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Disney Sues FCC; Polls on President Trump and the Republican Party; Former Congressman Francis Rooney is Interviewed about the Midterms; Trial Resumes in Microsoft Executive's Murder; Former Acting ICE Director John Sandweg is Interviewed about the Big Bend Backlash; CNN's New Series "Coming Up" Interviews Colman Domingo. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 18, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:31:09]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have some breaking news coming in here. Disney has just filed a lawsuit against the FCC over what they call the Trump administration's retaliatory campaign against ABC.

Brian Stelter has much more on this.

Brian, what's going on here?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: This is one of the stiffest challenges I've seen from any American media company against the Trump administration during Trump's return to office. The narrative about Trump and the media ever since he returned to power has been about alleged capitulation, about media outlets trying to cozy up to the president, about media outlets maybe bowing to power in limited ways.

Well, we're seeing the opposite right now from Disney, one of the biggest media companies on the planet. Disney is going to court this morning, filing a federal lawsuit against the FCC, alleging that Trump's appointees at the FCC are violating Disney's First Amendment rights. Here's a quote from the lawsuit. It says, "acting through the FCC, the administration has waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts."

Importantly, Disney is saying it's not, you know, looking for a fight. It's not trying to get into a fight with the president. It says it's doing this reluctantly. Quote, "we're going to the court reluctantly, with no alternative means to eliminate these ongoing and immediate threats other than total capitulation to the administration's demands."

So, what are the administration's demands? Well, think back to April. There was a controversy about Jimmy Kimmel and a controversial joke that he made on his late night show on ABC. President Trump called for Kimmel to be fired by ABC. The network resisted those pressure campaigns. The FCC, that very same week, filed what's known as an early renewal for ABC's licenses. It basically ordered ABC to ask the government to renew its licenses several years early.

Now, you might hear early license renewal and think it's a good thing. Well, no, it's a bad thing. It's a very unusual legal challenge, essentially setting ABC up for a year's long battle legally to defend and protect its stations against the government's pressure.

Now, a wide range of First Amendment groups have said that this is an unconstitutional challenge to ABC. But now, this morning, for the first time, you have Disney going to court and saying the same thing. Disney filing this in D.C. District Court saying that its First Amendment rights are being violated. And if you think about the context here, Disney is not just any company. It's the company that operates Disney World, right? It operates -- owns ESPN. This is a sprawling media company that does not want to be in a fight with the American president.

Trump was just last week at the Patriot games in Ohio that were being aired on -- streamed on ESPN. But in this case, Disney believes it is in a real challenge here from the FCC with its stations potentially having their licenses revoked. And that is something the president has repeatedly said he wants to see happen. He has raged against ABC for years. He has called for stations to lose their licenses. So now Disney going to court asking for relief, asking for a judge to step in and protect these stations from a highly unusual pressure campaign.

BOLDUAN: All right. Fascinating. And quite another twist in what will likely will see more twists than this for sure.

It's good to see you, Brian. Thank you very much.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, Kate.

It's Election Day across America with three states holding key primaries, including the state Donald Trump calls home, Florida. Today's races are testing President Trump's grip on the Republican Party there, while his approval rating is at a very low level, the lowest of his presidency.

CNN's Harry Enten, looking at all the numbers.

How low is it?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: You know, if this were a game of limbo, President Trump would be winning. Unfortunately, this is the game a presidential popularity. And he is reaching record lows yet again. He is losing.

Just take a look here. OK, Trump net approval hits a term two low.

[08:35:02]

Look at this, 31 points underwater, 31 points underwater according to Ipsos, the Reuters-Ipsos poll. Look where he was at the beginning of term number two. He was at plus six points. So, he is down, what is that, the math quickly with me, 37 points from where he was at the beginning of his second presidency.

You know, President Trump was unpopular going into the midterms during his first presidency, but not anywhere as unpopular as this. He was 12 points underwater. So, he is doing versus where he was at term number one at this point, he is doing, what is the math here quickly, he is doing 19 points worse than he was doing in term number one at this point. And, of course, those midterms were quite disastrous for the Republican Party.

So, you look at these numbers and you just go, oy vey if you're a Republican.

