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Two New Polls Show Texas Senate Race Deadlocked; Greenland Contradicts Trump Claim About Massive Drilling; Trump Goes West to Rally for GOP Candidates; Pope Recovering After Surgery to Remove Cancerous Growth; Ukraine Says SpaceX Restricted Starlink Services; Police, Georgia Officials and Ride Makers Investigate Six Flags Fatal Roller Coaster Incident. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 14, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": -- midterm election. CNN hosts the candidate in the Senate race, James Talarico, at a town hall tonight.

And President Trump heads to Arizona and Montana to rally voters as the White House tells Americans to trust the process. But we're learning more about how the president's policies are driving inflation even higher.

And a new update on Pope Leo's health just one day after the Vatican confirmed his lung cancer diagnosis. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

CNN is just hours away from a big night in Texas as Democratic Senate candidate, James Talarico fights to flip a very red seat blue for the first time in over 30 years. Tonight, he'll be taking voter questions live on CNN at a special town hall moderated by Erin Burnett and in partnership with Jubilee Media. Today, two new polls showing him in a deadlock with Republican Ken Paxton, a new Marist poll and a poll from the University of Texas and the Texas Politics Project show no clear leader in the race.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is live for us in Texas. Jeff, what more can we expect tonight?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, Texas is at the absolute center of the fight for control of Congress. We're getting our first look inside the town hall room where James Talarico, the Democratic candidate, will be taking questions from Republicans, Democrats and Independent voters, undecided voters as well.

But as we've been spending some time here in Texas in recent days, talking to voters in all three categories, it's clear this race is critical and opinions vary.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY (voice-over): Tracy Rito (ph) is going door-to-door trying to turn Texas blue one house at a time.

ZELENY: You said that you feel hopeful about this year.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do. I feel like -- it's just a feeling that I have that it just feels different.

ZELENY (voice-over): Three weeks before the election, Texas is different, suddenly at the center of the fight for control of the Senate.

JAMES TALARICO, (D) TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: Thank you all so much.

ZELENY (voice-over): James Talarico is captivating Democrats who have long dreamed big in Texas.

LAURA LEEMAN, TEXAS DEMOCRAT: James has done such a great job of tapping into what a lot of people are upset about and not just from one party or the other.

ZELENY: We've heard before, you know, that this is the year for a Democrat to win statewide in Texas. This is the time. Why is this different, do you think?

LEEMAN: I think because things have gotten so ugly since Trump came into office again.

ZELENY (voice-over): We met lifelong Republican, Pete Nodecker, who explains the coalition Talarico is trying to build in the race against GOP rival, Ken Paxton.

PETE NODECKER, TEXAS REPUBLICAN: The Republican Party has been hijacked. They're not the Republican Party that I was a member of for all of my life.

ZELENY: Hijacked by whom?

NODECKER: Trump. Everything revolves around him and his ego.

ZELENY: Is this a vote for Talarico or against Ken Paxton?

NODECKER: It's a vote for Talarico in this case. He just -- he presents himself in a very positive manner. He is clearly a legitimate Christian. He doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the walk, and you can tell the difference from a mile away.

ZELENY (voice-over): Paxton, the embattled Texas Attorney General, is scrambling to keep Republicans in line after defeating four-term Senator, John Cornyn in the GOP primary.

GLEN WHITLEY, RETIRED JUDGE, TARRANT COUNTY: I am embarrassed at the fact that he's even on the ticket.

ZELENY (voice-over): Glen Whitley is a retired Tarrant County judge and another lifelong Republican backing Talarico.

ZELENY: Is there some reluctance for lifelong Republicans to vote for a Democrat?

WHITLEY: There is, and especially as you move into East Texas or into West Texas, they just, you know, to vote for a Democrat is a really long step. So I've heard a lot of people say they're just going to stay at home or they're not going to vote in that particular race.

SEN. ANGELA PAXTON, (R-TX): I'm Texas Senator Angela Paxton.

ZELENY (voice-over): Republicans are pouring more money into Texas than any other state, trying to rescue Paxton with $232 million in T.V. ads from September 1st to Election Day alone, compared to $65 million from Democrats.

At his coffee roasting business in Fort Worth, Marvin Rodak has been enduring the whiplash of Trump's tariffs. He voted for the president, yet is undecided in the Senate race.

ZELENY: What do you think of Talarico?

MARVIN RODAK, TEXAS VOTER: He's very interesting individual. There's some things I like about him. There's some questionable things that, like with any candidate, has started popping up.

ZELENY: What do you think of Paxton overall?

RODAK: Man, I don't know. He's -- he's a choice.

ZELENY: A choice?

RODAK: Yeah. And I'm not trying to be disrespectful.

ZELENY (voice-over): When we caught up with Talarico earlier this year, he said Texans were hungry for change.

