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Trump Voter: AI Data Center Fight is About Humanity; 10 Senate Seats Most Likely to Flip in November; Trump and Vance Defend Ramaswamy Amid Growing Backlash to Ad; Victims' Families Distressed Over GOP Ads Depicting Heinous Murders; Massive Strikes Hit Kyiv Hours After Putin Agrees to New Peace Talks. Aired 8:00-8:30a ET
Aired October 22, 2026 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Do you think this issue is going to hurt Republicans in the midterms?
DELSIA BARE, KENTUCKY FARM OWNER: I hope it hurts them.
IDA HUDDLESTON, KENTUCKY FARM OWNER: Maybe they need to be voted out.
BARE: Voted out.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): In this Bible Belt Household, this fight is spiritual.
O'SULLIVAN: For you, it's about more than land. It's --
BARE: It's about humanity. If we don't stop this, there's not going to be a future for humanity. That's anti-human. That's what AI is. Oh, let's let it make the decision.
But it doesn't have any morals. And it can't be held to God's standards.
O'SULLIVAN: Is there any amount of money Zuckerberg can give you to get the hell out of here?
BARE: Nope.
HUDDLESTON: No.
O'SULLIVAN: Really?
BARE: Really.
HUDDLESTON: Her last words to him was, you may get it, but I'll have been a -- you have brought me out of here feet first. You can bring the bulldozers if you want to. You'll have to bulldoze it down around my head.
O'SULLIVAN: You're really going up against -- it's David and Goliath here.
BARE: But I'll remind you, it only took one stone to bring down a Philistine. One itty-bitty little stone in the right place can bring down any giant that there is on this planet.
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Donie O'Sullivan, CNN, Kentucky.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour and a new election forecast just out, with governor's races moving more toward Democrats this morning. We're going to take a look at why, and also where the fight for the Senate is coming down to the wire 12 days out.
And new reporting, a Republican group dropping millions on ads depicting brutal murders and painting Democrats as weak on crime. Why families of some of the victims depicted are now angry and speaking out.
And a bystander jumps in to help when the driver of a school bus suffers a medical emergency.
I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, just 12 days to go until America decides. The battle for control of the Senate is now coming into greater focus. It could all hinge on a handful of races.
Democrats do like their chances, but the margins are very thin and it's far from a sure thing. And this morning, CNN is out with a new ranking of the top 10 seats that could flip the balance of power in November. CNN's Arlette Saenz behind some of these numbers here, joining us now.
What are you looking for? What races are you concentrating on?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, Democrats are excited about the potential of flipping the U.S. Senate this year, but it is far from a sure bet. Democrats will need to win at least four Republican-held seats while holding on to their own. But that also requires them to go deep into red territory to do so.
Now, if you take a look at our latest list of the Senate seats most likely to flip, one through five are all Republican-held seats. Democrat Roy Cooper is in the strongest position to flip a seat in North Carolina. And then there are Democrats who have good chances in other races as well.
But those states that are kind of in the middle right there, four through six, Maine, Texas and Michigan, those will be closely watched over the course of the next 12 days. In Maine, Senator Susan Collins, the Republican, is really in one of her toughest reelection battles yet, but she has defied the partisan lean of her state in the past. And then if you take a look at Texas, this is a state that has garnered a lot of attention, and it has Democratic hopes really riding high.
But the most recent CNN Poll of Polls average of this state shows that there's no clear leader in this race. Yes, Democrat James Talarico is keeping this very competitive in a state that President Trump won by double digits back in 2024. But he still has to contend with the Republican lean of this state.
Then if you take a look at Michigan at number six, that is a state that is a must hold for Democrats. If they were to lose Michigan, they would need to pick up at least five Republican-held seats in this race. The latest CNN Poll of Poll average shows that there is no clear leader in this contest between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and the Republican former Congressman Mike Rogers.
This has really unfolded as one of the most contentious campaigns this cycle. And both candidates are facing major challenges there in Michigan. El-Sayed is having to win over Black voters and Jewish Democrats who might be uneasy with his campaign, while Rogers is contending with the unpopularity of President Donald Trump.
