Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Headlines: Hurricane Isaias Rapidly Intensifies, Threatens Gulf Coast; Attorney For Accused Cornell Student Tells CNN "No Crime Was Committed"; USS Lincoln Returns To U.S. After Near-Record Deployment. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired October 09, 2026 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:30:35]
BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: It is half past the hour. Let's hit the refresh button on our top stories.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani says he wants ICE out of the city after a man was shot and wounded by agents on Thursday afternoon. The NYPD confirms that the man does have a criminal record, but Homeland Security has not offered any clarity on what led up to the shooting. The man was treated at a local hospital and remains in federal custody.
With just over three weeks until the midterm election day President Donald Trump is making a new promise. He says he won't attack Iran before the midterms, citing what he calls productive talks with Tehran. The comments follow several reports praising and -- well, raising, rather, the possibility of new strikes before the election.
And time is running out for folks to get ready and to get out as Hurricane Isaias intensifies and threatens the Gulf Coast. You'll see all the cars heading out from Perdido Key, Florida, where mandatory evacuations have been ordered.
Meteorologist Chris Warren joins us now with a brand new update in from the National Hurricane Center. What do we got now, Chris?
CHRIS WARREN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is still a category two, but a high-end category two hurricane.
You saw the line of vehicles evacuating and Brad, at the end of the day, they're not evacuating for the category, even though it's almost a category three. What it is, it's the storm surge that can be life threatening you just cannot stay for. Now a category two or three, we're getting into damage that will be devastating as it comes on shore, but that surge is a huge, huge threat at the immediate coast.
The forecast is for this within hours to become a category three. That is a major hurricane. Again, we're getting into the kind of damage that is now devastating. Hurricane conditions in red here are expected, possible here in blue,
and tropical storm watches extend all the way up -- a tropical storm warning, I should say, here in blue -- that's expected. Montgomery, Alabama expecting tropical storm conditions here and this goes all the way up through the day here on Saturday. Up to 57 mile an hour winds in Tuscaloosa throughout the day. Here's that life threatening storm surge five to seven feet somewhere within there above normally dry ground. That's a big reason why you're seeing the evacuations.
Also a severe weather threat includes a tornado threat, Brad, that can be happening overnight as well. So conditions going downhill even around lunchtime here and then pushing inland for hours and hours with multiple threats. First the wind, then the surge, then the tornado threat. And then, Brad, what is also life threatening that people so often take for granted because it can be hours and hours after landfall is the heavy rain that can lead to flooding.
SMITH: All right. It sounds like I'm going to have the boots out all weekend. Meteorologist Chris Warren, thank you.
Keep it right here with CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS for continuing coverage as we track the storm. Now also a great time to download the CNN weather app so you can stay weather aware wherever you are. Just head to cnn.com/cnnweather.
Well, the attorney for one of the accused Cornell University students tells CNN his client did not commit a crime. In fact, he says he believes all the men named in Jane Doe's civil lawsuit are innocent. Andrew Miltenberg says his client had consensual sex with Jane Doe on October 19, 2024. In her statement to Cornell University police that year, Jane Doe said his client was one of the men involved in a threesome with her and that the alleged assault happened in his room.
CNN's Gloria Pazmino spoke with that attorney and has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Andrew Miltenberg is the attorney for Gillio Lopes. He is one of seven accused Cornell University students who Jane Doe has accused of sexually assaulting her and drugging her during a Chi Phi fraternity party back in 2024.
Now we're hearing for the first time about what Lopes has told his attorney about the incidents that allegedly happened on the night of October 19, 2024. Miltenberg told me that his client says that although he did have sex with Jane Doe that night, that it was consensual and he describes her as an active participant in that sexual encounter.
[05:35:05]
His attorney also told me that he has reviewed the evidence in the case so far and that he describes her as an active participant in that sexual encounter. His attorney also told me that he has reviewed the evidence in the case so far and that he does not believe that a crime has occurred. He denied that his client partook in any of the drugs that were consumed that night or that he was involved in any of the group chats that allegedly were sent that night appearing to invite members of the fraternity to partake in the alleged sexual assault.
