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Trump Doubles Down on Supposed Ukraine-Russia Cease-Fire; James Talarico Set to Appear at CNN Town Hall; Man Killed Falling Off Six Flags Roller Coaster Identified; Kimberly Guilfoyle Asked to Resign. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired October 13, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Breaking news: The Trump administration asks Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign, as sources tell CNN the State Department is now investigating allegations of misconduct.

[11:00:03]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And AI apocalypse? The shocking new warning that artificial intelligence could end the human race within the next 75 years.

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.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: The breaking news, only moments ago, the new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, said the Trump administration has asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign her position as the United States 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)

BLITZER: All this comes as a source now tells CNN that the State Department watchdog is investigating Kimberly Guilfoyle over allegations of misconduct.

Those allegations, which lawyers for Guilfoyle have strongly denied, include seeking money from donors in exchange for access to administration figures.

BROWN: And lawyers for the ambassador said in a statement provided to CNN that the donor in question, Eric Deters, owed Guilfoyle money for speeches and consulting work and called his statements false. He denied that when I spoke with him last hour. Here's what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ERIC DETERS, FORMER TRUMP DONOR: I'm going to be suing them for defamation. They first said the text messages were fake. "The Wall Street Journal" established they were not fake. They're still on my phone, by the way.

Then they claimed I was a known blackmailer, more defamation. Then they are claiming with their statement that, oh, this is for services rendered, when the text messages clearly show that she says, we need to paper this. And the papering was me -- I was willing to do it because I didn't care -- claiming that it was for her prior consulting, which is a complete lie, and she knows it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right, CNN national security correspondent Kylie Atwood is here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

So what more are you learning about this State Department watchdog investigation?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's a critical question here, because now that we have learned that President Trump has actually asked Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle, the U.S. ambassador to Greece, to resign, we don't necessarily know how that will impact this investigation that the Office of the Inspector General has actually opened here.

I spoke with someone who used to work at that office and effectively said that it's up to the OIG to make that determination here. And it is a critical question, because there have been a plethora of reports with regard to allegations of wrongdoing by Kimberly Guilfoyle.

And we should note the first report came less than a month ago. So it's been a pretty swift process to where now the White House has asked Kimberly Guilfoyle to resign. But the question here is, what more do we not know yet?

And these reports have been in the public eye. "The Wall Street Journal" obviously breaking the news first that she had been going into meetings in Greece with a construction company lobbyist for a Greek company, and so many people saw that guy in the meetings with her, they actually thought that maybe he was her chief of staff, not revealing what his actual connection to that construction company was.

Obviously, then, with Eric Deters, asking him to pay $100,000 in her Amex bill, and which he called a quid pro quo, her trying to sell access to Trump administration officials. We should note, of course, that her lawyers have denied that and said that he owed her that money, about $150,000, they say for speaking engagements.

But what more do we not know? So we will have to watch and see if the State Department OIG investigation continues. A challenge is that the OIG does not comment on ongoing investigations that they are carrying out. So we're going to have to watch and learn what we can hear from this from sources in the building. But then the other area to watch here is also Capitol Hill, because,

as Eric just told you in the last hour there, he has had contact with members of Congress, and he's going to be presumably providing them with the text messages that he provided to "The Wall Street Journal," CNN, and other outlets with regard to her demands that, in his words, amounted to a quid pro quo.

So we have heard from lawmakers who say, we need to know if that was the only demand that she was making, if that was the only Trump donor that she was going to try and sell access to the Trump administration. So there is relative interest on Capitol Hill, obviously, among Democrats here, so we will watch and see where those lines of inquiry actually land.

We're also waiting to hear from Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle herself or her lawyers, because we haven't confirmed that she has actually resigned, even though we know President Trump has asked her to do so.

BROWN: All right, busy day for you.

Kylie Atwood, thanks so much -- Wolf.

[11:05:00]

BLITZER: Also happening now, the midterm elections are, what, only three weeks away from today, and President Trump is on a red state campaign tour, as polls suggest his party could lose control of Congress.

