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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Trump Rolls Out The Red Carpet For China's Xi Jinping; Judge Weighs Trump's Media Ban, Will Rule "As Soon As I Can"; Netanyahu: Will "Tell The Truth" About Israel's Gaza Actions; Judge Orders Trump to Restore Access to CNN, MS NOW, Politico; A.I. Leaders Call for Global Standards and Cooperation. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired September 24, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up this hour, The Story Is, a historic visit. Chinese leader Xi Jinping, now in the U.S., personally greeted by President Trump ahead of a series of meetings standing by. We will go live to China.

The Story Is, Benjamin Netanyahu at the U.N. General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister is expected to address Gaza, and even his feud with the New York City mayor. Where does he stand again? We'll discuss.

And The Story Is, Trump's media ban. A federal judge weighing whether to restore access for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico after Wednesday's court hearing.

But the top story is a red carpet welcome, President Trump and the First Lady greeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping as he arrived in the U.S. just a few hours ago. We can't show you video of the arrival because pool coverage of President Trump's activities is suspended amid his White House ban on CNN and other media outlets.

For the next two days, the leaders are expected to discuss the war with Iran, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the explosive growth of A.I. The U.S. Treasury Secretary says the countries have extended their trade truce through January.

CNN's Mike Valerio is live in Beijing this hour. Mike, a lot going on on the world stage.

MIKE VALERIO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Elex. So we want to start with Iran first and foremost because we talked about the trade truce last hour. Iran is critically important because China has a huge stake in energy supplies in the region. And of course, it's a trade behemoth.

So it's in China's interest to bring this conflict to a close so that the region is able to go back to a shade of what it was in terms of trade coursing through the Strait of Hormuz. So let's talk about specifically what we're looking at. China is really seen as an interlocutor between the United States and Iran. It also wants oil prices to drop as a function of the war coming to a close because, of course, China is the largest consumer of oil that comes from Iran. It's a huge consumer of oil that comes from Saudi Arabia and the region writ large. And you know, just adding evidence to that, Elex, you know, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi visited here in Beijing last week to speak with Wang Yi, he's China's version of Marco Rubio, China's top diplomat, to lay the groundwork to make its positions clear with China, noting that China can talk to both Iran and the United States.

So China, you know, as this war seems to be quite intractable to President Trump's critics, China is seen as possibly a crucial negotiator since it does have the ear of Tehran, a key trade partner. So that certainly will come up during this White House meeting. We're going to see what both leaders say about Iran when they have two opportunities to speak tomorrow, Elex.

MICHAELSON: Yes. I mean, it's going to be a busy day ahead, a lot on the calendar.

VALERIO: A lot on the calendar. So it starts at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. Let's go to the board and show you what we're looking at specifically. That is when the President and the First Lady are going to meet Xi Jinping and his wife on the South Lawn of the White House, 10:15, that's when they give their first remarks inside the White House, 11:30 is when they will meet in the Oval Office for a while.

That's kind of the meat of the day, the biggest bilateral chunk of meetings that are scheduled for the late morning into the afternoon. Then, as we were saying last hour, there's a little bit of an intermission until the state dinner at 8:10 Eastern. But Elex, you know, something we didn't talk about last hour that I think is notable, that's the foreground of the stagecraft, if we are able to eventually see any of it because of the press blackout.

But it's noted here in China that the background is certainly worth noting. When we were talking about the South Korea meeting, which started the trade truce in the fall of last year, you know, it was a historic shutdown that President Trump was presiding over, the longest government shutdown in history, with the split screen of China adopting its newest, latest five-year plan to lead the world in A.I.

In Beijing, their meeting in May, that meeting was postponed because of turmoil with the war in Iran. The backdrop for this meeting, Xi Jinping in a couple of months is going to be ready to lay the groundwork of his fourth five-year term as the president of the United States, is potentially, Elex, as you know better than anybody, potentially waiting for or, you know, going to have to deal with the results of potentially dire midterm election results, being a lame duck president or perhaps badly damaged by these midterms.

