Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Millions In The U.S. Northeast Brace For A Powerful Storm; Supreme Court Rejects Missouri GOP's Redistricting Try For Third Time; States Can Use Controversial Citizenship Data Tool For Voter Audits; Americans Are Deeply Unhappy With The Broader Economy. Hawaii Braces for Yet Another Major Storm Just Weeks After Lala Unleashed Catastrophic Flooding Across the Big Island; New York Times: OpenAI's Systems Meddled with U.S. Government Websites; Trump Administration Set to Launch America.Gov. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired September 26, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:00:29]

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to CNN This Morning. Here's what's happening now. Strong wind, soaking rain, coastal flooding. Millions in the Northeast are bracing for a serious storm throughout this weekend. We are live on the Jersey Shore with a look at some of the impacts already affecting the area.

Plus, we're just weeks away from the midterm elections and the nation's highest court weighed in on two big voting cases. They'll break down their latest decision on a Republican effort to grab a Democratic House seat in Missouri.

Plus, a win for Trump and his push to use a controversial citizenship data collection tool for reviewing voter rolls.

And later, if you feel like the economy just plain sucks right now, you're not alone. We'll get reaction to new data showing consumer vibes around the economy are worse now than during the 1970s oil crisis, 9/11, the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plus, new worries about artificial intelligence as a new report from the New York Times says an AI system recently went rogue and meddled with U.S. government websites.

It is Saturday, September 26th. Thank you for joining us, Victor Blackwell is off. I'm Isabel Rosales in Atlanta.

Happening now, more than 40 million people in the Northeast are facing a massive early season Nor'easter. The storm is expected to bring coastal flooding, heavy rain and strong winds. Waves have been crashing along the shores of this Long Island, New York community. Take a look at this as the storm intensifies. In Norfolk, Virginia, some residents are already dealing with flooded streets and dangerous driving ahead of the sheer force of this Northeastern. A number of events have already been canceled. That includes the annual Global Citizens Festival in New York as forecasters expect the storm to peak today. So let's go straight to CNN's Danny Freeman in Atlantic City on the New Jersey shore. Danny, good morning.

What are you seeing?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Isabel. Yes, that's right. We're here in Atlantic City. We're on the famous Atlantic City boardwalk for you. And it's been fascinating out here because the rain has just kept coming. But I think the big question that all of us are going to ask all up and down the east coast is what does everything look like, especially when it comes to flooding, when the sun comes up.

The main concern for so many across the east coast, especially in some of the coastal counties where several governors across several states have declared states of emergency, has been major flooding concerns. And then also that intense wind.

And Isabel, I can tell you, we were out here right by the ocean. We were up on a different part of the boardwalk. We saw that intense wind firsthand overnight. The wind has kind of died down at this moment right here.

But again, you wait a second and then there the wind comes again. And then of course, the flooding is a concern. We've seen flooding certainly in parts to our south and then other flooding in streets to the north in places like Long Beach Island. Our affiliates had some flooding here in Atlantic City.

But I actually spoke to the PIO of this area last night before we went to sleep and they said that everything was pretty much normal for big storms here in Atlantic City so far. That's what all of us are hoping for. Here's the challenge though, Isabel, especially in areas like this, is that high tide is going to come again at 8:00 a.m. this morning.

And there were forecasts that officials were getting yesterday that all of a sudden basically took a turn that made them more concerned about what those tidal levels would bring when it comes to flooding.

I want you to take a listen to what one official was thinking about when he learned that new forecast saying the 8:00 a.m. this morning might be the danger point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: How concerning is it that the forecasts are calling for even more potential floodwater come tomorrow morning?

MICHAEL FAMULARO, ATLANTIC CITY DEPUTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR: It is very concerning. It's just going to be more water in the streets. I mean, we're still not calling for any evacuations because we think the houses, if you're in your house, you're going to be safe. The problems are there will be water on the streets. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: And Isabel, I think that message for so many, certainly in the Jersey Shore area is so familiar, which is, listen, there is going to be flooding, especially in some of those low lying areas.

[06:05:02]

There is already flooding here in Atlantic City and other spots along the shore, as I noted before. But local officials are saying as long as you stay in your house, certainly through the night, as long as you do not try to drive through floodwaters, you should be able to stay safe again. We'll be able to give you a fuller picture, Isabel, once the sun comes up in a little bit.

