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Trump Campaigns in Red States as GOP Fights to Hold Senate; GOP Source Says Republicans Fear Midterm Bloodbath; Jane Doe's Attorney: Fraternity Held Meeting to Cover This Up. Aired 8:00-8:30a ET

Aired October 07, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: ... breaks his back. Look out, Burrel goes flying towards the shortstop, Cooper Pratt, who fields the ball, air mails the throw. Xander Bogart scores.

That run proves huge. And with Miller gone, Michael King gets six outs on one day's rest. Padres survive 4-3.

Milwaukee still leads the series 2-1, but San Diego's season still alive. All right, John, what you think about that?

BERMAN: Playoff baseball. It's so exciting. No, it is.

I do have to say, if the Dodgers end up rolling like they might, it's going to make the offseason all the more uncomfortable with the possibility of a baseball lockout, because everyone's just going to say, Dodgers, Dodgers, Dodgers. No one else can win if the payroll's like that. Lockout strike.

That's what they're going to do. Coy Wire, thank you very much for that.

A brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

One of the most endangered Republican Senate candidates in the country blames his problems on the Iran war and gas prices, just as the president is due to arrive. So how will that visit go?

And the alleged victim of the alleged gang rape at Cornell University now faces death threats. That's according to her attorney. Students are planning a sit-in for today.

And then bracing for a direct hit, what would be the first landfall of the U.S. hurricane season, and it could be a powerful one. We're getting a new track just in. We will tell you where and when it is coming.

Sara is out today. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So there's a new word being thrown about behind the scenes to describe what the Republican Party could be facing in the upcoming midterms, and the word is bloodbath. That is from a White House ally. According to new CNN reporting, of course, we are less than a month out and lots of people are already early voting.

And where we are right now, the mood inside the Republican Party does not seem to be improving. With Republicans on edge, President Trump is back on the road today to another state once considered and long considered safely Republican. For the third time in a month, he will travel to Texas to campaign for Senate candidate Ken Paxton, who's locked in that tight race with Democrat James Talarico.

The president's endorsement of Paxton hasn't exactly always been glowing. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, Ken Paxton, you might not like the way he dresses. He may not dress right, he may not talk exactly perfectly, and he may not be the best-looking guy I've ever seen. I said, I'm not sure if I like your look, I'm not sure if I like the way you dress.

I don't like the way you talk.

He could be a pain in the ass sometimes, I'll be honest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So there's that. Texas also isn't the only red state that is giving Republicans heartburn at the moment. A top political forecaster has now moved two more Senate races towards Democrats.

Alaska, from toss-up to lean Dem, and South Carolina now goes from safe Republican to likely Republican. CNN's Alayna Treene is live at the White House right now. What is the president going to do in Texas today?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think you're going to hear the same message that he's been giving, Kate, which is to pretend, have his voters pretend that he is on the ballot. And I'll tell you, that's because the one thing that they believe the president can actually do with these appearances that he's making is to drive turnout. But what's interesting is where he's going to sell that message.

You mentioned this visit to Texas today. He's going specifically to San Antonio. This is his third time in this state in a month.

In the past couple of days, he's also been in other very red states. That includes Oklahoma, Alabama, Nebraska, places where he's actually wanted and the president's political operation believes his turnout message could actually be successful. That is really the point of this.

But there's other concerns as well. One is that the president isn't always giving off the right message, they argue. He's not one who typically stays on message when he gives these speeches.

He likes to go off script, as everyone knows. But sometimes that has ended up giving him more controversy. Just the other day, of course, we saw on Monday night when he was in Nebraska, talking about Iran and this idea that perhaps it could have attacked cities and taken out cities like San Diego and Los Angeles, stirring a lot of criticism.

But still, the president really going to be, again, almost every single day now, delivering this message of trying to get voters to the polls on November 3rd, and particularly his supporters. What I think is really interesting to note is you're not seeing him spend a lot of time in more purple or battleground districts, and that's by design. Even when he does go to some of these more swingy states, he's going to more red districts because they're not really going after, Kate, from my conversations with people behind the scenes, they're not going after the more independent, moderate-leaning conservatives.

[08:05:00]

Those are the people, I'd remind you, that helped get Trump himself elected in November of 2024. This time, they recognize that is not a message that is going to help Republicans, certainly not one coming from the president when his polling numbers are very low, these concerns over high gas prices, the Iran war things that you mentioned, Paxton brought up behind the scenes in that leaked audio, are things they recognize are dragging down Republicans across the board. So it's all about driving out his fiercest supporters.

