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CNN This Morning

Gov. Shapiro Joins Growing Calls for Strict A.I. Guardrails; King Charles Warns A.I. Technology "Falling into the Wrong Hands"; Fans Demand Refunds After Macklemore Pulled from Sheeran Shows. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 18, 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: Number is now at 3,294. If these were gun deaths in a city, we would be hearing about it. The flip side, however, Maria, is that when we actually poll people on whether or not they think vaccines are proven to cause autism in children, they're very skeptical of the science community.

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: But that is why what RFK Jr. is doing is so dangerous. The more you talk about this, the more that you influence people who are open to it.

CORNISH: What I'm saying is he is -- does he just reflect a sentiment that already existed?

CARDONA: He might. I think it's both, and it makes it dangerous.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: That poll showed that a total of 26 percent of people said that they have -- that they think it's definitely true or probably true, right?

CORNISH: Yes, but probably true, probably false.

DOVERE: It's 26 --

CORNISH: That's not -- the science community is like, that is not correct.

DOVERE: It's not correct.

CORNISH: That is false. But also, like 26 percent of people you could find to believe in just about anything.

TIANA LOWE DOESCHER, ECONOMICS COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON EXAMINER: OK. But let's point out that the measles cases were actually rising before COVID, in large part because you had in blue states, people like Gavin Newsom's wife pushing for laws to relax the vaccine requirements in public schools.

CORNISH: Wait, did you say before COVID?

DOESCHER: Before COVID, yes. CORNISH: Again, I want to repeat the numbers, however. 2024, 283.

DOESCHER: Which is lower than it was before COVID.

CORNISH: 283. It is now 3,000.

CARDONA: It's insane to make those connections.

DOESCHER: Yes, yes.

CORNISH: You're connection is -- what you're saying is not actually incorrect. What I'm saying is the data does not support the scale of the problem you are describing.

DOESCHER: Oh, no, no, no.

CORNISH: The scale of the problem in 2026 is in order of magnitude --

DOESCHER: I'm not denying that at all. I'm saying that you should vaccinate your kids for the MMR vaccine, I'm getting it for my children. I -- my daughter was vaccinated. Everything she could, day one that she could, right?

CORNISH: So, you are in odds with the RFK position?

DOESCHER: 100 percent. But I'm saying that this is a problem that has deep roots.

CORNISH: It does.

DOESCHER: The seeds were sown before COVID, right? Remember, Jenny McCarthy was --

CORNISH: And so, the point is, can you pour water and fertilizer on the seeds and be shocked that there are deaths?

DOESCHER: But I'm not --

DOVERE: The seeds were mostly sown by Robert F. Kennedy, right?

DOESCHER: Exactly.

DOVERE: Like for many years.

DOESCHER: Yes.

DOVERE: Remember, during the transition --

DOESCHER: Including when Obama was looking at him to be his EPA director.

DOVERE: OK.

DOESCHER: RFK Jr. wrote that piece for Rolling Stone, lying about vaccines causing autism. DOVERE: It's not really about Barack Obama or Gavin Newsom, right?

DOESCHER: Right.

DOVERE: Or Gavin Newsom's wife. You can -- this is about the Health and Human Services Secretary, who for the last 30 years has made this a major cause of his, who has written many books about it, who has championed this cause, and who has done more than anyone, probably in the public sphere, to raise the profile of anti-vaccination.

DOESCHER: All I'm saying is yes, and half the people in this country.

DOVERE: Yes. But you're very agitated about it. And like there is just data.

DOESCHER: Yes, I'm agitated about it because I would like my fellow Republicans to vaccinate their children. And I know that when you try and make it a partisan sport, they are less inclined to.

CARDONA: But who's making it a partisan sport when you put the head of the vaccine -- when you -- let me finish. Let me finish. When you make the head of the anti-vaccine conspiracy theory, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, you are responsible for the fact that a lot of people are going to continue to believe that lie and are going to continue to make bad decisions --

DOESCHER: And I'm not --

CARDONA: -- that is going to end up in --

CORNISH: Well, since you fundamentally agree, we're going to move on from this topic because we're also in the middle of a national debate about A.I. It's finally reached the campaign trail. And yet, we hear Democratic advisers warn candidates that powerful tech groups could end up spending against Democrats. So, the question is, is big tech making it so that they're too powerful to regulate?

