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Trump Kicks Off Busy Campaign Week in Ohio; Democrats Add 6 More House Races to Red to Blue Target List; NASA Rock Sample May Prove Life Once Existed on Mars; Surgery Puts Pope Leo's Upcoming Trip in Question; Judge Furious as 430 Trees are Chopped Down from Golf Course Trump Wants to Renovate. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 12, 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]

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: I mean, you know what that music means, right?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Oh, yes.

HILL: The old politics music really gets the blood going. It is officially campaign crunch time. President Trump expected to make his way to Ohio shortly for the second time this month.

And this trip comes as polls show some pretty tight races for Ohio governor and a GOP-held U.S. Senate seat. Also, as new data shows, just who is turning out to vote early.

SANCHEZ: And these early voting numbers from Ohio's secretary of state are interesting. They show a 27-point shift toward Democrats statewide compared to this time in 2024. In counties Trump won by 20 points or more, the early vote has shifted 25 points toward Democrats.

In counties that Kamala Harris won by 20 points or more, it also shifted 25 points toward Democrats. These numbers track the partisan makeup of the voters, not exactly how they voted. But of course, this is enough to raise concerns among some Republicans.

Joining us now to discuss Ashley Davis, former White House official in the George W. Bush administration, a founding partner of West Front Strategies, and Joel Payne, Democratic strategist and former Hillary for America senior aide. Thank you both for being with us.

So, Joel, you see those numbers. I imagine that you feel encouraged by them. Of course, Republicans always vote later than Democrats.

JOEL PAYNE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I wonder how you're reading them. Oh, Boris, I'm a Democrat. I'm always anxious. That's my job. No, look, I mean, what that reflects to me -- what that tells me is that, look, you want to figure out who are the most motivated voters. It's pretty apparent.

[14:35:00]

Every public opinion polling we've seen, anecdotal information, Democrats are the most motivated, energized voters in this moment. And that's the thing that probably has Republicans really concerned. It's not just that Democrats are enthused and excited.

It's that Republican-based voters don't seem to be quite as enthusiastic. That doesn't mean that Republicans aren't going to catch up and close the gap over the next couple of weeks as they kind of start to come home and, you know, they think about voting on Election Day. But I do think that when you talk about the early vote, vote by mail, kind of be ready to vote, Democrats have the clear edge right now.

HILL: It's given that, right, given that edge and the enthusiasm, as you point out, Joel, the fact that President Trump is heading back to Ohio. We've seen J.D. Vance in Ohio. Are visits from the president and the vice president enough to inspire Republican voters to get out?

Is that what the aim we're talking about? I mean, the CNN poll found Sherrod Brown leading by six points in the Senate race. Amy Acton up by eight in the governor's race.

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL, GEORG W. BUSH ADMINISTRATION: Yes, I mean, that's and I think that the base in real trouble as well. And I think that you've seen Husted, Senator Husted, not be as strong as a candidate as maybe people would like. However, if you watch where the money has shifted on the Republican side from either MAGA or the National Republican Senatorial Committee, their spending arm, it's got it's Ohio, Iowa and Alaska.

So you have all these other races. You have Texas, you have South Carolina. People keep talking about Kansas.

But those are the three that I were really making sure that we try to win, which shows the vulnerability that we have.

HILL: But do you think Trump and Vance can?

DAVIS: But I do think, sorry, I should have answered.

HILL: No, that's OK. I'm just curious.

DAVIS: Here's the deal. The enthusiasm. Trump's probably the only one that can bring out those voters.

And so that's the strategy for him. Obviously, he's not going to go campaign for Susan Collins in Maine. That's not going to help her, but it will in places like Ohio and it will in places he's going to Alaska.

I mean, that's like --

PAYNE: Susan should take his call. He should go.

DAVIS. Of course she won't.

SANCHEZ: I'm not sure she would actually show up to that event. Ashley, I'm glad you mentioned money because it's notable where Republicans are investing right now. It's also notable that Elon Musk himself is spending about $276 million since the summer, boosting Republicans, including one 158 million on Senate races like the one in Texas.

How far will that money go, though, I think is the fundamental.

DAVIS: Well, that money supposedly is all being spent for get out the vote. And so it is going to be helpful. But you have also George Soros on the Democrat side, willing to open up his money, obviously Bloomberg as well.

I think we're all going to outspend each other, even though Republicans have the advantage on money right now. I think as these next three weeks, as crazy season is among us, people will just start throwing money where it needs to go. I mean, in Bloomberg, money's going to the House races.

PAYNE: I think Republicans have the clear financial edge. And I think the fact that despite that, this is still a very tough headwinds environment for Republicans tells us all we need to know. I actually think this money is going to be weaponized against Republicans.

It's already been. It was weaponized and actually a Democratic primary. You look at Abdul El-Sayed and how he weaponized it against Haley Stevens. He weaponized it against Mike Rogers early in the general election race, where Mike Rogers got to the he said no to some of the outside spending that was trying to come into the state.

So, yes, would you like to have more money than less money? Of course. But I think in this political environment, it's dangerous to have Elon Musk being associated with you, how unpopular he is and how unpopular that money can be used to talk about how influenced your side is.

