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Polls on Midterm Voting; Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) is Interviewed about the GOP Convention; Repeated Vulgar statements made by Candidate Brandon Herrera; More Details on Amazon Plane Crash; Warning on A.I. From Former Anthropic Employee. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired September 09, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: And heard and, you know, render final verdict. It was not to be.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And now the question, with all of this still remains of what does happen next. And we will -- it looks like we will have another motion to be considered later this month.

JACKSON: Yes.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, Joey. Thank you very, very much. That's very helpful.

Investigators are giving new insight into the moments now led up to that deadly cargo plane crash in Florida. What initial flight data is now showing. We'll bring that to you.

And a massive sinkhole -- look at this video, you guys -- opens up under some homes right there on the coast in Malibu, including the home of Nicolas Cage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:11]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, in Dallas, the first ever Republican midterm convention. The idea, it seems, is to boost support among the Republican base. Is that idea what they should be going after, though?

With us now, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

You know, if the idea is to reach --

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes.

BERMAN: MAGA voters who may not be showing up, is that a reasonable target?

ENTEN: You know, this idea is so ill conceived and you can just see it by the fact that they're doing it when the football season is starting. Who does that? My God. And when you look at the numbers, no, that is not the part of the

party in which you actually need to motivate. You can see this here, extremely motivated to vote in the midterm elections. Sixty percent of Democrats are extremely motivated to vote. Fifty-nine percent of that hard-core Trump base, MAGA Republicans, 59 percent. The same as the Dems. The ones who are not motivated to vote are the non-MAGA Republicans. The people who are far less likely to approve of Donald Trump. The people who think that Donald Trump's Republican Party probably this should be the end of it. That's where the problem is.

So, no, it is not, in fact, the hard-core Republican base that needs that motivation. It is other folks at this convention, simply put, won't be reaching because they'll probably be watching football like most Americans.

BERMAN: And if it is a Trump-a-palooza, as they're advertising here, these might be the Republicans least susceptible to that.

ENTEN: Yes, that's exactly right. It's like, oh, let's focus in on Donald Trump. But, in fact, the people who are the least motivated to vote are the folks who are the most likely within the Republican Party to disapprove of Donald Trump.

BERMAN: And in terms of like possibility for growth among the people voting in these congressional races, how much is there?

ENTEN: Yes. OK. So, you know, turnout is one thing that's so important, right, in a midterm election because turnout in midterms is lower than it is in a presidential year. But it's also about shifts, right? It's also about shifts within the electorate when it comes to if you were to turn out to vote, who would you vote for?

And the truth is, Republicans don't need convincing that they should vote for Republican candidates because, take a look here, Dem gains in choice for the House by party. This is from 2024 to now. To July of 2026, the last poll we have. Republicans are voting at the same level or say they're going to vote at the same level for Republicans as they did two years ago. The people that are moving to the left, right, the people that are moving to the left are the center of the electorate. Look at that, independents, 12 points more likely to vote for Democrats.

How about Democrats? They're eight points more likely to vote for Democrats. You know what these two groups share in common? Independents and Democrats. They don't like Donald Trump to a historic degree at this point. They are not the people who actually would like that. This would be a Trump-a-palooza. The people who would like that there to be a Trump-a-palooza are those MAGA Republicans and Republicans at large. And you can see is, simply put, they are voting at the same levels. They don't need to be convinced to vote Republicans. They already are. The people who need the convincing are people who don't like Donald Trump.

BERMAN: And so one of the arguments you can almost guarantee we're going to hear tonight and tomorrow night from the stage is that the speakers will go after Democratic socialists. They're going to throw around the word "communist" a lot. Is this perhaps a winning argument for them?

ENTEN: No, it's not a winning argument. Because just take a look at this. OK, effect on voting for a candidate. Is Trump endorsed. Is a Dem socialist. In fact, people say -- voters in the electorate say they're less likely to vote for a Trump endorsed candidate, 52 percent, than a Dem socialist at 50 percent. More likely. Look at this. It's just 29 percent. Just 29 percent of voters in the electorate at large say they're more likely to vote for a candidate who is Trump endorsed. You know, Dem socialists at 32 percent, it's actually slightly larger.

So, no, it's not a good argument. This whole idea is ill conceived, and you can see it right from the very forefront, because the bottom line is, I think a lot more people will be interested in watching your Patriots.

BERMAN: Hopefully Greg Van Roten will be preforming.

Look, but I will say this. I mean this argument might be effective. The problem is, the people making it, right?

ENTEN: Right.

