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Reuters Reports Order To Limit Starshield For Ukraine Came From White House; Katie Zacharia Fired As White House Press Secretary; Trump Holds Georgia Rally To Try To Boost GOP Candidates; Scammers Targeting Voters Ahead Of Midterm Elections; Teen Kills Three Children, Teacher At Oregon Elementary School; Bystander Shot And Killed Teen School Shooter In Oregon; Police Search For Motive In Deadly Oregon School Shooting. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 16, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Ukrainians are saying they don't need Starlink to attack Russia, to fly drones, for instance, into Russian territory, but they definitely need it to detect Russian drones flying into Ukrainian territory, especially those jet-powered drones that are extremely fast, extremely dangerous, and, of course, have been doing a lot of damage in Ukraine over the past couple of months, folks.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": All right, Fred, thank you for that report, and a new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

KEILAR: Breaking News, fired after just days on the job. President Trump's newest Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia, is now his former press secretary as of just minutes ago.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": That news coming right after President Trump was leaving the White House and telling reporters this in the last hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Katie's off to a start that the news has been so nasty to her. I've never seen anything like it, actually.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you reconsidering?

TRUMP: And I said -- I said to her, honestly, if I were you, I'd reconsider. You think about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Let's go now to CNN's Brian Stelter. Brian, we talked to you less than an hour ago. You were reacting and telling us about those comments. Now we have word that she actually was fired. Obviously, the president more gentle in what he was saying out there as he was on his way to Marine One. BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, but this is official. She is out of the job after only five days. Her appointment was announced less than one week ago, later last Friday afternoon when you look at the timeline. And the president wanted her to start right away, wanted her to get out before the public on Tuesday, wanted her to hold that briefing. But that briefing was awkward. It was stilted. It was very, very short.

It was disappointing to the press corps, but also to the wider public. She even managed to get some exaggerations in there to her one and only briefing. And ever since that briefing on Tuesday, she has been challenged about her credentials. This question about why she was out there identifying herself as a lawyer, as an attorney, not correcting people when they would describe her as a practicing attorney, that has really been a focal point of the scrutiny.

But I think it's about more than just that question. It's also about her performance at the briefing on Tuesday and about her interviews since then. This president, like it or not, cares deeply about television performance. He is a student of this medium.

He thinks very long about what it means to be on camera and how he tries to portray himself. And he was not happy with the way she came across. Now, it turns out these pair of Fox News interviewers on Thursday night and this morning foreshadowed Zacharia's departure.

She was out there with Sean Hannity and this morning on Fox and Friends, defending her role and saying she had little time to prep for the new job, and saying she's going to do her best to live up to the job. But those interviews were tough. The hosts were skeptical. And in retrospect, those hosts were foreshadowing what was about to happen with her.

DEAN: And this is a record, no?

STELTER: This is a record. I think you're thinking, Brianna, of Anthony Scaramucci, who infamously was appointed White House Communications Director and then was forced out after 11 days. That was in the summer of 2017. That was a moment when I think we all learned about the chaotic nature of the Trump White House and the way people could be hired and then fired so abruptly.

I actually talked to Mooch last night. I asked him about Zacharia. He was predicting she would last longer than he did in her White House job. He said, look, she's not meant to be behind the podium, but she's a nice person. She's not a bad person.

So a moment ago, Scaramucci has weighed in because some people refer to this as a Mooch or Scaramucci, the length of time someone stays in a White House job. His reaction, quote, "Records are made to be broken, but I take no pleasure in other people's pain."

And can I underscore that for a moment? You know, maybe someone was underqualified. Maybe they were put up in a job in a very high-profile position through no fault of their own. This is actually about the president's hiring practices. This is about how he chooses who he wants to surround himself with in his inner circle.

He liked someone on television. He brought them from California to D.C., a very short job interview. Then he suddenly announced she was hired. He said she was an attorney. She's not. This is really ultimately on the president and his leadership style.

DEAN: And Brian, as we look ahead to what comes next, because it took him some time after Karoline Leavitt left to replace her. How do you think -- what should we expect as he potentially looks for somebody to now to fill this now empty job?

STELTER: I was just looking at Truth Social to make sure he hadn't said anything more about that. You know, he indicated when he was leaving the White House that he wanted to talk to her again after his weekend of travels. Maybe he will have another role for her in the White House. I believe, CNN, we are reaching out to Zacharia, trying to hear from her directly, and we've not heard back yet.

You know, it seems to me he'll likely leave this job vacant between now and the midterm elections. He had been leaving it vacant for several weeks. And the reality is there are not daily press briefings from this White House the way there were in the Obama years and frequently in the Biden years.

