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CNN International: Trump Touts Economy, War With Iran, Blasts Democrats; Sources: Houthis Make Push To Capture Yemeni Port Of Mocha; Next Hearing Set For The End Of The Month; Anthropic Employee Quits, Sounds Alarm On A.I. Safety Concerns. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired September 10, 2026 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[04:00:53]
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm Polo Sandoval live in New York.
And ahead on "CNN Newsroom," Donald Trump headlines a GOP midterm convention in the state of Texas, what he's promising Americans if they help keep Republicans in power this midterm.
And CNN gets exclusive access to the vital last link getting gulf oil to world markets now under threat of the expanding war with Iran.
Plus, the first of its kind forensic technique that helped identify one 9/11 victim nearly 25 years after the World Trade Center attack, yet, many victims remain unidentified. I'll be speaking with an expert about how the science can help bring closure for families.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from New York, this is "CNN Newsroom with Polo Sandoval."
SANDOVAL: Welcome. U.S. President Donald Trump going all out in his quest to keep Republican lawmakers in power in Congress on the first day of his midterm convention in Dallas, Texas
He promised every American adult would get $5,000 in a dividend if the GOP manages to keep control of the House and Senate in November.
But his party is facing some strong headwinds with an unpopular economy. Well, it's high gasoline prices, of course, and the war with Iran continues.
President urging voters once again to pretend that his name is on the midterm ballot. And he predicted economic relief is just around the corner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By the way, oil will be going down as soon as we win the war with Iran, which is taking place right now. We'll win it. We're winning it. We control the Hormuz Strait. I think we should call the Hormuz Strait -- we should call it the Trump's -- I should get something out of it, the Trump Strait.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: President Trump also bragged about border security, lower crime rates, and more foreign investmen.
CNN's White House correspondent Alayna Treene reports from Dallas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump spoke for nearly two hours on Wednesday. And the purpose really of Republicans' first ever midterm convention can be signed up in these few words from him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot.
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TREENE: That really is the goal that some of the president's political advisors and members of his operation tell me that they want with this event, which is essentially they are trying to drive out as many members of the president's base, the fiercest supporters who make up the MAGA universe to the polls on November 3rd. And they have 55 days to do it.
TREENE: Now, you heard the president really hit on a lot of the same things that he actually talks about on a daily basis. He talked about Iran. He tried to explain, of course, that even though this war is dragging on maybe even past the midterms that he believes the goal of it, that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon, is still an important one.
He talked about the economy, also, not really an issue many Republicans particularly those in these vulnerable battleground districts want to be talking about right now. He also discussed his ballroom.
So, these are all hot topics we know he hits on a lot. And a lot of this actually gave me deja vu from the campaign trail in 2024. It was a type of event and scene that you would have seen back when he was running on the ballot and he was running for president once again.
But look, I also think, you know, he talked about the stakes a bit. He talked about Mike Johnson who has a very small lead in the House right now with the House majority. He got -- Mike Johnson got a standing ovation.
He also talked about the Senate majority leader John Thune. Thune actually got some boos, which I think is emblematic of the type of crowd in the convention center on Wednesday.
But Trump defended him saying he's facing a lot of opposition. I think that was a point to show just how high the stakes are for lawmakers in Washington D.C.
All to say the president said, he's going to be campaigning aggressively over the next 55 days. He wants to visit all of the different battleground district. So, stay tuned for more speeches from the president.
Alayna Treene, CNN, Dallas, Texas.
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[04:05:03]
SANDOVAL: Let's stay on this. Earlier, I spoke with Republican strategist, Katie Frost, in Dallas. And I asked her about President Trump urging voters to pretend that he's on the ballot come November with this 35 percent approval rating. I asked if that's a smart strategy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATIE FROST, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: It was all about turnout when you think about these midterm elections. And one of the key demographics that the Republicans need to have turnout in order to be successful are those voters who show up when President Trump was on the ballot, but they don't show up otherwise.
