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Sources: Officials Fear Trump Rampage After Midterms; WSJ: Elon Musk Ordered Starlink Slowdown That Blindsided Ukraine; Researchers: Photo Of Patient's Face Can Predict Cancer Survival. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 21, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:31:37]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just a baker's dozen of days until Election Day. That's 13 for the non-bakers out there again, and I always have to remind myself because I also don't bake.

There is new CNN reporting on the blame game that appears to already -- may be underway inside the White House. The CNN reporting shows -- polling shows Democrats with a 10-point advantage over Republicans in the race for control of Congress and with that it appears the White House is bracing for impact. Sources describing a fear taking hold that big Republican losses could trigger big Trump backlash, meaning him lashing out. And that has led to "brutal" internal jockeying and finger pointing already.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is live at the White House with much more. Kevin, what more are you hearing from inside?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, and it's clear that now, two weeks before the midterms, these Republican anxieties about the midterms are only growing and about who might catch the blame if this turns into a GOP bloodbath. Of course, that's still a big if. These are very, very close races. And President Trump, even as recently as last night, says that the polls are not capturing his own supporters.

But even despite that public confidence, you do see this almost febrile atmosphere starting to take hold. Aides starting to wonder who the president will blame if this fares poorly for Republicans. And you also hear talk about other administration officials just abandoning the White House if this turns into Democratic majorities come January.

You know, it's led to kind of a resurgence in some ways of the leaking of the negative stories that you saw really color the president's first term. So you've seen reports about the president's political advisers, his chief of staff, all questioning whether they will stay around for the second half of the president's term.

The one person who does not appear likely to take blame for Republican losses is President Trump himself. And that is part of the reason I think you see him going about this really frenetic campaign schedule trying to head off any accusations that he didn't do what he could to try and bring Republicans across the finish line.

So last night, he was in North Carolina campaigning for a candidate that even national Republicans seem to have given up on, Michael Whatley, the Republican Senate candidate there. Republicans have pulled their money out of the race. But President Trump, who is very loyal to Whatley, very close to him, actually says he'll be back in North Carolina next week.

Today, the president is heading to South Carolina. This is a state that he won by 18 points in 2024. He's trying to help Darline Graham get across the finish line. There, too, you have some real questions, and you hear some real questions about the president's candidate selections. He hand-selected Darline Graham to replace her brother, Lindsey Graham. But there, as in Texas, as in other races around the country, some real questions about whether the president's candidates are really the ones that would have led to Republican victories.

And so some real anxieties, I think, taking hold here at the White House two weeks before the midterms. Of course, we don't know what the result will be, but a lot of fears of what the backlash could be from the president himself.

[07:35:05]

BOLDUAN: Yeah, I think anxieties all over the place are going to be high for the next 13 days certainly, if not beyond.

It's great to see you, Kevin. Thank you so much -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. I'm here with CNN political commentator Paul Begala and Terry Sullivan, former campaign manager for Marco Rubio in his presidential bid.

And friends, I want to go back to Ohio right now, which is a state that President Trump won by almost 12 points. Because we saw this ad overnight there from Vivek Ramaswamy, who's running for governor, the Republican, against Democrat Amy Acton. This is an ad that I think a lot of us have really never seen anything like it. It was an ad that featured the mother -- the biological mother of Amy Acton, right -- a woman who has been estranged from Amy Acton for, like, 50 years, who sided with the stepfather of Amy Acton, who was accused of rape and child abuse.

Now, this ad has shocked all kinds of people. You can see right now in the latest polling Ramaswamy trailing Amy Acton by seven points. This is in a Marist poll out just yesterday.

And, Paul, just -- I want what your reaction was when you first saw this ad.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, I've done this a very long time, and this is the scummiest thing I've seen in politics, and politics is a scummy business, OK? But this is a moral malignancy by this man and, you know, he's going to go down in history not as the governor of Ohio but as the guy who ran the scummiest, sleaziest ad in American history. And I've had family and friends in Ohio. I believe they're going to

reject this. I don't think people in Ohio who have wonderful all- American Midwestern values are going to stand for this kind of scumbaggery.

BERMAN: Terry, if I can, I -- you know, I said the condemnation has come from both sides of the aisle.

