Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump Tells Axios He Expects Talks With Iran This Week; British Police Arrest Five Men On Suspicion Of Terror Near Airbase; White House Airs Another Government-Funded Ad Featuring Trump; Two Giant Pandas Arrive At Zoo Atlanta On Rare Loan From China; Deadly Nor'easter Begins Losing Strength; Pope Leo Visits Lourdes, A Major French Pilgrimage Site; Trump To Host Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei At The White House. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired September 27, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: Yes.

DAVID CHANG, CELEBRITY CHEF: She's like, no, I never really had barbecue. You know, I had mostly Mexican food. Along the way, we went to one of the most exciting restaurants I've been to in years, which was Barb's Barbecue in Lockhart, Texas. Chef Chuck, she's doing something that I don't think has ever been done before, merging classic central Texas style barbecue and imbuing it with a lot of her sort of upbringing in southern Texas on the Mexico border. And it was just outstanding.

JIMENEZ: How do you stay true to the culture or the tradition of something like barbecue, while also adding your own flavor, your own culture?

CHANG: I really think that you have to understand where everything sort of came from. Like everything that you think is tradition or the status quo at one point was the iconoclastic rule.

JIMENEZ: Came from somewhere else.

CHANG: And in order sometimes to create something new, you got to break the rules a little bit. But you can't break the rules until you know the rules.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

CHANG: So it's a really delicate balance. How I've always explained it to my cooks, it's like constructing some kind of dress or shirt or fabric, and you're putting it together and you want to do it in a way that you can't see the stitches.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: You can watch "THE DETOUR WITH DAVID CHANG" tonight at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific on CNN and streaming tomorrow with an "All Access" subscription.

I need some barbecue ASAP, but for now, another hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

Welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM, everyone. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York.

Tonight President Donald Trump says U.S. negotiators will engage in talks with Iran this week. But this comes just a day after he rejected Iran's latest proposal for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. He called that proposal unacceptable.

CNN correspondent Julia Benbrook joins us now from the White House.

So, Julia, what did the president say about these potential talks?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. President Donald Trump says that he believes that the United States and Iran could have talks in some form in the coming weeks. And he said this earlier today in an interview with Axios. I want to pull part of that up for you now. He said, quote, "I expect more talks with Iran. They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make. It is what we would have maybe agreed to a year ago. They overplayed their hand."

There he seems to be referring to a recent proposal by Iran that they said would lead to the swift reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for some of its long standing demands that it has made of the United States. Trump says that he rejects that proposal. In fact, he went on to call it unacceptable. This -- details of the proposal are still scarce here, but Iran's foreign minister says that it did not do anything more than what was in the memorandum of understanding.

That agreement signed by both the United States and Iran back in June, but was scrapped shortly thereafter. Trump just a few days ago made comments at the United Nations General Assembly. He focused a decent portion of his remarks on this conflict, and he said that he's still in deciding mode when it comes to Iran. He expressed optimism that there could be an agreement coming after the midterms.

But in those same remarks, he says there could be a deal in just a matter of weeks. He also said that he could annihilate Iran. He went on to say that he could drive them into, quote, "hell, with no chance of survival." All of this as the conflict nears that seventh month mark, it's gone on much longer than Trump first predicted. And it comes as poll after poll shows that the majority of Americans do not approve of the way he's handled this conflict so far.

JIMENEZ: All right, Julia Benbrook, appreciate you laying that out for us.

Also tonight, an investigation is underway after British police arrested five men for suspected preparation of a terrorist act and explosives offenses. The men were arrested near an air base in England used by U.S. forces, specifically B-1 bombers involved in targeting Iran.

CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has more on this incident.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The five men were detained in the early hours of the morning, and it does seem to be as a result of a tipoff from somebody who lived very local to the air base here.

Now, villagers have been telling us that the air base had been on a lockdown. That's what they believe for the past week or so because there were -- there was nobody, they said, coming off the base into the village, and they're used to seeing people, you know, service personnel in the village all the time.

And when I asked a local councilor here who was involved in the evacuation of those 85 families who live close to the base, close to where these five men were arrested, and these three white vans seized, and then investigated by the army bomb squad, when I asked him about the base being on lockdown, he said, yes, that there was extra vigilance.