ROSALES: Yes, that's a relief to hear. Danny Freeman, I know you're going to keep a close eye on this. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is standing by with more information on this Nor'easter. What is the biggest threat right now?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I think the biggest threat in the short term is going to be the wind and then as we gradually go through the rest of the day on Saturday, rain is going to start to tick up. So flooding then becomes the big concern. So let's take a look at what we've got going on here.

Again, you can kind of see a lot of the rain bands really starting to spread inward to a lot of these places, especially farther north where it's been really kind of dry up to this point. You're also starting to notice those winds beginning to tick up. Look, several wind gusts up around that 40-mile per hour range. It's why you have a lot of these wind advisories and high wind warnings in effect. And these are not just going to be for the next couple of hours.

Most of these last at least through Sunday and some of them could even extend into Monday because of how slow this system is moving. That's why it also has a lot of time to dump a tremendous amount of rain because again, it is just truly meandering up and down the East Coast. It's not going to move all that much even say 12 hours from now. It's pretty much going to be in about the same location.

So all of these rain bands are just going to continue to pummel these same areas. New York, Providence, Hartford, Boston, all of them going to continue to see rain, some of it light at times, some of it coming down in torrential downpours.

Here you can see we've got some very heavy rain coming into New York right now that's going to spread into New Jersey in about the next 30 minutes to an hour. Overall, a lot of these rainfall totals widespread, you're looking at 4 to 6 inches of rain. That's just through the next 48 hours.

One thing also too to note is those winds are also taking all of that water and pushing it inland, that's going to cause another round of coastal flooding, not necessarily from what's coming down from the sky, but all of that water being pushed in by the wind. So all of those low lying areas right there along the coast, yes, you have a concern for coastal erosion, but you also have the concern for that flooding, all of that water to overrun the roads and start to stretch into some of these communities. That's why you've got this excessive rainfall risk, not just for Saturday, but we also have one on Sunday as well for many of the exact same places.

ROSALES: And I'm also curious with the lack of an active hurricane season, at least in the Atlantic, if that impacts threats, I'm thinking wind, tree limbs.

CHINCHAR: Yes. So one thing to note too about the trees is we all still have all our leaves on them. So the drag is that wind comes through, it is actually much more likely to pick up and uproot a tree because it still has its full canopy of leaves.

ROSALES: Allison Chinchar, thank you.

CHINCHAR: Thanks.

ROSALES: Well, new this morning, the Supreme Court has struck down efforts in Missouri to use a congressional map to that heavily favored Republicans for the November midterm elections. The new map, which was drawn up in 2025, would have given the GOP an opportunity to easily win an extra House seat.

It is the third time this month Republican officials tried to push the case through either state or federal courts, citing a precedent from 2006. The justices ruled it was simply too late to make any last minute changes that could disrupt the elections because midterm, absentee, military and overseas voting has already started for some states, including Missouri.

A significant win for President Trump in his bid to find non-citizen voters. The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that states can use SAVE, a controversial citizenship data collection tool for reviewing voter rolls. But the opinion made it clear that the program can only be used for, quote, individualized checks of a voter citizenship and not for mass purges. The order reverses a federal court ruling that blocked the use of the program.

Now stay tuned. We're going to talk about those stories and a lot more with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. That live interview is coming up at 8:00 a.m. Eastern.

Also new this morning, the White House is barring CNN from flying with President Trump on Air Force One today. The president is traveling to Tennessee to attend a college football game. CNN was scheduled to be part of the press pool which covers him on behalf of all the major networks.

No outlet has been tapped to replace CNN. And that means that there will be no television pool coverage of the president's trip.

More now from CNN's chief media analyst, Brian Stelter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Well, here we go again. Yes, the Trump White House has barred CNN from fulfilling its TV pool duties on Saturday. This means there will be no pooled TV coverage of the president's trip to Tennessee. He's heading there for a college football game between the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas.

[06:10:00]

I know that doesn't sound like the most important, most newsworthy presidential event, but what's at stake here is a very important principle, a principle about press freedom. Past U.S. presidents have not tried to control news coverage the way Trump is trying to do right now. So there's a very slippery slope aspect to this situation.

