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CNN This Morning
Trump Lashes Out at the Fed After First Rate Hike Since 2023; Congress Aims to Regulate A.I.; VP Vance to Voters: "Give Us Another Chance". Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired September 17, 2026 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: All right. President Trump lashed out at the Federal Reserve and his handpicked chairman, Kevin Warsh, after they voted unanimously to raise interest rates. It is the first hike to raise to raise rates by the Fed since 2023 and sets the target rate to 4 percent. President Trump has his own target.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The only problem we have is that interest rates are artificially high. Interest rates in the United States should be one percent or less because we are the best credit in the world by far. Lower the interest rates for the United States of America and fast because we can grow at a level that nobody's ever grown before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, joining me now to make sense of all this, David Goldman, CNN senior business reporter. David, I'm glad you're here because I had been reading the papers leading up to this and everyone was saying, look, there's probably going to be a rate hike at some point. So, could this have really been a surprise to the White House?
DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS REPORTER: No, I don't think so, unless they weren't paying attention. I mean, this is not what President Trump hired Kevin Warsh to do. He explicitly hired this guy to be the rate cutter, right? I mean, he was very mad at the previous Fed chair, Jerome Powell, for continuing to raise rates and then keep them at a high level because the economy needed that. We were fighting 40-year inflation. Well, we're not doing that anymore, but inflation is coming back. And a lot of it has to do with President Trump's own policies, including oil prices rising during the Iran war. So, here we are.
CORNISH: Yes.
GOLDMAN: The Fed did what it had to do. And the president could not have been surprised about this.
CORNISH: And I thought that might be some sort of talking point, right? Like you hear Democrats talking about prices being high and inflation. [06:35:00]
And then I heard this out of the mouth of the Fed chairman. Here's Kevin Warsh talking about this decision to raise rates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN WARSH, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: The plain fact is that inflation is too high and has been for too long. We must be confident that underlying inflation is moving to our objective clearly and at sufficient speed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: OK. You wrote overnight that what really moved their hand was the bond market. And this for folks who don't understand the 10- year rate is hitting around getting close to 5 percent. It hit a 19 year high on Tuesday, which is going back to 2007 to 2008. It's 2007, 2008. And I remember at that time I was trying to move and buying and selling a house was an actual dumpster fire. So, tell me for a regular person, what does this mean when you start seeing these shifts in markets?
GOLDMAN: I'm sorry, Audie. Yes, moving sucks, just general.
CORNISH: I still lost money. Yes. I'm still empty my pockets to show you.
CORNISH: That's right. Oh, my goodness. Yes. OK. So, the bond market, remember, is just people lending money to the government, and if they're going to be lending money to the government for an extended period of time like 10 years or 30 years and they see inflation rising. They're going to say well, wait a minute inflation is going to eat a lot of that money that I'm going to lend. I'm going to want more on the end of that so that when I get it back, I'm actually making money on this transaction here.
And so, that's why rates have gone higher and higher as oil prices have crept higher and higher. And so, the bond market got out of whack with the Fed where six weeks ago. Kevin Warsh said, yes, well, maybe we'll raise rates. Maybe we won't. I'm going to stay mum on this and let the market do what it's going to do.
Well, the bond market bullied the Fed into raising rates. It had to act or else we would have seen rates go haywire. And to your point, that affects you and me, right? I mean, people who are looking to buy a home right now are facing almost 7 percent mortgage rates. It was below 6 percent before the war. That's not the direction that anyone wants to see this go, especially the president who hired the Fed chair to lower rates.
CORNISH: So, the bond market supposed to be, frankly, the place of stability where things move a little slower. The stock market is where things move a little faster and that's being propped up let's say by A.I. So, analysis from JPMorgan is saying that those companies are spending a trillion dollars this year on building out A.I. infrastructure, data centers. All of this stuff.
So, one of the things I'm asking when it comes to a bubble is in the past when there were big bubbles, there was an actual product that we were all buying. With this, they're spending money making something that one day we all will use. So, I'm trying to understand, like, can you -- if there's no real money behind this? Can the bottom fall out?
