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Florida Governor Storm Update; Hurricane Isaias Strengthens to Category Three; Trump Bought SpaceX Debt Before Space Policy; Polls on Trump; Guilfoyle Asked for Trump Donor Money. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired October 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]

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Any particular division of DOJ investigating any particular type of crime.

But you're right, ordinarily, if this was a perjury case, it would be investigated, either by the U.S. Attorney's Office or by perhaps the public integrity section at main justice headquarters.

I am having a hard time understanding what could be civil rights here. Now, there's two main ways civil rights cases get charged. One is what we call under color of law, meaning, if a police officer or a public official does something to violate someone's civil rights -- Cassidy Hutchinson, at the time she testified, was a civilian, so that wouldn't apply.

The other thing is, if there's a conspiracy to deprive someone of civil rights. So, you would need somebody working with Cassidy Hutchinson to deprive someone else of civil rights. I can't figure out what that would be. It's an odd fit, to say the least, and it's got me scratching my head.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right.

Elie, real quick, like we've seen in past indictments and cases that have been brought against the president's perceived enemies, his public statements have come into play. What is -- what do you -- will they here?

HONIG: Yes, absolutely. If Cassidy Hutchinson gets indicted, she and her lawyers will very quickly move to dismiss based on vindictive prosecution, as many others have before. The case is straightforward, she will argue. I testified, now I'm being prosecuted as a result. And by the way, there's no question Donald Trump hates Cassidy Hutchinson because he said it publicly and tweeted it publicly time and again, including specifically calling for her prosecution in 2024. So, she will have a very strong, vindictive prosecution motion if she does get indicted.

BOLDUAN: All right. Lots to follow here. Elie, thank you. It's good to see you.

John. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking news, Hurricane Isaias

gaining strength. It just crossed the major hurricane threshold. We've got the latest track for where it could hit on the Gulf Coast.

And new comments from Prince Harry saying he battled depression after moving out of England.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:58]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we've got some breaking news for you. Hurricane Isaias is now a major hurricane, strengthening to a category three storm. We are listening to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is giving an update now talking about the dangers of the storm surge.

Listen in.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Water levels throughout, not just the panhandle, but throughout other parts of northern Florida, even throughout parts of central Florida, because of the outer bands. Some of these areas are already saturated. So you're dumping more water on. That is going to create a rise in water. There is going to be an increased risk of flood. Our first responders are keyed into that. And a lot of times we focus on where it hits land. And that's important, where it enters. But you're going to continue to see impacts far beyond just the coast here in northwest Florida.

Now, our preparations, as I mentioned, have been very extensive. Our division of emergency management has marshaled significant resources, including over 1,000 generators, half a million gallons of gasoline, a million gallons of diesel, 35,000 gallons of aviation fuel, MREs in the millions, pallets of food boxes, over a million bottles of water. And we do do these points of distribution where people will be able to go in and do that at some point after the storm. But we tell people, assume you're going to lose power, assume that some of these services aren't immediately going to be available. And so, make sure you have what you need, gasoline, any prescriptions, nonperishable food, water, to be able to get you through this, particularly 72 hour period. We do the pods very quickly now, and we've gotten those up very quickly. And if there's a need for that, we obviously will do that here. But make sure you and your family have what you need now.

Our Department of Transportation, which Jared also heads, has almost a thousand personnel conducting pre-storm preparations. They have heavy equipment. They have pumps prepared and ready for deployment. And of course, when the storm passes, want to make sure those bridges are inspected and everyone's able to resume traffic as quickly as it's safe to do so.

Effective yesterday, FDOT's also waived tolls on the Garcon Point Bridge in Santa Rosa County, the Spence Parkway and Mid-Bay Bridge in Okaloosa County, and those tolls will remain suspended throughout the balance of the storm. This will help our evacuation efforts. Will also support response and recovery efforts. There's several transportation facilities across the panhandle that

have also announced temporary closures ahead of the storm. Port of Pensacola and Port Panama City have closed waterside operations with landside cargo operations suspended beginning today. All other Florida seaports remain open.

