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Backlash over Ramaswamy Ad; Michigan Senate Candidates Clash Over U.S. Loyalty; Polls on Control of the House; Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) is interviewed about Ukraine; Bodycam Video Released Shows Mississippi Shooting; Chemical Leak in Toledo, Ohio. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 22, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Dangling there. The crash shut down a stretch of the highway in both directions for hours. The cause currently not known.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Could the wildly controversial ad from an Ohio Republican cost other Republicans running for governor around the country big rating shifts overnight. And one member of Congress, a Republican, said it could cost J.D. Vance the presidency.

The dangerous chemical leak that forced mandatory evacuation. Where do things stand this morning and what will be the lasting impact?

And with just seconds to spare, officers pull a man from a car that was engulfed in flames.

I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, politics can be a dirty game, but it's gotten downright depraved in Ohio. Just 12 days to go to the midterms. The controversy is only intensifying over that attack ad being run by Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor in Ohio. The ad features the estranged mother of Amy Acton, his Democratic opponent, calling Acton a liar and urging people not to vote for her. What the ad fails to say is that Acton was removed from her mother's home as a 12-year-old girl after her stepfather was charged with raping her, and her mother stayed married to him. Now, Acton is speaking out about the ad that is playing off the worst memories of her abusive childhood.

(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, frequent fliers in children services, finally removed after a grand jury saw evidence that was so, just so, so shocking that we were removed from my mother's custody at the age of 12.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Now we are hearing from the president and J.D. Vance. Trump says he knows nothing about the ad, but that didn't stop him from weighing in. While Vice President Vance is telling Republicans he's disgusted with them for whining about the ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, 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.

SIDNER: Look, a number of Republicans are slamming the ad anyway. Ohio senator, for example, Jon Husted, who was actually on the trail with Vance and Ramaswamy just yesterday, said he would not have run that ad. And hearing from Republican Nancy Mace, who was much more pointed, calling the ad "shameful, disgusting and offensive."

CNNs Dana Bash, anchor of "INSIDE POLITICS" and co-anchor of "STATE OF THE UNION," and chief political correspondent -- she has many, many, many jobs and she's good at all.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And friend of Sara Sidner.

SIDNER: And friend.

BASH: And friend of the show.

SIDNER: And friend of the show. All of the things. You are here with us. It's so good to see you. Thank you for coming in early this morning for us.

BASH: You too.

SIDNER: Look, you have covered politics for so long and so thoroughly. And seeing what's happening here in Ohio, do you get the sense that Ramaswamy thinks that this ad is resonating because they have not yet pulled it?

BASH: No. And I don't have -- I don't think that there's any indication that they will pull it. In fact, when the controversy started, that's when they bought the air-time, the ad time, $4 million worth.

As I was sort of listening to your intro and thinking about what J.D. Vance said, who spoke yesterday, we aired it during "INSIDE POLITICS" yesterday and I was sort of trying to digest it. And it speaks to the why. Why did Ramaswamy put this ad up? And it is because polls -- the public polls certainly show that he's struggling in the red state of Ohio to win the governor's mansion, keep it in GOP hands. And it -- the story there is the story across the country, which is that Republican voters are not excited to vote. And he needs to get them out. So, the combination of putting this ad out, which has so many, frankly, disgusting ramifications and insinuations using somebody's estranged mother in an ad, and J.D. Vance saying, well, my problem isn't with the ad, it's Republicans criticizing the ad. If you string those together and think about the big picture that it paints, it's, they are hoping that the Republicans who are diehard Trump supporters but aren't planning on voting, put their, you know, GOP shirts on, team jerseys on, and they go out to vote.

[09:05:02]

And they're also hoping, and this is really the key, that voters don't get the full picture. So, it is -- I was just texting with a sort of veteran --

SIDNER: Clearly they left out the biggest part of this story. Yes, a veteran --

BASH: Exactly.