And then later, there is the lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy trial. You remember him apparently speaking out in our next hour. We're going to see why he says he didn't have any doubts that she was guilty.

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[06:35:00]

CORNISH: All right. All week you have been hearing about the growing calls to slow down development of A.I. Now, the governor of Pennsylvania, we were just talking about him, Josh Shapiro. He is, of course, a possible 2028 hopeful and he's weighing in on this topic as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO, (D-PA): The federal government needs to work with leading researchers and experts, as we've done here in Pennsylvania. And with the American people, not against them, to develop strict guardrails on this technology, its development and its deployment in the real world. Look, I recognize that that is hard work. But we elect our leaders to take on the hardest problems. Not to give up at the first sight of difficulty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Well, lawmakers get cold feet. You've got Politico reporting that campaign consultants are warning Democratic candidates about going too hard against A.I., fearing tech giants could respond with a wave of spending against them.

Now, the Group Chat is back. I think there's a whole conversation about what is the motivation of the A.I. companies and how they are speaking publicly. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about lawmakers responding to public backlash. Which, with data centers, flat cameras, all kinds of things, has grown organically on its own.

[06:40:00]

What do you make of these Democratic consultants being like, hey, pump the brakes on the A.I. doomerism.

DOVERE: There was a congressional race in Manhattan in New York City, a primary this spring, for an open seat. It's currently held by Jerry Nather, in which one of the candidates was speaking very much about A.I. regulation. He worked at one of the companies, and he was very serious about it. And millions of dollars were spent against him. Many millions of dollars in a congressional primary.

CORNISH: So, we're already seeing this.

DOVERE: And the people who were at some of those companies, and the PACs involved with them, were saying very openly that they were spending in that primary to put a warning shot across the bow to candidates, whether they're Democrats, Republicans, whatever else, to say, if you come and try to regulate us or talk about regulations, we're going to try to mess with your political process.

CORNISH: So, to give an example, you're just talking about one Manhattan race.

DOVERE: Yes.

CORNISH: Just in the second quarter of 2026. Anthropic, 1.97 million. NVIDIA, 1.25 million. OpenAI, 1.2 million again.

DOVERE: But that's federal lobbying money. That's -- right.

CORNISH: That's just federal lobbying money.

DOVERE: That's not the --

CARDONA: That's not -- CORNISH: That is small potatoes, as we know, in this economy. And

then when we look at what's going on, I have to ask Maria, you specifically, because there's a Democratic strategist out there that is tippity-tippity typing. Chill. Chill, everyone.

CARDONA: I think there's got to be a balance, because it's true that a lot of these companies will spend a gazillion dollars against candidates who they believe are going to be more difficult for them in terms of regulation. The problem there, I think, though, is that voters are starting to overcome this because the sentiment against A.I. isn't just on the Democratic side. It is now on the Republican side as well.

You're even seeing Republican candidates saying, whoa, we have to slow down here. So, this is overtaking, I think, even the political tendencies here. We all have to come together to figure this out. I do think there's a great opportunity for Democratic candidates to be the ones to say, we do have to halt this, but we have to do it in a way that makes sense.

CORNISH: I want to play one more thing for you. This is the chipmaker NVIDIA's CEO, because of all people, King Charles has managed to convene a summit on this issue. So, far it's been him, the Pope, and no one else. But here is NVIDIA's CEO on how to go forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENSEN HUANG, NVIDIA CEO: This is no different than, you know, an omelet's not ready to be released or a car's not ready to be released, an airplane engine not ready to be released. You should properly test it. You have rigorous testing systems. The testing lab should be contained and products should not be released to the public until it's ready to be used by the public. And that's engineering, good old- fashioned engineering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Let's just hope we're not the eggs. OK. Next on CNN This Morning, we're going to talk about Karl Rove. Why? Because he's the father of the modern Texas GOP, and he says he's voting for a Democrat. So, which race is this, and is it a big red flag for Republicans? We're going to find out more.