So people here in China, you know, we hear it on the subway, outside, are reporting every day, they are already preparing for what is after Trump. This is all to say that Xi Jinping walks into this meeting with so much confidence because of what is happening in the background, Elex. [01:04:56]

MICHAELSON: Yes, and he doesn't really have to worry about midterm elections in China. So he can kind of move forward. Meanwhile, one of the biggest interesting things that we don't see on that schedule is that every major A.I. leader is there. And so what kind of conversations could be happening away from the cameras? What happens in that state dinner? Is there new policy on A.I. made with the two leaders of the biggest countries and the most important tech leaders all in one building? And that is something to watch in the hours ahead as well. Mike Valerio, live for us in Beijing to start us off this hour. Mike, thank you so much.

So speaking of that media ban, we are now awaiting a federal judge's ruling on it. Judge Timothy Kelly is weighing whether to restore White House access to three news outlets, CNN, Politico, MS NOW. At a hearing on Wednesday, the judge said that he would rule as, "As soon as I can." CNN's Kaitlan Collins, who, of course, is impacted by this as much as anybody, has more from Washington.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And the White House went into the hearing not with extremely high hopes in terms of where this is potentially going, but obviously, we don't know yet. And the judge has not made his decision, despite the President who appointed this judge. I should note, President Trump did in his first term. The President has signaled he doesn't think that this judge is going to rule in his favor, and he's made that pretty clear.

In terms of this case in and of itself, you know, listening to it was pretty remarkable, because one thing that I talked about with the ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, about earlier this week was this argument that it is for national security purposes why the reporters who are reporting they don't like, why they should not be reporting certain stories that they mentioned. And Mike Waltz cited national security to me on Monday night. That's actually something the President never brought up on Friday or Saturday or Sunday.

It wasn't until Monday that he then started bringing up national security as a reason for this. And one of the stories they cited was reports on low munitions when it comes to the Pentagon and what they have in their stockpile. That's actually something the inspector general, the watchdog for the Pentagon, has put in a report that is, you know, congressionally mandated, that went to Congress. They have to put that out there.

And so it's not really clear why that was a point of criticism. But in terms of the ban overall and what it means right now, it's actually denying the President of something that he's been looking forward to for months, which is wall-to-wall coverage of this state visit by the Chinese president that's happening right now. Trump actually did something really rare by going out to Joint Base Andrews today to greet the Chinese leader as he was arriving with his family. The First Lady, Melania Trump, was there as well. But none of the cameras for the five major networks were there because they're standing in solidarity with CNN. They did not send a camera. Our request to go and cover that at Joint Base Andrews was denied by the White House. And so, therefore, you're not seeing that. And I think that actually says something in and of itself. And so we'll see when this gets resolved, what the judge rules and when he rules. But obviously, a lot of this state visit is going to be playing out over the next 24 hours.

MICHAELSON: Kaitlan, thank you.

Also ahead in the next 24 hours, two major speeches at the United Nations General Assembly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected to use his address to defend Israel's military campaign in Gaza. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will also address the UNGA, likely by video, after the Trump administration again denied visas to Palestinian officials.

Meanwhile, the Trump-led Board of Peace says rebuilding Gaza could cost more than $71 billion over the next decade. They laid out a recovery plan but acknowledged it can only begin once funding and access are secured. It's still unclear where the funding of it will come from.

Judge -- some breaking news right now. A judge orders the Trump administration to restore White House access to Politico, CNN, and MS NOW. This is news just coming in after 1 o'clock in the morning. That's a big deal. Obviously, we just were telling you with Kaitlan that this case had been heard earlier today.

The judge said he was going to rule as soon as he could. Apparently, as soon as he could is after 1 o'clock in the morning. This is a major loss for the Trump administration and for the President himself, who made this decision without consulting many folks in the White House, according to our reporting.

And now he has lost in court. And not surprising, because they have lost similar cases in court before. We think back to the first Trump administration, when Jim Acosta, then-CNN White House correspondent, had his press credential pulled. He argued in front of the very same judge who was appointed by President Trump that it was unconstitutional to have his press credential pulled.

