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CNN International: Trump Considers Choice To Make A Deal Or "Annihilate" Iran; Trump Admin: White House Can Ban Media At Will Or For National Security; White House Promotes Trump T.V. Amid Media Ban Dispute; Catholic Priests March In Rome To Protest Violence In Gaza; Category Five Storm Grows Rapidly Off Mexico's Pacific Coast. Aired 4- 4:30a ET

Aired September 23, 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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[04:00:36]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm Polo Sandoval live in New York.

And ahead here on "CNN Newsroom," the leaders of two nations currently engaged in separate wars, preparing to address the United Nations in the coming hours. What we expect to hear from Iran and Ukraine.

And the Department of Justice files an 11th hour opinion ahead of today's court hearing on President Trump's media ban. What the DOJ argues that keeping some outlets out of the White House is a matter of national security.

And the spaceship year is in the making. Filmmaker George Lucas is opening the doors to a brand-new museum. And CNN got some exclusive access to take you inside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from New York, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Polo Sandoval.

SANDOVAL: All right. Let's begin this hour with two leaders of -- well, the leaders of two nations who are currently at war. They are preparing to address the U.N. General Assembly in the coming hours. And it's likely to make for a day of headline making speeches at the United Nations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he said to speak in the morning and this after Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian gives his speech from the podium.

And this comes a day after President Zelenskyy's meeting with his U.S. counterpart. Mr. Zelenskyy says that he got no concrete answers about whether the U.S. will be offering more interceptors to protect against Russian attacks.

Now, President Trump reiterated his common refrain that he thinks Ukraine and Russia will make a deal to end the war, but he offered no details about a potential agreement.

And Iran's president is in New York at this hour. And President Trump's special envoy says that the U.S. and Iranian delegations engaged in lengthy talks through mediators on the sidelines of the UNGA on Tuesday.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is warning that the U.S. -- warning the U.S. against any new attacks on the country. State media reporting that the IRGC spokesperson says that Washington would gain nothing but failure if they did.

And this comes as President Trump says that he is weighing two critical options regarding Iran. Here they are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But I have a big decision to make. Will a deal be made with Iran? Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations? But I believe we'll make a deal right after the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: CNN's Leila Gharagozlou is following all of those developments, joining me now live from Doha.

So -- so, Leila, help us look ahead as we get ready to hear from Iran's president. As we've heard before, Iran's constitution says that it's Iran's supreme leader who actually has authority to make wartime decisions.

So then, what could the president offer from the podium that could help restart those talks, those peace talks?

LEILA GHARAGOZLOU, CNN PRODUCER: So Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, is expected to speak later today. And he's likely going to talk about, you know, the strength of Iran's military prowess. He's going to make a nod to diplomacy, very likely. And he's going to bring up those schoolchildren who were killed in that U.S. strike, the Minab school strike. So, those are going to be the three themes that we're going to see.

And while the supreme leader is the person who ultimately has the final say on any decisions that get made in Iran, you do have other areas of the Iranian political system and security establishment weighing in on those decisions.

So, while President Pezeshkian isn't going to be the final vote on whether Iran goes back into war or diplomacy, he is going to be one of the people who has the ear of the supreme leader.

Now, we're going to have to wait and see what exactly comes out of this over the next couple of days, given the fact that the U.S. and Iran have been engaging in some form of political discussion on the sidelines of the UNGA.

We heard from Witkoff and Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, about their several hour long meeting.

So, a lot of things are moving when it comes to the U.S. and Iran. But again, all of this on the backdrop of President Trump saying that he has a big decision to make to annihilate Iran, to send them back to hell, which is a very extraordinary statement to hear from the American president on the podium at the United Nations. So, we have a lot of different moving parts.

[04:05:20]

In the meantime, the Iranians have put their position back to the U.S. in those talks according to the Iranian state media outlets which is, you know, ending the naval blockade, releasing those frozen assets and ending the war on all resistance fronts. This is again very consistent with what they've been saying over the last seven months. This is what they want. It is the core tenets of that MOU that fell apart so quickly.

So, not a lot has changed when it comes to the fundamentals of this war, what the Iranians want, what the U. S. want. So, it's going to be interesting to see how both sides kind of move forward as this week progresses, Polo.

SANDOVAL: It really will. Leila Gharagozlou, thank you so much for that live report from Doha.

All right. Let's stay on the U.N. General Assembly now.

Let's keep the conversation going when it comes to UNGA and head over to Robin Niblett. Robin is the warden of the new college at Oxford. He's also a distinguished fellow and former director at Chatham House. Also the author of "After America." He joins me now from London. Robin, thank you so much for joining us.