And then I know you all are still talking about Ed Sheeran and his tour, because basically it's imploding over this free Palestine movement from Macklemore, and some fans are like, maybe I should get a refund. I'm going to ask Elliot Williams if they can. When we lawyer up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:00]

CORNISH: OK. There are Macklemore fans who want their 20 bucks back now that the rapper will not be opening for Ed Sheeran on the rest of that tour. Several fans are demanding refunds in Massachusetts, where he was officially barred by Robert Kraft from performing at Gillette Stadium after Macklemore made his free Palestine remarks during Ed Sheeran's tour. So, the AG's office there says it's actually going to review the ticket complaints.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, are we all asking for refunds on our Ed Sheeran tickets now or what are we doing? Because you're telling me Macklemore gets removed from the tour for saying free Palestine and your decision is to continue the tour without him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, we're hoping Ticketmaster will either be willing to give them a refund. And we're hoping, honestly, that Ed Sheeran will come out with a statement and say either cancel the tour because at this point, like, I think it's wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, we know nobody reads the terms and conditions. Maybe they should have. And that's why we're bringing in CNN's legal analyst Elliott Williams to lawyer.

OK. I just want to be clear. It's not just Macklemore who's only on a couple of dates. To be fair, supporting acts that have fallen out, Lucas Graham, Finneas of Eilish family fame, Beoga and Aaron Rowe. So, there's a lot of different constituencies that might be like, hey, I want my money back. But can they get it?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: They probably cannot. And it's easier -- you know, step back. This isn't -- whenever you enter a concert or an opera or to see the 27 time world champion New York Yankees, whatever it might be think of it less as a ticket for your entry and actually a contract that you signed with the entity that's doing so. And when you look at the back of it, they're the terms of a contract that you would agree to.

You know, now you didn't negotiate it. There's a term for it in the law. It's called an adhesion contract. It's that one party set the terms, decided how things would work, and you took it or left it. You paid money for it. And here, because a show is happening and the top of the show is still happening, most people really aren't going to have much of a right.

CORNISH: Yes. So, as long as it's an Ed Sheeran show, you are going still to an Ed Sheeran in show. And the key here is supporting acts. That's in the fine print.

WILLIAMS: In fact, most venues, again, it's going to vary from state to state and from venue to venue, promoter to promoter. But most of the time, supporting acts are not guaranteed.

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: So, you know, they can swap out the undercard --

[06:50:00] CORNISH: Well, in the meantime, it's time to resell because prices are down, move quick. In Philadelphia, the last three days, prices went down almost 30 percent. The other two dates at Gillette, down 19 and 11 percent. In Atlanta, 12. Hard Rock Live Hollywood, 31 percent. Three-day change in prices.

One of the things that's interesting about this show is that it's not just a show. One of the things I was thinking about this story, which now has Robert Kraft saying that he's going to donate money to the region, is that it's like I don't think Malcolm Moore on his own could have ginned up this response, if not for this platform, the particular artists and the combination of factors that have come together.

WILLIAMS: He might have been able to find it at the thrift shop if he'd wanted. You had --

CORNISH: Too soon, Elliot.

WILLIAMS: I had to. I had to.

CORNISH: Too soon, Elliot.

WILLIAMS: I had to know. But no, I mean, this is -- look, that was in those ticket prices. That's the market playing out. And in many respects, that's what happens here. The marketplace dictates what people are willing to pay for tickets, what they can charge. And quite frankly, what are the terms you can accede to by entering?

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: And again, it's -- you know, I don't think people realize what you consent to every time you walk into a stadium. It's just you've really, for instance, given up the right to sue them in most circumstances. You've consented to arbitration. Just look at the back of your baseball or football ticket.

CORNISH: Yes. It's also why -- yes. OK. We're going to come back to this. I think people will still be talking about it.

