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Police, Georgia Officials and Ride Maker Investigate Six Flags Death; Trump will Rally in Arizona to Boost GOP Candidates; Trump Ramps Up Campaign Blitz as GOP Faces Tight Races; Vatican: Part of Pope Leo's Right Lung Removed for Cancerous Growth; Trump Debates Calling Off Livestream of Firing Squad Execution. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 14, 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]

JOHN KING, GEORGIA INSURANCE AND FIRE SAFETY COMMISSIONER: ... Conducting interviews and conducting a thorough review of what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and you asked me if we're 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 that are investigating. There's actually a third, the actual Swiss company that manufactured this roller coaster.

They're looking into this as well. They have a stellar reputation when it comes to safety. But we had a roller coaster safety expert also look at the limited details that are out there right now.

And he noted that Goliath's safety, that's the ride -- the safety mechanism is this clamshell that actually comes down from the bottom, hooks your leg into place. And notably with this particular ride, there is no secondary seatbelt system, no over the shoulder harness.

But it's important to know we don't yet know the cause of why Hassan Karim fell out of that roller coaster. And I'll leave you with this, Brianna, at least 10 other similar roller coasters around the United States and Canada have temporarily closed due to a precaution here, due to caution with this event. But I'll keep you up to date with any new information we get.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right, Isabel, thank you so much for that.

Ahead, President Trump set to rally in Arizona and Montana today, aiming to boost the base ahead of midterm elections. Former Arizona Senator Jeff Flake will join us after the break to talk about how voters there are feeling as election day approaches.

[14:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Turning back now to one of our top stories. Any moment, President Trump will head to Arizona to rally Republicans with early voting in the state that's already well underway. The president will try to boost support for Republican candidates, including hardline conservative Andy Biggs, who's trying to unseat incumbent Katie Hobbs in the governor's race.

We're joined now by former Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake. Senator Flake, great to see you. This rally today is in Mojave County.

It's one of the reddest parts of your swing state there. You represented Arizona, of course, in the Senate till 2019. What's your sense of how voters there are seeing the Republican Party today?

JEFF FLAKE, FORMER U.S. SENATOR (R-AZ): Well, it's a tough environment for Republicans, just like anywhere in the country. Arizona is still, you know, it's described sometimes as a swing state. But in terms of registration, there's, I think, a 300,000 vote registration advantage for Republicans.

So I think they're really trying to turn out that vote. The problem is a lot of those Republicans just aren't happy with the way things are going. Right now in Arizona, we have a Democratic governor, two Democratic senators, Democratic attorney general, Democrat secretary of state.

So all the top statewide offices are held by Democrats.

KEILAR: So you're someone who has crossed the aisle to endorse a Democrat, Jon Ossoff, in the Georgia Senate race over Mike Collins. I believe you've also endorsed Susan Collins, I think, when Graham Platner was still in the race, if my timing is correct on that.

FLAKE: Yes.

KEILAR: Correct me if I'm wrong. But tell me how you are looking at these choices before voters, as you are looking, obviously, at different candidates, stressing the importance of character, even as you're seeing policy difference between some of the folks that you're picking.

FLAKE: Yes, I'm not endorsing anyone in Arizona. I run the Institute of Politics at ASU, which is a nonpartisan organization. But yes, Republicans have it tough here, in particular, in the governor's race.

Andy Biggs, you know, was one of the key, you know, election deniers here, and he's having a hard time getting past that. Particularly, he was on the ballot in 2020 as well, along with the president. And people wonder why his election was OK, but the president's wasn't.

So to the extent that that's brought up, that's difficult for him. He'll be at the rally. A couple of other Republicans running elsewhere in the state will not. They're trying, I think, in many cases to distance themselves from the president, just to pick up independents and those more in the middle.

KEILAR: And when you're looking sort of broadly at where you see Republicans and the president putting in a lot of money, putting in a lot of time and effort, he's got this red state blitz, besides Arizona, Alaska, Montana, Georgia, Kentucky this week. What does that tell you about the state of things and where this could be headed?

FLAKE: Yes, I never would have imagined the president would be campaigning in the reddest of red states around most of the country. And that's what's happening. That tells you where the map is.

But it also is telling when certain Republicans in some of the swing states like Michigan are distancing themselves from the president on tariff issues or this war on Canada, or now a lot of people are distancing themselves from the president on his position on Russia and the sanctions there and the diesel deal that was done. That's kind of an easy one for Republicans to disagree with the president on foreign policy issues. It's more difficult to distance themselves from the president on domestic issues.

KEILAR: I guess overall, do you think it works? Susan Collins has been trying to distance herself. Congressman Mike Lawler has.

Obviously, you said it's harder on some issues than it is on others.

[14:40:00]

Do you think sort of writ large, they can really do it effectively?

