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Vance "Disgusted" By GOP Criticizing Ramaswamy Ad Over Attack; Zelenskyy: Ballistic Missiles Launched At Kyiv By Russian "Humanitarians"; Bodycam Videos Show Fatal Shooting Of 1-Year-Old Outside Mississippi Walmart. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 22, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:31:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So Ohio has one of the most competitive governor's races in the country right now and overnight, as you well know now, it went from competitive to explosive. A single ad sparking bipartisan backlash but now a shoulder shrug from the White House.

The ad from the campaign of Republican Vivek Ramaswamy features the long estranged mother of his Democratic opponent Amy Acton. In it she calls her daughter a liar and urges voters not to support her. But the ad leaves out basically all context, like at the age of 12, that mother lost custody of her daughter after the stepfather was arrested, charged, and indicted by a grand jury for sexual abusing the daughter, Amy, and after that mother stood by that man over her daughter.

Here's Amy Acton speaking out for herself to CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMY ACTON, (D) OHIO GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: You know, I'd hoped he wouldn't sink this low, but of course he did.

I had a childhood of extreme physical abuse and sexual abuse. As a kid, my brother and I have frequent flyers and children's services finally removed after a grand jury saw evidence that was so shocking that we were removed from my mother's custody at the age of 12.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Bipartisan backlash was swift -- has been swift against Ramaswamy, who is standing by this ad. Republican Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, who is in a tough re-election race himself, said, "I would not have run that ad." But enter Vice President JD Vance. He says he's "disgusted," but not by the ad, but by Republicans criticizing it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JD VANCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I'll be honest with you, whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern. But I have to admit that I'm a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me now, CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for The New York Times, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, and Kate Santaliz, congressional reporter for Axios. It's good to see you guys.

Zolan, this now moves beyond Ramaswamy. What is the deal with JD Vance in his approach, do you think, to this?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Yeah, I mean, when you heard those comments yesterday, you can almost sort of think here that the vice president was taking a lead from the strategy that President Trump has exemplified so many times of thinking that you just can't back down no matter the issue when faced with widespread criticism from the media, from outside stakeholders, from Democrats.

But the thing here is this is different. This isn't just facing widespread criticism from Democrats in the media. You do have bipartisan criticism over an issue that -- you know, our politics is a -- it's a cold business in the U.S., but you still think there's some issues that would require putting politics aside and just saying this is -- this is off base and a personal history -- a family history that involves sex abuse you would think would be one of those. But apparently, it's not for this White House.

And again, this -- the Ramaswamy campaign running this ad has prompted broad, widespread criticism not just among Democrats but also among Republicans. You highlighted Sen. Jon Husted's quote. There was also an official who ran in the primary against Ramaswamy, who was further to the right, who has come out and distanced himself from this ad as well. You're seeing criticism among Republicans in Ohio and more broadly nationally among many Republicans as well.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

And Kate, to what Zolan's hitting right here, Axios is reporting that Vance, with the way he's responding to this and approaching this, is setting the tone for a -- his 2028 run with a defiant take on that ad that never backed down as part of his '28 mindset as he thinks too many Republicans sacrifice allies to make controversies go away.

[07:35:10]

What do you think that could mean for 2028, and what else is Axios picking up here?

KATE SANTALIZ, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, AXIOS: I mean, it definitely is clear that he's running the groundwork. He's laying the groundwork for a 2028 run, you know, heavily defending Ramaswamy here and telling Republicans how they should be thinking about this and instead focusing on winning this race and focusing on how important it is to back Vivek here instead of complaining about this. And, you know, he is taking a note out of President Trump's notebook

and just going all in on defending the Republican rather than acknowledging that maybe, you know, some of the Republicans who have come out and called the ad disgusting, like Nancy Mace, or said they wouldn't have done it, like Republican Sen. Jon Husted instead going full in on that.

And you know, it's really interesting that we've seen this divide here within the Republican Party just two weeks out from Election Day -- a lot of backlash to this ad overall. And it's also interesting that, you know, we've seen Republicans not just in Ohio but in other states kind of go ugly and go personal, personally attacking a lot of Democratic opponents here, which shows maybe they're not coming from a position of strength and they're worried about a lot of these races.