I want to turn to one other thing election wise. We've got some interesting voices speaking out in the last 24 hours because obviously Trump has said, hey, vote like I'm the one you're voting for. But then we turn to a place like, say, Florida, and you see this campaign ad that has just come out from a lawmaker there. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR (R-FL): Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far. In July, 50 percent of the 50,000 people that were detained had no criminal records. Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policies. The same Hispanics who help you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.

CORNISH: Republican.

CARDONA: She is right. The Latinos absolutely feel betrayed by this president.

CORNISH: Republican. She could have been --

DOVERE: And not just Republican, Republican in the district that Donald Trump won by 15 points.

CORNISH: That Donald Trump won 15 points. OK.

CARDONA: Yes. And this is the danger. They also feel that the reason why she did this ad is because the Latinos also feel betrayed by her.

CORNISH: Well, a local Florida Republican responded by saying deport her ASAP. Correction. She is an American citizen born in the U.S. Tomi Lahren, absolute betrayal of Trump. Greg Bovino says this person, again, who is an American citizen, is anti-American.

Can you talk about this, Tiana? Because the president brought together an interesting coalition demographically to come back to office and it included Latinos.

DOESCHER: Yes. And so, Maria Elvira Salazar is a fixture in her district, right? She was on air reporter for 30 years before becoming a congresswoman. She has a lot of clout within that community. And we're specifically talking about Cuban-Americans who have always voted Republican, right? That the rest of the Latinos that voted for Trump, that was the new wave. So, this is a loyal Republican bloc and they aren't necessarily a Trump specific bloc.

The issue for Salazar is that part of the deportation efforts in her district have included Cuban-Americans who have come here legally and did have some sort of visa or permission to be here and were then deported while they were going through the immigration process, right?

CORNISH: So, you agree basically?

DOESCHER: And so --

CORNISH: Yes.

DOESCHER: And this has always been one of the internal fights within the White House. Do you go the Tom Homan route and focus on the people with warrants out for arrest? Do you try and work with the jails and beg the sanctuary cities? Let us into the prisons, right. Let us into the jails.

CORNISH: Well, in the meantime --

DOESCHER: Or do you go after --

CORNISH: -- while we're having this debate, I want to show you what's happening with Hispanic voters or Latino voters across the country. His approval rating with them right now is 30 percent, which means 66 percent disapprove. Again, this is a constituency that did lend him a lot of credibility going into this election back in, say, Florida, for example, as you mentioned, among Latino voters specifically. He won that vote, 58 percent. CARDONA: And what Maria Elvira is seeing is the trend when you have somebody who a Democrat who ran for mayor for Miami, where a Democrat has not won for 30 years last year and she won. Maria Elvira is looking at this trend and she is really panicking and she's trying to be the one to say, oh, I'm with you, Latino voters. It's a little too late.

CORNISH: Let me turn to Texas for a second where there's another Republican that's not feeling the vibes. First of all, to put a coda on it, likely Hispanic voters in Texas right now are not going for Greg Abbott. They're going for Gina Hinojosa. We will see how that turns out on Election Day.

[06:55:00]

But then you've got the father of the modern Texas Republicans, Karl Rove, shouting out Republican Bo French and not in a good way. So, French is the state's railroad commissioner. And then there was this post he's running -- sorry, he's running for railroad commissioner. And he had this post where after a football game, he said, quote, "I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn't believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined." This is an image of students appearing to be of South Asian descent.

Again, railroad commissioner. But this got Rove to basically write a Washington Post op ed saying, quote, "These people are diminishing the Republican Party. They're not building it. And I'll have no part of it."

Group Chat is back. Drawing a line, interestingly enough, given all the things we've heard in different corners of the party the last couple of months.

DOVERE: Yes. Look, I spent the beginning of this week in Texas, actually in Brownsville. McAllen is along the border. Some of it with Gina Hinojosa, some of it talking to Republicans and Democrats who are thinking about what to do in Texas this year. What we're talking about with Latinos is very much on their minds, not just because of the immigration issue, because of a lot of other things.

But also, there is this -- what happened with this tweet really blew up and caught a lot of people, the attention of a lot of people.

