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Xi Hails New Era in U.S.-China Relations; Crash Survivors Saved After Hours in Life Rafts; Politics and the Pump; Closing Arguments in Musk vs. Altman Trial. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired May 14, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

ERIC BLAND, ATTORNEY FOR VICTIMS OF ALEX MURDAUGH'S FINANCIAL CRIMES: Knows no distance. Maggie and Paul were killed. They have a right to justice. And oftentimes in our country, John, we have to -- a couple trials before it gets it right. Karen Read was tried twice. John Gotti was tried five times.

The process will be corrected. We will not have a clerk of court that will interfere with the jury. And the next judge, whoever it will be, will make a decision on what type of character evidence will come in, or will it be too prejudicial.

Again, the facts of the murder themselves, the circumstantial evidence is so strong that I think there's a high likelihood that he will be convicted again. But there is also a likelihood that there could be a hung jury. No one forecasts a not guilty verdict. But it could be one or two jurors that say, you know, I don't like circumstantial evidence, and I think there's reasonable doubt.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Either way, whatever happens next, people do need to know that Alex Murdaugh is in prison and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Eric Bland, counselor, good to see you. Thank you very much.

BLAND: Yes, sir.

BERMAN: Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, President Trump, last hour, was seen departing a state banquet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. So, they have now wrapped the first full day of this big trip to Beijing. The two leaders toasting each other at the event. Xi calling the relationship between the two countries the most consequential in the world.

Beyond the pomp and circumstance, though, tension is evident over Taiwan. Chinese state media reports that Xi Jinping warned President Trump that Taiwan -- that Taiwan, the democratic, self-governing island Beijing views as part of its territory, is, quote, "the most important issue" in the China -- in China-U.S. relations and could create a very dangerous situation if mishandled. Some analysts and U.S. lawmakers see that as a threat.

Let's get over to CNN's chief national security analyst and anchor Jim Sciutto. He' s watching them -- watching this very closely.

Jim, just how -- we just had Jeff Moon on with me and -- who said that tomorrow is going to be the most critical day of these talks because small group meetings are happening and the tough stuff's all getting -- is going to start getting worked out. How is the White House, do you think, judging success here and how is China?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST AND ANCHOR: Big picture. The tone is one of normalizing relations, stability, right? Finding areas of agreement and finding ways that they don't clash on the areas of disagreement.

Now, on the areas of agreement, you can expect some progress. You'll expect some trade deals, some announcements of big, for instance, Chinese purchases of Boeing passenger jets, Chinese purchases of agricultural products, et cetera. But on the difficult issues, that's where the rubber meets the road, right? Because Trump wants China's help reopening the Strait of Hormuz. And there have been some, I think, comments that the White House would welcome from Xi, from the readout of their meeting, saying that China does not want the Strait of Hormuz to be -- to be blocked in any way. So, that's potential progress.

But on the Taiwan issue, this is the one where there's -- there is real disagreement. I mean the language from the Chinese statement on this, that if handled poorly, that is Taiwan, the two countries will collide or even clash. I mean that's saying, we could go to war over this, right? So, is China pressuring for something in return for help on the Iran War, the Strait of Hormuz?

We know what they want. They want the U.S. to weaken its commitment to Taiwan. The question is, is Donald Trump willing to give that? There are a whole host of people in his own administration who oppose that strongly, but it's all down to President Trump. And I've spoken to folks who have advised Trump in his first administration. They've told me repeatedly, he does not have the same commitment to Taiwan that previous Democratic and Republican presidents have had. That's something to watch closely.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And -- but on the point of the role that China has not played or could play when it comes to Iran, the -- President Trump has said, and maybe he's just kind of boasting, that he doesn't need China to help at all when it comes to Iran.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BOLDUAN: But is it clear how helpful China could be, or how inclined China is or is not to get more involved?

SCIUTTO: Yes, I mean, Trump says that about everybody, right?

