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Wholesale Inflation Surges to 6%, Highest in 4 Years; Trump Expected to Ask Xi to Push Iran to Reopen Strait of Hormuz; Court Overturns Alex Murdaugh's Murder Convictions, Orders New Trial; Sources: CIA Escalates War on Cartels with Deadly Missions in Mexico 3-3:30p ET

Aired May 13, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: ... Utah, urging the judge to put her away for life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE RICHINS-BENSON, MURDER VICTIM'S SISTER: Today is Eric's birthday. I stand before you because he can't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The judge also heard from the couple's three children. The oldest, known as "CR" in court, is 13 years old. And he spoke to the court through his counselor. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think Kouri should get a life sentence because what she did is very sick. Nothing ever got fed or watered. It didn't feel good to worry about my animals. I felt like I had to take care of my siblings. I want the judge to know I hope Kouri gets convicted to life -- to a life sentence. Kouri is always drunk. I want the judge to know my dad was a good person and I miss my dad. I miss my dad, but I do not miss how my life used to be. I don't miss Kouri. I will tell you that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We'll stay on top of this story and bring you updates as we get them from court.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

Pain at the pump may trickle down and mean paying more at the store. Higher gas prices, sending inflation soaring for businesses. The worst could be yet to come.

And a shadow over the summit. President Trump and leader Xi Jinping have a historic opportunity for the world's two largest economies to reframe their trade relationship. But their meeting could be overshadowed by the U.S. war with Iran.

And later, South Carolina's Supreme Court ordering a new murder trial for Alex Murdaugh, why the court says the verdict in the first trial was tainted and should be thrown out?

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

We start this hour with the economic pain being felt by Americans all over the war with Iran. It is pushing wholesale prices higher at the fastest rate in four years. New data out today shows that wholesale inflation surged to 6 percent in April compared to last year, inflamed by higher gas prices.

The International Energy Agency says the world's oil reserves are rapidly shrinking, also setting the stage for further price spikes. Americans are already paying painfully high gas prices. All this coming just 24 hours after President Trump dismissed concerns about the economy as a factor in his negotiations with Tehran, saying this to reporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Vice President Vance was just asked about that comment. Here was his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think the President said that. I think that's a misrepresentation of what the President said. But, look, I agree with the President that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. We're obviously engaged in a very aggressive and very engaged diplomatic process to try to ensure that that doesn't happen. And the President has a lot of options. Nuclear proliferation is one of those challenges that people don't realize it's the biggest threat to America's national security. And it's not obvious until it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Joining us now is the director for economic policy at Veda Partners, Henrietta Treyz.

Henrietta, thanks so much for being with us.

Looking at these latest economic stats, what do you think should be on the President's mind as he heads into Beijing?

HENRIETTA TREYZ, ECONOMIC POLICY DIRECTOR, VEDA PARTNERS: Thanks for having me, Boris. Yes, when I saw those wholesale numbers, I thought it was a typo. 6 percent is an insane figure to see come across the screen. And to put it in context, the only comparison we have is the pandemic. That is effectively what the data is telling us right now. So, for the President going over to Beijing, you can see by the

coterie of CEOs that he has with him, they are mostly in the tech space, A.I. space. There's one representative from the farming sector, Cargill, but they are there to sell their manufacturing equipment to China. So, there's not a lot of domestic focus. And I think that's what the White House and Republicans down ballot are going to need to be struggling with for probably the rest of the year, if not beyond.

SANCHEZ: If you dig into the latest PPI numbers, you'll find that businesses have already had to shoulder higher input costs from Trump's tariff war. So, I wonder how much of these price increases you think will then be as the tariff increases were passed on to consumers.

TREYZ: You know, the -- the data really told us something -- two things that were really important. Number one, we're not done with the tariff hit. The tariff hit is down from the worst scenario it was in Liberation Day, but it still amounts to about $1,200 per household annually that we are paying if we buy a new refrigerator, if you buy a sweatshirt, if you buy new rain boots, all that's coming in that's tariffed.

And the problem with the Strait of Hormuz closing is that that's now being compounded by the energy crisis and the industrial inputs.

[15:05:02]

And that's another $1,200 for a family that's taking their kids to school, that's going to work, that's taking them to and from soccer and ballet and all those kinds of things that I do that's exactly what we're paying. So, it's not just a $1,200 hit from the tariffs, it's also a $1,200 hit per year from the gas prices.

