Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Event/Special

CNN Headlines. President Trump Arriving in China for High- Stakes Summit with Xi; FBI Director Kash Patel Faces Senators Amid Allegations of Misusing FBI Resources; Survivors Testify Before House Dems in Florida Hearing As Part of Epstein Probe. Aired 5-6 am ET

Aired May 13, 2026 - 05:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:00:35]

BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump will land in China in just a few hours. What we can expect to see during his high stakes meeting with China's president.

And a bizarre twist to a high-profile election. Why the winner says I'm dropping out and:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then all of a sudden we hear the shot like maybe three shots or four shots. One, two, three, four. Then everybody panic inside.

SMITH: Two people inside a grocery store took down a shooter. We've got the terrifying story from inside the building. And one of the stars from Ted Lasso can now call himself a real soccer player.

Good morning, everyone. Let's take the picture. I'm Brad Smith.

This is "CNN Headline Express." Glad that you're with us this morning. Let's get this started at this hour.

President Trump is aboard Air Force One set to arrive in China in just a few hours for a high stakes summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. His first visit to China since 2017. It is for Trump.

The war with Iran sure to be a major topic on this trip. Before leaving, the president was asked if she will play a role in informing a deal with Iran. Now, his response was that the two world leaders would have a long talk about the conflict. And then he added this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: Yeah, I don't think we need any help with Iran, to be honest with you. They're defeated militarily and they'll either do the right thing or we'll finish the job.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SMITH: Another topic, the economy. New numbers out yesterday show

inflation is the highest it's been in three years here in the U.S. as the war with Iran drives up energy prices.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To what extent are American financial institutions motivating you to make a deal?

TRUMP: Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about American financial situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: The president is scheduled to land in Beijing this morning. CNN's Steven Jiang is already there. We're going to join him later this hour, so stay with us.

The number of hantavirus cases connected to the MV Hondius cruise ship stands at 11 this morning, according to the World Health Organization. Travel blogger Jake Rosmarin was on that ship. He has not tested positive, but is now in quarantine. He posted an update from his room inside a quarantine unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He says that he still has no symptoms and even got his first really good iced coffee in six weeks delivered by the nurses. He talked to our Anderson Cooper last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: You took video from inside your quarantine unit. Can you tell us more about what it's like?

JAKE ROSMARIN, AMERICAN PASSENGER WHO WAS ON THE HANTAVIRUS-STRICKEN MV HONDIUS: One of the things that's nice is it's just a good change of scenery and it's much more spacious than my cabin was. I love that we have our exercise equipment. We are being treated so well here. The staff has been so kind and so accommodating.

The nurses just delivered me an iced horchata shake and espresso with oat milk and vanilla cold foam. And I'm literally in heaven. We're allowed to get packages delivered here, so I actually received clothes today. And I'm receiving special things for my bed as well so I can feel more at home knowing that I'm going to be here for another 40 days.

COOPER: It's nice to know that Amazon delivers to a biocontainment unit.

ROSMARIN: I think it's because it's the medical center, so it's pretty easy to get stuff delivered here, yeah.

COOPER: Is there something you're looking forward to most once you're out of quarantine? I mean, 42 days, 41 days is a long time.

ROSMARIN: It's actually a question that I've been asked a lot and it may sound cliche, but I cannot wait to give my fiance and my family and friends hugs because that's something that I just really miss. That first hug is going to feel like the best thing in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: In our next half hour, hear from the doctor who was on vacation but jumped in to help when people got sick. He said that he even felt ill at one point.

A bizarre twist in a Nebraska race has upended the election. That is after a Democrat who won her primary Senate race plans to drop out. Cindy Burbank says that she will not run in the general election. CNN projected that Burbank defeated William Forbes, so why did she drop out?

Burbank says she dropped out because she believes that Dan Osborn has the best chance to flip the seat in November's election. Osborn is an independent. He's also a mechanic and a former union leader. He's trying to unseat Republican incumbent Pete Ricketts.

[05:05:05]

Another interesting part of this, the candidate who lost, William Forbes, Democrats allege he's really a Republican. They accuse him of only running in the Democratic primary to try to peel away votes from Osborn. Forbes denies that he's a GOP plant. He told CNN that he has previously voted for President Trump but says that he's a lifelong Democrat. The state Senate in South Carolina voted against bringing back legislators for a special session on redistricting.

Some lawmakers were pushing to redraw the state's congressional map, but the vote to create a special session did not get the two-thirds majority needed to pass. Five Republicans joined all of the Democrats in voting against the proposal. The vote comes after President Trump showed his support for redistricting the state. The state Senate majority leader acknowledged the pressure from Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SHANE MASSEY (R-SC): I've seen it argued on social media. I've heard it argued. People have told me this, that this is what you're supposed to do with power. This is what you're supposed to do with a supermajority. You're supposed to punish your opponents. Really?

