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Katie Zacharia Named White House Press Secretary; New Pew Poll: Trump Approval Rating at 30 Percent; Polls Show Tight Race Between Rogers, El-Sayed in Final Days; Alleged Flydubai Hijacker Said 9/11 Inspired Him to be a Pilot. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 09, 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: Now, earlier in our network's coverage on the passing of Mike Ditka, we mistakenly aired an image that was of a fan in costume and not of Ditka himself, an error that we deeply, deeply regret.

Now to breaking news. The White House has just picked a new White House press secretary to replace Karoline Levitt.

CNN's Betsy Klein is there at the White House for us. So, Betsy, who's the new press secretary?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Boris, we are learning that President Trump has selected Katie Zacharia to be the next White House press secretary replacing Caroline Levitt, according to multiple White House officials. Now, Katie Zacharia is a conservative commentator who briefly served for about two months in the Department of Homeland Security as the deputy assistant secretary there. She previously had experience as a commentator on both Newsmax and Fox News, and she actually first came to Washington during the George W. Bush administration where she worked at the Republican National Committee as well as here at the White House back in 2006.

She's a mom of four young children and lives in California, and we are learning a little bit more about her relationship with the president. Apparently, the president in recent days has been polling a lot of his allies and advisers on the selection of Zacharia, including Karoline Levitt.

We've also learned that she met with the president in the Oval Office this morning, Boris.

SANCHZ: Betsy Klein at the White House, thank you. Let's go to Brian Stelter now. Brian, what's your reaction to the new press secretary?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Tough act to follow. Caroline Levitt is beloved by conservative activists for her defense of President Trump. Levitt was a happy warrior, and it makes sense that the president was reaching out to Levitt and others getting counsel as he decided who to replace Levitt with.

Now, Katie Zacharia is the closest you can get to a Fox News contributor without actually being on the payroll of Fox. She's been a regular guest on the network for many months, often appearing from California. She's also appeared on other right-wing TV platforms.

So the president certainly knows her and her television power from that platform. She also briefly worked for the parent company of Truth Social for the past couple of months. So she's had a number of roles in the Trump orbit.

Now she's joining the White House. Hopefully this will mean a restoration of regular White House briefings. Levitt held briefings about once a week.

Past White Houses held briefings almost every day, especially in the Biden years and the Obama years.

[14:35:00]

Trump has been off and on about whether and when he wants his press secretary to be out in public speaking on his behalf. So hopefully we're going to see that press briefing situation be restored. This, of course, also comes as the president wants to ban news outlets from the White House.

You know, CNN, MS, and Politico continue to fight for their rights in court. It's notable whoever is in the president's ear talking about these issues, now we know it'll be Katie Zacharia joining those conversations about how the president interacts with the press. And all of this comes just a few weeks before the midterm elections, when the president's rhetoric is getting even more extreme, the kind of thing the new press secretary will have to defend.

SANCHZ: Yes, a sensitive time for the White House as Republicans try to hold onto control of Congress. Levitt held briefings relatively regularly, and then it became this sort of rotating cast of cabinet secretaries. Do we know when Zacharia is going to hold the first briefing, if she was officially hired today?

Is there any indication?

STELTER: No, we don't know yet. So far, this is from White House officials saying she's been selected. We have not heard from her directly yet.

She's probably going to have to figure out logistics, about moving to Washington, all that sort of thing. But you know, it does come right here a few weeks before the midterm elections, and at a time when the White House's credibility is certainly in question. The president's approval rating at record lows, that makes it an even more difficult task for the press secretary trying to explain the administration's policies.

You know, historically, though, this has been an outsized position because it's the public face of the administration. And here's a fun fact. Katie Zacharia becomes the seventh female White House secretary in a row. All women since Sean Spicer back during Trump's first term. Go figure. Certainly, she's very experienced at defending the president on right- wing TV, and I suspect that has a lot to do with her hiring today.

SANCHZ: It's not only a politically sensitive time for the White House. It comes amid this fight with the press, right? There's this ongoing litigation between the White House and CNN, MS NOW, and Politico about access to the White House grounds.

CNN has been blocked from doing pool duty a number of times, even though that hasn't been consistent. Walk us through that aspect of the role that she's now going to take, Brian.