CORNISH: Which I'm surprised because people are always saying that this community or that community of immigrants is changing the nature of Western civilization. This is not unusual language.

DOVERE: And then it came from a guy, look, he's running for railroad commissioner. This is not usually an office that's top of mind for people. But there was something about the language of the tweet, the way that it was done, that just broke through. I was surprised, honestly, of how many people I was talking to were just bringing it up.

DOESCHER: It's not that -- OK. If I could just translate into why this triggered Republicans in a way that other things don't, it's because it wasn't a cultural argument, right? Like, look, I also believe that we shouldn't en masse import people who are going to bring cultural norms that are antithetical to the United States. You should not bring in people who believe that homosexuality should be criminalized. People believe that women shouldn't be in public spaces, right. But that wasn't this.

This showed a bunch of students of who were not white engaging in the most Texas thing you could, which is being at a football game in a cowboy hat. And that was the issue.

CORNISH: Here's the reply from the students who -- at least some students who posted. Let me see. Is this an image or a photo of them? Do we have the students? Oh, here we go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's running for office, right. So, whatever he says does matter. And like inherently, it wasn't even like a political take. It was just straight racism.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not going to let anyone else tell me who I am or what I can't be. I know I'm an American, born and raised here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARDONA: And can I also say this is also vintage Karl Rove. Let's remember Karl Rove for the Bush administration. They knew how important Latino voters were and voters of color in Texas. Let's remember, everyone talks about all this support that Trump got from Latinos. Bush got a ton of support from Latino voters. That's why he won twice. And so, for this, I really think Karl Rove, this goes against every fiber of his being in terms of what the Republican Party --

CORNISH: And what I was interested in is he didn't say this railroad commissioner is the worst thing ever. He said there is a problem in the party and I want to address it.

WILLIAMS: Yes. And the other thing is the dog whistle, if you want to call it that, behind statements that, you know, admissions in Texas actually are largely race neutral per the Supreme Court and per Texas rules for a long time. If folks don't like the fact that South Asians are getting into the University of Texas, then do better in Texas high schools and get admitted. But this notion and this --

CORNISH: And also, the railroad commissioner is not going to help.

WILLIAMS: And the way he is not --

CORNISH: So, since you're the guest at the table, what's in your Group Chat?

WILLIAMS: So, you know, it's my two favorite things on earth.

CORNISH: "Star Wars." WILLIAMS: "Star Wars." OK. Three.

CORNISH: OK.

WILLIAMS: But beer and antitrust, because in just a matter of hours, Oktoberfest begins in Munich and there is a long running --

CORNISH: Oktoberfest?

WILLIAMS: Oktoberfest begins -- it starts in September, but it begins -- because there's only six beers that can be served at Oktoberfest, raising allegations of --

CORNISH: But many pretzels.

WILLIAMS: But many pretzels and fish and sausage, but allegations of a cartel. Literally, these six beers have to be made from beer --

CORNISH: A monopoly colluding, if you will.

WILLIAMS: A monopoly colluding of sorts, hops, barley from the town of Munich. Even the prince of Munich cannot get his beer in an Oktoberfest. And it's a big, nasty fight going on centuries back to the 15th century.

CORNISH: You're chuckling. What's in your Group Chat?

DOVERE: I mean, I just thinking about my own experiences at Oktoberfest, which is a story for another time.

WILLIAMS: Is it a story for another time though, Isaac?

DOVERE: And I've written about it. I attended Oktoberfest in Munich a bunch of years ago with Arnold Schwarzenegger and got torn around by that. So --

WILLIAMS: Of course, you were.

DOVERE: But I mean, I'll cover the "Star Wars" thing a little bit. There's a new museum that's opening in L.A. that George Lucas is funded. It is not clear, I think, exactly what the museum's about. But take a look at the building itself, which is really cool.

CORNISH: Very nice. OK. My kids are psyched, and now they're going to expect me to bring them to this museum.

OK. I want to thank you all for being here on a Friday, and I want to thank you for being with us. There's a lot of places you could be, and I'm glad you chose to spend your Friday with us. The headlines are next.

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