BOLDUAN: Zolan, you've been doing some reporting on how President Trump and the team around is laying the groundwork to challenge election results after the fact.

What are you hearing? Where are you watching closely?

KANNO-YOUNGS: Well, I think one thing to say clearly on this note is that there have already been so many actions done by the federal government to assert more control over the electoral process and pressure the states. Remember the attempts to restrict mail ballots -- that did lose in the court -- but also lawsuits to obtain access to voter rolls. We've seen this recent action in California as well when it comes to federal agents scouring voter data to find illegal voters as well and then trying to invalidate that.

You know, adding on top of that, earlier this month, we've seen the President Trump embrace -- meet in the Oval Office with some of these outside election deniers. Tina Peters, who was also -- who convicted in relation with 2020. So remember, like in 2020, we also saw President Trump meeting with some of these outside characters that had some of these fringe ideas. You're seeing him do it again, too, as he makes comments at rallies that try to scrutinize voting machines that have shown to be audited by various outside entities.

All of this has raised concerns among Democrats, among local officials that they need to worry about election interference, not just from a foreign entity, not just from an outside entity, but from the entity that they long relied on as a partner, the federal government.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

Kate, you did a deep dive on fundraising wars between congressional Republicans and Democrats. There are these -- and then you just have the eye-popping spending numbers already, like nearly half a billion dollars in Ohio alone. Axios says this new reporting on top of this -- that money is heading into -- could be heading into Mississippi because that the Mississippi Senate race might be in play and more competitive than first thought.

What are you hearing? What sticks out to you? SANTALIZ: Yeah. So we've been hearing that Senate Republicans are debating three new spending moves, adding additional money into Kansas and South Carolina and putting money into Mississippi for the first time.

Now, this is a state that no one thought Republicans should have to be worried about. They haven't elected a Democratic senator in 94 years, but it just shows that the overall environment for Republicans is not really great right now. You know, we've seen some internal polling that has shown half a dozen Democratic challengers are within the margin of error in very red states, and that's worrying a lot of Republicans. So, you know, the Democratic challenger in Mississippi, he's a strong candidate. He's someone that Schumer has liked, and Republicans are worried about him gaining steam there.

And overall, I think it just speaks to this broader trend that we've seen this cycle of Republicans having to play defense in states rather than spend that money in battleground races where they really need it.

BOLDUAN: And also just highlighting how much money there is flowing into this midterm, which is just crazy pants.

It's great to see you both -- technical, political term. Thanks, guys -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thanks so much, Kate.

Breaking this morning we are getting reports of new Russian attacks on Ukraine at a market in the city of Kharkiv. The mayor says Russia targeted civilians at lunchtime. Two people are reportedly dead there.

This comes after Russia launched a barrage of strikes overnight on Ukraine hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin met with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and said the Kremlin is ready to resume trilateral peace talks next month.

Ukraine says the attacks overnight killed two people, injured 34. And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted this, saying, "Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian humanitarians." A pointed remark because he's referencing Witkoff's comment yesterday, calling Putin a humanitarian for releasing American prisoner Stephen Hubbard.

In a new interview with President Zelenskyy that posted just hours ago by the diary of a CEO online, Zelenskyy was asked how this war ends realistically.

[07:40:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Trump can bring Putin to the negotiating table very easily because he needs to the way he talks about me, President Trump, he needs to adopt that kind of rhetoric about Putin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you think he's not?

ZELENSKYY: I don't know. Honestly, I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Joining me now is CNN political and global affairs commentator Sabrina Singh. She's also a former deputy Pentagon press secretary. And CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier. Thank you, ladies, for being here.

Sabrina, how do you see the Trump administration trying to end this war?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR, FORMER DEPUTY PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Well, you're seeing the Trump administration trying to do what they can to end this war, as this was a campaign promise that Donald Trump said that he would end this war day one in office. But clearly, it's proving to be much harder. And I think you saw how underprepared they are with Steve Witkoff's comments yesterday to Vladimir Putin. I mean, there are a lot of words to describe Putin, but certainly humanitarian is not one of them.