BERMAN: Because the people making it are the ones that --

ENTEN: Right. That's exactly the point. If you're coming at it from, oh, you know what, Trump is so good and those Dem socialists are so bad, the American people are just like, actually, not quite.

BERMAN: All right, Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: And joining us right now is Democratic Congressman Jason Crow of Colorado.

You're headed to Dallas. You're going to be on your way to Dallas for this convention or to respond to the convention. What are you hoping to do there, other than, I don't know, troll them?

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Well, Kate, we're not going to allow them to go anywhere to avoid accountability. The level of suffering of the American people after a year and a half of Donald Trump and his failed policies and his mistake after mistake after mistake, we're just not going to let him avoid accountability, right?

They are avoiding town halls. They're avoiding Washington, D.C. They keep on canceling votes. They sent us home weeks early, or they're going to send us home weeks early after this next session next week. And now they're going to Dallas to create this fantasyland, this bubble, where they're going to take a victory lap and talk about all sorts of great things that are happening that are actually not happening.

[08:40:02]

So, we're going to hold them accountable for it.

BOLDUAN: A line that's kind of ricocheting around this morning coming from "Politico Playbook," from a person close to the White House, is how they describe it is this, "my only hope is that no one watches it since it's competing versus NFL opening games," this person told "Politico Playbook." "Hopefully, nobody notices the embarrassing show. I don't think it will matter. No one knows about it. No enthusiasm. And it's during football. Only D.C. people care."

Do you see that?

CROW: Yes. I mean it's a mistake for them to do this convention. There's no doubt about that.

But listen, I'm the battleground chair. My philosophy in this midterm is to go on the offensive and go everywhere. I'm going deep in the red territory. We're fighting for every district, every voter, Republican voters, independent voters, Democratic voters. We are leaving no stone unturned. And I sure as heck am not going to allow them to go to Dallas and create a fantasy land and talk to each other about everything that's happening, and to ignore the suffering of the American people.

I'm going there. We're going to push hard. We're going to go aggressive. I will go anywhere and everywhere they go. And I will not rest.

BOLDUAN: I do want to ask you also about Iran, Congressman. J.D. Vance, on Thursday, he rejected the use of the word "war" to describe it. Then Donald Trump, on Friday, seemed to do the same. Let me remind everybody.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A lot of people don't call it a war. I call it a military conflict because it's small potatoes for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And then, just last night, Ted Cruz agreed with that. Let me play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): I think it is a military conflict. There's relatively little active military engagement right now. There are occasional skirmishes. There's some shots back and forth. But it's been several months since we've had sustained military conflict.

Are there some ongoing hostilities? Yes. But it is not a sustained and -- it is not a military conflict that has major engagement most days.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: What's your reaction to that?

CROW: Well, when I listen to elite, pedigreed, D.C. insiders who sit there, who have never served a day in their life, including Donald Trump, who's a five time draft dodger, who grew up in a country club and was given hundreds of millions of dollars by his father to start a business, and then bang the war drums and talk about how tough he is, how much he's going to obliterate Iran, and then turn around and say, this isn't a war. All I think about are the 50,000 service members who are in the Middle East right now, the 18 who have given their lives, the hundreds who have been wounded, the 16 military installations that have been decimated across the Middle East over the last six months. It reminds me of when I was in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting, and we were battling the Taliban, battling the insurgents, patrolling the streets in 100 degree weather, getting ambushed, and people back in D.C. were saying the same thing.

It's horrible. Americans deserve better. Our service members deserve better. Which is exactly why I'm going to be relentless and not just hold them accountable tonight, but I'm going to do everything possible to end this war that Americans don't want. That is not making us safer. That's costing us hundreds of billions of dollars and is not in the interest of the American people.

BOLDUAN: When you talk about accountability, as you mentioned, remember that you've talked about how the 9/11 attacks prompted your service. You've been -- you were also a big champion for burn pits accountability. What is your reaction then to the release of this 100 -- over 100,000 documents just yesterday that show that officials misled people about just how toxic the air really was after 9/11. They knew it, but kept assuring people and the public that it was fine.

CROW: Yes. I mean, it's horrible stuff. These families, these first responders and others who gave their life on 9/11, you know, as we come up on the 25th anniversary of that horrible day and how it changed the lives of millions of Americans, but also the families, the thousands who suffered in silence without support in the years that followed, which is why we need to do everything possible to make sure were supporting those families now. That we push for the relief and the medical care that many of those families still need.

Accountability is important. It's important not just to provide relief, which is the most important part of it right now to people that need it, but to make sure that things like this don't happen, right? And this is why I will always push for accountability. If someone is corrupt, if someone's hiding the truth, if they are lying, if they're misleading, if they are abusing people, if they are murdering people, we will -- we will always push for accountability and not let people hide.