A veteran Republican operative in Ohio who said, it is going to be an -- up to the Acton campaign and Acton herself to get the facts out there. But it's very, very difficult, especially when people are only getting the information in their algorithms --

SIDNER: Right.

BASH: To get all the -- you know, all of the information out.

SIDNER: And we know that there is an ad with her brother that was out like very, very quickly afterwards explaining.

BASH: Yes, they were ready for it.

SIDNER: They seem to be very ready for it.

But I think what you're saying is, it kind of speaks of maybe a bit of desperation on the part of the Republican candidate.

BASH: Oh, no. I mean, I think you can objectively say that's what it smells like. It smells like desperation. The question is, will it work to get some more of the voters who are planning on staying home out to the polls on the sort of Trump GOP side if they don't have the facts or if they listen to Vance saying, it is time to just be strictly partisan.

SIDNER: Let's move on to another race that's gotten quite personal, and that's the Senate race in Michigan. You saw this again, this fight brought up by the Republican in the race, Mike Rogers, who is again attacking Abdul El-Sayed for his loyalty.

Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: If you are going to go to the United States Senate, we need to know, are you for America or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: To bring in, to question my commitment to the Constitution is really beneath you. I am proud of America. I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Look, El-Sayed was born and raised in Michigan. He is an American citizen. He's been asked this ad nauseam over and over again. But it's still a talking point. So, I guess the question here is very similar to what happened with Vivek and that ad. Do they think it's working?

BASH: Yes. The answer is yes. Very different dynamic in Michigan. You have a Democratic nominee in Abdul El-Sayed who barely won the primary and a whole bunch of Democratic loyal voters who are trying to decide whether or not they vote for him, whether they stay home or some cross over to Mike Rogers. And what Rogers is trying to do, very openly, is say, this is not a guy who represents you.

Now, the dual loyalty thing, that was the furthest that Rogers had gone in saying it really that way. The questions that El-Sayed has gotten over his sister posting in 2012 about his mother being a part of the Muslim Brotherhood, I mean, there have been questions. But to your point, he has answered those questions. But there is enough reluctance among what should be traditional El-Sayed voters that Rogers is trying to continue that.

And it's not just the Jewish community. It's also the black community, which is a core part of the historic Democratic coalition in Michigan. And I mean our colleague Jeff Zeleny was up there saying El-Sayed does not have it wrapped up. So, with any -- anything that the Republican Mike Rogers can say or do to continue to sow doubt, he believes that that is critical to winning.

SIDNER: Yes. And it should be noted, like, you know, El-Sayed is going to be campaigning with the -- Barack Obama.

BASH: Right.

SIDNER: He will be campaigning also with Raphael Warnock, has come out from Georgia. So we will see kind of how this plays out. But both of these races getting pretty darn mean.

BASH: It shows you just how high the stakes are.

SIDNER: Yes, it does.

BASH: Yes.

SIDNER: Dana Bash, it's always good to have you here when the stakes are high, girl.

BASH: Thank you.

SIDNER: Appreciate you.

BASH: Thanks, Sara,

SIDNER: John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, news about the often neglected stepchild of midterm elections. I'm talking about race for control of the House of Representatives. Did you know that there are elections in 435 House districts in 12 days? Look, sometimes it's a little harder to cover because there are so many. The Senate gets such high-profile races. The governor's race that they were just talking about.

But CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten is here to take a look at some really interesting trends that he has spotted in the race for control of the House.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes. Yes, as Johnny B. said, 435 seats that are up. Democrats need a net gain of three, you can see at the top of your screen right here, in terms of control. And what we are looking at right now is advantage Democrats. It's advantage Democrats. You can see it right here.

OK, "The Cook Political Report," right, they rate races, leaning likely solid for a party. The race is to 218.

[09:10:01]

And right now, look at this, according to "The Cook Political Report," 214 for Democrats that are at least leaning that direction, versus just 200 for the Republicans. So again, Democrats in the advantage.

