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Supreme Court Rejects Trump Restrictions on Mail-In Voting; Interview With Rep. Nathaniel Moran (R-TX); Interview With Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA); FBI Director Testifies Before Senate. Aired 10:30a-11a ET

Aired September 15, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We're continuing to monitor the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with the FBI director, Kash Patel, testifying. Lots of questions have already been asked. Many more are about to be asked. We're hearing now from Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, ask her question.

It's interesting. So far, we have heard a lot of questions about Epstein, the Epstein files. And all of a sudden, the word bestiality starts coming up during this hearing.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Yes. That was very unusual, and it kept being repeated.

So let's go to Evan Perez to get some more context.

That was not on my expectation list here for the hearing today, Evan, bestiality.

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EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: No, it was not on my list either. And, look, the FBI has made a lot of changes under FBI Director Patel. One of the things he was trying to emphasize today is how different the FBI is, and, in his view, better under his leadership.

And he's certainly rattling off a lot of numbers about the reduction in crime. A lot of them are -- appear to be the FBI taking credit for some of the reduction that is happening around the country that is really being done by state and local law enforcement.

It's something I have asked the FBI today to try to clarify,for instance, this number of I believe 1,100 terrorist attacks that have been thwarted by the FBI. I'm not sure where they're where the numbers are coming from, so we're certainly getting -- having the FBI provide some context to those numbers. It's been a lot less fiery than some of the past hearings, and that

may be just because some of the people who asked the more pointed questions haven't yet spoken today, Wolf and Pamela.

But one of the things that did -- this detour that went -- that we -- sort of came unexpected, which is the issue of bestiality, it certainly took a lot of people -- it got a lot of people's attention. Senator John Kennedy was asking about some changes in the FBI polygraph.

This is the polygraph that is administered to people who are applying to enter the FBI, and one of the changes made by the FBI director and the and his leadership is to drop the this prohibition against anybody who had been involved in bestiality from being qualified to enter the FBI.

And what he said in his explanation is that simply that there were victims, people who were forced into it who were being disqualified. Now, I don't know how many people this really affected, as far as I know, maybe one or two. But it is a change that the FBI made in its hiring process which has gotten a lot of attention during this hearing today.

We -- again, we expect a lot more pointed questions for the FBI director from some of the Democrats that are still yet to speak this morning -- Pam.

BLITZER: And we will be having a lot more of the special coverage coming up. Evan, thank you very much. We will continue to check back with you, obviously, at the same time.

Let's take another very, very quick break, resume our special coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing involving the FBI director, Kash Patel.

We will be right back.

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BROWN: All right, breaking news. FBI Director Kash Patel is testifying on Capitol Hill. Right now, Senator Amy Klobuchar is questioning him. We will, of course, continue to monitor this and bring you the very latest.

BLITZER: Also happening now: Could A.I. companies soon, yes, soon be required to have a way to shut down their technology? That's what a bipartisan pair of lawmakers is now proposing.

And joining us now are the co-authors of that A.I. so-called A.I. Kill Switch Act, Republican Congressman Nathaniel Moran of Texas and Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu of California.

Good morning to both of you. Thanks very much for joining us. Congressman Moran, when I hear the words kill switch, I picture a

giant red stop button. But A.I. lives on computers, on the Internet and in the cloud. So what does pulling the plug actually look like?

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REP. NATHANIEL MORAN (R-TX): Well, what it looks like under our bill is the ability to throttle it back, to pause it, to slow it down, or, in emergency situations, actually stop it.

And the way you can really think about this is, look, if we want to go down the highway of innovation quickly, just like a car, you need to have a brake installed. Sometimes, you're going to have to use that brake a little bit and tap it on. Sometimes, you might need to pull the car over.

That's exactly what Congressman Lieu's bill and my bill does, is say to companies, these frontier companies, the large ones, you must have the ability to throttle it back, pause it, slow it down, cut off user access, or stop it altogether in an emergency.

BLITZER: This bill, I understand, only covers what are called closed- weight models, systems like what OpenAI or Anthropic have, but it doesn't cover A.I. models that could be running on my personal home server, for example, or open-weight models.

How do you introduce an A.I. kill switch bill that doesn't cover all forms of A.I. that potentially, that potentially could go rogue and become very dangerous?

REP. TED LIEU (D-CA): Well, thank you, Wolf, for that question.

So, the closed models are the most advanced models right now. And I'm honored to partner on this bill with Congressmember Nathaniel Moran. And our bill is based on a very simple principle. Humans must be in control of A.I., not the other way around.

And, at a minimum, that means humans must be able to shut down A.I. models and agents. Now, what you're talking about is open-source models or models that exist on your phone. Right now, they are not as advanced, and so they don't pose the same catastrophic risks as the closed models do.

