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Economy Looms Large in Key Red-State Senate Races; Bodycam Video Shows Moments After 6-Year-Old Shoots Virginia Teacher; MIT Researchers Launch AI Nutrition Labels for Each Model. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired October 08, 2026 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The governor's race there, Democrat Rob Sands, leading by nine points, a little bit over the eight that you thought. The Senate race is significantly tighter. What can Democrats learn from how Sands has modeled his race?
MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING UNDER PRESIDENT BIDEN: I mean, he is very much just being authentic to who he is. He is very much talking about numbers and being all over all the time. He's not trying to be someone that he is not.
He is very conservative when he talks about budgets and farming and what he can deliver for the folks there, which I think is an important thing to do. I think we are underestimating how angry people are. People cannot afford their gas and cannot afford groceries and having to cut basic goods in their family structure.
The polling is not going to capture that. And I think that is an anti- incumbency problem. But also the polling is never going to win.
I mean, I work for Joe Biden. We pulled last out of 20 people when we first started and he won. So I'm not a big fan of polls.
I don't think we should get caught up on vibes. But I do think that the Democrats have an advantage here just based on the economy and Donald Trump and the Republicans being in power.
SANCHEZ: Jason, to pick up on that thread about Ohio and your concerns there, 15 to 20 years ago, Ohio was a truly purple state and it's trended red ever since. Do you think this election might move it back into swing territory?
JASON RANTZ, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST, JASON RANTZ SHOW 770 KTTH: I kind of view Ohio as a swing state, regardless of how things have gone. I think, you know, looking at specific candidates always obviously matters. You have, you know, data centers becoming this weirdly big issue, at least according to some activists.
The polling doesn't actually suggest that AI is the biggest issue. Maybe when you tie it specifically to electricity costs, it becomes a little bit more of a deal. But I mean, you've got an incumbent senator who doesn't truly have an incumbent advantage in this case. He's going up against someone who does have really high name recognition. He lost the last election. But I think it was by like three points.
He's only been in there for about a year and a half or so. So he doesn't come with the same kind of incumbency, but he does now get to say for those of the folks who care about data centers and electricity, yes, I put something on the table to be considered and the Democrats blocked it. So I do think he was able to mitigate some of the damage there.
But if you're looking at Ohio and Iowa, the other thing to keep in mind, none of this is happening in a vacuum. Republicans, I think, are going to win in Michigan. And that's going to perhaps mitigate some of the impacts of losing in one of these states.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: I want to talk about socialism, because that, Jason, is one of the areas, of course, that Republicans are trying to focus on as they're trying to animate voters against Democrats. The vice president was asked today to define socialism and comment on socialist candidates in general who popped up during recent elections. And he said, essentially, it's not the classical definition of prioritizing workers anymore.
It's this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In reality, what it actually means in the American context is that you want to replace American workers with foreign workers and you want boys to play in girls sports. It is ironic that so many of the self-described socialists running across this country, they love the idea of replacing American workers with foreign workers, which suggests to me it's really not about the working class. It's about their hatred of native born citizens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Hatred of native born citizens, he said. We do want to note, he was actually announcing the suspension of H-1B visa holder residency applications for certain companies who hire foreign workers. That was sort of the context of the event he was at.
But what do you think about this argument that he's making?
RANTZ: It's an argument specifically for the base. I think it's a smart move, generally speaking, to talk about socialism and extremism coming from the left in the context of a party that has said that they're inviting that into the very large tent. And I think that that is completely fair game to point out that if your party allows people who do not respect this country, do not support our actual economic system that most people in this country benefit from, I think it becomes a problem in states that are traditionally redder.
That is going to get folks on my side of the aisle a little bit more animated. A great argument coming from the right is that do you really want folks on the left who believe some of these policies to be in charge? You might be unhappy with certain aspects of the Trump administration in the direction that we're going.
But understand it's going to get way worse if you go ahead and give power to folks on the radical left. I think that is going to generate a lot of interest from the base. And right now, Republicans have to make sure that the base turn out.
And if they were to turn out in the same numbers that they did previously, then this is not going to be a competitive race. Of course, we're not going to get to that point. Generally don't in the midterm.
But you've got to mitigate the effects where you can.
SANCHEZ: You're itching to respond.
HAYS: I mean, I just think that saying that socialism is like these cultural issues that the Republicans are trying to paint Democrats as is just a farce and more lies coming from the administration. People are upset about the economy. And that is the only thing that matters here.
[14:35:00]
And so trying to bring up trans issues and cultural issues, if those were really at play, Democrats would not be ahead in places like Texas, would not be ahead in places like Kansas, would not be ahead in Ohio and Iowa. So they these states are now in play, and people are voting on the economy.
They do not care anymore about your dumb cultural wars they care about. They can't afford their gas and groceries because of Donald Trump and the Republicans that wouldn't stand up to Donald Trump. So I don't understand what J.D. Vance is saying there.
It's also just not actually the definition.
