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Erin Burnett Outfront

GOP Donor: Trump's Ambassador & Don Jr.'s Ex Offered "Quid Pro Quo"; Democratic Senator Says He Was Blocked From U.S. Base As Part Of A "Cover Up"; Arizona Candidate Says She Was Raped While Out Posting Campaign Signs. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired October 08, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:21]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

The breaking news, it was all a quid pro quo. A GOP donor taking on Trump's now ambassador to Greece, who's also Don Jr.'s ex, as the president's own stock trades are also raising new major questions tonight.

And more breaking news this hour. Senator Chris Murphy says he was denied access to multiple American military sites in the Middle East. He points the finger at Secretary of Defense Hegseth. Senator Murphy will be OUTFRONT.

And she's a Democrat running for Congress in Arizona. She says she was raped by two men as she was trying to fix campaign signs that were knocked over. Bernadette Greene-Placentia is speaking out. She's our guest tonight.

Let's go OUTFRONT.

(MUSIC)

BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, corruption. Trump and his team facing mounting questions tonight about a growing list of corruption allegations, which now include Trump's ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who just before her Senate confirmation is accused of begging a top MAGA donor for $100,000 to pay off her American Express bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Do you have any reaction to a U.S. government official, in this case, a U.S. ambassador, asking someone to pay off debt in exchange to access to other government officials?

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, so with that hypothetical, Jim, obviously, I don't love that, but I, you know, I don't know exactly who you're talking about. I don't know the full details.

REPORTER: Sir, anything new on the reporting from "The Wall Street Journal" that Ambassador Guilfoyle had sought financing --

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Yeah, guys, let me tell you something. I'm not going to comment on a story that literally posted a few hours ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Rubio, of course, was in Greece when he said that, so that's quite ironic. The vice president saying he hadn't heard anything of a story. Generally speaking, he is quite up-to-date on what's all over social media and all over the newspapers and all over the press, so that seems a little hard to imagine.

But while the administration claims to not know the details, the man at the center of the story is speaking out. Eric Deters is sharing text messages from Guilfoyle with "The Wall Street Journal" and messages on other apps, which read, "Honey, please, I need you to get this done for me today. And you can just send it here. It won't show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express. That's all that will show, please."

And just moments ago, Deter spoke to Jake Tapper, and he did not hold back when it comes to his true feelings about Guilfoyle and the Trump family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC DETERS, FORMER POLITICAL CANDIDATE: Right before her Senate confirmation, she says to me, I need $100,000 to pay off my American Express card or I'm not going to become Greek ambassador. I said, Kimberly, why should I do this for you? And she told me, it's in the text messages, I'll be your ride or die forever in the Trump administration.

There was no question it was a quid pro quo. I bashed the Bidens all the time for what I saw as shadow criminality with Hunter and the family. Well, what the Trumps are doing is just totally different. They're adding to their wealth just out in the open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Of course, to the tunes of hundreds of millions of dollars, wealthier at least, for Trump's children since he took office for the second time. Guilfoyle, in her case, wanted $100,000, which is pocket change in the context of what I said. I mean, they've made at least, the Trump family, $2.2 billion during Trump's first year back in office.

Let me just say that again. $2.2 billion in Trump's first year back in office. It's impossible to grasp that. Now, much of it has come from crypto and these coins. Trump has a coin. The first lady has a coin. His family and the son of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff announced a $2 billion crypto deal in Dubai.

And then there's the questionable investments, and I can't go through all of them because it would take too long, but just on August 18th, Trump purchased up to $5 million of SpaceX bonds. Two days later, an announcement came from the administration saying President Donald J. Trump launches the golden age of space transportation, from which SpaceX, of course, is going to make a lot of money because they're trying to get more than 1,000 launches by 2030.

And I also will mention just today, Trump gave Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, the Medal of Science.

Trump's son in law Jared Kushner also today responded to reports that he's profiting from Trump's presidency, including CNN's reporting that while he takes the lead in negotiating Mideast peace deals, his company has a major stake in a firm linked to Israel's military.

Now, Kushner, of course, received millions of dollars from Middle Eastern countries after dealing with them in Trump's first administration. Kushner responded, linking to this site where he responds to that claim and more, denying conflicts.

But the known corruption and cronyism of Trump's inner circle is now spreading wider. There's the reports that two of Trump's top political advisors, Chris LaCivita and James Blair, were making six figures helping a pro-Putin party keep its grip on power in the Balkans.

[19:05:03]

Those are the two men who are supposed to be overseeing the midterm strategy for Republicans to win.

And the American public, frankly, are being confronted with this and seeing more and more of it. According to Gallup's latest poll, 89 percent of Americans say corruption is widespread throughout the U.S. government. That is the highest in 20 years. And I think it's just worth saying in this divided world we live in that I don't think you can find 89 percent of Americans who agree on anything in U.S. politics, but they agree on corruption in the U.S. government.

