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Texas Democratic Governor Candidate Sues Abbott Over Communications With Musk; Polls Show Tight Texas Governor Race Between Abbott And Hinojosa; Actress Christina Applegate Reveals She Was Misdiagnosed With MS. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 20, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

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[15:32:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: The tight race for Texas governor is now taking a legal turn. Democratic candidate Gina Hinojosa just filed a lawsuit accusing Republican Governor Greg Abbott of unlawfully withholding communications between his office and Elon Musk. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINA HINOJASA (D-TX): People are angry. That's what this election is about. It is one fight. Is this going to be a Texas that is by and for the people or is this the billionaires world and we just live here?

This is in our face corruption.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Abbott's campaign responded to the filing saying, quote, "Gina Hinojosa today filed a baseless lawsuit in her official capacity as a state representative seeking state records for the benefit of her political campaign." Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa joins us now to discuss.

Thank you so much for being with us. I first want to talk to you about this lawsuit that you filed. It's predicated on a law that gives lawmakers access to confidential records only for legislative purposes. Now, you're not running for reelection in the state legislature. It doesn't meet again until January, when your term also ends.

The law would also block you from sharing anything that you read in those records. So, what legislation do you plan to write based on these emails before you leave office?

HINOJOSA: So I'm still a legislator representing Texans today. I still have legislative responsibilities just because I'm not running again for office doesn't mean I can abandon those responsibilities. I have an obligation to create a legislative record to pass on to the next holder of this office. It does not belong to me. It belongs to the people. And as such, I have a duty to make sure that I hand it over so that

the next legislator can have what she needs to do the job.

SANCHEZ: But if the law makes it a crime to share any confidential information that you read, even the colleagues who would carry on your bills into the next session, couldn't you potentially be committing a crime?

HINOJOSA: Listen, I have never exposed information I've received under a confidentiality agreement. I, in fact, routinely get this information. I've received these requests just within the last two months when it was clear then that I wasn't running for reelection. I can do preparatory work, make sure we prepare legislation to hand over without revealing the data, the emails that I have read.

What this is about is protecting a relationship between Greg Abbott and Elon Musk that we know has cost taxpayers over $1 billion. And it is public business.

I have a right to know, as the representative of the people, what is the business that is being discussed. We're talking about hundreds of pages of emails that have been redacted by Greg Abbott's office, claiming that they might be embarrassing, "intimate and embarrassing." That's a quote.

[15:35:11]

So I don't know what that's about. What I think is about is the fact that Elon Musk has given Greg Abbott half a million dollars to his campaign. And then we know that he received 1.7 billion in property tax cuts.

We know he's received tens of millions of dollars in just state grants. We know that the governor's office interceded on his behalf this summer to direct a $100 million broadband contract to Elon Musk's business. And we learned just Friday night in breaking news that Greg Abbott's parks agency, all appointed by Greg Abbott, plans to sell our beach to Elon Musk. Our beach.

SANCHEZ: Do you have evidence that --

HINOJOSA: That's the level of -- I'm sorry, go ahead.

SANCHEZ: I was just asking, do you have evidence that a crime has been committed? Because much of that information, as you said, is now public.

HINOJOSA: I don't have evidence that a crime has been committed. There can be grift and corruption without criminal activity. I don't know if there's a crime. I have no reason to believe there is one.

But I do need access to that information to do my job as a legislator.

SANCHEZ: Sure.

HINOJOSA: This is public business, right? At minimum, the legislator elected to represent the people should have access to understand what is that business.

SANCHEZ: I do want to move on and ask you about policy and specifically immigration. You recently told Politico that President Biden hid from that issue and that it hurt Democrats. Six months into Biden's term, in 2021, you'd posted on social media that President Biden was, quote, "restoring order and humanity at the border."

I wonder when you think Biden stopped leading on the issue of immigration and, based on that, what you may have done differently.

HINOJOSA: Listen, remember at the beginning, Biden was working to reunite children who had been separated from their parents. There were so many children, hundreds of children, if not thousands of children, that were stripped, ripped away from their families. Some of those children could not be found, and their parents could not be found. I mean, it was chaos. And we were talking about the lives of children.

Biden's priority when it came to immigration was to reunite those families. That was the right thing to do. What we saw later is, we had caravans coming into our country and people sleeping under bridges.