SANCHEZ: Meghan Hays, Jason Rantz, we'll pick up the conversation next time. Thanks so much for joining us.
RANTZ: Appreciate it.
SANCHEZ: Of course. And we've got live pictures for you from Coronado, California, the homecoming for the USS Lincoln. You're watching as a convoy of boats and ships off the coast welcome the ship home after 11 months at sea.
You see the sailors lined up there. We're going to be watching this closely and we will bring you more from the Pacific coast when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:40:00] KEILAR: CNN has obtained newly unsealed body camera video showing the moments after a six-year-old shot his first grade teacher inside a Virginia elementary school back in 2023. Abby Zwerner survived gunshot wounds to her chest and hand. The boy opened fire while she was sitting at a reading table in the classroom, and authorities say the boy took the gun from his mother's purse and put it in his backpack.
The boy's mother was convicted of child neglect and sentenced to two years in prison. This past May, a judge dismissed criminal charges against the school's now former assistant principal, Ebony Parker, but a civil jury awarded Zwerner $10 million after she sued Parker, alleging the former educator failed to act on concerns that the student had a gun.
CNN's Brian Todd is here with this newly unsealed video. Brian, it's really unbelievable.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is Brianna. There's so many aspects of this case that are just shocking. This video is just jarring.
Police just released body cam footage of the immediate aftermath of when first grade teacher Abby Zwerner was shot by the six-year-old student. This occurred at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia on January 6, 2023. Now, this first clip that we're going to show you starts when police enter the classroom.
The child is being restrained by a school reading specialist named Amy Kovac, who had entered the room immediately after the shooting. You're going to hear Kovac speaking, and then the child immediately challenges the police.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMY KOVAC: The gun is there. He just admitted that he had one bullet.
BOY: Both of y'all want a f***ing piece of me, b****!
KOVAC: Stop.
BOY: F*** you.
COP: OK, let's leave the gun there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: Now, in the next clip, Amy Kovac describes coming down the hall and into the classroom, and the child again just gets in her face with vulgar language.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOVAC: And I called 9-1-1 when I heard the (INAUDIBLE) I came down the hall. She had blood --
BOY: No she didn't. Fuck you b****
COP: Do we have some small handcuffs?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: In the next clip, a police officer asks if the child is OK, and there's more tense interaction between the child and Amy Kovac.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COP: Is he OK?
KOVAC: He's fine. Are you fine? Turn around. When you shot the gun, did anything hurt you?
BOY: No.
KOVAC: Let me see your hands.
COP: Where is the weapon?
KOVAC: It's on the floor.
BOY: It's over there (BLEEP).
KOVAC: Stop.
BOY: (BLEEP).
KOVAC: That's not how we speak to each other.
BOY: (BLEEP).
KOVAC: I mean he does have the gun residue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: And then, in this last clip, the child talks about stealing the gun from his mother. You're going to hear a couple of moments when the sound is actually bleeped out when the child says his name, but this clip is notable for how brashly the child is again challenging the police.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOY: I stole that from my mom.
POLICE: OK buddy. What's your name?
BOY: If you want a piece of me, come get it all. B****.
POLICE: Your name?
Kovac: His mom is supposedly --
BOY: I don't care if I go to jail, b****.
KOVAC: We know you know that language, and you know that's not appropriate. Mrs. Kovac's not happy with that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: Now, as Brianna alluded to, the teacher, Abby Zwerner, was shot through the hand, then the bullet struck her chest. She survived. Last year, a jury awarded her $10 million in a lawsuit.
A criminal case against the former assistant principal of the school, Ebony Parker, was dismissed earlier this year. The child's mother, Deja Taylor, has served jail time for felony child neglect and federal weapons charges. Brianna, I think kind of an underreported part of this story is the courage with which that reading specialist, Amy Kovac, what she exhibited there.
She came into that room immediately after the shooting, restrained the child, kind of tried to calm him down. Obviously, he was distraught, but I think her actions are kind of underreported in this case.
KEILAR: Yes, you really see it. It is something. Brian, thank you so much for that.
So what if you could track AI models the way you keep track of your diet? An MIT professor who's helping create nutrition labels for AI joins us next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: And we're very happy to bring you these live pictures now from Coronado, California, and a beautiful sight on sea and from land here. This is the USS Lincoln, the aircraft carrier returning to its home port near San Diego after 11 very long months at sea. Sailors on board, they're excited to return home.
Our Pamela Brown is there. She's been telling us how they're talking about that it feels like Christmas. They are very excited to return to their friends and family who are there on shore and are just as excited.
We are going to go live to San Diego in just a few moments from now as we are monitoring their homecoming there.
The future of AI can be confusing. It can be scary, especially after a number of these incidents that have raised widespread safety concerns, like AI agents going rogue and hacking or trying to hack into companies and government entities.
Despite all of that, AI is already being used, of course, by many people. Understanding how and whether this is good or bad can be tricky. But now Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab is launching a new tool to help us understand AI's impact on our well- being.