GOLDMAN: Yes, sure. I mean, bubbles are notoriously difficult to predict. So, you're right. I mean, tomorrow, the A.I. bubble, and that's probably what we are in, could burst and I could cause a lot of pain. I mean, we all remember -- well, not all of us but you and I remember the dot-com bubble and people old enough to have experienced that, remember how painful that was. And it caused a recession.
But we don't know that this bubble is about to burst. And I'll give you an example. So, we thought maybe the tech bubble was going to burst back in 2022, and the entire stock market lost a fifth of its value that year because of that. Well, had you invested in the stock market in 2022, you'd have made 80 percent back, or just over the past 10 years, you'd have made 316 percent back.
And so, trying to time the market is a fool's errand. The only way to invest is to buy everything like an index fund and just hold it until you're ready to retire. That is the best advice. It's the only advice. Trying to time the market and figuring out if we're in a bubble or not as difficult.
However, however -- yes, right. I mean, if the Fed is going to raise rates, it's going to cause more pain for tech companies because they have to borrow more money and spend more to borrow to do all the things that they want to do. So, that trillion maybe becomes, you know, a trillion point one trillion point two. That's a lot of money. If that ends up happening and they're not getting the receipts for it, if they're not getting revenue for it, if they're not getting profit for it, then this could become a mess pretty quick.
CORNISH: Never mind that the government's they might borrow from are loaded with debt. So, hopefully you will be back and we'll just keep having a story where we're like it hasn't happened yet because I don't really want to have to bring you back for the day the bubble burst. David Goldman, thank you so much.
GOLDMAN: Thank you.
[06:40:00]
CORNISH: Next on CNN This Morning, we're going to talk about an aging Congress brand-new tech. Can you trust your lawmaker to regulate A.I.
Plus, JD Vance ask voters, give us another chance. Is he admitting Republicans might have problems in this election cycle?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CORNISH: So, it could ultimately fall to Congress to regulate A.I. How much do lawmakers know about this new tech? Do they use it? Does that matter?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you use A.I.?
SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): No.
RAJU: You don't? Why not?
HIRONO: No reason.
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): I enrolled in the beta program, the developer program for ChatGPT within 48 hours of it being available. Nobody knew I was. I just got early mover advantage.
[06:45:00]
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): I use A.I. more through my staff than I do myself. But I take advantage of A.I. when I think it's useful.
RAJU: How does your staff use it?
BLUMENTHAL: You have to ask them.
SEN. JOSH HAWLEY, (R-MO): So, I have been trying out to be trying to break myself in.
RAJU: You're a late adapter.
HAWLEY: And -- very late. Very late. So, I'm -- you know, I'm experimenting with it, but I'll never be an expert on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: That's senator Josh Hawley. He just pitched a plan that would monitor A.I. It's become an opportunity for bipartisanship because Hawley is teaming up with Democratic Senator Blumenthal on that legislation. But here's the thing. There's a lot of bills out there. There's a kill Switch Act. There's a bill protecting your data, around your jobs, around just keeping electricity bills down. There are plenty of plans in the works to regulate A.I. There is no plan for any of them to be passed into law. And that's why we're back at the Group Chat.
You know, I come on the show a lot and I say, nobody is doing anything. Nobody is doing anything. There are people there are people doing legislation. It's not going anywhere. Is that because the White House is like, everybody chill, we don't need this, or like what's going on?
JULIA MANCHESTER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE HILL: I think it's a little bit on that. You have the White House Republic -- I think a lot of Republicans not Josh Hawley, obviously.
CORNISH: Yes.
MANCHESTER: But really pushing for deregulation on this. Like we said at the --
CORNISH: Deregulation?
MANCHESTER: Yes.
CORNISH: We should be clear. There is no regulation to deregulate.
MANCHESTER: Yes. Or --
CORNISH: To make it easier.