It was chaotic at the border. I am from a border community, Brownsville, Texas. We want secure borders.

What I did when I learned that -- when I learned of the chaos is that I called the Biden administration. It was the December before Biden's last year in office. And I said, listen, we need to get on the phone with whoever is in charge here because they shut down the international bridge to all commerce the week before Christmas. And that's the money that our communities rely upon to get them through the year often.

We got on the phone within a week. They sent a delegation to the Mexico side to negotiate border security enforcement on the Mexico side, and crossings plummeted.

That is the kind of roll your sleeves up, talk to people, no grandstanding leadership. That is my record, and that will be my style of governing when I am governor.

SANCHEZ: I want to ask you about the race, too. The Texas Democratic Party chair, when I spoke with him last week, he told me that national Democrats are not doing enough to support your run for the governor's mansion. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and the National Governors Association, they've resisted calls to inject some $10 million into your race.

Two weeks ago, a person familiar with internal DGA conversations told CNN their polls have you down by 5 percentage points. I wonder if you think the DGA not investing in your race could cost Democrats what would be a historic opportunity.

HINOJOSA: Listen, there's no poll in the last two months that has me down five points or has me outside of the margin of error. That's just simply not true. We've had now six polls in five weeks. New York Times (inaudible) is seeing a big name polls that show me

beating Greg Abbott, not by a lot, within the margin of error. And so now we're an early vote here in Texas.

People are turning out. We're on broadcast TV. This is an expensive state to run in. We are playing at the high rollers table. But that's because the payout is so high. And the frustration with national Democrats is, if we're not playing at the high rollers table when we've been dealt a phenomenal hand in 2026, what are we even doing?

[15:40:04]

The race for governor in Texas has huge implications. Nationally, it will determine the makeup of Congress for instance. We know Republicans in Austin have said they will redraw maps next year. They will eliminate 10 Democrats from Congress. When it is all said and done.

There's no Democratic control Congress when that happens. We need a governor in Texas who will veto rigged maps whether they're rigged for Republicans, and rigged for Democrats. And I will be that governor. And people can learn more about campaign at ginafortexas.com.

SANCHEZ: And so if you think you should have national Democrats backing you at the high rollers table, how about Michael Bloomberg? The billionaire is pouring some $80 million to help Democrats, mostly in House races. Would you take donations from Michael Bloomberg? Have you and your team had any discussions with his representatives?

HINOJOSA: I have not talked to Michael Bloomberg. I don't know too much about him. I don't know why I wouldn't. But I just -- I just don't know enough to be able to answer that question because it's not something that has occurred in reality.

SANCHEZ: Gina Hinojosa, we appreciate the time. Thanks for joining us.

HINOJOSA: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Coming up, more than five years after being told she had MS, actress Christina Applegate now says she was misdiagnosed. We'll speak to a medical expert when we come back.

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[15:45:50]

SANCHEZ: A really surprising misdiagnosis. Actress Christina Applegate has been one of the most famous advocates for people living with multiple sclerosis. Now says her doctors told her she doesn't actually have the disease. During an episode of the podcast that she hosts with the actress and MS patient Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Applegate got emotional, sharing how a blood test ruled out the condition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINA APPLEGATE, RET. AMERICAN ACTRESS: Just recently, guys, now listen to me. This may come as great news, but to me it comes as like, very, like, I'm back at square one. But it's hard to say that she came into my room, and she said, congratulations, you don't have MS. Congratulations.

I haven't gotten better, Jamie. If anything, I've gotten worse in some ways. And so, I'm back at square one that I don't know what's going on with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Applegate's health has deteriorated since her initial diagnosis in 2021. She says she still has to use a wheelchair when going to her doctor. And while not having MS is usually good news, she's frustrated by the question of what is wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

APPLEGATE: I feel like I let everybody down, you know. It's this weird feeling of like I became like the, this, you know, you and I, the poster children for MS. And all that I did for, you know, everything that I was doing, I mean, I had -- it's like I had a reason. I had a reason as to why my day sucked every day. And now I don't have a reason and I -- it's very unnerving and it's really confusing for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Let's bring in Dr. Marwa Kaisey. She is a neurologist specializing in MS. She was also on the podcast when Christina shared the news today.