Is that how it's supposed to work? Is that how it's supposed to work here? I mean, I know that's how it works in some other places around the world, but is that how it's supposed to work here?

You know, to most people in the country, I think this is a perfect example of just how much elected officials have lost their way. Too many people in power just want to do whatever it takes to stay in power. They'll do whatever it takes to keep it. But I ask, to what end?

(END VIDEO CLIP) SMITH: Some extremely powerful and pointed words there. Some Republicans say that the fight isn't over. They still plan to push for redistricting, even if it won't come in time for the midterm election.

Florida plans to shut down the controversial migrant detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz nearly a year after it opened. "The New York Times" and CNN affiliate "WFOR" report detainees will be removed by early June, with the facility dismantled shortly after. The Everglades site faced legal challenges, rising costs, and allegations of inhumane conditions. It's still unclear where the nearly 1,400 detainees will be moved.

FBI Director Kash Patel was in the hot seat on Capitol Hill Tuesday, asking lawmakers for a bigger budget. The administration wants $12.5 billion total for the FBI. That's an increase of nearly $2 billion, and the big ask. It comes as Patel faces allegations of misusing FBI resources, excessive drinking, and unexplained absences. The top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee asked Patel about these allegations, but Patel fired back, leading to this exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): Are you willing to take the test, it's called the audit test, that members of our active-duty military and others take to determine whether they have a drinking problem?

KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: I'll take any test you're willing to take.

VAN HOLLEN: I will take it, Director Patel. I'll take it. Ready to take it?

PATEL: Let's go.

VAN HOLLEN: Yes or no?

PATEL: Let's go. Side by side.

VAN HOLLEN: I'll take it. I'll take it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: Patel has denied those allegations and is suing "The Atlantic" for $250 million for its article alleging that he had episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.

Today, the Utah woman convicted of poisoning her husband and then writing a children's book about grief, we'll learn her sentence. And this is happening on what would have been his 44th birthday.

Kouri Richins faces 25 years to life or life without parole. She was convicted of aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder for trying to kill Eric Richins weeks before his death. According to court filings, prosecutors want a protective order to stop her from contacting her children. Those filings say that the oldest son, who's 13, has said he misses his dad, but not his mother. Families who have been on edge as a massive South Florida brush fire

inched towards their homes this week are breathing a sigh of relief today as crews gain the upper hand. The Forest Service reports significant progress after more than 11,000 acres burned since the fire was discovered Sunday. No major injuries and firefighters say that they'll have things under full control in the next day or two.

We've got lots more to come on CNN Headline Express as we're just getting started. Emotional and gut-wrenching survivors of the late Jeffrey Epstein, whose names and private information were revealed during the release of the files, share painful testimony at a field hearing in Florida.

And remember the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge in 2024? Well, criminal charges have now been filed. We've got those details.

[05:10:03]

And new developments in the DUI arrest of golf legend Tiger Woods. Stay with us.

You're watching "CNN Headline Express."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SMITH: Emotional testimony from survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. Several women testifying in Palm Beach County, Florida, in a field hearing held by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee as part of their investigation into the late convicted sex offender. Some of Tuesday's testimony focused on the Justice Department's handling of the files.

[05:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENA-LISA JONES, EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: The Department of Justice released documents that expose our names, our social security numbers, and deeply personal information. Survivors' identities were made public. Husbands learned about their wives' abuse for the first time. Children learned about the abuse of their mothers from reporters, from strangers on the Internet, and in some cases, from other kids at school.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: The location of Tuesday's hearing is significant, as Palm Beach is where many of the allegations against Epstein first surfaced and where officials reached that controversial non-prosecution agreement with him back in 2007.

The Justice Department filed criminal charges against two companies that operated the cargo ship that rammed into Baltimore's Key Bridge back in 2024. Six highway workers were killed when the ship lost power, hit the bridge, and it collapsed. Federal prosecutors say the ship's operators, along with its technical superintendent, fabricated and directed the fabrication of safety inspections. Summer-like heat and gusty winds are fueling wildfire danger in the

West, while parts of the East could see severe thunderstorms tonight. Here's CNN's Meteorologist Derek Van Dam with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's the middle of the work week. We've got a couple of different weather stories to talk about, namely the hot conditions that continue to bake the southwestern parts of the U.S. and a few different clipper systems that are going to bring the chances of severe weather to two separate locations, namely across the mid-Atlantic and portions of the Northeast and throughout the Intermountain West, specifically throughout Idaho and into Montana.