BOLDUAN: Congressman Jason Crow, thank you very much for coming on this morning.

John.

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, a CNN investigation reveals repeated vulgar statements and sexual comments about women made by Texas Congressional Candidate Brandon Herrera.

[08:45:08]

The 30-year-old YouTube creator is running to replace Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales, who resigned in April amid a House Ethics probe in his relationship with a former senior aide.

CNN's Allison Gordon is part of the team that reported on this.

Allison, what are you learning here?

ALLISON GORDON, CNN INVESTIGATES REPORTER AND PRODUCER: Yes, John, Brandon Herrera is a longtime gun tube creator. That's someone who makes videos related to gun content. He has more than four million followers. And he had a lot of content for me to dive into. I'm talking hundreds of videos, hours of podcast appearances, and his own podcast and social media posts I had to sift through for this story.

Let's take a listen to just some of what he said on his YouTube channel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRANDON HERRERA (R), TEXAS CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: As you'll notice, his noggin appears to already have arrived empty and is instead full of mush, much like the average Austin feminist.

So, when a blue hair on the news says that a semiautomatic AR-15 is an assault rifle, she is both fat and wrong.

But what if, out of self-defense, you had to take down something a lot bigger, like an elephant or a killer whale, or an angry, blue-haired Austin feminist?

These things weigh in at about 6,500 pounds apiece, or approximately four times as much as the average Austin feminist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORDON: I also found examples of Herrera using sexually suggestive slang to describe women and insulting a female gun safety advocate and her children, using vile language and words that I cannot repeat on air, John.

BERMAN: So, what does Herrera's team say about all this?

GORDON: Yes, when I reached out to his campaign, Herrera directed the focus onto his opponent, Democrat Katy Padilla Stout, citing her involvement in a domestic violence case as an attorney in San Antonio. Now, when I reached out to Stout's campaign, she said she was just doing her job as a court-appointed appellate attorney and that Herrera should take account for his past comments about women.

BERMAN: In the past, Herrera has said, some of this stuff is, you know, it's just jokes. It's just jokes. What about that? GORDON: Yes. He characterized this as jokes again, when I reached out. And I spoke with an expert on this topic, Cynthia Miller-Idriss. She runs the Political Extremism Research Lab at American University and looks at this kind of online content all the time. And in her research, she found that when you go back and look at what folks who commit political violence are consuming, it is often misogynistic online commentary. Whether that be on YouTube, podcasts, social media. And she described Herrera's comments, which again he characterized as jokes, as Hallmark internet misogyny.

BERMAN: All right, Allison Gordon, thank you for sharing your reporting on all of this.

This morning. 10 percent might not seem like a big number, except when it's an A.I. insider saying there's a 10 percent chance that A.I. kills all humans in the next decade. Then that 10 percent seems pretty high.

And then, a motorcycle escape did not go as planned. I'm excited to see how.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:52:33]

BOLDUAN: Seconds before an Amazon cargo plane overshot the runway and then plowed into cars, the pilots set the throttles to full power. That is just one of the new details that's coming out now about those critical moments leading up to that terrifying crash that killed five people.

Today, another important moment in the investigation into what went so wrong. NTSB officials are set to interview the pilots of that cargo plane.

CNN's Pete Muntean is at Miami International Airport with the very latest.

And tell us more about what are the -- some of the details that are coming out so far from this investigation.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, this new readout of the flight recorder data from the NTSB really tells an interesting story here. And all of these times are leading up to the end of the recording. The NTSB says 15 seconds before that recording ended, the plane was going about 120 knots on the ground, and the throttle was applied, the NTSB says to, power consistent with a go around. Then, four seconds later, 11 seconds until the recording ends, the planes speed has decreased a little bit. The brakes are applied. The power is pulled back to idle.

So, the big question now, was this a futile attempt by the pilots to get this airplane back in the air? It's what the cockpit voice recorder will now have to answer. The NTSB says it has good quality recordings from the cockpit voice recorder, but stopped short of giving a full readout of what is on that recording. I want you to listen now to NTSB investigator in charge, Chihoon Shin.

And he says that they now need to interview the pilots to provide extra context to what those recordings captured.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIHOON SHIN, NTSB INVESTIGATOR: With the cockpit voice recorder, while we have that data, crew accounts and crew interviews will help fill in some of the blanks for us that the crew remembers in terms of actions that they might have done, but not verbalized. And so that's something that we need a complete understanding of before we're to analyze what happened with the throttles in this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: The National Transportation Safety Board has about 30 investigators here on the scene. They're investigating what they call perishable evidence. That's what they're gathering right now. All of the forensic evidence that's here on the scene before they're able to move the plane and continue to open up the runways here at Miami International Airport.