And there's one thing I want to stress that's occurring in the House today is they're starting to consider the idea of a gas tax holiday. And that's all fine and well, it's $0.18 off a gallon, that'll be something. But it's really important to note how long those gas tax holidays are going to be in place for.

The one that was introduced today by a Republican in the House would extend to December 15th. That means they expect these prices to remain elevated. There is no price relief coming in the near term. And they think they need a holiday all the way through December 15th.

SANCHEZ: Diesel prices are also at an all-time high in Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. What is that going to mean for food prices later this year?

TREYZ: That -- diesel is the worst one because every truck that's driving and delivering either your food or your Amazon deliveries or Wal-Mart or Target, all that stuff is getting delivered via diesel. And of course, all the tractors, all the farm manufacturing equipment, that stuff all runs on diesel.

So, if you're ordering anything to your home or you're buying anything that takes any kind of big industrial input to make, it's paying the diesel price, which is, you know, $6, $7, $8 in some places. And that producer cost takes another 60 to 90 days to feed into our consumer shelves. So, we thought we've had bad enough already. It's still coming. We haven't hit the peak on producer price indexes or wholesale costs either.

SANCHEZ: You mentioned the contingent of tech tycoons that President Trump is taking with him. We anticipated that some of the discussion would also have to include things like soybeans and other crops, because soybean farmers especially are watching this trip closely. They faced some intense fallout from the trade war. They're now dealing with high fertilizer prices. So, do you see any sign that there might be relief for them coming soon?

TREYZ: That's a great question. So, Secretary Bessent is the first treasury secretary to lead an envoy like this since Hank Paulson during the great financial crisis. And his pet project, the biggest thing that he did in 2025, was secure a deal for soybean purchases with China in 2025. But I want to put that into perspective. The reason why 46 percent of farms went bankrupt last year is because the deal that the President under his first term and his second term have struck on soybeans is each time diminishing further and further and further.

And I'll put it into context, Ambassador Lighthizer in Trump's first term secured a deal for China to buy 142 million tons of soybeans over two years. Fast forward to Trump's second term, Secretary Bessent secured a deal for China to buy 87 million barrels over four years. We've lost our market share to China, and that's the problem.

SANCHEZ: Henrietta Treyz, appreciate you sharing your expertise. Thanks for joining us.

TREYZ: Thanks for having me.

SANCHEZ: The core of much of this economic pain, the ongoing war with Iran, is set to dominate a good deal of the diplomatic talks President Trump is about to have in China. Earlier, Beijing literally rolled out the red carpet ahead of a critical summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. China, of course, is by far Iran's largest purchaser of oil. And we're told that President Trump is expected to encourage Xi to push Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. We're joined now by CNN Anchor and Chief National Security Analyst, Jim Sciutto.

Jim, first, given the stakes of this trip, what are you going to be watching for?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: From China's perspective, and I've been speaking to lots of diplomats in Asia, they feel they have the upper hand in this conversation, both in the national security space and in the economic space.

So, on the national security side, they see the U.S. and President Trump bogged down in the war in Iran. And yes, China is paying higher oil prices, so it's got skin in the game as well. But to see the U.S. military having depleted its resources, and it's going to take a long time to replace those, all those missiles, that is a distracted and weakened superpower rival from China's perspective.

So, on balance, they feel they've got leverage in the national security space. On the economic side, they believe they have quite strong leverage there as well, particularly on rare earths, right? Which is -- which is a card they've already played before and Trump has already made concessions on.

Arguably, they have more leverage now because to replace all those missiles expended in Iran, you're going to need a lot of rare earths to build them in addition to all the other consumer products and so on that depend on them. And there's a view that if they can give Trump things that he could call wins, for instance, purchases of agricultural products, soybeans, you were talking about soybean farmers, there's a big Boeing deal on the table, that that will be enough to satisfy him and they won't have to give up much more.

[15:10:03]

So, from their perspective, they, you know, they feel pretty strong and they feel also on the economic costs of all this that they could eat more pain for longer than the U.S. can.

SANCHEZ: President Trump is also expected to raise the case of a jailed media tycoon as well as a jailed pastor when he meets with Xi, what is that about?

SCIUTTO: So, Jimmy Lai, long time -- he's owned newspapers in Hong Kong and he's been a critic of the Chinese government and he's paid for it. He's in jail. He was sentenced to years in jail under China's national security law. President Trump has said multiple times that he would raise his case and that he wants him freed -- freed from prison.