You need the people that showed up in '16, '20, and '24, who were absent in '18 and '22. And that is why President Trump is campaigning on this message.
Another key group that we need to see showing up are families. When married voters with children show up and vote, Republicans win. And that is why the Republican Party, you just see a lot of their messaging is targeting families, helping the family thrive.
Because when we have strong families, we have a strong country. And we have a strong country, good things happen.
So, why is President Trump saying, pretend like I'm on the ballot? Because for a lot of voters, that is the thing that will drive them out there in these midterms. And those are the people we need.
SANDOVAL: If you were consulting some of these Republican candidates, especially those on the ballots, Katie, what would be your recommendation, though, in terms of areas that do need improvement to try to connect with American voters, who want to hear perhaps less about the previous Biden administration, and more about when this war will end, or -- or the issues that affect them at home?
FROST: I will focus on saying how we are going to have our priorities in the right place.
As a Republican Party, we are the party that wants to help you and your family thrive. We want to stop, waste, fraud, and abuse in all these government programs, and make sure that money goes back to you.
We were secure at the border, so the crime would be at record lows in this country to protect you and your family.
We want you to be able to live in a safe community, send your children to schools. We don't have to worry if your daughter is sharing a locker room with a biological male. We want your families to be protected and we want a strong nation.
We have the record to show we will actually do that. And our pre- orders are in the right place because we're going to put you first, rather than the Democratic Party, that has had to -- that completely lost the plot, and they're out there trying to start all of these different programs, and trying to figure out just how far to the left can they get with the DSA. And will people still be willing to go along with it? I believe that answer is no. The Republican Party has the message.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: And at the Republican Convention, President Trump also defended his decision to attack Iran, despite the treasury secretary's warnings at the time that it could hurt the economy.
The U.S. President says that Tehran was close to getting a nuclear weapon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If we didn't hit them with our beautiful, the wing, our beautiful B-2 bombers, they would have a nuclear weapon right now, and I would be addressing them as Supreme Leader. Mr. Supreme Leader, sir. How are you? But now, I don't have to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: Of course, there's no evidence of that.
Now, President Trump is now raising the possibility of another strike on a suspected nuclear site in Iran. Analysts are telling CNN that satellite imagery is suggesting that there's been a surge in construction at Pickaxe Mountains. And also the underground facility is likely designed to be a safe haven for Tehran's nuclear weapon.
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(GUNSHOTS)
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SANDOVAL: Say a nuclear -- nuclear program.
But onto this now. Yemen's military there trading fire with Iranian- backed Houthi rebels. The two sides have renewed their clashes on the ground in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, the Houthis also launched new strikes on Saudi Arabia, which supports Yemen's internationally recognized government. Saudi officials are saying that more than 70 people were injured, and that oil facilities were set on fire.
The Kingdom responded with about 30 airstrikes on Houthi targets. And the rebels have also declared a blockade of Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.
And regional sources are telling CNN that the Houthis are making a major push to capture the town of Mocha, which is a crucial location along Yemen's coast.
Joining me now from London is CNN's Nic Robertson, who recently visited some of those areas in Yemen.
You also spent some time at that very port as well, the port of Mocha, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. I mean, look, what's at stake here is -- is the price of oil. The Strait of Hormuz is shut down. The Red Sea, where Mocha Port is, is the sort of bypass. That's where Saudi gets its oil now out to the global markets.
So, the Houthis being a big proxy, a powerful proxy of Iran. They may try to attempt and they're already doing the similar tactics against the Saudis trying to hit their tankers.
So, what's happening there at the moment really has global consequences. The -- the pictures we were seeing just before of the -- of the Yemeni government forces in the east of the country or the center and the east of the country, they're trying to retake the capital.
[04:10:08]
But the Houthis, they're really making the push towards the Red Sea to Bab al-Mandeb, to that critical waterway. They say that's just part of them trying to take control of the whole country.
But, of course, because they could impact the oil there, that's what's got the world's attention right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Yemen's navy is taking us to Perrin Island, the heart of a little-known local war that's getting pulled into America's war with Iran.