STELTER: And the big question on my mind when it comes to this media ban that the president attempted three weeks ago that has been stopped by the court for now is who's pushing this idea? Is it the president's own idea? Is it coming from members of his inner circle?

Is it coming from advisers close to him? Because Karoline Leavitt is the kind of figure who was often happy to take questions from The New York Times and CNN and Politico and the AP. She recognized the value of that dynamic in the press briefing room, even when it was adversarial.

You know, I will say this about the White House press office. They get back to you. They respond.

They issue statements. Even if those statements, in my view, might not be tied to reality, they are very responsive. But the president's media ban was a different strategy altogether to try to push people out, to try to shut off access.

It was a very hostile action, and that raises a question about whether this new press secretary will take that approach, try to push people out, or whether she'll be more like Leavitt and be willing to take questions. I remember interviewing Karoline Leavitt back in April. She was more than happy to engage.

She believed that was helping Trump and the MAGA movement. So we'll see with her successor what that strategy will be. Will it be to take the ban approach the president's done recently, or will it be to invite all the questions?

SANCHZ: Yes, we'll see. Hopefully we'll see Katie Zacharia behind the podium soon. Brian Stelter, thanks so much for the updates.

Still to come, we have new details about a hijacked Flydubai flight. Investigators say they have evidence the co-pilot accused in the attack became a pilot with the intention of one day crashing a plane.

[14:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHZ: The state of the economy, rising fuel costs, the war with Iran, and more Americans running out of patience with President Trump. All this in a new Pew Research poll finding just 30 percent of those surveyed approve of the job the president is doing. That is a second- term low in their polling.

Today, the president suggested gas and diesel prices would drop soon as he defended, again, the war with Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So we have, I think, some big news on that diesel situation. We're going to be knocking the hell out of it. And remember, what have we done?

We stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon. That's a big thing. And the prices, the prices will come tumbling, and it's going to be over soon, one way or the other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHZ: Let's discuss with Melik Abdul, a Republican strategist, and Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist, also the president of Solidarity Strategies. Thank you both for being with us. Melik, first to you.

Amid these low poll numbers, despite the applause in the room, a number of Republican candidates are trying to shy away from the situation caused by the war with Iran, including Mike Rogers in Michigan, that Senate race that could determine control of the chamber. Are these attempts to distance themselves by these Republican candidates like Rogers enough?

MELIK ABDUL, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Whether or not it's enough, we won't know until November, but I think it's definitely smart politics. This is what happens typically in midterm cycles where candidates begin to pull away from presidents. I remember Alison Lundgren Grimes pulling away from Barack Obama, refusing to campaign with him when she was running against Mitch McConnell.

So this is good. And because the national -- if the elections are about the national conversation, which is about the gas prices, meaning things that these candidates can't control outside of their respective states, we're going to have a really bad night. So I think it's important for them to actually localize the elections, to talk about whether that's tariffs, you know, some of the prices that they're paying, things that they can do things about.

But, you know, Donald Trump should give them room.

[14:45:00]

He didn't for Salazar, but he definitely should give the candidates some room to pull back from him because he's not as popular everywhere.

SANCHZ: The argument, Chuck, from Republicans is that Trump is going to drive out the base, and instead of giving them room, he's telling supporters, act as though I am on the ballot. Does that worry you at all in some of these close races for Democrats? CHUCK ROCHA, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, BERNIE SANDERS 2016 AND 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS: I'm working in most of these races, so I don't come on TV and pontificate about what I think. I know what's going to happen because I'm working in them. And what happens is the same thing that happened to Democrats two years ago.

And it's very elementary. Even a Mexican redneck from Texas could figure out. When we were in charge of the White House, people were aggravated.

Even though Joe Biden said inflation is at an all-time high and we're creating all these jobs, the American people was like, I don't feel that, and Democrats got punished and they elected Donald Trump for a second term. It's the exact same thing that this same electorate is feeling right now, even if they voted for Donald Trump or not. And I'll say to all my Democratic friends, they're running back to us, but not because they love us.

They are just that pissed. And most of the times we say, these voting groups are not monolithic. Black people aren't monolithic.