TERRY SULLIVAN, FORMER MARCO RUBIO PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN MANAGER, PARTNER, FIREHOUSE STRATEGIES (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah.

BERMAN: Nikki Haley put out a tweet overnight and I will note Nikki Haley when she ran for president against Vivek Ramaswamy called him scum this morning, she says. She's "Not laughing. Just seeing what we tried to tell everyone back then. He's a bad guy. It's a shame he continues to get away with it."

My question to you is what do you think the Ramaswamy campaign thinks it's getting out of this?

SULLIVAN: Yeah. Look, I mean, it's obviously a disgusting ad and just morally reprehensible. But you don't have Paul and I on here to talk about the morals. You have us talk about politics, and the politics of it is this is just stupid? It's political malpractice by his team. Like, this is going to backfire. Like, this is the most moronic approach I've ever seen. And so it -- like, this is going to blow up.

He was likely going to lose. He's a poor candidate and he's -- now he's probably going to lose bigger because of this. And I think Paul is exactly right. This is going to be a stain. And when you Google Vivek Ramaswamy in the -- going forward for all eternity, this ad is going to be tagged with him and it should be. You should pay a price for this kind of stupidity and just moral reprehensible approach to campaigning.

BERMAN: Yeah, we put the poll back up there. I can have it here too.

Again, you know, we had Alex Eisenstein of Axios who's done terrific --

SULLIVAN: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- reporting on this overnight, Paul. He was the one who broke that the Ramaswamy campaign put $4 million allegedly behind this ad, which is not an insignificant amount of money. He also reported that the Ramaswamy campaign swears that when they tested this commercial, it worked.

Do you buy that?

BEGALA: No, unless they had some kind of fake test. Terry's exactly right. This is the kind of thing that blows up in your face.

But Terry, I'm interested in what you -- I think you're right. It's not going to work. Why would they double down on it? I think it's because Ramaswamy has a terribly low opinion of the people in his state. He thinks this kind of scum will work. And you and I, having done this for a living for a long time, know it won't. Is that -- why would you double down on that if you're if you're Ramaswamy?

SULLIVAN: You know, the only thing I could think about is when you're losing, you know, you throw for lack of a better word spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks and I think that must be the place the campaign is in. Like, they're so desperate --

BEGALA: Yeah.

SULLIVAN: -- that they're willing to try anything and this was a bit of a Hail Mary. I just -- I can't get my head around, you know, why politically speaking the -- they would ever think this would work.

BEGALA: Can I give you some free advice, like all these politicians? A very, very tough year for Republicans. What would have been good is if he had pivoted and done something really positive at the end because that would have cut against all of the negativity and the clutter. And he's doing the exact opposite.

BERMAN: I know it pains both of you to talk about positive campaigning.

SULLIVAN: (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: Right.

Do you think this -- go ahead, Terry.

SULLIVAN: Like coming into the closing, coming down the home stretch here and running a positive ad -- the poll is exactly right. Running those positive ads matters. And you can -- you can jab at an opponent and you can turn the negative on them if you do it in a -- in a smart --

BEGALA: Right.

SULLIVAN: -- and creative way. And this is just the exact opposite and voters reject it.

BERMAN: Any chance this spreads? We have the graphic up here of the governor's race. Marist had a poll out in the Senate race, which showed it a little bit closer with Sherrod Brown and John Husted.

[07:40:00]

Any chance this spreads into that race because there are good political reporters in Ohio? I know, and I'm not giving them advice, but if I were there, I would be asking Senate candidate Jon Husted what he thinks about this ad. If Donald Trump goes back to Ohio, I'd be asking him what he thinks about this ad.

BEGALA: Right, and Donald Trump's only move is to double down, triple down, quadruple down. And so, you know, if you're -- if you're Husted, you don't want that, right? You don't want to be put on the spot for that. But he's going to be. And he -- the only answer, Terry, right, is to just say, oh, God, no, this is horrible. It's terrible. I disavow it, right?

SULLIVAN: Cut him loose. He's going to lose, 100 percent.

BEGALA: I think he's going to lose, too.

SULLIVAN: I think Husted has an opportunity here.