[08:05:00]
And then if you go back to the list and take a look at Kansas and New Hampshire, those two states have flipped their positions on this list since our last ranking. Kansas is growing more competitive as Midwestern states as a whole have grown more competitive in recent weeks. That is a state few envisioned would have been on the map at the very start of this cycle. But you have both Republicans and Democrats spending there big in these final weeks.
And then, in addition to this list, we have a few states that are on the bubble. That includes Nebraska, Mississippi, also Minnesota and South Carolina. Three of those are held by Republicans, one by a Democrat.
Those are races that we will also be watching in these final weeks. But certainly right now, if you take a look at this map, there's a lot of mood and environment that appears to be on Democrat's side, but they still have to win in these very red states. And so this battle will continue over the next 12 days as Democrats fight their way to the Senate majority, hoping to be victorious, but it's far from a sure bet right now.
SIDNER: Yes, we're seeing that many of them are within that margin. They are razor thin. Arlette Saenz, thank you so much -- John.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: From the Senate races to the races for governor across the country, particularly in Ohio, where a poll overnight shows no clear leader between Amy Acton and Vivek Ramaswamy. This morning, we are hearing from the Democrat Amy Acton, the target of a campaign ad condemned by both Democrats and Republicans. The ad from the campaign of Vivek Ramaswamy features Acton's biological mother, whom she hasn't spoken to for decades, and whose husband was charged with physical and sexual abuse against Amy Acton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AMY ACTON, (D) OHIO GOVERNOR 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, are frequent flyers in children's services, was finally removed after a grand jury saw evidence that was so shocking that we were removed from my mother's custody, age of 12.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Again, Amy Acton's biological mother sided with the man charged with abuse against her daughter, Amy Acton. The man fled the state before trial. Despite this, Vice President J.D. Vance in Ohio attacked not the ad, but Republicans, really, who don't stand behind it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Politics is a tough business, and my message to my fellow elected Republicans is if you actually believe in the things, you say you believe in, stop whining about an advertisement and go win the race in 13 days.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Stop whining about the ad. With us now is CNN political commentator, former Trump Communications Director Alyssa Farah Griffin. Thank you so much for being with us.
Can you give us some insight into why J.D. Vance decided perhaps to take that strategy, not to either condemn the ad, say nothing, but to say, you know what, let's stand behind it?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think he's coming from the Donald Trump school of always double down and never admit fault when you're in a campaign cycle and something bad happens, you're somehow wrapped up in a scandal. But here's the problem here is it's becoming a bigger issue within Ohio. Generally, you'd want the governor candidate to kind of pick up the other candidates on the ticket, Jon Husted, down ballot House members.
But now they're all going to be being asked about this across the board because it's become a national story, not just a statewide one. The easiest thing for the vice president to do would be to ignore it altogether. In this, I've said it before.
This is one of the most depraved ads I've ever seen a campaign run. When you like you hear in Amy Atkins voice the pain behind what she went through. This is going to hurt Vivek such a massive way.
If you look at betting markets, his chances of being elected have been massively dropped.
BERMAN: I want to play for you. Nancy Mace, Republican member of Congress from South Carolina herself, a rape survivor who was talking to Jake Tapper, not just about the ad, but about J.D. Vance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): This ad is going to go down as the most shameful, disgusting, offensive ad this election season. Somehow Vivek Ramaswamy somehow managed to limbo under the lowest bar of decency in this country to go after a woman who was allegedly raped by her stepfather and not just like accused. This guy was arrested and charged with child rape, and the idea that the vice president would go to the mattresses to defend this ad might have cost J.D. Vance the presidency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: That last part, what do you think? You think this sticks on Vance?
GRIFFIN: I think it does. I mean, keep in mind, one of the big issues that has plagued this presidency is the Epstein files and child sex abuse. That is something that has broken through across the board.
They've not been able to answer sufficiently for voters. Then you add to this defending somebody in this situation. I don't see how the vice president gets off unscathed.
I would encourage his team to walk this back and not defend it.
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BERMAN: Walking it back doesn't seem like exactly how they do things.
GRIFFIN: It's unlikely.
BERMAN: If I can, I'm just going to push that off there. I want to talk about one other race right now, and this is the race for Senate. And of all places, Mississippi, right?
Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Republican incumbent here against Scott Collom. Why is this interesting?
Well, it's interesting because the president is going to Mississippi to campaign in that race. And I'll remind you, he won by 22 points. What I've been saying is like Texas is chump change compared to Mississippi.