Latinos aren't monolithic. But for the first time in my career, they're all monolithic right now. And get this, they are monolithically pissed at what gas is costing, bread is costing, and they're looking for somebody to blame.

And for us, our advantage is we're not in power, so they easily can blame the Republicans. So that's why you see a distancing. Now, will it work?

Will it not work? The one thing for sure is what you said. They've got to get their base voters out who voted for Trump in a presidential year.

That's the one thing that he's always done that we could never do is he got new people to vote.

SANCHZ: So if he's trying to get the base voters out, why go to New York tonight where despite arguably underperforming in the last cycle, Kathy Hochul is still expected to win the governorship, there Trump appearing in Syracuse, New York, for Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate for governor.

ABDUL: I'm going to get the name wrong, Onondaga County or whatever.

SANCHZ: Onondaga.

ABDUL: That is it. So if you look outside of that area in the rural parts of that county, Donald Trump actually did well. So even though Kamala Harris won Syracuse, that main area, if you look kind of in the north area, Donald Trump had some room to run with. So I think that in addition to being a New Yorker himself, he feels as if, as he said, vote as if I'm on the ballot.

So I think it's because of his popularity in those areas outside because in a governor's race, that's actually going to matter. Not just Syracuse, it's the areas outside of Syracuse.

SANCHZ: I want to go back to the Michigan Senate race because Chuck, you talk about the anger being spread across demographics. Earlier this week, there was some reporting that Black community leaders and Jewish community leaders were concerned that Abdul El-Sayed was not doing enough to reach out into their communities. We saw during the Democratic primary that Black support largely was with Haley Stevens, his opponent.

Do you share those concerns?

ROCHA: The primaries happened and the primaries in Michigan happened late. So you still have an after effect of a lot of African Americans and Jewish Americans who supported Haley Stevens. So there's time to make that up.

Interestingly, I talked about this yesterday on TV, is there's a reason why Barack Obama is going to Michigan and he is going there to try to fix this problem that I still don't think is a giant problem. And I do think Michigan may underperform some of the other states because of the issues that you raise. But in a year when there's a wave of D plus six, that means you win Michigan D plus three.

SANCHZ: So there was reporting earlier from Annie Grayer and others at CNN about Democrats facing this conundrum with polls trending in their direction and a fundraising disadvantage of whether to play it safe and go all in on the seats that appear that they can win or to go all out and try to win in districts that Trump won by double digits in the last cycle. Are you a gambler man, Chuck? What are you going to go with?

ROCHA: You know I'm a gambler man. I like to go fishing. You know we talk about fishing a lot.

It's the same thing. Listen to me, Democrats. I said this on a streaming thing that I try to put out to all Democrats on Monday.

Open up your target list. Go as broad as you can. When the electorate is this mad, you could fall into voters who have never heard from either party because we micro-target ourselves down to talking to nobody while Republicans, and I give them credit, sometimes will go shotgun out and talk to all of the people because they ain't got nothing to lose.

That benefits them. We have to get out of our tight constraints of who we talk to and do a lot of races or we're going to have folks win where the Democrats didn't spend a dollar and that's not good.

SANCHZ: Melik, are you sort of selfishly encouraging Chuck to go all out and hoping that their aspirations land short?

ABDUL: If you go back to 2016, Trump and this whole idea of a 50-state strategy, that's what he's done since 2016. So he's brought in, he said, whether it's California, whether it's Syracuse, you know the areas around Syracuse, he's willing to go in all of these places and I think that's something that's an advantage. Now whether or not that helps the candidates is a different story because Donald Trump in places is more popular than the candidates.

But I still think that Republicans have a very good chance of keeping the Senate not so sure about the House, but even in the case of South Carolina.

[14:50:00]

ROCHA: It's like when he was a kid. Boris, go long. Go long. Go long.

ABDUL: We're going to keep the South Carolina Senate.

ROCHA: No stream passes. Go long.

SANCHZ: Thrown in a Hail Mary as Chuck Rocha. Chuck, Melik, appreciate the conversation. Thank you so much.

Up next, see some dramatic eyewitness video of the moment an Italian town gets struck by rare twin tornadoes.

