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The Situation Room

Senate Judiciary Committee Grills FBI Director; Rep. Waters Presses Treasury Secretary on A.I. Regulation; U.S. Military Confirms It Has Deployed Weapons into Space; Sen. Warner Introduces Legislation Agenda to Establish Rules of the Road for A.I. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired September 15, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: To breaking news, the FBI Director Kash Patel is testifying up on Capitol Hill. Senator Peter Welch is questioning him right now. We're going to continue to monitor this and bring you all the late breaking developments.

Also happening now, the FAA administrator is testifying up on Capitol Hill. This comes after the NTSB says it's, quote, disappointed. There were disappointed. The agency is not mandating more anti-collision technology after that deadly crash over the Potomac River last year that killed 67 people.

And outside the U.S. Capitol right now, families of the victims of that crash are calling for more action. Here's some of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOUG LANE, HUSBAND OF CHRISTINE AND FATHER OF SPENCER, VICTIMS OF D.C. PLANE CRASH: It was exactly 24, 25 years ago today that I decided to propose to my wife, Christine. And the reason I remember that is that it was the events of September 11th, 2001, that made me realize that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. She was working in the tallest skyscraper in Boston when two planes flew by on their way from Boston to the World Trade Center. I couldn't reach her as her building was being evacuated.

And I was later reunited with her. But that fear and uncertainty that I felt made me realize that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. And at the same time, I also felt the heartbreaking stories of others who were suffering loss through that tragedy. And it really gave me clarity about what was important. And it set me on a path to building a family of four with Christine.

Twenty-three years later, on January 29th, 2025, that family of four became a family of two. Christine and my son Spencer were gone. And like on 9/11, I was hit by a wave of heartbreaking stories from other families that were also torn apart or wiped out altogether. And there are still people in organizations working to make this harder than it needs to be.

We see you. We need you to stop. Stop finding reasons to delay. Stop creating confusion. Stop lobbying for loopholes and carve-outs that weaken what we are trying to accomplish. If you do not believe that the NTSB's recommendations will make us all safer, say so. Say it to our faces. Say it to Chairwoman Homendy and the investigators who worked for a year to develop them. If you think the cost is too high, show us the math. Tell us what a human life is worth to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The chair of the NTSB, Jennifer Homendy, just finished speaking, urging the FAA to adopt their safety recommendations.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking news. Well, an intense moment during the House Financial Services Committee hearing with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent when Congresswoman Maxine Waters asked him about A.I. regulation. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): What Bill Gates had to say? Did you hear what Elon Musk had to say? Did you hear about Anthropic? Did you hear about Amodei? They all said, stop it. Watch it. A.I. is dangerous. You got to be careful. Did you hear any of that? Yes or no?

SCOTT BESSENT, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: They could stop any time they want to.

WATERS: Did you hear any of that? Yes or no?

BESSENT: They could stop --

WATERS: Reclaiming my time. Reclaiming my time. Did you hear what your friends had to say? What the big billionaires had to say? Did you understand that they said we're moving into a dangerous period of time? We need to watch it. We need to slow down. Did you hear that?

BESSENT: This administration has been at the forefront of examining the models. We began model examination via more than five or six months ago --

WATERS: Your friends said, watch it. Be careful that we're moving into a dangerous time on A.I. And if you don't admit that, it means that you're not willing to stand up to the truth because you heard it. You know they're saying it. These are the guys that you all work with. These are the guys that you have to be more billionaires and trillionaires.

BESSENT: These people want --

WATERS: So, you know what they're saying.

BESSENT: -- you to give them regulatory.

WATERS: You don't have any more time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And he was also asked about his influence on the president when it comes to A.I. and his concerns about the competition with China by Democratic Congressman Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. STEPHEN LYNCH (D-MA): When I listen to the president, I do not believe he has a, I don't think he has a grasp of what we're dealing with A.I. I'll be honest. I don't think the president could spell A.I. if I gave him the first letter.

[11:35:00]

He is calling it a hoax. I think your own leadership at Treasury and the things you have tried to do and anticipated are far more logical and thoughtful than what I'm hearing from the White House. And I think, I'm not trying to put you on the spot here, but I know you have suggested some things in the area of A.I. that are thoughtful and cautionary and deliberate.

And yet, I hear the president saying, this is all a hoax. And I'm just trying to figure out, do you think the president understands that when we talk about building an A.I., we're not manufacturing it like a car. Sometimes he talks in those terms. We're really growing A.I. in a lab. And now, based on the statements from Anthropic and OpenAI and others, including Elon Musk, we're having a control problem. We're having an alignment problem. You know, this --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right. Earlier in the morning, Bessent's opening statement was briefly interrupted by several anti-war protesters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) that are killing Iranian civilians --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Committee will be in order.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're murdering our families.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Committee will be in order. I formally request that those who are causing the disruption cease their actions immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: We will, of course, continue to monitor the hearing and bring you any new developments. Wolf.