So what does it tell you he's going here?
GRIFFIN: Listen, a couple of things. I mean, there are House races. He wants to boost down ballot candidates.
But I also think that the whole a lot of races that shouldn't be in play. You just did those top 10 races potentially are because the headwinds are just so strong. The tariffs, the war in Iran, high gas prices.
They're feeling like they have to defend deep red places. But there's also a second part of this. I worked for Trump. I was with him in the 2018 midterms. Some of this is also that Donald Trump wants to show up somewhere where he can pack out a stadium and show that people are still showing up for him. And right now, that's really only deep red places he can go.
He's not going to Detroit and packing out a stadium. So that's also part of it is the psychology of, look, people are still standing with me. People still support me.
BERMAN: And as you said this before, he has to go somewhere. I mean, you go somewhere. He probably does help to a certain extent there.
But it does tell you that he feels like maybe she's --
GRIFFIN: He's not racing to Maine or New Hampshire right now.
BERMAN: Alyssa Farah Griffin, great to see you. Thank you very much -- Kate.
BOLDUAN: Millions of dollars spent on ads using victims of violent crime. Now their families are speaking out, and they are angry.
And breaking overnight. Ukraine's president says President Trump should talk to Vladimir Putin the same way that Trump talks to him -- Zelenskyy. As Russia launches a new wave of deadly strikes on Ukraine just after the U.S. special envoy called Vladimir Putin a humanitarian.
Plus, a semi truck left dangling after a crash that sent several people to the hospital and shut down a freeway for hours. Got more details on what happened and how everyone's doing. We'll be back.
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BOLDUAN: CNN has new reporting a Republican super PAC spending millions of dollars on political ads telling the stories of brutal murders depicting Democratic candidates as weak on crime. But now the families of some of the victims depicted are speaking out and they're angry. CNN's Isabel Chapman has this new reporting and she's joining us now.
Isabel, tell us what you found.
ISABELLE CHAPMAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, if you can imagine someone you love was murdered and years later you turn on your TV or watching videos on YouTube and you see their death used in a political ad. That's what happened here. A CNN review found the Senate Leadership Fund, the Republican Party's most powerful Senate super PAC, spent at least $17 million on spots naming specific victims or perpetrators.
We spoke with a number of victims' families who said they were never contacted by the group. To give you an idea of what the ads are like, you're about to see a commercial that features the murder of 18-year- old Jessica Ledford. She was killed in Michigan in the 1990s. I should warn you the language is graphic. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Marc Osborne serving a life sentence for killing 18-year-old Jessica Ledford.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Osborne stabbed her, raped her, strangled her, left her for dead in the park.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHAPMAN: I spoke to Jessica's fiance, Robert Homrich, who said he was upset when he came across the ad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT HOMRICH, JESSICA LEDFORD'S FIANCE: It really caught me off guard. Certainly was not anything I was expecting and to just see him on the screen like that and being used in that way, I guess words really can't describe how I felt. It was very off-putting.
There's more to this than just a political race. And these types of things are not tools for your political campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Is what he's saying. And you also mentioned as well that you spoke to other victims' families who had similar experiences. What did they tell you?
CHAPMAN: Right. So Homrich isn't the only one who says the group never contacted him. I spoke with two mothers whose children's murders were used in ads funded by this group.
One woman, whose five-year-old daughter was raped and murdered in the 1990s, told us she had a panic attack the first time she saw an ad that described what happened to her daughter, Nicole. She asked why the group was, quote, using someone's child's death for political gain.
BOLDUAN: So how is the Center Leadership Fund responding to what these families are saying?
CHAPMAN: SLF didn't respond to questions about its ad strategy, but they did provide us with a statement. "Every life lost to violent crime is an intolerable tragedy, made even worse when it is entirely preventable and the direct consequence of failed liberal policies." Kate.
BOLDUAN: Isabel Chapman, thank you for coming on. It is important to hear from these families -- John.
BERMAN: All right, new deadly Russian attacks against Ukraine after Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, called Vladimir Putin a humanitarian. This morning, wait until you hear what Volodymyr Zelenskyy has to say about that.
And an officer is rear-ended during a traffic stop. The car -- where'd the car end up? Maybe we see it. The car ended up in a pizza place.
