Political Blame Game

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All right, we're gonna talk about the political blame game after a gunman tried to attack the White House correspondence dinner. Aren't both sides being a little hypocritical about dangerous rhetoric? Bizarre ! By any stretch of the definition a call to assassination, and they know that. But the First Lady wants Jimmy Kimmel fired. New overnight the comedian claps back. We have to be smarter, we have to be more vigilant, and we have to be more prepared.

And the obligatory calls for change after Saturday's shooting. Would a new ballroom at the White House help solve the problem? And another big security challenge today. King Charles in Washington. Can his majesty help the UK mend ties with President Trump. And Vladimir Putin meantime has entered the chat. What is Iran seeking from Russia as talks with the US falter? Plus, It's frustrating, you know, but it is mother nature. That's what it is.

Bracing for dangerous weather, strong winds, tornadoes, and large hail, there's already damage across the Midwest. CNN This Morning starts right now. The left wing cult of hatred and Against the president and all of those who support him and work for him has gotten multiple people hurt and killed. Yeah. lost clean up your own house. Before you have anything to say to us. Thank you. Alright, so if words inspire political violence, don't both sides have a problem to address?

We're gonna ask that question this morning. Hello everybody. Welcome to CNN This Morning. I'm Audie Cornish and I'm gonna start with this finger pointing. President Trump and his party responding to this shooting at the White House Correspondence Dinner. basically by decrying Democrats and the media for rhetoric. And then late night host Jimmy Kimmel's having to push back on calls for his firing. See what happened is days before the dinner, Kimmel made a joke about the first lady.

Our First Lady Melania is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow. So days after the shooting, the first lady posted that those words were quote corrosive and that they deepened political sickness. Now here is Kimmel actually just a few hours ago. It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost eighty and she's younger than I am. It was not

By any stretch of the definition a call to assassination, and they know that. I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject. I do, and I think a great place to start to dial that back. would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.

Okay, today in the group chat Sabrina Rodriguez, politics reporter with the Wall Street Journal, Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and former senior advisor to Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns, and Ashley Davis, former White House official under President George W. Bush. Um first I wanna come to you, Ashley, because even as we talked about

the fact that we were gonna talk about this on the show. You said Kimmel was in the wrong. Um can you talk about that? Because originally his jokes were made way before the dinner. Um and I think it'll be pretty easy for people to call up clips and tape of uh of all kinds of people on the political spectrum making all kinds of inappropriate jokes that look different today.

Actually I just I I did whisper I don't think he's funny, but I don't that's what it was more than anything. But no, I listen, obviously I do not think he said that to call action to an assassination. I mean I think that's a very big stretch. But I do think that well first of all he's gonna get cancelled anyway eventually because he doesn't have any viewers. I mean that's gonna be his real problem more than he made an appropriate comment.

But I think that um them calling for him to step down, whether it's the first lady or the president, it's really not uh in their position to be able to do that. And so it's gonna be a back and forth. I'm actually very disappointed.

I mean I was at the dinner, you were at the dinner, that they I thought it was going to be a little bit better that we were going to have a little bit more uh we were gonna tr start treating each each other a little bit better since that and it's already now even going it's almost even worse.

There's something going on that we haven't talked about and up for the last three days we've talked about how both sides whatever. Um the key to this is there's rewards for that. And that's what we haven't talked about is in my world in politics every day.

the more crazy you can be talking about the way you feel about Donald Trump or the crazy Democrats can be talking about whatever the thing is. In the algorithms and even in Democratic and Republican fundraising, you're literally reward for saying hateful stuff on the internet. That wasn't around fifteen years ago. Let me just show uh to talk about that. I'm glad you brought it up in a Gallup poll from October 2025. I'm going to put this up for folks.

When uh the public was asked what factors are to blame for political violence. Here's what you told Gallup at that time. Number one, extremist viewpoints on the internet. Inflammatory language by politicians was, you know, a decent second. And then other things that we're not even touching on in this debate.