But he -- the way he talked about it before he left for Beijing, raised some eyebrows. Let me play those comments if I can, we can talk on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I brought it up before -- Jimmy Lai, I brought it up. Now, Jimmy Lai, you know, could -- right, caused a lot of bedlam. I don't know, it's like saying to me, if Comey ever went to jail, would you let him out? That's -- it might be a hard one for me. Does that make sense? It might be a hard one for me, you know, because he's a dirty cop. But Jimmy Lai isn't that way. But Jimmy Lai, he caused lots of turmoil for China.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: What turmoil did he cause? He ran newspapers that cover the -- the Chinese Communist Party critically, right? I mean, and he advocated for free press in Hong Kong, which is something that typically an American president would say, I'm on board with that, right? But Trump, in effect, on that issue, seems to be commiserating with the Chinese leader.

Now, the hope among his family and others is that Trump sticks to his long-term promise of raising the case and that sincerely, he does want him out of prison, even if he's making a Comey reference, which, if you're sitting in prison, is not the reference you want to -- you want to hear.

SANCHEZ: Yes. It's strange that he would ...

SCIUTTO: Yes.

SANCHEZ: ... raise the former FBI director in comparison with this tycoon ...

SCIUTTO: Yes.

SANCHEZ: ... that's advocated for freedom of speech and all that. Nevertheless, Jim Sciutto, thank you so much.

SCIUTTO: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Still plenty more news to come this afternoon. The South Carolina Supreme Court overturning Alex Murdaugh's murder convictions, now ordering a new trial in the killing of his wife and son.

Plus, a secret war against drug cartels. We have exclusive CNN reporting on the CIA's covert operations inside Mexico.

And later, in the right place at the right time, how an Air Force aircraft on a training mission jumped into action, saving 11 people after their plane crash-landed near South Florida. That and much more coming your way on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:53]

SANCHEZ: It is a stunning development in a case that captivated the country. The South Carolina Supreme Court has overturned Alex Murdaugh's murder convictions for the killings of his wife and son and ordered a new trial. The court sided with Murdaugh's defense attorneys who argued jurors were tainted by improper comments made by former county clerk, Becky Hill. According to one juror, Hill said, quote, "watch his actions and watch him closely when Murdaugh took the stand." The same juror said that Hill also told the jury, quote, "not to be fooled by the defense's evidence."

The unanimous ruling is the latest twist in the sprawling legal saga that led to one of the -- that led to the downfall of one of South Carolina's most popular and powerful families and spawned a limited series, true crime documentaries and books. Valerie Bauerlein wrote one of those best-selling books. It's called, "The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty." She's also a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

Thank you so much for being with us.

What was your reaction to this decision? Were you at all surprised? VALERIE BAUERLEIN, REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Well, you know,

you said this was a -- a stunning development and this case has had so many stunning developments over the last five years. You know, I wasn't completely surprised. The Supreme Court, they held a hearing back in February that I went to and their questions about the handling of the jurors were very pointed for the state. So, it wasn't completely surprising.

What was surprising is that it was unanimous ruling and they were so adamant that the clerk of court, her -- her misconduct in their view was breathtaking, unprecedented and they were very clear that it was not a close call. They're sending that signal with this unanimous -- unified voice.

SANCHEZ: Yes, the county clerk at the center of this, Becky Hill, pleaded guilty to charges last year that she made sealed evidence available to the media, lied under oath about doing so and used her court position to promote her book about the trial. I mean, that, as you said, a lot of stunning developments in the case. What do you make of all of that being the reason that now Alex Murdaugh has his convictions for murdering his wife and son overturned?

BAUERLEIN: Well, you know, I was in the courtroom for every day of that six-week trial back in 2023 and Becky Hill was someone who was very important to the proceeding, not just to the media, but to the lawyers for both sides. Both went to great pains to thank her for running a good courtroom. So, it really is stunning that -- that her behavior is the crux of the matter in this -- this proceeding being overturned.

So, no, it's -- it was -- it is a -- it is a surprising development for sure.

SANCHEZ: I'd be shocked if our viewers didn't know some of the backdrop of this case, given the exposure that it's had, but the Murdaugh family for nearly a century was a legal dynasty in this part of South Carolina. They had three successive generations controlling the local prosecutor's office. How is the community thinking about not only that legacy, but this now being a saga that is yet to conclude given these developments?

[15:20:03]

BAUERLEIN: Well, you just can't overstate the case of the power of this family in this kind of 100-mile radius area in the Southeastern corner of the state. They really ran, not just the -- the criminal courts as the solicitors for almost a hundred years, but they ran the civil side in all intents and purposes because they had this very powerful personal injury law firm and were really the biggest private employer in many regards in that area.