FLAKE: It's difficult. Yes, it's very difficult for any Republican in the House or Senate because they've been so much in lockstep with the president on so many votes on tariff issues or the war, AUMF authorization for use of military force, things like that. It's difficult when you get close to the election to say, well, hey, I feel differently and somebody can point out, well, you didn't when you voted last.

So that becomes very difficult.

KEILAR: I want to ask you, as you're looking at the president offering to pay people if they vote for Republicans last night in Alaska, he signed pardons on stage for two diesel mechanics who were previously charged with and pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act. I know a lot of things have become sort of normalized that would have just been huge scandals a decade ago. But how are you viewing these moves?

FLAKE: Well, the last one in Alaska, pardoning people who had violated the Clean Air Act, I wish you would spend more time doing that than pardoning people who beat up Capitol Hill policemen after January 6th. So that one is a little different. But you know, promising to send out checks for $5,000 if Republicans vote for Republicans and Republicans keep the House and Senate, that sounds far too much like other countries I've been in where, you know, these leaders will use patronage and a lot of other issues between the elections to endear voters.

And it's just, frankly, unseemly to promise that kind of thing. And then, you know, point at people across the aisle and say, those bunch of socialists over there, that just seems incongruent, I think, to most voters.

KEILAR: I mean, aside from unseemly, you, of course, are former ambassador as well. Aside from unseemly, what is it like to live in a country like that, where that kind of thing is normal, is acceptable? I mean, what do you want Americans to understand about that?

FLAKE: That's not who we are. I mean, we set a higher standard. And, you know, to see this kind of behavior during an election, it's just, you know, it's not who we are.

We, you know, say that we set a higher standard for elections and for the free press. But then when people in other countries, dictators, see us sidelining certain press that we don't like, I mean that just it gives them license to do the same. And it's just not a good example to other countries that we've always been.

KEILAR: Former senator, former ambassador, now the pride of ASU there. Jeff Flake, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

FLAKE: Thanks for having me on, Kasie.

KEILAR: Brianna, but I'll take it because I like Kasie.

All right, Pope Leo now recovering following surgery to remove a cancerous growth on his lung. After the break, an oncologist joining us to discuss what that process could look like.

[14:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Pope Leo is now sharing his first message after he had part of his right lung removed during an operation on Tuesday. A nodule that was determined to be pulmonary adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer.

KEILAR: Yes, and his first comments since his diagnosis, Pope Leo writes, "I thank you warmly for your prayers and for the work you have done together. I ask you please to pray for me as I pray for you." Let's talk about this now, his prognosis with Dr. Stephen Liu. He is the hematology and oncology chief at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital here in Washington.

Dr. Liu, I think some of the key words there, they're looking to see whether this has spread. That's really the result that they're waiting to get back and that's going to tell us a lot about how treatable this is, right?

DR. STEPHEN LIU, HEMATOLOGY AND ONCOLOGY CHIEF, MEDSTAR GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: That's exactly right. So we know the diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the lung, this is the most common subtype of lung cancer, also carries the most favorable prognosis. But what we don't know yet is the stage, the extent of spread.

Was it just that one nodule in the right lower lobe of the lung? Were there multiple nodules after they removed it? And most importantly, has this spread to the lymph nodes?

That's the piece of information we're waiting for.

SANCHEZ: When the Pope announced that he was having surgery, he said the growth on his lung was identified at an early stage. Does that give you confidence that the prognosis will be good?

LIU: It does. The fact that they went to the surgery tells us that they thought they could remove this cancer entirely. Generally, if we're going to surgery, it's because we think we can cure this cancer. So no surprises there is a good thing.

But at times, these cancers can spread to lymph nodes without us knowing. So we really need to wait. When cancer is small and just in the lung, it doesn't cause symptoms.

We don't have nerve fibers on the inside of our lung. So we usually only find these if we go looking for them or by chance.

KEILAR: How do you know if it's spread to the lymph nodes?

LIU: We're waiting for a pathologist to really take those lymph nodes that were removed at the time of the surgery and really look at them under the microscope after processing to see if we can see at a cellular level, are there any cancer cells in those lymph nodes?

SANCHEZ: The Pope isn't known to be a smoker. He's led what we understand to be a healthy lifestyle. There is, though, a history of cancer in his immediate family.

How big of a factor is that with lung cancer specifically?

LIU: Usually not a big factor. While there are some cancers that are hereditary, typical lung cancer usually is not one of those. While there can be some risk associated with it, generally, that's not the main cause.

We don't know why we see more lung cancer in people that haven't smoked in years past. But today, in this country, about 20 percent of lung cancer will happen in people that have never smoked a cigarette.

KEILAR: Can you talk to us about how invasive this surgery may have been?

[14:50:00]

Because his recovery is proceeding as expected, but the Vatican says he's still planning to go to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru next month. He's got a very full schedule ahead of him.