And of course, there's also the irony with Trump, which is that corruption is something he went after when it came to Obama, Clinton, Biden, and Harris.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She's corrupt. She's a corrupt person. I'm running against a totally corrupt person.

We will evict Joe Biden, the most corrupt president we've ever had in history.

Hillary Clinton is the most corrupt person ever to seek the office of the presidency of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And online, the Obama administration, he wrote, is turning out to be one of the most corrupt and incompetent in U.S. history. Well, now, Americans see the wealth accumulation of the Trump family, which is astounding. Again, $2.2 billion in the first year since Trump came back in office, and they don't like it.

Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT, live outside the White House.

And Kristen, what are you learning from your sources there about the thinking that corruption is more and more a focus? It's something that almost 90 percent of Americans have a real problem with. And now you have these allegations against Ambassador Guilfoyle, which really seem to be breaking through in all sorts of different types of publications.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, when it comes to Guilfoyle, I do think that's a separate node than the rest of what you're seeing. In terms of Guilfoyle, I've heard almost nothing from this administration. You saw Marco Rubio's public response to that. That's kind of been the response I've seen behind closed doors as well, this idea that -- you know, this is just a story. I've heard a lot of defenses of her and there is kind of an understanding among Trump's inner circle that Kimberly Guilfoyle was once a member of Trump's inner circle, somebody who was engaged to Don Jr. somebody who might know a lot about the Trump family and about the Trump presidency.

And there's been a hesitancy to speak out against her. But I do want to note the larger picture here, which is that, as you noted, 89 percent of people believe that there is corruption in the US government. And one of those people is Eric Deter, somebody who is a loyal Trump supporter, somebody who donated a huge swath of money to Donald Trump, and by the way, still considers himself a Trump supporter. But one thing he has a problem with is this idea of corruption.

So even though we are hearing almost nothing from the administration, there is going to eventually have to be an answer for this and some kind of reckoning because you're seeing actual Trump voters look at this and say hey this is not something that's okay with me.

And I have had people speculate Americans across the country that maybe if the economy was doing better if they were doing better, they wouldn't be looking at this but it does certainly feel to the average American even the average Trump supporter that they are having a hard time paying for groceries and gas and just surviving and yet all of these people are making millions upon billions of dollars.

BURNETT: Yeah. All right. Thank you very much, Kristen, at the White House.

And everyone's here with me now.

And, Ambassador Flake, let me just ask you, because you served as ambassador to Turkey, so you know the importance of the ambassador to Greece, right?

JEFF FLAKE (R), FORMER U.S. SENATOR: Yeah.

BURNETT: This is an important position. Marco Rubio was just over there giving that big speech about Western civilization in front of the Acropolis. So, what's your reaction to these allegations against Ambassador Guilfoyle?

FLAKE: Well, if this was the first thing, it would be something for officials here to say, well, we don't know what's going on. Let us look into it. But this has been going on for a while.

There were allegations that she told a Greek official that we can take out any government we want. Allegations that you know she's treating her staff horribly and firing them if they don't bring her ice cubes at 4:00 a.m. Traveling around with the energy executive from the United States doing deals in neighboring countries that might benefit them or others.

It just -- this is the latest in a long string, and I can tell you that's an important part of the world. We need a serious ambassador there, and we don't have one.

BURNETT: And, S.E., you know Kimberly Guilfoyle, Ambassador Guilfoyle, very well. And this is as bald-faced awful as it gets, but Ambassador Flake's laying out all the layers of the onion beneath it that now are being discussed in the context of what's being described as $100,000 or else pay off to American Express.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. I think some of the other characters that are being discussed in the corruption net are not household names. Everyone knows Kim Guilfoyle, either from her Fox days or her days in the White House or her days engaged to Don Jr.

[19:10:07]

I don't think a lot of people would be surprised to learn all of this. I'm not. I'll save my personal, you know, my personal feelings about Kim for another day because it's not relevant.

This is -- this is bad. This is really, really bad. She should have to answer for this.

And it paints a picture of an administration that is full in to the corruption and the cronyism and the nepotism and the self-dealing and pocket lining.

And I think Kristen said it another time, things are great, the economy is swinging, you might not care as much. I know everyone says they care about corruption, like they say they care about democracy. But things are not good, and they are almost rubbing it in our faces.

That's how it feels, the largesse, the -- we're doing great, sorry you're not. It almost feels as if they're rubbing it in our faces. So I actually think this has a pretty big impact on the election.