Mental health system and easy access to guns. Politically these two conversations seem to be completely moribund for reasons that I don't know. But we are talking a lot about uh the president's ballroom. Um and his push security-wise now, he has a reason to go to the court and say, well look, now I really need it. It's not just aesthetic. I mean I think just one fact check for us on that is the fact that even if

The WHCA, the White House Correspondents Association, said that they wanted to do the dinner in this White House ballroom. They would not be able to do it. It's too small for the size of the event. No, no, the plans to let people know, the plans are supposed to be of for a ballroom that'll hold a tick around. Yeah, around a thousand ninety ninety nine people. And this dinner, which is a frankly cattle call, is more than two thousand people jammed into that room, which is

Which you very much feel in the presence. But but that that's like a minor factor to all of this. But I think we're seeing so many tweets about this and saying this is why we need the ballroom. This ballroom would not address this in particular. But I think that there needs to be a larger conversation like Chuck said about the social media of it all. I think that unfortunately there have been many shootings in America and and

But that's not what's happening. Can I just play for you something? These are Republicans blaming Democrats, first of all. I just wanna give you a mash of sort of the last couple of days of um how this has been playing out. Why are we here? The Democrats have used rhetoric referring to ICE agents as the Gestapo Trump secret police. They can't help themselves. Mm-hmm. Like this is a real sickness.

They've incited violence in my view. I mean you have uh some of the the most prominent figures in the House and the Senate on the Democrat side uh effectively, you know, calling for For uh for war. When you have reporters, when you have media media, you can see it. being overly critical and and calling the president horrible names for no reason and without evidence, without proof, it shouldn't surprise us. That this type of rhetoric takes place

And then I want to play for you one more. This is from Charlemagne the God. Using this, because this is a person, right, who's speaking to the public back and forth, banging in that dialogue, especially on social media. And he responded this way. Whenever there is some type of political violence that happens at you know one of these events, people always say so are we going to tone down the violent rhetoric towards Trump?

Stop it. Like I'm sick of that narrative. I need every single media personality to direct that energy energy and that question towards one person and one person only. And that person is President Donald J. Trump. At what point Do people simply say, hey Trump, it's clear that you're the drama?

Well I will say I mean I th Jimmy Kimmel in speaking last night, one of the quotes that he said was he said to Melania Trump, so the first lady, he said, why don't you talk to your husband about that? And I think it's speaks to I was playing that one'cause it's like it feels it it also feels like a very common sentiment that after more than a decade

the sense is when Trump says something, it's supposed to be like, look, it's Trump being Trump. He just says things, you know, like that civilization, wipe it out, whatever it is. And also the way uh lawmakers kind of collapse into a nonsensical debate about rhetoric after every violent event. Like I think the public feels like we're I'm actually surprised that we ha we're not having more conversation about gun control because that's not even I'm not even hearing that at all.

Are you surprised, really? That's no 2010. I feel like that's out the window You're right. We used to talk about that all the time. Like I was looking in the paper while ago. And as the redneck here, I was like, How did he get this shotgun? And he didn't have a AK anyway, go ahead. No go. Go ahead.

We we need to talk about the ballroom for a second. Well, first of all, uh no one likes the ballroom on the left because it's Trump's ballroom and how he did it. He just kind of Force down everybody. Yeah, for sure. However, from from a security perspective, t n when they do the dinner with even the king, they're gonna do it outside on the lawn.

The secure when when obviously the West Wings and the White House is one of the most the safest places in the world. However, they're gonna be on the lawn tonight under a tent. When we now have warfare that is done by drones. Yeah. And so I a hundred percent, especially because it's paid for by n private sector money. It's So given these security concerns, if all of a sudden that rationale changes.

I think that every president moving forward on the right and the left are going to be very happy this ballroom has been built, but the rhetoric right now is just because he

I'm glad you got the ball rolling. We're gonna be talking about the visit, um uh b uh the UK visit and th the event today. And coming up on CNN, we're also going to talk about the war with Iran and how it's affecting the global economy. Is it going to pay off for the president, for the US economy in the end? Shark Tanks Kevin O'Leary will be around to talk about.