LIU: Well, it's tall order. If anyone can do it, certainly he can. I think the recovery, though, is very individual and sometimes difficult to predict.

Typically, about 10 to 15 days after a surgery like that, we're looking to see how much his lung expanded. If it's fully expanded, all drains are out, people are feeling well and pain-free, then travel is certainly possible. But sometimes the body needs a little bit more time to recover.

And a big question, if those lymph nodes are involved, is more treatment needed? And if so, that may take precedent. And so I really am uncertain about where that trip lies right now.

SANCHEZ: I wonder, not to speculate on the Pope's health, but obviously given the fact that he is the leader of one of the world's biggest religions, if there is some indication that his lymph nodes have cancer, how does that complicate his job at the Vatican?

LIU: If lymph nodes are still involved, the goal, really even the expectation, is still cure. But there are some more steps to get there. And we may require things like chemotherapy, sometimes immunotherapy, and sometimes, especially for non-smoking-related cancers, targeted therapy, typically in the form of pills.

And so if the cancer is upstaged, if it's more advanced, it just means we need to do a little bit more to really get to that cure.

KEILAR: All right. Dr. Stephen Liu will be looking, obviously, for more information about how he's doing and what they find. And we thank you for your expertise.

LIU: Pleasure.

KEILAR: President Trump and his advisers are debating whether to call off plans to live stream the firing squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter. We'll have the reason why after the break.

[14:55:00]

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KEILAR: We are tracking Hurricane Simon, the storm crawling along Mexico's Pacific coast, battering the region with heavy rain, strong winds, and flooding. One death has been reported in Mexico's southwestern Guerrero state. The slow-moving storm has not made landfall, but it is expected to, and there might not be much relief for the area because Tropical Storm Trudy has now formed and is taking the same path as Hurricane Simon.

Trudy is expected to become a Category 3 hurricane, maybe more, but forecasters are unsure if it will make landfall. We'll keep a close eye on these storms and bring you the latest details as we get them.

President Trump appears to be having second thoughts about live- streaming what would be the first military execution by firing squads since World War II. Sources say the president and his advisors are debating whether to call off plans to publicly air the December execution of the Fort Hood mass shooter. Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and wounded dozens of others at the Texas Army base back in 2009. The president was asked about the matter yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you decided on the live streaming of Nidal Hasan? The Fort Hood shooter? Have you decided on that? And are you concerned?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're looking at it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

We have CNN senior national security reporter Zach Cohen joining us with the latest. And Zach, this really comes down to a specific factor when it comes to Nidal Hassan, and that is that he is --

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Paralyzed from the waist down, and that is apparently something that President Trump did not realize until after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the administration planned to allow the public to watch this execution. And even after Hegseth last week confirmed that the military planned to live-stream this execution, President Trump, our sources say, was still polling his advisors, asking them on what they thought they should do going forward as far as handling this execution and any sort of public broadcasting of it. And it was during these discussions in the aftermath of Hegseth's very public endorsement of live-streaming this execution that Trump learned that Hasan was actually paralyzed from the waist down and his wheelchair bound.

And that's something that made the political optics of this a little less palatable for the president, we're told by multiple sources, and really did lead to this sort of moment of revisiting any plans to potentially live-stream. And now the president made clear that he will ultimately make the decision on whether or not to move forward with a live-stream or a broadcast of any kind. But it is interesting that Hegseth was very, very public and very seemingly out in front of the president a bit on committing to this live-stream, only to have bipartisan backlash in the immediate aftermath of the announcement.

And then the president himself seeming to be skeptical of that plan. Take a listen to what President Trump said about the sort of two competing thoughts right now that he's weighing as he tries to make a decision on this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He was vicious, he was violent. There are two thoughts, don't show it and show it. Because, you know, by showing it, maybe other people won't be doing what he did.

So I'll make a decision ultimately. I know what the military would like to do, but we'll make a decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So one of the sources told our colleague Alayna Treene that these discussions really do point to Trump's deep understanding of imagery and his sort of mastery of the optics. But that also raises a question as to why Pete Hegseth, also a former TV personality, maybe wasn't thinking through the same sort of questions that the president is now asking himself after the fact.

KEILAR: Yes, and it's not quite the right as binary as that don't show it or show it, right? There's this kind of discussion, it sounds like, of if they show it, how much to show?

COHEN: Yes, one of the prevailing concerns we're hearing from Republicans and Democrats, as well as members of the intelligence community and the military, is that this could provide an opportunity for terrorist groups to use footage of the execution for propaganda purposes. And that was something that we're told by sources that Trump did listen to from his advisors as well during these discussions. We're told that the Pentagon, since Hegseth announced this plan to live stream the event, has since sort of recalibrated internally as well, quietly considering maybe other ways to potentially have a broadcast event without showing the moment shots are fired.

Ultimately, again, we'll have to see. It comes down to what President Trump decides. But again, Hegseth ...

END