Return to Transcripts main page
CNN News Central
Trump & Xi Hail Positive Talks as World Awaits Day 2 of Summit; House Launches Bipartisan Effort to Address Sexual Harassment in Congress; Pennsylvania Man Back Home After Nine Months in ICE Custody; TN Police Officer Rescues Mother & Kids From Burning Home. Aired 2- 2:30p ET
Aired May 14, 2026 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAREK DESSIMOZ, STUDENT: -- And this lady, I see her inside and she runs over and opens the door and she's shocked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": An Amazon delivery driver also joined in on the rescue, helping hold back the woman when she tried to go back in the burning house to save her cat. Fortunately, the fire department says the cat survived.
A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": A warning over Taiwan and an offer to help on Iran. Chinese Leader, Xi Jinping says the U.S. needs to be careful about how it handles Taiwan, but President Trump says Xi is also offering help on the war with Iran.
Secret settlements, over $0.5 million of taxpayer money is paid out to settle congressional sexual harassment claims. New documents show that number was double what was previously known.
SANCHEZ: And brace yourself for longer heat waves and fiercer droughts. El Nino is coming faster than expected. The impact on our weather could be historic.
We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."
We start this hour with President Trump's historic summit with China's Leader, Xi Jinping. Day 1 wrapping up with a lavish dinner and a toast between the two superpowers. But new tension points appear to be setting the stakes for Day 2.
KEILAR: Earlier, Xi warned that Taiwan could become a very dangerous situation if the U.S. and China mishandle it. But when it comes to the war with Iran, President Trump says Xi wants to help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: President Xi would like to see a deal made. He would like to see a deal made. And he did offer, he said, if I can be of any help at all, I would like to be of help. He'd like to see the Hormuz Strait open.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: CNN Senior International Correspondent, Ivan Watson is live in Hong Kong.
Ivan, what else stood out?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, I think it's that these two leaders really wanted to get along on this visit. This is the first time a U.S. president has visited Beijing in nearly ten years. That was President Trump in his first term. And they were kind of lavishing compliments on each other.
The line that the Chinese government has been repeating for years now is about wanting a win-win situation, where the world's two largest economies work together instead of in confrontation, and that lifts the whole world.
Here's another sample of some of the rhetoric that was coming out of the Chinese leader as he greeted President Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
XI JINPING, CHINESE LEADER (through translator): We both believe that the China-U.S. relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. We must make it work and never mess it up. Both China and the United States stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: So there's an awful lot of talk here about working on cooperating on trade, on things like tourism, on having two more face- to-face meetings later this year at other summits. The tension points, though, were addressed, where Xi Jinping repeated what has long been a big priority for Beijing, and that is the status of Taiwan, and not wanting to see any move towards any independence for that self- governing island which the Chinese government claims for itself.
And the U.S. has had this policy of strategic ambiguity about this. The U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has said there's no change in the U.S. policy. And then the other key issue here is, of course, the Iran War and the disruption, the energy crisis that all of Asia is dealing with right now.
One of the goals of Beijing for this meeting is to try to get some stability with its relationship. In fact, they came up with a new buzz word or phrase, the constructive, strategic, stable relationship that they want between Washington and Beijing, which is a challenge when you don't really know what the Trump administration is going to say or announce from one week or one day to the next. So that's what they're working on here during this two-day summit.
SANCHEZ: Ivan Watson, live for us in Hong Kong, thank you so much. President Trump is heading into these meetings with record-high disapproval ratings with recent polls showing that most Americans are very downbeat about the economy and they're blaming the president's policies.
KEILAR: CNN Business Senior Reporter, David Goldman is with us now. And David, how is the U.S. economy impacting the leverage that Trump has in these meetings?
DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, Ivan spelled it out really well about what they're talking about. So the question is about leverage. Let's take a look at this poll. We just had this the other day. 77 percent of Americans blame President Trump for reducing their cost of living.
[14:05:00]
They are not happy. And what is the difference between Trump and Xi? Trump is in an election year and his Republican Party is in an election year. This matters in terms of how much leverage he can impose on Xi. And so, one of the big things that he's going to be asking for is rare earths. 93 percent of all rare earths are produced in China.
So why does the United States need them? Because basically everything that goes beep uses one of these things, including military equipment. And what are we running out of right now because of the Iran War? Military equipment. We need this for that. These minerals, because I know you know this, but other people might not, or you know, they do all these kinds of things like help EVs move, LEDs, cancer treatments even, but the big thing is about war machines and we need more of those in the United States.
SANCHEZ: Huge fans of Yttrium here on CNN.
KEILAR: And Terbium.
GOLDMAN: That's my favorite.
SANCHEZ: Terbium, so dope.
GOLDMAN: Terbium is OK on a Wednesday, but yeah, anyway.
(LAUGH)
SANCHEZ: David, you've talked about the impact that the war in Iran is having on the United States. What about the impact that it's having on China?