Right now, the president is on his way to Alaska. He will campaign for an incumbent senator in that traditional Republican stronghold. The president is coming off a raucous rally last night in Ohio, where the GOP is fighting to hold on to a key Senate seat.

The president's mission is clear, fire up the party faithful and try to ensure a strong turnout in conservative areas. In Ohio, he attacked two Muslim Democrats, Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Abdul El- Sayed the Democratic Senate nominee in Michigan. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That Ilhan, somebody was asking me. I don't know what they're doing with it, but I can tell you this. She's a disaster. She comes in from a country without laws, without police, without military, where all they do is shoot each other. And she comes into our country and she says, I have a constitutional right.

She's got a constitutional right. You look at the guy running in Michigan. He's a jihadist. He's a jihadist running against a very good candidate, very strong, very good Mike Rogers, very good candidate.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: But this -- this guy's a jihadist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: As President Trump crisscrosses the country to try to motivate Republican voters, conservative leaders are warning that a key group may get overlooked. They say more needs to be done to mobilize white evangelicals, who are certainly a critical part of the president's coalition.

CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox is here with us in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Lauren, are Republican leaders taking this concern seriously right now, and what can they accomplish, what, in less than three weeks?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, right now, so much of the work to mobilize evangelical voters is coming from pastors and faith leaders themselves.

The RNC doesn't have a specific turnout operation just for white evangelical voters, but it's a crucial piece of the president's coalition. The last three presidential cycles, you had eight out of 10 evangelicals roughly voting for the president.

And while they're just about 13 percent of the population, they vote in such large numbers that sometimes they make up about 20 percent of the electorate. So if one in five of your voters who showing up as a white evangelical voter, and then you have this added pressure that so many of them are voting for the president, the concern is that perhaps they don't show up for the midterms, because as one pastor put it to me, the reality is that evangelical voters have to fill up their car with gas.

They have to go to the grocery store. They're seeing these high prices. And while it's really unlikely, according to a lot of the researchers and experts that I talk to, that these voters are going to walk into a poll and pull the lever for a Democrat all of a sudden, the reality is perhaps they just don't show up at all.

And that's the concern. So, right now, you have groups like Faith and Freedom Coalition, Ralph Reed's group, who are trying to do door- knocking. They're trying to make sure that some of these low- propensity voters who vote in presidential elections show up to the polls.

But it's also coming at a moment where Democrats are trying to make a play for some Christian voters, and you're seeing that in places like Kansas and Texas with the candidates that they have selected. You have Adam Hamilton there in Kansas, the Senate candidate who is a megachurch pastor, right?

And a lot of the conservative evangelical leaders that I talked to said he's talking about God, but not in a way that's familiar to a lot of white evangelicals. It really runs counter to what our belief system is. But they're worried, because they feel like not enough has been done over the course of the last several months to prepare a ground game to make sure that these voters go to the polls.

BLITZER: Yes, very excellent reporting. Thank you very much, Lauren Fox. Thanks for being here -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Wolf.

Early in-person voting in Texas begins Monday, and, tomorrow, CNN will host a special town hall with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico. He faces the state's Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, and is trying to turn a seat that's been deep red for decades blue.

CNN politics reporter Patrick Svitek is here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

So, what does this race mean not only for Texas, but for the balance of power?

PATRICK SVITEK, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, this is a hugely important race.

And it's coming at a crucial time, the CNN town hall that's being hosted on Wednesday. James Talarico, the Democrat, is just coming off of an extended absence from the campaign trail that's drawn scrutiny from Republicans. And also, the Republican nominee, Ken Paxton, is facing a lot of questions about his ability to turn out Republican voters in Texas.

Right now, you're seeing the entire kind of Trump political organization pushing really hard to energize their base in Texas. Just today, J.D. Vance, the vice president, is heading to Tyler, Texas, a very red part of Texas, to try to turn out Republican voters for Ken Paxton.

If you will recall, from 2018, there was that very close Senate race between Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke. The reason that Ted Cruz was able to win that race, even though it was a very close race, was because of rural Texas, because of places like Tyler, Texas, that J.D. Vance is going to today.