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BERMAN: All right, breaking this morning, a new Russian attack on Ukraine at a market in the city of Kharkiv. The mayor says Russia targeted civilians at lunchtime, killing two people. Overnight, Russia launched even more strikes on Ukraine, hours after President Vladimir Putin met with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who called Putin a humanitarian. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted this quote, "Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian humanitarians."
With us now, CNN's Jim Sciutto. Jim, it's great to see you this morning. Look, my understanding is this wave of ballistic missiles shot at Ukraine overnight, none or almost none of these missiles were intercepted.
Do you have reporting on why?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I reached out to Ukrainian officials this morning, asked them why, and they said because of a shortage of interceptor missiles. Why? Because deliveries of interceptors have not arrived.
Now, there's been some reporting recently that the U.S. delayed interceptor deliveries, including putting pressure on U.S. partners in Europe to prevent them from delivering interceptors. Pete Hegseth, Defense Secretary, has denied that, though he has said that quote, our guys need these interceptors too.
[08:25:00]
Which is an argument you've heard from the president himself, that we can't deliver more to Ukraine because U.S. forces need them. And, of course, as you and I have talked about before, U.S. forces used an enormous amount of them in the Iran war. But take this, John, because it's not just the interceptor shortage, right? Over the course of the last week, you have the slowing of those Starlink, Starshield speeds, which has a direct impact on interceptor drones.
Ukraine uses these drones to intercept incoming Russian drones. And without those higher Starlink, Starshield speeds, they can't intercept them. And Ukrainian officials are convinced that the U.S. suspended intelligence sharing that provided early warning, early intelligence warning, of incoming Russian ballistic missiles as well.
Now, again, you've heard from Secretary Rubio and others, not true. I'm told that the U.S. military told their Ukrainian counterparts there were technical or weather issues. I'll tell you this, John, Ukrainians don't believe it. They believe it was deliberate. One more point, the fact that all those things happened, the shortage
of interceptors, the lack of deliveries of interceptors, the intelligence sharing questions and the Starlink speed slowdowns happened immediately following ours and other reporting's a week and a half ago that the U.S. communicated to Ukraine if it does not stop striking Russian energy, it will suspend intelligence sharing and it will disrupt weapons deliveries. Whether that's coincidence, I find it hard to believe. I'll tell you that Ukrainian officials in Kyiv don't believe it.
They believe this is part of a deliberate campaign to pressure them. And they will say, as you heard Zelenskyy say there, that has a direct and deadly consequence every day because they can't intercept that incoming fire and people get killed as a result.
BERMAN: And Volodymyr Zelenskyy seems fed up with this. And we hear it in interviews now. He seems to be much more willing to do.
Let's listen.
(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)
BERMAN: Just, you know, putting his hands up like that, that was maybe the most telling part in that. He really does seem, Jim, why does he seem so much more willing to publicly question President Trump?
SCIUTTO: Listen, he's lost patience, as have a lot of Ukrainian lawmakers and others that I've talked with. Because remember, as they're hearing the president defend Putin and defend Russia, and frankly, repeat Russian talking points, right, about this war, about who's responsible, who's standing in the way of peace, they're getting pummeled every day, right? And they have fewer defenses to respond to that Russian pummeling.
And people die every day. It's not just, you know, damage or inconvenience. People die as a result.
So that collection of things makes the leader of Ukraine, it seems over time, just less able to hold his tongue, to bite his tongue. Now, the other piece I'll say, John, is this, is that many Ukrainians have given up on the U.S. as a partner. They won't say so publicly because they need what help remains.
Some interceptors, some intel sharing. But they don't trust the U.S. as a partner. And that's going to have a big impact on any prospect for peace, right?
Because if they don't trust the mediator, how are they going to trust a deal?
BERMAN: That's a good point. We'll have to see how that plays out, maybe, in the next few weeks. Jim Sciutto, thank you very much -- Sara.
SIDNER: All right, just ahead, a major chemical leak forced lockdowns and mandatory evacuations in Ohio, where the danger stands this morning.
Plus, political spending is proving everything is bigger in Texas. A ton of cash being spent, particularly by Republicans in the Senate race between Ken Paxton and James Talarico.
But will that money move the needle? Our Harry Enten here with the numbers. Those stories and more ahead.
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