GOLDMAN: Yeah, it's a huge issue because look at this. 80 percent of Iranian oil goes to China and that was before the war, so this is probably even more. So China is reliant on Iranian oil to make their economy run, but the Strait of Hormuz is closed. Now, China has a ton of oil stockpiled. They're doing OK for now, but President Trump knows China needs the
Strait open. He's going to be asking them for help with that.
KEILAR: Of course, Trump and Xi have more to discuss than Iran, right, David?
GOLDMAN: Yeah, I thought you might ask that, so I prepared a slide on it.
Obviously, Taiwan is one of those big things. $25 billion is what the Taiwanese legislature just approved for U.S. military equipment purchases. That is not making Xi happy and he said, of all the things, this is the biggest issue on his plate. But that's not the only thing. Tariffs is the other big thing.
Now, President Trump a year ago, had 145 percent tariff, basically an embargo on all Chinese goods, saying it's too expensive to even bring them into this country. Now, that has gone all the way down to 10 percent. Why is that? Because the Supreme Court rules that he can't do this. He can't leverage all of that tariff power. And so what's Trump going to use to make Xi give in to his demands? We'll have to see.
KEILAR: All right. David Goldman, psychic, elemental and making us all a little bit smarter.
(LAUGH)
KEILAR: We appreciate it sir. Still to come, a CNN review finding taxpayers paid hundreds of thousands of dollars more than previously known for confidential sexual harassment settlements involving members of Congress and others.
SANCHEZ: Plus, a top U.S. military official just testified about Iran's missile capabilities. Hear what he says they are still capable of. And later an American passenger on board the Hantavirus cruise is allowed to move out of their biocontainment unit. We have the latest update on the outbreak when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:13:10]
SANCHEZ: We're tracking new efforts in Congress aimed at making it easier for sexual harassment victims to come forward. Republican House Speaker, Mike Johnson, and Democratic Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, say a new bipartisan partnership will reform the way that sexual harassment claims in Congress are being handled.
The announcement comes after two Congressmen were forced to resign from their seats just last month following serious allegations of misconduct against staffers. And those are the allegations we know about.
KEILAR: A CNN review of hundreds of documents finds taxpayers have paid more than $0.5 million in confidential sexual harassment settlements. That's nearly double the amount previously made public. We've got a team of reporters covering all angles of this story up on the Hill.
Let's start with CNN Senior Reporter, Annie Grayer, on those settlements. Annie, what are we learning? What else are we learning about those payouts?
ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: So, Brianna and Boris, all of these sexual harassment settlements were paid for by taxpayers on the behalf of members of Congress, none of whom are currently serving still. And they were all happening years ago. But the reason that we're learning about them now is because Republican Congresswoman, Nancy Mace, subpoenaed the office that handles and oversees all of these settlements and they've started producing documents to Congress.
Now, in their initial production, they revealed six sexual harassment settlement cases that totaled around $300,000. But since then, they've expanded their scope and found another payment of $220,000 for a sexual harassment settlement. That's the largest settlement that we have seen to date and nearly doubled the overall total that we had up until that point.
And this is a settlement made on behalf of former Democratic Congressman, Alcee Hastings when he was overseeing a European Commission. Hastings denied all wrongdoing. He has since passed away.
[14:15:00]
But when I was reviewing this file, the woman who brought forward this case against Hastings, it took her over four years to complete. And throughout the process, she really talked about how difficult it was to navigate in her case file and mentioned how she felt like the system was really designed to only benefit the member and not her, who was bringing forward these allegations.
Now, after 2018 is when Congress changed the laws, so taxpayers are no longer responsible for fronting the bills here, but Republicans like Congresswoman Nancy Mace and others wanted to see these files as this new push for accountability is happening on Capitol Hill because it really sheds light on what this process has used to look like.
SANCHEZ: Let's turn now to CNN Congressional Correspondent, Lauren Fox, who has the new bipartisan partnership that was announced this week. Lauren, who's going to be leading this team? What exactly are they hoping to accomplish?
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there are two women who are going to be leading this team and essentially, you have here Democratic Representative, Teresa Ledger Fernandez, along with Republican Representative, Kat Cammack. Now, they each lead their respective party's women caucuses and obviously, they're going to be working in coordination with the House Administration Committee, as well as Democratic and Republican leadership, but their goal here is essentially to come up with a set of potential reforms that would make it easier for women or men who face sexual harassment here on Capitol Hill to come forward.
Right now, there are a myriad of places, a myriad of offices that you can access and go to with these kinds of complaints, but each of them have their own pitfalls. They're very complicated procedures to move forward with and obviously, if you are someone who is young, who is working on Capitol Hill, who wants to continue working in politics, there are a lot of reasons that you may not feel comfortable coming forward and that is exactly what they're trying to confront. I just want to read you a statement from Representative Kat Cammack, who's on this task force.
She says, "The fear of retaliation and damage to careers, public scrutiny and institutional pressures often silence victims long before justice has a chance to speak. We cannot claim to support women while ignoring the very real barriers that prevent them from reporting misconduct in the first place." Now, we should note that despite the fact that this is a bipartisan effort, a rare one in an election year, there are still so many barriers for them to be able to come to agreement on what this process should look like moving forward.