SIDNER: All right, we've been listening to the Florida governor there, Ron DeSantis, talking about -- worry about not necessarily the winds for some of the structures that have been built recently. He believes that they will hold. But the storm surge. Very concerned about that in these areas of the panhandle of Florida, as the hurricane is now a category three.

Let's go to CNN's Allison Chinchar.

You had warned us that it was very close to, I think, a mile an hour less than a category three earlier this morning. Now we're there. Give us some sense of what you're seeing.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So, we are. We have now crossed over into a major hurricane, a category three, sustained winds up to 120 miles per hour, gusting up to 130.

Now, one of the key things to note is, it doesn't just increase the winds. You're also going to start to notice an increase in storm surge and other components too, because it's all still related.

Now, here's why we got this update. The hurricane hunters have been inside of the -- inside of the storm, taking all of those measurements, and they found winds that verified that this is indeed a category three storm.

The other thing to note too, they're not done. It is possible this storm will continue to strengthen even further as we go through the day today.

[08:40:02]

Now, here's a look at the radar again. You're already starting to see some rain bands begin to spread across northern Florida, into Alabama, into Georgia. That is going to continue for the rest of the day. Winds not too bad right now. Most of them gusting to about 20 to 25. But those too are going to start to jump back up as we go through the rest of the day today.

Here's a look at the track. Again, it is expected to stay a three, but a four is not out of the question now, especially as we've seen so much of it jump forward into forward progress. These numbers are now going to go up. Five to seven has now turned into six to nine, because we are seeing that stronger storm.

SIDNER: And that people will have to very -- watch very, very closely as the storm gets closer and closer to Florida.

Thank you so much, Allison Chinchar. I do appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, new ethics filing showing the number of trades President Trump made in August. And some of those trades include SpaceX, Meta and Microsoft, happened weeks before the president hosted A.I. leaders at the white house for an A.I. summit.

Let's get right to CNN's Matt Egan.

Of course, this raises questions about conflict of interest.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, it does, John. Look, 517, that's how many trades the president's accounts made in August alone. And the size and timing of some of these trades are raising some eyebrows.

So, these new findings indicate that the president bought shares in a wide range of companies. Everyone from Verizon and McDonald's to American Express and Visa. And, yes, some notable tech companies, including Facebook parent Meta, Nvidia and the bonds issued by SpaceX.

Now, of course, this is highly unusual, or at least it was highly unusual before the president's second term because, historically, presidents would go all out to just even avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, right? They would put their money in a blind trust managed by independent trustees, or they would put all their money in kind of vanilla, broad mutual funds. But the president, this term, he's taken a very active approach to his portfolio.

Now focusing specifically on this SpaceX purchase. Between $1 million and $5 million of bonds issued by the major federal contractor run by Elon Musk, SpaceX. And these purchases were made in August, August 18th.

Now, just two days later, the president rolled out this new policy on space transportation, right, trying to usher in what he described as the golden age of space transportation.

BERMAN: Wow.

EGAN: And this, again, was two days after the bond purchase. And the goal here is to have over 1,000 U.S. launches a year by 2030 and directing agencies to work with the private sector, like SpaceX, and also expedite the permitting and environmental reviews. Now, all of these things were obviously something that would benefit a company like SpaceX.

But it's not just the SpaceX purchase that's getting some attention here. It's those A.I. investments in companies including Meta and Nvidia. And that, of course, came just weeks before the president met with A.I. leaders in the White House, pushing back on those calls for an aggressive regulatory crackdown over A.I. safety concerns, opting instead for this more friendly, kind of lighter touch regulation.

Now, the White House is insisting that the president is not personally involved in these trades. A spokesperson telling CNN in a statement that "neither President Trump, nor any members of his family, has any ability to direct, influence or provide input regarding how the portfolio is invested and when investments are bought or sold. All decisions are made entirely by independent managers. There are no conflicts of interest." Again, that's from the White House.