First, focusing in across the Northeast, this cold front will help trigger a few showers and thunderstorms, some of which could be severe Wednesday evening. Let's say places like Baltimore into the Washington region, the nation's capital there. The I-95 corridor with this cold front sweeping eastward could get torrential rain, more of a wind hazard more than a tornado hazard, so that's the good news.

But for the day on Thursday, we'll start to wrap in some moisture off the Atlantic and bring heavier rainfall into the coastal areas of Maine and perhaps into Vermont and New Hampshire as well. All in all, though, just around a quarter to a half an inch of rain with these fast-moving thunderstorms, you'll see that that cold front will actually cool things off temporarily across the eastern half of the U.S., but the warmth will slide east, the warmth that's building over the western parts of the U.S., that is. We still have our record high temperatures. That, again, continues to move further inland and into the interior of the country. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SMITH: All right, thanks so much, Derek.

Still to come on "CNN Headline Express," speaking out, what former FBI Director James Comey told CNN about the Justice Department's second indictment against him.

And a moment of silence, the ADA world mourning the loss of two players.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:22:31]

SMITH: Senate Majority Leader John Thune says President Trump will not get $1 billion in taxpayer money for his ballroom project. Instead, Thune said he would get about $200 million. He said the rest of the money would go to other Secret Service priorities. The update comes as some Republicans worry that backing Trump's ballroom could hurt the party in the November midterms.

Former FBI Director James Comey is speaking out about the Trump Justice Department after being indicted for a second time. Last night, he told Kaitlan Collins that the president is determined to come after him by any means necessary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: What went through your head when -- when you got word, I'm assuming from your attorneys, that you had been indicted a second time?

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Well, my sense is that this, and I've told my family this, this is going to continue until this group, led by Donald Trump, leaves office. Because for whatever reason, he is obsessed with retribution in general.

COLLINS: I mean, I imagine you prepared for another indictment after the first one was thrown out.

COMEY: Sure, and I'm preparing for three and four. I mean, it's not going to stop. Given who is currently president of the United States and the way he has shaped or really torn apart the Justice Department, it's not going to stop until they're gone from office.

COLLINS: You think you could be indicted a third time or a fourth time?

COMEY: Yeah, I just don't know. I mean, I don't know what it might be. I hear about crazy, sort of red-string, crazy wall conspiracy theories in Florida. I don't know what they're cooking up, but I would expect there will be more efforts to get the president's enemies because he's obsessed with it. And that's really, really sad.

COLLINS: You used to brief him. I mean, in 2016, in the run-up to the election, and in 2017. Do you think he's the same person as he was when you used to sit in the Oval Office with him?

COMEY: He doesn't seem OK to me. And I know that sounds like a political shot. It seems like there's something wrong with the man. There was always something wrong with the man and that he lacks a moral center. But this seems off. This middle-of-the-night, obsessive, truth after -- I mean, not an actual truth, but a retruthing- retruthing on his platform seems crazy to me.

COLLINS: So, you seem to think it's different.

COMEY: Yeah, he seems different in a bad way. Not different in you redid your hair. I mean, different in that you seem nuts, buddy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: The Justice Department accuses Comey of threatening President Trump's life with this post. A photo of seashells arranged to read 86- 47. 86 often used to mean get rid of something, and 47 was taken to be a reference to the 47th president.

Comey says that he was unaware the post could be interpreted to suggest violence and took it down. He's expected to plead not guilty.

[05:25:04] A Florida judge is granting prosecutors access to Tiger Woods' prescription drug records, but limiting who can see them. Woods' attorneys had pushed to keep those records private. The golfer was not in court for the hearing. This is connected to his March DUI case after a rollover crash. Woods has pleaded not guilty.

The NBA and basketball fans are mourning two major losses. Jason Collins, who was the NBA's first openly gay player, died from brain cancer at the age of 47. His family said that Collins, quote, "changed lives in unexpected ways and was an inspiration to all who knew him and to those who admired him from afar."

Also, the league says Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke has died. He was 29 years old. The team described him as an outstanding teammate and an even better person. No details have been provided about how Clarke died.

Next on "CNN Headline Express," there's this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSMARIN: It was honestly, it was extremely terrifying for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: An American passenger aboard the cruise ship infected with Hantavirus talks about the ordeal and what it's been like in quarantine. Here directly from him. And a house goes up in flames as a man makes it out, but his dog is trapped. The dramatic rescue with just seconds to spare. Stay with us. You're watching "CNN Headline Express."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)