[19:05:06]

There had been extra security around the base. In fact, he said that the IRGC, the Iranian high military command, had actually threatened RAF Fairford Base by name just five weeks ago. Now, certainly the police are not saying that this is linked to Iran. They're not saying the five men are linked to Iran at the moment. They are saying that they're being held on suspicion of terrorism offenses.

But the local council are framing it this way, that it was very good that somebody in the village had been perceptive enough and had actually called in to the police when they saw something that was out of the ordinary. The investigation is going on. And because these five men are now being held on suspicion of terrorism charges, they can be held for up to two weeks.

While we've been standing here now, I heard what sounded like a controlled detonation coming from the direction of the air base, but there's very little information about the nature of the explosives that the police believe that they seized from the vehicles, or the five men who've been detained.

But it does appear as if the security of this base was helped by one of the local villagers, spotting something out of the ordinary in the early hours of the morning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: Really appreciate it, Nic Robertson, with the reporting there.

Now, earlier this evening, I spoke with CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen. And while we still don't have confirmation this is explicitly linked to Iran, Peter pointed out that if that were to be the case, if we were to get that confirmation, it would only be the latest planned attack in Britain linked to Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: And this, you know, really comes in the context of quite a number of incidents in the United Kingdom linked to Iran. There were a group of Iranian nationals arrested earlier who were planning to allegedly attack the Israeli embassy in the U.K.. All this is in the context, of course, of the February 28th war against Iran. The U.K. was not part of that war at the beginning but did agree to allow some U.S. flights flying from this particular base.

We've seen this pattern of Iranian dissidents, Jewish targets being targeted in the U.K. in the past. And so this would be upping the ante to try and attack a U.S. base with explosives, but it wouldn't be coming out of nowhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And we're still waiting to hear some more details from investigators to see what exactly this is linked to, and if it is confirmed to be linked to Iran. But Bergen did say it's not unreasonable to expect that we could see attempts like this at other American military bases in Europe given the context of the war as well. So something we will monitor as that story develops.

Still ahead, President Trump is set to hit the campaign trail this week in some deep red states. But some question the move as critical battlegrounds are in focus leading up to November. Plus a powerful nor'easter floods the East Coast for another day, knocking out power, disrupting air travel for thousands. We're going to take you through a timeline of when the storm is expected to finally move out.

And then later, two giant pandas arrive at Zoo Atlanta in a rare loan from China. Cute, but also a lot of diplomacy that went into them arriving. We'll talk through it all.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:13:15]

JIMENEZ: We've got just 37 days until voters head to the polls on election day. And the White House has released another taxpayer funded ad with the president. This time, the ad features audio of President Trump saying, quote, "This is the final battle," end quote. Here's more of that government funded ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JIMENEZ: It aired during at least two NFL games today, and while the White House is comparing the spot to a public service announcement, it has drawn some criticism with just over a month until the midterms.

I'm going to talk about some of it and more with our Republican strategist, Malik Abdul, and Democratic strategist and former White House director of message planning Meghan Hayes.

So, Malik, let's just start with you on this. Look, this isn't going to dominate the election cycle. Voters got plenty on their minds to begin with. But does this send the right message that some taxpayer funded money is going towards an ad like this?

MALIK ABDUL, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Look, this is a very crucial moment. The Cowboys are actually in a game against the Ravens. So of course this is not something that Donald Trump should be doing. But no, so I don't think that this is something that voters are actually concerned about to the extent that they don't even know what these regulations are. Of course, there's all sort of Hatch-Hatch rules, that Hatch Act rules that people typically don't understand.

I think that what the -- I think if there is any sort of challenge here for the White House, it's simply that it's another layer. It's just another ring on the -- rung on the ladder where people look at this and say that -- figure out that it's something that they don't like about what the administration is doing. But I don't think that this is something that's going to sway a vote at all.

[19:15:01]

JIMENEZ: Well, Meghan, just to push forward on that point a little bit, look, President Trump's popularity is still at record lows, and it seems to just be plummeting more by the poll. But in the most recent CNN poll released earlier this week, it showed that voters would prefer a Democratic candidate over a Republican candidate 49 percent to 41 percent.

And I wonder for you, do you see this election truly as a referendum on President Trump and the Republican Party, or really the beginning of a Democratic policy base to propel them towards 2028? How are you viewing things here?

MEGHAN HAYES, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think this is definitely an anti-incumbency election. I think it is a referendum on Trump and the Republican Party. But if Democrats are smart, they will run on the solutions and then they will actually execute on those solutions when they take back the majority, at least in the House, maybe the Senate, if we're lucky. But if they don't execute on those solutions, we're going to be right back where we are and not have a message for '28. So Democrats, where they're getting a gift to run against Trump this cycle, that won't be the case going into '28.