But it does come as behind-the-scenes. The mood has continued to sour among the president's advisors about what is going to happen in the midterms and Republicans' real chances of trying to hang on to their slim majorities. Only 27 days now, so there's still a lot of work to do.

BOLDUAN: A lot of work to do. A lot of things can be said behind the scenes and in leaked audio in 27 days. It's good to see you, Alayna.

Thank you so much for starting us off this hour -- John.

BERMAN: Swingy states, right?

BOLDUAN: Every time I think of you doing that, anyone talks about a swing state.

BERMAN: Texas might be turning into a swinging state.

BOLDUAN: So swingy.

BERMAN: Right, it used to mean something different. Now, swingy state.

All right, well, they were just talking about Texas there and this audio, leaked audio, newly obtained by Axios, and it reveals that Ken Paxton, the Republican candidate, is privately blaming the Iran war and gas prices for some of his campaign struggles. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN PAXTON, (R) TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: It's not tariffs. It's the war, it's gas prices, it's diesel. When it's over $6 a gallon for diesel, I mean it's -- put money, they have a lot of trucks that are diesel. People are feeling the pinch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Again, that leaked audio out in Axios this morning and with us is senior politics reporter for Axios, Marc Caputo. It's an interesting dynamic, right? More and more leaked audio coming out of Ken Paxton's saying, it's the president's policies causing me problems.

And then, of course, more and more speeches from the president where he says, Ken Paxton is funny looking. It does create an interesting dynamic in this Senate race.

MARC CAPUTO, SENIOR POLITICS REPORTER, AXIOS: I think both of these things are commonly called a Kinsey gaffe, where someone says something that's a faux pas, but happens to be true, and it might be going both ways. I mean, notably, this fundraiser that Paxton had, which has produced sort of three separate audio leaks, was in DC, and that's probably a clarion warning to any candidate who winds up fundraising from DC lobbyists, that stuff you say that you think are to friends might wind up in the hands of your foes.

BERMAN: Yes, you really can't on anything -- can't count on anything being off the record when you are a principal, when you are a candidate running. But it does give you an insight into what Republican candidates, even the most loyal supporters of Donald Trump around the country, are thinking, which is that they are facing serious, serious headwinds. What else are you hearing on that front, Marc?

CAPUTO: Well, it's not just them. I mean, there's a general sense of fear and loathing in the Republican base, which is that their people aren't going to show up. There's a possibility in these polls that they're under-counting, under-valuing, under-surveying Republicans.

A number of Republican pollsters have just said people aren't responding, so what you have to do with a poll is weight up, like kind of estimate what the Republicans would be from the sample you have to sort of increase the amount. But doing that requires a certain amount of manipulation, for lack of a better term. And the question we're going to have on Election Day is, is the non-response rate, the under- response rate of Republicans and Republican voters and Trump voters to these polls a function of the fact that they just don't want to take polls and they're going to vote Republican anyway?

Or does this mean that not only are they not showing up in surveys, in polls, but they're not going to show up at the polls and vote? We don't know, but what we do know is we're just seeing all of the signs flashing red for Republicans. That is not just the surveys, but the data showing fuel prices being high, diesel prices being high, interest rates going up, mortgage rates being higher.

It's just a combination of toxic stew, which makes it incredibly difficult for Republicans to find their footing. Then you step on the scene, you have Ken Paxton sort of put his foot in the mouth by telling the truth, and that can also be problematic in politics. We're not just seeing it in Texas.

We're even seeing it possibly in South Carolina as well.

BERMAN: I wanted to ask you about that because that was your reporting yesterday. We had a chance to talk about it with one of your colleagues yesterday. But you can tell how Republicans feel about the races around the country by where they're spending and how much.

And to put $5 million into South Carolina a month before the race tells you that they have concerns about places that should be easily Republican, yes?

CAPUTO: Correct. Now, to be very clear, the money that's being sent to South Carolina is being described to us. It's from the Senate Leadership Fund, which is a super PAC that is controlled by Senate Republicans as an insurance policy.

[08:10:00]

They don't think that Darline Graham, who is a sister of Lindsey Graham, is in serious threat of losing, but she's uncomfortably close. It's a different picture in Texas where they're actually kind of genuinely freaked out. And they're sending tens of millions, perhaps almost hundreds of millions of more dollars.