ROBIN NIBLETT, FORMER DIRECTOR AT CHATHAM HOUSE: Pleasure, Polo. Thank you.

SANDOVAL: Of course. So, let's look ahead to some of these speeches that we expect. But also before we do that, I wonder if we could look back at that extraordinary moment that Leila was just talking about, President Trump renewing his threat to, quote, annihilate Iran during his UNGA remarks.

With the president being unable to produce a peaceful end to this conflict already over seven months in, do you think that he's willing to actually escalate the war?

NIBLETT: I think it's highly unlikely, not just because of the impacts that such an escalation would have on energy prices and the likely situation of the U.S. economy and gas prices there ahead of the midterms and more generally for the state of America. My reading of how President Trump uses these kinds of statements is as part of negotiating leverage. So, you've got comments about annihilation. He doesn't really care about using terms like that at the U.N. General Assembly. Those kind of comments sitting alongside an announcement of a resumption of negotiations between his two key negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, with the Iranians.

So, I think the way he uses this phraseology is, I-- I threaten to hit them with one hand and I reach out with the other hand to negotiate with them.

So, look, it's very hard to predict exactly what President Trump is going to do. But right now, my reading would be is this was a tactical statement rather than a -- a true threat.

SANDOVAL: How do you think some of the world leaders in the room responded to -- to, you know, what you describe as his tactical statement? Do you think they even consider it credible?

NIBLETT: Well, I'm -- I'm sorry to say that I think after, you know, two years pretty much of Trumpian statements, I think people realize that he can bring the force of his military capability in Americas to bear, as they've done in Venezuela and obviously as they've done in Iran.

But there's always a large sort of pinch of salt and an appreciation that they're watching theater as much as they're watching diplomacy.

And more broadly, I feel there's a kind of slightly surreal air to this U.N. General Assembly. You know, don't have President Xi attending. He is in fact going to be going to Washington, as you know, today for bilateral meetings with President Trump.

Obviously, you don't have President Putin there. You don't believe you have Indian leader Modi.

You know, we've had the BRICS summit, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa meeting just 10 days ago, talking about the future of global governance. This is one of many stages at the moment, I'm afraid, in a kind of splintering of global governance, in my opinion.

SANDOVAL: And we also watched closely what happens during those sideline meetings, as you know, Rob. And one of those, President Trump's special envoy for peace, apparently met with some of Iran's delegation indirectly through mediators for -- for three hours and -- and said that those talks were good, apparently.

Do you expect the Israeli delegation, for example, to see this as -- as Iran merely buying more time? Or could it be a legitimate effort at restarting peace talks?

NIBLETT: I think the Israeli government must appreciate that President Trump sees Israeli interests as one set of American interests, not always the dominant interests.

I think the Israeli government of Bibi Netanyahu would like to have seen America and Israel press their military advantage and undertake more military operations which have not taken place.

They've seen the kind of deals that President Trump has been willing to do with other leaders. And I think they'll be watching these negotiations with a lot of trepidation and -- and concern.

[04:10:06]

You know, the danger is that's the Islamic regime alone severely weakened economically could come out of this conflict more entrenched than it was before.

And the way I see it, with a new sort of frontline of protection that runs down the Gulf rather than along the frontline with Syria and Lebanon, which is kind of where the Iranians were trying to defend themselves from before.

And when the Gulf is on the frontline, America gets much more involved in protecting the status quo because they want those energy exports to be coming out of the Strait of Hormuz as soon as possible.

SANDOVAL: Robin, in the last minute I have with you, maybe you could help us look forward to -- to -- to the remarks that we're expecting to hear today from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

He obviously just recently said that Kyiv would be willing to halt those attacks on Russian energy infrastructure if the Kremlin would be able to do the same. So, what are you expecting to hear during his UNGA address today?

NIBLETT: You know, President Zelenskyy is in a very difficult position. Obviously, he's talking to President Trump as he's on that stage.

While they've been successful on the Ukrainian side with these deep strikes into Russian territory, clearly having a severe impact on Russian refining capacity and exports. You know, they themselves are under absolutely sustained attack, unlike anything they've seen since 2022.

So, I think he'll be using this speech to try to get leverage, actually, with President Trump to try and get some more patriot interceptors, to try to block some of the missile attacks that have taken place against them, knows that for America now, Iran and the conflict in Ukraine are becoming interlinked because the halting oil supplies from Russia are now mounting up alongside the halt of oil and gas supplies from the Gulf. So for them, for Zelenskyy, he's now playing three-level chess, I think, with President Trump.