[14:05:00]

Trump went many months without having press briefings during his first term. Karoline Leavitt held briefings once a week. So we're going to be back to that drought now without press briefings. And briefings are important because they're a symbol of the American government being open for business. But more importantly, the press secretary also engages with the press behind the scenes and provides accessibility.

And what we've seen from Trump lately is the opposite. He is trying to push the press out. Today, CNN was scheduled to be the out-of-town T.V. pool. That's the news crew responsible for filming the president's trip on Air Force One and in Georgia and in Florida. The White House excluded CNN from the trip, basically banned us from flying on Air Force One.

So even though a federal judge earlier this week reaffirmed his order saying that CNN must be allowed access to the White House grounds, Trump is now trying this new stunt involving Air Force One, where he keeps reporters off the plane because he wants to pick and choose who can cover him.

So he's in a position right now where he's trying not to have an accessible White House. He's pushing people out instead. And so viewers should know, we're probably going to see less of President Trump this weekend because the other networks are not filling in for CNN. They are not taking that pool seat and doing the job instead. There will be no pool-to-T.V. coverage of the president's travels this weekend.

DEAN: All right, Brian Stelter, thank you so much. And right now, President Trump himself headed to Georgia, obviously the midterms, very close. And there are some close races there in Georgia. He's also trying to help the Republican running for Senate.

Early voting is already happening there in several key races. The president is seen holding a rally with Republican Congressman, Mike Collins, who's been trailing incumbent Senator, Jon Ossoff in the polls. A key governor's race also being closely watched between Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican Rick Jackson.

We're joined now by Georgia's former Lieutenant Governor, Geoff Duncan. He served in that role as a Republican, but joined the Democratic Party last year. Geoff, good to have you here with us.

For people -- obviously, political junkies have been watching Georgia now for a while, as these races have been ebbing and flowing. But now, if you're just clicking in and you're paying attention a couple of weeks here before the midterms, and we're seeing President Trump go down to Georgia to try to salvage Mike Collins who is, as we noted, lagged behind Jon Ossoff in poll after poll after poll.

Tell people what's going on down there in Georgia. What do you see?

GEOFF DUNCAN, FORMER GEORGIA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: Well, yeah, we're going on six years now being the center of the political universe, for sure. But I think it's a tale of two stories. You know, Mike Collins is probably the only Republican happy that Donald Trump's taking a trip down here. The other ones probably would rather not be down here and try to justify inflation, wars, gas prices, the whole nine yards.

But Jon Ossoff is in the midst of politically bludgeoning Mike Collins. I think we're seeing that race really start to separate. The rest of the races seem tighter. Keisha Lance Bottoms and Rick Jackson seem to be really neck and neck, and they're making their pitch to the people down the stretch. But having to justify Donald Trump is certainly a vote (ph) anchor around anybody's neck.

DEAN: Right. And, you know, listen, there's a lot of talk. I don't know where you would put Georgia. Is it a purple state? Is it a red state? Based on how it's voted in the past and what we're seeing develop, Jon Ossoff obviously looks to be in a very good position going into Election Day. He also raised $33 million in the last quarter compared to Mike Collins, who raised $2.8 million. That's a huge cash advantage.

DUNCAN: Yeah, I would put Georgia in a pragmatic state. I think that's really the general complexion of the voters. We're willing to ask the tough questions. We're willing to hold people accountable. That's how you see a Raphael Warnock win and a Brian Kemp win in the previous election cycle.

That's how you're going to see Democrats and Republicans win in this upcoming election. And Jon Ossoff has done a great job. I say that as -- I said that when I was a Republican. He was great with constituent services. He stayed focused on problems that Georgians cared about. He's a great communicator. He's walked a very tight rope. So Jon Ossoff has earned the right to be probably eight to ten points ahead. The rest of the ticket, like I said, if you're having to defend Donald Trump this late in the game, when you walk up to the gas pumps and you're paying $4 or $5 a gallon, that's hard to justify for an unjustifiable war that's going on.

DEAN: Yeah, someone in another red state said to me, it's like these gas prices are just walking ads for the Democrats that are running because they're in your face every day or once a week. But very regularly, people are face to face with just higher prices. How much of that is weighing on these Republican candidates?

DUNCAN: Yeah, I mean, it's not just gas prices. I mean, if you're running a business and you're having to buy diesel for your delivery trucks, I mean, that's another component. If you're trying to sell a house or buy a house, if you're trying to take down a loan, if you're trying to justify a home equity line with a 7.5 percent interest rate on it. The list goes on and on and on of things that nobody wants to explain and can't explain.