ROBERTSON: So, what happens here next could affect just more than the Iran war already has. These islands, this vital waterway, the price of oil, it is all vulnerable right now. And what happens here could impact President Trump's political fortunes.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): In recent weeks, Iran-backed Houthis have hit several Saudi oil tankers on these waters. They're a bypass to the Strait of Hormuz. As we find out, Houthis are a constant threat here.
ROBERTSON: Suddenly, we just had to turn around, they told us because drones have been reported in the area. This is a hot war. And this is one of the epicenters of that war.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Our second attempt, getting closer.
ROBERTSON: This here that you're looking out, out across the Red Sea, the Bab-al-Mandeb Strait, the narrowest point on that Red Sea. Those ships out there, that's what this is all about.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Commercial shipping, critical for the global economy.
Eventually, we make it, greeted by Yemeni government forces, keeping the vital waterway open.
Not many outsiders make it here. We're the first international journalists they've seen in years, but we're not going to have long. The Houthi drone is still a threat.
ROBERTSON: And it looks for all the world, like the place that time forgot. It is really stuck out here in the middle of the ocean.
Looking out across the ocean this way. Bab-al-Mandeb. Bab-al-Mandeb. I'm looking across out there.
You can see Africa across there. Djibouti literally just across the sea there.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Perim is at the Strait's narrowest point, just 12 miles from Africa. Since Iran blocked shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi diverted its oil exports through the Red Sea, helping keep global oil prices down.
Ten percent of global oil used to flow through here.
ROBERTSON: It's down to about less than half of that, or about half of that now. And if the Houthis get control of the Red Sea, if the Iranian proxies or the Houthis get control of the Red Sea, they can shut the oil flows here down -- down to almost nothing.
What we don't see on our short visit is a military force that measures up to the scale of what's at stake for the rest of the world. For the commander in charge of this region, that's a worry.
ROBERTSON: Because the Houthis would try to kill you, right? The Iranians would love to have you dead.
TARIK SALEH, VICE PRESIDENT, YEMEN PRESIDENTIAL COUNCIL (through translator): So many times.
ROBERTSON: So many times. I know.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Vice President Tarik Saleh is a rarity at the moment. A political leader still in Yemen and still fighting the Houthis.
SALEH (through translator): We told the world that this is an Iranian plan, but no one listened to Yemenis back then, that this is a battle that would not only affect Yemenis, but the region and international community.
ROBERTSON: This is Iran trying to put pressure on President Trump.
SALEH (through translator): Exactly.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Are you getting any support from the United States?
SALEH: Just talk.
ROBERTSON: Just talk. And how do you feel about that?
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Disappointed, he says.
Even so, Saleh is bullish about his troops, claiming gains on the battlefield with new equipment and new tactics, hitting Houthi hideouts with quadcopter drone attacks, similar to those used in Ukraine.
But it won't be easy, after years of fighting, the Houthis are well dug in. Control the capital, the northwest of Yemen, including much of the Red Sea coast.
The government has the east and the south, with the Houthi attacks pressing towards the last stretch of Red Sea coast under government control.
What Saleh's troops organize for us next is a hard reality check about what they're up against.
ROBERTSON: So right now, we've just got into a big armored vehicle. Interestingly, it's all blacked out. The windows are blacked out, so we don't know where we're going.
[04:15:09]
ROBERTSON: It's here to a highly secret and secure stash of Iranian- made Houthi weapons, snatched, the Yemeni military says, from smugglers at sea.
This sophisticated anti-ship missile capable of hitting tankers from hundreds of miles away. Cutting-edge anti-aircraft missiles ultra-high spec optic radar. They readily admit more gets through to the Houthis than they can catch.
ROBERTSON: What's Iran's strategy with the Houthis?
ABDEL NASSER EL-MAMIOUH, DIRECTOR, NRF MEDIA (through translator): The U.S. siege on Iran in the Strait of Hormuz has made Iran look at its options and activate the strongest one, the Houthis to close Bab al- Mandeb.
