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CIA Escalates War on Cartels with Deadly Missions in Mexico; Trump in China for Critical Talks with China's Xi Jinping; Damon and Affleck Sued for Defamation by Two Florida Sheriff's Deputies; Plane Crash Survivors Rescued After Hours Stranded at Sea. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired May 13, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And ultimately, they declined to comment. However, after we published, they released a statement calling to reporting, quote, "... false and salacious," saying that it "serves as nothing more than a PR campaign for the cartels and puts American lives at risk." Without actually specifying what part of this reporting was false.

The Mexican government is also pushing back on this saying that there are no operations being conducted by the CIA on Mexican soil. We should note though that this is a very, very delicate topic and politically charged topic for the U.S. and Mexico, particularly because Mexico has repeatedly reiterated that it will not tolerate violations of its sovereignty and that anything that the United States does on its territory has to be in full coordination with them, something that it's not entirely clear the CIA is actually doing -- Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much for that reporting.

Ahead, more on the critical summit in Beijing. What is at stake as President Trump meets with Xi Jinping next?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:00]

SANCHEZ: We're witnessing two global superpowers at a crossroads tonight. President Trump's visit to China comes with enormous risk, but also great opportunity for both nations. The war with Iran and China's potential influence on it are expected to dominate discussions as they kick off later this evening, but sources tell CNN that Beijing believes the summit between Trump and Xi Jinping could lead to a more stable long-term relationship for the world's two largest economies.

Let's discuss with Matt Miller. He served as the State Department spokesperson under President Biden and as a special advisor at the National Security Council. Matt, thanks for being with us as always.

What has changed since the last time Trump visited China for the first time about a decade ago? MATT MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON UNDER BIDEN: Well, a few things. Number one, we are at a period now of weakness in the bilateral relationship, weakness vis-a-vis China. The tariffs that Trump ran on going all the way back to his first campaign for office in 2016, where he railed against China's unfair trading practices.

We saw last year he launched a very extensive trade war with China and eventually had to back down when he realized that China had a great deal of leverage through its control of critical minerals.

We're also at a weakness globally because of the war that the president chose to launch in Iran, which currently is at a stalemate with no apparent way out. China has benefited from that war in a number of ways.

Number one, we have had to move material out of Asia. We've had to stop the pivot to Asia that multiple administrations in a row have said ought to be a national security priority. Move hardware that China has always objected to out of Asia into the Middle East to use it there. Our global approval rating has fallen.

Those are all things that affect our competition with China. So when the president goes in, he's in a weaker place than he has probably ever been vis-a-vis these discussions with President Xi.

SANCHEZ: What incentive would Xi have to call Tehran and say, you know, I've talked to President Trump, let's reopen the Strait of Hormuz?

MILLER: So I think despite all the advantages that China has gained through the war in Iran, there are advantages to China for the war ending. Number one, Iran is a major source of energy for China that has been largely turned off since the outbreak of hostilities. China would like to see that oil flowing again through the Strait of Hormuz.

Number two, it would be a great diplomatic coup for China if it could play a role in ending this war. That's not a role that China has traditionally played. China often talks about the need for peaceful resolution of conflicts.

But the kind of actual brokering of peace deals, the way that you see the United States doing, the way that you see Pakistan trying to do in this conflict, the way you've seen countries like Qatar do, it's not something that China traditionally does. So if they were able to play that role, it would be a real matter of prestige for them around the world.

But I don't think you should expect that if the president goes in and says, we want you to ask Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, China is just going to say yes without having some ask in return. They're going to say, yes, of course we think Iran should comply with international law. The Strait should be open to freedom of navigation. We also think you should end your blockade, which is by nature an act of war.

SANCHEZ: Yes, they'll probably also say that China, as they have in the past, has a right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, etc., etc. I wonder if you think the cards that President Trump is holding, whether it's arms sales to Taiwan or perhaps more economic availability of chips, for example, with AI and the CEO of NVIDIA now traveling with him, is that enough to lure Xi to put pressure on Tehran? Or is this a situation in which he can just sit back and let this stalemate endure and profit from it?