ZELENY: Why is this year different, you believe?

TALARICO: Well, there is a growing backlash in the state to the extremism and the corruption in our government. I can't tell you how many people come up to me at the end of these events and whisper I'm not a Democrat, like it's some kind of secret.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[14:05:00]

ZELENY (on camera): So, the Talarico campaign is clearly trying to build that coalition of Democrats, yes, but also Independents and Republicans. And Brianna, the new polls out shows that there is an enthusiasm advantage for Democrats, yes, and advantage among Independents as well. But clearly, there are many questions for Talarico among some of those voters who are still up for grabs.

That's why tonight's town hall will be so fascinating. And they are going to address issues of the day with our colleague Erin Burnett, but also a bit of a different moment, a change my mind segment. Via voters literally will be sitting right across from James Talarico talking about things. He'll be able to try and persuade them. We will see if that works.

But there is no doubt this Texas race, which is up to about $0.5 billion in spending since the year began, is now central to the fight for control of the Senate. Republicans do have one advantage. That's a spending advantage. The president has been here a lot. The vice president was here yesterday. They're trying to gin up the Republican voters to pay attention to this race and rescue Ken Paxton. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Really interesting. We are looking for that segment. Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much. Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Let's talk to the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party about this. Kendall Scudder joins us now. Kendall, thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us.

First, I want to ask about Vice President, J.D. Vance making a joke yesterday implying that James Talarico is gay. He'd previously said that Talarico is a threat to your way of life when talking to Texas voters. Aside from that, President Trump keeps claiming that Talarico is a vegan, calling him Talafrico. Why do they think these kinds of attacks will work in your state, in Texas?

KENDALL SCUDDER, CHAIRMAN, TEXAS DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Yeah, Republican leaders just aren't serious people. That's the challenge right now. I mean, people across Texas are sick and tired of folks leading the government who aren't coming to the table with solutions. They're instead just trying to (inaudible) people being mad about stuff.

And that's what we see all the way from Donald Trump, Greg Abbott, the whole crew. I mean, you would think that if the vice president of the United States were coming to Texas to save their disastrous candidate, I don't know, maybe he would come to the table with some kind of solution. We have been waiting since 2017 for Donald Trump's health care plan, still haven't heard it.

They are not bringing solutions for people's lives to the table. That's why they are going to suffer massive defeat this year.

SANCHEZ: A new poll from Marist College is out. It's their first survey of likely voters, as opposed to registered voters. It finds that Talarico's image is now underwater, 49 percent view him unfavorably. Earlier polling had him viewed relatively positively.

Do you think the $230 million plus in advertising that Republicans have spent has been chipping away at his support?

SCUDDER: This is a real challenge that we're facing. Texas is uniquely the most expensive state to operate in. We have 20 media markets. And what Republicans have had to do to hold on to this is flush about $250 million to try to save their darling Ken Paxton. That's $250 million, by the way, that's not going to states like Maine and Iowa and Kansas and Georgia and Florida.

I mean, Texas Democrats are bearing the brunt of a lot of this right now. And you're going to start to see some hits like that that are going to come down for people like James Talarico. But I don't think that Texans are stupid. I think Republicans are betting that they are.

Texans understand that Republicans have been running the state for 30 years and they've run it into the ground. Since Republicans have taken over, our taxes have gone up. Our schools are lower quality. Hospitals have shut down. Our bridges and roads are falling apart. They don't know how to run an organization.

And we need new leadership like James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa to take the helm and restore the Texas miracle that Democrats originally built.

SANCHEZ: I want to ask you about Gina Hinojosa. In her race for governor, she initially asked Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and the Democratic Governors Association for money, for $10 million. She reduced the ask to $3 million. Texas Congresswoman, Sylvia Garcia accused Beshear of not taking Latinos seriously. Do you think Hinojosa is getting enough support from national Democrats?

SCUDDER: No, I don't think that she is. But the truth is, here in Texas, we're used to having to do this on our own. I think that national entities are afraid to compete in a place as expensive as Texas. But we're not afraid of a fight here.

I think if I'm putting my money on a table in Vegas, I'm going to put it on the scrappy Texas Democrat with their back against the wall every single time. And so we're going to throw down. We're going to fight back. If Andy Beshear and the DGA aren't interested in investing in wins and long-term gains, that's their own problem.

We'll figure this out on our own without him. But it sure would be easier if people like Andy Beshear would take Texas seriously.

SANCHEZ: One more question about Talarico. He probably is going to get a question like this tonight.

[14:10:00]

Ken Paxton has accused the candidate of undergoing a political makeover to hide his true views from Texans. He's homing in on Talarico's effort to moderate his views on transgender issues. The president of Stonewall Democrats has called Talarico's current stance on trans athletes a significant shift, saying, quote, "We can support our candidates without surrendering our principles. Transgender Texans are not bargaining chips."