They are saying, if our economy collapses in Iran, so will the world economy. ROBERTSON (voice-over): In recent weeks, the Houthis have been stepping up attacks on Saleh's forces in Mocha. It's a vital trade port. A regular Houthi target hit multiple times. So much so, the harbor walls are littered with sunk and sinking ships.
ROBERTSON: And here, this is a piece, the tail fin from one of those Houthi missiles. See it heavy, ripped into the ground, splattered across here and the port, all across this boat here. So many missiles landed.
The port authorities had to shut the whole port down.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Sixteen people lost their lives, the port director tells me, and 1,500 employees are now without work.
The Houthis, he says, are trying to kill their economy as well as the people.
More than 10 years of civil war have all but broken Yemen. Humanitarian groups say more than half the population need their help. But now, Iran's war with the U.S. threatens to push Yemen over the edge.
Saleh has a salutary warning for Trump. Yemen's losses could be his economic pain.
SALEH (through translator): We see the high cost paid by international community to secure the passages of few ships through the Strait of Hormuz. If the Yemeni forces were supported right now, they will make more achievements with a much lower cost than the Strait of Hormuz.
ROBERTSON (voice-over): Trump's Iran legacy is getting more complicated
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: And the tactics that the Houthis are using are getting more sophisticated. It's not just the rockets and the missiles that you see, but according to reports coming out of Mocha last night, they were sending text messages to the -- the Vice President Saleh's forces there, telling them to put down their weapons that they were going to be defeated. So, you have all that going on.
And there's not a lot to stop the Houthis if they capture Mocha going all the way down the coast. They say they're not going to do what Iran does and put a price on oil getting out down the Red Sea, but that's something I think that, you know, if the Houthis are able to take that territory, they'll look at Iran and undoubtedly see that as a potential of income.
SANDOVAL: CNN's Nic Robertson, our thanks to you and your whole team for that extraordinary reporting.
And still on the way here on -- actually before we head to break, one more story to share with you here. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying that the Trump administration will be asking Congress for $45 million in security funding for Ecuador.
He mentioned this on Wednesday at a stop in the Latin American country. And after meeting with the country's president, the top U.S. diplomat said that Washington was working with Daniel Noboa's government. Their goal is to crack down on drug trafficking.
Rubio said that the administration would also ask for a $10 million initiative. And it would target illegal gold mining, gang recruitment, and illicit finance.
And this visit is part of a Trump administration push to strengthen ties with conservative leaders in Latin America.
All right. When we return here on "CNN Newsroom," the very latest out of the Lindsay Clancy murder trial that ended in a mistrial. It's not over yet. We'll have much more on the lone holdout during jury deliberations.
Plus, another person who works in artificial intelligence quitting over safety concerns, when "CNN Newsroom" continues. Pretty sobering warning from this individual.
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[04:20:33]
SANDOVAL: For staying with us. The next hearing in the Lindsay Clancy triple murder trial is scheduled for the end of this month just declared a mistrial in the case just last week after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict because of a lone holdout juror.
Well, now, some of those jurors are speaking out. Here's CNN Jean Casarez with more.
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JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Many times, we are not able to hear exactly what happens in the jury deliberation room. It is up to the jurors after the trial is over for them to come forward and talk or not.
And several of those jurors spoke to NBC Boston. They talked about that, number one, nurses were on the jury. And some of those nurses actually were explaining to others about the toxicology report and other aspects of the medical part of this case.
They also said that that one juror, the lone holdout, that he could not get past the fact that she viciously killed her three children.
And as they were trying to talk about doubt, reasonable doubt, he just focused on what had happened to the three young children.
Why don't you listen to a little bit more from NBC Boston? Jury foreperson is speaking and takes us all into that deliberation room.
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RONI CARLSON, JURY FOREPERSON: He had reasonable doubt. He admitted he had reasonable doubt after we watched that video of the interview. I think that's what it was.