[01:10:07]

That judge ruled back during the first Trump administration that Acosta would get his credential back and that he was back at work. And now that very same judge has ruled that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are going to get their press credentials back. It's unclear exactly the logistics of this. Could they be back at work tomorrow? ABC is supposed to be the pool camera tomorrow.

So we will see what happens if the CNN badges are going to work in the hours ahead. But again, a very big headline that just broke live during our show in the 1:00 a.m. hour. CNN, MS NOW and Politico winning in court. The Trump administration losing. And for now, it appears that that media ban is over. Let's go back to the UNGA and Benjamin Netanyahu's speech. Jeremy Ben- Ami is founder and president of J Street and executive director of J Street PAC. He joins me now more to discuss all of this. Welcome to CNN on a big moment for CNN.

JEREMY BEN-AMI, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, J STREET: That's right. You knew there'd be breaking news at the 1:00 a.m. hour. So I'm happy to be here for you.

MICHAELSON: Yes. There we go. That's why we're the only live cable news show that's on in this time, because there's breaking news all throughout the day. And it's going to be a big day ahead at the U.N. A big moment for Benjamin Netanyahu around the world and in Israel. What do you expect to hear from him?

BEN-AMI: Well, I'm sure that he's going to make the case that he has improved the security of the state of Israel. He has taken out some of the worst actors in the region, has taken on his eternal enemy in Iran, and that he is projecting security for Israel. But the reality is that the prime minister comes at a time when his personal reputation and the country's reputation are at about the lowest point in the country's history. Israel is more of a pariah state at this point than a keystone of the international order.

And it is not only on the international stage, but here at home in the United States, that he has tanked the reputation of the state of Israel. And you see in the numbers that we've seen on CNN's own broadcast in the last few days, a record low disapproval of the state of Israel in the American public's eyes.

MICHAELSON: And you've also talked about and thought a lot about the impact that he has had on Jews around the world as well.

BEN-AMI: We are seeing some of the highest levels of anti-Semitism in my lifetime, certainly, and obviously anti-Semitism is an ancient hatred, it has been with us forever. But the spiking of it over the course of the last few years is directly related to the actions and the behavior of the state of Israel. And it is because of the horrors of Gaza and the horrors that are happening now on the West Bank that the state of Israel's reputation is so low.

And sadly, the attempt to call every criticism of what Israel is doing anti-Semitism is actually backfiring and is leading to enhanced anti- Semitism and enhanced lack of safety. And I think that the root of the problem that we need to address is the never-ending Israeli- Palestinian conflict, which is a political conflict, not a military conflict that needs to be solved diplomatically and not at the point of a gun.

MICHAELSON: Of course, the United States has its midterms in the next couple of months. Israel has its elections right before the U.S. midterms. How do you see Benjamin Netanyahu's political standing back at home? And is this address before the U.N. really for the world or is it for that domestic audience back home?

BEN-AMI: Well, his domestic politics are very tough. It's a 50-50 shot at best whether or not he can survive this election. The America -- Israeli public has been disapproving of Prime Minister Netanyahu since basically day one of this term four years ago when the prime minister began what was called in Israel the judicial coup, his attempt to undo the independence of the court system in Israel and undermine some of the foundations of Israeli democracy.

So he has had a serious political challenge through the entirety of this term. And as you said, the elections are in just five weeks. And certainly the domestic picture that he hopes to present is him back on the world stage, which has always been his comfort zone. But unfortunately, what we discussed earlier is that Israel's reputation around the world has been so badly damaged by the actions of this extreme government.

[01:15:13]

It's a government that is filled with racists and ethno-nationalists who are carrying out horrific actions on the West Bank. And the world sees it. And he will be not welcomed as a leader. Unfortunately, he'll be seen more as a pariah in the days ahead here.

MICHAELSON: Jeremy Ben-Ami, it's been extraordinary to see how public opinion has turned during this latest Benjamin Netanyahu administration. We appreciate you sharing your perspective live for us here on CNN.

BEN-AMI: Thank you. Have a good evening.