Last week, as you know, Trump banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House grounds. And then that federal judge ordered the ban to be reversed temporarily. So now it seems the president is looking for other ways to punish a news outlet he dislikes. And yes, it happens to be this network, but it could be some other outlet on some other or any other day.

Litigation over Trump's original ban is ongoing, and it's not immediately clear if this latest development will be folded into that case. Basically, CNN was back at the White House on Thursday and Friday thanks to that judge's ruling. But the administration then left CNN off its weekend coverage plan on Friday night, even though CNN is scheduled to be the TV pool.

The five major TV networks in the U.S. take turns as the pool, sharing video feeds and information with the others and with a huge array of other outlets, from local news stations to the New York Times to international broadcasters.

So here's what the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said about this earlier in the week when the news outlets first sued over the ban. Quote, the administration has disrupted a system that allows people all around the world to follow what the American president says and does. Trump cannot ban the media just because he doesn't like the coverage he gets.

But he's apparently going to keep trying to a president with record low approval ratings, facing pressure over the economy, defending an unpopular war while his party is staring down a brutal midterm election map. And he's picking a fight with the people who are reporting on those ugly realities.

As always, the reporters just want to do their jobs. As the five major networks all said in a joint statement earlier this week, quote, the public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. And it really is that simple. But it appears this First Amendment fight is going to drag on for a while. Brian Stelter, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ROSALES: And here are more of the morning's headlines after tea at the White House and a tour of the National Archives. Chinese President Xi Jinping state visit has come to an end. President Trump says that they discussed the war with Iran at the White House meeting on Friday. He also claims American farmers will be, quote, very happy with the outcome of their conversations. But he provided no additional details.

On Thursday, the two leaders met with top U.S. tech executives, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Apple CEO Tim Cook, to discuss regulating AI. This was Trump and she's second summit this year, the first, by the way, by Xi to Washington in more than a decade.

A massive data breach at the Pentagon is raising serious national security concerns, CNN has learned unauthorized users gained access to the names, Social Security numbers and other personal information for Department of Justice employees last October, but the Pentagon didn't discover the breach until July of this year.

The Military Times reports that at least 4 million people may have been affected. The data is a potential goldmine for foreign intelligence services looking to track U.S. military personnel or cyber criminals looking to extort them.

New Jersey's lieutenant governor resigned yesterday over accusations of inappropriate behavior with women and lapses in judgment. Dale Caldwell had been under pressure to resign by Democratic governors Mikie Sherrill, who says she is committed to changing a culture of ignoring sexual harassment in Trenton.

The lieutenant governor serves as acting governor when Sherrill is away and supervises elections as New Jersey's secretary of state. Caldwell would have been in charge of overseeing the upcoming midterms.

U.S. Consumer sentiment fell to its second lowest level on record in September. Why Americans are feeling deeply unhappy with the state of their personal and the broader economy.

Plus, we are tracking Hurricane Nolo out near Hawaii. We'll have more on the storm's impact on the islands.

And we'll get an expert's take on what the Trump administration is doing to address the growing concerns about artificial intelligence and the push for new guardrails.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:19:36]

ROSALES: Welcome back. A new survey shows how unhappy Americans feel about the economy. U.S. consumer sentiment dropped to 48, its second lowest level on record, in September. And that survey, by the way, goes back nearly 75 years, meaning that Americans are feeling worse now than they did during wars, the 1970s oil crisis, 9/11, the Great Recession, the COVID 19 pandemic, and the inflation we saw after that. [06:20:04]

So what's going on here? Rachel Wolfe is an economic reporter with the Wall Street Journal and she is joining us on the show now. Rachel, thank you very much. Appreciate your time.

RACHEL WOLFE, ECONOMIC REPORTER, WALL STREET JOURNAL: Thanks so much for having me.

ROSALES: What stood out to you in this new survey?

WOLFE: So what we're really seeing happening with consumers right now is just this weariness with inflation. People are so frustrate that everything is still so expensive. And the most salient price for people right now is really these gas prices. We see them around every corner. It's this referendum on the economy that we really just can't escape.

ROSALES: Yes. And politically, the backdrop here looks very different for President Trump than it did during the 2018 midterms. In fact, a new CNN poll shows that just 27 percent of Americans now approve of his handling of the economy. That is down 22 points from 2018, while 68 percent say that the economy is extremely important to their vote.