BERMAN: Yes, and look, by the way, panic could be a good campaign strategy, right? Just because they're worried doesn't mean it's not smart to spend that money in South Carolina. We'll see the impact it has there, but we'll never see the impact it might have had in another state, right, in Alaska or Ohio, in Maine, if they had been able to spend it there and not in South Carolina.

Marc Caputo, we always love your reporting and your sharing with us. Thanks so much for being with us.

And if you out there have questions about the midterms and what's going on behind the scenes, talk about swinging. We've got the swinging music for swinging "OFFICE HOUR" tonight at 7 p.m. My best guests are going to be Alyssa Farah Griffin, communications director under the first Trump White House, and Chuck Rocha, who's helping run the campaign in Texas for Democrat James Talarico. You can ask him anything, and what it's like to be on the inside, CNN.com/OfficeHours, live at 7 o'clock tonight.

BOLDUAN: And if you ask John Berman, he will dance. He will dance tonight.

BERMAN: I will snap.

BOLDUAN: You will snap? I didn't also say that's the extent of your dancing, so.

All right, let's turn to this. Camera on me. Thank you, JB.

Coming up for us, the woman at the center of the Cornell rape investigation is now facing death threats. What her attorney is saying about that this morning.

And we also have coming up a new forecast coming in for a dangerous new threat along the Gulf Coast, what could be the first U.S. landfall of the hurricane season, when and where this storm is headed.

And swept away, a dog caught in the middle of a raging river. Rescue attempts fail. So how did he manage to get out?

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Today, student groups at Cornell are planning a seven-hour sit-in in solidarity with Jane Doe, the former student who's at the center of the alleged gang rape investigation from 2024. This morning, we are also hearing more from Jane Doe's attorney and threats he says his client and her family are now facing. And also this.

Following the night in question, fraternity members allegedly held meetings to coordinate their accounts of what happened. Here's how Jane Doe's attorney described that to Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS GIUFFRA, ATTORNEY FOR JANE DOE: The whole fraternity had meetings to try to cover this up and to, you know, be part of the conspiracy of silence. And that's really frightening that this happened. I mean, these guys, there were 57 people who got that group chat and not one of them, other than the person who leaked it to her, did anything.

Nobody walked out of those meetings and said, hey, this is wrong. We're going to the police. We're throwing these guys under the bus and holding them accountable.

All they were interested in was protecting the fraternity, protecting their fraternity brothers, and keeping it as business as usual.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now is CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, Joey Jackson. Joey, what do you make of that new detail coming from Jane Doe's attorney, how he is describing it? He says that there were meetings among members of the fraternity to essentially coordinate their message and how they would handle what happened that, you know, happened that night.

If that's true, what could it mean?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: So, Kate, good morning to you. There's a way to structure a narrative and obviously the attorney here is structuring it such that it's a cover-up. It was improper.

It was inappropriate. They should not have done that. That's one view.

Another view is that they certainly were concerned about reputational damage. They were concerned about the branding. They may have wanted to learn more with regard to what went on and as a result of that wanted to take appropriate steps.

Why am I saying this? Because there's two ways to evaluate something. There's a distinction between suppressing evidence, impeding an investigation, tampering with a witness and simply preserving your brand and really trying to get an assessment with regard to how exactly this went down, who was involved and what we need to do to limit the damage.

The distinction between those two narratives will be investigated, vetted and determined and accountability flowing from whether it was just preserving the brand, protecting what we do, learning more versus covering up. I think there'll be accountability there, but I think we need to know more facts with respect to exactly what they were doing and what they were trying to determine from witnesses and were they impeding, interfering or suppressing anything that could be viewed and looked at, Kate, as obstruction of justice.

BOLDUAN: Yes, hearing from you in that perspective is very important because yes, he is an attorney that he is leading a civil lawsuit on behalf of Jane Doe in this regard, but now we have another aspect of this where and I want to know what you think will come from it. Now the school is bringing in Sally Yates, a very well-respected former Deputy U.S. Attorney General. She's going to lead, as it's described, an independent review of how Cornell, quote-unquote, prevents and responds to sexual harassment, sexual assault and related misconduct on campus.

What, and this may not be yet known, but what will Sally Yates have access to? Like what can she do? What can't she do?

What could she come back with after this?

JACKSON: Yes. So Kate, I think this is a very important development, not only as it relates to this case, but I think students on campus need to know that they're supported. Students need to know that there are protocols institutionally that are designed to take what they say seriously, that any allegations will be vetted appropriately.