I think that's a real challenge for Republicans right now.

HILL: So sort of to that point, right, when we look at some of these House races, Democrats added six House candidates to their list of potential pickup opportunities. How much is this really support? Because these are races the Democrats think they can win.

How much of it may be trying to help shift Republican spending into other areas?

PAYNE: Oh, I'm sure there's some strategic benefit towards, you know, getting some resources to certain places as opposed to other places. And look, no Democrat I talk to believes that just because Democrats are looking more favorable in some of these places that the brand problem for the Democratic Party has been resolved. We know we have a long term durable brand problem.

But right now, the problem that is more acutely in front of the American people is the Republican brand and is what Donald Trump has wrought with the Republican Party. And that is the more immediate concern for voters right now. And I think that's why Democrats feel bullish.

And you're going to see them going into some of these plus Trump areas that you wouldn't expect them to be playing in earlier this year.

SANCHEZ: Ashley, last word.

DAVIS: Well, I just think this is what this is what's great about America. Two years ago, we were sitting here and all the Democrats were doing their what happened to the election type of analyst. And now everyone's mad at the president.

So you're going to go out and vote. You're going to make your views known. And I mean, this is why democracy works at the end of the day.

I know I'm being a little bit Pollyanna-ish, but I think it's great.

[14:40:00]

So people are mad at the president. You're going to change it.

PAYNE: Go vote.

DAVIS: Go vote.

SANCHEZ: Ashley, Joel, appreciate the conversation. Thank you.

Still to come, NASA may already have the best evidence yet of ancient life on Mars. But it's sealed inside a tube and scientists may never get their hands on it. Why? We'll discuss in just moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: So a rock collected on Mars could help answer one of humanity's oldest questions. Has life ever existed beyond Earth? The problem is scientists may not be able to actually study that rock in person, at least not anytime soon.

HILL: So this is the big conundrum, right? So the sample is called Sapphire Canyon.

[14:45:00]

It's sitting inside a tube on the Martian surface after being collected by NASA's Perseverance Rover. The space agency, though, canceled the program, which was designed to bring that tube and other samples back to Earth following intense scrutiny over the high cost and complex design of the program. So what we're really looking at here is scientists have possible proof of ancient life on Mars, but no clear way to confirm it.

So what are we to do? We're going to bring in Adam Frank. He's a professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester, also the author of The Little Book of Aliens and The Everyman's Universe Newsletter.

Great to have you with us. So this sample, the Sapphire Canyon sample, it's only the size of a stick of chalk, as I understand it. But it could hold a whole lot of information.

Like what? What do you think could be there?

ADAM FRANK, PROFESSOR OF ASTROPHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER: Yes, so the wonderful thing about this rock that they found, that they excavated, is that it's got mineral deposits in it that are, on Earth at least, associated with life. There's both a lot of carbon in it in a special form, and there's some other compounds that you see on Earth associated with microbes having lunch, essentially. So this is really the best evidence we have so far that in this canyon where this was found, which used to be a lakebed, it used to have huge amounts of water, because Mars used to be a blue world.

This is the best evidence we have that there was microbes on that, that there was a biosphere on Mars. So the rock itself has what looks like evidence of biological activity, but the problem is the rover doesn't have the lab equipment to really tell the difference. Is this biological activity, or could this have been produced some other way?

SANCHEZ: So I wish we could have frozen the video there when it was circling poppy seeds and leopard spots. What does that mean?

FRANK: Yes, these are just the names that the scientists give the geological features that they find, you know, as the Perseverance rover is rolling around. You know, I love the idea that this rock is called Sapphire Canyon. What a beautiful idea.

So it just shows science is very creative. But what they're really identifying there are specific geological features, things that are associated with rushing water, rocks that are associated with particular kinds of reactions that only happen underwater. All of these things contribute to our understanding that Mars was a blue world, 300, or sorry, three and a half billion years ago.

And then also that in that water, there may have been microbial life active.

HILL: And yet the real issue, we have all of these things that could be so amazing in this piece of chalk in the Sapphire Canyon. We can't get it back to Earth, which probably leaves a lot of people just scratching their head. Like, how are we at this point?

We have the NASA administrator, Jared Isaacman, saying he wants to get this back, one way or another, but he can't. So have you seen -- he's very optimistic -- but have you seen some actual proposals, some ways to get this sample back so that we can potentially learn all these things?

FRANK: No, NASA has not yet released a plan. There was the original plan, which was about $11 billion, and people balked at that, which is a little crazy for me because, you know, we spend $11 billion a year on potato chips, right? And so this is a multi-year, this would have been $11 billion spent over many years.

So if we all just ate a little bit less potato chips, we could have gotten that rock back. But NASA is working on it, and hopefully they'll be able to develop some kind of plan to get all of these canisters that the rover has drilled up, encased and preserved, get them back. And it's also worth noting that China has a mission that they're planning in just a few years that is going to return samples, return material back to Earth.

So, you know, it'd be nice, given all the work we've done, if the United States could get there, get its very special rock back.