And that's why you saw three A.I. CEOs, Elon Musk, Dario Amodei, and Sam Altman, saying, we need to take a step back and slow down development as we put in guardrails.

BROWN: And you just noted, Congressman Lieu, all the warnings from A.I. leaner leaders.

But, Congressman Moran, President Trump responded to all of this, saying it's really a conspiracy. Do you think it's a conspiracy?

MORAN: Well, I think we all recognize that there are likely some serious problems out there, but there are solutions out there. And I'm -- again, I think Representative Lieu hit the nail on the head. This is a bipartisan effort to address some of the really difficult

issues that might be out there. But I think really what President Trump was trying to convey is, whatever we do, we can't stifle innovation. We cannot let the Chinese get ahead of us in this in this race.

But in order to move fast down the innovation highway, we have to have the ability for humans to always be in control and to be able to throttle it back, pause it, cut off the user access, or stop it altogether. And the Kill Switch bill is one that actually would do that.

BROWN: Would you like President Trump, Congressman Moran, to be more forthcoming, then, if that's really what he's trying to say, that there needs to be more human control over A.I.? Because, so far, he hasn't said that. He just has said he wants to win the race against China, that's what's most important here, and that these warnings from A.I. leaders are a conspiracy.

Do you think he needs to be sounding the alarm more about the potential threats here?

MORAN: I think he's identified the priority threat, and that is losing this technology innovation battle to China.

Whatever the risks are with A.I., the risks get a whole lot worse if China gets ahead of us. When we talk about that race to recursive self-improvement, we have got to always stay ahead of China. Right now, we have the leverage. We have the ability to influence China's A.I. stack.

We hold the technology advantage. They're dependent upon us for their development. And so right now is the time to really put the screws to China to help them understand they need to -- they need to be careful as they proceed with A.I. development as well.

So I think the threat of China having a greater A.I. ability is certainly the priority threat.

BLITZER: Congressman Lieu, what's your reaction to what we're hearing from President Trump repeatedly over the past few days about A.I. and the potential threat, that he's calling it a hoax?

LIEU: Well, let me say I agree with Congressman Moran about the threat.

And the reason we're getting bipartisan support for our bill, including Senator John Kennedy, who's going to introduce a version of a kill switch on the Senate side, it's because our kill switch, by definition, does not slow down innovation. It only applies to models that have already been built.

So here's an analogy. We don't tell car manufacturers to not make cars. The federal government literally buys a car after the car has been made. We crash-test it. And if there's a problem, we tell the manufacturer to fix it. And if it's already been deployed on the roads, we can recall that car, tell the manufacturer to fix it, and then they re-put the car back out on the road.

That's an analogy. So our bill does nothing to stop innovation.

BROWN: So, just to follow up on that, Congressman Lieu, your bill says the government can only force a shutdown if A.I. threatens catastrophic harm.

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What exactly counts as catastrophic?

LIEU: So the way it's defined in the bill is if it kills people or if it causes significant economic damage.

And, again, the analogy to the auto industry, I think, is very similar. We don't order a recall on a car if -- or, for example, the seat cushion doesn't look right. We order a recall on a car if the brakes don't work. And so our bill is very similar. If there's a significant problem that could pose a catastrophic risk, we ask the A.I. companies to slow it down or shut it down and fix it.

Or, if they don't do it, then we give the federal government a process to do so.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Oh, go ahead.

BLITZER: I just want to follow up. Who would be in charge of alerting the government of that catastrophic harm, threat or risk, as you call it? Would it be on the A.I. companies to raise the flag?

MORAN: Well, yes, we want to make sure that those companies have the responsibility to notify DHS when there is an incident, when there is an issue that needs to be addressed. That transparency is very important.

There's a lot of us that have incident reporting bills that are out there, and this one also includes that requirement in there. We want to make sure that they are reporting that. Once they report it, then there is -- there is then the decision from DHS, OK, do we need to take some action or have they taken the action that's necessary?

And these companies -- we have seen a lot of companies already act very responsibly over the summer. When they did not have the legal mandate to disclose, they have been disclosing that. They're trying to address this from the private sector, commercial perspective.

We want to see more of that corporate responsibility. To the degree that they are responsible corporate citizens, I think government should be very careful about regulations that would stifle future innovation.

BROWN: Just really quickly, what is the appetite on Capitol Hill right now to pass this bill? Do you sense that there is the kind of urgency that is needed to get this bill through, or do you just see a partisan divide right now, Congressman Lieu?

LIEU: So we're very pleased that this bill is bipartisan. And, again, Republican Senator John Kennedy is introducing a version of a kill switch bill on the Senate side.