MILLER: I would be very surprised if all of the other issues in our bilateral relationship, the economic issues, including the sale of advanced chips, the security issues, including support for Taiwan, including whether the United States switches its historic position and goes from saying we do not support Taiwanese independence to saying outright that we oppose Taiwanese independence, something that China has been lobbying for, and I know a lot of national security professionals are worried the President might say, maybe in an off- the-cuff moment. Or even on human rights issues.

I doubt that China would look at those major strategic core issues to them and be willing to take -- be willing to mix them with concessions on Iran. Those are very different issues for China. Some of those are core strategic issues, some are extras. I think the war in Iran is an extra issue for them. They've always looked at major geopolitical issues a little bit differently than we have.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Matt Miller, thanks so much for sharing your perspective.

MILLER: Yes, thank you.

SANCHEZ: Thank you. Still ahead, two South Florida police officers are suing Ben Affleck and Matt Damon for defamation. They say details about their latest movie are just too real. We'll discuss with one of those officers when we come back.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: A-list stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are getting hit with a lawsuit accused of making a movie that's too real. Two Miami-area deputies are suing the actor's production company over the cop drama now on Netflix called The Rip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You heard about the inside heist teams?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, cops playing robbers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Need any help tonight, Lieutenant?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nope. We didn't get a heads up about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The officers say because the film used too many real-life details that family, friends, and others mistakenly believe the officers actually committed some of the crimes portrayed in the film, defaming them. The Rip is inspired by a real 2016 narcotics case when police found more than $20 million in the home of a suspected pot trafficker in Miami Lakes. We reached out today to Artists' Equity, Damon and Affleck's company.

[15:45:00]

So far, no response. But in a court filing for March 19th, their attorney wrote the film does not purport to tell the true story of that incident or portray real people, which is stated in a disclaimer in the credits of the film.

Joining us now to discuss is one of the deputies suing, Jonathan Santana, and his attorney, Ignacio Alvarez. Thank you both for being with us.

Jonathan, first to you, what have you heard from friends and family and colleagues about their impressions of this film?

JONATHAN SANTANA, DEPUTY, MIAMI-DADE SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Well, first of all, thank you for having me, sir. I've had numerous family members and co-workers approach me to this day inquiring how many buckets of money have I stolen or that I stole during this specific case to better myself or my children through private school, purchase vessels, do home improvements. And all these things never happened.

SANCHEZ: Has the film in any way impacted your professional trajectory or career?

SANTANA: Well, I got promoted four years ago to sergeant and I've been passed up several times to return back to narcotics when I conducted this investigation. Is that a coincidence? I don't know.

But now this film comes out and it's portraying me as a dirty law enforcement officer. It only leads me to believe that it is going to be the same exact thing as the reason why I'm not going back there.

SANCHEZ: Ignacio, I wonder what you make of the claim from the film production company owned by Affleck and Damon that your clients haven't specified which characters in the movie are purported to portray them. And there's no way to connect for viewers the characters portrayed in the film and these actual real life individuals on the narcotics team. So how would that actually work if they're not using their likeness, they're not using their name?

IGNACIO ALVAREZ, ATTORNEY FOR SHERIFF'S DEPUTIES IN LAWSUIT: We corrected that issue on the filings that we filed the complaint, but that's not the issue here. The issue here is you involve real life events. For example, this was the largest forfeiture in Miami Dade's history, $22 million found in Home Depot buckets, found inside a wall, inside a house.

It was the biggest case for their careers. And they take that story, they buy that story from an individual who claimed to be there, who claimed to be cutting the money, who claimed to be the lead investigator. That was a total lie.

They never do their due diligence. And they come up with a story where the captain is killed, the DA agent's killed. They're negotiating with drug dealers in the city of Hialeah, which is right next door to the town of Miami Lakes.