Take a listen to Miltenberg talking about what happened and how this whole incident has been affecting his client.
Based on what we know so far do you think that there was a crime that occurred here at any point?
ANDREW MILTENBERG, ATTORNEY FOR GILLIO LOPES: I do not. I do not. I've seen all of the evidence in the title line file. There was no crime committed that I'm aware of, and to the extent an investigator decides there was the possibility of a crime, it certainly wasn't Gillio.
PAZMINO: How's your client doing? Because he's back on campus, how is he handling all of that?
MILTENBERG: What has occurred in social media is devastating to his and everyone else involved in this, to all of their reputations --
PAZMINO: Um-hum.
MILTENBERG: -- it will be hard to outrun for the rest of their lives.
PAZMINO: Lopes is one of two students that remains enrolled at Cornell. There's been some social media video circulating showing one student confronting him on campus. But Miltenberg told me that he is just trying to get through the day. He is continuing to go to class and just trying to get through this situation.
Now, again, he told me he expects that his client will be vindicated. He says that there are seven accused students, but also seven very different stories. And he believes that when more evidence is released about the case, the public narrative about it is likely to change.
Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: Thank you, Gloria.
And this just into CNN. We have a new leaked audio clip. This is of Republican Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton. In it, he's complaining the man that he wants to replace, Sen. John Cornyn, is refusing to support his campaign. This happened last month at a fundraiser. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEN PAXTON, (R) TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: No, she's not. But I don't know how much she [Crockett] really affects votes. I mean, maybe a little bit around the margins.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
PAXTON: Just like Cornyn -- basically how much she affects me because he's clearly not helping me. He wants me to lose.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Paxton defeated Cornyn in a bitter primary earlier this year.
A spokesperson for Sen. Cornyn tells CNN, "If Sen. Cornyn wanted Ken to lose, I can assure you he'd be more active in the campaign."
We're tracking some eyebrow-raising allegations against Kimberly Guilfoyle. The Fox News host turned ambassador to Greece allegedly asked a donor to pay off $100,000 in credit debt in exchange for access to President Trump. Those allegations were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Listen, as Eric Deters explains to CNN's Jake Tapper, what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC DETERS, TRUMP DONOR: After the 2024 Patriots Day Freedom Fest, I wanted to bring attention to the Dr. Durrani victims -- the way medical protective was committing massive fraud -- and I wanted Duranni extradited back here in the United States.
So what I did -- and now President Trump was president -- what I did is I told Kimberly -- I said, "Kimberly, if you help me draw attention to this when the day settles, I'll give you a million bucks." And she said, "fine." And she said that she'd start doing all these things for me.
By the way, my tax issue was not a criminal tax issue. It's a dispute on a tax deduction. And I felt like Biden had targeted me because I was a Trump supporter. It's not a big deal. It's in tax court. That is -- The Wall Street Journal made that bigger part of the story.
So here's what went down. She claimed that she was going to get me on Tucker Carlson and all this stuff, but none of that ever happened.
So 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. This is embarrassing." And I said, "Kimberly, you haven't done anything that I've asked you to do. I mean -- I mean, just nothing." And she hadn't -- she hadn't accomplished anything. And I said, "Kimberly, why should I do this for you?" And she told me, and it's in the text messages, "I'll be your ride or die forever in the Trump administration. I won't keep track of how many favors, how big the favors." So that's why she asked for it.
There was no question it was a quid pro quo. She knew she was nominated. She tried to cover it up. She wanted to paper it by coming up with this idea that it was for past consulting fees. And I wrote her that fake letter saying oh here's for those fake consulting fees.
But she's dug a deeper hole now. She says the text messages are fake. I proved that to The Wall Street Journal they're not. She said that I was a known blackmailer. I never blackmailed anybody, never been charged with blackmail. And she's basically done it -- dug a deeper hole for herself now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: CNN has reached out to Guilfoyle for a response. A lawyer for the ambassador denied the text messages were real in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.