BOLDUAN: Yes. SCIUTTO: I mean he says, well, you know, I want Europe to help open the Strait, but I don't need them, right? We've already beaten Iran. I mean, the fact is, a lot of those statements just contradict the facts as we see it. Iran still maintains control. and the president wants China's help, regardless of how he frames it.

You know, China's motivations here, I think you could say, are contradictory to some degree, right? Because China certainly suffers from higher energy prices. It gets a great deal of its oil from Iran and through that Strait. On the other hand, China sees -- and I've been speaking to diplomats in the region, sees advantage to have the U.S., its superpower rival, bogged down in the Middle East once again.

[09:35:12]

Not to mention the U.S. military having depleted its missiles, which it might use to, say, defend Taiwan, right, or to project power in the Pacific. But, you know, there's a shortage of those missiles now. And, you know, Kate, you know, to your earlier point, the U.S. needs China to replenish those supplies, right, because we need rare earths to make those missiles again.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

SCIUTTO: And China still has enormous leverage there. So, you know, whatever President Trump's presentation of America's strength going into this meeting, China feels that it has the upper hand on many of these fronts. And we'll see -- we'll see how they -- how they manage to bridge those gaps.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And we'll see that as they will be picking back up with meetings tomorrow.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BOLDUAN: It's great to see you, Jim. Thank you so much.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, Kate.

We've got some pretty remarkable footage this morning of a rescue off the coast of Florida. With the help from the Coast Guard, the crew on an Air Force training flight were able to find the survivors of a plane that had crashed just hours before. Then they parachuted into the water, saving 11 people who spent over five hours stranded on life rafts.

CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is with me now.

There's been a press conference that you've been listening to. And one of the survivors, I think, spoke. I mean, it's just remarkable there are survivors in this, never mind how they were rescued.

What did you hear?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: We just heard from Olympia Outten, who was on board that plane, traveling with her son and her niece, flying from Marsh Harbor in the Abacos to Freeport on Grand Bahama Island. She described that the pilot got off course due to a storm and was running low on fuel and then decided to ditch in the Atlantic Ocean. She said she prayed in the lone life raft there, thought she was going to die until the rescue from the 920th Rescue Wing of the United States Air Force. The Coast Guard says it was the first to receive the emergency signal, the distress signal from the downed plane at about 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday. Incredibly, the crew of an Air Force HC-130 rescue plane was already nearby on a water rescue training mission when that training mission suddenly turned into the real thing. The HC-130 crew says they found the survivors floating together in that life raft, dropped additional rafts, food, water, emergency gear, helped dispatch an Air Force emergency rescue helicopter.

The Air Force crew says the weather was deteriorating. Olympia also described that from the raft there. She says they went through a thunderstorm. There were seas between three and five feet. The helicopter came down to about ten feet while the pararescue men jump in. They grabbed the survivors to safety one on one. But remember, the survivors were in that life raft for five hours. And this is what Olympia Outten says was running through her head at the time of this incredible ordeal.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLYMPIA OUTTEN, PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR: The boat, it was 11 of us. We was out there for five hours. We were in a storm. (INAUDIBLE) beat on us. We thought no one would have saw us. But I thank God for the U.S. Marines. They saw us. And they save us. And they -- I keep on telling them. I said, Lord, save us. Lord, save us. Let someone see us. Lord, let someone see us because we're out in the sea, to be out on our water and to be out there for five hours and then seeing no line and just seeing long black water. We thought we weren't (ph) going to live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: When she saw the plane, Olympia says, the rescue plane coming to save them, she said she jumped for joy.

The Coast Guard also assisted in this rescue, orbiting overhead in a rescue plane. The Air Force crew says they only saw the survivors in the water, in the raft, not the plane that ditched. We have confirmed this was a plane, a Beechcraft King Air registered to Panama. The United States Federal Aviation Administration not investigating this. This is now up to Bahamian officials to investigate the cause of this incident.

SIDNER: There is so many things going on here with the storm and the rafts, the fact that they survived, the fact that there was a training mission that helped to rescue them, it is mind blowing how this all played out, but thank goodness that they are all OK. And I'm sure this investigation, we will love to learn what happened here with her saying that they didn't have enough fuel for the plane. Yikes.

