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Family Demands Answers after ICE Detainee Dies in Custody; Qatar: Drafts of Potential U.S.-Iran Agreement Being Circulated; AI Companies Meet at White House to Discuss Safety Review Process; Trump Creates Commission to Help with Military Family Policies; Dems Call for Federal Investigation into Trump's Meme Coin. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 04, 2026 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

MARIA SANTANA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... were numb. He said he had received some medical attention but that he was promised more tests, but he did not know when these tests were going to be given. She also said that he suffered from diabetes, from seizures and from high blood pressure and that he was not receiving his medications while in detention.

He was denied his medications several times. The most heartbreaking part of this press conference was his 12-year-old daughter who now says she has to grow up without her father. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEY LOPEZ, LOPEZ-CORNEJO'S DAUGHTER: And I'm going to grow up without a father. They didn't even let him see me one last time before he died. We had so many plans, but we never did that because we're just heartless monsters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANTANA: And the daughter says that she tried to see her father several times but was denied the opportunity to see him one last time. Now ICE denies these accusations. In a statement they said that "When Lopez-Cornejo experienced a medical emergency while in ICE custody the facility staff responded immediately and called 911 for emergency medical services. The official cause of death remains pending further medical examination. And "While in custody they say that Lopez-Cornejo received a proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals."

Various immigrant rights groups organizations here have denounced many times of this facility for not providing adequate medication for the detainees saying they also live in horrible, horrible conditions -- Brian.

BRIAN ABEL, CNN HOST: Yes, you just see and hear the family's heartbreak there and Delaney Hall has faced accusations of inhumane conditions previously. What more are you able to tell us about that?

SANTANA: Well yes this is a place that has been you know witness to many, many protests at times a tense between ICE and protesters. Also, a group of detainees did start a hunger strike a few weeks ago saying that they live in deplorable conditions, that they are given contaminated food, that they are routinely denied access to medical care. ICE of course denies that. Says that all of their detainees receive adequate medical care and their medications.

They also say, obviously, that this is the 56th death at least of someone in ICE custody since Trump took office in January 2021 -- Brian.

ABEL: All right Maria Santana for us in New Jersey. Maria, thank you.

And still to come for us, the latest from the White House in response to Iran's threat of a potential military escalation against the U.S. Navy aimed at breaking the blockade of Iranian ports.

[14:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Qatari mediators say drafts for a possible deal between the U.S. and Iran are being circulated but in the critical Strait of Hormuz tensions are continuing to grow. Iran is threatening to attack the U.S. Navy if Washington continues its blockade of Iranian ports. And that threat follows President Trump's own warning to Tehran that this is the country's last chance to sign a deal.

Kristen Holmes is at the White House. And Kristen, Secretary of State Marco Rubio says progress is being made but nothing final here. What can you tell us?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No finality were the words he used when it came to free passage in the Strait of Hormuz. One of the things that he said is that there are ships still going through. But obviously, we know from just our own observation, from keeping track of the ships going through, it is few and far between. It is not what they want. Which again, is a free open passageway in the Strait of Hormuz.

Now President Trump, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent they all said that there would likely be a deal as early as today. Unclear if that's still going to happen as of this moment. As you noted, we have Iran on the other side of this threatening that U.S. naval blockade, saying he's going to attack the U.S. Navy -- and they're going to attack the U.S. Navy.

This is a critical point here because within these U.S. official conversations that I'm having and that are happening privately, they do believe that the blockade on the Strait of Hormuz is one of their most powerful assets. So, they're going to be not inclined to remove the blockade until they have a full commitment from Iran in order to reopen the Strait and actually have this free passageway through here.

Now Qatar has said that there is a lot of progress being made behind the scenes. But really, Brianna, and the thing to note here, what they're talking about is a very short stopgap. They're looking for something that is just over a short amount of time to get these partners -- or parties back to the negotiating table. Right now, there are no direct talks between the United States and Iran and mediators behind the scenes are working to try to get those talks started again.

It really does feel from talking to U.S. officials that we are back at square one in terms of talking about the MOU the Memorandum of Understanding and its core tenants even if they aren't actually talking about the piece of paper they signed.

KEILAR: Yes, Kristen Holmes thank you so much for the latest there from the White House.