JIMENEZ: And just on the ad, is that something that you think the Democrats are going to you think capitalize on or they're just bigger issues, you think, out on the trail for Democrats? HAYES: I think there are so many bigger issues out on the trail. But

of course, Democrats are going to capitalize on it because it's just one more thing that Donald Trump and the Republican Party is focused on, which is not -- but they're not focused on you.

They're not focused on lowering your price of gas, lowering the price of your groceries and healthcare. So they're spending taxpayer dollars to put out ads to pump up his ego, but then they can't in turn lower the cost of gas. And so I think that is the message that Democrats are going to capitalize on the more ads that keep coming out.

JIMENEZ: And, Malik, in that same poll we were talking about earlier, 68 percent of voters said the economy is extremely important. Maybe no surprise that that's dominating the issues here when -- but the economy most important, when they're considering who they're going to vote for in November. But earlier this month, President Trump made the claim that almost every item is getting cheaper.

I just wonder, what do you make of the president's messaging in this lead up to the election here?

ABDUL: Well, when it comes to whether or not things are getting cheaper, it depends on what it is that you're buying. I know that the cost of eggs, of course, are down from where they were this time last year. And even milk, you know, I'm lactose intolerant. So my -- my Lactaid milk is actually a little cheaper now. Some prices are cheaper. But of course there's the concerns around beef.

Unfortunately, what the administration is doing in negotiations with China, China is going to be buying about $17 billion of our agriculture and even relaxing some of the restrictions on American beef. So those are things that over the long run will ultimately lower cost. It's just no immediate answer to it.

JIMENEZ: Well, and even if there are some individual items like eggs, for example, I mean, we are seeing diesel at record levels, which is spiking prices -- could, has a potential to across the board, including some of those items.

And Meghan, just for you, what is the central point for Democrats messaging wise in terms of the economy in this final run up here?

HAYES: Democrats are going to be focused on lowering costs. They're going to say Republicans did everything they can to make your costs more expensive with the war that we don't want, that nobody wanted to go to, which is your gas is more, your electric bills are more, your -- the diesel is more so now the cost of goods are going to be more expensive. They have massive cuts to healthcare and SNAP benefits, which is just increasing costs and cutting care in rural areas.

So I think Democrats are going to focus on, is your life better than it was two years ago? And the answer from polling and talking to voters on the ground is a resounding no. So Republicans are really suffering from Donald Trump's policies and not being able to stand up to them. And Democrats are going to capitalize that in the last 37 days of the election. JIMENEZ: And you think that will essentially be enough as opposed to

offering an alternative just for these midterms, basically saying, hey, your life isn't that great, or it's been getting worse under the current set of elected leaders?

HAYES: Well, I think that Democrats are going to come with their solutions, but they can't do anything when they're not in power. They don't have control of the House or the Senate or the White House. So they can't actually do anything right now. So they have to come when they are in the majority and come through with actual solutions for people and show that they're going to lower the cost of their daily lives, which is all the American people are asking for.

We're seeing more and more that people are not, you know, taking the shape of if they're a Republican or a Democrat. They literally just want someone to lower their costs and they're going to give Democrats the control of the House, it looks like. And they're going to give them that opportunity. And it's on Democrats to capitalize when they are in the majority.

JIMENEZ: And, Malik, there's a fascinating dynamic in the Republican ranks right now because, look, Republicans are having to weigh how much they distance themselves from the president as this election gets closer. Some are leaning in, some are just trying to run their own campaigns.

[19:20:00]

One of them, though, is Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar in Florida. And last night, President Trump shared a lot of posts on social media criticizing the congresswoman. She, of course, broke with the president in terms of how some of the immigration policies were enforced. And she believes some went too far. But I wonder your perspective on how do candidates in these competitive races walk that line between pleasing the president and -- but also addressing some of the specific concerns of their constituents.

ABDUL: They have to just ignore whatever Donald Trump says. From what I understand, Laura Loomer may have had some sort of influence here that she, you know, Trump trusts her counsel for some reason. Republicans have always kind of pushed back against that. But at the end of the day, Donald Trump is the one who makes these decisions. But I do think that it's worth acknowledging that as far as the Democratic Party, we know what they're going to run against.