How should the voters in your state understand Talarico's shift on this issue?

SCUDDER: James Talarico isn't making over who he is. I have literally known James Talarico since we did college Democrats together. OK? James Talarico, what you see is what you get. He is a genuinely nice guy that's doing everything that he can to try to deliver for people that are counting on him. Right now, Texas Democrats are feeling the pressure of meeting a moment. And he intends to do that.

You know, where his evolution on certain issues have come into play, you're going to have to take that up with him. I'm not really sure how he felt about that in the past versus now. What I do know is that every day that James Talarico gets out of bed, he's trying to figure out how to make your life better. And I can't say that about Donald Trump, Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton. Not a single day have they gotten out of bed and tried to figure out how to make your life better.

They're trying to figure out how to turn this government into a grift, so they can feed at the trough of the American taxpayer. Democrats are going to swoop in after this election and stop them from doing that because your tax dollars should be invested in your community, not into the pockets of Donald Trump and his buddies.

SANCHEZ: Kendall Scudder, thank you so much for joining us. You can bet we're going to take it up with Talarico himself tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern. You can catch the CNN in Jubilee Town Hall with Texas Democratic Senate candidate, James Talarico. His opponent, Ken Paxton, we should note, was also invited. He will not be participating. Our colleague Erin Burnett is the moderator. Afterwards, CNN's Kaitlan Collins is going to break it all down on "The Source."

Again, that's right here on CNN, also streaming live with an All Access subscription.

Still to come, President Trump claims massive oil and gas exploration is about to begin in Greenland. Greenland's government says that may be a massive overstatement. We'll explain.

Plus, President Trump hitting the road rallying for Republican candidates in two Western states as the midterms inch closer.

And later, what we're learning about Pope Leo's health following news of his cancer diagnosis. We'll be right back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:08]

SANCHEZ: Ukraine is now sounding the alarm. Officials say that new Starlink restrictions are disrupting its military operations against Russia.

KEILAR: Officials in Kyiv say they were caught off guard by the restrictions. Starlink is owned, of course, by Elon Musk's SpaceX. And on Saturday, Musk criticized Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy over Ukraine's attacks on Russian energy facilities, writing in a post, quote, "Zelenskyy has gone too far." After the Starlink disruption, an adviser to President Zelenskyy posted on social media, "It is clear that this action cannot be a coincidence and is linked to the current political situation."

CNN Chief National Security Analyst, Jim Sciutto is following this story closely. He's with us now. Jim, tell us what you're learning about this.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So this is a big deal because since the U.S. basically zeroed out its direct military support to Ukraine, you know, directly sending weapons, what remains is intelligence sharing, which Ukraine uses to target, for instance, Russian missile launchers or to get some early warning of those missiles coming in, and Starlink.

I mean, Starlink is a private company, of course, run by Elon Musk, but they use it to run their drones, which is really the foundation of warfare in Ukraine today. So what happened overnight is that suddenly, in the middle of the night, they had restrictions in how fast they could fly those drones and maintain a connection.

It was reduced to basically a hundred miles an hour or lower, which matters because these things have to fly fast to hit their targets, and all of a sudden they weren't working at those speeds. They were losing connectivity, so they go to Starlink, and it's kind of like if you or I, our phone didn't work except that we were using the phone to protect ourselves from getting blown up, right? And Starlink didn't have an answer.

And what they come to realize is that this was not accidental. It was not sort of a glitch in the system, but there was a deliberate restriction on the speeds at which they could use Starlink, which again they use to operate their drones, which are central to their defense and their warfighting right now.

I've been speaking to Ukrainian officials and European officials this morning and afternoon and throughout, and they said, one, this directly affects our fighting on the frontlines. It makes us less safe. Two, they do not see it as accidental. They believe it is a deliberate restriction by Elon Musk's SpaceX company, which runs Starlink, which runs this product called Starshield, and that it's impacting them. It matters.

SANCHEZ: You have some new reporting on the U.S. potentially withholding intelligence.

SCIUTTO: So this is the other thing. Over the last 48 hours, our intelligence, the U.S. intelligence that provided Ukraine, as I say, helps them see Russian missiles before they're coming, and it gives them early warning so that you can get people in the shelters before they hit. But over two nights, they weren't getting that early warning intelligence, so you don't have time to get your kids into the shelter.

Imagine if, you know, this is what we were living through. The U.S. said to Ukrainian officials, this is weather. It's a weather problem. Ukrainian officials don't buy it, and I've been told that throughout the course of the war, there's only been one other time where they didn't get these early warnings.