[08:55:02]

One of those is partially reopened. The crash runway, runway three zero, still closed.

Still some big questions now about what was happening also at 21 Air. That is the contractor that was operating this plane for Amazon Air. NTSB says it's going to interview management there, including the chief pilot and the assistant chief pilot. Was this a systemic breakdown of the safety culture there?

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Still a lot of key questions to be answered. Pete is there for us.

Thank you so much, Pete.

John.

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, how is this with your morning coffee? An A.I. insider warns that the technology could kill all humans. On Twitter, Jacob Coxson, formerly of Anthropic, says, "the people building A.I. earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade."

Let's get right to CNN's Hadas Gold.

By the end of the decade. Hadas, it's good we're getting this conversation in quickly then.

HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: Yes, but I just -- I do want to say, this is not a new sentiment if you're within the A.I. world. It's something we've been hearing from the leaders of the A.I. industry and from insiders for quite some time. I've never heard of an industry where the people creating the technology are so alarmed by what they are building.

But Jacob Coxson, he was a researcher at both Anthropic and OpenAI. He's in his 20s. And he announced that he is leaving because he believes that neither OpenAI or Anthropic, the leaders of the industry, are acting responsibly. He says they are racing straight to self-improving, superintelligence and gambling with our lives. He says, "the people building A.I.," as you said, "believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade." And he says, "this is not a marketing stunt. And if anything, the executives are couching their phrases in the press to sound sensible. But these people are expressing this fear privately."

Then, Evan Hubinger, he is the head of alignment at Anthropic. He supported this idea in a post. He said, "we really do earnestly believe that A.I. could kill all humans." He said, "I personally think it's greater than 10 percent within the next decade." He says, he "believes Anthropic is trying its best," but say they "do not yet have a plan to solve alignment for superintelligence and are not clearly on track to."

What they are worried about is essentially a version of what we've seen recently, where A.I. agents who can take action completely on their own volition, doing bad things, whether intentionally or not. Whether they, you know, an A.I. test agent goes wrong and it hacks into a bank, it hacks into a hospital, or potentially even worse, an A.I. system really believing that it needs to do something to either save itself or save humanity, and taking actions that are actually bad for all of us.

It's because so much of A.I., as even the researchers working on it, is a black box. Some -- there are some things that even they cannot explain how or why something happened. Kind of unusual when you're building a technology where you literally don't know why something happened as it is.

But Evan (ph) said, this is not new. Jacob Coxon's own, you know, ultimate boss at Anthropic, Dario Amodei, he said just a few minutes ago that there's a 25 percent chance the future of A.I. could go really, really badly. That's a one in four chance that A.I. could go really badly.

And just in July, more than 1,300 of the top staffers at A.I. companies signed a letter essentially asking the government, help us slow down the pace of development of A.I. for safety reasons. We really need to do this. And these are the top people, including people like Dario Ahmadi at these companies. Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, he recently said that if we can't get a handle on things like cybersecurity and A.I., then things could go really bad.

But again, these conversations have been going on for a very long time. But the question is, what will it take for the rest of the world to wake up? Maybe it's this. And especially, what will it take for Washington to really wake up and start putting some guardrails or some real regulations with teeth around the development of A.I.?

BERMAN: And, of course, this is their company. They could do stuff if they wanted to, to keep it from destroying humanity, one might think. But, we'll see. We'll see.

Hadas Gold, thank you very much for that.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Leading by example, perhaps.

BERMAN: Maybe.

BOLDUAN: Maybe, or maybe not.

A huge sinkhole has swallowed the driveway of a home owned by actor Nicolas Cage in Malibu, triggering a gas leak and forcing several of his neighbors out of their homes. The damage came during a round of bad weather and a coastal flooding advisory in the area over the weekend. The house is currently vacant. The actor did not respond to requests for comment.

In Florida, a man on a motorcycle is facing charges now after knocking a sheriff's deputy to the ground while trying to escape. And that's not all. The passenger, who was also on the bike, fell off as they were trying to get away. Once the man still managing the motorcycle realized that, he circled back and surrendered to the deputy. The 51- year-old is now charged with aggravated battery on law -- on a law enforcement officer, as well as fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer.

So, does it feel like the world could benefit from a little more sweetness? Yes.

[09:00:00]

Well, Girl Scout cookie season is here and here to help. Even for the family dog. This year, Girl Scouts are adding two new treats to the 2027 lineup. One is called Sparkables.