However, I talked to Richard Painter. He was the top ethics lawyer under George W. Bush. And he said he thinks there is a conflict here. He says he's not accusing anyone of breaking any laws here because the president, vice president, members of Congress, they are not subject to criminal conflict of interest laws. However, he says that this does give at least the appearance of corruption.

John.

BERMAN: Timing's everything.

Matt Egan, thank you very much.

EGAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: We have a new look now at just how much the Iran War and how people feel about it and the economy are impacting how they also feel about President Trump right now.

Joining us now, running the numbers is Harry Enten.

So, this comes from new polling data from Pew.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes.

BOLDUAN: What are you seeing?

ENTEN: I mean, laughably bad. No president I've ever seen is in a worse position before a midterm election than President Trump.

I mean, just look at this. Just look at this. Thirty-eight points underwater. Thirty point -- 38 points underwater. You go all the way back. You go back to Harry S. Truman, FDR, at this point before a midterm.

BOLDUAN: Ever? Ever?

ENTEN: Ever. Ever. At this point before a midterm election, you're talking about your September, October polling, the worst I've ever seen is Donald John Trump, 38 points underwater. I mean it's, as I said, the worst I've ever seen. It's laughable. I mean it -- these numbers are worse than the Ferris Bueller television show was.

BOLDUAN: OK.

ENTEN: That show was terrible, by the way.

BOLDUAN: Stuns me -- stuns me into silence all the time.

ENTEN: There we go.

[08:45:00]

BOLDUAN: Back to the polling.

ENTEN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Put it into context. What else? How does this fit with what -- everything else you're seeing?

ENTEN: Right. So, you see this negative 38 points underwater. I mean he's further -- I mean he's way under the Hudson River at this point.

But it's not the only one, right? I mean, just take a look. Trump's net approval rating worse than negative 30 points. You have Ipsos, the Reuters/Ipsos poll, 33 points underwater. Now, there was another one last month, he was 34 points underwater. CNN poll, 34 points underwater. And AP/NORC poll, 38 points under water. The Pew poll, 38 points underwater. No other president before a midterm election was even at minus 31. And now we're seeing one, two, three, four, I guess five, if you count that other Ipsos poll as well.

And so we're just seeing across the map, in all the polling data that we are looking at, we are looking at history in the making here for the unpopularity of President Trump for a president before a midterm election. And if you're a Republican who is running for re-election this term, or a Republican who wants to join Congress, this is the headwinds that you have to face. It's historic headwinds in which you are essentially going, oh my God, how am I supposed to win with numbers from a president this bad?

BOLDUAN: Our wonderful viewers will likely know the answer to what is driving this, because it has been the same things driving the numbers for a long time, the economy. But when it comes to the Pew poll, take us inside, what is driving why it is so bad?

ENTEN: You know, if you've been watching, we have been drilling in this message day after day, week after week, month after month, because its staring us right in the face. And we want to make sure that you understand what's going on here.

And look at this. I mean, independents, the name of the game. The reason why the last election was so close, but one that President Trump won over Kamala Harris was, take a look at independents according to the Pew poll. The Pew validated research. Look at that. It was tied. It was tied.

Look at independents now. Look how they feel about President Trump. Fifty-seven points underwater. Fifty-seven points underwater. You just never see numbers -- I struggle to come up with the adjectives because you run out of them, because what we are seeing here is history. And then you're trying to understand how this is going to impact Republicans in the midterm. And at this point, they only say, I'm going to say, not good.

BOLDUAN: And -- which is why people question the president's messaging here when he is the one saying, vote like I'm on the ballot.

