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GOP Senator Sounds Alarm for His Party Two Weeks Before Midterms; Global Oil Surges to Five-Month High; France Imposes Curfews in Parts of Paris, Other Cities After Rioting. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired October 20, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A train wreck in November. That is what one Republican senator is now predicting. But are the dire GOP vibes making Democrats overly optimistic now for the midterms?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Super Bowl-winning Quarterback Jalen Hurts out for the year with blood clots in his lungs, and this morning the Philadelphia Eagles facing questions about how he was allowed to travel and play.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And an absolutely wild trial in Las Vegas. A Canadian man convicted of snatching a flamingo. No, not the statue, the actual bird. Now, he's facing possibly years in prison.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman, this is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: Election Day now two weeks out, and a Republican senator this morning is sounding fresh alarm about his party's prospects in November. North Carolina senator, Republican senator, Thom Tillis, he is not running for re-election, as we well know, telling Politico in a new interview that the GOP is heading for a, quote, train wreck in November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): He's going to be whoever he is. The only thing I can change are the people around him that may be able to tamp down some of those emotions, but also not come up with really, really, really shitty ideas that he implements.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But isn't that a hell of a way to run a railroad?

TILLIS: Yes. Hey, look, it's exactly why we're headed to the, you know, to continue the analogy, a train wreck in November.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And there are new numbers out in one of the most closely watched Senate races this cycle, Ohio. That's a state Donald Trump won by 11 points in 2024. The latest Marist poll shows a neck-and-neck race, no clear leader, as the Democrat, as you see, Sherrod Brown, leads the Trump-backed Republican senator, Jon Husted, by four points, but that is within the margin of error. So, again, this is one to watch.

And it is no secret now that Republicans are growing increasingly anxious about the prospect of losing their control of Congress. And with that rising anxiety, it seems also President Trump is turning up the volume. Overnight in Kansas, he painted a dark picture if he -- if Democrats win, violence, unrest, economic doom, even the end of western civilization. And he tried to draw a direct line from that to France, where protests have erupted into riots over economic hardship and government cuts. But what are people listening to at this point in the cycle?

CNN's Alayna Treene is live this morning for us at the White House. And the president's headed to North Carolina now. What's he going to do there?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, I think what you were just talking about, Kate, is, I think, very emblematic of how the president and his team is feeling. We're seeing his rhetoric turn darker, him trying to draw this picture between Republicans as the party of the future, of course, that is what he is really hammering home in a lot of these rallies, but then increasingly arguing that Democrats are going to essentially ruin America should they win in the November 3rd elections.

And he did compare what he believes the Democratic Party would do to the country to what we are seeing in Paris. I want you to listen to exactly what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: If you want to see what is at stake in this election, just look at what's happening in France, a once great nation that is being conquered, looted, and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists, and communists who hate Christianity, and they hate, frankly, the Western civilization itself.

This is what's happening to France they want to happen to our country. It's never happening here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Of course, Kate, what he's saying there is not backed up by any claims you've heard from Democrats. I should say as well, he also argued that the Democratic Party would try and hold Republicans hostage, specifically hold the Trump administration hostage as he stares down what would be the lame duck, you know, final two years of his second term in office.

But to turn your attention to where he is going today, he's going to be in North Carolina, and he's stumping for -- you just played that clip actually of Thom Tillis speaking to Politico's Jonathan Martin.

[07:05:07] He's stumping for candidates who are trying to vacate or fill the seat that is being vacated by Senator Thom Tillis. One of the people running who the president's going to be boosting is the former RNC chairman, Michael Whatley, someone who's very close to the president. He was actually hand selected to lead the RNC by President Donald Trump previously.

So, he's running against the former governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper. That's expected to be a tight race. You also have seen some really competitive races as well in the House in North Carolina, so the president going to be there today.

And, look, I think you're going to hear similar language. I mean, I was actually in Northern Kentucky on Saturday, very close to the Ohio border, where you mentioned that really tight race between Sherrod Brown and John Husted, similar language from the president there.

We know that he likes to use fear-mongering to try and convince many of his supporters about the high stakes of elections, and that's exactly what he's trying to do. He wants to use any sort of language that will convince them to show up and vote in a midterm election in an off year, of course, when a lot of times, you know, they don't come out in as strong numbers as they do in general elections. So, you'll hear similar, I think, language tonight from President Trump.

BOLDUAN: Look, fear and anger historically, of course, we've seen over time is what has driven, people believe drives people to vote and to the polls. Let us see what voters are listening to right now.

Alayna, thank you very much. John?

BERMAN: All right. I want to talk more about the latest polling overnight that comes from Ohio. Again, Ohio is a state the president won by 11, 12 points, and the latest poll in the hotly contested Senate race there shows the Democrat, former Senator Sherrod Brown, four points ahead of the incumbent Republican, Jon Husted. This is within the margin of error, no clear leader, but pretty much all the polls we've seen coming out of Ohio have this margin between the two candidates.