[11:10:05]

And so they're going to need to repeat that strategy this time around, really juice up the turnout for Republicans in rural Texas, because there is going to continue. -- they anticipate -- Republicans anticipate there's going to continue to be a marked shift toward the Democrats in the cities, of course, and then also in the suburbs of Texas. So they need to offset that.

BROWN: All right, Patrick Svitek, thank you so much.

And a reminder, tomorrow, a town hall with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico facing Texas voters. Erin Burnett moderates the CNN and Jubilee town hall tomorrow night at 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN and streaming live with an All Access subscription -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Still ahead: President Trump doubling down on his claim that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to an energy cease-fire.

And next, there's more breaking news just into THE SITUATION ROOM. We're learning the identity of the man who died after falling from a roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia. We will have the details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:15:46]

BROWN: All right, we have some breaking news out of Georgia. Authorities have justified the man who died Monday after he fell from a roller coaster at Six Flags.

Let's go straight to CNN's Isabel Rosales right at the park just outside of Atlanta.

Isabel, what did we learn about the man on the ride?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Pam. We do have his identity, 42-year-old Hassan Jihad Ibn Kariem.

This is from the Cobb County Police's Major Crimes Unit, saying that when they responded to the emergency calls here just yesterday, they found him not moving, unresponsive, and not breathing below the ride here, Goliath, saying that he was ejected from the ride and struck other riders before falling, clearly a horrific event for so many family and kids that were out here.

This was the start of fall break for a lot of folks here in the metro Atlanta area. Normally, this park would not be open during the weekday in the month of October. Normally, it's typically open only on the weekends, but because of the holiday, so many people were coming out here to have a good time, to seek some thrills. And, unfortunately, it ended in such a horrific way.

I want to push in right now because you can see the Goliath right behind me and one of the cars up there on the incline of this ride. This is not the car where this man fell from, Kariem. This was the car coming right behind them that got paused, emergency-stopped by staff members, and then eventually we saw the images of the riders being evacuated from the ride.

Now, Goliath, this is what's known as a hypercoaster. It's made of steel, reaches top speeds of 70 miles per hour. This is a 200-foot incline. And I will leave you with this, Pam. We heard our affiliate, CNN affiliate WXIA, from multiple witnesses, some of who say that it appeared that this man Kariem was besides his son, and that his wife was looking on from the ground.

One witness said that they -- he struck the car three times before falling, and that those souvenir pictures that you know normally are attached to the roller coasters, you take those thrilling souvenir pictures, it captured him falling out of the roller coaster.

So, horribly traumatizing, certainly, for this man's family, but so many of these riders and people looking down from below as well. The park does open back up on Friday, per its normal schedule -- Pam.

BROWN: Just awful.

And we're also hearing from the ride's manufacturer. What is it saying?

ROSALES: Right. We do have a statement from Bolliger & Mabillard, which, by the way, we spoke with a roller coaster expert, safety expert, who says that this manufacturer has a stellar record.

And this is what they said: "We're 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."

And also we did hear back from Six Flags that they have put nine roller coasters across six Six Flags parks temporarily on pause, temporarily closed, out of, they say, an abundance of caution.

BLITZER: Isabel Rosales over at Six Flags in Georgia, thank you very much for that report.

Also happening now: President Trump is defending the energy cease- fire, as he calls it, that he says Russia and Ukraine agreed to. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think they both support it. I think they want to make a deal, but they don't know how, but we're going to get them to make a deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the deal was news to him when it was announced, and he's accused the Russians of already breaking it. The U.S. has also threatened to withhold intelligence and weapons purchases from Ukraine if it doesn't adhere to this so-called cease-fire.

With us now is John Herbst. He's the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and he's the senior director over at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center.

Ambassador, thank you so much for joining us.

What do you think the consequences are for President Trump if Russia continues to target energy facilities and ignores what he calls the cease-fire?

[11:20:06]

JOHN HERBST, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Well, if there is a cease-fire, the Russians would not be targeting Ukrainian energy facilities, which they have been doing since the cease-fire, alleged cease-fire, was announced.

So, if President Trump is serious, he needs to make it very clear to Putin he needs to stop targeting energy facilities in Ukraine. Or he should tell Ukraine he has no objections to them responding to Russian violations of the supposed cease-fire.