Plus, Democrats call it the DeSantis dummy mander. Will Florida now join the redistricting war? And terrifying video out of Spain. This is a slingshot ride that snapped in mid-air. I'm CNN Tech Reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast Terms of Service. Mercedes Kilmer, thank you so much for doing this. When director Corty Vorjes and his brother John, who is co-producing this film, first approached you about

building this AI likeness of your dad for as deep as the grave. W what was sort of your thought process as you were considering this? Once I understood his involvement in the project differently, then I agreed to participate. My dad always saw technology as something that could augment or expand our potential as humans. Rather than to replace us. So he saw it very optimistically. And when Top Gun was coming out, we talked a lot about it. And I was like, what? Do you want to do that?

Bye. And he was like, I would be in a video game, like relax. Listen to CNN's terms of service wherever you get your podcast. It is now fifteen minutes past the hour. Here are five things to know. To get your day going. Now sources are saying that CNN uh saying telling CNN that the president appears unlikely to accept the latest peace plan submitted by Iran. Tehran's new plan would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and would also leave questions about its nuclear program for later negotiations.

If what they mean by opening the straits is, yes, the straits are opened as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission, or we'll blow you up and you pay us, that's not opening the straits. New polling out of California showing twenty-six percent of voters are still undecided on who they plan to vote for to be the next governor. Forty-one percent say they wish other candidates were running.

Republican Steve Hilton leads the pack with 16%, followed by Democrat Tom Steyr and Democrat Xavier Becerra. Next week, CNN will host the next primary debate, and that's on May 5th at 9 p.m. Now wildfires are still burning across South Georgia after already destroying more than 100 homes. Crews have been battling more than 10 large wildfires over the past week. Georgia's governor is expected to survey some of the damage later today. And you're watching the moment.

That a slingshot ride snapped in midair, then it crashes to the ground. Now this happened in Spain. Four people were hurt, including two children, who were inside the ride. Everyone's expected to be okay. Another battle today in the nation's coast-to-coast redistricting fight, the Republican-controlled legislature in Florida will consider a new congressional map proposed by Governor Ron DeSantis, which is designed to try to flip four seats red.

The so-called map, which is a DeSantis dummy manda, actually is blatantly unconstitutional. Florida Constitution is pretty clear as a result of the Fair District's amendments that were enacted back in 2010. It explicitly prohibits partisan gerrymandering. Amen. So what is a dummy mander again?

So dummymander is play on obviously the word gerrymander, but essentially as we have this whole debate about redistricting across the country, it's this concern that what they thought was gonna benefit their party will ultimately benefit the opposite. So it's not just that like, oh your gerrymandering isn't gonna work. It's like uh you're actually gonna make it backfire and we're gonna benefit. Yeah. Santa's gonna be able to get this through.

It's very probable that he's going to, that he's gonna be able to push this through. I mean this is something that Republicans in the state of Florida do not wanna be dealing with. We saw in months prior as this conversation started that state legislators, Republican state legislators did not necessarily have an appetite to do this. Here they are. Knowing that Trump wants this, knowing that Governor DeSantis is trying to push this And knowing that the voters in Virginia approved new maps.

more likely that it'll go. This is the big difference there. Let me say this because it's different than Virginia and California. In Virginia and California Okay, well come on. That you're talking about. After the break on CNN this morning.

Um we want to talk foreign policy. Iran and Russia, they're actually kind of cozying up this morning. Plus, we've got days of severe weather. When will these dangerous and deadly storms come to an end? In the meantime, I just want to say good morning to Memphis. This is a Live look at the riverfront. The drive, they'll help you find your path. For free at rbctrainingground.ca.

So Iran is rallying Russia to their defense as peace talks to end the war drag on with the US. Мы видим, как... We see how courageously and heroically the Iranian people are fighting for their independence and sovereignty. Со своей стороны будем делать вещи. We will do everything that meets your interests and the interests of all peoples in the region in order to ensure that this peace is achieved as quickly as possible.

Joining me now Ian Bremer of the who's the president of the Eurasia Group and G Zero Media. Good morning. Um, I wanna talk to you because Putin is stepping in publicly now, which is interesting'cause I I feel like I just saw him putting medal medals on North Korean soldiers that are helping Russia in Ukraine. Um but can you talk about what Iran wants from Moscow, whether this is a diplomatic conversation or more?