He admitted he had reasonable doubt. And I started filling out the forms. I was so excited. I actually -- there were three forms I had to fill out. And I started filling them out. I wrote my signature on each one. And then he said, but I'm still not going to say that she's not guilty by reason of insanity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:25:20]
CASAREZ: One female juror told our affiliate, WSB in Boston, that they actually were aligning themselves at one point toward conviction as were others. And so we now know that it was not 11 to one from the very beginning because they deliberated for almost 40 hours.
But she said that she shifted over to the side of not guilty based on lack of criminal responsibility.
We also know that the 911 call was played again in the deliberation room. They'd heard it during the trial, but we heard from the foreperson that it was so horrific for everyone. There were tears, people were crying. And -- and some jurors actually put their earbuds in because they just did not want to hear it again in that deliberation room.
There is a status hearing on the 29th of September. That is an important moment for this case because the defense attorney has said that he would like to talk with the district attorney in regard to a resolution of this case, which could mean a plea deal. The question is to what. And maybe we'll get more information on that date.
In New York, I'm Jean Casarez for CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: Apple announced the biggest change yet to its most important product, the iPhone. On Wednesday, new CEO, John Ternus, unveiled the iPhone Duo, which is Apple's first foldable smartphone. You see it there.
It is roughly the size and shape of a passport when folded, and the thinnest iPhone yet when opened. It's also the most expensive. It starts at just under $2,000 in the United States.
Apple is hardly blazing a new path, though. You see already rival Samsung and Motorola. They have been selling foldable smartphones of their own for years.
And Apple announced a number of other new products and features. The iPhone 18 will have Apple's virtual assistant, Siri, enhanced with A.I. And that's along with an improved camera functions, as well as battery life.
And the Apple Watch will soon be able to assist those who are hard of hearing by identifying alarms and sirens among other health features.
An artificial intelligence researcher for Anthropic has publicly quit the company citing concerns over the development of A.I.
Jacob Coxon said on social media that the people working on A.I. believe that it could, quote, "Kill us all by the end of the decade."
CNN A.I. correspondent Hadas Gold with that story.
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HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: This whole idea of A.I. causing the end of humanity is not a new sentiment within the A.I. industry. It's something that's been widely expressed by many of the staffers and the top executives of some of the biggest A.I. companies that we have today.
But this particular resignation post by this researcher who works at Anthropic went viral in a way that we haven't seen some of these other resignations or posts about safety go viral in the past.
And I think that there's two reasons for that. One is because Jacob Coxon, this Anthropic researcher who resigned said that neither of the companies he's worked with, because he also worked at OpenAI, are acting responsibly.
He says, "They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives."
A pretty stark warning there, especially considering one of those companies that he works for or that he worked for until now, Anthropic, was known as the safety A.I. company.
Its whole premise, its whole creation was about creating a responsible A.I. company that would create A.I. that has guidelines and guardrails. And that would be a safer option compared to the other A.I. companies out there.
And here you have one of their employees saying that they're not even doing enough to keep things safe.
And then his post was amplified by a more senior person on Anthropic staff who leads their alignment science team, which is making sure that the model does what you actually wanted to do, where he says that we really do earnestly believe A.I. could kill all humans. And he says that there is a greater than 10 percent chance that they could do so within the next decade.
Again, though, these, you know, warnings sound dire, they sound crazy, but they're not new for people in the A.I. industry.
Take a listen to what Dario Amodei who leads Anthropic said back in 2023. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DARIO AMODEI, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ANTHROPIC: I think I've often said that my chance that something goes, you know, really quite catastrophically wrong on the scale of -- of, you know, human civilization, you know, it might be somewhere between 10 and 25 percent when you put together the risk of something going wrong with the model itself, with, you know, something going wrong with human, you know, people or organizations or nation states misusing the model or -- or it kind of inducing conflict among them, or -- or just some way in which kind of society can't -- can't handle it.
[04:30:06]
That -- that said, I mean, you know, what that means is that there's a 75 to.