And I should point out, this is a likely voter screen from Marist. If it's just registered voters, Sherrod Brown has actually a much larger lead there.

With us now, CNN Senior Political Analyst Mark Preston. Mark, let's talk about Ohio right now, this margin between the two candidates. I should note in the gubernatorial poll, Marist has Vivek Ramaswamy trailing. The Republican is trailing the Democrat by even more there.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: John, as James Carville famously said, It's the economy, stupid. And we're seeing that in Ohio. As you noted, President Trump won this state by 11 points just a couple of years ago, and this is a state that you and I in the past 20 years have seen it move from a traditional labor Democratic state more towards the Republican column. But we are now looking at what Donald Trump's trade policies and tariffs have done to the state of Ohio, and how Democrats are trying to capitalize on that. Ohio has a huge automotive manufacturing component to it, and, of course, we see the tariffs with the Canadian border and what is happening along there.

So, not only are we seeing on the economic side of things, but we're also seeing a couple of other interesting things that go along with this race. One, data centers. It's -- all elections are local, John. You and I say that once a week. All elections are local. Specifically in Ohio as well, data centers have become front and center, and Sherrod Brown, the Democrat, has made this a major issue of his campaign, has hammered Jon Husted for his support of data centers. Data centers, not very well liked, in Ohio as well as not very well liked across the country.

And Sherrod Brown, interestingly enough, is somebody who is very well known in the state of Ohio. He has run several times before. He has won several times before, and he has outperformed the Democratic ticket in past years. Back in 2024, when he ran for re-election and lost at that time, Donald Trump won by 11 points in the state. Sherrod Brown only lost by less than four points.

So, Sherrod Brown, a fairly strong candidate for the Democratic Party in Ohio right now, and we're seeing that in the polls.

BERMAN: All right. Very quickly, let's move from Ohio, if we can, to Kansas, where Alayna was just talking about what we heard overnight from the president. Remember, Kansas is a state the president won by 16 points. This is more of what he said there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I also gave Kansas a waiver to sell E-15 all year round, and with Roger Marshall in the Senate, we will make year round E-15 permanent. But if Adam Hamilton is in -- I'm not doing it. That's it. I'm only doing it for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: In Kansas, and he came bearing gifts, Mark.

PRESTON: He certainly did. Unless he's not going to bear gifts if they don't vote for Roger Marshall. Look, what we're seeing in Kansas is economic hardship right now in farm country. That is hurting Donald Trump, hurting the Republican Party right now. We're not only seeing it in Kansas, we're seeing it elsewhere.

But Adam Hamilton, a very interesting candidate, he is a mega pastor, so, in many ways is helping Democrats to eat into the stronghold that Republicans have on that faith vote.

[07:10:07]

Adam Hamilton also has talked about his willingness to buck his national party, and that is playing well in Kansas, which while it hasn't elected a Democrat since 1932, it still has this feel of populism in that state.

We're also seeing former Republican office holders who have supported Adam Hamilton's candidacy. So, again, a race the Republicans shouldn't have to be worrying about, Donald Trump shouldn't have to be campaigning in, but it's a state they are.

BERMAN: Mark Preston for us this morning on what we're seeing, where the candidates are going, and how they're doing, great to see you, my friend. We will talk to you again soon. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, John.

Breaking overnight, oil prices are now at a five-month high, surging after new attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. Look at those prices. What we will see at the pump.

Also, Russia launching sweeping attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure overnight as the U.S. and Ukraine relations deteriorate. This morning, we are learning what President Zelenskyy said in a conversation with Secretary Marco Rubio.

And the wild story of Peachy the Flamingo and a Vegas tourist who snatched her up after allegedly drinking more than 30 beers. What happened in this case? The pictures tell you a lot.

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[07:15:00]

SIDNER: This morning, oil prices surged to a five-month high, Brent crude, the global benchmark hovering at $111 a barrel, and WTI, look at these numbers, hitting $109 a barrel. High fuel prices are a huge worry for voters, and the Trump administration is looking at new ways to try to bring them down.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying the U.S. plans to convert some so-called dark fleet oil tankers into legitimate vessels that can legally carry crude oil that could help lower global shipping and energy costs and increase oil supply.

CNN's Matt Egan joining us now. These are really incredibly high numbers that have just gone up, up, and up.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, Sara, they have gone higher and higher, $111 a barrel for Brent, first time in five months, and part of the problem here is it's just incredibly dangerous and expensive to get oil out of the Middle East.

And so that's why Trump officials are looking at what's known as the dark fleet. I know this sounds like the bad guys in a James Bond film. It does. But, really, these are aging, sanctioned tankers. Trump officials, they're trying to allow investors to rehab these older tankers and to acquire them, clean them up, and then deploy them in the Middle East to get oil out of the Persian Gulf.