SANDOVAL: Yes, and that -- that last point certainly speaking to how people around the world are directly feeling the impact of these conflicts. We will be watching together what will likely be another eventful day at the U.N.

Robin Niblett, thank you so much for helping us preview that.

NIBLETT: Thank you. SANDOVAL: All right. The Israeli prime minister and the mayor of New York City are exchanging sharp words ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to the United Nations General Assembly.

The prime minister is due to address the U.N. later this week. He released this video on social media on Tuesday with accusations against Mayor Mamdani.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Shame on you, Mr. Mamdani. Shame on you for supporting the Hamas terrorist monsters who butchered our people. Shame on you for inciting riots against New York Jews.

I'm coming to the U.N. I'm going to tell the truth about our heroic soldiers. And I'm going to tell the truth about you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Well, Mamdani, for his part, has disputed the accusations that you just heard, and once again, criticized Prime Minister Netanyahu's actions in Gaza, saying, quote, the prime minister is the architect of a horrific genocide against Palestinians, against the word from the New York City mayor.

And this was just a day after Mamdani spoke with our own Christiane Amanpour, where the mayor called Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal, but acknowledged that he did not have the authority to arrest the Israeli leader while He's in New York. That's something that he's previously promised to do, at least during his mayoral campaign.

And as the federal judge prepares for today's preliminary hearing on President Trump's White House media ban, the Justice Department has issued a late-night response to the First Amendment lawsuit that was brought forward by this network, CNN, MS NOW, and "POLITICO."

Despite protections around press freedom, the DOJ argues, quote, "Access to the White House is a privilege, not a right."

And the filing insisting that the president can shut reporters out of the White House at will or to protect national security.

President Trump is admitting that the judge overseeing the lawsuit will probably rule in the media's favor. Despite his concession, he still clashed with CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday while speaking with reporters at the UNGA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, it's an honor to be here. I'm surprised that CNN is here covering me.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The United Nations allowed us in, sir.

TRUMP: You should not be here covering me. You said you weren't going to cover me. You shouldn't be covering me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Now, President Trump's trip to New York has not received the treatment it normally would, at least not covered the way it normally would, as major T.V. networks stand in solidarity with CNN and decline to replace the president's pool coverage.

While CNN has been barred from the White House grounds and its respective T.V. network pool rotation, our teams were credentialed by the U.N. and also granted access to this week's gathering.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio weighed in on the ban, defending the actions from the administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[04:15:06]

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The president feels very strongly that why should -- why should I have people working in my building and in my office that I believe are not honestly covering my administration? That's how he feels. We're not closing CNN. There aren't a bunch of police officers or soldiers kicking down the doors of MSNBC or MS NOW, whatever it's called, and -- and arresting people and unplugging it from the grid. They're just not allowed to work from the workspace at the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: The first lady, though, appeared to break with the president's media ban, approving CNN and "POLITICO's" press credentials at a sideline event that took place at the UNGA.

A source familiar with the matter said that Melania Trump is aware of the ban and that her office did have discretion over whether certain reporters would have access.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is tracking all of this and also brings us an update on how the Trump administration plans to defend its media restrictions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This is an astonishing filing on a lot of different fronts. One, the Justice Department is arguing that 50 years of court precedent should be overturned.

The type of precedent that was guaranteeing that reporters just didn't have press credentials revoked without a formal process, due process, that would be -- that would be underlined by the Constitution. That was law set 50 years ago. They say that it's time to throw that out. That's one argument we're getting here.

The other one that is truly astonishing in how the Justice Department is trying to set this up in court, they have the press secretary from the Pentagon, they say the press secretary from the Department of War saying that it is a national security risk because of reporting CNN, MS NOW and "POLITICO" have done about the White House and specifically about the White House complex, the ballroom that Donald Trump tore down, that becomes, they say, a national security risk, and that is grounds for the president to decide, based on that reporting alone, based on his dislike of those stories being published, that should be grounds to throw out those organizations from the White House press corps.

We have not seen this sort of argument before in other cases like this, where the press credentials were revoked of individual correspondents or where outlets like the "Associated Press" lost their ability to cover the president in private spaces like Air Force One, because they refused to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. That did happen and courts are still looking at aspects of that case.

Ultimately, the "Associated Press" in that situation was not purged entirely from the building. And the court said that press outlets couldn't be purged entirely from the White House.

In this case, the Justice Department is going far further than that in these arguments.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much for that reporting.