MICHAELSON: Back to that breaking news we literally learned about two minutes ago, a late night ruling on Donald Trump's media ban. Federal Judge Timothy Kelly has now reinstated White House access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico just days after they were banned from the premises. It's unclear if we'll see access restored immediately in terms of literally the passes working again. Stay with CNN for developing information on this.

Are we now going to bring in Ron Brown? We're going to take a quick commercial break on the other side of the break. Ron Brownstein is going to join me to talk about this big loss for the Trump administration in court. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:20:49]

MICHAELSON: Back to that breaking news from just a few minutes ago. A federal judge has just reinstated White House access to CNN, MS NOW, and Politico days after they were banned from the premises. Ron Brownstein, a CNN senior political analyst and a Bloomberg opinion columnist. Ron, we just got this information coming after 1 o'clock in the morning. Your first reaction?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think this was the inevitable place this was going to end. I mean, you know, we saw something similar in the first term, I think in front of the same judge when the Trump administration tried to withdraw the press pass, or did withdraw the press pass from Jim Acosta in order to reinstate it.

You know, the First Amendment, it's the First Amendment to the Constitution. I think it made it very hard for the administration to prevail on this, but I still think it has been so far an extremely revealing episode because Trump continues to test on almost an endless variety of fronts his ability to roll back what we have understood to be the traditional buttresses of the democratic system.

And so far, the courts have stopped most of these major attempts, whether it's from the, you know, to use the Postal Service to control mail balloting or this or attempts to get state voter rolls. But strikingly, along the way, and again in this episode, virtually no congressional Republicans came out to oppose him. There really is no cost to him from these repeated probes, and this is far from the last time we will see him try something like this, whether it's with the media or state voting rules or intimidating voting groups and so forth. As long as there is no consequence, I think he continues to press forward.

MICHAELSON: But isn't there a consequence? I mean, he just lost in court. I mean, does this hurt him at all with his base? Does this make is this embarrassing for him at all? Or is it all, you know, not?

BROWNSTEIN: I don't think it's embarrassing enough for them to stop. I mean, right, because, I mean, you know, he barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico almost immediately after he lost the Postal Service case at the Supreme Court. I mean, it just kind of keeps rolling on to new, you know, new attempts, new and different attempts.

And, you know, who knows what we will see on Election Day in terms of ICE deployments, which they have refused to rule out, or what kind of interference is still out there in terms of state ability to administer elections. It is costing him in one sense, Elex, because, you know, I don't know if any of these specific attempts to erode traditional Democratic safeguards really hurt him with a lot of voters beyond those who already disagree with him.

But there is a sense in the public, I think, that goes way beyond the Democratic base, that Trump in his second term has been focused on his personal obsessions, his crusades, his self-enrichment, his self- aggrandizement, rather than their problems. And each time he is in the headlines doing something like this, it reinforces that fundamental message of 2026, that he is worried about his own obsessions, not your problems.

MICHAELSON: Well, and, Ron, there is no doubt that there is a portion of his base that loved this, right?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Absolutely.

MICHAELSON: That doesn't like the media, that gloated about this on social media.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

MICHAELSON: But that base is getting smaller. If you look at the polls, based off of what you just said, how is Trump handling his job as president? Only 13 percent now strongly approve, according to the latest CNN poll that just came out, 13 percent strongly approve of his job, 51 percent strongly disapprove. And does he have the right priorities, that question that you asked? 24 percent say yes, 76 percent said no. So that's not just -- here are those numbers on the screen.

How is he handling? Strongly approve 13 percent, moderately approve 20 percent. Moderately disapprove 16 percent, strongly disapprove 51 percent. And that next number, does Trump have the right priorities? And this is really to your point, 24 percent yes, 76 percent no. That's an extraordinary number for the President.

[01:25:19]

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, and that's what links together everything from the crypto schemes, to putting his name on the Kennedy Center, to tearing down the East Wing, to prosecuting James Comey and Letitia James, to barring media organizations, and, you know, we could do the rest of your show kind of listing the other ways, you know, pressuring law firms, pressuring universities, in which Trump has used the federal government in his second term as really just a machine to reward friends, including himself and his family, and punish enemies.

