Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

New White House Press Secretary Holds First Briefing; Zacharia Says, We Have Asked Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle to Resign; Investigation Underway After Deadly Fall from Six Flags Coaster. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 13, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and we've just been watching the first press briefing over at the White House with the new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia.

And she did make some news. She says they have now asked Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, to resign. That's big news.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that's big news. That was one of the top questions coming into this press briefing, whether President Trump would fire her or ask her to resign. He had made it clear he was unhappy with the reports about her, and now we know, from this new White House press secretary, that in fact the White House has asked her to resign.

In terms of what her response is to that, we still don't have an answer to that, because this was a pretty brief press briefing, Wolf. Typically, they take more questions, but of course, this is her first day on the job after just being announced a few days ago that she was hired.

And just note Joe Lockhart was on earlier. He was a former White House press secretary. He said that he spent so much time with the president taking courses on national security to prepare for the job. But for Katie Zacharia, she got it a few days ago, and then she's taking to the podium just today.

[10:00:03]

BLITZER: Our Chief White House Correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, is joining us right now, the CNN anchor. Kaitlan, you've been in, in the room. What do you think?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it was kind of bizarre because it was a press briefing, but there was only two questions that were taken by the new press secretary. She came out, she read very lengthy remarks, which is not unusual. That's typically what Karoline Leavitt would do as well. She would take a come out and talk about what the administration wanted to tout that day, any announcements, anything that was going on. And then she turned to questions. Oh, actually, let me adjust my count. She took three questions. They took one from the new media seat, and then they took two others from reporters in the room, and then she pointed to the fact that the president is leaving the White House in 45 minutes, and that he would answer questions there.

And so, I'm not really sure, Wolf, that I've ever been to a press briefing where there were only three questions in the briefing.

It was quite unusual, especially for the first press briefing, which, you know, was widely touted by the White House and announced by the president. They did make some news during that, where Katie Zacharia announced that the president has asked the ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, to resign from her job following that damning Wall Street Journal report with those allegations that she was basically trying to get Trump donors to fund her in exchange for giving access to administration officials, something that Kimberly Guilfoyle, I'll note, has denied through her attorneys. But regardless, the White House seems to feel that she should resign from that position, and the president has asked her to do so.

But, yes, Wolf, I'm just -- I'm a little s-surprised.

BROWN: You're speechless.

COLLINS: I've never really seen a briefing where there weren't -- I mean, I've seen a few where there's only a couple of questions, but I've never seen one where there was only three questions taken during an entire press briefing. So, that was unusual.

So, I'm not really sure. I, I mean, it started 15 minutes ago, so I don't really know what to say.

BROWN: You're still processing it, Kaitlan. I know when she, when she closed her binder, I thought, wait, this couldn't be it, right? And sure enough, that was it. So, perhaps in the future she'll take more questions from reporters like yourself, Kaitlan.

But just for our audience, just to take a step back, because this all happened so quickly, I mean, it was just a few days ago she was announced, then she held this very brief press briefing today. What can you tell our audience about what we know about Katie Zacharia?

COLLINS: She was announced pretty abruptly as the new press secretary. Obviously, they've been searching for someone to replace Karoline Leavitt after she announced over the summer that she was going to be stepping down to, to spend more time with her family.

And it was a bit of a struggle for the administration to find someone. Obviously, being Trump's spokesperson is a difficult job in any administration. It always has been famously, because he speaks on behalf of himself so often. But they had been searching and then they announced pretty abruptly that Katie Zacharia would be taking that job.

She is someone who was working for Trump Media, had a very brief stint at the Department of Homeland Security before that. But then the president met with her in the Oval Office last week, and then announced that she would, in fact, be taking over that job and announced that she was starting yesterday and that her first press briefing would be today, which is pretty quickly to get familiar.

Obviously, you've got to, you know, kind of do these practice sessions with their staff. Normally, the press secretary goes and meets with President Trump himself directly. And so they announce this press briefing. And so that's why I guess it's the most confusing because this was a briefing that was announced, of course, by the White House. It was very short-lived, and we'll see if that continues to be the protocol going forward.

BLITZER: And you noticed, I'm sure you did, Kaitlan, that the initial questions, and there weren't many, but the few questions that were asked were all asked by reporters who were basically sympathetic, supportive of the Trump administration. Is that right?