MANCHESTER: Leaving it up to the companies to regulate themselves. Like we said at the beginning of the show, a lot of this comes down to national security, the economy. You also see this becoming a big topic of conversation on the campaign trail when it comes to data centers. So, you hear candidates talking about --
CORNISH: Data center thing has become the sort of regular person's way of understanding this.
MANCHESTER: Definittely.
CORNISH: And being able to voice their backlash to it.
MANCHESTER: Absolutely. And it's also one of the points where A.I. experts say, in the A.I. race against China, this is one area where potentially the U.S. has a leg up on data centers. Whereas China is more predominant in other sectors of A.I.
CORNISH: Yes, they don't have the volume of data centers that we do even though they've caught up in the technology in so many ways. One thing that Maria said before she left that a Democrat also said earlier, quote, "You don't need to do drugs like heroin to know they should be regulated. Members of Congress don't need to spend their time talking to A.I. chatbots all day to know we need to rein in this dangerous technology."
MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I guarantee you all five of the bills that you put up on the screen before were in some way written by A.I. by the staffers that wrote them. I guarantee you that that's a fact. I also guarantee you that the --
CORNISH: So, which means even the A.I. knows how to regulate A.I.?
DUBKE: Frank Pallone's an old man and I -- no disparaging of Frank Pallone, that was an A.I. enhanced photograph that you just put up.
CORNISH: Do you think --
DUBKE: They don't understand this technology. They got rid of the Office of Technology Assessment years ago, and they don't know.
CORNISH: Did you do drugs to come up with your anti-drug policy?
MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING: But also, but here's the thing.
CORNISH: This is -- I'm just -- this is a quote.
HAYS: I don't think --
DUBKE: It's not the equivalence.
HAYS: These companies don't understand it. They're saying they don't understand it. They didn't realize it was going to move this fast. Bill Gates came out and said it's moving too fast. He had no idea. These companies are saying they're not going to let their kids use it. So, I don't understand why we are now on Congress to say, you don't understand it. So, you can't regulate it.
DUBKE: Because they think cousin Claude is saying something --
HAYS: But the companies don't even understand the technology. We can't expect Congress to also understand it. They have to work together and figure out the regulation.
DUBKE: Yes.
HAYS: Also, Johnson didn't recommission the a the joint A.I. task force that they had --
CORNISH: Yes. Which he said was working for three years and he just let it --
HAYS: And then he didn't do it. Why? Because of the president. This is a problem. Republicans don't want to do it because now the president is saying not to do it, which is unfair to the American people. The American people overwhelmingly want regulation on A.I.
DUBKE: It is a nonpartisan or bipartisan issue. When you put up the stats of 63, 64, 65 percent of Americans are afraid of A.I. that -- there is no partisan divide in that in. But the New York Times had a had a poll out yesterday. Who do you trust more Democrats or Republicans? And all of the issues Democrats were winning except for A.I. The American people trust Republicans slightly more on A.I. because I think they recognize that at least Republicans will work with industry trying to figure out the right regulation here rather than Democrats coming and just saying, I am going to put government on top of you and I'm not going to let you even do what you want to --
HAYS: I'm not disagree with that. Then why the Republicans who have both houses in Congress, why aren't they doing anything now? Instead, they went home for recess when the American people are asking for it. Republicans are in charge and not doing anything.
CORNISH: To your point, JD Vance is saying, look, we're seven weeks out from the midterms and, you know, give us a chance, give us more time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JD VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: There's a lot of good that's been done but there's a lot of work left to do. Don't give power to the people who cause the problems that we're fixing. Give us another chance or give us another couple of years to continue to work on the amazing things that we've been doing for the past two years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[07:50:00]
CORNISH: So, as Mike said, if you trust us more on things, we just need more time, which is why you have to vote is it again. Right now, here's what they're facing. Marquette poll, likely midterm voters say they'd prefer a Democratic congressional candidate to a Republican in their district. This is looking like a generic poll, which I kind of don't know what to do with a lot of times. Because then you're actually faced with the real person and sometimes you don't like them.