A U.S. congressional candidate in Arizona says two men raped her as she was putting up campaign signs on the morning of August 14. She spoke to Erin Burnett last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: 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, and going back to your car when someone hits you from behind.
What do you remember about all this?
BERNADETTE GREENE-PACENTIA, (D) CANDIDATE FOR U.S. HOUSE IN ARIZONA: Well, you know, it was pretty common for, you know, my -- me, staff, and 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'd been doing this actually since July and 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. A 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 of 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, crossed 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, oh, 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 and 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: So much respect for the strength and bravery coming forward with Erin in that conversation.
If you or anyone you know is struggling after a sexual assault, you are not alone. Free, confidential, 24/7 support is online at RAINN.org. It's RAINN with two N's, or you can call 1-800-656-HOPE.
Next up on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, there's this. Reunited at last. Sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln at sea for nearly a year finally make it back home. The emotional reunions that you see there on screen. We've got those stories coming up.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:48:10]
SMITH: Moments ago, the winner of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize was announced. Navi Pillay received the honor for her work promoting peace and international law. This year, the Peace Prize lands a little differently at a time of so much global instability. Pillay is a South African jurist and human rights trailblazer, and she served as the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014.
Well, welcome home after a near record 321 days at sea. Sailors and Marines on board the USS Abraham Lincoln have returned home.
CNN's Pamela Brown was there for it all.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm finally home.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Mixed in the emotion on this Navy pier are 122 sailors who have never met their children.
CHIEF PETTY OFFICER JOEY MONTEMARANO, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: The only person my daughter knows is my wife right now.
BROWN (voiceover): Joey Montemareno's daughter Madeline Grace was born while he was away at sea, and these images are all he knows of his 10- month-old child.
BROWN: What are you going to do, you think, when you see them?
MONTEMARANO: I'll probably cry a little bit. Probably try to hold back the tears while I kiss my wife, hug my wife and meet this baby that I've never met before that I can't wait to -- can't wait to meet and interact with.
BROWN (voiceover): We met Joey and many more of the roughly 5,000 sailors at sea on the USS Lincoln as they headed into port. Most admit their returning home changed. AJANAE KELLY, SAILOR, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: This is the hardest one I have had to deal with, so I feel like if I could do this one, I could do anything.
BROWN (voiceover): It's the end of a harrowing 322 day deployment that faced scrutiny over the living conditions on board and low morale that included attempted suicides.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man overboard. That was a crazy day.
BROWN (voiceover): Many confirmed the uncertainty around the extended deployment brought mental challenges.
[05:50:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just thinking about my family and things going on back home that you can't control.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would go to prayer service with the chaplains and that would help out a lot.
BROWN (voiceover): Others we met confirmed food supplies ran low at times.
BARRY USERY, SAILOR, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: I was in cargo for a while -- the people that bring the food up -- and I was in there during the tough times. Not a lot of food was being brung up. But as we progressed, it got better.
CAPT. DAN KEELER, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: It was stressed, but we never shut anything down.
BROWN (voiceover): Captain Dan Keeler, commanding officer of the Lincoln, tells CNN supplies were mainly affected when support ships under threat from Iran were forced to alter their movement in the region.
KEELER: We served 14,000 to 16,000 meals a day, four times a day, so four meals a day. We never missed a meal, not for 10 1/2 months. There were some sacrifices made. Maybe there was only one protein option instead of two, but there was always food.
BROWN: Some of the family members had a town hall with Navy leadership because they were really concerned about their loved ones on this ship. And they were getting pictures of toilets overflowing and mold. What do you say to that?
KEELER: What I'll say to all the families is they were all so amazing. You can't do what we just did without a lot of support. I think a lot of the reporting focused on some, you know, anecdotal things because we looked into all this stuff and there really were no systemic issues. It's a big ship. It's a floating city. We have -- you know, a toilet gets clogged and eventually gets fixed.
