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CNN Headlines: Trump Adds More Red States To Midterm Campaign Blitz; Officials Identify Man Who Died After Falling Off Boiler Coaster; Vatican: Pope Leo Recovering After Lung Cancer Surgery; Federal Judge Says Trump Press Ban Likely Violates First Amendment. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired October 14, 2026 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:25]
BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: Campaign blitz. President Trump arrives in Las Vegas this morning, as the midterms get closer. And with just weeks to go, the stops that he's now adding to his trail. We've got that for you.
Plus, the Vatican confirms Pope Leo's cancer diagnosis. Now he's recovering after having part of his lung removed.
And, coaster death. Police have identified the man killed after he was thrown from a roller coaster at Six Flags. What we're learning about the ongoing investigation this morning.
And major fallouts as Cornell University suspending all fraternity social events. This follows outrage over the alleged gang rape. And now we're learning more about that fallout.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Brad Smith. This is CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. Glad that you're with us today.
Let's get this started.
President Trump is adding more red state stops to his midterm campaign blitz. The White House says he's going to be visiting Kentucky and Florida in the next few weeks. Right now, the president is in Las Vegas arriving in the wee hours this morning as he has appearances scheduled later today in Arizona and Montana.
Last night, he rallied Republican voters in Alaska, where incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan is locked in a surprisingly tight race with Mary Peltola. Democrats haven't won a U.S. Senate seat in Alaska in nearly 20 years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On November 3rd, we're going to send one of the best and most respected senators in D.C., Dan Sullivan, the real, the real Dan Sullivan. I'm talking about the real Dan Sullivan, not the fake Dan Sullivan. Some of them I go to for no reason other than to pay my respect and my
love, because I got to say hello to people. We don't have to be in certain places here. I have to be because we have to make sure that Dan gets in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Now to brand new polling from Marist in one of the closest and most expensive Senate races in the country. The poll shows Texas Democrat James Talarico, with 47 percent support among likely voters. Republican ken Paxton is at 45 percent. The margin of error is 4.9 points.
So this is a statistical dead heat. Talarico does slightly better among registered voters with a four point lead, but that's down from six points last month. The 37-year-old Talarico is looking to become the first Texas Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate since 1988. Early voting begins next week, and spending in the race has now surpassed half a billion dollars.
We'll have much more on this tight race tonight. Erin Burnett moderates a new CNN Jubilee town hall with Senate candidate James Talarico, coming face to face with Texas voters. Can this Democrat help turn the red state blue?
You can watch on CNN and stream live with an all access subscription.
Well, with the Senate in play, the outcome is coming down to voters who are still on the fence, those independents, moderates. Last night, candidates in three states staked out their positions. So let's revisit those debates one by one.
We start in Maine. Democratic challenger Troy Jackson tried tying Republican Senator Susan Collins to President Trump, while the five term incumbent emphasized her independence on the trade war with Canada, health care and the Iran war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TROY JACKSON (D), MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE: Donald Trump wanted to play war games. And when Susan Collins had the chance to stop him because she's chair of appropriations, she would not do that.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): I agree that the president did not have a good plan. He should have anticipated the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which part of the world's oil travels, and I don't feel that that was well-anticipated, although it should have been.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Similarly, in Iowa, Republican Ashley Hinson distanced herself from Trump on foreign policy and attacked her opponent for missing too many votes in the state legislature. Democrat Josh Turek defended his record and turned the tables on Hinson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOSH TUREK (D), IOWA SENATE CANDIDATE: I have gone out there and I have met with Iowans all over the state, all 99 counties, hundreds of public forums. Meanwhile, Ashley Hinson, since she decided to run for U.S. Senate, has not done one in-person town forum.
REP. ASHLEY HINSON (R-IA): I've done more town halls than the percentage of time he showed up to work this year, 42 percent of the time is all Representative Turek showed up to work this year, and that's two out of every five days of work.