So, it's been stunning and difficult on the ground in Hampton County. It's a small community. Every -- it's not a stretch to say literally everyone there knew the Murdaugh family. So, this is just another kind of blow, like, oh, my -- my sources, they are like, wait, we're going to do this again? They knew Maggie Murdaugh. They knew Paul Murdaugh, you know, Alex's wife and son, who he's accused of killing or is convicted of killing. And they -- and many of them are related to or know the financial victims.

You'll remember he was -- he pleaded guilty to a hundred different counts of crimes, mostly from stealing almost $10 million from his poor personal injury clients. So, this feels very personal, very difficult, and almost like you can't put this -- how can you kind of move forward when this isn't really in the rear-view mirror at all anymore?

SANCHEZ: Yes, there was a huge moment in the original trial and -- and that was Murdaugh taking the stand in his own defense. Do you imagine he would do that again?

BAUERLEIN: Well, it is -- it is a court question. And it's -- it's funny that you mentioned that because the -- the -- his testimony, he was on the stand for the better part of two days. That was the testimony that the -- some of the jurors said that Becky Hill spoke to them improperly about.

But no, I spoke with Dick Harpootlian, his defense attorney, some weeks ago. And he said a couple of things. If they got a new trial and they were hopeful that they would, they would request a new venue. They would try to get out of this -- this community that's so tight and interconnected and that he would -- they would have to give real thought for Alex Murdaugh taking the stand. It was a risky move and his lawyers very much warned Alex Murdaugh of that at the time, but they felt like -- and you'll remember another big twist in the case was the discovery of that kennel video, the video that Paul Murdaugh had taken on his phone that was discovered quite late in the game that proved that Alex was lying about where he was that night.

So, they felt in that instance that they had no choice, but for him to be the one to explain that away. I think if we see a new trial, and when we -- and the AG has said, the Attorney General Alan Wilson said today almost immediately that he intends to try him again, it will be less likely in my view that Alex Murdaugh would take the stand.

SANCHEZ: So many twists and turns. Valerie Bauerlein, thanks for walking us through them.

BAUERLEIN: Thanks for having me.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Coming up, we have exclusive new CNN reporting on how the CIA is facilitating deadly operations against drug cartels inside Mexico. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:24]

SANCHEZ: CNN has new exclusive reporting on the CIA's escalating war against drug cartels in Mexico. Sources say CIA operatives are conducting deadly attacks on several mid-level cartel members as part of an expanded secret campaign to take down criminal trafficking networks. And we're learning one of those attacks may include a mysterious car explosion that killed an alleged member of the powerful Sinaloa cartel. CNN's Natasha Bertrand joins us now with video of that explosion.

So, Natasha, what happened and -- and how is this connected to the CIA's mission in Mexico?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, so earlier this spring on March 28th, video began circulating in Mexican outlets as well as Mexican social media of a car traveling on a very busy highway just outside of Mexico City that appeared to spontaneously burst into flames as it was driving. And we have video of that moment right there.

You can see that the car kind of exploded and then drifted off the highway. No one else apart from the vehicle occupants appeared to have been impacted by this explosion. And the Mexican government never really said anything about it, never released a statement about it. They were very quiet. And what we're told is that actually that was a targeted assassination that was facilitated by CIA operations officers and that it was targeting a mid-level member of the Sinaloa cartel known as El Payin. His driver was also killed in that explosion.

Now, what that signals is, according to our sources, part of this expanded operation on the ground in Mexico that the CIA has been participating in over the last several months, direct participation in lethal attacks on Mexican -- suspected Mexican cartel members, as well as things that are more passive like intelligence sharing and support for Mexican forces that are trying to track down some of these cartel members. But the goal here is to dismantle these very entrenched cartel networks throughout Mexico that President Trump has said is a top priority for him and something that he has accused the Mexican government of not doing enough to confront.

He has said repeatedly, Boris as well, that if the Mexican government isn't willing to do more to try to eliminate these cartels, then the U.S. is going to do it by themselves.

SANCHEZ: So, Natasha, how is the CIA and Mexican authorities responding to this report?

BERTRAND: So, we reached out to the CIA prior to publication multiple times. We shared details of our reporting with them and ultimately they declined to comment.

[15:30:02]

However, after we published, they released a statement calling the reporting, quote, "false and salacious," saying that it serves as nothing more ...