All right, Pete Muntean, it is always good to see you. Thank you so much for your reporting there.

Up ahead, the latest twist in the battle of the tech titans. Why OpenAI tried to submit a trophy of a golden jackass as part of its evidence.

And the mother convicted of murdering her husband and then writing a children's book about grief learns her fate.

Those stories and more, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:44:28]

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, gas prices up two cents to an average of $4.53 per gallon. You can see how much they are from -- up they are from before the war. And the rising gas prices are fueling its huge jump in what businesses had to shell out last month. The Producer Price Index.

With us now, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

So, gas prices above $4.50 a gallon. You hear people talking about it.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes.

BERMAN: I had a Republican congressman tell me he paid $100 to fill up his tank.

ENTEN: That's a lot of do, re, mi.

BERMAN: Right. That's a lot of money. Where does the president rank when we talk about approval on gas prices?

[09:45:03]

ENTEN: You know, oftentimes when gas prices go up, the president pays a price, but never this much because we're talking about a record here. Take a look at this. Highest disapproval on gas prices. Look at this. President Trump, 79 percent. Seventy-nine percent of Americans disapprove of him on gas prices. Look, the rest of them you see across the board also reached the 70s, but never this high. This is a record high in terms of looking back at every single president this century. Again, President Trump is breaking records across the political map. But on this one, he is also doing so and in a way you, simply put, don't want to be breaking records.

BERMAN: And the gas prices were higher here, but he still is being blamed more at this point.

ENTEN: Exactly right.

BERMAN: Which is interesting. What's the partizan breakdown here?

ENTEN: Yes, OK. Why is he being blamed more, right? Why is he being blamed more? And the partizan breakdown really gets this because, just take a look here, we get the rare trifecta. The rare trifecta. Ooh, ooh, that's scary if you're a Republican these days looking at these numbers because, take a look at this, disapprove on gas prices. Look at this, 97 percent of Democrats, not so much of a surprise. Eighty- five percent of independents.

You know, I was trying to go through the record books to see if there was anybody else who reached 85 percent. I think Bush did right at the very peak. So, I believe tied for the top here.

And then, look at this, 52 percent of Republicans. Look, Republicans have stuck with Donald Trump through everything. But even on gas prices, even they are breaking. You get a majority of Republicans, 52 percent, who disapprove of the president on gas prices. And that is why he, of course, has the highest disapproval rating of all time, at least that I could find for any president on gas prices.

BERMAN: All right, so how much are gas prices weighing on people when it comes to their economic conditions?

ENTEN: Yes, you know, you see these numbers, right? You see, of course, the highest disapproval rating, 79 percent. But that only tells part of the story because it wouldn't matter so much if people didn't care. But they care a whole heck of a lot.

Take a look here. OK, top economic problem facing your family. Gas and travel costs. You know, you go back a year ago it was just five percent. Look at where we are today, 23 percent. Twenty-three percent say that, in fact, it is their top economic problem facing their family. So, all of a sudden you got 79 percent of the public disapproving of you, and now 23 percent of them way, way up in terms of the percentage who say that it's their top economic problem. This is a political nightmare. And President Trump better hope that those gas prices fall. Republicans, especially, because otherwise this holds up going into the midterm elections. That is no bueno.

BERMAN: Yes, 23 percent. We'll see how they feel when they hit the road for holiday weekend, for the Memorial Day travel weekend.

ENTEN: Oh, you got that right.

BERMAN: All right, where do people -- what are the prediction markets saying about where they see gas prices going?

ENTEN: Yes, OK. So, you see this, this five to 23 percent. And, you know, I mentioned, hey, will, gas prices fall. Well, you look at the Kalshi prediction market. Chance of gas prices this year rise above $5 a gallon. You know, you go back to the beginning of this month, it was 74 percent in terms of the chance it would rise above $5 a gallon. Now it's 68 percent, down a little bit. But the fact that we're still dealing with the majority of those who are putting their money where their mouths are, thinking that we're going to get above $5 a gallon, that would be a political, political, devastating nightmare for the president of the United States, and more so for his party in Congress, which, of course, a lot of them are up for this midterm election.