Watch this when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:55:00]

SANCHZ: Breaking news into CNN. New details into the attempted hijacking of that Flydubai flight. A preliminary investigation has found the alleged hijacker became a pilot with the intention of carrying out an attack and planned to crash the Flydubai plane into Israel's Ben Gurion Airport.

CNN's Jeremy Dimon joins us now. Jeremy, what are you learning?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, these are some remarkable new details, Boris, coming from the UAE's attorney general who says not only was this a premeditated attack, a premeditated plot with a terrorist objective, but that this attempted terrorist attack, as the UAE's attorney general says, was, quote, inspired by the 9-11 attacks. In addition to that, what the initial findings of this investigation are is that this co-pilot, the Omani co-pilot Hamam al- Hammami, as we've previously identified him, actually decided to pursue a career in aviation because of those 9-11 attacks, because of his intention to ultimately try and use an aircraft to carry out a similar attack. And, indeed, that was his objective, according to the UAE authorities, when he got into the cockpit of that plane on September 30th, attacked the captain of that plane with the crash axe that was inside of the cockpit and tried to take control of it.

His goal, according to the UAE authorities, was to then take that plane and crash it into the passenger terminal of Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport with the goal of causing the greatest number of casualties. Now, we know, of course, that none of that happened thanks in large part to the heroic actions of several Israeli passengers on board that plane, who one of them put that co-pilot in a chokehold. Others then joined in to bring him down to the ground. And then, of course, you had two other pilots who were on board that flight who were supposed to fly that plane back from Tel Aviv to Dubai, who took control of that plane and landed it safely in Saudi Arabia. Now, a lot of this information is coming from a confession that this suspect apparently made over the course of interrogations in the United Arab Emirates. The UAE authorities say these confessions were made in the presence of a lawyer.

They say that, as of now, this suspect is saying that he acted alone, but the Emirati authorities are continuing to investigate that claim and other aspects of this case -- Boris.

SANCHZ: Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much for the update on that story.

Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. Take a look at this eyewitness video of a rare tornado in Sicily, this one of two twisters touching down at the same time in the same area.

This happened in the Marsala region, famous for its wine. Officials tell CNN that several people were injured. Buildings and cars nearby were damaged, close to a school as well.

One official said that while, quote, tragedy was narrowly avoided, nature's fury is now alarming, warning that this is only the start of the region's stormy season.

Plus, Delta Airlines says it is not seeing a slowdown in bookings for the holiday season despite more expensive fares. According to the company's latest financial report, its jet fuel costs jumped by 60 percent in the third quarter, forcing the airline to shell out $1.6 billion more compared to a year ago. And yet, CEO Ed Bastian says profits actually grew because passengers were willing to fly, or rather, willing to pay more to fly, especially those willing to splurge for premium seats. Bastian also told investors that even if jet fuel prices retreat, he does not expect fares to decline.

And a surprising new study finding that people who sleep near their dogs don't actually experience disrupted sleep, contradicting earlier studies that found the opposite. If anything, researchers say owners are more likely to interrupt their pup's sleep. The study tracked the activity of human volunteers and their canine companions throughout the night for several weeks. In addition to finding similar sleep patterns, researchers also found that participants felt safer when sleeping with their dogs, hinting at, quote, deeper evolutionary history.

The study, though we should note, had limitations, including the small number of participants and my sneaking suspicion that it was conducted by a dog.

And now, a sneak peek at the newest episode of "THE DETOUR WITH DAVID CHANG." David goes on the road with actress Jillian Jacobs to showcase Pennsylvania's best eats.

CNN's Sara Snyder sat down -- Sidner, I should say, sat down with David to get all of the delicious details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The thing I want to ask you is about Pittsburgh. There was a guy, like, literally telling you, hey, you got to go to this place, get this specific sandwich, and you did. But you ordered a different sandwich.

DAVID CHANG, CELEBRITY CHEF: Well, I didn't think he was going to be there. I want people to realize that this show is not scripted.

We didn't plant this. We, with Jillian 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 Permanente Bros.

You're going to be like, that's well-traveled. Well, guess what? Sometimes well-traveled is undiscovered for people.

So we met these Penguins fans. They said, hey, you're going to Permanente's. Then the guy was like, hey, you got to get the hot sausage and peppers or something like that ...

END