The same thing that they've run against since 2016. And that's Donald Trump. So they're going to get in office and they're going to push for more impeachments as more Democrats are calling for. They're going to put in a lot of those socialist policies. They want to make sure that these things cause social housing actually robs from your pension fund. All of these things that the Democrats want to do. Republicans need to be on the ground over and over again, reminding them of it.

This isn't a -- you're right. This is a referendum on Trump because that is the only thing that Democrats have to offer when it comes to voters, being against Trump. JIMENEZ: Well, you got to get in office first, and then comes the

opportunities for policy as Meghan laid out.

Meghan Hayes, Malik Abdul, appreciate you both for being here. Thank you for taking the time.

HAYES: Thank you.

ABDUL: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: All right. A little less politics, though some diplomacy here. Two giant pandas from China have a new home in Atlanta. We will tell you what this means for relations between the two countries.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:26:18]

JIMENEZ: Two giant pandas have made their journey halfway around the world and are now settling in at Zoo Atlanta. A male panda named Ping Ping and the female named Fu Shuang arrived on loan from China this morning. The pandas were transported to Zoo Atlanta with a police escort, where they will be in a routine quarantine period for about a month.

Now, the pandas were sent to the United States as part of Beijing's long tradition of panda diplomacy, dating back to 1972.

CNN's Rafael Romo has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After landing at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, each panda bear was transported in a separate FedEx truck showing a panda bear image on the side of the cargo area. Each truck carried a crate inside that served as the panda bears' transportation unit as they were escorted by police for the 10-mile trip between the airport and the zoo in the same containers used for their entire trip from China.

CNN witnessed the moment just before seven this morning when FedEx Flight 9756, dubbed FedEx Panda Express, landed at the airport after a more than 15-hour flight from Chengdu, Chinese provincial capital, where the bears are from and where a Chinese panda bear breeding program is located.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced Thursday during his remarks at the White House that China would send two panda bears to the United States, calling the bear species an envoy of friendship between the Chinese and Americans.

We asked a couple of visitors here at the zoo if they think this goodwill gesture matters, and they told us they believe it's one exciting and fuzzy step in the right direction. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it matters for families and people that want to visit the zoo. As far as our relationship with China, I don't know. It's hard to say. We'll have to see.

ROMO: It's tough, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is tough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Ping Ping, the male panda's name, means peace. The same name given to the bear China gave to the Soviet Union in 1957. Ping Ping was born in March 2020. Fu Shuang, the female panda's name, means double blessings and was also born in 2020. But in October, seven months later than the male panda.

Zoo Atlanta said that the public won't be able to see Ping Ping and Fu Shuang right away because they will be housed in a bio secure area for a routine quarantine period of around one month.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: All right, Rafael Romo, appreciate it.

Coming up, we're going to take a look at when relief is expected for the East Coast after a powerful storm batters the area for days. Our CNN Weather team is tracking the storm.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:33:34]

JIMENEZ: In Macon, Georgia, 12 teens were injured in a mass shooting at a skate park according to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office. The 10 men and two women, all were 19 years old or younger. Two people are in critical, but stable condition.

So officials say two groups of people exchanged words, brandished firearms before they began shooting at each other at the park. No arrests have been made and officials are still looking for a motive. But again, everyone here, 19 years old or younger.

All right, we have been keeping you updated on this deadly nor'easter that is slowly starting to let up, but the storm is still bringing additional rain to parts of the Northeast. One person was killed and four people, including two children were injured in New York City, Saturday in separate instances, after high winds toppled trees.

Thousands are still without power after being hit with heavy rain, flash flooding and wind gusts up to 70 miles an hour. CNN's Derek Van Dam joins us from Southern New England, where more rain is expected in the coming days.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Omar, this is what we have been experiencing the entire duration of our coverage with this powerful nor'easter. It has pushed up the Atlantic Ocean with its powerful winds from the Northeast that clocked at times 70 miles per hour in Barnstable County, near the cape of Massachusetts.

We are in Hull, Massachusetts. This area really no stranger to these powerful coastal low pressure systems, but to have a nor'easter in the month of September is relatively rare.

[19:35:10]

And it has been so disruptive for so many plans, not only knocking out power for over 100,000 customers this weekend, but canceling music festivals, canceling concerts, relocating sporting events and also the impacts on travel has been significant. I mean, we know trying to get in and out of airports here along the Eastern Seaboard, specifically into Southern New England and into the mid-Atlantic has been very challenging with cancellations and delays in the thousands.