Dr. Kaisey, thank you for being with us, because this is getting a lot of attention, and this happens. You know, one study finds that nearly one in five patients with an MS diagnosis did not fully meet the criteria for the disease and had a much more likely alternate diagnosis. So why do people like Christina Applegate get diagnosed with MS, and how often does that happen?

MARWA KAISEY, NEUROLOGIST SPECIALIZING IN MS: Thank you for having me and for shedding light on this issue. As you mentioned, it's not an uncommon thing that happens that people get told they have MS and then are told they don't have it later on. In that study that you mentioned, we looked at hundreds of people who had MS and found that almost one in five didn't actually have MS. And when we dug down and saw, well, what did these people actually have? What was their true diagnosis?

It was a long list of alternative diagnoses. There wasn't just one thing that was mimicking MS all the time. Some of the most common things are migraine headaches and vessel disease in the brain caused by things like smoking or high blood pressure.

SANCHEZ: Wow. Doctor, you've said that some people can go for years misdiagnosed, even as they've been prescribed medication for MS. Is it possible that her condition worsened because she was taking these prescriptions and they had an adverse effect? KAISEY: I'm not Christina's doctor, so I can't comment on any of that. I don't know the details. But those medications have real risks, even if the condition itself is not worsening.

MS is an autoimmune disease. So often those medications are against the immune system, and they weaken the immune system. We do that on purpose to weaken the MS, but that does leave patients vulnerable to infections, the most part.

So, there's two sides to this one. As you mentioned, their real condition might be getting worse if the MS -- if it's not MS, and that real condition is not being treated. And at the same time, some of these patients in our study were on medications that were giving them risks or side effects for MS.

KEILAR: So it's interesting to hear Christina Applegate say she's now back at square one, right? She doesn't know what's wrong, and there's so much uncertainty. Can you speak to this psychological impact of, you know, one day you have a diagnosis, and you know what's going on, only to be told you are in this unknown place?

[15:50:16]

You know, in her case, she's got tingling and numbness in her extremities. This lack of coordination, balance issues, difficulty walking.

When people have such extreme symptoms, and then they do not have a diagnosis to hang them on, what does that do to them?

KAISEY: Yes. You've nailed the difficulty with this, is that, okay, you don't have MS, but you're still left with all the symptoms that you had the day before. It's not like you suddenly feel better because the diagnosis gets taken away. And at the same time, we often can tell a patient, okay, you don't have MS, without having an immediate and exact answer as to what they truly do have.

So a lot of times what happens in the clinic is you go in, you say, oh, you don't have MS. But then you don't have an answer. And what you do give the patient is the next steps for how to get an answer. And these are often things like getting further testing, going to see other specialists to try to figure out what their real underlying diagnosis is.

And to do that at a time when a patient is reeling from having the diagnosis taken away, perhaps feeling that their symptoms might be written off now that they don't have a name to put to them. It's a lot. It's a very, very difficult thing for anybody through.

KEILAR: Yes. There is a whole community of people out there with issues, and they don't know what the name or the diagnosis is for them. So certainly, I think she's someone who may connect with a lot of people there as well, though. Dr. Marwa Kaisey, thank you so much for being with us.

KAISEY: Thank you so much for having me. KEILAR: I'm reading this because Boris can't bring himself to.

SANCHEZ: Boo.

KEILAR: All hail the Kings. He can boo, though, and he's just going to keep doing it. The NBA is back.

SANCHEZ: The Kings.

KEILAR: The New York Knicks are getting their championship jewelry. They're bling bling, Boris. Are you excited?

SANCHEZ: The Kings are in Sacramento.

KEILAR: Yes, but they're -- they're reigning. That's the point. They're reigning. On the bright side, Boris, it's a new season for the other 2019's looking to win it all, including the Miami Heat.

SANCHEZ: Indeed.

KEILAR: Yes. You like them?

SANCHEZ: Yes. Yes.

KEILAR: You like them a lot. All right, so we're live outside Madison Square Garden. Ahead.

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[15:51:18]

KEILAR: If you were, say, a fan of Miami sports and the 0 and 5 Dolphins.

SANCHEZ: It's a rebuilding year.