[14:20:00]

That was at the height of the Iran War, when U.S. intelligence assets were focused elsewhere in the Middle East. So they look at this and say, two nights, where they don't get those crucial warnings, and they believe it's part of this broader picture of turning the screws on Ukraine.

They don't have confirmation. No one from the U.S. is telling them, we stopped. But that's their strong suspicions. And you'll remember, over the weekend, we reported that the U.S. sent a message to Ukraine that, if you don't stop striking Russian energy infrastructure, we're going to stop intel sharing.

So Ukrainians are putting two and two together and saying, this is deliberate, and it matters. And they're saying that it's costing lives.

KEILAR: Really interesting reporting.

SCIUTTO: Yeah.

KEILAR: Jim, thank you so much. Today, Greenland is responding to President Trump's claim that, quote, "Massive oil, gas and mineral exploration is getting ready to begin in the Arctic territory."

SANCHEZ: Now, Greenland's deputy mining minister says that, yes, U.S. companies are active there, but he says they're far from large-scale exploration.

CNN's Anna Stewart is tracking this for us. So, Anna, what are you learning?

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're not quite sure what prompted the Truth Social post from President Trump, and it seems to have taken the government in Greenland by surprise, as they say they're far away from massive exploration. And here's why.

Let's have a one-on-one on Greenland. Despite the name, it's largely white, 80 percent covered in ice, and on average, that's around a mile thick. So, a really challenging place to drill for oil, for gas, to dig for minerals and rare earths.

Also, so much of it is really remote. We're talking no roads, no infrastructure. If you're looking offshore for drilling, much of it can't be accessed unless it's summer. That isn't to say there's not potential, particularly with rising sea temperatures and ice melting. Unfortunately, thanks to global warming, you know, there are projects that are interested in seeing how many -- how much the reserves might be there.

And that's the big question. How much is there? In this Truth Social post, the president says that oil is far greater than that of almost any land. Well, that is far from true. A U.S. geological survey has found that they believe there could be -- it's an estimate -- 31 billion barrels in the East Basin. That's where the majority of the oil is expected to be. That is less than a tenth, I think, of Venezuela's reserves, which is more than 300 billion barrels.

So, really, we're not talking about a vast amount here. It's not a massive exploration. Also, in this post, I suspect the president may have offended Greenlanders when he said that this was our new Greenland. There was a deal signed recently between Greenland, the U.S. and Denmark.

It has expanded U.S. military access on that island. However, the deal very much acknowledges that Denmark remains sovereign and Greenlanders have the right to self-determination. So there was a lot to unpack in that Truth Social post. I'm sure it's upset a few people, but there we go.

KEILAR: All right. Anna Stewart, thank you so much.

Six Flags Over Georgia is set to reopen soon, as the park is working to determine how a man fell to his death during a rollercoaster ride. What we're learning about the incident ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:27:46]

KEILAR: Right now, an urgent search for answers after a man fell to his death at Six Flags Over Georgia. Police say Hassan Kariem was ejected from the Goliath roller coaster and into other passengers before falling beneath the ride. The 42-year-old is now being remembered as a cherished member of an Atlanta Charter School where he worked as a technology teacher, IT manager and robotics coach.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is with us now from Atlanta. Isabel, is it becoming any more clear what actually happened here?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and Brianna, it's important to note that these sorts of incidents with roller coasters, they are incredibly rare. But when they do happen, it's alarming. It's shocking certainly for the family of Hassan Kariem and for the people who witnessed it at a full Six Flags Over Georgia Just Monday.

Now, the big question is how did he -- what happened here? How could a man, Hassan Kariem, actually fall from this roller coaster? Was he not restrained properly? Was this human error? Was this mechanical error? Cobb County PD is handling that part of the investigation, the death investigation. But then, there's also this other part, the roller coaster mechanical aspect of this. In other states, like Georgia, usually amusement parks, major amusement parks, they self-regulate.

But here in Georgia, there's state law surrounding this. The State Insurance Commissioner's Office, they're the ones in charge of inspecting, permitting, regulating amusement parks and handling all of this when there's grave injury or death as we're seeing here. Now, during a debate with the Atlanta Press Club just yesterday, the current commissioner, John King, who's running to keep his position, was asked if he took any accountability for what happened. Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, GEORGIA INSURANCE AND FIRE SAFETY COMMISSIONER: Clearly, this is one of our primary duties when it comes to the safety fire department. Our very professional inspectors have inspected every one of those before the park season even started and they're currently on the ground looking at every nook and cranny, conducting interviews, and conducting a thorough review of what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: Yeah, and you asked, Brianna, for learning anything new. I just finished emailing back and forth with the Cobb County PD. We're also trying to learn how many people were actually injured in this event. They're saying that they're assessing with the fire department, trying to get a better understanding of that now. I mentioned these two agencies --