BURNETT: You need a household name, somebody like Kim Guilfoyle, Van, to have it break through. I was noticing recently Jon Ossoff on the stump as part of his stump speech where he takes several minutes and went through, it was a Don Jr. investment in a company that Don Jr. invested in with a little-known private equity firm that never would have gotten a lot of money. Suddenly, his dad's a president, gets all this money, invests in this company, and it gets a Defense Department contract and boom, it shoots up.

He laid it all out with all the names and the details and the state, and the audience was wrapped.

VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah.

BURNETT: And I just -- I noticed that because that's new. And now you have this Kimberly Guilfoyle story. Does this break through?

JONES: Well, sometimes I think that Kimberly Guilfoyle may not be a very good ambassador. That was what I was kind of noticing from the coverage. She's terrible, and it just rubs in people's faces.

Why does this matter right now? It matters right now because you have a Republican party that is in the toilet and it's starting to swirl because it doesn't seem like they care about regular people. The worst thing you can say about somebody when they're going for public office, do you care about people like me?

If you're sitting up here spending $100,000 on an American Express card and trying to get people to pay it off so that you can get some kind of kickback, meanwhile, the administration you're in is throwing tariffs on our farmers and driving, you don't care, you don't care, and your whole crew doesn't care, and that's why this matters, what, three or four weeks before the midterm.

BURNETT: Right, we have the New York Fed coming up this week and talking about tariffs and their impact on prices, sort of black and white tried and true analysis.

And, Ambassador Flake, while this is happening, Trump is doing what he often does in many ways, but one of those things is staying up really late with social media posts, which I do find unnerving because you want the president of the United States to be ready for the 2:00 a.m. call and not because he's up drinking Red Bull rage posting.

Eleven thirteen p.m., he posts about the Michigan Senate race. Mohammed El-Sayed's a terrible candidate. He goes on to call him a radical extremist terrorist sympathizer and no different from his best friend America hating Hasan Piker.

So, then, around 11:22 p.m., he posts about the Texas race. James Talafreako, as he calls him, is missing in action, no one's seen him, where is he, what's wrong with him? By the way, Talarico's campaign says he's recovering from the flu.

What -- but what's Trump doing?

FLAKE: Well, one thing, he's up all night and sleeping through press conferences. I mean, that's the -- first and foremost, if you're going to be tweeting something at night, you know, make sure you're up and ready for the morning.

BURNETT: Because he does --

FLAKE: He does. And that wouldn't matter as much. I mean, that's a tough job. And shoot, I fell asleep in a number of committee hearings, I'm sure, during the day.

But when you're, you talking about sleepy Joe Biden all the time, and then you're seeing sleeping, it just doesn't go off that well.

But, you know, the late-night things, I don't know if they're any worse than what he's tweeting at 6:00 a.m., but it's all bad. The crass, crude, vulgar language that he often uses, referring to his opponents, is just, it's just wrong, and it just, it doesn't stop. It's into the night, into the morning, all hours of the day.

CUPP: No, moms call this self-soothing. Right? We sleep train our babies, right? And we teach them to learn how to soothe themselves, to get themselves back to sleep, right? To learn this kind of emotional regulation.

I think this is self-soothing for him. I think he knows he's up against the wall. We always see these, you know, posting rants that go on for hours and hours when he's really politically up against it.

And he knows that his party is really stuck in it and it's largely of his own doing, his tariffs and his war. So, I think he is, he's trying to self-soothe.

BURNETT: And let me ask, I want to ask you about Talarico because obviously Trump's picking on something there, Van. That's true, which is Talarico's been off the campaign trail. He calls him Talafreako, for, what, several days?

[19:15:03]

JONES: Twelve days.

BURNETT: Twelve days, and Trump's trying to get into that.

JONES: Yeah.

BURNETT: And now, Talarico said he had the flu, he came out and did a Zoom or something about that. Does that have an impact, though, him having been off the trail this time before the election.

JONES: Look, Trump doing all his little stuff is not going to make any difference at all. Him being mad at Democrats is 10 years old. I do think that Talarico being off the trail isn't great because he's very effective on the trail. And when you're on the trail and you're in a room with 100 people and they like what they hear and they post something and they go in their WhatsApp group, it spreads.

So, every day you're not on the trail, you're missing those opportunities to keep growing. And so, you know, I had the flu last week. By the way, if you've not gotten your flu shot, get your flu shot. This flu is serious.

But, you know, 12 days is a long time. But whatever Trump says about it, he Trump's ability to influence anybody outside his little cult has evaporated. And so, he can say whatever he wants to say. But Talarico doesn't get back. BURNETT: You're even more sanguine though about it. I mean, in terms of him being off the trail, you don't think has that much of an impact?

CUPP: It is conspicuous to Van's point, and so people will talk about it, and this is crunch time. You want him. He's not an untalented politician that you want to hide. However, I don't think the majority of people in Texas are enthusiastic to vote for James Talarico.