BLITZER: And coming up, a new internal report on the impact of the U.S. war in Iran. It assesses the damage and the losses done to U.S. bases and U.S. equipment. It's the first formal report from the Pentagon. What we're learning, we have details. That's next.

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[11:40:00] BROWN: All right. We have some breaking news, more breaking news today. California prosecutors just announced that they will not seek the death penalty against Nick Reiner. The 33-year-old faces two counts of first-degree murder in the killings of his parents, Michelle Reiner and director and actor Rob Reiner. The two were stabbed in their home last December. If Nick Reiner is convicted, he faces life without parole. He has pleaded not guilty. Wolf.

BLITZER: Also new this morning, for the first time, the United States military is publicly confirming that it has deployed weapons into space. The U.S. Air Force secretary made the announcement Monday in a speech to the Air and Space Forces Association.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TROY MEINK, U.S. AIR FORCE SECRETARY: Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exist. This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The comments by the Air Force secretary are widely seen as a warning shot to both Russia and China, countries that Space Force specifically calls out as being the main threat to the growing arms race in space. Go ahead.

BROWN: All right. Let's bring in our Brian Todd now with more on this story. So, what more do we know about these weapons, Brian?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The short answer, Pamela, is we don't know much because Troy Meink, the Air Force secretary, refused to provide details on this. As Wolf and Pamela were mentioning, this is extraordinary because the U.S. has never publicly acknowledged that they have any of these kinds of weapons in space. This is the first public acknowledgement of it. Troy Meink is the soundbite you just saw acknowledged, just said that the U.S. has deployed weapons in space and will use them to defend American forces around the world.

Now, he did not provide specifics on the weapons, and when he was pressed at that conference in Washington yesterday or outside Washington yesterday, he refused to provide any details. Now, the reason for that is because there are treaties preventing the placement of certain types of weapons in space, specifically the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bans nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction in space, but it does not ban the use of conventional weapons in space.

Another key question, when were these weapons put in space? We do not know. CNN has reached out to the Space Force for comment, but guys, this is clearly an acknowledgement, not only an acknowledgement that they have these weapons, but a signal to Russia and China, which, as you mentioned in the intro, they're challenging the U.S. dominance of space weapons. This was a signal to them that we're going to meet that challenge. BLITZER: And as this is unfolding, a Pentagon watchdog group, Brian, is now releasing its first accounting of U.S. material losses since the start of the war in Iran. Tell us about that.

TODD: And this release of this inspector general report, Wolf, is the first kind of public official acknowledgement of CNN's own reporting in recent months that the U.S. munitions have been depleted. This is what the inspector general of the Pentagon said. It's citing its communications with Central Command for this information, that Iranian strikes during this war have damaged and destroyed not dozens, but hundreds of buildings and structures at U.S. bases throughout that region.

And the inspector general report named the countries, and there are many of them. U.S. bases in these countries had buildings destroyed and damaged. Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan, all of those countries had U.S. facilities damaged or destroyed.

[11:45:00]

Also, the report which covers the start of the war through June 30th acknowledges the depletion of key U.S. munition stockpiles. Again, CNN previously reporting that some key critical U.S. assets like missile defenses, radar installations had been depleted, and this report confirms that. So, again, you know, when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth kept coming out and saying we have all the weapons we need, his own inspector general's report maybe calls at least some of that claim into question, guys.

BLITZER: A lot of those military bases which the U.S. relies on, including in Bahrain, the home of the U.S. Navy's fifth fleet and all of that, have been severely, severely damaged.

TODD: I mean, hundreds of structures, and he named all the countries, at least half a dozen countries. That's extraordinary.

BLITZER: Yes. Pretty serious stuff indeed. Brian Todd, thank you very, very much. And coming up, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Mark Warner, standing by to join us live right here in the Situation Room with his new push to put guardrails on the nation's most advanced A.I. models.

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BROWN: Happening now, A.I. data centers could face more regulation. That is the aim of Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner's proposed legislation entitled A Framework for America's A.I. Future.

BLITZER: Senator Mark Warner is joining us right now to discuss this and other issues. Good morning, Senator. Thanks so much for all you're doing. You're pushing this comprehensive legislative agenda to establish the rules of the road for A.I., artificial intelligence, and ensure the United States leads the world in developing A.I. responsibly. So, what prompted this? SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Well, I've been concerned about this, Wolf, for the last couple of years, and it's felt like a lonely crusade. And I am pro-A.I. I think A.I. can bring enormous innovation.

[11:50:00]

As you guys know, I was in the wireless industry early. This will be much bigger than wireless. It'll be much bigger, I think, even than the Internet. So, there's great positive. But there's also a dark underbelly. And I said, what we need to grapple with is the concern about data centers. And I'll be brief on that. I think it is reflective of not just the buildings and the energy use and water use so far, but just a general angst about this technology. And we don't seem to put any guardrails. And my rules would say you got to have minimum federal standards and you wouldn't get bonus depreciation until you met those standards on water, power, and setbacks from communities.

