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Hurricane Isaias Hours From Landfall On Gulf Coast; El-Sayed, Rogers Clash In Contentious Michigan Senate Debate; Report: DOJ Seek To Indict Jan. 6 Witness Cassidy Hutchinson. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired October 09, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:01:14]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, running out of time. A major hurricane gets even stronger as it approaches the Gulf Coast. And officials in several states are ordering people to get out of harm's way now.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, insults and family attacks. Things get very personal and heated on a Michigan debate stage in the Senate race that potentially could have a major impact on control of Congress.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin this hour with the breaking news. Hurricane Isaias has been upgraded to a major Category 3 storm. You can see just how big it's gotten from these satellite pictures taken at sunrise this morning. And it's now just hours from slamming into the Gulf Coast. The storm is packing very dangerous sustained winds of 120 miles per hour and expected to come with it life-threatening storm surge up to 9 feet in some areas. More than a foot of rain, potential tornadoes, and widespread power outages.

BROWN: States of emergency are in effect in parts of Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. And you can see conditions beginning to get worse in Pensacola. Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for several of these coastal areas as time runs out for people to prepare. So let's check in now with CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. What's the latest, Allison?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, so the latest, we did get our brand new update. And again, the key thing here is just how strong the storm is. You're looking at the visible satellite. All these what look like bubbles developing on the picture, that is all of the convection.

All the thunderstorms really starting to develop, showing signs of the storm strengthening. And we could still see it strengthen even further as it continues to make its way off to the north northeast right now at about 16 miles per hour. Sustained winds have not changed in the last hour. They are still 120 miles per hour gusting up to 150 miles per hour. The big thing that has changed is the National Hurricane Center now saying we don't anticipate this to weaken all that much before it makes landfall. Maybe 5 miles per hour, maybe 10 miles per hour change here over the next few hours. But that's about it.

Now, one of the big concerns then becomes a lot of the storm surge because the stronger the storm, the higher those surge numbers are going to be. All of the area you see here in orange, that includes Pensacola, Panama City, even all the way down to the Port St. Joe area, you're looking at about 6 to 9 feet of storm surge.

The surrounding areas here, both of these areas you see in yellow, those are looking at 4 to 6 feet of storm surge. So again, you're talking pretty significant amounts of storm surge. One thing to note, too, with some of those storm surge totals is it's a very flat, low- lying area. So that water can spread as much as a half a mile or more inland. You don't have to be right on the coastline.

So here's the storm as it continues to slide off to the north. We do still anticipate landfall will be later on tonight as it makes landfall along the Florida coast there. Here's a look at the forecast radar. Again, you can see it kind of sliding up right there in the extreme western portion of the state of Florida.

And again, the key thing for the change for the top-of-the-hour forecast, noting that the Hurricane Center does not think this is going to weaken all that much before it makes landfall. You're going to start to see a lot more of the rain expand into other states. So Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, even though they are not on the coast right where landfall is expected, they are looking at significant amounts of rainfall.

BLITZER: Allison Chinchar, thank you very much for that update. Pamela?

[11:05:01]

BROWN: All right, Wolf, joining us now is Tom Tyler. He's the coordinating the disaster response in Baldwin County, Alabama. Thank you so much for your time. During this very critical window just before landfall, what is your biggest concern right now?

TOM TYLER, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY DIRECTOR, BALDWIN COUNTY, ALABAMA: Well, I think Allison described the storm surge effects very, very accurately for our part of the country. Our topography follows very much what she just said. Five to seven feet of storm surge can have a very large incursion inland just because of how gently sloping some of our topography is, especially out on the Fort Morgan Peninsula. I'm concerned about the heavy, heavy surf.

We have a very adventurous crew down here that likes to get out in the water, and we want to strongly encourage them to stay out of the water. We're at double red flags right now, and we really need our first responders not being put in harm's way, rescuing people that are taking unnecessary and, quite frankly, illegal risks. There's been an awful lot of preparation going into the event that we're starting to enter right now, and so we have got a long ways to go.