You're talking about gas prices, the feeling of affordability. What does this all mean for Republicans heading into the midterms?

WOLFE: So one thing that we saw in this survey of consumers that was really interesting is that Republicans too really dipped in their feelings about the economy right after Trump was elected. They were full of enthusiasm. They were really optimistic. Even at the start of the run of the Iran war, they still thought that it was going to be a temporary blip.

But we really saw it fall back down with this last consumer sentiment where it's not just liberals and independents who are upset about gas prices, about the economy, who are feeling like their prospects just aren't so hot right now. It's also Republicans and I do think that that's really important coming into the midterms.

We're at this point where people thought they were going to be feeling a little bit better by now. But you're still seeing a really uneven economy where if you're at the top, probably feeling OK, everybody else, people without assets are really struggling.

ROSALES: Yes. As you know, the infamous saying, it's the economy, stupid. Do you view this as a five-alarm fire for the party in charge right now?

WOLFE: I think that gas prices are just really tricky. People care so much. Even though it's a relatively small percentage of our overall budget, what it does is it tells us it's a signal for us about how we should be feeling. I went to go try to book a flight to visit my sister yesterday. I saw the prices and I was like, maybe not. And people hate Making those trade offs like, it's just a really bad feeling when you are trying to go visit your sister and you can't. And so we're really seeing that play out just across the economy.

ROSALES: Yes. And another sense of economic health here is how people feel about their ability to purchase a home. And we're also seeing mortgage rates climb back above 7 percent for the first time since January of 2025. Why are mortgage rates climbing and who is feeling the squeeze the most?

WOLFE: So mortgage rates are another, like gas prices. Another -- I feel like even my parents have been locked into their mortgage for over 20 years. Complain when mortgage prices are going up. I'm like, are you moving? But it's another one of these prices that people really see as a referendum on how they should be feeling it on their future prospects. That locks you out of some of a decision that you are hopefully going to get to make. You feel like that decision is no longer yours.

And so mortgage rates are tied to people's overall confidence in the economy. There, you know, a lot of different. A lot of different things go into them, from the bond market to everything else. But really, I think what's so important about mortgage rates continuing to go up is that it's another signal to consumers that they're priced out.

ROSALES: Well, I don't want to make this all negative. I want to talk about your latest story actually for the Wall Street Journal, where you wrote about American incomes hitting a record last year as women gain ground in the labor force. But there's caveats with everything, right? What else did you learn?

WOLFE: So the income picture was actually pretty good. This was for 2025. But we have to know where we were to figure out where we are now and where we're going. And what we found is that income actually rose quite a bit in 2025.

Again, it was more on the upper end. It wasn't evenly felt across the economy, but there were certain groups that tend to lag, including women, black workers that actually did pretty well in 2025. So that was an encouraging sign to me.

The labor market is another part of the economy that I wanted to talk about because it's kind of okay right now.

[06:25:03]

It's similar to the broader economy where if you have a job, you're pretty likely to keep the job. Fire rates are pretty low. People, companies aren't laying people off in mass. If you don't have a job, it's still really hard to get one. So, for people who have jobs, for people who have assets, for people who already have homes, they're likely to feel pretty OK about the economy and they should for everyone else, that's what you're seeing is real frustration.

ROSALES: Yes. And let me dig on that a little bit more. If medium households rose 2.6 percent the income after inflation, why aren't Americans feeling more optimistic overall about their financial situation? Is it that the numbers do not match the perception of what they're seeing on the ground?

WOLFE: It's such a good question. It's a little bit of both. And I think that it's this unevenness where when you're sitting in the economy, watching people at the top of the economy be able to do so much and you feel like you can barely afford to pay your bills, it's not just perception that you're much worse off. And I think people are really feeling for the -- for the wage class, for people who are struggling just to pay their bills versus people who have houses that have increased in value, stocks that are doing really well.

It's a -- it's a perception and it's also reality that it's just gotten harder for most people to come anywhere close to what people at the top are getting to experience. And so we did see income rise across the board, which is great, but we saw it rise mostly most of those gains were in the top echelon.