I think they are enthusiastic to vote against Trump. Him being off the trail, I think, is less of a problem than it would be for some other candidates.

BURNETT: You know, Ambassador, I'm also curious. You see whatever your algorithm feeds you. So for a while, it was, oh, the Senate could go either way. Then it was, it's going Democrat. And every single poll showed that.

Now it's swinging back the other way. No way. The Republicans are going to hold it. Okay, just to cut through all of that, how do you see it?

FLAKE: Well, on this question, I agree with S.E. Stay off the trail. Don't risk saying something about the economy or whatever else that Republicans can then turn around into fresh things because he's up right now.

I've always thought, until a couple of weeks ago, there is no way Democrats will take the Senate. I've started to think it is a possibility. And I don't know. I mean, there's an ebb and flow all the time in these last couple of months.

But I'm not sure it ebbs the other way again. I don't know what turns it around. Diesel prices aren't really going to come down. The war's not going to end. So, yeah, it's possible. It's possible for Democrats.

JONES: The challenge on our side is Republicans have a lot of money that they can continue to fire at us. And so, they have more money than we do. But, man, they're firing at a wave that's coming, and we'll see what happens.

BURNETT: And they've had to use it a lot in places they didn't need to, like Texas.

All right, thank you all very much. And next Wednesday, don't miss the CNN Town Hall. I'll be hosting with the Democrat James Talarico, who's running in that critical Texas Senate race that is live Wednesday at eight o'clock Eastern.

And OUTFRONT next, the breaking news, the defense secretary now saying the Pentagon is going to live stream an execution by firing squad so that anybody can watch it, the new town square execution.

Plus, a Democrat running for Congress in Arizona says she was raped by two men while she was trying to fix campaign signs. Bernadette Greene- Placentia is our guest.

And breaking news, Hurricane Isaias, now a dangerous category two, growing stronger, about to become the first hurricane to hit the US mainland in two years. A hurricane hunter just flew through it. Landon is going to talk to us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:22:55]

BURNETT: Breaking news, the war in the Middle East escalating tonight. Let me show you these images from the main airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It's a dramatic video from the airport at the Capitol there, shows a massive fire, plume of smoke, after a reported missile attack.

And look at this plane on the runway. totally destroyed. That is a passenger plane.

Now, we are not able to confirm that this plane was hit by Iranian- backed forces, but they do claim responsibility for attacks against two civilian airports and an air force base in Saudi Arabia, which come as a brand-new Congressional Research Service report reveals the staggering amount of damage to U.S. military equipment during the war with Iran. They say 81 different aircraft have been destroyed or damaged, worth up to $3.3 billion, nearly double the amount of aircraft that were reported as lost or damaged in May.

Now, the report's release comes just days after Democratic Senator Chris Murphy announced that he tried to visit multiple U.S. military facilities and bases across the Middle East to see himself the effects of Trump's war. He was turned away. He says he was unable to meet with military leaders on the ground either.

Senator Murphy is now OUTFRONT. He's on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

And of course, Senator, it was in that capacity that you were going throughout the Middle East. And you say this is the first time during two decades that you have spent in Congress that you were turned away like this.

What reason were you given as to why you could not access any of these military facilities, which, by the way, we've heard from reporting and even the former director of the CIA are now rendered inoperable?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Yeah, the reason was made-up. The reason was that it wasn't safe to bring me onto a base, but that's just not true. The fact of the matter is I've been in the Iraq war during the height of the surge. I was brought to forward operating bases in Afghanistan when the Taliban was actively targeting our troops.

This was not a question of safety. This is a question of cover-up because in addition to not being able to get on those bases, as you mentioned, I simply asked for the Department of Defense leadership in the region to come brief me at the embassy, and they refused to even come talk to me.

[19:25:01]

That's proof positive that this is about a broader effort to try to cover up, to try to hide from members of Congress and the American public the scope of the damage.

I did get to see the damage to the U.S. Embassy because the State Department did support my trip there, and it was extensive. The attack on the U.S. Embassy happened at night. Had it happened during the day, there would have been lots of Americans killed.

And it's just a sign of how unprepared Trump was for this war. It's inexcusable that he left our bases and our embassies so vulnerable, and he doesn't want us to see the damage because if we did and we could explain it to people back home, I think they'd be even madder that Trump started this war without a real plan.

BURNETT: And, of course, it is something important for Americans to understand. The bases across the Middle East are essentially rendered inoperable, the significance of what that means for America's role in the world.

You mentioned that you did get to see what's left of the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia. By the way, I just want to highlight something you just said there, Senator, because you said it was struck at night. And given that we know that Iran, from our own and other reporting, received information from other countries, including China, that would seem to be a matter of choice.

And I guess that's sort of worth noting, right, that Iran could have hit it when they wanted to. They chose to do the damage, but they chose to do it at night. The video again from the airport, okay, during that explosion. And obviously, that was right after you left, so you could have gotten stuck there.