Here is the president addressing the issue of gas prices just last night in North Carolina where there is a very close Senate race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You have a little higher, you have a higher -- it's a very inexpensive price to pay for what we've done. Remember that. It's a little more. It's -- even if it was -- frankly even it was a lot more, but that's going to come tumbling down. That's going to be like a rocket ship in reverse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Smattering applause for -- it's just a little bit higher/
MANCHESTER: Well, especially -- look, it's a relatively close Senate race, but you have Roy Cooper actually in some polls leading Michael Whatley by double digits. But look, it's sort of a contrast on a -- huge contrast messaging from JD Vance and Donald Trump. You have Donald Trump obviously making that comment and also saying, pretend like I'm on the ballot, really trying to galvanize that base.
But JD Vance has made a number of comments in recent weeks. You know, yesterday or this week he was at the House Republican conference on Capitol Hill telling them, you have to level with voters. So, it's a sort of a different messaging coming out from the president and vice president on this. But --
CORNISH: Yes. Well, he's the right person in a way to deliver bad news because his unfavorables are so high, like no, no --
HAYS: Which one?
CORNISH: No, Vance. I'm not saying that in a mean way. I'm saying like --
DUBKE: No, no. I know you're not. I just --
CORNISH: But do you know what I mean? Like if someone is going to take the fall, it's kind of like a person who it's not going to damage some great reputation. And I'm showing the market university law school from early September.
DUBKE: But he's not wrong.
CORNISH: OK.
DUBKE: And he's not wrong in this sense. If Democrats take control of the House or they take control of the House and the Senate, what you're going to have for the next two years is investigation after investigation after investigation. If you think the government is frozen now and we disparage what they can't get done, it is going to be way worse. And I think that ultimately was the point he was trying to make and I think he's right about that.
CORNISH: Yes. He made one other point, which you're going to like, which is basically like, look, we've got a boogeyman. We've got someone we can talk about. They're up in Michigan. Here's what he told Republican lawmakers behind closed doors, quote, "Just talk about Abdul El-Sayed. He's got enough material for the whole country."
One person talking about El-Sayed, Kamala Harris, she's hitting the trail for him in a state that she actually lost in 2024. So, she the right person to bring in voters for this Michigan Democrat? As I was reading this introduction, Mehgan was literally saying, no way. Not wrong about Abdul Sayed.
SO, OK, I understand. You've often said, you don't think folks like him are the right fit for the party. What will Kamala Harris do for him in a state like Michigan?
HAYS: I think he's hoping she will attract the black vote, which he has a massive problem with. It was very evident in the primaries and it will be very evident in the general. The black vote, especially in Detroit, is 15 percent population of African Americans in Michigan alone and there -- they did not turn out for him and they have a real problem.
CORNISH: Yes. Say that again, they did not turn out for him in and that very competitive race with --
HAYS: In the primaries. And so, I think that she is there to help him to try to turn out that vote.
CORNISH: Is this --
DUBKE: The Republicans will say Hassan, Harris, Hassan, Harris.
HAYS: That's right. And I actually --
DUBKE: Until November 3rd.
CORNISH: I hadn't heard that yet. But I think
DUBKE: Yes. You know, I'm message guy.
CORNISH: I like it.
DUBKE: So, that's where we -- you know.
HAYS: To Mike's point though, I think this is one of those things that will hurt her if she decides to win in '28 because she's aligning herself to close with Abdul al-Sayed who is so aligned so closely with Hassan Piker it is just all but guilty by association and I worry that that is a problem for her.
DUBKE: I don't think she's running.
CORNISH: Although I wonder --
HAYS: I don't think either.
CORNISH: You don't think so?
DUBKE: No, no, no. I don't. I don't think so at all.
CORNISH: OK. So, do you remember the interview Jake did with Gavin Newsom when they were fly fishing?
MANCHESTER: How can we forget.