[05:05:01]
And I think Iowans, if you're watching tonight, you should know if you don't show up to work two out of five days, you're not getting a promotion, you're getting fired.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: And in Georgia, incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff is leading Republican Congressman Mike Collins in the polls. Collins went on the offensive, bringing up Ossoff's ties to a donor named in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE COLLINS (R-GA): You claim to fight against Epstein class, but I'm going to tell you, this call is coming from inside the House. And the Epstein class is on stage right now. And it's you. Will you condemn Reid Hoffman and apologize for your hypocrisy tonight?
SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Mike, who on your team advised you to raise the Epstein files? You voted to cover up the evidence, Mike.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: In addition to the Senate race, Georgia is picking a new governor, and early voting is now underway. The secretary of state says nearly 190,000 people turned out on the first day. That's a 40 percent increase from the last midterm elections in 2022. But it's well short of the first day of early voting in the 2024 presidential contest.
An Atlanta area community grieving this morning as disturbing new details emerge in the death of a man at Six Flags Over Georgia. Witnesses say that he fell to his death Monday from his roller coaster, the Goliath, at the popular amusement park. Police have identified the man as a 42-year-old Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem. Now, Atlanta public schools, they describe him as a cherished member of Wesley International Academy, saying that his presence and impact will be deeply missed.
While investigators work to determine what exactly happened, Six Flags has closed several of its similar style roller coasters at parks across the country. Meanwhile, the insurance commissioners office says it has launched its own investigation into the tragic incident. The agency oversees safety inspections for amusement park rides. Stay with us. We'll have more on this developing story in the next
half hour.
Well, the Vatican says Pope Leo is recovering in Rome in the hospital after a successful surgery to remove a growth found to be lung cancer. The pontiff had the lower lobe of his right lung removed during a 90- minute procedure Tuesday. Tests later showed pulmonary adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer. And the 71-year-old is not a smoker and otherwise appears to be in good health, staying active by playing tennis and swimming.
Here's Dr. Daniel Boffa, the division chief of thoracic surgery at the Yale School of Medicine on Pope Leo's return and road to recovery.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. DANIEL BOFFA, DIVISION CHIEF, THORACIC SURGERY, YALE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: It does depend on how healthy the person was before surgery, and it also depends on how healthy their lungs are. But I would expect that most people that have a lower lobectomy return to a very similar level of activity. It can take a while.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: All of the pontiff's public events have been canceled until October 20th.
Well, a federal judge has extended the order allowing CNN, MS NOW and "Politico" access to the White House. The Trump-appointed judge said that the president's press ban likely violates the First Amendment, adding that Trump's own comments helped the media outlets prove he barred them for retaliatory reasons. The judge's new order rejected the Justice Department's claims that national security concerns, at least partially motivated the ban. It sets the stage for the Trump administration to appeal.
The attorney for CNN, MS NOW and "Politico" put out a statement saying the president has repeatedly, candidly and consistently admitted in public that he banned our clients from the White House to punish reporting he doesn't like, and to try to force journalists to cover him in ways he prefers. The harm this ban did to our clients, the First Amendment and the public as a whole is profound.
We've got lots more to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, including this -- already serving time for one mass shooting. Now, jury selection is underway in his federal trial. The new charges that he's facing in the 2022 buffalo supermarket attack.
And why a recording device got an OpenAI employee arrested by the FBI and now facing a federal charge. We've got the details there.
Plus, a New York icon could soon disappear. Why? The city's famous horse drawn carriages may be headed out. We've got that coming your way on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS.
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SMITH: New developments out of Las Vegas as a judge sentences Duane "Keffe D" Davis to 40 years to life in prison for orchestrating the murder of rap legend Tupac Shakur 30 years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDGE CARLI KIERNY, NEVADA'S 8TH DISTRICT COURT: You don't get to take his very life, his whole future, from him and just walk away from it, especially when that man is Tupac Shakur. The world never forgot about him and his death, and neither did Las Vegas. Took us 30 years, but at this time, you are going to face justice for what you did on September 7th, 1996.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: The sentencing followed impact statements from Tupac's family members. Take a listen
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEKYIWA "SET" SHAKUR, TUPAC'S SISTER: That day, the loss of Tupac, for a long time, crippled my entire family, emotionally and mentally.