And just in the last few days, you saw Republican Congresswoman Representative Luna come out in support of a kill switch concept, and, on the Democratic side, Pete Buttigieg said the same thing. So we're building a coalition on both sides of the aisle.

BROWN: Yes, but you also see other Republicans like Rich McCormick, who came out and said this shouldn't be left to Congress. We don't even know how to work our phones. And so -- and you have heard what President Trump said as well. So there is a question about the likelihood of getting this passed.

Thank you both so much, Congressmen Nathaniel Moran and Ted Lieu. We appreciate it.

BLITZER: There's no doubt the stakes right now are enormous.

BROWN: They absolutely are.

And coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM: President Trump rips the Supreme Court after justices struck down his mail-in ballot changes. We're going to bring you the very latest just ahead.

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BROWN: All right, breaking news: FBI Director Kash Patel is testifying, as you see, on Capitol Hill. Senator Eric Schmitt is questioning him right now. We're going to continue to monitor this and bring you the very latest.

BLITZER: And there's other breaking news coming into THE SITUATION ROOM right now as well.

President Trump is attacking in very, very bitter, strong words the United States Supreme Court after it rejected his plan to impose new limits on mail-in voting for the November midterm elections that are coming up in a few weeks. He's calling it a bad decision, and he ripped the justices on social media.

He posted just a little while ago a very, very bitter statement.

CNN Alayna Treene is over at the White House for us.

So, what else did the president say, Alayna?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're exactly right, Wolf.

I mean, the -- this is some aggressive rhetoric that the president is using to attack Supreme Court justices, specifically the conservative justices he helped put on the court during his first term, people like Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, all of whom -- I should say this decision that the Supreme Court made yesterday was an unsigned opinion.

But we know the two dissenters were the conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. You do the math there, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh joining with the majority to push back against this.

But I want to read for you some of what the president said. He said: "These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court. They are merely a shell of their original selves." He went on to say: "It is a court that will go down as having rendered some of the most destructive, hurtful, and damaging decisions in our country's history."

I should note the president also railed against some of the other losses that he has seen with the Supreme Court in recent months, including them pushing back, saying he lacks the authority to implement his tariffs, while also pushing back on their decision to not allow him to try to do away with birthright citizenship.

But the case that he's so angry about, Wolf and Pamela, is this one about trying to limit mail-in ballot ahead of the November midterm elections. I'd remind our viewers that, back in the spring, the president signed an executive order essentially directing the Department of Homeland Security to put together a list of eligible voters that then they would give to the United States Postal Service, and saying essentially the Postal Service can only send mail-in ballots to those eligible voters.

There's been a ton of different court movement on this, but what the Supreme Court decided yesterday was that, one, the merits of this case just aren't good enough, that this is likely, not definitively, but likely unconstitutional. It's up to the states to determine how elections are run, not the federal government.

And then also, and we saw this in Brett Kavanaugh's separate opinion that he had wrote, really saying essentially that this timing is too close to midterm elections. Ballots are already going out. There is not enough time to ensure that this process will go smoothly and that it wouldn't lead to the disenfranchisement of many voters across the country, but a very angry Trump this morning.

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We will see if they try to push back or challenge the court on this one.

BLITZER: Yes, Alayna, when I read his TRUTH Social statement that he posted this morning, some of the words just jumped out.

He said what the Supreme Court is doing on this issue of mail-in ballot voting, which the states, of course, have approved, is making -- "is a laughingstock all over the world, and we are the only country that has to endure such a nation-destroying scam."

He went on to say: "The Supreme Court has really let our country down. Certain justices are petrified of these crazed and depraved Democrats and are totally unable to show the courage necessary to save our America," very strong words from the president of the United States, bitterly accusing these Supreme Court justices, seven of them, 7-2, the decision that was announced last night, of depraving the country and putting the country in grave danger.

TREENE: Yes, that's right, Wolf.

Look, I mean, I think there's no question of the reason this is such a big loss for the president and I think why he's posting with such bitter language, as you're noting, is because he cares deeply about this issue. He believes that mail-in ballots are fraudulent, even though really those are false allegations.

He did claim in this post that he believes that this is a big loss for Republicans that will make it easier for Democrats to cheat, again also not providing any evidence there. I should note as well the president is someone who has voted by mail himself, even just recently, two times in Florida, but something that is very important to him.

So this isn't going to be the end of it, Wolf and Pam.

BLITZER: It certainly won't be.

All right, Alayna Treene at the White House for us, thank you very, very much.

We have been monitoring at the same time the FBI Director Kash Patel's testimony up on Capitol Hill. We will continue to check in on that when we come back.

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