And they're calling this nutrition labels that can reveal how the technology affects us.
[14:50:00] MIT's Assistant Professor Pat Pataranutaporn is joining us now to explain how this works. He's also the co-director of MIT Media Lab's Advancing Humans with AI research program. Pat, this is great.
So interesting to hear about this. What exactly do the labels show? Will they show?
How will people be helped by this?
PAT PATARANUTAPORN, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: Thank you so much for having me. I think, you know, as you mentioned today, a lot of conversation is about whether AI is going to kill humanity. But what we really believe in is that we need to focus on whether AI is going to kill our humanity, our ability to learn, to relate to one another, to make informed decision, and to have agency.
And that's what we really focus on is to create an AI nutrition label, you know, similar to how you look at nutrition label for food for, you know, how much calorie are you going to get from this specific product. We're giving you, you know, how much good behavior when the AI support learning, agency, and many things to the user so that they can make more informed decision. We think this is a solution that we need now as AI is becoming more integrated to everyone life.
KEILAR: Yes. Or if it says not part of a low calorie diet or, you know, different kinds of fats that are very bad for us. So what's considered bad versus good nutrition metaphorically?
PATARANUTAPORN: Absolutely. So I think we are in our AI nutrition label, we look across different important areas of human experience from learning, mental health, decision making, and many more. For example, in the context of learning, if the student show up asking AI to help for their homework, AI should not do the homework for the children but help them learn asking questions that scaffold that critical thinking and, you know, important skill for that skill development.
Or like in the context of mental health, good behavior would be, for example, if a teenager show up asking for, you know, a method to commit suicide, the AI should not reveal that method, but provide appropriate resources and connect the teenager with, you know, the hotline or, you know, the professionals that can help them. So these are positive and negative behaviors that we can measure. And I think that's, you know, the kind of thing that we really need right now as we have AI everywhere from agent to chatbot.
KEILAR: Yes. And we're seeing some of the, you know, if it promotes agency or creativity as opposed to, you know, you wouldn't want something maybe that doesn't, right? We want, especially our children, right?
We want them to be creative.
PATARANUTAPORN: Absolutely.
KEILAR: We don't want -- we want AI to not get in the way of those very important things that make them kids and that are going to make them fully developed adults. So when you're thinking of kids who have been uniquely vulnerable to the effects of social media, how are they as a possible vulnerable population when it comes to AI?
PATARANUTAPORN: Yes, I think, you know, we have seen tragic cases where, you know, children and teenagers after talking to chatbot have severe mental health and in some tragic case commit suicide. So I think these are things that we need to focus on. I think the issues that we are talking about, about AI killing humanity, I think to me is a little bit distracting.
We should focusing on sort of, you know, how AI can support or undermine our human flourishing. And I think, especially in the context of kids, right? Like good AI model that can solve math problem may not be the best model to help kids learn mathematics.
So I think these are two different type of benchmark that we have here. We need to measure not just what the model can do, but what it is doing to us, especially for people that we care about, like our children and future generations.
KEILAR: Yes, so important. Pat, Pataranutaporn, thank you so much. We need to continue this conversation, obviously.
Thanks for being with us.
PATARANUTAPORN: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
KEILAR: And straight ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, an emotional reunion in San Diego that we are keeping our eyes on. You see them there lining the USS Lincoln, those sailors aboard the Abraham Lincoln. They are returning home after months at sea, almost a year.
And CNN's Pamela Brown is there on board.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: So much emotion here on board as the USS Abraham Lincoln pulls into port. Finally, this is the day so many of these sailors have been waiting for. Thousands are at the port waiting for their loved ones to return home.
We'll cover it all coming up.
[14:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: All right, tune in to CNN this weekend as chef David Chang goes on a cross-country journey in a brand new episode of "THE DETOUR."
SANCHEZ: This time, Dave hits the road with actress Gillian Jacobs to explore her home city of Pittsburgh, where there are so many good sandwiches no one can agree on which one is truly the best. Here's a preview. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is kind of the one that started it all. Smoked chicken, the peri-peri sauce that has 10,000 peppers in it. This is very hot.
DAVID CHANG: That is spicy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People don't believe us because we're white, but we warn them.
CHANG: Sorry, I'm like hallucinating a little bit. That's really spicy.
GILLIAN JACOBS, ACTRESS: I feel it.
CHANG: I'm fucking burning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What brought you to Pittsburgh?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did a little stint in Philly, and I traveled a little bit, but like ultimately, I just wanted to kind of come home and like buy a house and try to like force my way through the ranks of the kitchens here and like always wanted to get to the point of having my own place. So it's doable here, like with no money and no pedigree, you can do something here.
CHANG: Pittsburgh was not on the radar for me at all, right? But it's a community that wants to support new and a lot of crazy ideas that we need. We need new ideas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Be sure to tune in on a new of the CNN original series "THE DETOUR WITH DAVID CHANG," airs Saturday at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN. It's also streaming the next day the CNN app with an All Access subscription.
A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL ...
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