BEGALA: Husted has a magnificent rear end. Have you noticed that, John? My president told me that, and so I guess it's right.

BERMAN: Go ahead, Terry.

SULLIVAN: Husted has -- but he has a real opportunity here to denounce this and to come out --

BEGALA: Yes.

SULLIVAN: -- and do exactly what Paul and I are talking about is run something a little bit positive here to capitalize on the negativity on both sides of this race, including on Sherrod, and turn this a little bit more positive and say, look, this isn't the kind of -- in Ohio, we're better than this. And as politicians, we should be better than this. So I think he has an opportunity --

BEGALA: Right.

SULLIVAN -- here, but it definitely could blow over into his race and down ballot across the state. This is a real problem for them.

BERMAN: We'll see. It will be interesting to see what John Husted said if he's asked about it or hopefully when he's asked about it.

I do want to, Terry, ask you one thing here --

SULLIVAN: All right.

BERMAN: -- and this is the latest CNN poll that came out overnight. This is approval of President Trump among Republicans here. And you can see this line is going down -- 74 percent. You know, we would all like 74 percent approval, except in the case when it's your own party.

What does that tell you? And is this getting into a danger zone, Terry?

SULLIVAN: You know, it's not a danger zone. Look, as it relates to the midterms, even Cook Political Report has it looking like maybe on the high side -- 19 seats picked up in the House by Democrats -- a 19-seat swing. That's relatively low.

I mean, Trump lost over 40 seats in his first term in the midterms. Obama, in his first midterm elections lost over 60. Going back to -- Paul might remember back to the '90s. President Clinton lost over --

BEGALA: Thanks.

SULLIVAN: -- 50. Historically, the average is 26 seats. So, you know, look, it's -- the president's approval matters but at the end of the day one thing is always true in politics in that voters don't really like politicians and they always want change, and so midterm elections are always about change.

BERMAN: I like both of you. Terry Sullivan, Paul Begala, thank you both for being with us. And I will note when you started talking about the president's comments about John Husted's anatomy, it took all of my energy to keep my eyes up here, because the minute you mentioned it, you --

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BEGALA: Wonderful, yeah.

BERMAN: All right -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: I'm just saying, if women have been -- women's appearances have been talked about for so long, at least it's equal opportunity at this point. It's open season, boys. Commentary is coming and I'm under slept.

BERMAN: Nothing to see here.

BOLDUAN: So let's move on. Terry, I love you. Paul, we know how we feel about each other. J.B. --

SULLIVAN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: -- get out -- get out of my shot. All right, sorry.

New overnight, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Elon Musk was behind the slowdown of Starshield. That is the military-grade service of his Starlink satellite network. Ukraine relies on Starshield to defend itself from Russian attacks and carry out its own strikes. According to the Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk capped the speeds at which Ukraine could connect to that network, which hampered its ability to use drones, intercept missiles, and launch attacks.

One source says -- tells the Journal that Musk and President Trump discussed the matter prior to the decision to throttle Starlink. The paper also reports some U.S. officials believe that Musk acted alone.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy -- he spoke just this morning about this whole thing and about talking to Secretary of State Marco Rubio about it.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: About Starlink, Starshield, it's still limited, but the secretary told me that he will work with his team on this to unblock this question. God bless; it will be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Clare Sebastian is tracking this one for us. There was so much confusion over the last couple of days over what -- how did this start? Who made the decision? I'm not entirely sure it's all completely cleared up, but where do things stand?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I think there is still confusion, Kate. I think, look, to some extent what The Wall Street Journal is reporting, citing sources, somewhat backs up what we've heard from administration officials, including most recently Marco Rubio, saying that this was a decision for Musk and SpaceX. That's what the Journal was reporting, citing sources.

But it also paints a picture of confusion inside the White House, frankly, that mirrors our confusion outside the White House. As you say, it says that one source said that Musk discussed the slowdown prior to it actually happening with both Trump and senior administration officials.

[07:45:05]

It then suggests that Musk actually called the White House when the uproar started about this to suggest that they coordinate their messaging around this. He was obviously -- the suggestion is confused by the idea that they were not admitting to having had discussions. But as you say, also there are some administration officials who still believe that Musk acted unilaterally.