Yeah, most of the North Korean soldiers helping the Russians in Ukraine are being put in boxes. Uh so that that hasn't worked so well for them. But here, uh I think Putin's intervention is because he feels that his friends, the Iranians, suddenly uh have some momentum. Uh and that's why he's stepping in, uh, because uh the strait remains closed. um the uh ceasefire is holding. Uh the Iranians have basically stared the Americans down and are now making uh tougher demands.

on uh what one might require uh in order to get the strait reopened, Putin feels like here's a good opportunity for him to step in diplomatically and publicly. Why? Because he thinks that this is likely to look good for him. Not not because He's uh putting in a meaningful play um to determine the outcome. He's been a marginal player uh on the diplomatic front compared to Pakistan, compared to China. And that that will continue.

It's interesting when you said it it feels like Iran i is who has momentum here. Um it sort of reminds me of what we heard um out of the German Chancellor. And I I wanna play that for you. He was just speaking a few days ago uh about how he sees this negotiation between the US and Iran. At the moment, I cannot see what strategic exit the Americans are now opting for, especially as the Iranians are obviously negotiating very skillfully.

or rather very skillfully not negotiating and letting the Americans travel to Islamadad only to leave again without any result. This entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian state leadership, especially by these so-called revolutionary guards. I I thought humiliation was a strong word. Can you follow up on what he said and the context for that?

I was a little surprised to see the German Chancellor use that word, though um that that feeling reflects the conversations I've had with world leaders uh over the last weeks without any question. Продолжение следует...

Um this is a a close and strong ally of the United States, at least Historically But the Europeans are so angry at the US for having unilaterally entered this war, a war that is causing much more economic damage, energy damage, other issues for the Europeans than it is for the United States. And then Trump calls them cowards for not getting involved. So the the emotions are raw, they're angry.

I don't think they're happy to see the Americans lose here, even though there's no love loss for Trump. But the point here is that whether you're Germany, the German chancellor, whether you're Putin and Russia, leaders all over the world see the Americans as losing here. The regime will not be changed. It's the same as the one that Trump said he was gonna rescue the Iranian people from.

Um the economic damage is real and global and lasting. The Iranian influence over the strait is much more realized um and problematic. than it was before the war started. And at this point, not only does the deal the Iranians were offered in Oman um with uh Kushner and Witkoff look much better than what the Americans will eventually get.

But uh also the Iranian nuclear deal, the JCPOA, that Trump unilaterally withdrew from in his first term, looks like a much better outcome than what the Americans will ever ha will will give receive here. So I mean th this war is not only a war of choice, but to to allies and adversaries of America around the World. They believe this war looks like a crushing failure from almost every angle. And that's assuming that it ends now. Yeah. And then it doesn't further escalate.

President Trump looks like he understands that he does not have good military options and doesn't want to return um to direct fighting with the Iranians, uh but but we still don't have any off ramp towards an actual deal. Okay, that's Ian Bremer. Thanks for that view and straight ahead on CNN this morning. Protecting big events from gun violence is the risk part of the price that we pay for living in a free society. Plus, can King Charles smooth things over on his royal visit to DC?

And then, new meaning to baby on board, a pregnant mom, goes into labor at 30,000 feet. Is this real? It is. You like me? Oh, look at Call these one of a kind place. Home. Kaboos. Zillow Gone Wild, all new season, Friday at night.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It's half past the hour, and here's what's happening right now. King Charles and Queen Camilla are on day two of their four-day state visit to the U.S. Today the King will deliver a speech to a joint meeting of Congress. He's expected to discuss the special relationship between the U.S. and the UK as

The U.S. marks 250 years of independence. Opening statements begin today in the trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI Sam Altman. Musk is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for$150 million. Arguing that they conned him into investing in OpenAI, claiming it was only a nonprofit company. Both Tech Titans are expected to testify early on in this trial. And then I want to show you some images out of Missouri. This is Storm Cleanup.

Because there was severe weather and that threat continues for millions of people today. Storms hit overnight. And parts of Illinois were also hit by suspected tornadoes, and that damaged homes and trees, knocking out power. Thousands. The biggest threats which remain today are damaging winds, hail, and tornadoes across the Mississippi and Ohio valleys.