And as I say, each one of those individual cases may not register very much with the public, or may not strike them as that different than what other politicians do, but cumulatively they paint the portrait of someone who is focused on his own needs rather than theirs. And to the point about his approval rating, it is worth noting that in that CNN poll today, and in, you know, a number of polls, his approval rating at this point is somewhere between eight, 10, 12 points below what it was even in 2018 when Democrats won over 40 seats and captured the House.

It is also somewhere between 8 and 10 points lower than Joe Biden in '22, Barack Obama in 2010, George W. Bush in 2006, and Bill Clinton in 1994, when all of those presidents lost control of the House, and three of them suffered substantial losses in the Senate as well. Democrats are not winning quite as many voters who disapprove of Trump as they did during the first term, but with his disapproval at this level, they don't have to.

I mean, 51 percent strongly disapprove. Historically, over 90 percent of strong disapprovers of a president vote for the other party's candidates. You can do the math. That gets close to 50 on its own.

MICHAELSON: Although the big difference between those times is there are less open seats because there's been a lot of gerrymandering, so you won't see probably as big of a wave because there literally just aren't enough seats to have that sort of wave. Another difference between now and the first term, and Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan write a lot about this in their book, "Regime Change," is there are not as many people around President Trump to tell him no.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. MICHAELSON: And in this particular instance of pulling the media credentials, according to CNN's own reporting, there were very few people that knew that he was going to do this. He does not have a press secretary right now. Karoline Leavitt left the job, and that job is open right now. He did this without getting a lot of input from his staff, and that is a difference in the way that he's operating. He is following his own instinct right now, regardless of what the staff says.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you'll recall that in the interview with "The New York Times" in January, when he said the only constraint on his actions in the world were my own conscience, my own morality, you know. And I think he views that at home as well. I wrote a column earlier this year saying Trump is as unbound as we have seen any president. He believes himself, you know, the Supreme Court decision on immunity, the lack of pushback from Republicans, his belief that as long as he has his base with him, he doesn't really need anyone else in the electorate.

But that is not an unmitigated blessing for him or for his advisors. I mean, you know, I mean, or for his party, excuse me. You know, whether we're talking about the way they deployed ICE to Minnesota or the decision to launch a war of choice against Iran with Bibi Netanyahu, who was unable to convince Joe Biden or Barack Obama or George W. Bush to do the same things, Trump unbound is hardly, you know, something that serves even his own interests.

You know, there's a reason why other presidents have sometimes hesitated to do the things that he's done, other than his belief that they've all been stupid or weak. And I do think, as we are approaching this election, you are seeing the compounding effects of Trump making decisions without either the usual policy or kind of political framework to assess them. And many of those are backfiring in a significant way, whether it's the tariffs or the war in Iraq ran on him and his party.

MICHAELSON: But for the most part, when he has lost in court, he has abided by those court orders. And even in the last few days on this, he sort of suggested that he probably was going to lose and would abide by it. So we'll see what happens tomorrow if CNN walks up and puts the pass, does the pass work? That's going to be a big test. We'll see what happens with the rest of the pool in terms of their coverage plans as well. But a --

[01:30:08]

BROWNSTEIN: So long as there aren't greater consequences though, right? So long as there aren't greater consequences, this is the pattern. You will see constant probing to find a point of weakness.

And, you know, can he find a point where the courts will not stop him from impeding -- significantly impairing freedom of the press, or free and fair elections, or state control of elections?

There really is no denunciation from institutions. The media did hold together pretty well here. But as I said, Republicans in Congress did not in any -- in any meaningful way say this was going too far. And I think that just encourages him to keep pressing for other areas. And the election remains, I think, a point of great concern.

MICHAELSON: And credit, to your point, to our colleagues in the other networks who stood in solidarity, including the folks at Fox News.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

MICHAELSON: And that, I think had an impact in all this as well.

CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein, who was supposed to be on with us to talk about something else. We did not expect this breaking news to happen at 1:30 in the morning on the East Coast.