And they portray everybody as being corrupt and dirty. Just listen to the mayor of Hialeah, who's extremely angry about this movie, because it portrays their city and their cops as being corrupt.

SANCHEZ: I know the city of Hialeah well, I grew up there, so I can attest that I never found millions of dollars in Home Depot buckets. Nevertheless, I wonder how much money you're seeking in this lawsuit.

What kind of relief you're looking for beyond money?

ALVAREZ: You mentioned something in the beginning that stated that they had a disclaimer. In the very beginning, it said that this was based on true facts. When you go to the very end, after all the credits, after everybody's left the theater, after everybody's turned off the TV, and you go to the very last screenshot after the segments, after the credits, and you pause it, you put on your reading glasses, you're going to read the disclaimer.

So everybody believes this is real. I hear it on the radio and I see it on TV. The issue here is that they paid a lot of money to the wrong storyteller.

It wasn't the person who sold the story to tell. It was my client's story to tell. They're the ones that should -- if they wanted to do a film on this forfeiture, they should have reached out to my client, they should have paid my client, and they could have told the real story about how successful this was and what a good job the Miami-Dade Police Department did for this forfeiture.

SANCHEZ: But generally, don't creators have license over what they decide to do when they tell stories? There's a ton of movies out there that are based on true events that don't actually reflect what happens in the story. That's why they say they're based on true events.

Do you think you're going to have a hard time proving your case?

ALVAREZ: Absolutely not, because they used the same uniforms, the same badges. They portrayed the same county, the same unit. They made it look like this is the actual police department that was involved in.

These were the detectives. Just because they didn't use their names, my client keeps on getting told, hey, how many buckets did that boat cost you? How many buckets are you using to pay for your kid's private school?

[15:50:00]

They have this cloud over their head now because of this movie, but everybody believes it's true because of the disclaimer that was with huge fonts saying that it was based on true facts -- true events. Not to the very end that they have a disclaimer and nobody could see it, nobody could read.

My clients have this cloud. They're getting laughed at. They're getting told on a constant basis what that cost you, one bucket, two buckets, and it's because of this movie.

There has to be a time that we have to say to the movie industry, to the television industry, stop. Back when I grew up, every show about cops were good.

Every movie theater's show cops is good. Now what sells? Corrupt cops, bad cops, violence.

That's what sells, and this is what happened here. They didn't check out to see if the story was right. They just wanted to see violence so they could sell and make a buck.

SANCHEZ: Those kind of depictions have been around forever. I mean, going back to films in the 60s and 70s. I do wonder, Jonathan, what your message is to the people that put this movie together, to Damon and Affleck and their team.

SANTANA: Well, my message to them is that they should have fact- checked and done their due diligence and verified what they were actually putting out there. At the end of the day, when you put out to the people based or inspired by true events, everybody who watches that film is going to believe that what they're watching is true and correct, actually what happened on that day in 2016, and none of that happened. And right now, my reputation is ruined, a reputation that once you lose in the law enforcement profession, you will never get back.

That's something that's pretty much tarnished for the rest of my career that I have remaining.

SANCHEZ: Jonathan Santana, Ignacio Alvarez, thank you both. Appreciate your time.

ALVAREZ: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

Still to come, a heroic rescue off the coast of South Florida. How the Coast Guard saved all 11 people on board a small plane that crash- landed into the Atlantic Ocean.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Now to a heroin rescue in the middle of the ocean. A group of people are back on land and safe after their plane crash-landed near the Bahamas, leaving them stranded for hours on a life raft in the middle of the Atlantic. Thankfully, everyone survived. The U.S. Coast Guard was able to locate and airlift the group to safety.

CNN's Pete Muntean joins us now with more details. So how was the Coast Guard able to find them? PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, as we're learning more about this rescue, it's starting to sound like the makings of a Hollywood screenplay here. We're just now hearing from the members of the United States Air Force involved in pulling all 11 people to safety after they'd been bobbing in the Atlantic for five hours. It was a three-pronged rescue operation involving two airplanes, one from the Coast Guard, one from the Air Force, and an Air Force helicopter.