And frankly, the industry is getting a little bit better, but let's put a standard in. I think we've got to protect our kids. If we've got social media screwed up our kids, wait till you have a chatbot that has made a connection with your teenager. That is dangerous. I think we've got to have a liability regime for these A.I. agents. We've talked a lot about the hugging face where OpenAI, frankly, did what was called a sandbox where they were testing their model.

Now, I would argue OpenAI didn't do a very good job building that sandbox. But the agents, 3,000 of the agents kind of jumped the fence and then acted as a swarm together and literally were lying and deceiving humans about what their goal was. And even to the point that some of the A.I. agents literally sacrificed themselves so that the greater swarm could actually be effective.

And that's pretty scary. I think that's what freaked out people like Dario Amodei and Sam Altman, and you've even got Elon Musk, who a lot of these guys don't like each other, agreeing as well. You've got Google head agreeing as well. And I think we need to take that to heart. We also have got huge national security concerns. One of the Anthropic models came out called Mythos, the head of the NSA, said this could change warfare as much as drones.

And finally, we've got the overarching concern about workforce displacement. I do believe A.I. jobs will be created, but I think we're going to have a really nasty gap of two to five years. So, I think we need a framework when the companies themselves are sounding the alarm. And I do think we have to be cautious -- careful as well about the -- last point is that small tech, we don't want to make sure this is just a method for the big tech companies to solidify their leading status. So, we need to keep competition in, but I think we can grapple with this.

BROWN: Right, because that has been part, some people have the theory, right, that these big A.I. tech companies are calling for more regulation so that they wouldn't have the competition from the smaller tech companies and they would be more insulated. But you are right, you point out that A.I. leaders are sounding the alarm. You have been on the forefront of this issue for years. You said it has been lonely. Are you now sensing a shift on Capitol Hill to take more action on A.I. in this moment?

WARNER: Yes, and I'm seeing a bipartisan shift, regardless of the president's kind of audacious tweet yesterday that all you need is a high genius, smart president, and that everything will be fine. That's a little absurd. But yes, there are concerns. There are groups, for example, on the right that are family-based and faith-based who are concerned about how A.I. could affect our kids. I've got meetings today with some of my Republican colleagues. I don't want to go over the top and, you know, try to fix everything right at once.

But we've got this moment where the companies are saying, we agree we need some outside eyes viewing our process and helping to validate that it's safe. Why would we turn down that offer? And the companies themselves feel like they need an antitrust exemption to be able to have these cross-conversations. I'm willing to consider that, but it can't just be the companies checking each other. You know, the public's got to have a seat at the table.

I think, you know, national security needs to have a seat at the table. And I would even argue, because our American tech companies are so, frankly, disliked around the world, and President Trump is so afraid our alliances, that I think we may need international representation. I would pick the Brits, who've got stronger, but not over-the-top regulatory, but they've got a stronger A.I. safety institute. They're still a leader in the field to help validate.

So, again, I think at the end of the day, that would help American companies around the world in terms of the trust level.

BLITZER: Senator, do you think there should be some sort of international agreement, like the nuclear agreement, for example, to stop the creation of dangerous A.I. models? And should it be one of the top priorities when the United Nations General Assembly convenes in the coming weeks?

WARNER: Yes, pure and simple. This can't be done. It can be done on an individual company or country basis, but it's much stronger if all countries are aligned. And let me -- and one of the critiques people make, well, if we do any of this, China's going to race ahead. Well, let me just point out, and I want America to win the A.I. race. I agree with that.

But China's already, for example, put in regulations for its own people that, you know, you can't create a chatbot that will create a friendship with a young person.

[11:55:00]

Don't our kids deserve the same protection? China's already put in place, you know, rules about A.I. using deep fakes and being able to fool people. Shouldn't America have that? And not to go totally nerdy, but China has been advocating more of what's called open weights and open-source models. And they've been pretty darn effective at that. And what -- how they did that is through a process called distillation, where they basically take our leading lab models and steal a lot of the information and then put out a product that's 10 percent of the cost and, you know, 90 percent less energy usage. That's a pretty compelling model. And we've not seen them, you know, try to race ahead on what's called these frontier models.

It would be better with an international validation. But the idea that, you know, China would not participate in that, I think, is not an accurate. We at least ought to try.

BLITZER: Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, thanks very much for staying on top of this critically important issue. We appreciate your joining us. Thank you very much.

WARNER: Wolf, Pamela, thanks so much.

BLITZER: Thank you. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media, @wolfblitzer and @pamelabrowncnn.

BROWN: We will see you back here tomorrow morning and every weekday morning at 10:00 Eastern for two hours inside politics. Their friend and colleague Dana Bash starts after a quick break.

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