ROSALES: Right. And not so much those closer to the poverty line. Important nuance to it all. The economy is important. Rachel Wolfe, thank you for explaining this and making it easy to understand. Really appreciate your time.

WOLFE: Thanks so much.

ROSALES: More still to come, our Allison Chinchar will have more on the nor'easter intensifying in the Northeast. Allison?

CHINCHAR: Yes, we're taking a look at a lot of the flood conditions expected not just today, but also Sunday and even Monday. We'll detail with a timeline for a lot of this. Coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:00]

ROSALES: Welcome back. In this unusually active Pacific hurricane season, Hawaii is bracing for yet another major storm just weeks after Lala unleashed catastrophic flooding across the Big Island.

Joining me now is Jonathan Petramala; a storm chaser in Hawaii. He's there on the ground. Jonathan, really appreciate you joining our show. Can you walk us through what you're seeing right now and what has changed over the last couple of hours?

JONATHAN PETRAMALA, STORM CHASER: Good morning. Good news. That's what I'm seeing so far for the most part here in a large portion, at least on the Big Island. I'm in Hilo, which is the most populous city on the northeast side of the Big Island.

And we're just seeing light rain. And why is that good news? It's because when you have forecasts of 40 or more inches of rain over the last few days from the National Hurricane Center, that's startling. And this was targeting the Hilo area.

But because we're seeing just light rain, we're not seeing that heavy, persistent, or even moderate rainfall. It's unlikely that at least in this part of the Big Island, we're going to be seeing those catastrophic numbers, those numbers that led to really significant damage just a few weeks ago.

As you mentioned last month in August with Hurricane Lala. And in large part, it's because Hurricane Nolo has begun to make a turn to the west. And it's far enough to the south that, that very heavy core of the rain of Hurricane Nolo is staying offshore.

Now, that said, we're not completely out of the woods here on the Big Island, unfortunately, the southern part, the very southern part of the Big Island of Hawaii, still is going to be seeing a lot of heavy rain with this hurricane. And unfortunately, that was the hardest hit part with Hurricane Lala just about six weeks ago.

ROSALES: That's great news to hear. We want to hear that the thing is moving away, fewer impacts than anticipated. That's great. And in fact, I was checking out some of your social media, and I came across one of your posts, a story that you spoke with a 69-year-old woman prepping for all of this.

She was moving these basketball sized rocks by herself onto the graves of her mother, her father, her brothers to try and protect their cemetery plots. Tell me about her and what else you're hearing from the people, even if they're not being impacted as worst as they thought with this particular storm, they've been run through the gambit here.

PETRAMALA: Yes, Liz, incredible woman. I ran into her when I was -- I was just going through the town there in the southern part of Hawaii, and she was moving those basketball-sized boulders essentially onto the graves because the cemetery in that town was washed away, around 100 or so graves were impacted, either washed away or heavily damaged by the flash flooding that occurred during Hurricane Lala.

Her family's grave, like you said, her mother, her father and her brother buried in the same plot. A lot of erosion occurred, but they did stay in their plot. And so, they've done the best they can with the National Guard help and other volunteers to try and shore up the rest of the graves that are in that cemetery to try and keep them there, especially with the flash flooding.

[06:35:00]

That is the biggest concern, really all along with Hurricane Nolo. And so, she was there last minute, you know, not making preparations for her home, but instead trying to protect her family. And really, the biggest takeaway I had talking with Liz and other people here on the island, as you mentioned, it's the emotional toll it's taken because they're trying to rebuild.

They've seen something that nobody really has ever gone through here on the Big Island of Hawaii, which is a direct hurricane impact. And unfortunately, that led to some catastrophic flash flooding. And now they're dealing with Hurricane Nolo.

ROSALES: I can't imagine the emotional toll, the psychological toll of these back-to-back-to-back storms. And you're seeing it firsthand. Jonathan Petramala, thank you so much for sharing that with us. PETRAMALA: Thank you.

ROSALES: And by the way, we're still tracking that powerful nor'easter along the East Coast. CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is here with us. They are not out of the woods yet.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No --

ROSALES: Wind-gusts, heavy rain coming.

CHINCHAR: Exactly, you've got power outages already, you've got a lot of cancellations and delays at the airports. If you're planning to drive on the roads, be prepared for some of them to be underwater, and you may have to take a different route wherever you may be going.