There's really a long road ahead for these two women and their associates to come up with suggestions that actually have a chance of passing in the House of Representatives.
SANCHEZ: Yeah. Lauren Fox, Annie Grayer, thanks so much for keeping an eye on this story.
Up next, the story of how a Pennsylvania man's neighbors helped him get home and reunite with his family after almost nine months in ICE detention.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:22:29]
KEILAR: A Pennsylvania community is celebrating the return of a man who was detained by ICE for nine months. Carlos Della Valle entered the U.S. illegally decades ago, escaping violence in Mexico. But as CNN's Danny Freeman reports, the life he built in America was shattered during a family vacation two years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a quiet suburb of Philadelphia, signs like these have dotted lawns for months. A plea from a close-knit community, "Bring Carlos Home."
CARLOS DELLA VALLE, DETAINED BY DHS: When you're inside, there's really not much you can do other than --
ANGELA DELLA VALLE, WIFE OF CARLOS DELLA VALLE: Endure.
C. DELLA VALLE: -- endure, be strong.
FREEMAN (voice-over): This is Carlos Della Valle. He's been living in Downingtown, Pennsylvania for nearly two decades, working, raising a family with a U.S. citizen wife and a U.S. citizen son now in college. But for years, Carlos had a secret.
The Mexican national says he crossed the border illegally back in 1997 when he was just 20-years-old, fleeing violence in his home country.
C. DELLA VALLE: If I had known what I was doing at that moment, I probably would have never done it.
FREEMAN (voice-over): Carlos fell in love with his wife, Angela, and said the two consulted with immigration attorneys to get him legal status once they were married in 2002. But they say the advice they got was wait for Congress to pass laws helping mixed-status families.
A. DELLA VALLE: When we got together, we had no idea that there was not going to be a pathway for us.
C. DELLA VALLE: They did say, stay out of trouble, don't do anything that you might regret later. And that's what I've been doing personally.
FREEMAN (voice-over): But in 2024, during the final days into the Biden administration, his luck ran out. On Christmas Day, while on vacation with his family in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Carlos was stopped at the airport in St. Thomas.
He was told he had a final order of removal and was charged with illegal re-entry. His trial was set for the following August during the first year of the new, more hard-line Trump administration.
FREEMAN: Did you have a sense that it might become harder in the next administration?
C. DELLA VALLE: They actually said it right there. Someone mentioned something to her, like, oh, you know, we're in the process of changing the way we do things.
FREEMAN (voice-over): His community rallied. Family and neighbors from Pennsylvania wrote letters, and some even flew to St. Thomas to advocate for him in open court. Carlos was found not guilty, but DHS still detained him because he still lacked status.
For the next nearly nine months, Carlos was in custody, shuttled between ICE detention centers all throughout the south, including the infamous Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades.
[14:25:00]
C. DELLA VALLE: Whatever anybody has seen on TV is true. You are in cages. It's like tents and eight cages per tent, you know, and 32 people in each cage and I mean, no privacy.
FREEMAN (voice-over): All the while, his wife, Angela, followed.
FREEMAN: How have the past nine months been for you?
A. DELLA VALLE: They've been the hardest days of my whole life. Every day felt like a year.
C. DELLA VALLE: I was worried about my body, not my mind. I believe I got all the strength from the people outside fighting for me. FREEMAN (voice-over): Back in Downingtown, support and awareness grew, neighbors started raising money. The local church held rallies, politicians took notice, and then, without explanation, after more than 250 days of detention, Carlos was released. He arrived home last week.
(CROWD CHEERING)
A. DELLA VALLE: We did it.
C. DELLA VALLE: All I wanted to do was hug people and that's really what I did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carlos means everything to this community. We are a community of good neighbors here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It has restored my faith in who we are as Americans.
C. DELLA VALLE: Just because I wasn't born in this country doesn't mean that I don't love this country.
(CROWD CHEERING)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Danny Freeman for that report.
A police officer is being hailed a hero after saving a mom and two kids from a burning home. New video shows Officer Eli Rogers first on the scene at a house fire in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Now watch from his perspective as he charges into the home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OFFICER ELI ROGERS, CHATTANOOGA POLICE DEPARTMENT: Hey, come here, come here. You're OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Officer Rogers spoke with CNN about that moment today.
ROGERS (through telephone): The police officer, we're not typically trained to deal with fires, but my mind was put to action mostly at the time and just knew that once the door was open and then I could see them, but they weren't coming out, I knew I had to go in and get them out.
SANCHEZ: Thankfully everyone made it out of the house with no injuries. After the rescue, the Chattanooga Police Department said that while officers are not trained in firefighting, they do take an oath to serve and protect, which is obviously what Rogers did.
Next, back to President Trump's high-stakes summit in China. Trump says President Xi has offered to help broker a peace deal with Iran. But new reporting finds that U.S. intelligence officials believe China is exploiting the war with Iran to its advantage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
