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CNN Headlines: President Trump Stumps For Senate Hopeful Ken Paxton At San Antonio Rally; Outrage On Cornell Campus As Faculty Press Officials For Answers; Emergency Court Hearing Set On Motion In Failed Tennessee Execution Case. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired October 07, 2026 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:24]
BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump is set to make his third stop in Texas today. Ken Paxton also expected to be there. All of this comes with midterms now less than a month away.
And pushing for answers. Cornell University taps former deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to lead an independent review of the alleged gang rape. The latest developments as professors and staff press the administration for more information.
And Christa Pike is now conscious and speaking after a failed execution. What we can expect in a court hearing today.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Brad Smith. This is CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. Glad that you're with us today.
Let's get this started.
With just under four weeks to go until the midterm elections, the president is hitting the campaign trail hoping to boost Republican candidates and the party's voter turnout. Now, today, he's stumping in the Lone Star State. The trip comes as a growing number of polls show that Democrats are making big gains in traditional Republican strongholds like Texas.
Tonight's San Antonio rally, marking Trump's second visit to Texas in less than a week. A source says Ken Paxton, the states Republican Senate nominee, is also expected to attend. Ken Paxton has been publicly praising the GOP's midterm convention, held last month. But according to "The New York Times", he privately told donors the event did not help his campaign.
That's not what the president wants to hear, though. Trump spent part of Tuesday in Baltimore announcing a multibillion dollar investment partnership on a new shipyard facility. He later told reporters his rally appearances are benefiting Republicans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ken is doing much better now than I've -- everybody is -- since starting three or four days ago, since starting the rallies. It's brought a whole new awareness to how great the Republicans are doing, how great the economy is doing, and --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: But the president's Baltimore appearance, too, was not without controversy.
CNN's Kevin Liptak has the details there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Trump took a break from the campaign trail on Tuesday to come here to Maryland to reinforce his focus on manufacturing. This is a former steel plant that's getting multi-billion dollar investment to turn into a submarine manufacturing. It will start with components for Virginia class submarines, what the White House says is that it will create 3,100 direct jobs, 11,000 indirect jobs. And it serves the purpose for President Trump of showing American people and American voters that he continues to be focused on trying to restore the manufacturing sector in the United States, at a moment when dissatisfaction with his handling of the economy is at an all-time high and is dragging down Republican candidates a month before the midterm election.
Now, the president has been trying to show voters that he is following through on his pledges. He said he wanted to talk more about his administration's accomplishments, sort of tacitly suggesting that that hadn't been talked about enough. And what you've seen him do on the campaign trail is go to these very red states to try and bolster enthusiasm among his base of supporters, in part by trying to talk about what he had done, that he had promised them two years ago.
Now, one person who was not at this event was the Democratic governor of Maryland, Wes Moore. He says President Trump actually blocked him from speaking at this, despite the role that he played in bringing these investments to the state. What a White House official said is that President Trump had, quote, "graciously" invited Moore as a guest to this event and that he was now, quote, "throwing a tantrum" because he wasn't allowed to speak. What Wes Moore said was that if Trump, quote, "wants to bring the circus in town," that he would, quote, "let the circus be conducted and that he would go back to work".
Kevin Liptak, CNN, Sparrows Point, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: And later on in the show, we'll get Wes Moore's reaction to being blocked by Trump at that event.
All right. Frustration is growing at Cornell University as students and faculty press, campus leaders over the alleged gang rape of a former student going by Jane Doe two years ago. On Tuesday, university officials verified two of the men named in Jane Doe's civil lawsuit are still enrolled and attending classes. CNN obtained a recording of the virtual webinar where that information was shared. Some faculty say they are struggling to teach classes in the accused students' cases -- those students are in.
Now, describing other students who are upset and fearful for their personal safety.
[05:05:03]
Those are just some of the issues that faculty and staff have raised. A spokesperson for Cornell did not respond to CNN's request for comment.
CNN's Sherrell Hubbard has more on the campus reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHERRELL HUBBARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The fallout is growing at Cornell University. Tuesday night, students held a town hall where many expressed outrage over the schools handling of an alleged gang rape of a former student only identified as Jane Doe, by several Chi Phi fraternity members in 2024. The men named in the lawsuit have all denied any wrongdoing.