Now, by some estimates, there's about 1,500 vessels in the dark fleet. And the thinking is that if there's more of them that are allowed to sail, it's going to lower some of these very high energy prices, right? Because what's happened is the war with Iran, plus the Russia- Ukraine war, it's caused this supply chain nightmare. The cost to get oil out is just incredibly expensive.

So, before the war, the daily cost to hire a large supertanker to go from the Persian Gulf to China was about $65,000 per day. Now, it's $1.4 million. That's just an insane amount of money, an insane increase, and we're all paying that at the gas pump, right?

Those costs are adding 35 to $40 per barrel, and the companies, they're passing that along to us in the form of higher gasoline and diesel prices. That's why Energy Secretary Chris Wright is talking about the dark fleet. Take a listen to what he said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WRIGHT, ENERGY SECRETARY: These are sanctioned ships, because they're owned by sanctioned owners and they've carried illicit oil. But there's a lot of them that are idle. So, a lot of people are coming to us and saying, hey, we'll buy those ships. We'll fix them up. We'll operate them legally and only to carry legal oil.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, you're going to unsanction them?

WRIGHT: We're going to move, we're going to move some of the ships from I call the bad guy fleet to the good guy fleet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: Now, of course, moving the ships from what they're calling the bad guy fleet to the good guy fleet, that's easier said than done. There's going to be a legal maze that they have to navigate. They've got to get insurers to be on board. Also, these ships, they're older, so they've got to be fixed up. The average age of an unsanctioned tanker is 14 years, but the average age of a sanctioned tanker in the dark fleet is 21 years old. So, they're going to have to get fixed up.

But, look, clearly, Trump officials, they're trying to take an out of the box approach to try to drive down sky high energy prices. But, Sara, at the end of the day, the best way to really get costs down is going to be to come to some sort of resolution in this war, because before that happens, it's just going to continue to be very, very expensive to move energy around the world.

SIDNER: You said two important things. One, there's a legal maze that they have to deal with, and two, that these tankers are old, they need to be refurbed (ph). It sounds like it would take a quite a long time to try and get this going, and there's still the issue of the strait, you know, and Iran and attacks. There's a lot going on here. It sounds like time, it would take a while for this to happen.

EGAN: It would. Easier said than done, but the fact that they're even looking at it is telling.

[07:20:00] SIDNER: It is. Matt Egan, thank you so much.

EGAN: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: I appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: A plane nosedives and crashes into a busy street. Now, there are new details this morning about what caused this crash. We'll bring it to you.

And star quarterback Jalen Hurts receives a potentially life- threatening and season-ending diagnosis. On top of that, the Philadelphia Eagles are facing questions now about how they've handled his health issues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Breaking overnight, curfews after chaos. Cities across France are imposing new strict rules after facing the worst riots that country has seen in years. The images coming out are just wild. France's prime minister says that more curfews are expected to be imposed tonight.

Italy also taking steps now, deploying the military over protests in that country as well, showing that what began as small demonstrations over overcrowded, underfunded schools has just exploded into much bigger and much more violent scenes over the cost of living and the French government's handling of it all.

CNN's Stefano Pozzebon is tracking all of this for us. Stefano, what's the latest that you're picking up?

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN ROM CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest this morning, Kate, is that the situation is actually much calmer both in France and Italy. In France in particular, after the imposition of the curfews, the cities are clear, the streets are clear, and the French prime minister, Sebastien Lecornu, tweeted it out earlier today thanking the law enforcement officers and the gendarme for their action, but also leaving the door open to local authorities to decide whether new curfews will have to be imposed in the coming nights and in the coming weeks where the situation requires it.

[07:25:21]

That's the language that a French prime minister said. Just as a context several of the major cities of France had parts of their neighborhoods under a curfew. I'm talking here about Lille, Nice, and Marseille in the south, but also the capital, Paris, where, for example, last night a helicopter was hovering over Place de la Republique well into the night. It's also the moment where the French authorities are counting the damage as the French Justice Minister, Gerald Darmanin, spoke to local media, saying that over 3,000 shops have been looted.

And it's a similar situation here in Italy, where the protests have also spread, in particular to the city of Milan, where last night the government had announced the deployment of over 500 troops in to help and support the local law enforcement, and where tomorrow, Wednesday afternoon, there will be a rally for peace and calm headed by the mayor, Beppe Sala, in the city center of Milan to try and restore some normality after some of the most terrible and dangerous scenes we have seen in Italy for a while. It was a true urban guerrilla that developed in the city center right in front of the cathedral on Saturday night and Sunday night. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Stefano, thank you very much for your reporting. We'll stick close to this and see what develops overnight here. John?

BERMAN: All right, here's a quote: Putin is playing President Trump like a fiddle, that statement from a Republican senator. Growing opposition from his own party on the president's moves really against Ukraine.

And could tickets bought more than a decade ago get Milwaukee fans in to see the Brewers try for their worst -- first World Series title ever -- I'm rooting for the Brewers -- their first World Series title ever?

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