Still to come a push to regulate AI taking center stage as the White House meets with top tech companies about reviewing advanced models before they're released.

[14:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ABEL: The nation's leading AI companies are meeting at the White House today. Meta, Anthropic, Google and OpenAI set to discuss the Trump administration's framework for reviewing new AI models before they are released to the public. The voluntary review is aimed at addressing any potential national security risk without officially regulating the industry.

Multiple sources familiar with the discussions tell CNN it's unclear what the final details of the framework are including what entity within the administration will be leading the review.

Let's discuss all of this with editor-at-large at TechRadar, Lance Ulanoff. And Lance, the government has emphasized that participation in the framework is voluntary. Under what terms are these companies participating?

LANCE ULANOFF, EDITOR AT LARGE, TECHRADAR: I mean they -- look, these companies have all been calling for some sort of regulation. Maybe it's because they feel a little scared straight after the whole Hugging Face incident, you know, where OpenAI's own models kind of jumped out of the sandbox and went after Hugging Face because it thought it could solve things. So, they're all interested in regulation and they're all willing to sort of show these bleeding- edge, leading-edge models to the U.S. government in some fashion.

[14:45:00]

But I think they have as many questions as we do about how does this work? At what point do they view them? How do they vet them? What exactly are they looking for? How do they test them?

I just have a thousand questions about how this might actually work.

ABEL: Well and I bet some of the questions around this next topic, the conversation around regulating AI, it so often comes back to the central idea of whether doing so will put us behind China in the AI arms race. Is that a factor here? How do you see it?

ULANOFF: Oh, 100 percent that's a factor. It's such a -- it's such a fine line that we're riding here because we need to remain competitive. But we also need safety.

We also need regulation. The fact of the matter is in China, that's not really a concern. You know, it's sort of like the development arm is married in some ways to the government arm in China.

So, they don't really worry about it and they just keep going. In fact, in that incident I mentioned earlier, an open-source model from China was used to combat the OpenAI attack at Hugging Face. So, you know, we have to figure out how to manage the control, but without falling far behind.

And I have to tell you that from my perspective, this administration will lean toward staying ahead of China if at all possible.

ABEL: OK, and Lance AI data centers, they've really become a major flashpoint in local politics. Just yesterday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issuing a temporary pause to new data center grid connections over concerns they could destabilize the state's electric grid.

But all across the country, we have seen city council meetings just explode over this idea of whether to allow data centers into communities. What should we know about the data center boom?

ULANOFF: Well, the thing is this, this is the situation with AI sort of across the board. This technology is moving so fast that we've had very little time to figure out its impact. So, the impact's happening in real time.

There's a tremendous demand for AI across all of these companies and all of these entities. People are using every day around the world, which means we need more data centers. But then in real time, as those data centers are popping up, people are showing real concern about the drawn on energy, the drawn on resources like water, the way it makes their communities look.

And so again, we have an ad hoc situation. States by state are making these rules about data centers. And you may notice that the administration's not happy about that.

They'd rather that we build more data centers because we have to stay competitive with China. So, it's like we cannot -- this is a horse that has galloped so far out of the stable, we can't catch up to it. And I don't see any good solutions at the moment.

ABEL: Don't see any wranglers for those horses. All right, Lance Ulanoff, appreciate your time and expertise. Thank you -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Now to this week's Home Front and a much needed spotlight on our nation's military families. President Trump has signed an executive order to establish a military spouse commission, which is chaired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's wife, Jennifer, and joined by the spouses of top military officials. The commission will focus on the issues affecting military spouses and military families, and it aims to advise the president on policies to address them.

And as we are now in the sixth month of the Iran war, those are issues that are more relevant than ever. And they're also very well documented. So, let's zoom in on some of the big issues here.

The biggest one is military spouse employment. Right now, the unemployment rate stands at 23 percent. Now, for context, the national unemployment rate was last clocked at 4.2 percent in June. And this number it's not a one off. Military spouse unemployment is consistently many times the national unemployment rate. And then 70 percent of part time or full time spouses are underemployed. That means they're overqualified for the job that they're performing.

And that really contributes to the financial instability that military families are reporting as a big issue. Like most American families, a dual income is vitally important to them. 68 percent say they need it to be financially stable.