KEILAR: Well, I have some --

SANCHEZ: It's a rebuilding year.

KEILAR: Guys that was kind of unnecessary to (inaudible) script.

SANCHEZ: It's a rebuilding here.

KEILAR: I have some good news for you, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: The NBA is back.

SANCHEZ: We're so back.

KEILAR: That's right. The season tipped off this hour. Look at this optimist here.

SANCHEZ: Yes. KEILAR: The Boston Celtics taking on the Detroit Pistons. And tonight, before their game against the Philadelphia 76ers, members of the New York Knicks are going to receive a really nice piece of jewelry, Boris.

SANCHEZ: I'm going to ignore this entire script and just get --

KEILAR: It's going to be so bling blingy. Nice.

SANCHEZ: I'm going to skip this script and go straight to Omar Jimenez.

KEILAR: You cannot do that.

SANCHEZ: I skipped it. I'm going to go straight to Omar Jimenez, who's live outside Madison Square Garden. Omar, how are your Hawks going to do this year? Let's talk about that.

OMAR JIMENEZ: , CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, hey. You know, the Hawks are going to compete. They're going to be the team, one of the few teams that actually beat the Knicks in the playoffs in a few wins. But that's separate because the Knicks were the champions.

They were the ones that won in the end. And that is the energy that everybody is really outside of MSG here. That is what is top of mind, including folks like Chris here, who I met a little bit earlier. Can you just show us your sign?

It says New York Knicks 2026 champions. Now I can die in peace. We hope that doesn't happen anytime soon, though. But tell me, how are you feeling heading into the season?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel vindicated.

JIMENEZ: Why is that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After 53 years, after all this time, you know, I'm satisfied. I'm happy. Thank you. Knicks.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you know, I've been a Knicks fan, you know, for over five decades. All through the bad years, you know, during the Bernard King years, during the runaway years. Patrick Newman years. And I never gave up. I never gave up hope.

JIMENEZ: And this was the energy. These are fans like this. You can find them across the city. Chris, great to see you.

Fans that never gave up hope over the years. And look, Jalen Brunson obviously was the star of the team alongside so many others when they actually won the chip earlier this year. I actually, in the offseason, spoke to Brunson and his mom, and his mom actually writes him notes before all of his games. And before this game, she wrote him a letter.

I want to read part of it saying, "I'm pulling the mom card on this one. And demanding that you let yourself enjoy the moment tonight. This is not just another game day. Which is why I'm not just sending you another pregame text. Today, you get this letter because tonight you'll be playing basketball for the first time as an NBA champion."

Now, we'll say eight different champions over the last eight years in the NBA. So, the Knicks are also fighting history three if they're going to try and defend. But you can't tell that to any Knicks fans who are still saying Knicks in five even after all this time.

KEILAR: I bet. And before I ask you about LeBron, I have to read you the part of the script that Boris wouldn't read, Omar.

SANCHEZ: You don't have to read that.

KEILAR: It said the Knicks are getting their richly deserved championship rings after winning their first title in 53 years last season. New York's humble fans will celebrate with them.

He wouldn't. That's what he skipped over. Okay. Just had to put it out there. Sorry, Boris.

Okay, so talk to us about tonight at the Garden because we may see LeBron debut.

JIMENEZ: Yes, so these -- there's a lot of big storylines here. Obviously, we were talking about the Knicks defending their title, but we're also going to see the regular season debut of LeBron James, his fourth franchise. He is the all-time leader in points, minutes played, games played, and this season has the opportunity to have all-time regular-season game wins as well. So a lot there.

You also have the debut of Jaylen Brown, another player that came over from the Celtics as well. And these two teams could end up being a preview of the Eastern Conference finals when it comes time to it. I know, Boris, you're hoping your Heat are going to be there, but a lot of work to do if you're going to end up with these two teams. We will see.

SANCHEZ: Listen, it's very sweet that Jalen Brunson's mom wrote him a note. My mom wrote us a note, and it says heat in three.

KEILAR: She wrote me one, too.

SANCHEZ: Heat in three.

KEILAR: Omar.

SANCHEZ: Omar Jimenez Live at MSG.

KEILAR: Thanks so much.

SANCHEZ: Thank you.

KEILAR: Let's go to the arena with Kasie Hunt.