[05:15:01]
I've been hospitalized multiple times for depression, suicidal ideation, and trauma, PTSD.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Attorneys for Davis plan to appeal his conviction.
Jury selection began Tuesday in the federal trial of the gunman who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket in 2022. Payton Gendron faces 27 federal charges, including hate crimes. Roughly 700 potential jurors remain from an original pool of about 1,200. The court will select 12 jurors and six alternates. The clerk says that process could take six to eight weeks. Gendron is already serving life in prison on state charges. He could face the death penalty if convicted in his federal trial.
Well, an OpenAI employee has been arrested for allegedly hiding a sophisticated recording device in one of the company's offices. The Justice Department says the man, who has since been dismissed, is a 35-year-old Saudi national. He allegedly plugged the device into a TV inside a conference room and concealed it in toilet paper. According to OpenAI, the device could monitor audio and had advanced encryption. The company also said there's no evidence that sensitive material was inappropriately accessed.
We'll continue to track any developments that come forward there.
Still to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, the Trump administration may be rethinking the proposed public execution of the Fort Hood, Texas mass shooter. The latest on that coming up.
Stay with us
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SMITH: Sources tell CNN that President Trump and his advisers are debating whether to call off plans to livestream the execution of the Fort Hood shooter, after Trump said privately that he did not know he was paralyzed in the shooting. Also, those sources say the president was not initially aware of the livestream plans when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced it last week. Nidal Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding dozens in 2009.
Sources say one of the key reasons he could stop the livestream is because of the optics of showing the execution of someone in a wheelchair.
We're learning new details about last month's failed execution of Christa Pike. 911 calls obtained by "The Associated Press" show emergency help was delayed due to confusion among first responders and prison officials. Take a listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 CALL AFTER FAILED EXECUTION IN TENNESSEE: So we have a medical call for service at the River Bend prison, saying that they carried out the execution. The subject didn't pass away, and they need an ambulance because she's not breathing normally. We are trying to find out if that is an actual thing that is happening, and we need to send an ambulance and or if you need police assistance, or if this is someone that is just basically prank calling or swatting us.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
SMITH: That initial call came just over an hour after the attempted lethal injection. However, the caller was unable to provide a code that would help verify the request's legitimacy. About 20 minutes later, a dispatcher says they've been informed it was a false call. But 10 minutes after that, prison officials say the call was real and responders were allowed through the gate. Pike was taken to the hospital and was discharged over the weekend. She is now back in prison.
We turn now to this. Several White House officials are questioning how long the new press secretary will last after her first briefing yesterday. That, according to multiple sources. The reviews we're rough for Katie Zacharia's brief debut. And in her first briefing, she took just three questions far fewer than her predecessor, Karoline Leavitt.
One White House official told CNN that her performance was brutal. Others said that she seemed unprepared. If you missed it, here's part of the briefest of briefings.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KATIE ZACHARIA, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Attendance is at record highs, as enthusiastic, hard working Americans are lining up and packing arenas to support President Trump and Republicans. It's not hard to see why. He had a historic one day war. And now we are have a booming economy and a great relationship with Venezuela, something President Trump is delivering on, just like he delivers on every promise. In addition to that, we will be -- we will be -- there is $54 billion tied to the Alaska LNG pipeline
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Katie Zacharia says she cut the briefing short because President Trump was going to speak to reporters himself ahead of a trip to Alaska. And despite criticism, Trump says she did a great job yesterday.
An iconic attraction around New York's Central Park could soon go away. The mayor and city council speaker have agreed on legislation to abolish horse drawn carriage rides around the park. A vote on the proposal is expected this month. The ban comes more than a year after an 18 year old tourist was killed when he jumped from a runaway carriage. The decision also follows accusations from animal rights advocates, who say horses are overworked. Horse and carriage owners deny those claims.
Well, straight ahead on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, more on the man who lost his life on a roller coaster ride at Six Flags Over Georgia, and what officials are now saying about the incident.
And Cornell University making major changes to fraternity life on campus as the investigation continues into an alleged gang rape.
Stick it -- stick right here. We've got much more coming on this CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS.
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