Central to the mission was the crew of an Air Force HC-130 Combat King rescue plane that happened to already be nearby on water rescue training when that training mission turned into the real thing. These are the new images just released by the 920th Rescue Wing at Patrick Space Force Base. The HC-130 crew says they reached the scene in about 15 minutes when they first heard about it, quickly found their survivors floating together in a lone raft.

Then the crew dropped additional survival rafts, food, water, emergency gear, all down to the survivors below. The same time, a rescue helicopter with para-rescue men on board launched from Florida, and crews say the weather was deteriorating fast, with thunderstorms nearby, seas between three and five feet. The helicopter hovered just 10 feet above the water while these pararescue men jumped in and began hoisting survivors to safety one by one.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. RORY WHIPPLE, U.S. AIR FORCE PARARESCUE: And you could tell just by looking at them that, you know, they were in distress physically, mentally, emotionally. But for us, we trained to a higher -- very high level to deal with this type of thing. So for us, it's just another day of work, another day of training. But this time, instead of training, it was real world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: The Air Force says the crews say they only saw the survivors in the water, not the wreckage of the plane that ditched. But we have confirmed that this was the airplane involved, the specific one, a Beechcraft King Air registered in Panama. Those planes can carry up to 11 people, but it could be pretty tight.

The Federal Aviation Administration says it's not investigating this crash. That means this investigation will be led by authorities in the Bahamas. One Air Force major during that press conference earlier on land in Florida called the survival of all 11 people after ditching in the ocean, quote, pretty miraculous.

SANCHEZ: The survivability of something like that doesn't seem very high, especially with a plane like that.

MUNTEAN: Yes. It's pretty tricky to ditch a plane on the water. And, of course, there's always the risk that the airplane flips over and then begins to sink. So, of course, you want to get out quickly. They tell you this even on a commercial flight. You want to wait till you get out of the plane before you open your life vest, before you open this raft. Of course, in this case, there was only one raft. And so to put 11 people in a relatively small raft, that adds risk to this, too.

You know, something that's also really interesting here is that the air traffic controllers on land in Florida were able to relay to this Air Force crew that this emergency was taking place.

And the crew found the emergency beacon, the ELT, the emergency location transmitter, then found essentially where the group was bobbing in the ocean there. Not really clear what caused this yet. And so we know that the crew of the plane that was ditching was able to relay that they were having an emergency, that they were going down.

But after that, they dropped off a radar contact and radio contact. That's when the Air Force swept in to make this big rescue.

SANCHEZ: So you mentioned that it's unclear what led to the crash. I wonder if there's anything regarding the plane's history that would lead you to believe that there are recurring issues with it.

MUNTEAN: It's right now. It's hard to find the history of this airplane because it's registered in Panama. We don't have as good a flight tracking information as we usually do for planes that are here in the United States.

That sort of timeline still yet to be built. Some big questions here about why there were 11 people on board, what they were doing. We know essentially, they were going from one part of the Bahamas and the Abacos Marsh Harbor to the Grand Bahama.

So it was an inter-Bahamas flight. Really some big questions here about exactly what was going on.

SANCHEZ: Could be a little bit sketch. We don't know.

MUNTEAN: We'll see.

SANCHEZ: We don't know.

[16:00:00]

The last question I have for you, Pete, you mentioned that there was no clarity on where the wreckage was when they first arrived. Is there going to be a black box? Could that be recovered?

MUNTEAN: Usually in an airplane like this, there's not a black box, not a flight data recorder. Some do, some don't. And this is something that the investigators will have to pull. They'll be able to pull off some early details from an airplane, but maybe not the full picture.

SANCHEZ: Those 11 people are lucky there was a training mission going on right then.

MUNTEAN: Darn right.

SANCHEZ: Pete Muntean, thank you so much. THE ARENA with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

END