CORNISH: Well, he asked Gavin about this. And so, I just want to play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: It's going to be a lot of people.
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Yes.
TAPPER: A lot of Democrats.
NEWSOM: Thirty-one flavors and --
TAPPER: You're not even the only Californian.
NEWSOM: No, right. Yes.
TAPPER: You got Ro Khanna.
NEWSOM: Yes.
TAPPER: Kamala.
NEWSOM: Yes, I don't know if she runs, but we'll see.
TAPPER: I know she's called around
NEWSOM: Yes. But I wouldn't run as she ran.
TAPPER: If she runs, you will not?
NEWSOM: Of course not. Why would I? I wouldn't to do that to her, wouldn't do it me. Why would I want to do that to you? I won't to waste everyone's time. Who needs that. (END VIDEO CLIP)
MANCHESTER: You know, I think this kind of goes back to the question --
CORNISH: He said, of course not.
MANCHESTER: Of course not, yes. Well, I think it goes back to the black vote. Once again Gavin Newsom or any Democratic nominee for president needs the black vote, and he doesn't want to turn off, you know, segments of that voting block if he's definitively going after Harris or, you know, creating a dichotomy in California.
HAYS: That's right we change our maps of South Carolina. Now is the first primary state. Gavin Newsom is smart enough to know that if he insults her or doesn't give her her space to make the decision, that the black population in South Carolina will turn on him and so he is playing his cards very smart here.
[06:55:00]
CORNISH: Yes. Although I should say black voters in the South have other things to think about, like I don't know, their disenfranchisement, and they may also be frustrated with Democrats already. It's not the kind of thing where it's like, is there a black person on the ballot, I am voting for them. Like I don't think it's that straight ahead or else Kamala would have done better in many places.
HAYS: I don't disagree with you. I just think primary voters overwhelmingly in South Carolina -- she has a high approval rating there, and he is being differential to her because he understands that he cannot get out of South -- if he can't get out of South Carolina, he doesn't have a chance.
CORNISH: OK. So, I want to turn to your group chats. We're heading towards the end of the week. Mike, can I start with you?
DUBKE: Oh, you absolutely can start with me. Only because I'm so excited about today. I am leaving this studio. I'm flying to Buffalo. Home opener.
CORNISH: I knew it was a sports thing.
DUBKE: Home opener.
CORNISH: Yes, I mean --
DUBKE: Highmark Stadium. Look at that beautiful stadium. The new pictures have red end zones that I expect to see.
CORNISH: That's actually pretty cool looking. Yes.
DUBKE: It is very cool.
HAYS: He has his Buffalo shoes on. DUBKE: I have Buffalo shoes on. I've got this. My bags are packed. I'm ready to go.
CORNISH: Yes.
DUBKE: This is dominating my group chats.
CORNISH: Like, like Congress, it's just --
DUBKE: I'm ready to go
CORNISH: -- you're out of town. Out of town.
DUBKE: I don't expect Massie to give me any --
CORNISH: You don't?
DUBKE: You know, kudos for this. No. But I am on a jet.
CORNISH: OK. Love it. Love it. Mehgan, you?
HAYS: Garth Brooks is in town this weekend for his concert, he's going to -- the D.C. show tomorrow, which I am going to, is going to be part of -- they're taping it for his live CD. So, I'm very excited, very -- the outfits are dominating my group chat.
CORNISH: Really? The hats?
HAYS: What everyone is wearing.
CORNISH: How long have you been a Garth fan?
HAYS: My whole life.
CORNISH: Really?
HAYS: I grew up in Sacramento. It's rural in Northern California. A lot of country music going on.
CORNISH: OK.
HAYS: Yes. I have cowboy boots and everything.
CORNISH: Yes.
HAYS: I'll send you a photo.
CORNISH: Garth and Shania. Everyone's back.
HAYS: Yes.
CORNISH: Hey, love it. Love that. What? It's the late '90s country superstars.
MANCHESTER: As we saw reading the New York Post, there's a lot of storylines to glean from the new show about Alix Earle's family, "Earle Meets World."