COLLINS: Well, I mean, I think that they can still get tough questions. Peter Doocy from Fox News had asked if they were sharing intelligence with Ukraine still, or if they had stopped doing so. That is something that our reports that are coming out of Ukraine this morning, Wolf, as I'm sure that you and Pamela have seen, especially as the president himself has been saying that Zelenskyy should be replaced as the leader of Ukraine amid that fight over his announcement that he was buying Russian oil, something the president himself has criticized other countries for doing, and now says the United States is going to do three weeks after he signed a sanctions law that would tariff anyone and sanction people who buy Russian oil.

And so, Katie Zacharia did not have an answer to that question. She said that she would have to check and get back on whether or not the United States is still sharing intelligence with Ukraine and its partners. And then there was a question about Kimberly Guilfoyle. That's when she made that news that she was resigning, or that she'd been asked to resign from that job. But, Wolf, that was pretty much it for this press briefing.

BLITZER: Yes, interesting indeed. Kaitlan, I want you to stay with us. I want to bring in our senior political analyst, Mark Preston, and former White House press secretary for President Bill Clinton, Joe Lockhart.

Mark, let me start with you. You were watching the briefing. What are your big takeaways?

[10:05:00]

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, a couple things. Let me just read some of the statements and words that she used to describe what she was talking about today. In describing President Trump, unprecedented, historic, enthusiastic, record highs, thanks to President Trump, no other president, delivers on every promise. And when asked what her job is, she says, and I'll paraphrase, to amplify and multiply all of the president's wins. Now, a press secretary, and I'll let Joe speak to this because I'm just young enough to remember when Joe was the press secretary and I covered him when he was the press secretary standing at that podium. The job of the press secretary is to speak on behalf of the United States. The job of the press secretary is to calm the fears of whatever's happening around the country, around the world.

Now, the job of the press secretary is also to represent the president of the United States, even in a personal manner, but the reality is, is that she at least was very open. Her job is to stand at that podium and speak to an audience of one, and that's President Trump.

BROWN: And she had said that he always follows through on his promises. Well, we know even hearing from Trump supporters themselves they don't feel that way in terms of his promise to lower prices. We're not seeing that particularly at the pump. His promise not to get into wars overseas, we have the Iran war now many months in.

Joe Lockhart, for perspective from you, I just wonder what your reaction is. You heard Kaitlan there in the room talk about just how surprising it was that it was so short. She only took a few questions and then left.

JOE LOCKHART, FORMER CLINTON WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Yes, I think I agree with Kaitlan. It was a little bizarre to rush her out there and then rush her out of the room. I'm not sure what they were hoping to accomplish, but I don't think they built any confidence in her ability to go forward.

A couple things struck me. One was she talked about being ready for this job as an extension of what she's been doing, and she's been kind of a far right, you know, bomb thrower on behalf of Trump and, you know, the MAGA world. And that's a little odd to cite that as, you know, your resume for being able to get up there and stand at the podium and speak for the country.

The second thing is there's just -- it's not fair to her. There is no way for her to be ready to do this job, even under the way Trump defines the job. I had said earlier that even after two years with the president, which, you know, Wolf knows because he was in the, he was in the building with me I spent a couple of months just going and learning the intricacies of all of our foreign policy.

That podium is supposed to be an instrument of American foreign policy. She got asked a foreign policy question and she just said, I don't know.

BLITZER: I remember those days when you were the White House press secretary, Joe. I was the CNN White House correspondent for seven years, so I remember all those briefings. I was sitting up near the front of that briefing room all the time, and you were available. You were ready to answer questions, and we all simply assumed based on your knowledge that you were speaking not just for the president, but for the entire U.S. government at that time, answering serious substantive questions, not just on national security, foreign policy, but on domestic issues as well. Based on what you saw and heard so far, does she have the qualifications to do the job?

LOCKHART: Well, she doesn't have the qualifications to do the job the way I would define it and the way traditionally it's been defined. Traditionally, it's defined as someone who, yes, works for the president and tries to do what they can to promote their agenda, but secondly is a voice for the American people to let them know what the U.S. government is doing, what the U.S. government is doing well, what the U.S. government is doing -- is failing at and trying to do better.

In the Trump administration, they don't view it that way at all. They view it as a place for propaganda, a place for amplifying whatever Trump says even when they know it's not true. I mean, you know, in my -- you know, you could do a psychological study on whether Trump believes his own lies, but the people around him know when he's not telling the truth, and they view that podium as a place to go and amplify that. And that's, you know -- it's just, you know, propaganda. There's no other word for it.