So it is very confusing. I think this extraordinary episode will certainly raise questions going forward about Ukraine that even if it is now restored, and heard from Zelenskyy that hasn't fully happened yet, that even if it is restored, could it be pulled again? What does this say about the, you know, unchecked power of Elon Musk?

And frankly, what will Moscow take from this as these talks are progressing in St. Petersburg and with the Europeans and Ukraine? Will Moscow look at this and feel like U.S. support for Ukraine is, you know, fragile and frankly negotiable?

So I think that even if this is restored, this is an episode that will, you know, stay in people's minds certainly in Ukraine for a while to come, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, and just the position of the Trump administration on this, I think, is a curious one to watch because it's one thing to say, oh, it was -- you know, Elon Musk is the one who makes the decision. But what's your opinion of it and what do you want to see happen with it is something that could be very clearly publicly stated if they wanted to.

Claire, it's great to see you. Thank you for tracking this -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, Kate.

Democratic Congressman James Walkenshaw of Virginia is joining me now to discuss some of this further because he serves on the House Homeland Security and Oversight Committees.

Look, let's start here. You just heard about The Wall Street Journal's new reporting that sources are telling them it was Elon Musk who ordered the slowdown of a military grade version of Starlink, which is a lifeline for Ukraine.

But let's look at what Musk has said publicly as well, because this -- right after hearing from Zelenskyy that this was happening, he posted on X basically this -- basically blaming this on the president, POTUS and saying it's ultimately up to the U.S. military and the president for any action taken.

U.F. senators -- U.S. senators have called for an investigation into who caused this slowdown. If it turns out to be Musk, what should the punishment be?

REP. JAMES WALKINSHAW (D-VA) (via Webex by Cisco): Well, first, I think it's important to note the repercussions of this decision, whether it was Musk or Musk and Trump making the decision together.

Russia has been launching missile strikes against apartment buildings in Kyiv, targeting civilians. As a result of this decision to pull back this capability, those civilians in Ukraine have been at greater risk, and some might have died because of the decision. So it's very, very significant. There's obviously a he said-he said dispute between the White House, Donald Trump, and Elon Musk.

At the end of the day, this capability is operating under a Pentagon contract. And if Elon Musk made this decision on his own, I don't see how that's not a violation of that Pentagon contract. There has to be a full investigation to understand exactly who made this decision, whether it violated the contract they have with the Pentagon, whether it violated U.S. law in any other way. But it's important to keep the focus here on the impact. And the people harmed here are civilians in Ukraine, a country that's fighting to preserve its sovereignty, its territory, and its democracy.

SIDNER: Does Musk have too much power, you think, with all of his government contracts, including the Starlink?

WALKINSHAW: Well, absolutely. And layered onto that is the fact that as we speak, he's spending hundreds of millions of dollars to try to help Donald Trump hold on to his Republican majorities in both the House and Senate. He's the number one biggest donor by far in the midterm elections that are taking place. The conflicts of interest are very, very significant -- of historic proportions here. And the idea that he doesn't have leverage over Donald Trump I think is laughable.

Could Donald Trump, when Elon Musk has this conversation and perhaps says to Donald Trump, I want to pull back this capability from Ukraine, could Donald Trump tell him, no, you're not going to do that, as he, Elon Musk, is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to support Donald Trump's Republican majorities in Congress? I don't think so.

SIDNER: I do want to get your thoughts on what we are learning this morning of the release of retired American teacher Stephen Hubbard, who has been imprisoned in Russia for more than four years after being detained in Russia-controlled Ukraine. He's now free after a visit by U.S. special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

Give me some sense of what this means. We're also hearing from the president this morning that he says that Russia did not demand anything in exchange, but you have seen some of the things that the president has already done when it comes to Russia, which is saying and planning to buy Russian diesel, lowering sanctions when it comes to Russia.

[07:50:10]

Do you think that the release of this detained American is a ploy to curry more favor with the administration?

WALKINSHAW: I'm glad to see this gentleman coming home. I'm glad to see him reunited with his family. It's important to note that cost Vladimir Putin nothing. To hear Steve Wipkoff describe Vladimir Putin, who's a war criminal, as a humanitarian is disgusting to me. So we shouldn't treat this as some kind of significant concession -- the fact that he released one American that he should not have been holding.