But that's why we have the live show and everybody else is in reruns. Ron, thank you so much.

We're going to take a break.

(CROSSTALKING)

MICHAELSON: We'll have more on this and the other news we may hear from our colleague, Brian Stelter.

Stay with us. You're watching breaking news on CNN.

[01:31:27]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: Back to that breaking news.

A federal judge just reinstating White House access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico days after they were banned from the premises. A big enough story to wake up CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter at 1:35 in the morning.

Brian, great to have you as part of our coverage, the first person we thought of with this story.

First off, your reaction to this historic moment in media law.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Elex, how dare you tell anybody that I actually ever take a nap, you know? But yes, this is very important to obviously talk through, even though it's expected.

I know that you've been sharing that with viewers. We signaled for the last eight hours or so while we were waiting for this ruling, that the judge was likely going to have to rely on past precedent. He would be bound.

And he says that in this filing, "by past precedent in the D.C. Circuit". And that is partly what he finds in this -- in this eight- page ruling. He cites the Sherrill ruling from the 70s. He cites the Karem case that we've talked about from last decade, and says that he has to be bound by those precedents. Of course, the government knew that going into this. The Justice

Department knew that's how this was going to go. It was very clear from about the first hour last Friday when President Trump announced this supposed ban, that if it were challenged in court, these news outlets would prevail.

So we see the rule of law working in this situation. We see the system working as intended.

And now, Elex, this could go in all sorts of ways. In some ways in the flowchart that we can construct, this is the most simple and expected step.

And now I could see a dozen different ways this could go between appeals, between follow ups by the White House, between other shenanigans that could occur.

That's the word that the lawyer for CNN, MS NOW and Politico used in court earlier today, this afternoon, when he said that the White House could try different ways to impose different bans; could try different ways to come back around and punish these news outlets.

I am wondering what that might look like in the days to come, but at least in the short term, I think it's apparent that the White House will have to allow these journalists back into work, probably in the morning hours in Washington tomorrow morning.

Those journalists, and there are dozens of them who were affected by this ban, will likely be allowed to return to work at the White House. And that could impact coverage of the Chinese leader's visit to Washington tomorrow.

MICHAELSON: Right. Because the pool has been standing in solidarity with CNN, MS NOW and Politico. There's an ABC crew assigned to cover that tomorrow. If all is well and everybody is allowed back, we could see that ABC crew now transmitting those images to everybody. And then you get more of a view of a very historic day in Washington.

I mean, this -- this summit with Xi is an incredibly important day where there should be pictures of it around the world. So -- so bottom line, I guess, where do you see this going next?

STELTER: Right. And the thing about this summit is that it's largely about the optics.

MICHAELSON: Right.

STELTER: President Trump seems to want the pictures. He wants the visuals. He very -- the ceremonial aspects are very important to him.

And so the fact that the major networks in the U.S. did not show it, you know, when Xi arrived about seven hours ago, the major networks, all standing in solidarity.

This has been such a turning point, I think in the in the news media's response, collective response to President Trump's egregious, extreme behavior toward the press corps.

So we'll see how that can play out. It can play out in a number of different ways, because we could see partial restoration of coverage, full restoration. We'll see what the visuals look like.

I strongly suspect, though, that the president and his aides are going to keep looking for other ways to take this sort of retribution or intimidation kinds of actions.

[01:39:49]

STELTER: They will look for other ways to enforce some sort of ban. While reading through the government's finding here and looking for loopholes or shenanigans as, as Boutros put it.

So that's why I say this could now go in many different directions. So I'll be watching for that. But I do think more broadly, Elex, what a moment we've had for the past five days or so to talk about press freedom in the U.S. What a wake-up call this has been.

And I think for many Americans who take these rights for granted, a great reminder not to take them for granted. There's an old line I remember this saying from about a decade ago. Press freedom is your freedom.

You know the rights of MS NOW or Politico or CNN to report the news are not just about news outlets. They're about all Americans having those basic First Amendment rights.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

STELTER: And I think that's something that is much more front and center than it was a week ago before this all started.