The White House now set to review its security protocols after Saturday night's close call at the correspondence dinner. We view it as a great responsibility to ensure the maximum safety of the president and the vice president and the entire cabinet. And so we're always looking for ways to improve security. I think if you just sit here and say everything is perfect all the time, um that's not a good way to operate.

White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, will meet with DHS and Secret Service to discuss their methods. And that's especially important ahead of a summer of high security events. When you look at the president's calendar, you've got the World Cup, the country's 250th anniversary celebration in the next few months. Then you've got the midterms and the rallies up to them in the fall. Joining me now to talk about this is Juliette Kayam, CNN Senior National Security Analyst.

Um before we get going quickly I wanna find out from you something, Juliet, which is that the suspect, Cole Thomas Allen, he has been charged in federal court. And when I look at the charges, I see attempted assassination of the president. Um interstate transportation of a firearm, right? Carrying a a firearm over state lines. And then it says discharge of a firearm. It doesn't say shot a secret service officer.

Yes. We don't know yet, just so that on the timeline and DOJ has not said yet whether the Secret Service agent was was shot by Cole Allen, which would have been one of the charges. Or whether it's friendly fire, which sometimes happens in a in a situation like that. I think if if he's not if Cole Allen is not charged.

uh with you know uh uh uh trying to shoot or shooting a secret service agent. I think we we should assume that it was friendly fire that happens. Uh but you know we should the government should be very transparent about what happened. over those minutes and hours because as Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, is gonna do, there's gonna be a thorough review. If friendly fire is one of the threats or one of the consequences, we have to, you know, you have to adjust for that.

When I look at his writings as well, um one of the things he said was a criticism of the Secret Service. To read this he said, what the hell is the Secret Service doing? I expected security cameras at every bend, bugged hotel rooms, armed agents every ten feet, metal detectors out the wazoo. Um and he says what I got was nothing. And he said all the security was outside. It's like when you have the actual suspect doing the review here. Yeah.

Yeah, doing the after action. There's something very interesting about that part of the manifesto, and this is true of many of these sort of isolated men who become radicalized and then turn to violence and that's the sort of performative nature. of what they're saying. So it's a sort of, look, I'm the judge, I'm the I'm the chorus in the play and I'm gonna reflect on what's happening out in the world. And so then he comes, you know, he sees that and his his idea of how security works is very

sort of antiquated that there's gonna be, you know, guns every ten feet and people walking around surveying everyone. Um and I think that's part of his radicalization process. he he begins to sort of perform the role of the assassin, which then becomes the role of the you know becomes the reality of the of the s of the attempted assassin.

You've been writing about the fact that we've got the World Cup, we've got all these events around the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. I think there's gonna be like a naval review where a bunch of ships come. There's a lot coming up this year and I used to think of these events as like hard targets, maybe'cause of my experience with political conventions. I thought the bigger the event, the more security. It feels like I should adjust my uh expectations.

Well, it I think it depends on where you are in the event. So I mean g and so I I you know, I sort of got into this field to sort of get away of all the bad news and now, you know, I'm now you know, I'm in mega event planning and then the and then now we're worried about that this summer. And one of the reasons why is because there's this consistent high profile events, what in the space we call mega event.

When I say to you it depends on where you are, is that each piece of these events is gonna have different security. The way we think about it is, you know, you're trying to minimize risk, but you're never gonna get to zero. The word safe. does not exist, right? It's safer. Can you make things safer? You try to get all parties to unify on defenses. But the thing I wanted to make clear in my Atlantic piece was just

Look, there's a reason you know he there's a reason why we have these events. It's it's because we we like to be together. We we like to have fun. We like to have that kind of freedom. We like to celebrate the media or celebrate a a democracy's, you know, compli a complicated democracy's 250th. We like to invite the world for a big uh World Cup. And we have to remember that when we're when we're doing safety. You know, the it's

Making something a fortress, we call it the three G's, guns, guards, and gates, right? That's the easy part. The hard part is sort of, you know, uh accepting our vulnerabilities because we want the experience of being out in the world. And I just guess I wanted to remind people of that. I know it's scary, but uh there's also something about humanity that that is vulnerable and I think that's something that even a security person should say every once in a while.

Well, I know there's a lot of people out there watching now who may be rethinking what they're gonna attend and how uh bring their families to. So Julia Cayenne, thank you.