SANCHEZ: Potato chips, once you pop, the fun don't stop, Adam. You know that. Serious question though, is there some kind of property of the United States on this soil sample that China wouldn't just be able to come and take it?

There's no ownership of this material out there, is there?

FRANK: I don't think so. I don't think there's any treaty which would say that if you went to Mars and you took it back --

HILL: Finders keepers.

FRANK: -- first of all, which court are you going to get held by? But that would actually probably be too hard.

What they're going to do, what the Chinese will do, is they'll design their own mission, their own way of getting, they will drill. We know where to look for samples of potential samples of life and China will just go find their own and bring them back.

SANCHEZ: Fascinating conversation. Hopefully we'll get that back and we'll get some answers. Adam Frank, appreciate you sharing your expertise.

FRANK: Thank you.

[14:50:00]

SANCHEZ: Still to come, Pope Leo is set to undergo surgery this week with a major international trip just weeks away. What this winds up meaning for the Pope's schedule.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: A federal judge telling the Trump administration she is furious after at least 430 trees were cut down at a golf course President Trump wants to renovate.

[14:55:00]

Those trees were chopped down over the weekend, an emergency hearing was set for today.

SANCHEZ: CNN's Sunlen Serfaty following the story for us. So Sunlen, the judge says the Justice Department gave less than a day's notice before these trees were cut down.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And this notice came on the part of the administration on Friday evening. They told the judge that they intended to cut down hundreds of trees. And by Saturday morning, their crews moved in and did just that. 430 trees, as you noted. And this is significant because previously the judge in this case said that they had to give notice, significant notice, before they made any action to cut down the trees.

So we saw this anger from the judge today. She was at times screaming on the Department of Justice lawyers, telling them, quote, what has happened has cost the government all of its credibility. And quote, more than just being upset and furious right now, I am just beyond disappointed with the government.

So very strong words there. And the issue here is really more than just trees. It's about this plot of land that President Trump has proposed to take a public golf course, a municipal golf course, and turn it into a professional championship style golf course.

That is a subject of ongoing lawsuit. D.C. preservation leads, some local residents are suing, saying, look, you cannot turn this public course into a professional one. And that is why the judge has stepped in and said, halt, you cannot tear these trees.

And the government, for their part, they say that it is not part of the renovation or the redesign of the golf course. They say this tree movement was a longstanding maintenance plan that's been on the books about the grounds.

HILL: It was a longstanding maintenance plan that was on the books, but yet the judge didn't know about it?

SERFATY: That's right. And that was we just finished up the hearing here today. And the judge was really emphatic that this should have been something that they knew about. It should have been talked about in all of their hearings. Now, tomorrow, they will meet again.

They actually will hear testimony from the deputy chief of staff of the Department of Interior. And next, she says it's relevant to find out whether or not I have been lied to.

HILL: Wow.

SANCHEZ: We'll see where that hearing leads. Sunlen Serfaty, thank you so much.

Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. An upstate New York body camera video shows a dramatic rescue after a car plunges into the water at a marina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many people are in there?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Inside that sinking vehicle, a man trapped inside. A trooper jumped into the water, smashing through the sunroof. And with help from a good Samaritan, the two were able to pull the man to safety.

And the Queen of Thailand just took her first solo flight in a fighter jet. Queen Suthida is an experienced pilot. The 48-year-old has been flying since 2010.

She's logged nearly 1,200 hours in a variety of aircraft, including Boeing 737s.

HILL: I mean, it gives a whole new meaning to queen at that point.

Plus, optics manufacturing giant Nikon now announcing it has disqualified the winner of its annual small world in motion contest after concluding that the winning video broke the rules against using generative AI. That submitted video captures cell movement in a child living with a rare genetic disorder.

But when the video was posted on LinkedIn, it attracted criticism from scientists who questioned it. The company now releasing a statement saying, "The decision is based solely on the submitted video's eligibility under the rules outlined for the competition. Going on to say it should not be interpreted as a judgment of the entrant's professional reputation, scientific contributions or intent."

Pope Leo is preparing to undergo surgery that will remove a growth on his lung. The 71-year-old pontiff says the nodule was found recently. CNN Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb has more from Rome.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of anxiety here in the Vatican as Pope Leo prepares to undergo surgery to remove a growth on his lung. The Pope is expected to be admitted into hospital at Gemelli in Rome late Tuesday morning and the surgery to happen sometime after that. The Pope making the announcement that he needs this operation to the crowd in St. Peter's Square. The news coming as a surprise to many, particularly in the Vatican where Pope Leo is seen as someone generally in good health. He stays active, he swims, he plays tennis. So this news is something of a shock for people.

Now Leo is preparing for a major trip to Latin America in early November. It's a trip he's very excited about because it means he goes back to Peru, a country he served as a missionary and a bishop in for many years. But there is a question mark about his future engagements given this surgery that is due to take place on Tuesday.

Christopher Lamb, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SANCHEZ: Showing up early. New data showing more Democrats have cast their ballots in Ohio compared to two years ago at this point in the race. The president heads there in about an hour from now.

And federal ... END