Now, as we go forward in time, there is some good news out of this because were starting to lose strength from this storm. So, as we go through future high tide cycles, I don't believe that we will have as impactful of a storm surge component from this, because we are losing the wind component as the hours pass by.

But we still need to take the storm seriously. There is still a lot of energy in the ocean. Stay away from the coast if possible. Avoid traveling. Let's just kind of ride this one out together, right, Omar? I think the worst is behind us. We will say goodbye and good riddance to this storm once it finally moves off the East Coast by the early parts of this upcoming workweek.

Omar, back to you.

JIMENEZ: Derek Van Dam have been seeing the effects of this nor'easter firsthand.

Meteorologist Melissa Nord is with us now as well. So, melissa, what is the latest on this storm track here?

MELISSA NORD, AIMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, luckily, Omar, the worst of this storm, the peak intensity of it, that is in our past. But what is not so good about this situation is it is not done yet. We've got to get through Monday, and for some places Tuesday morning, still some of the impacts of this.

But where is it going now? This is satellite from today. You can see the center of circulation actually moved on the Jersey coastline. From here though, it is going to get kicked northeastward. So that's going to send the gusty winds and the rain northeast as well.

The wind gusts right now significantly lower than what Derek was alluding to, happened last night. First thing this morning, some of those peak gusts over 70 miles an hour. Now were seeing the wind gusts 35 in Boston; Nantucket gusting to 24, and much calmer winds further down the coastline.

But still, the combination of the gusty winds, the domino effect from earlier today and the rain means we are still dealing with the impacts for airport delays. Over 350 airport cancellations and delays from Boston alone today. Still, over 200 minutes of average delays there for that airport.

Here is the circulation. Look at all this rain moving on the coast through the Jersey Shore, up through New York City. That is going to be pushing out towards Long Island as well. Really, really messy, kind of steady sheet of rain through tomorrow morning's commute. But then by the afternoon, we will begin to dry out for Philadelphia, for New York City. Boston is going to take a little bit longer.

Here is the forecast track showing you the center is wobbling offshore, bringing a lot of rain onshore. Now, a lot of this is going to be steady and lighter, but there will be some embedded pockets that could be heavier and that is when we could see some creek and stream levels that run a little bit high. Some nuisance city flooding as well, some isolated flash flooding. Not out of the question.

Watch the rain though, lifting north Monday afternoon and then finally getting out of here, still lingering in Maine by Tuesday morning, but drying out in places like Boston as well by then.

So, still some additional rain to come. Wind gusts though, peak gusts right now only about 35 miles an hour. They will be in the 20 to 25 mile per hour range, much more in that nuisance and minor impact category during the day on Monday -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Sure! Well, keep those umbrellas out for a lot of folks still.

Melissa Nord, really appreciate it.

We are going to continue to monitor the storm as we have throughout the hour. But if you want to do it, you can check it out, too, 24/7. Just download CNN's new Weather app. You can use the Q.R. code at the bottom of your screens, or you can find a link to the app at cnn.com/weather or the iPhone App Store.

All right, tomorrow, Pope Leo wraps up his historic four-day visit to France, the first official papal visit to that country in almost 20 years, believe it or not.

CNN Vatican correspondent, Christopher Lamb is traveling with the pope and filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have seen big crowds turning out for the first American Pope in France. It might be a very secularized culture here, but there have been hundreds of thousands for Pope Leo. The mass in Paris was extraordinary, with around 800,000 people turning out. And here in Lourdes, also big crowds for the mass on Sunday morning. And then this evening, a more intimate and you could say prayerful

event down at the grotto in Lourdes, Pope Leo leading a procession, a torchlight procession down in the most spiritual and holy part of Lourdes, which is a major pilgrimage site. It is visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year from all over the world.

[19:40:10]

Now, the Pope has been following a jam-packed schedule here in France. He has met with abuse victims and been facing up to the abuse scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church in France. He has also been speaking out against assisted dying. That is a law -- assisted dying law that was passed in France recently, and to do so in Lourdes is very significant because this is a place where people who are sick and terminally ill come to. So the Pope has been emphasizing that as well.

And on Monday, the Pope will travel to Metz on the France-German border, where he will deliver a very important speech to political leaders in Europe. We are expecting it to focus on unity and peace, and he is keeping up really, you know, a hectic schedule as he finishes a four-day trip to France that has been really historic and has drawn this incredible turnout.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: All right, Christopher Lamb, appreciate it.