I'll be there, so don't still go. Still go. All right, I want to follow up about another big event that's happening today, day two of the Royal State Visit. Uh you're gonna have the King going to the hill. King Charles is gonna deliver a speech before a joint meeting of Congress. So we're asking whether or not he could be the one to smooth things over for relations between the UK and the US.

Iran has been the boiling point for President Trump in recent months, and the UK's prime minister has refused to give the U.S. a hand when it comes to the military. The uh Prime Minister of UK, United Kingdom, yesterday told me uh I'm meeting with my team. to make a determination. I said, You don't need to meet it with the team. You you're the Prime Minister. You can make your own. This is not our war. We will not be drawn into the conflict. That is not in our national interest.

So the group chat is back and I wanna come to you Sabrina because we know that the president like King Charles. You know, like he likes to meet a king and to be on that level of relationship. But is that relationship so good that it can counter, you know, the position that Keir Starmer is in? I mean not really.

The the short answer of it all here. I think, you know, we've seen the president has been very excited about this for weeks in the lead up to it. You've seen him make references to King Charles' visit, talking about their friendship, talking about how he's a great guy, a great gentleman, very much.

No, this is a b this is a very positive step to have him coming here, especially knowing that relationship with Donald Trump, Trump's affinity toward the king. And we're gonna hear him speak today before Congress, and I'm sure we're gonna hear a lot about easing tensions, a lot about the friendship, the long-standing relationship.

between the two countries. I think that that doesn't change because there is a moment of tension right now with the UK. I think two things can be true the longstanding friendship between the two countries and that relationship and having this moment of tension when it comes to Iran and when it comes to some points of disagreement. Yeah.

And also it's not based off vibes. I mean the king is not elected, Pierce Garmer is, and I just want to show Trump's popularity in Europe. Not that he cares about that, but giving the audience some context. Um you've got people there. I think uh his fav unfavorability is quite high for Trump. Um so what is the value of this conversation, right? He doesn't bring with him military support, he doesn't bring with him

needs. Well right, and he doesn't make those decisions. But I think this is just a a show of diplomacy, obviously on our side and their side. But one of the things he's supposed to be talking about today in Congress is NATO and he will bring up the importance of NATO. So I think that would be his number one issue in regards to kind of poking the bear a little bit. But I think this is going to be a very pleasant visit. Obviously we have a very complicated but positive relationship.

Is President gonna revive the Epstein conversation in the news? Possibly there's gonna be a lot of people. Rokana I think is going to be doing something around. Yeah, just to remind people, the British Prime Minister facing resignation calls because he had

Appointed Peter Mandelson, UK ambassador to the US. I I just wanna mention this. Yes, of course, and Prince Andrew and Vince Andrew, of course. Um and but the point is he's in the middle of like an apology tour. Here's uh Keir Starmer just last week. I should not have appointed Peter Mandelson. I take responsibility for that decision, and I apologise again to the victims of the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who were clearly failed by my decision.

Ron Epstein, I don't know how this c this couple of days happens without these issues coming up. I roll my eyes because I think the the president I don't know if he likes King Charles or not, but I know he likes the pomp and circumstance and to your point

being on the same level as a quote unquote king, thinking about all the no king rallies. That's funny. Anyway, another point of this is that uh you s never saw the queen, his mother, be that involved but in politics. Yeah. Uh in front of the camera. She probably was. So they had conversations. this is a different time and I think it's some people have wrote about this this week about how the king

through his youth and through his adulthood has been like on opposite sides of Trump on lots of issues, especially the environment. Green energy and those kind of things. So see if that and what that's talked about tonight. I think the NATO thing is another big angle for both tonight. uh and seeing how he plays politics when he don't do politics.

Okay, you guys stay with us. Um we wanna talk about, you know, one of the consequences of the war with Iran, which is that oil prices are up a hundred and ten dollars a barrel. So will this all pay off for the president in the end if things stabilize for bringing in Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary into the chat.

Iran's economy is very dependent upon oil. And when you pump oil every day, you gotta ship oil every day. Right now they can't ship it, so um they don't want to turn off their wells. They gotta find a place to put all the oil Uh and they're running out of options.

