otherwise. Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Every single element of their war machine is gone. They've killed a lot of people. They've killed 42,000 people, at least, over the last month and a half. We're going to -- we win.

(CROSSTALK)

No matter how you cut it, (inaudible).

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, what do you think of this? Do you believe -- Mr. Kurdish (ph) here. Mr. President, do you believe your visit to China will impact on international economy and price of oil?

TRUMP: It's going to be a positive. We're going to have a very good meeting. I spoke with President Xi. We look forward -- we both look forward to the meeting. It's going to be great.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, what is going to be your red line to end the ceasefire for you? What will it take to pull the plug?

TRUMP: Well, we're going to see. And we'll be thinking about it on the flight, and we'll be thinking about it for the next little while. But we've beaten their military very soundly. That's over with. The blockade is very effective. It's been 100 percent effective. And one way or the other, it's going to work out very well.

It's going to work out very well. I think you're going to have so much oil, you're going to have a gusher of oil like you've never had before. So, when oil goes up a little bit, I thought it would go up much more. If you go back three, four months ago, when we were contemplating, we assumed oil would go much higher. Yesterday, it was at $99. And if you think about it, I would have taken that all day long. Because it's very simple. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

They will not have a nuclear weapon. They know that. They've agreed to that. And then, that's not what they said to me when it came to -- we don't play games. They're not going to have a nuclear weapon.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, you promised to bring inflation down. It's now at its highest level in three years. Are your policies not working? What's happening?

TRUMP: My policies are working incredibly. If you go back to just before the war, for the last three months, inflation was at 1.7 percent. Now, we had a choice. Let these lunatics have a nuclear weapon. If you want to do that, then you're a stupid person. And you happen to be. I mean, I know you very well.

[13:55:00]

Anybody that wants them to have a nuclear weapon is a stupid person. So we said we're going to take the greatest stock market in history and we're going to go down a little bit and actually that turned out to be incorrect because our stock market is now at the highest point in history, which frankly surprised a lot of people. It's a very simple message.

Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and they won't have a nuclear weapon and that's a hundred percent. Their navy is gone, their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft is gone, their radar is gone, their leaders are gone. They're all gone.

Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible).

TRUMP: We're going to do whatever is necessary and as soon as this war is over, which will not be long, you're going to see oil prices drop and you're going to see a stock market, which is already at the highest point in history, go through the roof. You're going to see the golden age of America, frankly, and you're seeing it now.

So, as soon as this is done, don't forget, you have hundreds of ships that are loaded up with oil that want to come out. As soon as they come out, we're going to have a gusher of oil and you're going to have inflation that goes way down. Now, with all of this, inflation is much lower than it was under Biden.

Biden had the highest inflation in the history of our country. Inflation is nothing by comparison, but our inflation is just short term. Because if you go from before, just before the war, we were, for the last three months, 1.7 percent. And now what you have is, as soon as this war is over, you're going to see inflation go down to probably 1.5 percent.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, thank you so much. Mr. President, yesterday you said that the church (ph) experienced harm, but you stood before this house. Are you going to be on the charge that the church (ph) has never seen any harm, and the church folks across the house are denying to see any harm?

TRUMP: The officials are wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're message to Chinese people, sir, on the summit.

TRUMP: We have a ballroom that's under budget. It's going up right here. I've doubled the size of it, because we obviously need that. And we're right now on budget, under budget, and ahead of schedule. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You doubled?

TRUMP: I doubled the size of it, you dumb person. You are not a smart person.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Right over here. Right over here. And based on a lot of things that have happened over the last year, we doubled the size of the ballroom. So, we're going to have a ballroom that's appropriate for the White House. We doubled the size. The ballroom now is ahead of schedule, and it's a little bit under budget, depending on the finishes that we get (ph).

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel's number?

TRUMP: Well, they're not doing well. Cuba is not doing well. It's a failed nation. And we'll be talking about Cuba at the right time.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, can I ask you about Venezuela? Some Venezuelans are concerned that there are some political prisoners still in their prisons. Would you do something about that?

TRUMP: Yeah, we'll do it. We're going to get them all out. And I'll tell you what, Delcy is doing a great job. The people of Venezuela are thrilled with what's happened. They can't even believe it. They're dancing on the streets. And as you know, we have Exxon. We have Chevron. We have all of the big companies going in. And Venezuela now is making more money than they've made in the last 25 years.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: As you know, we let a lot. They let a lot of the political prisoners out. And the rest will be coming.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you ask Marty Makary to resign, sir? Or did you fire your FBI commissioner?

TRUMP: Well, I don't want to say, but Marty is a great guy. He's a friend of mine. He's a wonderful man. He's going to be off. And the assistant, the deputy, is taking over temporarily until we find -- everybody wants that job. It's a very important job. Marty is a terrific guy. But he's going to go on, and he's going to lead a good life.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: He was having some difficulty. You know, he's a great doctor, and he was having some difficulty. But he's going to go on, and he's going to do well. We have -- everybody wants that job, everybody.

(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir, the midterm elections, would you send the National Guard or ICE to voting locations in November? Would you do that?

TRUMP: Well, you know what? I'd do anything necessary to make sure we have honest elections. We have to have honest --