Meanwhile, President Trump is hosting Anthropic CEO for dinner after Dario Amodei publicly called for A.I. companies to slow down. We are going to have more on that just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:46:00]

JIMENEZ: Tonight, President Trump is hosting Dario Amodei, this the co-founder and CEO of A.I. company, Anthropic for a private dinner at The White House.

This is the first meeting between the two. A few weeks ago, Amodei said that A.I. companies have to slow down the pace of A.I. development. Trump called the fears a hoax, criticizing safety concerns for A.I.

CNN contributor, Jacob Ward joins us now.

So, Jacob, how would you characterize how important this meeting is?

JACOB WARD, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Omar, I would definitely say it is pretty crucial, certainly for Dario Amodei, right? He is trying very hard to thread this needle between being, you know, the world's new Google and trying to not raise the ire of President Trump, who has shown himself to be a real thorn in the side of any tech company that he doesn't get along with.

You'll recall, Omar, that they came to loggerheads before, when Dario Amodei declared that his company would not provide the Defense Department a kind of open-ended A.I. powered targeting machine and he said that they weren't allowed to use his A.I. product to mass surveil Americans. That got him blacklisted for a time from doing any business with the Department of Defense at all.

So the fact now that you've got these two guys coming together who clearly feel so differently about the future of A.I., President Trump, you know, openly saying he believes that the calls for slowing down are ridiculous, and then Dario Amodei basically saying, we have to slow down for the good of humanity.

Honestly, I think by the time the appetizers come out, these guys are going to be at loggerheads. But I am curious to see how this dinner goes.

JIMENEZ: There is always an awkward period of when do we start talking about the thing at the dinner that we are here to actually talk about? So yes, it depends when --

WARD: Yes, how was your summer?

JIMENEZ: Yes, exactly!

WARD: Well, it is going to be fun! Yes, exactly!

JIMENEZ: Let's get to what were here to talk about. Yes.

So I mean, one other thing that is happening though, as this dinner is going on, but also more generally is Anthropic's rival A.I. company, OpenAI said some of its agents went rogue and targeted three separate U.S. government websites.

So what exactly happened here?

WARD: Well, as far as we can tell, this is another in a series of revelations from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta -- they all have at this point shown that their A.I. can do this. And in this case, it seems that OpenAI's agents went and got some level of access to the Securities and Exchange Commission, to the Commerce Department and the Department of Education to varying degrees.

The thing that's interesting about this, Omar, is that, you know, the word that we tend to use is "rogue," right? That these things went rogue. But the thing that is actually, I think more important to understand is that these systems very often are behaving exactly as they were asked to behave. And what OpenAI has said in a statement this weekend is that these were not, you know, trying to break into anything. What they say is that they were trying to just find information and as a result, were looking for reputable sources online.

The problem with all forms of A.I. at the moment, right, is that you give it a task and you don't know how it is going to go about that task. So when you say, you know, give me reliable statistics from the Department of Education, it may very well decide, I am going to go steal some login credentials and try and get inside that agency in order to get the best possible sources I can.

And so this is the problem with how these systems are designed. They are all about the outcome as opposed to the method and that means that we just don't know what they are going to do from instant to instant, Omar.

JIMENEZ: You know, a lot of the conversation, partly for this reason, has been around the guardrails on A.I. and what roles various sectors of the world should have, whether it is government or these companies themselves. Should these companies do more in terms of transparency for these types of incidents, as opposed to what we seem to just be getting, which is notification and explanation?

WARD: I definitely think there should be as much transparency as possible. And we still don't -- you know, we don't get independent verification of what exactly took place. We don't see these incidents the way the companies do. So we do need, I think, more transparency.

But I would point out, you know, Anthropic just recently put out a big and very scary report that said, you know, we basically have this long litany of misuses of our technology that included everything from trying to create novel toxins and viruses to a Yemeni military cell using Claude to build the targeting systems for long range missiles.

[19:50:18]

You know, there is the "Terminator" worry that people have, but there is the short-term worries here, too and Anthropic, I have to say, has been pretty open about it, although again, we don't get to see inside there.