So President Trump and his allies claim that the strategy in the war with Iran is working, that they're blocking uh Iranian shipments of oil, and at the same time, could those ripple uh those rippling economic shocks also be a ticking clock? for global markets. And we're talking about that because this morning global oil prices are climbing back above$110 per barrel for the first time in three weeks. And this is happening as of course peace talks are stalled.

So the average gallon of gas in the US at this point is now$4.11. strips and stuff like that'cause it's getting ridiculous. I live in Rhode Island so driving home for the weekends is gonna make it harder. So I might not make as many trips home because of it. It's making me frustrated and you know, so you think, oh, I'm gonna get it on the way home and now it's it could be five, ten cents higher. Yeah. It's it's so it's killing us.

All right, joining us now in the group chat, Kevin O'Leary, Chairman of O'Leary Ventures. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for entering the chat. Um I wanna talk to you about this global recession.

um the threat of that people are talking about, especially with the dueling blockades in the Strait of Hormuz. Do you think that this is gonna pay off? Do you think that There's an off ramp that does not lead with the Strait of Hormuz being a toll road that inflicts economic damage around the world. I'm in the camp that says there'll be a good outcome. Um, if you go back in history and look at what really is the pain point.

It's gasoline prices U.S. domestic above six dollars. In order to do that, you need to keep oil above 95 for at least three months. So here we are in the 60th day, we have another 30 days left. On the other side, the economics are more painful. Two hundred and ten million per day. of revenue lost to Iran. They need that money to pay their militia. That's how they brutalize their people. You got hundred and fifty thousand people running a militia of two hundred and fifty thousand

thugs, you gotta pay them, and they have a million man army that kills the other ninety-two million people. It's a brutal regime. Everybody knows that, but it works with money. And so the more you strangle their cash, the guy that's killing everybody's not getting his paycheck.

What about people who are looking at this economy and seeing some weakness, right? Seeing the SP down maybe it's like five, five point seven percent, right? Seeing inflation nudging up, and they're saying, I don't I don't have to wait for Iran's whole economy to collapse for us to start feeling it here or in other places abroad.

Well we're hitting new highs on our markets and there's a singular reason. Nobody saw this coming, it's probably You know, you I I think in some ways the Trump administration is very lucky because the productivity gains and margin enhancements of AI in all eleven sectors of the economy are proving out to be

But are they single-handedly propping up the economy? And is that terrifying given that some people talk about it as a bubble? And you've got people like the two titans fighting in court. Like people aren't looking at AI and thinking this is gonna work out for us.

No, I mean Elon's an eclectic guy, everybody knows that and but but that's a different fight. The the actual American economy, uh and I have fi investments in fifty-four private companies, five to five hundred employees, we're having our best quarter in history. And so, you know, this this conflict's an issue, I got it. But the American economy is never shown strength like this before. And I'm giving the credit. Economy or Wall Street? I wanna understand your distinction.

But there is no distinction anymore because most people enjoy their retirements through the S P five hundred, which is the index of the American economy, creates all the jobs. Most people don't have stocks, Kevin. Hãy subscribe cho kênh La La School Để không bỏ lỡ những video hấp dẫn Some people have stocks and they have become millionaires. You're absolutely right.

My argument against that is 52% of all jobs created in America are created by companies, five to five hundred employees. That's the backbone of the American economy. They are enjoying the same buoyancy, the same enhancements, the same margin creation, and they're employing Americans. Unemployment is not a problem. I mean Every way you try and poke at it, the numbers are stunning. They really are.

Do you deny that AI is a threat to the jobs of many average workers in many sectors? That is a very common belief among American workers. It's wrong because it's the same as saying television's gonna wipe out radio. Didn't happen. Everybody loathes change and uncertainty. AI is a powerful tool, that's all it is. And and I see it every day in in every single one of our companies, whether they're insecticides or real estate or wireless charging, they're using AI.