And I think right now, if you look at the battlefield and some of what you're seeing on the screen here of these waves of ballistic strikes that hit Ukraine overnight this is exactly what Russia wants to do. They want to start leveling cities like they did in Mariupol and Bakhmut. They want to make the winter insufferable for Ukrainians by going after energy targets, water, and sewage targets as well.

So to get Putin to the negotiating table -- right now, Putin feels like he does have the wind in his back because you are seeing an almost normalization of ties between the United States and Russia with some of the rhetoric that's coming from Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff themselves. But Zelenskyy is right. It probably is going to be Donald Trump that can get Putin to the negotiating table.

SIDNER: Kim, look, we've seen, you know, Witkoff, of course, pushing and the Trump administration pushing for these peace talks. But in the backdrop of all of this, as was earlier mentioned -- Witkoff calling Putin a humanitarian -- Trump lowering sanctions to buy Russian diesel. And directly after the talks, Russia is bombarding Ukraine with missiles. There's also Trump criticizing Zelenskyy over and over and over.

I mean, how much trouble is Zelenskyy and Ukraine in at this point as far as bargaining power?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Ukrainians very much feel like they're on the back foot, and they're very much feeling the absence of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was one of the people who could get in Trump's ear on the golf course and change his mind about Putin's actions.

You see Europeans right now scrambling to replace that message and get to Trump and get him to pivot back to where he was last October when he was angry at Putin for a lack of progress in talks with Ukraine and was trying to sanction Putin.

So what the Ukrainians are having to do right now is basically play for time. They've got to say yes, like they said yes to the energy ceasefire that Russia then didn't honor a couple of weeks ago. And they're saying yes to the start of technical talks at the UAE and a possible three-way summit with Putin because essentially, they need Trump to get in a room with Putin and Zelenskyy and see that it's Putin who isn't agreeing to any concessions. And it's Zelenskyy saying things like yes, I'll freeze the battle lines where they are in the Donbas right now in exchange for a ceasefire, which is de facto recognizing Russia's control of what it currently holds.

SIDNER: Look, Sabrina, let's talk about the release of an American who was in prison. Trump said that Russia didn't get anything in return for the release of the retired American teacher, Stephen Hubbard, who finally made it back to America after five years about jailed in Russia.

But here's what he said, the president, when Kaitlan Collins asked him about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLIN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: You said you didn't give Russia anything in exchange for his release.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If I would have done that you would not have Mr. Hubbard coming back right now.

COLLINS: So you did give him something in exchange for the release?

TRUMP: And you don't know anything. I mean, you're fake news CNN.

Look, right now, you have a man that's beautifully flying from Russia to wherever -- he's landing in the United States -- that I got out because I had a very good and very fast negotiation with President Putin. If you were to put those sanctions on, or whatever you want to call them, you could forget about him. You'd never see him again. He'd be back in jail for 25 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Did the president just sort of admit there that the sanctions being pulled back was part of this deal to get Hubbard home?

SINGH: He did. And I think just on the release of Stephen Hubbard, I mean, it is always a good day when an American that was wrongfully detained is coming home to his family. And so this is a -- this is a win not just for this administration, but for the American people and his family as well.

[07:45:00]

But look, when you look at how this deal went down, it's not fair to say that Russia got nothing. I mean, Russia did. Russia got its sanctioned diesel being able to be bought and sold on the global market. And that is allowing Russia to continue to fuel its war machine. And in that clip that you just played, the president essentially admitted that -- that if he hadn't done something to give some type of concession to Russia, this deal would never have happened.

So we should be celebrating the return of an American, but it definitely came at a cost. And, frankly, the release of Stephen Hubbard cost Putin nothing. So we did make concessions, even if the president doesn't want to make that as clear as day.

SIDNER: Sabrina Singh and Kim Dozier, thank you both for being here. I really appreciate it -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. A police shooting kills a 1-year- old boy. Police say the car he was in was driving toward the officers. New video now out of the incident.