And, you know, you said guardrails, Omar and I would just sort of point out here, you know, there is this naive belief that if we just need to sort of teach these things some manners, Representative Jay Obernolte, the Republican co-chair of the A.I. Caucus, was speaking to Anderson Cooper on Friday, and he said, "We need to align the values that these models are trained on with human values. And if we can do that, we can get these models to conform to our standards for human behavior."

Here is the problem, like I don't think even you and I who are friendly with one another could agree on what human values are, nor could any other two humans on Earth, right? It is such a naive belief that we are going to be able to pre-teach these systems to behave themselves when they are entirely Machiavellian. They are entirely about doing the thing as efficiently as possible. That's how they are designed. It is why they work so well.

And it really creates, I think, a very difficult problem for a culture and an economy that is becoming more and more dependent on these systems that really are just about the outcome and don't care how they get it done.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Look, it is a fascinating frontier, if not scary in some respects, exciting in others, but one that is no doubt, one that is going to have to be solved in one way or another. We will see what that looks like.

Jacob Ward, really appreciate the time.

Good to see you.

WARD: Thanks, Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right, still ahead, the latest on Oregon's quarterback after he is stretchered off the field following this really scary hit here. We will break down what happened and tell you what is coming next here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:56:35]

JIMENEZ: New tonight, the University of Southern California is suspending linebacker, Desman Stephens, the second for one game after a controversial late hit on quarterback, Dante Moore for Oregon.

In the second quarter of yesterday's game, Moore took off running. You can see him here and started to slide when Stephens hit him, sending his head into the turf as penalties came from all over. The flags came flying in.

Moore was being checked out by medical staff, but at the time Stephens was seen running around the field celebrating.

Now, both USC and Stephens are responding. CNN's Don Riddell has more.

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT HOST: Omar, we know how serious head injuries can be in football, and that is why there is so much emotion around what happened in Los Angeles on Saturday night.

The Oregon coach said it was a disgusting play that sent one of the college game's top quarterbacks to the hospital, and it led USC to suspend its own player. It happened early in the second quarter when USC linebacker Desman Stephens II hit Oregon's Dante Moore as he was sliding to the turf, slamming his head into the ground.

Moore was down for an extended period of time before ultimately being taken away in an ambulance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN LANNING, OREGON HEAD FOOTBALL COACH: It is a disgusting play. You know, you don't want to see it happen. It is disappointing that it happened. You know I am praying that our player is healthy and I am praying that their player can learn from that situation because that's not a moment you want to be a part of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIDDELL: The incident was bad enough, but it was Stephens' celebration after the hit that just incensed many of the Ducks' squad that nearly prompted an all-out brawl. Stephens was ejected from the game. Afterwards, USC coach Lincoln Riley said that he didn't see that

celebration, but on Sunday, USC announced that Stephens would be suspended for one game and Riley said his player's actions were "unacceptable."

In a statement released by the Trojans, Stephens apologized and said, "Seeing a player injured like that is incredibly serious. And my reaction in the moments afterward was completely inappropriate and inexcusable."

There was real concern about Dante Moore. But thankfully, Oregon's coach indicated that their worst fears had not come to pass. He could be seen moving his arms on a medical cart, and the incident seemed to galvanize the Ducks backup Q.B. Dylan Raiola stepped into the breach. Oregon upped their physical intensity and they stormed to victory by a score of 41 points to 27.

Earlier on Sunday, it was reported that Moore had sustained a concussion but was not expected to be sidelined for the season. And that will be of great relief to his many fans. He is a Heisman Trophy contender and projected to be a top pick in next year's NFL Draft -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Some scary moments there nonetheless.

Don Riddell appreciate the reporting.

All right, later tonight, Chef David Chang is on a cross country food journey with an all-new episode of "The Detour."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That brisket is so good. (Bleep) the lime!

DAVID CHANG, CHEF: That's great.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And all the stuff she smothered all over it. Incredible!

CHANG: It tastes like this has been missing in the world, and now it exists, right? And it should have been around longer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is so good. It is so good. Steaming hot. Steaming hot. And you've had a lot of barbecue.

CHANG: I have.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: Are you constantly still finding places that completely blow off the top of what you thought barbecue could be?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Do I want barbecue now? Watch "The Detour" with David Chang tonight at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific on CNN.

And thank you all for joining me tonight. I am Omar Jimenez. Remember, if you're in the U.S., you can now stream CNN whenever you want on the CNN app. Just go to cnn.com/watch for more.

"Real Time" with Bill Maher starts right now!

[20:00:26]