And it's working, it's doing two things. Productivity goes up, margin goes up, creates more jobs, not less jobs. No, I don't think it's completely clear what its job creation will be, net value to the average worker. I know exactly what it's creating for the C suite wealth. I can't I I'm feeling some pushback. Uh for instance this data center in Utah. Yes. I know this is something you are in support of. The local county delaying it. Protesters

Y you know, this is Utah's not a blue state, you know what I mean? I I feel like this is something that's cutting across political lines that people do not trust this technology and the industry behind it to take them with them on this You're absolutely right. So my job is to communicate the facts, and that's what I do. You know, twenty years ago, even ten years ago, data centers, if you look at Virginia, where they started, the majority of them are still there.

It used a lot of water and it caused prices to go up when it was attached to the water. And it still uses a lot of power in general. Well, you cannot attach the grid anymore. The Utah project contemplates bringing new power to Utah. All of the power will be created from Nat Gas pipeline that runs through there. and we'll give back to the community. We'll generate enough power that some percentage of it will go back to the grid.

Can I show you the polling on this? Uh Quinny Piac was people were asked, Do you support the building of an AI data center in your community? Sixty-five percent Um oppose eleven percent n not convinced. I guess there's your your the people you can go after that eleven percent. So ask a question. Would you prefer China leads the race in AI? I mean, that's really the problem we're having. If you want China

to overtake our ability to develop cutting edge technology, you stop data centers. So that's the cause and effect of it all. And I go out and say to people, look, Last year alone, China lit up 400 gigawatts of power using coal-burning plants.

There is no permitting there. There's a big guy that says, build that plant or I'll kill you. And that works really well if you want to live in a society like that. We have to go through the permitting process here. We've got to compete on power. And we need to compete on AI. People, like freedom of speech. People are able to say to you on like in China we don't want this.

Yeah, but you there's a consequence to it. If you want China to lead, take over our our let's call it our dem uh democracy, our free speech and the way we live with technology. stop building data centers. It's that simple. There is a downside to stopping this technology advancement. Well I do think this is gonna become an issue in the midterms as more and more people push back.

I don't I think this has become such a political issue that people don't really understand what's happening. I mean, yes, back in the day and when we started on these projects, It c there was um electricity being taken off the or power being taken off the grid. That's not happening. I think that I think of it differently. I don't think of Democrats in particular as leading indicators on issues that the public cares about. I see them as lagging indicators, which means

People already care about this. And maybe a commu a a world of workers who feel misled by globalization, which also was supposed to make everything better and was also supposed to lift all boats and in the end they feel like they didn't get that. are hearing the same exact arguments with AI and feeling, I'm good, I've heard this before.

Yeah. Well, if you actually ask them do they use it every day, you're gonna find out more and more people just daily are using the tool for various things. And where it manifests itself the most right now, which is rather remarkable, and here's a good thing to your job issue. Two years ago, if you were a creator, a video creator, editor, storyteller, a videographer, any of those, you your average pay was about seventy thousand dollars a year.

Today I hire those people, they make as much as six hundred thousand a year if they're able to reduce customer acquisition cost and increase ROAS return on ad spend. I'm not kidding. A kid that's 28 years old that can actually on a weekly basis prove that they can reduce the customer acquisition cost will make$600,000. So I know it's in your group chat now.

Well, my point is those are AI tools they're using to create that content for SP five hundred companies and small companies. This is a remarkable change. So all of a sudden it's created a whole new generation of artists that are making money. Well, given Hollywood's pushback, I think there's a lot of questions there and I do think you have a bit of an uphill battle convincing the the general public it's gonna be for them. I look forward to hearing you make it.

I'm up for it. That's why they call me Mr. Wonderland.

I believe it. I believe it. I wanna thank you so much for being on the show and for chatting with us. Um and we wanna let you know we are still following the news of the fallout from the shooter in the White House Correspondence Weekend. Um we are also gonna be talking ahead about the visit from King Charles and Queen. Camilla, all that ahead, including a joint address to Congress. I'm Audie Cornish, and I want you to stay with us because the headlines are next.

I'm Daniel Day Kim. I'm going to South Korea to figure out how this small nation conquered the world with its culture. Join me and meet the artists and creators behind the phenomenon. K Everything. Streaming May 9th on the CNN. Influential journalist Kara Swisher is taking a hard look at the longevity industry. So much bad information that the really good information gets drowned. The new CNN original series, Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever. Now streaming on the CNN.