When you were there, I understand, Senator, there were repeated alerts of missile strikes, which is something I've not experienced when I'm in Saudi Arabia. It's a sea change in security.

So, when Trump repeatedly claims the Iran war is ending, what does that really mean?

MURPHY: Well, we're in a regional war right now. The Saudi capital is under siege. I think those explosions happened at the airport literally moments after I left, so we might have been. talking to each other while I was still in Saudi Arabia.

This was totally foreseeable. Those explosions are happening because the Houthis, which are an Iranian-aligned group inside Yemen, have started a war against Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are conducting a massive ground campaign now inside Yemen. The Houthis are lobbing missiles into Saudi Arabia. They have been successful in hitting a lot of the pipelines that send oil to the rest of the world, which is going to continue to drive prices up. This is not just a war now between the United States and Iran. This is

a war between the United States, Iran, Russia, and China, who, as you said, are supplying Iran intelligence, a war between Israel and Lebanon, and now a war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The entire Middle East is a war. You can feel it when you're on the ground in Riyadh, and it was another foreseeable consequence of a war of choice.

BURNETT: So, the Pentagon today announced something, just as you are returning, that I just have to ask you about, Senator, in your role, as you said, 20 years on Capitol Hill and now in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The Defense Secretary announced that the firing squad execution of the man who killed 13 people in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood will be live streamed so that everybody can watch him be killed by firing squad. I want to play what Hegseth said about his decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: He's going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be. And we'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Senator, the execution by firing squad just on its face would be the first of its kind carried out by the United States Army since World War II. Obviously, live streaming it for anybody to be able to watch it for themselves is unprecedented. Your reaction.

MURPHY: I actually hadn't seen that video. That's the first time that I'm learning he's going to televise it. I mean, that's disgusting. What is he mimicking, ISIS executions?

I mean, I understand that in this country we have the death penalty, but public executions is medieval. It's frankly one of the things that we abhor about terrorist groups.

And the fact that the United States is doing it, I just learned this. That is just absolutely, extraordinary galling. No matter whether you support or oppose the death penalty, public hangings and executions, that's what America has become? That's pretty extraordinary.

BURNETT: Senator Murphy, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

MURPHY: Thank you.

BURNETT: I'm going to speak to the Arizona congressional candidate who says she was raped while repairing a damaged campaign sign next. She is deciding to speak out. She'll tell you why.

Plus, revenge. New reporting tonight that the Justice Department has its sights set on former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Why? Because of her testimony before the January 6th committee.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:34:02]

BURNETT: Tonight, a disturbing story about a Democratic candidate for Congress. Bernadette Greene-Placentia, who's in an uphill battle to unseat a Republican incumbent in Arizona, says she was knocked unconscious and raped by two men while out fixing campaign signs in a Phoenix suburb. Greene-Placentia says it happened sometime after midnight on August 14th that she was often picking up knocked over campaign signs at that hour to avoid the intense heat in August in Arizona.

She then reported the rape to police on August 31st, saying initially in those first days, she kept what happened a secret out of shame. She chose to speak out publicly just yesterday to a local newspaper, "The Phoenix New Times", saying she was, quote, "embarrassed and just wanted to forget it happened."

Maricopa County Sheriff's Office says it is investigating and Bernadette Greene-Placentia is OUTFRONT now. She's a Democratic candidate of Arizona's eighth congressional district.

And, Bernadette, look, I'm so sorry to have to be talking to you for the first time under these circumstances.

[19:35:03]

And just share with us what you're comfortable sharing. This is August 14. It's so hot during the, day you're out putting up knocked over campaign signs in Sun City, I understand right outside Phoenix, going back to your car when someone hits you from behind.

What do you remember about all this?

BERNADETTE GREENE-PLACENTIA (D), CANDIDATE FOR U.S. HOUSE IN ARIZONA: Well, you know it was pretty common for -- you know, my -- me, my staff, my husband to go out in the middle of the night. You know, like you said to avoid the heat and also traffic and so, I've been doing this actually since July all through August.

And, you know, I was coming back. I had seen some signs repaired, you know, fixed them. And then the next thing I know, I'm like, my bed is really uncomfortable. And I realized that I was laying on my back and there was a man on top of me. And then I, you know, felt this sharp pain and then the weight lifted off and another weight came on me and that's when I remember starting to like fight back.

I don't really remember driving home. There's a video of me, you know, leaving the house, coming back, looking pretty beat up video of me the next day, just, you know, kind of out of it. And I don't have a lot of good memories of that.

But I did not tell my husband or staff until, you know, a couple days later and it was like, look, this happened. I want you guys to know, but I don't want to talk about it. I'm done and, you know, it was hard for me. I'd been a truck driver for 27 years across four million miles and I'd managed to take care of myself.