BROWN: Yes, not a good idea to be playing in the water right now over there. So how are your teams preparing in these final hours?

TYLER: Well, for instance, our Highway Department has a plan to reopen roads as quickly as possible after the storm passes when it is now safe to start that restoration. But another thing, too, is trying to effect the evacuation before the impacts are coming on shore.

We have a mandatory evacuation order for non-residents south of the intercoastal canal, which is basically our coastal areas. That is ongoing, and for our residents who live in those areas, coastal areas, low-lying areas, we are strongly encouraging them to seek higher ground.

As it becomes more of the impacts reaching our shores, it's going to be more difficult to effect these kind of evacuations, and at some point we have to just button down and do what we've got to do and wait for the impact to pass over, and then we can start working on recovery and reopening roads and so forth.

BROWN: The Baldwin County Commissioner said that since the last major storm, which was Hurricane Sally, an estimated 44,000 people, new people, moved into Baldwin County. So what is your warning to those residents who may have not experienced a Gulf Coast hurricane like this before?

TYLER: Well, my first recommendation is to get your weather information from trusted sources. The Internet is full of people who make a hobby out of scaring others, and that's very unfortunate, but especially down here in southwest Alabama and the northern Gulf Coast, we have very, very competent meteorologists that understand the area and understand some of those problem zones that are most susceptible, and so use those trusted, reliable sources.

The second thing is follow the instructions of local officials. If you are under an evacuation order, that's not a suggestion. A mandatory evacuation order is exactly what it sounds like. A voluntary evacuation order, people have to use good judgment, understand their risks and how those risks relate to their safety and make informed decisions. And for those who have nowhere else to go, the county has opened up a shelter of last resort here in Robertsdale, Alabama. It's been open since 6:00 p.m. yesterday -- I'm sorry, 3:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon.

It doesn't have a large population right now, but we are prepared for more guests to start arriving in the next few hours.

BROWN: There's also a big concern of comparing this hurricane to Hurricane Sally from back in 2020. Why is that a potentially dangerous mistake?

TYLER: It's a mistake because every hurricane seems to have its own personality. You can compare them by what category is this one versus what category is the last one, but different size, different angle of attack, all the different characteristics of a storm make it unique in its own way. I like to say that when you've been through one hurricane, you've been through one hurricane.

We have people who lived here during Hurricane Frederic in 1979 and then Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and then after they sat through Sally, they said, I'll never do that again. In Hurricane Sally, it was just a category two. So it's very important to look at what the threats are and understand those rather than just focusing on the storm and what its category might be.

BROWN: All right, Tom Tyler, thank you. Best of luck to you.

TYLER: Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

BROWN: And we just want to know the CNN Weather app. Yes, thank you. The CNN Weather app gets you all the data that you need before and during the storm, so download the app to get details and expert coverage. Wolf?

[11:10:07]

BLITZER: And still ahead, tense and testy. Senate candidates in swing states go head to head on the debate stage for elections that potentially could make or break the rest of President Trump's term.

BROWN: And later, concerns about potential insider trading, what companies like Kalshi and Polymarket say they're doing about betting on the midterms. You're in The Situation Room and we'll be right back.

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[11:15:10]

BLITZER: Happening now, just 25 days until Election Day and Senate contests are heating up dramatically. Last night, candidates in three major races faced off on the debate stage in their respective states. In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers got very personal with their attacks. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D-MI), SENATE CANDIDATE: You going after my mom?

MIKE ROGERS (R-MI), SENATE CANDIDATE: I'm not going after your mom. What your mom was working at, I was going after that organization that was indicted for funneling money to al-Qaeda. Look, that's your mom. My mom worked at a law smuggled chamber of commerce. I'll put my mom up any day for that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, we'll give you a rebuttal and we're moving away from this subject.