[14:10:00]

I certainly saw this train wreck coming, which is one of the reasons why I switched parties when I did. But at the end of the day, Donald Trump is probably the worst mistake this country's made. And I think most Republicans know that. They're just unwilling to have to say it out loud.

DEAN: And so when you look at the governor's race, that one's a little different dynamic. As you note, it's much tighter. What are the issues you're looking at? What are you what are you kind of keeping your eye on as we really head down these last couple of weeks?

DUNCAN: Yeah, it's certainly a neck and neck race. It's much different than the U.S. Senate race. Keisha Lance Bottoms and Rick Jackson seem to be polling neck and neck. And I think it's an interesting tale. You know, you've got Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has really kind of had a lifetime in politics and elected office, and she's having to explain her time as mayor.

And Rick Jackson is an outsider that has come in and kind of a self- made billionaire. And certainly with that comes, you know, strings attached and things of that nature that he has to justify having contracts with state governments and things of that nature. But it's really been, I think, solved (ph) around. It's been great in that race to hear them talk about health care, to talk about affordability, to talk about public safety and not just, you know, Donald Trump, red meat innuendos or even far left innuendos.

It's really been a policy driven discussion. And as a voter in this state, I really think that that is ultimately going to pay off for us.

DEAN: Yeah, not a Democratic governor elected in Georgia since 1998. So it is going to be interesting to watch that play out. Former Lieutenant Governor, Geoff Duncan, thank you so much. We appreciate your time. DUNCAN: Thank you.

DEAN: Still to come, we learn more about -- more details about the mass shooting at an elementary school in Oregon. The former principal of Columbine High School joins us to talk about how a community begins to cope with something like this.

Plus, questions mount over the response to the fatal Six Flags incident. What Georgia officials are saying now. And a little bit later, scammers are targeting voters with fake election warnings and phony campaign merchandise. What you should be watching out for. That and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:20]

KEILAR: Today, another American community is dealing with the horror and grief of a deadly school shooting. A senior law enforcement official telling CNN that police in Bend, Oregon, have interviewed the parents of the 16-year-old who shot and killed three students and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary on Thursday.

Those students were ages five, eight and 11, and the gunman also critically injured a seven-year-old and another teacher. Police say an armed member of the community saw the teen entering the school and followed him in, shooting and killing him before police arrived.

A law enforcement source tells CNN the gunman's parents are cooperating with police. We're hoping to learn more when officials hold a press conference at 5 p.m. Eastern. Let's talk now with Frank DeAngelis. He was the principal of Columbine High School during the deadly shooting there 27 years ago.

Frank, thanks for being with us. This is the 36th shooting on K-12 school grounds across the United States just this year. What is your reaction as you're watching this tragedy unfold in Bend?

FRANK DEANGELIS, FORMER PRINCIPAL, COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL: It takes me back to 27 years ago. You know, if you would have told me that a Columbine could have happened at Columbine 27 years ago, I would have said no. And unfortunately, it continues to happen.

And yesterday, I was in a meeting, and I started getting texts that you're in my thoughts and prayers, and then the media called, and I knew there was another school shooting. And it's got to stop. We just -- enough is enough.

And I can remember making a comment 24 hours after Columbine happened. I said, I just joined a club in which no one wants to be a member. Unfortunately, that membership continues to grow, but we can't give up hope.

KEILAR: Yeah. You know, Columbine, and I think a lot of us even remember probably where we were when we heard about it, right? But there have just been so many shootings since then. Schools have taken all of these different approaches.

The former Bend mayor here says the school was built recently. They had invested a lot in security. They had that in mind when they built this school. So, talk about the kinds of discussions that school officials are having about safety and security of their students and staff, when even reinforcing the physical structure clearly cannot stop someone with one of these long guns.

DEANGELIS: Well, it is really ironic, because I was just at a conference here in Colorado, and there was a delegation from Oregon. And I was up in Salem, Oregon, a few times addressing them on school safety and recovery and things of that nature.

And we were having a phone conversation -- or we were having a discussion in all the things that we were going through, training of the standard response protocol, different drills, things of that nature. You know, I gave a little history lesson. The only drills we did back in 1999 were fire drills.

But now, we're training our kids from the time they're in elementary school through middle school and high school, what to do if there's a situation such as what happened in Bent, Oregon, at Split Rails, or Silver Rails School. And they went into a lockdown situation. And you know, that's important.

And we can have locked doors, and we can have metal detectors. I was just recently up at Stoneman Douglas High School, where they had the shooting back there on Valentine's Day of 2018. They had metal detectors.

But one of the things that is so important is if these kids, these shooters, perpetrators, are telegraphing what they're going to do, that we need to be able to make sure that we tell kids there's warning signs out there, so we can stop them before it happens.