Why is that? Well, we want to focus in on one particular area of the country and one particular state. We're going to go to the heartland. We're going to go to the great state of Iowa.

And why are we going to Iowa? Because keep in mind, Donald Trump won all four of the congressional districts in Iowa. But at this point, look at this, we've got two districts. We've got Iowa's third district. And look at this. It is leaning Democratic. Again, this is a district that Donald Trump won just two years ago.

And it's not the only district that's leaning Democratic. We can go right next door. Let's go to Iowa's first district. Again, Donald Trump won in the first district in Iowa, and yet is leaning Democratic.

You can even go a little bit north in Iowa. How about this one? How about Iowa's second congressional district. Again, Donald Trump won here. And the best that Republicans can do at this point is a toss-up. So, Republicans have real heartland problems. We've been seeing it in the polling data. And it is very much the case in Iowa at this point. BERMAN: And just -- and just to reiterate that, when you talk about

Iowa right now, four Republican seats currently. And it's possible, at least according to Cook, you could be down to one Republican seat in the House.

ENTEN: You could absolutely be down to one Republican seat. And I think that Iowa, in this -- in this case, is very much emblematic of what we are seeing in the House level and the Senate level as well, which is Donald Trump has been dominating, dominating in the Midwest. He did so in 2024. He did so in 2016. Remember, Iowa was a state that Barack Obama carried twice. But what we're seeing right now, and we have seen in the polling data as well, is real problems for Donald Trump and his approval rating among the Midwest voters. We are seeing it in the Senate races, and we are seeing it in the polling as well nationally, where we see that Donald Trump is really struggling with rural voters. And if you know anything about Iowa, there are a few rural voters in Iowa.

BERMAN: There are a few. All right, House races neglected no more. Thank you very much.

ENTEN: Neglected no more, advantage Democrats.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Also breaking this morning, we are getting new details on the massive wave of new Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says that Russian fire -- the way he described it in a post is, "three ballistic missiles with cluster warheads at Kyiv." And he says these are the missiles that explode in air. And as they approach a target and, quote, "devastate everything within a quarter mile radius."

He also said -- wrote this, that "Russia is clearly taking advantage of the slowdown in air defense supplies from our partners." In an earlier post, Zelenskyy said, "three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian, quote/unquote, humanitarians." That's clearly a reference to the U.S. special envoy calling Vladimir Putin a humanitarian just yesterday.

Ukraine's air force says that none, zero of the missiles launched at them from Russia this time were intercepted. My colleague Jim Sciutto says that he spoke with Ukrainian officials today, who says that is because of a shortage of interceptor missiles now.

Joining me now, Democratic Congressman John Garamendi of California. He's a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Thank you for being here.

Another part of this is the military grade Starlink connections, the slowdown, the disruption that we've been talking about now for a week. President Trump, just yesterday, Congressman, said, "I wasn't involved. I don't know who did it. But I was not involved." Do you know if the White House is trying to find out who was involved? Do you know if the Starlink connection speeds have been fixed, as apparently was promised by Marco Rubio?

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): Well, let's understand Trump. Trump has been a liar from the get-go. From the very beginning, in his first administration, I don't know maybe several --tens of thousands of lies. And he continues to lie today. Every time he opens his mouth, you should bet that it is not the truth.

And in this case, of course he knew what was going on. Of course he's been in touch with Musk. Of course he's been dancing with Putin from the very beginning of his administration back in 2016, and he's continuing to do it now. He has private conversations with Putin. What comes out of that? Well, what comes out of that is less and less support for Ukraine.

Trump has always throttled back, reduced the amount of support that the United States has given to Ukraine. And we see it now in the Starlink. Do you think Musk and the president are not in concert on this business of Starlink? Of course they are, either directly or indirectly.

We also know that the American support for Ukraine is indirect. America, at I believe Putin's request, is not directly supporting Ukraine. Our support goes through the European countries. We fund them. They then buy our equipment and they send it on to Ukraine.