And one of the biggest issues this campaign season that are scrambling some political alliances. CNN with new reporting on outrage over data centers with fingers now pointed at the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAX MORAN, MASON COUNTY, KENTUCKY RESIDENT: I'm Republican, but due to his stance, I feel he's going to cost the Republicans the House and the Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[07:50:30]

BOLDUAN: So there is now police body camera video obtained by a local news outlet that offers a new view on what the Mississippi attorney general has called a justified use of force in the shooting death of a 1-year-old child. Officers were responding to a shoplifting call -- this was back in June -- at a Walmart when they fired in a moving vehicle and killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley who was inside the car. A warning, this video is disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POLICE OFFICER: Stop! Stop the car. Stop the car right now. Show me your hands.

(Gunshots)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The attorney representing the officer involved who shot says that he had no choice but to fire. The attorney representing the baby's family says preliminary autopsy results show that the baby, Kohen, was shot from the side of the car, not the front, and that contradicts police claims the vehicle was driving directly toward officers. CNN's Ryan Young is tracking all of this and has much more. So Ryan,

there's bodycam and surveillance video that has been obtained by this news outlet. What more are you hearing about it and seeing?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we did get it from Darkhorse and honestly, Kate, the weight of this story, you can feel it as you watch this story. This was a shoplifting call. You see the face right there, the 1-year-old. The two women who were in the car as well, his mother, they have not been charged yet with shoplifting.

So we're going to show you the 40 seconds and, once again, you did say this already that this is difficult to watch. There were some sheriff's deputies already at the Walmart for another incident. And then you can see an employee sort of walk in and alert them that something was going on. And then you see the officers head to the parking lot.

Again, the Mississippi State Attorney General has decided not to charge these officers. This does not go before a grand jury.

But let's watch this for yourselves, and then you can see how this whole 40 seconds plays out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(INAUDIBLE)

POLICE OFFICER: Stop! Stop the car. Stop the car right now. Show me your hands.

(Gunshots)

POLICE OFFICER: Stop the car right now. Stop the car. Get the car, get the car, get the car, get the car, get the car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Kate, so still a lot of questions about this case. We know in other prior cases that police departments consider vehicles obviously weapons. So when she accelerated forward you could see maybe the argument would be put forward that was in fear of their life and that's why they opened fire.

One of the things that people have been claiming, though, and asking the questions about is whether or not if -- why didn't all five officers shoot and whether or not they should have been shooting in a parking lot. These are all questions that people have been asking. Obviously, with this case not moving toward the grand jury, some of this will not be answered. And of course, the officer's attorney basically said they believe this was justified because that car threatened all five officers.

So when you look at this in totality and you see how this is pieced together, there still remains a lot of questions about this. But you have to think about that child that was up front and obviously there's some decisions made in that car as well. People wondering how this case will move forward, and we do believe that the attorney for the family, the attorneys for the family will have some comment about this a little later on this week.

But still just a lot of questions about this case happening in Mississippi now knowing that this will not be before a grand jury at this point.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. I mean, the point is right now there is not a case. Right now it's decided that with -- the Mississippi Attorney General has decided that this was justified. What comes next from the family is where now we will wait to see. As you said, we could be hearing more from the family attorney very soon.

Ryan Young, thank you -- John.

BERMAN: All right. We have new video this morning of a TV reporter in Australia who jumped in to help rescue a man from a sinking car. The reporter was in the field covering flooding near Brisbane when he really became part of the story there. The reporter and a bystander swam out to the vehicle, broke the windshield and pulled the driver to safety.

[07:55:05]

I remember when our late friend Drew Griffin, the great CNN reporter, during Hurricane Harvey ran from a live shot he was on with us to save a man who was drowning behind him, potentially in a river, too. But good job on that reporter.

A judge in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay the state $25 billion for deceiving users about its data privacy practices. The ruling marks one of the largest ever legal penalties for Meta. In 2018, Facebook disclosed that the private information of 87 million users was improperly obtained by Cambridge Analytica. The firm used that information to build profiles of voters. Meta says it will appeal the decision.