SIDNER: All right, independents have a big role to play always in elections. Give us some sense of where they stand, because there is still a lot of the party that supports Donald Trump.

ENTEN: Yes. OK. So, you know what, Republicans still, in large part, support Donald Trump, but is independents who are the name of the game. They are the driver in elections. And just look at why these numbers are falling the way that they are. It is because of independents.

Look at these drops. I mean, Trump's net approval rating among independents, term two, he's 47 points underwater now, 47 points underwater. He was at minus one point at the beginning of his presidency, basically treading water, right? So, what is that? That's a 46-point drop. So, you see that drop of, what, 31 points from where he was at the beginning of his presidency, or 37 points from where he was at the beginning of his presidency, among the overall electorate. But that's nothing compared to this 46 point drop among independents.

And look at -- compare that to where he was at this point in term number one, before those midterms. Again, he was underwater then, but he was just ten points underwater then. Now he's 47 points underwater. So, that's a drop of, what, 37 points? So, this has been the problem with President Trump's second term according to the public, which is, he is going and placating the base, but leaving the center of the electorate behind. But you know what, you have to win the center of the electorate in order to maintain your popularity, in order for Republicans to win in these midterm elections. But independents are saying, you know what, we don't like what's going on. See you later.

SIDNER: Yes. And the big question is, do they show up and vote for a Democrat or do they not show up? You -- those are always the questions that you have to ask.

ENTEN: Those are questions.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about what this might mean historically when you look at these abysmal numbers for the president and his approval rating, the lowest of his presidency, what it might mean for the midterms.

ENTEN: Yes, what might it mean for the midterms? I was teasing 2018, but you have to go further back in history to really find the true analog in my mind. And it's George W. Bush. Look at this. Presidential net approval rating according to Ipsos at this point pre-midterm. Look at this, Trump 31 points underwater, Bush was also 31 points underwater, George W. Bush, at this point before the 2006 midterm. Republicans lost not just the House, but the United States Senate as well. And if these numbers hold and this historical analogy holds, Democrats will have a very happy election night and election week afterwards indeed.

SIDNER: There is a lot of tricky things going on, though, within the Democratic Party as well. So, we will have to see what happens when it happens. And there are primaries today. We should find out tonight, hopefully.

ENTEN: We -- we'll find out a little bit more. A little bit of crumbs as we go along the way.

SIDNER: Let's -- yes, little crumbs. All right. Thank you so much, Harry. Appreciate it.

ENTEN: Thanks, Sara.

SIDNER: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now is Francis Rooney, a former Republican congressman from Florida, former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.

Congressman, Ambassador, great to see you. It has been a while.

You just heard Harry talk about those poll numbers. What's it like for Republicans to run when the president's 31 points underwater?

FRANCIS ROONEY (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM FLORIDA: Well, it's like the gentleman said, it's kind of sclerotic that you have so many people that will still follow this guy after all the ridiculous things he's done. But then, on the other hand, I think they've lost moderates, Reagan, Bush Republicans, and that's going to tell the tale whether they show up or whether they don't show up, they're going to have a major impact on this election. We could be in post-Watergate country now.

BERMAN: You think the environment for Republicans might be as it was after Watergate in 1974?

ROONEY: I think it could be from what I'm reading about the polls and hearing around the country in different races and things.

BERMAN: One of the things that some are suggesting, including Republican Senator Jim Justice from West Virginia, is that Republicans need to pay attention to what voters are saying about how they're feeling. Senator Justice said, quote, "everybody's sat back and said, it'll be OK. I've been the voice that's been saying, you people are living in a cave if you don't see that the folks out there are hurting. Whether it be gas prices or food prices or whatever it may be, they're hurting. And we need to absolutely be more in tune with them." He says some of this is the product of the war in Iran. What do you think of that assessment? ROONEY: I think it's a lot broader than just the war in Iran. I think

we have an administration and a president that really don't understand what drives and motivates your average American.

[08:40:02]

You know, your average person, who they don't have any connection with because they're all millionaires, cares about what his bread -- his groceries cost, his car costs, his gasoline costs and his house mortgage costs. And none of those are going the right way. And they were not going the right way before Iran, but the gas part of it is significantly exacerbated after Iran.