CORNISH: Yes. This is the blonde influencer --
MANCHESTER: Yes, known for her get ready with me videos.
CORNISH: That's what it is.
MANCHESTER: But on a more serious note, her and her sister, Ashton, were tested in the show, and they documented this, for the BRCA gene mutation, which essentially says women could be, if they have this gene or gene mutation, are at higher risk for breast and ovarian cancers. They did this after their mother had breast cancer. I think it's always great to spread awareness about this. You know, they talked about now they're going to -- I think anyone, woman should be doing this, now they're going to prioritizing -- prioritize testing and keeping an eye on that.
CORNISH: And I think after Angelina Jolie had her (INAUDIBLE) she talked about her surgeries. Like, we did see an increase in people going to get tested. So, these sorts of things have an effect.
Mine is a reality show thing, just a rumor now, but apparently Netflix is thinking of having a reality show based on the Stanford Prison Experiment with, if anybody wants to Google, was an experiment way back when to see what would happen to people if they were told to kind of follow orders. And what they did was do cruel and mean things to their fellow students who were their prisoners. So, this is going to be possibly a reality show.
HAYS: What kind of orders do you follow? Can you expand on that?
CORNISH: Oh, it was bad actually. I made it sound like a fun group chat, but it's a very famous thing of, like, basically how can people end up in a situation where they are following, like, fascism, right? Where they are acquiescing to things that they wouldn't normally do.
HAYS: Got it.
DUBKE: So, group think or --
CORNISH: More than -- not -- more than group think. Like, I leave you alone with these people and tell them you're in charge and what do you do.
DUBKE: So, what's the setup of the show though? Like --
CORNISH: I don't know. I'm scared to know. I just feel like --
MANCHESTER: I think we could be a reality show.
CORNISH: I -- well - in the era - the reality era we're in now is, I'm not here to make friends, and this seems like a bad combo for that sort of thinking.
MANCHESTER: And I love -- excuse me, I love how Netflix has really delved into the reality TV space. I mean, Alix Earle show, for example. I mean, obviously two very different kinds --
CORNISH: Oh, maybe that's why I thought about it.
MANCHESTER: -- of reality TV shows.
CORNISH: Yes.
MANCHESTER: But I like how they're diving into that space. I know that Netflix has been trying to think about how to stay relevant as you have other streaming services. If you want to --
CORNISH: You're very generous.
MANCHESTER: Yes.
CORNISH: I feel like it's how to stay cheap.
MANCHESTER: Cheap, that --
CORNISH: Like, reality shows are cheaper than scripted dramas.
HAYS: And you don't have to pay anybody either.
CORNISH: And across the board, networks have embraced them for so many reasons.
DUBKE: No, you don't have to pay writers, you don't have to pay --
CORNISH: No, no. There's still --
DUBKE: -- a set designer or --
CORNISH: Yes.
DUBKE: -- you know, all of these things.
CORNISH: Script editors, if you will. Storyline editors, if you will.
DUBKE: I get there are editors to this, but they're basically banking on whatever strange people that they can find out there, they bring them together. This is why I don't like reality television.
CORNISH: Really?
HAYS: But you --
DUBKE: Oh, absolutely not. Because it, it is let's find the most dysfunctional people that we can, put them in a room together, and see if that dysfunction will create a television show.
HAYS: I think we'd be a great reality show.
DUBKE: Well --
HAYS: Dysfunctional. We don't need writers.
DUBKE: We actually may be great.
HAYS: It would be cheap. Here we go.
CORNISH: Listen --
DUBKE: I don't know what evil things we would do though.
HAYS: We'll just add the A.I.
DUBKE: I know.
HAYS: ChatGPT, please tell me.
CORNISH: Given that the president of the country was once on a reality show, I am going to vigorously say that reality shows are excellent programming where thoughtful people come together to share ideas about how America can and should be.
Thank you for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish, and the headlines are next.
[07:00:00]