And now, all of a sudden, I'm in this situation where I couldn't defend myself and I was very angry. I was embarrassed and the last thing I wanted to do was talk about it. So, you know, I just kind of wanted to bury it.

And obviously, in hindsight, it's like why didn't I get to the car and call the police or go to the hospital? You know, I had an obvious, you know, big bump on the back of my head, bruises all over and you know, I just -- it's hard and I understand why women want to just bury it and don't want to talk about it.

BURNETT: I think -- I think people absolutely can understand that. I'm -- I'm trying to understand -- I know that obviously the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is now investigating burn it out because you know you did go to them on August 31st, but you said for those couple of days that that you didn't tell anyone, then you told your husband and your -- and your staff.

What were those couple of days like for you? I can only imagine -- I truly can't imagine what it must have felt like during that time, yeah.

GREENE-PLACENTIA: You know, I don't remember the first couple of days real well. And then after I told them, you know, there was like a week and a half, two weeks where I was just really angry.

I was angry that this had happened. I was angry that I had not been able to defend myself. I was angry that you know I didn't know who had done this and, you know, and I hate to say it, you know, ashamed, embarrassed. I have a 21-year-old daughter that you know new mom. drove across country and was able to take care of herself. And now she's worried that mom can't take care of herself.

You know, my husband's feeling guilty like he should have been there and he couldn't do anything. So it was, you know, it affected my whole family and even my staff was like, Oh my gosh, I wish you know we'd gone with you or something and it was just this anger.

I could not wait to get to the gun range fast enough. I don't know that that was my way in my therapy way of taking back some power or whatever. But basically, you know, within two weeks I realized that I was speaking to a group of seniors telling them that I was going to fight for them to, you know, get the VA funding and staffing and the money for Medicare and SNAP and you know to reform Social Security.

And as I'm telling these folks, I'm going to fight for them in the back of my head. I'm thinking, well, Bernadette, you know you're not fighting for everybody if you don't stand up and tell women what happened and that it is OK to come forward and that it's not their fault. They didn't let something happen to them and that I did need to speak up.

And we actually spoke to the reporter. I actually spoke to the reporter weeks ago. I had no idea the story was going to break yesterday. BURNETT: Oh, wow.

GREENE-PLACENTIA: You know, she did her due diligence and everything and that's just when it happened. So, my world kind of exploded yesterday.

BURNETT: So, I mean, how does it -- you're obviously a candidate for public office, right? So, it's in that capacity that you have the pressure to speak out. It's also in that capacity, I guess, do you see it, Bernadette, that you have this opportunity and this platform to speak out?

[19:40:03]

As I hear you talking about, you know how strong you are in 27 years being a truck driver driving across the country and you know, all the things that you went through where something could have happened and it didn't happen, right? And that that you felt this incredible weakness and anger and vulnerability, all the things you felt now. But yet you also have this incredible platform to be able to speak to others who maybe wouldn't be heard if they spoke out.

GREENE-PLACENTIA: And that's really what it came down to. I recognize that it's hard for women to come forward, but maybe if they see someone who knows, you know, I'm going to get an already am getting incoming fire, people questioning everything and you know some people like, oh, well, campaigns don't do that.

Well, we're not a well-funded campaign. You know, unfortunately, because they think that this is a red district. You know, people aren't supporting it, even though we know that this district is winnable. But that means I don't have security. That also means I don't have somebody else to put in those signs.

And we post videos of me, you know, pounding rebar and hey, do you know where your congressional candidate is at one o'clock in the morning. She's out there doing the hard work.

So when I decided to speak out, I recognize that maybe if they see somebody in the public light saying it is OK to come forward, it is OK, you will be believed, there's somebody that's going to fight for you. I keep telling folks the reason I ran is to give a voice to everyday Americans, the working class, and that means now I have an opportunity is as horrible as the situation is. to also be a voice for women that have been victims of sexual assault.

BURNETT: So I have to ask you something else now that you're speaking, Bernadette, and that is, you know, you talk about how -- you know, part of your campaign ad is -- you know, you're not well-funded, so I'm out there every night picking up the signs, right? I mean, that was part of what you told people, right? It was a routine and you followed it as you said all the way through July into August.

And then when you were there doing that in the quiet of night, there's these two men. Do you think that your attackers could have known your routine and targeted you specifically? GREENE-PLACENTIA: So I mean, I've been asked the question a lot. I came to and I heard one say ick and the B word. In my head, I filled in democratic, but I cannot swear that that is what was said.

However, I was repairing signs. My picture is on my signs all over the district. I did get the feeling that I was recognized. I don't know because -- you know, that routine varied. Sometimes, you know, I went out at midnight, 1:30 or even two. You know, usually I had somebody with me.