ENTEN: Vote -- if you want to vote -- let me -- let me tell you, Democrats, please, pretty, pretty, please, with a cherry on top, they are saying, yes, vote as if President Trump is on the ballot. Because if he is on the ballot, you can pretty much guarantee that Democrats will take back the United States House, and you can also pretty much say this is why the Democratic odds in the United States Senate have been going up and up and up. And that is because this president, as unpopular as he is, is dragging Republicans underwater and it is history literally in the making. We'll see if history becomes -- or history in the making comes on Election Day for Democrats as well. They're certainly hoping. But hey, there's still a few weeks until the election.

BOLDUAN: There is still time, though people are already voting.

ENTEN: They are. They are -- you know what, I remember when there was no early voting and now there is. It's unbelievable. Things change in life so much.

BOLDUAN: When you're all of 14 years old, as Harry Enten is.

Thank you so much.

ENTEN: My beard feels like I'm 55.

BERMAN: You make me feel like I'm 1,000.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, guys.

Another mounting issue, accusations of corruption in the Trump administration. There is a litany of questions about Trump's recent financial disclosures, his portfolio purchasing SpaceX bonds just two days before he signed a national security memorandum to boost a national space transportation plan. And now you have Trump's appointed U.S. ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, being accused of asking a Trump donor to pay off her AMEX bill in exchange for influence in the administration. Here's what the donor told Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC DETERS, TRUMP DONOR: Right before her Senate confirmation, she says to me, I need $100,000 to pay off my American Express card, or I'm not going to become Greek ambassador. I said, Kimberly, why should I do this for you? And she told me, it's in the text messages, I'll be your ride or die forever in a Trump administration.

There was no question it was a quid pro quo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Let's bring in Jackie Kucinich, Washington bureau chief for "The Boston Globe." This story blew up yesterday and overnight. Look, while Americans are

saying that they are struggling with the economy, how much might seeing the president and those in his administration, those around him enriching themselves, and the appearance of corruption become another important issue here?

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "THE BOSTON GLOBE": That story, Sara, I don't know what your text chains looked like after that broke, but mine were just filled with quotes from that story because this was just -- it seemed like such an outrageous example because of these text messages of a -- of a Trump administration official and a soon to be ambassador just kind of nakedly asking for money for -- to pay off an AMEX card.

And, no, this isn't good. People are focused on trying to pay their bills, on heating their homes and the rising cost of everything from food to gasoline, finding out that this is occurring right in front of the Trump administration, that is not good.

[08:50:12]

Which is why I don't think -- I think J.D. Vance didn't comment on it when he was asked about it. Marco Rubio was -- seemed to be upset when he was asked about it. They know this does not look good. This -- at all, at any time, but particularly this close to an election.

SIDNER: And to hear the person, you know, flat out accusing one of their ambassadors of quid pro quo is quite remarkable.

I do want to ask you and move on to some of the debates that we saw last night. Both have gone quite -- all of them actually got quite fiery.

Let's start with Georgia, where you had the Senate debate with Democrat Jon Ossoff calling -- and Republican Mike Collins. Ossoff basically points out that Collins' own son-in-law is an avowed white supremacist.

Let's listen to that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Imagine running for the U.S. Senate while neo- Nazi propaganda is disseminated to an audience of millions from your home. That's Mike Collins. And it's not just those around him. Mike Collins himself has amplified neo-Nazi propaganda online.

REP. MIKE COLLINS (R), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: I've condemned racism, anti-Semitism, hate. I don't care where the source is. And I tell him that, too. It's wrong. We have no place in this world for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: How did you see this exchange and how it landed, potentially, with voters? KUCINICH: Mike Collins did not have any good answers, I don't think.

And throughout that debate, I don't think Jon Ossoff said Mike Collins' name without calling him a bigot. It was very clear what he was there to do. And it is true that Mike Collins did have members of his staff who were posting these things, who were posting white nationalist content. So, he -- but again, he didn't really have any good answers for and wasn't able to give it back to Ossoff in any meaningful way throughout that debate.

SIDNER: Let's go to the Michigan state debate with Democrat El-Sayed and Rogers. That got pretty nasty. And it got deeply personal at points. Here is one of the exchanges.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: You're going after my mom?

MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: I'm not going after your mom.

EL-SAYED: That's exactly what you did (ph).

ROGERS: What I -- what your mom was working at, I was going off to that organization, that was indicted for funneling money to al Qaeda. That's your mom. My mom worked at a local chamber of commerce. I put my mom up any day for that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, we'll give you a rebuttal and we're moving away from this subject.

EL-SAYED: Again, he wants this to be about anything but his own record. He's OK if the federal government --

ROGERS: Because he can't talk about his record.

EL-SAYED: He's OK if the federal government spies on you, but he wants to make this about anybody else. Going after my mom, my sister. Got nothing to actual say about me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: It's interesting to note that below there it says, should there be Flock cameras? And they got way off the rails, right?

KUCINICH: (INAUDIBLE), Sara.

SIDNER: What did you see in this debate? Was there -- was there a clear winner here?

KUCINICH: This was another one. I mean, that that was a particularly low moment in the debate. But this was another one that you did have some discussion of the issues. You did have discussions about some of El-Sayed's -- things he said about Israel. You had -- did have a discussion over Mike Rogers and his views of tariffs and his view of the Iran War. So, you did have some substance there. But, yes, this was a deeply personal debate. It was very clear these two people do not like each other at all. Sometimes if you put politics aside, you can shake hands at the end of the day. Didn't seem like these two, there was any love lost and it -- but if voters were tuning in, you did actually get some discussion of the issue and might help them make those very important decisions going -- as we get closer.

SIDNER: Yes, to know exactly what the candidates are going to do.

KUCINICH: Right.

SIDNER: Jackie Kucinich, it is so good to have you. Thank you so much for coming in this morning.

All right, ahead, chef David Chang goes on the road with actress Gillian Jacobs to showcase Pennsylvania's best eats. I sat down with David to get all the details about some of Pittsburgh's best-known sandwiches. Here's a sneak preview of the newest episode of "The Detour with David Chang."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: The thing I want to ask you is about Pittsburgh. There is a guy like literally telling you, hey, you got to go to this place, get this sandwich, and you did, but you ordered a different sandwich. What?

DAVID CHANG, HOST, "THE DETOUR WITH DAVID CHANG": Yes. Well, I didn't think he was going to be there.

Like, I want people to realize, like, this show is not scripted. We didn't plant this. We -- with Gillian Jacobs, who's from Pittsburgh. I didn't know Pittsburgh. But if you're from Pittsburgh or you've been to Pittsburgh, you're going to hear Primanti Bros, and you're going to be like, that's -- that's well traveled.

SIDNER: People know it.

CHANG: Well, guess what? Sometimes well-traveled is undiscovered for people. So, we met these Penguins fans. They said, hey, you're going to Primantis. And they were like, hey, you got to get the hot sausage and peppers or something like that. And I was like, hey, or whatever, I'm not going to see the guy again.

SIDNER: And he shows up.

[08:55:00]

CHANG: Showed up. And I was like --

SIDNER: And you have the wrong sandwich. He would not let you off the hook.

CHANG: And I loved it because you're talking to people. You know, what's great about Pittsburgh, you have football, baseball, hockey right in the city. And a Penguins game just got out. And what I realized in Pittsburgh is, even when there's not a game, everyone's wearing Pittsburgh Steelers, Penguins, Pirates jerseys.

SIDNER: Yes.

CHANG: It's an amazing thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Don't forget to tune in to "The Detour." It airs Saturday at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, the breaking news, Isaias is now a major hurricane, strengthening to now a category three. We are tracking it ahead and going to bring you all the developments as the forecast shifts and changes.

Plus, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and other ICE officials are now set to hold a press conference in just a short while, in just minutes from now, after ICE shoots a man in New York while a five-year-old child was in the back seat of his car.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:59:59]

BERMAN: We are standing by for a press conference on the ICE shooting of a man here in New York. There was a five-year-old in the back seat of the car at the time.

Breaking news,