BERMAN: You are in Florida. And I should note that Congressman Byron Donalds basically replaced you in your district in Congress, and he is now running to be governor there. If he does win, what kind of governor do you think Byron Donalds will be?

ROONEY: I think he'll be a very conservative, good governor in the -- in the -- along the lines of Rick Scott. He's a very conservative individual. He's, obviously, closely aligned with Donald Trump. And Florida's a very conservative state right now. You know, it got a little purple there during the Obama years, but the registration for Republicans has surged in the last few years.

BERMAN: Have you endorsed Congressman Donalds in the gubernatorial run?

ROONEY: No, I don't -- no, I'm not going to endorse anybody. He doesn't need me. He's got Trump. Down where we are in the red districts of Florida, that's all that counts.

BERMAN: Congressman, I do want to ask you, because you do have experience as an international businessman and as an ambassador, you know, in foreign policy, in Congress, on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the president put out a social media post today that has a picture of the Strait of Hormuz, and it is circled, and it says "new U.S. territory." The Strait of Hormuz, of course, is not open. It's constricted, certainly, to shipping right now. He claims it as a new U.S. territory here.

In terms of reality, in terms of political messaging, in terms of maybe what the international community thinks about that, what's the impact of this?

ROONEY: Well, I think it's another absurd statement by the president. I mean get in line. After Greenland, you know, he's not going to -- we're not going to take the Straits of Hormuz as a United States territory. He also threatened to bomb Oman, one of our strong allies in the region. I mean what's going on over there? We've spent $37 billion to have the Straits of Hormuz in the same position they were at before he attacked Iran.

BERMAN: Congressman, former Congressman Francis Rooney from Florida. As I said, it's always great to see you. Thank you so much for coming on this morning. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Soon, new testimony will begin in a trial over the murder of a Microsoft design manager. Investigators say that he was ambushed on a dark Florida road, and that he was also the victim of an elaborate murder for hire plot orchestrated by his ex-wife and her husband.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is tracking this one for us.

Isabel, what's happening here?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, good morning. It's certainly a complex case.

Prosecutors laid out this theory in court saying that while the alleged killer was a stranger to the victim, Jared Bridegan, the killing itself was personal. And all of this was this elaborate murder for hire plot happening back in 2022 where Bridegan, the victim, was on his way back home after dropping off the twin children that he shared with his ex-wife. He still had his two-year-old daughter in the car when he noticed this tire that was in the middle of the road. He got out of the road to move this tire. And then seconds later, he was shot dead. Prosecutors say that that tire, you're looking at the picture of it right now, was set up as a way to lure him out of the car, that the killer had figured out his routine and was paid, indeed, to do that.

Standing trial right now is the husband of the victim's ex-wife. And there's two more trials still to come, including the victim's ex-wife herself and also the alleged triggerman.

Now, prosecutors say Mario Fernandez Saldana hired a gunman named Henry Tenon to kill Bridegan and, in fact, paid him $10,000 to do this, but disguised the money, these checks. They were signed off for reasons of housework, including roof repairs and landscaping.

Now, the theory that the prosecution is laying out for this alleged murder for hire plot is that this contentious relationship between Bridegan and his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, that this was bitter and not amicable despite them divorcing back in 2015. Everything was contentious, from the custody battle, to arguments over school, to doctor's appointments, even religion that Bridegan was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and Gardner did not want her children to be raised to becoming Mormons.

Listen to the victim's widow and what she said that relationship was like between her husband and his ex-wife.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRSTEN BRIDEGAN, JARED BRIDEGAN'S WIDOW: It was pretty terrible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you mean by that?

BRIDEGAN: There was absolutely no trust. So, everything was in writing, text, email. [08:45:02]

We did not speak in person, like at school events. Didn't do phone calls. We felt that everything needed to be in writing so that it could be shown like there was no miscommunication there.

When it was something where all four of us were at, it was very tense. You could just feel the tension.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And a key break in this case was a tire that was found at this rental property owned by the husband of the ex-wife, Mario Fernandez. That was very similar to that tire I mentioned off the top there that blocked Bridegan's path. Well, that was tied to the alleged triggerman.

Now, the defense says that Tenon was hired to do work and was not hired to do this killing, and that Fernandez had no motive to carry this out and to do harm against Bridegan.