BROWN (voiceover): Keeler acknowledges there were five suicide attempts on the Lincoln itself and three others on its support ships. He says anyone with mental health problems had access to treatment on the ship. The most severe cases were sent home.
KEELER: We had zero suicides. We had zero casualties on the ship. Every single sailor that left is coming home.
BROWN (voiceover): And they're coming home awarded with a presidential unit citation, the military's highest honor for a unit in battle.
ARIANA WESTFALL, AVIATION ORDNANCEMAN, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: It's going to be pretty cool to be able to wear that and tell everybody why I'm wearing it and what I did to wear it.
BROWN (voiceover): On board you could feel the anticipation as we pulled into port. Moments later, among this flood of emotion, Joey Montemareno, a father who served on a ship at war --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who's that? Is this your daddy?
BROWN (voiceover): -- now with his daughter together in peace.
MONTEMARANO: She's perfect.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: Beautiful family reunions there.
Still to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, we are keeping our eye on Hurricane Isaias as it moves closer to landfall near the Gulf Coast states with updates for you throughout the morning.
And Halloween candy is apparently so expensive this year, some people are planning to finance it. Details on that and more coming up.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:57:05]
SMITH: In today's money express, millions of AT&T customers are now eligible to get part of a $177 million settlement.
Maribel Aber joins us from the NASDAQ MarketSite with the details that people need to know. Maribel, what do we got?
MARIBEL ABER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, MONEY MATTERS: OK, Brad.
So a federal judge has granted final approval of AT&T's $177 million settlement involving breaches that exposed customers' personal information. Now affected customers could receive up to $7,500 if they can document financial losses tied to both incidents. Now, most eligible customers are expected to qualify for estimated smaller payments ranging from $6.50 to $40.00. AT&T denies any wrongdoing but agreed to settle to avoid the expense of uncertainty or prolonged litigation. For more info, visit telecomdatasettlement.com.
OK, more Americans are looking to save money by buying secondhand or previously owned items. According to a new report, 81 percent of Americans say they have purchased secondhand items in the past year, and 55 percent say they do it every month. Now the report from eBay said that popularity of secondhand buying and selling of used goods has become so common that it's now part of everyday life for most Americans. Saving money is the number one reason, followed by sustainability or reducing waste and looking for collectibles or products that are no longer sold new to round out the top three.
Finally, Americans may be feeling that pinch every time they head to the grocery store, but candy prices have been climbing even faster. According to the Consumer Price Index, candy and chewing gum -- those prices jumped 32 percent between 2019 and 2024. It's even worse for those handing out treats for trick or treaters. According to personal finance website Finance Buzz, Halloween candy prices have risen 71 percent since 2021, more than triple the national rate of inflation. Even so, Americans are still in the Halloween spirit with the average consumer expected to spend around $285 this holiday.
Brad, nothing can keep me from my chocolate though.
SMITH: Exactly. I remember what you said, though, about those Reese's yesterday, so I still have my X-ACTO knife ready to carve the pumpkin myself.
ABER: Yeah.
SMITH: Maribel Aber, thank you.
Now to some of the other stories that we were tracking across the U.S.
We start in Virginia. That's where police rushed into a burning house without safety gear to rescue a man trapped inside. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POLICE OFFICER: I have him! He's breathing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Officers found the man locked inside a bedroom of a two-story home. They got inside and safely drug him out before the house and -- before the fire crews arrived. He's being treated for burns, thankfully, and the officers were treated for smoke inhalation and released from the hospital the same day.
And this is the damage left behind in a crash-and-grab in Chicago. Police say someone crashed a Jeep into a bar Thursday and stole an ATM. That is the aftermath you see there on your screen. No one inside the bar was hurt, and the burglars left the Jeep behind and sped off in another car. So clearly premeditated and planned out. This just some of the images of what was left behind there in Chicago. Much more to the investigation that we know will continuing to be ongoing there.
[06:00:13]
Well, that does it for CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. I'm Brad Smith. "CNN THIS MORNING WITH AUDIE CORNISH" starts right now.