[14:20:00]

And that's the thing that's very frustrating, because what is happening, where we are today compared to where we were 27 years ago as far as security and things of that nature, we're in a much better place. School resource officers, locked doors, things of that nature, but these events are still happening and we got to figure out what's -- when someone asked me they said what are you going to do, what are we going to do, and we have to figure out how we can stop something, what caused this shooter, this killer to do what he did.

KEILAR: Yeah, because it's dumb luck, right, where this happens. Is it going to be -- what schools are going to be at, I think that's, you just never know. That's what's become so clear in all of this.

You mentioned Parkland. We spoke last hour with Manny Oliver who's the father of Joaquin Oliver who was killed in Parkland in 2018 and he said that in this case at Silver Rail, you know, for the families who lost those kids and that teacher, the narrative that this could have been so much worse if a community member had not intervened which, yes, it's true. But for them, that's -- I mean, obviously, it's going to ring so hollow. He said it's important that we also acknowledge it could have been better than losing these four innocent lives and to remain focused on that. I mean, how are you thinking about it?

DEANGELIS: Oh, wholeheartedly. When I go out and speak. and I've been around the country, outside of the country to help others when they go through these situations. And they said, well, we -- you lost 13. I said it's not a competition who suffered more. You may not have even lost a loved one, but what you went through is having an effect on them and that is so important. Just to say it could have been worse, it should not even have happened.

What they went through is going to affect them. They lost loved ones and we just can't allow this to happen. I mean, we got to say enough is enough and what are we going to do, and it doesn't matter if it's Colorado or Oregon or Florida. They're all of our kids, and one more life is one too many.

KEILAR: Yeah.

DEANGELIS: And we have to put an end to this.

KEILAR: I don't want to diminish what that community member did. It's very clear that lives were saved here and we're still grappling with exactly how many as we learn more. But it's obviously an important part of the conversation. Frank, thank you so much for being with us.

DEANGELIS: Thank you and we're -- I'm going to reach out. When I get off the phone here, I'm reaching out to the superintendent to help them. And I can remember getting a phone call right after from Bill Bond and he was a Principal at Heath High School in Paducah where a shooting occurred on December 1st of 1997. He said, here's my phone number.

He said, you don't even know what you're going to need at this point and I thinking back to almost 27 years ago or over 27, I said I hope I never have to make this call. Unfortunately I do, but you know, as I tell people, I refuse to be helpless. I refuse to be hopeless. And I am not going to let evil win and we're going to work on this. And just out to the people in Bent, we are here for you and we're here to help you.

KEILAR: That is you 27 years later, Frank DeAngelis, thank you so much for being with us.

DEANGELIS: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: Very fake scams using very real-looking campaign merchandise. After the break, a new warning about fraudsters targeting voters in several states.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:27:49]

DEAN: A new report warns voters of cybersecurity threats ahead of the upcoming elections. It finds scammers are using fake emails and texts to trick voters into turning over private information. The fraudsters are also using official logos to sell merchandise and get voters to think they're actually donating to a real campaign.

CNN Senior Reporter, Marshall Cohen is joining us now. Marshall, how widespread are these scams, and what should people be watching for?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Just for the folks watching at home, be on the lookout for these scams. It's not necessarily super high-tech, state-of-the-art stuff, but it can still get you if you're not paying attention.

So yesterday, a group, a security group called Check Point put out a report that they said were flagging concerns in the final weeks before the election. And one of the big issues here were these phishing emails impersonating election officials and reaching out to unsuspecting voters in at least three states saying things like, hey, you got to check your registration, you got to request your ballot, and to do that, you got to click this link and hand over this information, and that kind of stuff you never want to be turning over to people on the Internet if you're not sure who's on the other end.

But even more interestingly, I want to show you these screenshots from some websites that this group, Check Point, identified as peddling fake merchandise. Well, the merchandise is probably real. You'll probably get the hats and the bumper stickers, but it won't be going to the candidates that you think it is. Look at this, top left corner, 'Talarico for Texas.' That's the real Talarico logo, but this website has nothing to do with the Talarico campaign.

And in fact, the folks at Check point determined that it was registered to the same people that were running this other website that purported to be the official Team Paxton store for Attorney General, Ken Paxton in Texas, the Republican running against James Talarico. So if you're on those sites, you might think you're donating to support the candidate that you want to see win, but the money is not going to them. It could be going somewhere shady.

Of course, election officials remind people all the time during this season, if you have any questions about anything you get in the mail or a text or an email in your inbox, reach out to your local election office. They are here to help.