EL-SAYED: He wants this to be about anything but his own record. He's OK if the federal government spies on you, but he wants to make this about anybody else. He's going after my mom, my sister. He's got nothing to actually say about me.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: Recent polling shows a very tight race between Rogers and El- Sayed. A "Fox News" poll from late September showed no clear leader. CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny is here with me in The Situation Room. Jeff, did either candidate leave a mark on the race?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, once the screaming ended, it was sort of hard to know. I mean, it was a dramatically personal contest between both of those candidates in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Even during the commercial break, Rick Albin, who's a veteran political reporter at WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, told the audience that even during the commercial break, they kept going at it.

So it's unclear if there were any points scored here, but what El- Sayed was trying to do is to avoid making this all about him. That, of course, is what Mike Rogers has been trying to do, make this Senate race a referendum on him. Of course, El-Sayed was trying to make this a referendum on Mike Rogers and his support for the President and the President's policies.

But, Wolf, Michigan is Exhibit A of the economic challenges that are really happening throughout the country, but even more specifically in the auto industry and the Canadian tariffs, and Mike Rogers has been trying to step away from that. So that was interesting to watch last night.

But in the end, it's hard to know if either really scored a knockout punch, if you will, because it was a dramatically personal contest. But El-Sayed certainly held his own against this former congressman who ran for Senate in 2024 and narrowly lost.

BLITZER: Yes, and the polls show it's pretty tight right now.

ZELENY: Very tight.

BLITZER: There was also a debate last night in Georgia. Even though President Trump is not on the ballot, he was certainly a central figure in that debate. Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff used Trump's name 16 times, we counted, to attack Congressman Mike Collins. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Mike Collins has brought dishonor to our state through his personal bigotry and his widely documented ties to white nationalists. And he's sold out Georgia in his pathetic, childlike devotion to Donald Trump.

REP. MIKE COLLINS (R-GA), SENATE CANDIDATE: My opponent's a trust fund kid who's never had a job in his life. He wants to take control of this country with these weird and dangerous ideas with his radical friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So what else stood out to you from this debate? ZELENY: Well, the congressman there said that Senator Ossoff has never had a job in his life. He's actually a U.S. senator from Georgia, and if everything keeps going in this direction, he's likely to be re- elected. Republicans I speak to there in Georgia and elsewhere are pretty dismayed about this contest.

This is one of the contests that Republicans just a year ago, at the beginning of this year, that would be one of the most competitive races. Jon Ossoff is the only Democrat who's up for re-election in a red state, if you will. But he has just been able to really hold a commanding position in this Senate contest throughout.

The same happened in the debate. It's clear that the economy, the Trump policies are hanging over this, but even more, just the baggage that Mike Collins and members of his family have. So it was also deeply personal, but this was different in the sense that the President was hanging so heavy on this race.

We'll see if the president goes to Georgia. It's one of the places he's not really been spending a lot of time in, and it's an open question if that would help or not. So Jon Ossoff is almost certainly to be re-elected, it looks like right now. Even Republicans are telling me that.

BLITZER: Yes, he's ahead in the polls.

ZELENY: He sure is.

BLITZER: All right, Jeff Zeleny, thank you very, very much.

ZELENY: You bet.

BLITZER: Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf, the Justice Department reportedly wants a criminal indictment of Cassidy Hutchinson. She is the former White House aide who gave that explosive testimony. You may remember it to Congress at the January 6th hearings back in 2022.

Punchbowl News says prosecutors presented evidence to a grand jury this week and are seeking charges of lying to Congress. Hutchinson testified that she heard secondhand that the President became enraged when his Secret Service detail refused to take him to the Capitol with his supporters on the day of the riot. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[11:20:07]

CASSIDY HUTCHINSON, FORMER ASST. TO TRUMP WH CHIEF OF STAFF: The president said something to the effect of, I'm the effing President, take me up to the Capitol now. To which Bobby responded, Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing. The President reached up towards the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm, said, Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We're going back to the West Wing. We're not going to the Capitol. Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge towards Bobby Engel. And when Mr. Renato had recounted this story to me, he had motioned towards his clavicles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right, so let's bring in former federal prosecutor Berit Berger. Good to see you. How likely is it that a grand jury would indict her on lying to Congress when she's recounting something that is secondhand?