BROWN: So, Mark, Wolf asked Jen if she's qualified for the job. Our KFILE has been doing some digging in her history and some of her deleted posts and so forth. And based on what it found, she has a history of conspiracy-related content in her social media posts. What more can you tell us about that?

PRESTON: So, let me -- first of all, she has amplified conspiracy theories across social media over the past several years, but two of them really stand out. One, she's accused prominent Democrats of pedophilia. Then she's gone on, which is even crazier for me to say, that she's accused of the Hollywood elite of being pedophile cannibals.

Now, let me just rephrase that for you again, pedophile cannibals.

[10:10:02]

And yet she's standing at the podium right now, and she's speaking -- supposed to be speaking on behalf of the free world. So, it really does cause a problem for her to at least when she has the credibility issue, when she comes out to the podium.

But, again, as I said earlier, she's not necessarily speaking to the nation or speaking to the world. She's speaking to an audience of one, and that's Donald Trump. Because as we've known from past press secretaries, that if you were to go out and you were to say something that he didn't like, he would be raging behind the door.

So, you know, from her purposes, she's probably walked off that podium and feels like she did a great job. But the reality is, I mean, she does have a background, your past does follow you, and for her to at least establish any credibility going forward for however long she stays in this job, she's going to have to earn that from the podium. She doesn't have that. She certainly didn't show that today. But, you know, there still is time, but, again, she has a history, and you would have to think that history in itself is going to repeat itself. BLITZER: Yes, we'll see what happens on that front.

Joe Lockhart we're just, what, three weeks or so from the midterm elections on November 3rd. Does the press secretary's job become much more important, much more significant, bigger, if you will, if Republicans lose their majority in the House, the Senate potentially, or both?

LOCKHART: Yes, Wolf, I think that's the most significant part. The job right now is pretty straightforward. Once the Democrats take over, which I assume they'll -- when one, maybe both of the Houses, and have subpoena power and investigative power to hold this administration accountable, that room is going to become a lot more contentious because it won't be just speculation about things. They'll have hard and fast evidence. There'll be news every day that reveals something about what the president's doing, and it's going to be a much harder job.

You know, we went through this in the Clinton administration almost constantly. And I think they're about to get another dose of it there.

BROWN: Mark, to go back to you, Katie Zacharia assumes this post during a tense time in the White House's relationship with the media. As you know, the president's effort to ban news organizations from White House grounds, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico are being challenged in court. We know, obviously, she made it clear she's a robust champion of the MAGA movement. Is she also viewed as someone who can smooth those tensions?

PRESTON: I don't think so. I mean, look, let's give her some time to -- I mean, let's at least give her the -- a little bit of a runway to try to get acclimated to the job. But I don't think what we've seen from, you know, her first few moments out at the podium is that she's going to be the person who, who knits back together, you know, this torn apart quilt that we've seen that is the, the White House briefing room.

I mean, the fact is she came out, she said her job is to amplify all of the president's wins. It isn't to come out and speak on behalf of the United States, you know, to its people, speak on behalf of the United States to the world. Her job is to go out there and just talk about how great Donald Trump is, and I think that's what we're going to expect her to see.

But I think Joe's right. I mean, just, you know, the idea that we are heading into this midterm elections that House Democrats very, you know, likely are going to win the majority, they will have subpoena power. That is going to be a battlefield. That briefing room, it will be a battlefield come next year, and it's going to be a battlefield where someone who ha- stands behind that podium better be able to -- you know, to take the shots that are going to be delivered at that person.

But to be said, she may not even appear in due press conferences. I mean, there is that possibility, too. You know, that if it gets too tense in there, whoever -- if it's her or somebody else, they may be, they may not just do press conferences.

BLITZER: Well, let's hope there are press conferences. Let's hope there are serious questions, follow-up questions. That is so, so important for the American people to get the impact of all of this unfolding.

Mark Preston, Joe Lockhart, to both of you, thank you very much. And Kaitlan Collins, who joined us earlier, thanks to her as well. She's going to have obviously a lot more on her own show, The Source. That comes up at 9:00 P.M. Eastern later tonight.

BROWN: And still ahead here in The Situation Room, witnesses describe the horror that unfolded after a man falls from a roller coaster in Georgia and dies. We are live at the scene as safety over these rides are under scrutiny.