Today, New York City Council is expected to vote on banning horse- drawn carriages. This would take effect in June of 2028. Critics say the horses are overworked, get easily scared, and live in inadequate stables. Horse and carriage owners argue the animals are well cared for.

So a gymnastics dynasty dethroned. The U.S. women's streak of seven straight world team titles dating back 15 years is over. China took gold in Rotterdam, barely edging the Americans. Several American stars were absent, including Olympic champs Suni Lee, Jade Carey, Hezly Rivera, and Simone Biles, who is still weighing a return before the Los Angeles Games in 2028 -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John.

The final day to vote in the midterms just 12 days away. One of the issues that has really taken hold for voters this time around is data centers. Fights over those centers could be a factor in who controls Congress potentially. And President Trump is facing opposition to his support for AI data centers from some of his most loyal supporters.

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan spoke to voters in Kentucky on why they're breaking with the president on this issue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE MCGOWAN, HUMANS FIRST ACTIVIST: We are responding to this huge data center overreach, what looks like an invasion across our country, this explosion.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Here in Maysville, Kentucky, a Trump stronghold, activists and locals have gathered to protest the building of a massive AI data center by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not all progress is good, all right?

O'SULLIVAN: President Trump recently -- I think he said, you know, communities that don't want AI centers want to stay backward or something like that.

MCGOWAN: I did -- I did hear that.

O'SULLIVAN: When you hear that, how'd you feel?

MCGOWAN: I said, well, I guess I'm going to be backwards and poor. But I also want to reiterate that not everything the president does do I agree with, but not everything my husband does do I agree with.

MORAN: I'm Republican, but due to his stance, I feel he's going to cost the Republicans the House and the Senate. Maybe by not big margins. It might be very slim margins. But he needs to reverse his stance.

O'SULLIVAN (voiceover): Max Moran is among the locals who have organized to oppose the data center.

MORAN: So, that is Delsia Bare. She's actually nearly blind in her eyes. She's one of the landowners we have been helping since last year. They felt coerced into signing these contracts to sell their land.

DELSIA BARE, MASON COUNTY, KENTUCKY LANDOWNER: Zuckerberg and Meta should have never walked out of that courtroom with a dime left in their damn pockets. Amen.

O'SULLIVAN (voiceover): Delsia and her mother, Ida, live on a 1,200- acre farm a few miles outside of town. The pair made headlines around the world when it was reported they turned down $26 million to sell their land.

IDA HUDDLESTON, MASON COUNTY, KENTUCKY LANDOWNER: They come through the door around May the 2nd, 2025 and said, "We wanted to buy your land for $35,000 an acre."

O'SULLIVAN: Technically, on the contract, you don't know who's trying to buy your land.

HUDDLESTON: Nope.

BARE: It's a nondisclosure agreement.

O'SULLIVAN: But people here believe it's Mark Zuckerberg. It's Meta.

BARE: Mom goes through the contracts, really, with a fine-tooth comb and says I don't care what you do but get out of this.

O'SULLIVAN: What does the land mean to both of you?

BARE: Freedom.

HUDDLESTON: Yeah, life and freedom.

BARE: Should I choose to live totally off of this land that we've got, I could. I wouldn't have to be beholden to anything out there.

O'SULLIVAN: Did they tell you what they wanted to do with the land?

BARE: No, they did not tell us what they wanted to do with the land. They were just in a very big hurry to get it off you as fast as possible.

O'SULLIVAN (voiceover): Trump won this Kentucky county in the last election by a 44-point margin.

BARE: I voted for Trump.

HUDDLESTON: I have every time he's run. I would go questioning it now.

O'SULLIVAN: Trump said if you're against data centers, you're going to end up backward and poor.

BARE: And that sort of pisses you off when you're from Appalachia anyway. You have always been backward and poor.

O'SULLIVAN: Do you think this issue is going to hurt Republicans in the midterms?

BARE: I hope it hurts them. They need to be voted out.

HUDDLESTON: Voted out.