JULIA CHANG, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, CORNELL UNIVERSITY: I think a lot of us have lost faith in this institution, and as I said, trust is just completely broken.
HUBBARD (voice-over): Now, Cornell's own faculty joining a chorus of outraged students. The school's faculty senate is preparing for a vote of no confidence in the Cornell administrations' handling of sexual assault cases on campus.
PAUL ORTIZ, PROFESSOR, CORNELL UNIVERSITY: Sexual assault is a perennial problem at Cornell, and the students and the faculty are asking, when is this going to stop? And equally important, the alumni are coming forward to faculty and telling us stories about how they were assaulted sexually on this campus.
HUBBARD (voice-over): The civil lawsuit filed against Cornell, the fraternity and others has brought a national spotlight to the case. Cornell University's police allegedly did not include the woman's explicit rape accusation in an abbreviated statement sent to the office of the district attorney, who ended up not filing any charges in the case.
THOMAS GIUFFRA, ATTORNEY FOR JANE DOE: That smells to me like a cover up. You have to wonder who told the investigators to not include it in the report.
HUBBARD (voice-over): The Ivy League school has retained former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to lead an independent review into how the university deals with sexual assault cases. Part of that review will examine the Jane Doe allegations specifically.
I'm Sherrell Hubbard, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: All right. Thank you, Sherrell.
Happening today, student groups on campus are planning a seven hour sit-in in solidarity with the alleged victim. And the mayor of Ithaca, where Cornell is located, is expected to hold a hearing on his proposal to pause Greek life.
More people are reaching out for help, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, or RAINN. Calls to the national sexual assault hotline are up since the Cornell gang rape story first broke, increasing 73 percent in just the past week and double the normal number on Monday alone.
We do have that number for you. If you or anyone you know is struggling after a sexual assault, you are not alone. Free confidential 2/47 support is online at rainn.org, with two N's. Or you can call one 800-656-HOPE.
Attorneys for the woman who survived Tennessee's attempt to execute her have filed an emergency motion to preserve evidence in her botched execution. A status conference is scheduled for later today, and those same attorneys also say Christa Pike is now conscious and speaking. And despite the severe damage suffered to her arm, she is still handcuffed and shackled to a bed while receiving critical medical care.
Pike survived two lethal injections during her planned execution last week, in a chamber similar to this one. Now, she had been sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of a classmate. Continue to keep you updated there.
The FAA is investigating after two planes were involved in an accident at LAX on Tuesday. A Delta plane was about to take off when its wing clipped the tail of an Air Canada jet that was heading to its gate, 290 people were on board the Delta flight at the time. No one was hurt and both planes are now being inspected for damage.
Meanwhile, an American Airlines flight bound for Dallas had to make an emergency landing in New York after most of its bathrooms stopped working. The flight from Madrid takes more than 10 hours, and only two out of eight restrooms were working.
According to the tracking site FlightAware, the Boeing 777 spent more than three hours in New York before continuing on to Dallas.
We've got lots more to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. Plague panic in Siberia. Dozens of people now in quarantine after a worker at an infectious disease lab died, apparently after being exposed to the plague. We've got the latest in this developing saga.
And a couple is accused of abusing their 21 children. What investigators say was happening inside the home.
And President Trump's comments about Iran taking out two American cities continue to spark outrage. We'll hear from the mayor of one of those cities straight ahead. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Let them take out --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[05:14:15]
SMITH: The outrage is growing from both sides of the aisle after President Trump suggested he would allow Iran to take out Los Angeles and San Diego. California Governor Gavin Newsom now calling for the president's removal from office via the 25th Amendment. This, as the White House calls the fallout a media freak-out.
Trump made the comment Monday at a Nebraska rally. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city. Let them take -- let it -- let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. That's -- this is a very small price to pay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: And so this has been a talking point of what is a small price to pay for Americans during this war with Iran for much longer.
[05:15:03]
But here's the reaction from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass speaking with CNN about Trump's comments there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR KAREN BASS (D), LOS ANGELES: I was horrified by those comments. But then again, we are the city that he invaded last June with federal troops for no reason at all, to intimidate a whole sector of our population, Latino immigrants.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Meanwhile, there's reaction from Republican San Diego area congressional hopeful Jim Desmond, slamming Trump's comments, saying no American city is expendable.