So, I don't know that somebody was posted up watching me. I have a tendency to think it was more a crime of opportunity, but, yeah, I can't discount that, you know, maybe I was targeted or maybe, you know, it was a crime of opportunity. But they recognized me, so they wanted to teach me a lesson or something. I don't know. That would be a question for the police, I guess.

BURNETT: And obviously, as we said, they are now investigating. Well, Bernadette, thank you very much for speaking out and sharing this to people so far, obviously, wide beyond your district as well. Thank you.

GREENE-PLACENTIA: Thank you for having me.

BURNETT: And next, we have the breaking news here in New York. Protests are growing after a person was shot by ICE agents. The city's mayor saying agents surrounded a car with a five-year-old in it and opened fire.

Plus, a federal judge tonight stopping Trump from banning CNN and other outlets from the White House. But the fight is not over. Former Trump White House attorney Ty Cobb is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:46:25]

BURNETT: Tonight, breaking news in the battle over Trump's media ban, a federal judge today not yet issuing a long-term ruling on the ban. Instead, the judge briefly extended White House access to CNN, MS NOW, and "Politico". He did, however, appear skeptical of the Justice Department's arguments to enforce the ban. The lawyer for the news outlets pointing repeatedly to Trump's own words, which included his explanation in that "Time Magazine" interview that he issued the ban because, quote, "It's just bad story after bad story."

OUTFRONT now, former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb.

So, Ty, obviously, I described the judge as skeptical of the Department of Justice, but why do you think the judge did not issue a longer-term ruling on this?

TY COBB, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE LAWYER: I think the judge wanted to sort of suss out the issues a little bit more. You know, he's being asked by the plaintiffs to rule not only on the due process issue, which is a slam dunk for the plaintiffs, you know, CNN, MS NOW and Politico, but also on the First Amendment issues involving viewpoint discrimination.

And that's -- that is -- that's a difficult opinion to write. The case law on that is pretty clear. The D.C. Circuit law, as the judge warned the government's lawyer today, is pretty straightforward in terms of the First Amendment protections that are available and the necessity that he has to follow those. So, I think it's -- I think he's just done his I's and crossing his T's.

I don't think that we should suspect anything other than CNN and MS NOW and "Politico" continuing to have the access that they do today.

The issue is, will they have even broader access to some of the other areas that the president has banned CNN, such as Air Force One and elsewhere. And the case law and that's a little murkier. The judge has been asked to draw a pretty difficult line. And of course, he has to deal with the nonsense about national security.

Keep in mind, you know, the president adds national security as an argument for anything that he wants because the case law favors in there. So, we have the arch now as a national security issue. The ballroom is a national security issue. Tariffs were an emergency issue.

These are all fabrications. But of course, the judges have to parse that and the extent to which they do so, will be heavily scrutinized on appeal.

BURNETT: So "Punchbowl" is reporting that the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is reportedly seeking a criminal indictment against Cassidy Hutchinson. She's a former Trump White House aide. And of course, everyone remembers her testimony to Congress, where she testified before the January 6th Committee about four years ago.

Now, there appears to be no expiration date, Ty, on anybody who spoke out, testified against Trump. There's a list. That's what it seems to be here.

COBB: Yeah, I mean, you'd hate to be a 16-year-old boy who stepped on Trump's shoe in Trump Tower 20 years ago because he may be after them as well. Trump is going to go after anybody that he can who has ever been an obstacle to him or offended him in any way.

I worked with Cassidy. I saw her many times when I was in the White House that you couldn't ask for. nicer young woman, intelligent, bright and enthusiastic who loves her country. And she told the truth to the January 6th Committee and he wants to punish her because he's busy rewriting history in favor of the. people who participated in the violent insurrection that he fomented on January 6th.

So, I'm sorry that she has to endure this. There's no way in the world that she could be convicted. It's a frivolous case. It's a revenge prosecution.

But this is a revenge department.

[19:50:01] Keep in mind, Pam Bondi was fired because she couldn't shoot down Trump's, you know, revenge targets fast enough and Todd Blanche got the message and he's after people.

BURNETT: Yeah. So we were talking at the top of the program about 89 percent of Americans saying there's too much corruption in this federal government I find it hard to think of anything Americans could agree on in such large numbers.

So, Trump -- there's an ethics filing. That's by law, they have to file that. So, some things get included in it. And in it was included $5 million purchase in SpaceX bonds debt two days before Trump launched an effort to boost commercial space transportation, which of course obviously would really benefit SpaceX. That's a pennies investment for Trump, but obviously doesn't look good.

He also purchased up to $25 million in Meta shares, even as obviously he is frequently with Mark Zuckerberg. Is any of this-- and these are just two of many examples, right? Any of this illegal or conflict of interest?