[08:20:00]

And so let's talk about what she can do and all the rest of it. I think she's a good choice based upon her background as federal prosecutor, second-in-command at the DOJ, really acting attorney general at one point for 10 days.

So she brings a lot to bear to this, working with the FBI, right, DEA, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Why do I say this? Because you need to investigate and certainly, she knows that.

Now, in terms of the task, I think the task is going to be to identify what happened here. What were the breakdowns here? What does the school need to do better?

How do you assess a case? How do you coordinate with the police and local authorities? What kind of protocols we have in place to protect our students?

What kind of policies do we have or do we need? I think the recommendation stemming from this will be very important. Last point, Kate.

The distinction here is she's not being brought in to be a prosecutor, even though that's her background. Her role differs from Letitia James's role. Letitia James, New York State Attorney General, she's designed, right, to look at this and if there's criminality to uncover it and prosecute it.

That's not Sally Yates's role. Her role --

BOLDUAN: Sally Yates cannot recommend charges.

JACKSON: Correct. She can make recommendations with regard to what this school needs to do moving forward so that this doesn't occur, and she could describe by investigating the investigators what the breakdowns were, what the cover-ups were and how we got to where we are now, which is someone going to an authority saying this is what happened to me and not sufficient, obviously. It wasn't handled sufficiently appropriately.

I mean, this is problematic.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, Joey.

JACKSON: Of course.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you.

Coming up for us, a tropical storm brewing in the Gulf, expected to strengthen quickly into what could be a dangerous hurricane by the time it makes U.S. Landfall. Where it is headed this morning. We've got more detail for you.

And the plague panic. There's new detail this morning in the investigation of the mysterious death of a woman who worked at a lab studying the plague in Russia.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, happening now, the Gulf Coast bracing for potentially dangerous hurricane. You can see it right down there. Right now, it's tropical storm Isaias, but it is forecast to strengthen rapidly and make a direct hit in an area that is pretty sensitive.

Let's get right to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam for the latest on what you are seeing here in the forecast. I imagine there was an 8 a.m. update -- Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, just when we thought that we could get by this strong El Nino season without a hurricane in the Atlantic, it is becoming clear that that is not going to be the case. This will likely become the latest Atlantic hurricane to form on record in the first of our season.

Here it is sitting precariously across the Bay of Campeche. That is tropical storm Isaias, and just by the nature of where it's located, and of course, the record warm waters there, is increasing the threat of tropical storm force winds and eventually hurricane force winds across the northern Gulf Coast. That is by this weekend.

The timing still being narrowed down, but we need to be prepared and preparing for a hurricane strike anywhere between New Orleans all the way to Panama City. Here's the official forecast track from the National Hurricane Center. Notice it is intensifying.

That is a Category 2, but we're only one mile away from becoming a major hurricane, Category 3 or stronger. The interesting thing to note here, we've been talking about this all week, that there was a lot of upper-level wind shear. Remember, budding tropical systems do not like wind shear because they help to break apart the storm system upon its arrival.

So we are hoping that this will at least start to break apart the strongest part of the storm. But I don't want to mince words here because what's going to happen is that will actually expand the wind field to the eastern half or the eastern quadrant of this hurricane once it makes landfall sometime late Friday into early Saturday morning. This is only one computer models depiction of what could unfold, but I want you to take note of what's happening here, the eastern side of this.

There's a lot of individual cells there. There is a high likelihood of spin-up tornadoes that could be rather damaging across this area. So we need to be very weather aware, not only for the approach of a hurricane, but tornadoes from Mobile into Pensacola, Panama City into Greenville, not to mention the flooding threat that's associated with this and the storm surge threat.

John, there are so many outdoor activity plans this weekend, University of Georgia versus Alabama. We've got the mini concerts, shrimp festival happening. These all need to be considered to be potentially relocated or canceled for the weekend because of what's coming.

BERMAN: And they keep looking at the path of the storm, and I know we could go, you know, far left or far right. But right now the center passing right over Mobile Bay, which is a pretty sensitive area there. Derek Van Dam, I know you'll be watching this for the next few days. Thank you very much.

All right, looking to fly somewhere. How much will the sky high fuel prices due to your ticket price and what are the airlines plan to do about it?

And a fishing cruise, record-setting haul, 1,100 pounds. There's the fish. It wasn't the bird. Oh, the fish went away. That's an 1,100 pound tuna. It's going to take a lot of mayo to make tuna fish from that.

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[08:30:00]