MICHAELSON: Well, and the current president of the White House Correspondents Association is Jacqui Heinrich, who is a White House correspondent for Fox News, who pointed out that you may not like it now, to her audience, essentially. But if the administration changes, things could change and somebody else could be targeted.

And you think back during the Obama administration, when Fox News reporter was not included in the pool, the rest of the network stood with Fox, and that person was reinstated.

And in this instance ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox stood with CNN in solidarity. And now we see what's happening with --

(CROSSTALKING)

STELTER: And Elex, can I make one point about that, about Fox News in particular --

MICHAELSON: Yes.

STELTER: -- because I think this is not just about the past, about the Obama years. I believe Fox News and the other networks, they're also thinking about the future.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

STELTER: They're also thinking about the next time a Democratic president is in office and they're yes, thinking about the precedent of the past, but they're also trying to set a tone for the future, for whatever and whoever comes after Trump to ensure that this kind of behavior isn't tolerated in the future, when the shoe might be on the other foot.

MICHAELSON: And Jacqui made that point clearly to her viewers as well. And it was really something to see everybody stand together on this.

CNN's chief media analyst, Brian Stelter, so grateful to have your perspective. And I know you were not, you don't mind being woken up because you love this stuff.

We'll be back with more on this breaking news right after this.

[01:41:57]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: We continue to follow breaking news.

A federal judge just reinstated White House access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico days after they were banned from the premises. The judge found that the revocation of reporters' press badges was done without constitutionally-adequate due process according to the ruling just issued.

Meanwhile, there could be reporters back at the White House to cover this. The leaders of two top A.I. companies went before the U.N. Security Council with one clear message, the industry needs international standards and cooperation.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei delivered remarks separately to the council on Wednesday. World leaders come together hoping them -- come together to manage the threats posed by developments in A.I. capabilities.

Joining me here in L.A. live is Lori Schwartz, CEO and founder of StoryTech.

Lori, what a time. A lot of news happening in a lot of fronts right now.

LORI SCHWARTZ, CEO/FOUNDER, STORYTECH: Oh yes. Yes. Yes. All over.

MICHAELSON: But let's talk about A.I. right now, which is really important. These guys at the U.N. in the day ahead, they're going to be at the White House --

SCHWARTZ: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- with the leaders of the two biggest countries in the world -- Trump and Xi, right there for dinner together with all of them, which talks about the importance of these open -- of these A.I. tech guys.

SCHWARTZ: Yes.

MICHAELSON: What are the stakes? What are we expecting the day ahead?

SCHWARTZ: Well, I think that they are -- they are asking for help. They want some form of oversight that will basically encompass all the major A.I. companies together and globally, not just the U.S. and not just China, but a way to kind of say, hey, we want human oversight.

We want fast reporting if there's an incident. We want to know if there's emerging threats, right? And we want testing that we all learn from.

But the irony is that they've all had issues in the last few months related to the fact that they haven't been doing that. So -- and the most important.

MICHAELSON: The companies themselves haven't been doing that.

SCHWARTZ: The companies themselves, yes.

MICHAELSON: Even though they're saying to the government, we want this, they're not doing it.

SCHWARTZ: Yes. And they're saying it internationally when meanwhile, you know, there were agents that broke out in our Hugging Face conversation. Then some agents also broke into an Australian health company.

MICHAELSON: Right.

SCHWARTZ: And then --

MICHAELSON: -- and then the Australian government itself --

SCHWARTZ: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- the Australian prime minister today at the U.N. outraged.

SCHWARTZ: Yes, yes. And then also China tried to use Claude to find out its learning models. And so there's just -- there's a lot going on. And at the same time, they're asking for help, you know. So they need to walk the talk, you know.

MICHAELSON: Is there any reason to believe that President Trump or President Xi want to give them help?

SCHWARTZ: Yes, I think Trump has been very clear that he does not want regulation. He did say for the first time that there will be an A.I. czar. We should have an A.I. czar. And he needs to be someone that is superiorly intelligent.

MICHAELSON: Isn't David Sachs currently the A.I. czar?