COBB: Well, to former securities prosecutors and defense attorneys like myself, this would be the essence of insider trading. Just as the president has traded 29,000 times during his short time in office this term, compared to Biden's 13 trades and Obama's zero trades.

This is corruption at a scale we've never seen before. We can't endure. It has to be stopped and hopefully people can start to turn the tide on November 3rd.

BURNETT: Ty Cobb, thank you very much. I appreciate you as always.

And we do have some more breaking news here. Protests grow in this moment in New York City after the NYPD says a person was shot during an encounter with ICE agents. One source telling CNN the person who was shot was conscious and taken to a hospital. The two agents were also injured.

New York City Mayor Zora Mamdani says a five-year-old child was also in the car before shots were fired but is not believed to have been harmed. Mamdani quickly called the incident unconscionable.

I want to go to Shimon Prokupecz.

And, Shimon, what are you learning there?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I just got here, Erin, and you could already see a number of protesters have already been gathering out here with signs, stop ICE, terror, and they're screaming and yelling and chanting for ICE to get out.

What we're told happened here was there was some kind of an encounter between ICE and an individual in a car. It happened sometime around 4:30 this afternoon, and during that encounter, perhaps they were trying to someone as we've seen all across the country recently. And during that encounter, there was shots fired and an individual in the car was shot. What one witness just told me out here was that he saw the NYPD eventually arriving here on scene and taking that man that was shot, putting them in a -- in a unmarked police car and likely taking that individual to the hospital.

Now the NYPD says they were on scene when the shooting occurred. They have since been here to help with some of the crowd control. I mean, people are just pouring into this area at this point to protest. At times there have been some tense moments.

It happened just back here. We can't really see the scene from here, Erin, but certainly right now what is happening out here is you could really feel the tension and the anger from people that here yet again, here we are this time in New York City, in the Bronx, another shooting involving ICE.

BURNETT: Shimon, thank you very much.

And next, Hurricane Isaias now quickly gaining strength going towards the Gulf Coast. We'll talk to a hurricane hunter who just flew through the storm, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:57:25]

BURNETT: Breaking news, Hurricane Isaias just strengthening to a category two storm with devastating winds now at 100 miles an hour. The monster storm is gaining strength. It is right now heading towards the Gulf Coast. It will be the first hurricane to hit the United States in two years. There are already states of emergency in Florida, Alabama and Georgia with mandatory evacuation orders in some areas.

The Gulf, meantime, is bracing for a hurricane that could be a category three with seven feet of storm surge, 15 inches of rain and tornadoes.

OUTFRONT now is Captain Mark McCoy. He is a hurricane hunter, Air Force Reserve weather officer, and he just landed from flying into Hurricane Isaias.

And Captain, I appreciate your time.

And I know you just came out from flying through it with the storm gaining strength. I think you just measured winds of 100 miles an hour inside the storm.

Can you tell me more about what you saw and experience on this last flight?

CAPT. MARK MCCOY, HURRICANE HUNTER; AIR FORCE RESERVE WEATHER OFFICER: Yeah, so we started off early this morning. We started getting ready about one o'clock this morning and it took off about five o'clock this morning and about a nine-and-a-half-hour flight, which about six of those hours we were in the storm, flew in there, did four passes where we went through the eye four times. I think one of our passes we got up to about close to 100 miles per hour, so it was starting to gain strength, and the pressure was slowly dropping as we were in there.

But other than that, it was a pretty -- pretty standard mission that we normally do for our alpha pattern, which is basically just flying through the storm in a -- and like a X pattern.

BURNETT: And as -- and I know you said you went through the eye, was it four times? I mean, I know it's really close in terms of its sustained winds now to a category three, I guess only 11 miles an hour shy of that.

So how strong do you see it getting over these next hours before it makes landfall?

MCCOY: Looking at the latest Hurricane Center's guidance, they're projected to probably not really get much stronger. It's going to be running into a lot of shear. When we were flying it today, actually, there was a lot of dry air that was being sucked in on the south side and southwest side.

So, there was a lot of shear and a lot of dry air being involved in it. So, it was kind of having trouble getting stronger, but it was slowly gaining strength as we were in there.

BURNETT: So, as you say, slowly getting strength. I know you're going to be going up again soon, flying into the storm as it makes landfall tomorrow. Where do you expect that landfall to be?

MCCOY: I think based off of the Hurricane Center's latest guidance, I think they said probably a cat-two for at landfall based off their latest advisory.

BURNETT: All right. All right. Well, we will see. And thanks so much to you, Captain McCoy, for taking the time. Obviously, a nine-hour flight is extremely long and then coming on to talk to us. So thank you.

MCCOY: No problem. Thank you for having me.

BURNETT: All right. And thanks so much to all of you for joining us as well.

"AC360" begins now.