BERMAN: Yes, well, every member in the House is up.

ENTEN: Every member in the House and a third of the Senate.

BERMAN: Every single one. Every single member in the House.

We have a quick follow up on yesterday.

ENTEN: Yes, a quick follow up on yesterday. You know, yesterday I said that Donald Trump owned the top five worst net approval ratings when it came to inflation and/or the cost of living. That's true. The top three are him completely and the other two he is tied for four and five.

BERMAN: All right, so he podiumed for sure.

ENTEN: He podiumed.

BERMAN: He -- all the spaces on the podium there.

ENTEN: He was right there.

BERMAN: All right, Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

BERMAN: A lot of news this morning. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:53:30]

BOLDUAN: So, the high stakes legal battle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman is nearing an end. And yesterday there was, just to add into the mix, some interesting testimony from OpenAI's chief futurist involving the statue of a donkey.

CNN's Hadas Gold is here to explain.

And please explain.

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's not just the donkey, it's the backside of a donkey. So, yesterday in court, OpenAI's lawyers wanted to submit as evidence, they brought in an actual trophy. It is -- in gold. It is the backside of a donkey or a jackass. There's a picture of that right there. That was from a 2018 meeting. So, Elon Musk helped fund and co-found OpenAI. He left in 2018. He had a big meeting with the OpenAI staff, announcing that he was going to leave. One of the staffers there, Jason Akiem (ph) -- Josh Akiem (ph), excuse me, started having a discussion with Elon Musk about why he was leaving, whether he was leaving to develop A.I. too fast, to not care about safety, and Elon Musk called him a jackass. So, a few weeks later, OpenAI employees presented to Josh Akiem this trophy of the backside of a donkey, saying, "never stop being a jackass for safety."

Now, it was a funny moment in court, but there is a reason behind why OpenAI is doing this. Because one of Elon Musk's reasons for bringing this massive lawsuit against OpenAI is, he says that they ditched their nonprofit mission about building a safe A.I. for the benefit of humanity in favor of profit, saying that's why they transitioned from a pure nonprofit to having a for profit structure.

OpenAI tried to present this moment and this trophy to try and illustrate to the jury and the judge, OpenAI has always still cared about safety, and that's why they cared so much that they presented this golden jackass to somebody who was still at OpenAI, their chief futurist, who is in charge of any, you know, future development of OpenAI's ChatGPT.

[09:55:12]

So, a light moment in court, but a serious kind of underside to it. Today we have closing arguments. The last chance, of course, both sides get to make their arguments to the jury and the judge. Then the jury just gets to go deliberate. But it is ultimately up to the judge whether she decides that Elon Musk is right and whether he gets what he wants, which, if he gets what he wants, would include reverting OpenAI back to a complete nonprofit that would totally, obviously, scramble OpenAI's plans, especially for their very, very valuable IPO that's expected later this year.

So that's why so many people are watching this trial. It's not just a battle of these tech titans, a battle of the billionaires. It could have huge ramifications for the future of A.I. and these tools that are going to completely change our life going forward.

SIDNER: I just -- sorry, I just have a really quick question. Elon Musk is in China right now. Usually when a trial is going on, you can't leave the country. Was he allowed?

GOLD: He was not -- he was not actually released from the trial. He was still technically in recall status and he just left. So, that was a risk that he took. And, luckily, he was not called back to be a witness.

SIDNER: All right.

BERMAN: Good for you for having a real question. All I'm thinking about is the donkey's butt, all right.

BOLDUAN: I was like, and watch Sam Altman's entire operation solved by a jackass.

BERMAN: There you go.

SIDNER: I would like to win that award.

BERMAN: Hadas Gold, thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: Yes, thanks. SIDNER: Thank you, Hadas.

BERMAN: Capturing the imagination of CNN NEWS CENTRAL, a golden donkey ass.

That's it for us. "SITUATION ROOM" up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)