BLITZER: The president is clearly blaming Ukraine for not ending the war and for carrying some of the responsibility for the surging diesel prices here in the United States and indeed around the world.

Trump has also called for President Zelenskyy to be replaced as the Ukrainian president. How does Zelenskyy have to -- how does Zelenskyy have to negotiate -- or navigate, I should say, this very delicate situation from here.

HERBST: Look, all those statements were made after Zelenskyy criticized the diesel deal.

And while Zelenskyy's criticism was fair, because this deal will have almost no impact on diesel prices in the United States, it was probably not the wisest thing from a tactical point of view for him to say that. So Trump then went ballistic with all the statements you just read out.

Trump seems to have calmed down a little bit in terms of his criticism of Zelenskyy. The key question is, again, will we see an end of Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy? And, if we don't, is Trump going to make an issue out of Ukraine responding? Because that would not be American strength.

That would be pandering to Putin.

BLITZER: The U.S. allies in the region, they're clearly upset over some of the most recent statements made by President Trump as far as President Zelenskyy is concerned, right?

HERBST: Oh, there's no doubt about it.

And I have to say those statements do not strengthen America's position or actually serve American interests. I think President Trump is dealing with his midterm problem, which is related to the price of oil, which is related to, of course, the war in the Persian Gulf.

It has very has very little relationship to Russia's aggression in Ukraine and Ukraine's response to that aggression.

BLITZER: Is there any appetite at all inside Ukraine for new presidential elections to take place?

HERBST: Everyone -- well, not everyone, but almost everyone, including the opposition parties, understand it would be almost impossible to conduct an election while the war is under way.

But Zelenskyy, in deference to Trump, said a couple of days ago, he's happy to have an election if the Russians guarantee ironclad two months of a cease-fire for Russia for Ukraine to conduct the elections, a very fair proposal.

BLITZER: And this notion of the U.S. going ahead and buying a lot of oil from Russia right now, what does that do to what the legacy is of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who was strongly urging for sanctions against Russia as it continues its war against Ukraine?

HERBST: Well, Senator Tillis made the point that this is inconsistent, and I'm being diplomatic, with Lindsey Graham's advocacy and his legacy. There's no question about it.

It's also true, though, that the amount of diesel that President Trump has mentioned is actually a very small quantity, which is why it would not have real impact on prices in the United States, but it would provide additional resources to Russia for his -- to continue his aggression in Ukraine.

And that's the -- that's what cuts against American interests. Of course, Russia considers us to be its principal adversary and behaves towards us in that fashion.

BLITZER: It certainly does.

President Trump also commented this morning in a new social media post dismissing any suggestion that Russia and China are helping Iran, saying: "If they are, it's at a very low level, but I don't believe they are at all" -- end quote.

HERBST: Well...

BLITZER: What do you make of those comments, Ambassador? Is the president being naive?

HERBST: I think that's a willful unwillingness to look at what the Russians are doing.

Look, Russian intelligence is helping murder American servicepeople in the Middle East, Russian technical support providing of components for Shaheds, China's technical support with those components for Shaheds also killing American servicepeople and our allies and partners in the Middle East.

And it's really quite strange not to recognize that, because that's a real danger to President Trump's own operation in the Middle East.

BLITZER: Ambassador John Herbst, thanks so much for joining us.

HERBST: My pleasure. Thank you.

BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Wolf, breaking news just into THE SITUATION ROOM: U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle is now responding to the Trump administration's request for her resignation.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:29:39] BLITZER: All right, there's more breaking news. Kimberly Guilfoyle, the United States ambassador to Greece, is now responding to the White House's request for her resignation.

CNN national security correspondent Kylie Atwood is back with us in THE SITUATION ROOM.

What is she saying?

ATWOOD: Yes, so this is the first time we have heard from her, as you said, Wolf, and she acknowledges that her time as ambassador may be coming to an end.

This is in a very lengthy Twitter post that came from her personal Twitter account, not her ambassador Twitter account. And we should note that she does not actually say in this post that she has put forth her resignation yet.