And all of these, by the way, these statistics are from the annual military family lifestyle survey. It's the largest collection of data about active duty reserve guard and veteran families, which is conducted by the nonprofit Blue Star Families, of which full disclosure, I am a member of the board, though I have nothing to do with any of this data collection.

Childcare is a major concern for military families. 86 percent say that costs are too high, 86 percent. 67 percent say that waitlists are too long, or there aren't enough spaces for their kids. That's a big problem when you're moving every two to three years. And then more than half say they are concerned about the quality of care that's available.

And this number will stop you in your tracks. It is food instability, and it is rocking the armed forces. Almost three out of 10 of those surveyed are categorized as having low or very low food security.

That goes up to 40 percent with respondents whose service member is enlisted. Those surveyed are categorized as having low or very low food security. That goes up to 40 percent with respondents whose service member is enlisted versus an officer.

So increasingly, policymakers are looking at all of these numbers, and they're drawing a direct line to military readiness. So, these are really staggering numbers, especially for a nation at war that's relying so much on the military families who are supporting their service members.

And still to come, a new push to investigate President Trump's meme coin after its collapse left nearly a million investors facing steep losses.

[14:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: Now to some of the headlines we are watching this hour. Three lions at a zoo in Tokyo have died within a week after showing signs of heat stress during a stretch of record-breaking heat there. The zoo closed its lion exhibit in late July when several of their big cats started showing health problems.

A total of 10 lions received treatment for heat stress symptoms, including loss of appetite and fatigue. Four are now doing well. The rest are still getting treated.

Also, hundreds of people have been forced to evacuate because of this volcano eruption in Guatemala. The Fuego volcano has been spewing lava, ash and fast-moving clouds of hot gas. It's one of the most active volcanoes in Central America, and hundreds were killed during a previous eruption back in 2018.

And McDonald's sales are slowing despite more deals and discounts. Today, the fast-food chain reported its sales grew less than 1 percent in the second quarter, despite promotional tie-ins with the FIFA World Cup and K-Pop Demon Hunters. The company's CEO says all the special promotions may have overwhelmed their various restaurants and led to slower service -- Brian.

ABEL: Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal are calling for an investigation into President Trump's meme coin. They say they're concerned that it may constitute, as quote, an illegal scam. Trump launched the meme coin days before his inauguration in 2025.

At first, the coin's value exploded, but then it crashed in an epic sell-off, impacting nearly a million investors.

Let's discuss this with CNN senior business reporter David Goldman. And David, Warren is joined by Blumenthal here calling for this investigation. What are they basing these claims, these scam claims on?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS REPORTER: Well, there were massive losses, right? I mean, this coin at one point was worth $9 billion. Today, it is worth less than $400 million.

That's like going from 100 to 1, basically. And so, a lot of folks were wiped out. The actual losses that people who invested in this meme coin realized were close to $4 billion.

But then the president and his company, the Trump Organization, well, they made a lot of money on this, more than $600 million in fees and in other transactions. And so, you know, it looks like the president is making out really well here, even though the actual investors in the thing that he was selling, well, they lost a ton of money. And so, the thing that Senators Warren and Blumenthal are saying is that, well, this has scam written all over it.

So that's the argument anyway. That's the facts that they're presenting. But there's more to this story, because remember, none of this is illegal. The president didn't actually do anything wrong here, according to the way that the law is written, which allows people to make transactions, you know, make fees on the kind of transactions that are being sold here. So, the president can make the money. The people who invest it, well, they're taking on a considerable amount of risk.

And it turns out that when they lost everything, they ended up paying a lot to the president and to his company here.

ABEL: So, you're saying there's no evidence that the president factually did anything wrong at this moment. Then why launch this investigation if your Senators Warren and Blumenthal is it to maybe appease the folks that lost so much money by investing into meme coins? Or is there actually an endgame here of finding evidence of wrongdoing?

GOLDMAN: Well, potentially. Listen, I mean, you know, politics are politics. I can't explain why it is that they're looking at any given thing.

But, you know, look, when there are that many folks who lost out money, when we're talking about billions and billions of dollars in losses, I think that it's worth at least investigating to see if there was any fraud there. That's certainly what the senators are saying. The question is, was there anything that looked like what they call a rug pull?

It's pretty common in these meme coins where you have ...

END