Here's a look. Now, the vast majority of rain we have at the moment is very light, but you've got a couple of heavier rain bands kind of embedded within this system. But as it moves closer, and we go through the rest of the day today, you're going to start to see more of those heavy rain bands begin to tick back up.

Most of those over the water, those are going down, start to spread inland. Now, again, you can see we do have some moderate rain right there, starting to spread into New York. You've also got some that will continue to spread into areas of Connecticut here in about the next 30 to 60 minutes.

Overall, this is what we are looking at in terms of rainfall totals through early Monday. You're looking at 4 to 6 inches widespread totals in some of these communities. But that is just the rain that is falling from the sky. You also have to keep in mind, the wind is going to push a lot of that water from the ocean inland, especially those low-lying areas.

One thing to also note too, today is the full moon. So, we have astronomically high tides even before we add all of that extra water --

ROSALES: Of course --

CHINCHAR: Coming in.

ROSALES: Because why not?

CHINCHAR: Yes --

ROSALES: Allison Chinchar, thank you for breaking that down for us. Thanks. Well, still to come, the growing concerns over data centers and why their construction in communities is becoming a top issue in the Midterms.

And if you are heading out, remember you can stream our show from anywhere in the U.S. right from the CNN app. You can also go to CNN.com/watch. And here's a live look at Boston, where the nor'easter is hitting today. Some light rain already in the area, we'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:00]

ROSALES: Welcome back. New reports this morning of A.I. agents going rogue. That's according to the "New York Times". That OpenAI's Artificial Intelligence meddled with the websites of the Education and Commerce Departments, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission over the Summer.

And the A.I. lab had no idea that it was happening. OpenAI says none of the incidents were breaches, but were instead examples of its technology behaving in, quote, "unexpected and concerning ways". Well, everyone is talking about this, and I want to talk about this with Darrell West; Senior Fellow for the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.

Darrell, thank you so much for coming on the show, really appreciate you talking about this. As we look at this article from the "New York Times", what concerns you the most about this latest incident?

DARRELL WEST, SENIOR FELLOW, CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Well, Isabel, the problem is almost every day there seems to be unauthorized access to government websites as well as business websites.

We just saw an example of an A.I. agent basically going rogue, going into an Education Department website and gathering civil rights data. They've been breaches in terms of other government websites around the world.

Right now, there's no mandatory disclosure of these incidents. The ones we hear about, companies are voluntarily disclosing. But there's a question about, is there a lot more stuff happening that we don't even know about because there's no mandatory disclosure?

ROSALES: Yes, and I want to get into more topics of A.I., specifically with "Fox News" reporting that on Tuesday, the Trump administration will launch America.gov, a new website it says will, quote, "enhance the citizen experience".

The all-day launch event, by the way, will be hosted by former Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. It's going to feature the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, industry leaders like Elon Musk and Nvidia and Blue Origin CEOs.

Darrell, a White House official told "Fox News" that this new A.I. tool is supposed to be a one-stop shop to look up information spread across a, quote, "maze of various agency websites". As you're hearing about this announcement, what comes to mind? What do you make of this?

WEST: Well, it's good the government is devising tools to improve citizen access. Everybody is in favor of that. But the Trump administration has not really put appropriate guardrails in place to protect people in terms of basic security, safety or privacy.

[06:45:00]

Biden had put a number of guardrails in place through an executive order, Trump came in, basically took down all those guardrails. Trump keeps talking about how great data centers are, how great A.I. is. He doesn't seem to recognize the risks.

And when you look at public opinion surveys, there are large numbers of Americans all across the country who are expressing their worries about both data centers and A.I. So, the administration needs to be paying more attention to the safety angle.

ROSALES: Yes, let's talk about that. Americans growing increasingly concerned about the use of A.I. It seems like we can't escape the words Artificial Intelligence in our day-to-day now. In fact, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS found that nearly 8 in 10 Americans say that they're more concerned than excited by the possibility that A.I. could one day surpass human intelligence.

About 8 in 10 express negative sentiments about the rapid pace of A.I. development, and about the change that A.I. technology may fundamentally impact their lives, how it's going to change their lives. Are they right to feel this A.I. pessimism?