SCHWARTZ: I mean, he hasn't really called anyone that, but he spent his time rebranding A.I. I don't know if you heard this whole conversation about how he was calling it supreme A.I. or superior ai. Now it's super, super intelligence instead.

And he's not focused on the things that he needs to be focused on. But he did say that he wants to create an A.I. Force like the Space Force. And so to unite all of these assets in the government.

And that did work for Space Force, you know, it eliminates, you know, redundancy and things like that. So to kind of unify and focus on getting all these entities to function together.

As for China, you know, their incentive is to get their models out to the world --

MICHAELSON: Yes.

SCHWARTZ: -- as cheaply and as fast as possible. So I don't know, you know, how they're really feeling about regulation globally, you know.

MICHAELSON: Yes. Or what leverage there is to put that in there.

(CROSSTALKING)

MICHAELSON: And by the way, Space Force is a military branch.

SCHWARTZ: Yes.

MICHAELSON: So if that would be a military branch, that would be quite something.

SCHWARTZ: That's how he's looking at it.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

SCHWARTZ: And that's the scary part.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

Lori Schwartz, StoryTech CEO --

SCHWARTZ: Yes.

MICHAELSON: -- thanks so much for being with us.

SCHWARTZ: All right.

MICHAELSON: We appreciate it on a busy breaking news night. We appreciate it.

SCHWARTZ: Me, too.

MICHAELSON: We're going to have more on the media ban being overturned when we come back here live on CNN. [01:49:32]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: Back to that breaking news.

A federal judge has just reinstated White House access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico, days after they were banned from the premises.

Joining me now is Eugene Volokh, professor of law emeritus at UCLA, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institute. Thanks for being with us on short notice, obviously.

So this is a temporary restraining order, which means this goes in place for 14 days. But while that is in place, CNN, MS NOW and Politico immediately get their access back. Walk us through the legality of this.

EUGENE VOLOKH, SENIOR FELLOW, STANFORD UNIVERSITY'S HOOVER INSTITUTE: Sure. So the White House is government property. You can imagine a First Amendment rule that says, you know, government can kick anybody out of its property, especially if it's an office building and not a park or a street.

But that's not the precedent. In the D.C. Circuit, which is the federal appellate court governing D.C. there's precedent that says there is actually a First Amendment right not to be excluded based on viewpoint and a due process clause right, not to have your press pass canceled without adequate proceedings, without a hearing and without notice of what exactly you did wrong.

[01:54:41]

VOLOKH: That's the precedent that the -- that the judge was applying. Again, you could imagine a different First Amendment rule, different due process clause rule. But that's the law in the D.C. Circuit. And the judge seems to have accurately applied it.

Didn't talk about the First Amendment because he said it's enough to say that denying these reporters press passes violates the due process clause because there was no warning.

They weren't told, here are the rules. We think you violated them. We'll have a hearing and figure out if you did well. And none of that was present and under D.C. Circuit law, that was required.

MICHAELSON: What is viewpoint discrimination?

VOLOKH: Well, viewpoint discrimination is when you exclude somebody because of the views that they express. So, for example, uh, excluding someone because they express racist views, that's viewpoint discrimination. Excluding them because they express anti-American views or anti-Trump views or pro-Trump views. That is viewpoint discrimination. Some rules are content neutral. You can't use bullhorns in the middle

of the street, in a residential area at night. That's a content- neutral rule.

You could imagine, the rules that are viewpoint neutral, but content based, like we're not going to allow sports reporters in the White House because it's just not, not their job. You're only allowed people who talk about politics. That's --

MICHAELSON: Yes.

VOLOKH: -- but that's still viewpoint neutral.

It seems pretty clear, though, that the president, just based on his statements, excluded them because they were conveying negative messages about him, messages he thought was unfair. That's viewpoint based.

MICHAELSON: And that was part of this as well. So we will see what happens next on all this.

I mean, what's the likely next step to this case in like -- thank you so much -- we got to go. Thank you so much for joining us.

VOLOKH: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: We'll have more coverage later here on CNN. I'm Elex Michaelson. Thanks for watching THE STORY IS.

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