I'm deeply, deeply concerned about the spell that Vladimir Putin seems to have over Donald Trump. You know, the deal on Russian diesel will not bring down costs for the American people -- diesel or gas. It's a small part of the global supply of diesel. But it will give Vladimir Putin an economic lifeline at a time where he desperately, desperately needs it, given the war taking place with Ukraine.

SIDNER: Congressman James Walkinshaw, thank you so much for talking us through this this morning. I do appreciate it -- Kate.

New CNN reporting on plans to potentially use a military-grade heat ray at the U.S. southern border. What is that? Well, that is coming up.

And an emotional reveal from actress Christina Applegate that her doctors now tell her she was misdiagnosed with MS. Here's the thing -- we're learning that that's not entirely uncommon. We'll have more on that.

And for more of the stories you need to get your day going, my show "5 THINGS WITH KATE BOLDUAN" is streaming on CNN, on the CNN app, and CNN All Access right now and every morning.

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[07:56:05]

BERMAN: This morning, actress Christina Applegate says she was misdiagnosed with multiple sclerosis. After undergoing new testing, the actress says doctors told her "Congratulations, you don't have MS." But Applegate said she wasn't happy. It only raises more questions and concerns. She says her symptoms have become worse, and she feels now that she's back at square one.

At Chicago's O'Hare Airport, a plane blew out two tires while making an emergency landing. Two hundred forty-five passenger and crew were on board the American Airlines flight from Barcelona. Pilots had radioed air traffic controllers before and reported issues with the brakes. Passengers reported hearing a loud boom when they hit the runway. No injuries were reported and the FAA is investigating.

In Poland, a car came within inches of a girl on a scooter. You can see it right there. The driver swerved to avoid hitting another car before it crashed through a fence and fell off an overpass. Police say the 20-year-old driver was sober at the time. He and a passenger in the car were treated for minor injuries -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: My goodness, whoo.

So there's no -- there is new research showing that AI may be able to use a single photo of your face to predict your biological age and your chances of survival if you have cancer. The findings suggest that your face may reveal much more about your health than you think.

CNN's Jacqueline Howard has much more on this one. Jacqueline, as my children are conditioned to report, their mother is forever 27. But beyond that, how does AI -- how does AI do this?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Yeah, Kate. I mean, this was really fascinating.

So what researchers did -- they trained AI models on more than 40 million facial images, and these models were trained to predict, based on a photo alone, someone's biological age and their mortality risk. And this study was done on cancer patients specifically.

So here's what researchers found. When the AI models assessed people's faces, AI was able to flag which cancer patients were at a higher or lower risk of mortality. Among the patients flagged as being at a high risk of death, more than half of them did sadly go on to die within 90 days of that assessment. Now in comparison, among the patients who were flagged as having the lowest risk, only two percent of them went on to sadly again die within 90 days.

So the way this works -- the researchers say because AI was able to assess based on someone's face, their biological age and their mortality risk, maybe there's something here with these algorithms that may help guide doctors in decision-making around treatments or when assessing someone's overall health. So this technology is still early. It's still experimental, but there seems to be something here, Kate, that could be used as a tool within medicine as a whole.

BOLDUAN: Because that is the next step, right? It's like knowing is one thing, but how can they use it to help with treatment that is a fascinating thing.

HOWARD: Exactly.

BOLDUAN: But what is it? Is it clear what it is about a person's face that could show signs of risk?

HOWARD: It is, and this was also fascinating. So the AI models looked at different parts of the face when assessing

biological age compared with mortality risk. So when assessing biological age, the algorithm looked at the areas around your temples, your forehead above your eyes, and it looked at your laugh lines, like going from the nose to the corner of your mouth. Those areas helped assess biological age.

When assessing mortality risk among cancer patients, the AI models looked specifically around the bridge of the nose and the area under the eyes. And it was really -- it seems to be the hollowness under the eyes were something that the AI model zeroed in on. So those are the parts of the face that appear to give clues to AI about what someone's overall health is, biological age, and again, mortality risk.