[09:15:04]

This is just an ongoing situation in which the -- which Trump is not fully supporting Ukraine. And Ukraine was invaded by Russia. And for anybody in the Trump administration to say that Putin is a humanitarian, that is at best disgusting.

BOLDUAN: But you say of course Trump was involved. But I think what continues to be in question is who would, in the White House, sign off on it? Like, is this knowable information, as a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, of who would have signed off on the Starlink slowdowns?

GARAMENDI: Well, come January 6th, with the new Congress and with the Democrats in control, there will be a flurry of subpoenas to various officials in the White House and in the Department of Defense to get to the bottom of that. Right now, we don't know.

We do know the way in which this administration acts. The way in which they, either directly or indirectly, support Russia's invasion of Ukraine. There was a period of nearly, I don't know, nine months three years ago -- two years ago, in which the United States support for Ukraine was pulled back. It wasn't forthcoming. And that was a period of time in the summer in which Russia was making significant gains or trying to make significant gains in their invasion. The good news is, the Ukrainians are tough. Ukrainians are not standing still. They are doing everything necessary to repel the Russian event. Even though Trump and his administration has been dancing, not with Ukraine. Trump and his administration dances with Putin.

BOLDUAN: Well, let me ask you about --

GARAMENDI: There's example after example.

BOLDUAN: Let me ask you about this.

GARAMENDI: We can go down the long (INAUDIBLE) of it.

BOLDUAN: This is connected to that.

President Trump said that the U.S. did not give concessions to Russia to get Stephen Hubbard released, but the president also said directly yesterday -- directly himself connected him lifting Russian oil sanctions to this man's release from Russian detention. Let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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 would have 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)

BOLDUAN: Congressman, if true, are those concessions worth it to getting a wrongfully detained American home, as we have -- as you have with Stephen Hubbard?

GARAMENDI: Well, we certainly should celebrate the return of a hostage. This man was a hostage. Specifically, arrested, incarcerated, to be a hostage and to be a pawn in the great game. The bottom line of this is, let's take a look at what the result of it is. We're going, you and I, every taxpayer in America is apparently going to spend billions of dollars buying Russian diesel to try to drive down the cost of diesel in the United States. First of all, isn't going to work. We're going to spend a lot of money, and Russia is going to have more money to use to carry out the nefarious schemes in Russia, as well as in Europe, with their drones, you know, over the skies of various European allies.

So, OK, good, your tax money, my tax money is going to support Russia. Now, we'll get some diesel, but that diesel isn't going to lower the price. That price of diesel is a direct result of an action that the president chose to take. And that is to go to war with Iran. That's where this is coming from. That was not a necessary war. But nonetheless, we are paying for that in multiple ways. Higher gas prices, higher diesel prices, and now your tax money going to support Russia in their invasion of Ukraine.

This is absolute craziness. And it is extremely, extremely dangerous to the reputation of the United States around the world, as well as dangerous to the people in Ukraine who are being hammered, hammered by Russia, even though Trump says he's done a good deal. Well, he's done no good deal at all.

BOLDUAN: Congressman John Garamendi, thank you for coming in this morning.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, just ahead, new body camera video just obtained shows the moment a Mississippi police officer responding to a shoplifting call ends up opening fire in a Walmart parking lot, killing a one-year-old baby.

[09:20:04]

The latest on this case.

Also, a major hazardous chemical leak triggering evacuations in Ohio. New details on the error, the EPA says, is to blame for that dangerous release.

Plus, a fire destroys an assisted living center housing more than 100 people. How people are doing this morning.

Those stories and more, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: This morning there's police video out obtained by a local news outlet from the police shooting death of a one-year-old in Mississippi. The shooting happened back in June, but the video comes just days after Mississippi's attorney general said the use of force by an officer was justified. We should warn you that the video is disturbing. Here is some of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop! Stop the car! Stop the car right now! Show me your hands!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:25:03]

SIDNER: The officer's attorney says his client had no choice but to fire. The attorney representing the baby's family says a preliminary autopsy shows the baby, Kohen Wiley, was shot from the side of the car, not the front. That would seem to counter police claims that the car was headed directly towards them.