BERIT BERGER, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yes, perjury cases are historically very difficult to prove in the best of cases, exactly for the reason you pointed out. Cassidy Hutchinson was not recounting information that she had experienced firsthand. She was admittedly talking about things that she had heard hearsay, essentially.

And so what prosecutors are going to have to prove is that, number one, there was a false statement, that she made this false statement intentionally, that she had the desire to deceive the committee when she was testifying here, and that the statement was material. That will be incredibly difficult for them to prove because essentially it's going to be a he said, she said, right?

She says, this is what the person told me. It's not, did this actually happen? It's, did this person tell me that? So I think it is going to be a really uphill climb for them and a really difficult case for them to ultimately substantiate.

BROWN: All right, I want to ask you about Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece. This was quite a story. A donor to President Trump is accusing her of offering access to top Trump officials in exchange for cash, a lot of cash. Here's how he described what happened to CNN's Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC DETERS, RETIRED LAWYER & FORMER TRUMP DONOR: The 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, just nothing. She hadn't accomplished anything.

And 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 a Trump administration. I won't keep track of how many favors, how big the favors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So House and Senate Democrats are calling for an investigation into this. From what you know, do you see a possible crime here? What do you make of this?

BERGER: Yes, I mean, we'd need a lot more information, but this is certainly something that should be investigated. We do not want our public officials offering access to the highest bidder. If these text messages are actually legitimate, the question is, what was she really promising in exchange for that $100,000 payment? Was she promising that policy decisions would go his way? Was she promising that he would get access to people like the President? Public officials are not allowed to do that.

This has all the hallmarks of a quid pro quo. So certainly in this investigation, the first question that I would say is, you know, what was going to be on the other side of that $100,000 payment?

BROWN: But even if she didn't deliver it, but she offered it, is there a difference there? It's, you know, one thing to text it and say, I would do this for you. It's another to actually take that concrete action. Tell us about the distinction there.

BERGER: Yes, so there has to be some sort of a material step that's taken, but certainly the fact that she was willing to offer this would raise the question, has there been arrangements in the past where she has given access or other type of public benefit to somebody in exchange for monetary payments? Is this the only person that this type of arrangement has been offered to? And were there actually any sort of concrete steps that were taken to help materialize this?

So certainly at the early stages, but the fact that there's actually text messages that could lend support to that would be a really good building block for the start of this investigation.

BROWN: All right, I want to turn to something else, and that is President Trump's purchase of $5 million in SpaceX funds. It came just two days before launching an effort to slash red tape for commercial space transportation. Now, the White House insists Trump is not personally involved in the purchase here. A spokesman went on to say, "President Trump's stock and bond portfolio is independently managed by third-party financial institutions. All holdings are maintained in discretionary accounts and invested through computer-based model portfolios that automatically replicate recognized indexes, such as the Schwab 1000." As a former federal prosecutor, does that satisfy you?

[11:25:26]

BERGER: Yes, so we're in a really sticky area here, and it's an area that's haunted the President for both Trump's second presidency but also his first. So generally speaking, government officials can't use their public office for any sort of private financial gain. However, there's a carve-out. The President and the Vice President legally are exempt from some of the most key conflict-of-interest statutes and rules that we have.

So, for example, members of Congress are barred from trading on stocks based on nonpublic information under the Stock Act, but that law doesn't apply to the President. So historically, it's been very difficult for people to sort of pin some of these conflict-of-interest crimes or violations on the President because of some of these exemptions. So while sort of the through-line here is that people might find this incredibly distasteful and not want their President to be able to profit personally based on some of these policy decisions that he makes or public decisions that he makes, I don't know that it actually would be illegal, per se.

BROWN: All right, Berit Berger, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Pamela, up next, what a newly released Army report tells us about the deadly collision between one of its helicopters and a passenger jet over the Potomac River right here in Washington.

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