Let's stay out west to a disturbing story in Los Angeles, there we go. A couple is facing multiple child abuse charges after allegedly having 21 children through a surrogacy scheme and raising them in what's being called a house of horrors. Prosecutors allege the couple operated a surrogacy agency out of their arcadia mansion to hire surrogates for themselves. Nannies living in their home also allegedly beat and abused some of the children as the couple watched over surveillance cameras. The L.A. district attorney says this case is unprecedented.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATHAN HOCHMAN, LOS ANGELES DISTRICT ATTORNEY: This type of child abuse will absolutely not be countenanced and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: The couple pleaded not guilty to all charges, and the judge set bail at $20 million each all right.
All right. Some breaking news this hour. Tropical storm Isaias has formed in the gulf. Forecasters say it will likely become a category two hurricane by Friday morning, packing 100 mile an hour winds. Still a ways off the coast this morning, but when it arrives, it will likely bring flooding, rain and powerful winds to parts of the Southeast.
Believe it or not, this will be the first hurricane of the year in the Atlantic basin, ending a record long wait. All right. A lot to continue to track in the path of that storm.
Still to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, after months of drama, the $14 million renovation of D.C.'s landmark reflecting pool may almost be complete, but the back and forth That's not over yet. The latest straight ahead.
And later, find out when you can see two new pandas from China now living in Atlanta. The date for their big debut is coming up.
You're watching CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS.
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[05:21:58]
SMITH: President Trump says all the work to repair the reflecting pool is, quote, "totally complete". The $14 million renovation project was supposed to be done in June, ahead of the country's 250th birthday. But days after workers completed the initial repairs, algae was spotted in the water that turned the pool green instead of the blue color that was intended.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think they're going to fill it up this week. The reflecting pool is totally complete, and we changed the old pipes. We wanted to get it open for July 4th, and now we went and got rid of all of the old pipes, which we were going to do later during the winter. We did it, and I think it's almost complete.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Trump and his allies had blamed vandals for damaging the pool, a claim that the president repeated on Tuesday. But a Justice Department report, pointed to hasty and botched work.
Meanwhile, the former Olympian wrongfully accused of vandalizing the pool is asking two inspectors general to investigate how the Trump administration tried to pin the blame on him. It comes a week after a D.C. judge barred federal prosecutors from trying to revive the case.
One of David Hearn's attorneys spoke with CNN's Laura Coates last night. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: Tell me what you're trying to accomplish by going this route.
NORM EISEN, ATTORNEY FOR DAVID HEARN: Davey Hearn has always said, Laura, that this case is about more than him. If he can be scapegoated and blamed for a botched rushed installation of the new liner of the reflecting pool and criminally prosecuted up to 10 years in jail, any American can be targeted.
So, it's about -- yes, uncovering the truth of how David Hearn was wrongly treated, the accountability for that. But it's about protecting all Americans. And we're just getting started.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: So far, no response from the Trump administration on the matter.
All right. The Supreme Court has starting a new term with a number of major cases on its docket, and the courts conservative majority will tackle a slew of hot button issues from climate change to immigration, gun rights and voting.
Cecillia Wang, the ACLU's national legal director, successfully argued the birthright citizenship case against the Trump administration. And now she's weighing in on how the justices may view President Trump's mandatory detention policy and his push to deport migrants to countries other than their own.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CECILLIA WANG, NATIONAL LEGAL DIRECTOR, ACLU: I think that our victory last term in the birthright citizenship case, as well as early signs from the court's so-called shadow docket, what we call the emergency docket, give us positive signs for hope that the Supreme Court is willing to step in and stop the Trump administration when it violates the law and violates peoples rights and freedoms in order to carry out their agenda.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[05:25:00]
SMITH: Now, later today, the court will hear arguments in a case about federal environmental reviews and hazardous waste permit renewals.
The mega-merger between Paramount and Warner Brothers discovery is official. The newly combined company is called Skydance and includes CNN as one of its core assets. The merger brings together two of America's oldest Hollywood studios. Skydance says they plan to use technology to transform the entertainment industry, reaching more than 200 million streaming subscribers around the world.
Well, straight ahead on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, on the campus of Cornell, the faculty grills the administration over the handling of an alleged gang rape that happened at a fraternity house in 2024. The latest in the case coming up.
And an American is arrested in connection with one of Canada's deadliest school shootings. Why police believe he may have helped the teen shooter.
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