CNNs Ryan Young is joining me now with more on this.

You do see the car come close to one officer. We are not -- we do not know exactly which officer is responsible for the death of that child. What are you learning this morning about that and about the community's reaction?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, as you can imagine, there have been a lot of questions about this case for months. People have been calling for some sort of action, When you watch this video, and, of course, we are going to play it at some point, but you see the picture of the young child there. And, obviously, this has been very tough for that family.

There are so many questions surrounding this. First of all, there were a lot of officers already there at that Walmart. They happen to be responding to a different call,

When they exit and go toward that car, you do see the car being put in drive. And so, it does move forward. And so the question here is about whether or not the intent was to try to run over an officer or to get away.

And I should also say that the two women who were in the car have not been charged with shoplifting at all.

But with all that said, this is tremendously tough for the family. We have learned, within the last hour or so, there will be a news conference this afternoon, so we'll be monitoring that and trying to get new information. But, Sara, let me play you these 42 seconds that shows the terrible events that happened on that day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two girls are running. Two girls -- two girls are running.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They running?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody running.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop! Stop the car! Stop the car right now! Stop me your hands!

Stop the car right now! Stop the car!

Get the car (ph)! Get the car (ph)! Get the car (ph)! Get the car (ph)!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, now that the attorney general has decided not to move forward, this will not be -- go before a grand jury.

Now, Ben Crump and his team and a local lawyer involved in this, they will be a part of this news conference a little later today. So, we should hear more information from the family. But, obviously, tough video.

SIDNER: Really, really tough, knowing what happened, that a one-year- old is now dead in that shooting.

Ryan Young, thank you so much for coming on this morning and walking us through that difficult story.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

There's new audio out this morning from the moment that fire crews in Toledo, Ohio, were dispatched to the scene of a major chemical leak. A leak that's prompted the evacuation of hundreds of residents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUCAS COUNTY FIRE AND EMS: Caller states that there's a tank, a trailer that is leaking and venting unknown chemicals. There is a cloud of the chemical in the air.

This is a large plume of smoke. We can smell some type of chemical and we're nowhere near this plume.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNNs Omar Jimenez is tracking this one.

What's happening this morning with this?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Well, for starters, officials right now do not see a risk of explosion at this point, which is significant for a few reasons. One, safety of the people around, but also because less than 24 hours ago that was the scenario that they were largely concerned with because of this leak. You heard a little bit from the dispatch there. There were big plumes of smoke, a smell in the air from this chemical tank leak in Toledo, Ohio.

Now, what we understand from the Ohio EPA is that the -- essentially the release was because of an error in transferring this chemical. And the chemical, I'm going to read it because I always forget it based off of top of my head.

BOLDUAN: Well, you know --

JIMENEZ: Yes. It's glycidyl methacrylate. It's like an industrial chemical that's used to make certain plastics, paints and coatings perform better.

But bottom line, it was the fact that some of this was out in the air that was so concerning. It prompted initially evacuation orders that affected about a thousand people, up to -- or up to a mile radius. Almost a thousand people. That has now been lowered to just a few hundred.

BOLDUAN: OK. JIMENEZ: And then the shelter in place orders have been lifted as well.

One of the things they are going to be looking at moving forward, though, is while the risk of explosion now seems to be low, if not out of the picture entirely, they'll be looking at whether this leak started because of an explosion. So, a lot still to learn throughout all of this, but, obviously, a very scary scenario as people were feeling things and feeling that burning sensation in their nose as they were interacting with these chemicals in the air.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Even the, you know, fire crews that were heading there, they could even sense it.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Yes.

[09:30:02]

BOLDUAN: So, Omar, thank you very much. Really appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, websites around the world go dark after A.I. finds a critical