And the Trump administration is also rebranding a White House YouTube live stream as Trump T.V. and this amid this ongoing media dispute.

Here's CNN Brian Stelter with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Have you heard about this Trump T.V. thing? Yes, it is real, but it's not what it seems.

The White House has rebranded one of its old YouTube live streams calling it Trump T.V., making it sound like some ambitious new venture.

The administration is clearly trying to capitalize on Trump's ban of CNN, MS NOW, and "POLITICO."

But whatever the White House is doing here, it's not a replacement for real news. Trump may try to use this live stream to do an end run around the media, especially around the three banned outlets that are now suing him.

But for the time being, Trump T.V. is just an endless stream of speeches, some of them quite old, by Trump and other officials.

California Governor Gavin Newsom saw the announcement and wrote, "This is literally state-run T.V. It's autocratic behavior from the president." Others likened it to Chinese and Russian state-run T.V. channels. When I checked out the YouTube live stream on Monday night, fewer than 5,000 people were watching with me.

And when I checked again in the middle of day on Tuesday, the number was down to 1,400. You know, there are lots of pro-Trump channels and streamers already out there. And some of them are pretty popular, but it seems that viewers are not all that excited about the idea of actually government-run Trump T.V.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: And there's still much more ahead here on "CNN Newsroom." Priests and nuns take to the streets of Rome demanding a stronger stance from the Catholic Church when it comes to Gaza. The powerful symbol that they carried with them.

Also, Mexico's preparing as Hurricane Polo rapidly rose off the country's Pacific coast. Details on the category five storm, when we return.

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[04:20:58]

SANDOVAL: Welcome back. You're watching "CNN Newsroom."

More than 100 Catholic clergy members calling themselves the priests against genocide are urging church leaders to take a stronger stance against violence in Gaza and Lebanon.

Here's CNN's Christopher Lamb with the detail.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: These priests aren't taking part in a traditional religious procession through Rome. They are protesting against the war in Gaza. There are around a hundred priests from different parts of the world protesting what they say is a genocide taking place in Gaza.

And if you look closely, there is a shroud with the names of what the priests say are children from Palestine and Lebanon who have been killed by the Israeli military since the ceasefires in those countries.

The Priests Against Genocide group wants the Catholic Church's leadership to be more outspoken in what is going on in the Middle East and what is happening in Gaza and Lebanon.

The priest march through Rome will stop at the Vatican embassies to Palestine and to Lebanon and end up in front of a major arms manufacturer to protest all those who are financing weapons to Israel's military.

[04:25:09] Now, Pope Leo has spoken out on the plight of Palestinians and has visited Lebanon, but he has stopped short describing the war in Gaza as genocide.

The priest group, which now has 2,600 members across 68 countries and includes cardinals, say they are specifically protesting the actions of the Israeli political leadership and have absolute respect for the Jewish people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Hurricane Polo strengthening off the Pacific coast of Mexico. The category five storm is one of the strongest storms on Earth this year with gusts of 180 miles per hour.

CNN's Valeria Leon has more on the storm and also the preps that are underway in Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hurricane Polo has intensified rapidly reaching category five, the highest level on the Saffir- Simpson scale.

The storm is already being felt along Mexico's coast. And authorities are warning of flooding and landslides.

In the state of Colima, the effects of the hurricane are already visible. Umbrellas flap under heavy winds along the empty beaches that are usually teeming with tourists this time of the year.

Navy search and rescue teams have been deployed to coastal areas with equipment ready if they are needed. The military has also mobilized to respond to the storm.

Heavy rain has already flooded some streets in Colima. And with more rain expected, authorities are warning of landslides and flash flooding.

President Claudia Sheinbaum is urging people in the affected states to keep up with protection updates.

CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM, MEXICAN PRESIDENT (through text translation): The information we have is that it will cause a direct landfall. It will move along the Pacific Coast, particularly near the states of Jalisco, Colima and Michoacan.

LEON: Mexican authorities are watching Polo's path closely as emergency teams stay in place along the Pacific Coast.

The U.S. Embassy has also issued a weather alert for Americans along Mexico's Pacific Coast and on the Baja Peninsula, warning of heavy rain and dangerous ocean currents.

And with a storm that has intensified this quickly, conditions can change fast. So for communities along the coast, every hour to prepare matters.

Valeria Leon, CNN, Mexico City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Still to come here on "CNN Newsroom," White House officials are busy with some of the last-minute preps for the arrival of Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. We'll have more on the plans for his summit with President Trump.

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