Back to you.

BOLDUAN: Let's see what today brings now with this testimony set to begin again.

It's good to see you, Isabel. Thank you so much for laying it out for us.

Sara.

SIDNER: OK, we're learning some new details this morning about the death of actress Hayden Panettiere. Dispatch audio obtained by broadcastify.com on the day she died reveals the moment authorities arrived on the scene to an apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina. There is, in the audio, a reference to a possible overdose, although authorities have not addressed whether an overdose actually took place. The Greenville County Coroner's Office has said that the cause and manner of Panettiere's death are still pending investigation. This morning, Panettiere's former partner and father of her daughter released a photo of the couple with their daughter. You see it there. Also, along with an emotional statement saying in part, "she built an incredible career through immense talent while also facing the darker sides of a very demanding industry. Nothing will erase the times we shared or the place she had in our lives."

John.

BERMAN: All right, why the government is now hitting pause on a major border construction project inside Big Bend National Park.

And a robot company has designed a machine that they say can jump six feet in the air. They say that breaks the limits of humanity. Did you know the limits of humanity were six feet?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:51:45]

SIDNER: The federal government is hitting pause on a controversial border project in Big Bend National Park. The plan calls for more than 170 miles of border wall near the park. The government has been bulldozing and excavating inside the park to build patrol roads and barriers. Now, residents, business owners and some law enforcement officials have been pushing back, saying the area sees very few border crossings. Public land advocates and environmentalists fiercely arguing that there is too much damage being done. Customs and Border Patrol Protection has suspended construction for now while the agency meets with local sheriffs and community leaders.

Joining me now is John Sandweg. He is a former acting director of ICE. He also served as acting general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security.

Thank you for being here.

When you hear that the CBP is pausing things in order to talk with folks on the ground, is it customary for those conversations to have taken place before the bulldozing began tearing things up there?

JOHN SANDWEG, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, ICE: Yes, of course, Sara. I mean, listen, you don't want to go into a major project like this where you're likely to face some stakeholder concerns, right? Whether that's the, you know, the border communities, the ranching communities, or, in this case, because it's a national park, a lot of environmental communities. You don't want to embark on a project like this without engaging in those conversations first.

But, of course, Sara, we're in an era where we have this huge tranche of money, right, about $46 billion that was appropriated for the -- in the big, beautiful bill for this border infrastructure. And I think, like we're seeing a lot of things at DHS, a mad dash to try to deploy that that money as quickly as possible while the -- you know, during the Trump administration, make as much progress on this border wall as possible. And, unfortunately, when you're -- when you're operating that quickly, right, you kind of skip over those things that you're supposed to be doing.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about the efficacy of walls. Are walls effective in general from your experience? And when you consider this particular area, does a wall make sense here in this rugged national park?

SANDWEG: Yes, Sara, it doesn't make sense here, right? From an operational perspective, there's very little need for serious border infrastructure in this area. Historically, going back 20 years, this has always been a very low traffic section of the U.S. border. That's a byproduct of the lack of infrastructure, right? It's a very remote area, very difficult to access on the Mexican side. We don't see any large cities there where groups of migrants can stage before they cross the city. And once they cross that border, they have a long trek to go to get into the interior of the United States. As a byproduct of that, those difficulties, it really, even at the height of this kind of -- the border craziness we saw over the last few years, this was always a very low traffic area. There are sections of the border where that physical infrastructure makes sense, whether it's vehicle barriers or whether it's walls. I mean, if you look back in the -- in the '90s at the Tijuana-San Diego border, I mean you used to have every night groups of migrants, hundreds at a time, thousands at a time, surging across the border. In an environment like that, you do need this physical infrastructure to block it. But when you have these remote, very remote parts of the area that see very low traffic, even inside the Border Patrol, there was never a desire or felt like that there was an operational need to deploy a lot of this infrastructure in that -- in that area.

SIDNER: I do want to get your sense of when the CBP is now pulling back, saying it's going to pause this, if you think that that might be the end to this particular project, which has some bipartisan pushback as well as from other people their, sheriffs and other stakeholders.