BLITZER: Plus, early voting is now underway in Georgia. CNN's Ryan Young joins us live, where Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms and Senator Raphael Warnock are rallying voters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, an investigation is now underway after a man died on a very popular rollercoaster. Witnesses say the man fell from the Goliath ride over at Six Flags, over Georgia. One witness describes the terrifying ordeal while waiting to be evacuated from the ride.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN EDWARDS, EVACUATED FROM GOLIATH: We saw mechanics and paramedics running towards down, down there, so we realized that there was something bad that happened, very tragic. The first thing you think about is the people you're on the ride with. Being stuck up there, like some people are really scared of that stuff, so they need to do better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. Let's go live right now to CNN Correspondent Isabel Rosales over at Six Flags, over Georgia.

Isabel, a Six Flags spokesperson says nine rides across its parks nationwide are now temporarily closed out of what they describe as an abundance of caution. What more are you learning about this deadly fall in Georgia where you are?

[10:20:00]

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, you got to think of what a horrific thing for families and kids to have witnessed here at Six Flags over Georgia yesterday. The park would've normally been closed because during October, it only operates during the weekends. But yesterday was Columbus Day, so it was open for the holiday and packed too because this is the time where usually here in the Atlanta metro area students, families, they're celebrating fall break.

Now, I want you to push in a little bit here, and you can see on the incline of Goliath right there, you can see a car halfway through. I want to be clear that that is the car that was behind the one where this man sadly fell to his death. But this car was stopped, and we saw those images, the aerial chopper footage of all of these people being evacuated carefully and then guided down the maintenance staircase.

So, what happened here? How in the world could a man fall from out of this from out of the rollercoaster, from out of his seat? Police have not given details yet. They're investigating into what happened. They have not put out his identity yet or how many people have been injured. But we do know from several witnesses, including one who spoke to our CNN affiliate WXIA, that they witnessed this man falling out of his seat and hitting the car three different times before falling down to a haunted house attraction where he remained there on the roof of that before first responders could get to him.

Listen now to some of these witnesses who saw that horrific aftermath.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two of my children had just been on that ride maybe 20 minutes before.

Whenever you go to amusement parks, whenever you get in a car, whenever you live your life, it's always subject to risk, so you just never know when something's going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And, Wolf, we did hear here in the last hour from the actual Swiss rollercoaster manufacturer who built Goliath, and this is what they said. This is Bolliger & Mabillard. They said, we are deeply saddened by this tragic accident. Our thoughts are with the family and those affected. We are actively investigating this incident and have no further comment until we have a better understanding of what transpired.

Now, this park is set to open again on Friday per its usual schedule for the month of October. But this ride clearly temporarily closed, and as you mentioned off the top there, nine other rides across Six Flags. Wolf?

BLITZER: Do we know if other amusement parks around the country are also shutting down roller coaster rides?

ROSALES: Yes, Wolf. I have the information on Six Flags that out of this abundance of caution, they have shut down similar rides. That's nine of them across six different parks. But you can imagine that for people who are enthusiasts of amusement parks, they're going to be extra careful and a little bit, you know, putting to the side and focusing on safety with these rides. Wolf?

BLITZER: Safety is first, of course. Isabel Rosales over at Six Flags in Georgia, thank you very, very much. Pamela? BROWN: All right, Wolf. Coming up, accused of biting a flight attendant and kicking a Port Authority officer, what the attorney for actress Selma Blair is saying about the alleged incident on board a Delta flight in court.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

BROWN: All right. Breaking news, White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia announced at her first press briefing this morning that the White House has asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign her position as U.S. ambassador to Greece.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE ZACHARIA, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign. She has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And this comes as a source tells CNN that the State Department watchdog is now investigating her amid allegations of misconduct. Those allegations, which lawyers for Guilfoyle have denied, include seeking money from a donor named Eric Deters in exchange for providing access to administration figures.

Now, lawyers for the ambassador said in a statement provided to CNN that Deters owed Guilfoyle money for speeches and consulting work and called his statements false.

That donor, Eric Deters, joins us now. Good morning to you. What is your reaction to what we just heard from the White House, Eric?

Okay, well we're having some technical issues with Eric. Eric, I'm so sorry. We can't hear you, but, hopefully, we'll get your audio soon. Let's see if we can fix it.

Live on T.V.

Okay, can you hear -- okay, we're going to reconnect with Eric, and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]