WEST: Well, the fascinating thing about that survey is how bipartisan those concerns are. It's really Democrats and Republicans across the country who are worried about this. On the East Coast, there's concern about rising electric rates, in the Southwest, there's worry about scarce water resources going into data centers.

Everybody sees the headlines about A.I. taking a bunch of jobs. So, there's legitimate public concern about many different aspects of A.I. The safety angle, the job angle, and the impact on affordability and cost of living. And so, we're seeing politicians all across the country run ads on this.

This is becoming a big issue in the campaign. And even Trump's own base, MAGA voters, a lot of those individuals are expressing concerns about data centers as well. So, it's one of those issues where the public is very united. But we need more action from the administration to take their concerns seriously.

ROSALES: Yes, an unusual level of bipartisan agreement when it comes to A.I., the rapid pace of development and the question of whether the government is doing enough. Darrell, we could be talking for days about this, and I'm sure we will. We'll have you back and we'll explore some more. Thank you so much, really appreciate your time and your patience and talking about all this. Thanks.

WEST: Thank you.

ROSALES: Well, still to come, the latest on the Caleb Flynn murder trial over the killing of his wife. And what a key witness found on Ashley Flynn's cell phone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:50:00]

ROSALES: Welcome back. In this morning's top stories, an open-air observation deck has been added to President Trump's proposed Triumphal Arch, set to overlook Arlington National Cemetery. That has sparked renewed outrage from military families, with one relative saying, quote, "we are not a sideshow."

Trump has said the arch will also double as a military complex to store weapons. And whistleblowers claim that Kennedy Center officials paused planned repairs to later justify closing the performing arts center. In a letter to Congress obtained by CNN, the lawyer for the anonymous group wrote that the center's director had known about leak issues for years, but stopped plans to get them fixed despite receiving more than $9 million in congressional funding.

It goes on to say that repairs were not treated as a priority or an imminent risk to public safety. The Kennedy Center pushed back on the claim, saying, quote, "the safety of our patrons, artists and staff comes first."

Now, to the murder trial of the ex "American Idol" contestant accused of killing his wife. This week, the jury heard from Caleb Flynn's former mistress who testified about their affair. Prosecutors say texts between the two showed motive for why Flynn murdered his wife in February and then staged it to look like an intruder broke in. CNN's Jean Casarez takes us through what else jurors heard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The prosecution had a full day on Friday of testimony. One witness, Special Agent Andrea Kunzig(ph) with the FBI took the stand. She had done an extraction of Ashley Flynn's cell phone.

And she found many things in it. One, she said that there was some frustration in the marriage between Ashley and her husband, Caleb. At one point, relatively close to her murder. She had asked him where he was in a text and he said that I'm worshiping.

And she asked him, is it her? And the evidence has shown that she did know or potentially knew about the extramarital affair that he was having. At another point, the day before she was so brutally killed, the extraction of the phone showed that she went to Casey's General Store, which was also a gas station.

She went to Goodwill. She went after that, to a car wash to get the car done. And then in the afternoon, she went to Target, and then she went home. And she did not leave the house. And it was several hours later that she was actually murdered.

We want to play for you a little bit, about 14 hours after the killing, her husband Caleb Flynn voluntarily went to the police department, they asked him a lot of questions, it was a lengthy interview. It was played for the jury. Take a listen.

CALEB FLYNN, FORMER AMERICAN IDOL CONTESTANT ACCUSED OF KILLING HIS WIFE: And I didn't know what to do as well, so I was scared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why were you scared?

(CALEB FLYNN SOBBING)

FLYNN: And I didn't know -- I didn't know what happened. I mean, I didn't do what I heard, but I didn't know, and then I know -- walked out.

[06:55:00]

We were in -- the door leading to the garage was open, and I turned, went into the room, and suddenly, grabbed her foot. Just imagining police, (INAUDIBLE).

CASAREZ: The prosecution's case-in-chief continues on Monday. We did hear in open court that they have another video to play to the jury, and it is a long one. Once the prosecution rests their case, the big question is, will the defense present a case and will the defendant Caleb Flynn himself take the stand? Jean Casarez CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROSALES: Will he take the stand? That's a big question there. Jean Casarez, thank you so much. Well, stay close, I'll be back in an hour for more CNN THIS MORNING. But first, "TABLE FOR FIVE" is coming up right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)