[08:55:17]

SANDWEG: It's going to be really interesting to me to see if it does stick, right? This is something we've seen a bit since Secretary Mullin came in, an effort to be more conciliatory, right? An effort to listen a little bit more, not to just kind of take these robust immigration enforcement positions despite, you know, despite the criticism.

Look, I give the credit to CBP for pausing this and for Commissioner Scott going down there to have those conversations. But we've seen this before, Sara, right, recently, whether it's the vehicular stops where there were bipartisan concerns about whether the ICE officers have the training, or if several other examples. It'll be interesting to see whether this holds or because this is a priority for the president this border infrastructure, whether CBP, you know, this is a temporary pause and then they start charging forward again.

SIDNER: Yes, I do want to ask you about one other thing that's become controversial. Another move by CBP away from the border wall. We're talking about some of the tools that are being given to agents who are trying to detain up to 2,000 people per day, at the request of the president. They're giving them gloves that can deliver a painful electric shock to help subdue people. Tom Homan is defending this, saying, look, this is better than agents using deadly force. What do you make of it?

SANDWEG: Sara, ICE is struggling with the use of force right now. I mean that's no secret. Even Secretary Mullin, right, with the pause, was basically conceding that they need to get back and do some additional training and figure out exactly what the source of the problem is. So now to deploy this new tool, a tool that unfortunately can be easily abused, in an era especially when we've really pivoted our immigration enforcement over the last several months in order to feed that quota. What we're seeing ICE target a lot more of are individuals with absolutely no criminal history whatsoever, and even individuals who never historically would have been arrested under any administration. People who are, you know, applying for green cards, who might have overstayed their visa briefly but Congress has long since said are eligible to obtain a green card.

So, this idea -- and, you know, one of the other things, Sara, that strikes me about this is, this is a -- you know, these kind of tools could be important or helpful inside a detention center, inside a prison or a jail. And historically, I think the customers that have bought this have been those kind of law enforcement agencies.

But this will be the first time, and to my understanding, certainly at this scale, that this will be deployed to officers operating on the streets. And so now, especially an agency that's targeting civil, you can see where this could go wrong in a dozen different ways.

SIDNER: John Sandweg, it's always good to have you and your candid conversations and your deep knowledge of how things work there. Thank you so much. I do appreciate you this morning.

John.

BERMAN: In upstate New York, state troopers rushed inside a burning home to rescue an elderly man who was trapped inside this building. The troopers were able to locate the man, then they basically just lifted him to safety through the smoke. He is 80 years old. He was taken to the hospital and is reportedly doing OK.

A Chinese robotics company unveiled a new product they are calling "Superman." It is, in fact, not a man. It is a robot. And it does not have superpowers. But it can jump and run. It can reach speeds of close to 30 miles an hour. The company says it breaks the limits of humanity. So, if you're keeping score at home, those limits seem to be jumping six feet in the air and moving 30 miles per hour.

On New York's Long Island, horse on the lam. She escaped its field -- there -- there's the horse. You can see it through a car window right there -- and took off on a busy road in the middle of rush hour. The car struggling to keep up, apparently. After a brief chase, police were able to get her back home safely.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, thanks, John.

So, a new episode of "Coming Up" is out right now. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister sits down with Oscar nominated and Emmy winning actor Colman Domingo, one of the busiest men in Hollywood as well.

Here's a preview of their conversation.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Colman Domingo is one of the busiest men in Hollywood these days. Earlier this summer, you may have seen him in Steven Spielberg's "Disclosure Day," and earlier this year you might have seen him playing Joe Jackson, of course the Jackson family patriarch, in the biopic "Michael." On television he stars in Tina Fey's Netflix comedy "The Four Seasons" and just wrapped the final season of HBO's "Euphoria." Well, for both of those television roles, he is nominated for two Emmys.

I sat down with Colman to ask what it feels like to be a double nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLMAN DOMINGO, OSCAR NOMINATED AND EMMY-WINNING ACTOR: The idea of being impactful in both comedy and in drama is pretty extraordinary. That's why I've always wanted to be seen in the industry that I can do anything. I've always believed that I have attributes that can lean into all different forms and mediums, which is why I do so much. And I'm a writer, director and a producer and an actor.

[09:00:02]

But also, I feel like I don't want to pigeonhole myself. So, I'm always challenging myself with different genres.