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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
Trump To Campaign Thursday In Sioux City, Iowa; Trump Campaigns In South Carolina For Sen. Darline Graham; Marshall, Hamilton Face Off In Senate Debate In Kansas; Trump's FCC Chair Issues Warning about "Fake Polls"; Interview with Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-CA); Calls for Probe Into Handling of Jalen Hurts' Blood Clot. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 22, 2026 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: 2 to 1 lead in the WNBA Finals. Angel Reese put up 21 points and 12 rebounds as Atlanta cruised over Golden State 97 to 71. That's two straight wins for the Dream and the best of seven series game four, Saturday in Atlanta. And while we're on the topic, Lakers look good in their debut.
Thanks for watching. The first hour of The Story Is. The next hour starts right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, The Story Is with Elex Michelson.
MICHAELSON: I'm Elex Michaelson. It's 10:00 o'clock here in Los Angeles. Coming up, the story is a race to the finish line. We'll take you to South Carolina, Michigan, and Kansas, see how midterm candidates are making their cases in the final weeks of the campaign.
The story is doubling down why the vice president is backing Vivek Ramaswamy after his campaign ad stirred up lots of controversy this week. And the story is a massive payout will break down, the latest legal loss for Meta, and the privacy concerns the case brought up.
But we start with politics, voting underway in states across the country with now less than two weeks to go before November 3rd. President Trump taking his midterm campaign blitz to Iowa in the day ahead, followed by stops in Florida, Georgia, and Michigan later this week.
Tonight, he rallied Republicans in South Carolina, hoping to boost incumbent Senator Darlene Graham. The president once again using an anti-transgender slur to attack Democrat Annie Andrews. Once again, he urged voters to pretend his name is on the ballot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Darlene, you're going to win big. Darlene, you're going to win big. Darlene, I saw some good numbers for you. And as you'll see, you're going to see some very good numbers for me, too. I get good numbers, I get good polls, but I'm not running. But I am
running, right?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Voters in Kansas and Michigan getting another chance to hear from their candidates for the U.S. Senate in a pair of feisty debates tonight. Incumbent Republican Roger Marshall and his Democratic challenger, Adam Hamilton, meeting in Kansas. Hamilton tried to claim the middle ground, saying he's not someone who favors socialism. Marshall continued to align himself with President Trump on issues including taxes and the war with Iran.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROGER MARSHALL (R-KS): I want this war to be over as badly as anybody does in America. Look, I served, my brother served, my dad served, my son is serving. I want this war to be over just as soon as possible. But we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
ADAM HAMILTON, U.S. SENATE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FROM KANSAS: The president said that we had taken out their capabilities last year and they were buried underneath rubble. They've had the desire for nuclear capabilities for a very long time. No other Republican president supported this course of action other than President Trump.
And I just want to say I'm not running against President Trump. I'm running against him. And he supported it again and again and again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Candidates in Michigan also discussing the war with Iran. The most contentious exchanges focused on Republican Mike Rogers claims that Democrat Abdul El-Sayed was aligned with Democratic socialists, which he says he's not, and bought off by the Muslim Brotherhood.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABDUL EL-SAYED, U.S. SENATE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FROM MICHIGAN: You send this man to the U.S. Senate. Do not be surprised when we fight more wars, we accrue more national debt, and he does not stand up for you or the price of your gas or the price of your groceries.
Why he's bought off by the same weapons manufacturers? AIPAC, we just heard, is going to put, what, 9 million into this campaign in the next two weeks alone? Well, that's what you get when you have an AIPAC back politician.
MIKE ROGERS (R-MI): So being bought off by the Muslim Brotherhood, having donors to his campaign from Hamas that support Hezbollah is not a problem. If you are going to go to the United States Senate, we need to know, are you for America, or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?
(END VIDEO CLIP) Our panel back with us. John Ziegler, host of "The Death of
Journalism" podcast, and Brian Tyler Cohen, host of the "No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen" podcast.
Brian, we know this seems to be a good year for the Democrats. I mean, so much so that we're talking about Kansas, a place the Democrats haven't won in 100 years. In that context, Michigan should be a slam dunk.
Michigan has all statewide elected Democrats. It's a state that has two Democratic senators right now. Why do you think Abdul El-Sayed isn't doing better in the polls?
BRIAN TYLER COHEN, HOST, "NO LIE WITH BRIAN TYLER COHEN" PODCAST: Well, look, Republicans have obviously put a lot of resources into Michigan, and this is where they're comfortable. I mean, it's not a surprise that Republicans are going all in on the Islamophobia. Abdul El-Sayed is the perfect vehicle for them to be able to target. So, you know, again, I'm not surprised that they're pulling resources out of North Carolina and going all in on a state like Michigan because this is, again, where they feel most comfortable. This is the field that they like to play on.
MICHAELSON: I mean, because there's these. We're talking about a lot of seats that the Democrats could pick up potentially, but Michigan is a seat they could lose.
[01:05:03]
JOHN ZIEGLER, HOST, "THE DEATH OF JOURNALISM" PODCAST: I'll answer the question that Brian just dodged. The real answer here is the real answer here, which you don't want to touch, is that black voters and Jewish voters are uncomfortable with El-Sayed. And that's why this is close.
MICHAELSON: I asked Ken Martin that question, what's your message to them? And he did not directly answer that question earlier.
ZIEGLER: Well, because he can't answer. He doesn't want to answer it. And look, as a conservative who dislikes Trump, my only rooting interest here is that somehow Democrats don't take the Senate. But I -- and I'm really rooting against El-Sayed. But I think El-Sayed pulls this out.
And let me tell you why. Because if you're a moderate Democrat voter in Michigan, there's no concern over the Muslim Brotherhood getting a majority in the U.S. Senate, but you do have the ability to take away Donald Trump's majority in the U.S. Senate.
And I think that will, in the end, win over enough of those moderate Democrats to stay home and vote for El-Sayed. I hope I'm wrong, but I think that's what's going to happen.
MICHAELSON: Let's talk about the concept of polling, because we talk about polls every day here. So much of our political conversations is about polls. There's people that use the term fake polls to sometimes describe polls that are inconvenient to them but are real. That's one thing.
But there's another conversation that we've had this year about actual fake polls. These are things that are just made up and then reported as facts. One of them is something called Wedgwood Polling. They put up a statement that saying, "Wedgwood polling was never intended to sway an election or permanently mislead the public. It was designed as a wake up call. We hope this experiment sparks a necessary conversation about data integrity, media literacy, and accountability across the political research landscape."
They fabricated numbers that influenced the way people see elections. Mallory McMorrow, who was running in this Michigan Senate race on the Democratic side against Abdul El-Sayed and Haley Stevens, dropped out of the race after she got bad polling results, including from Wedgwood polling, which wasn't even a real poll. She talked to Jake Tapper about it today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MALLORY MCMORROW, MICHIGAN STATE SENATE DEMOCRAT: We got to go after these pollsters and reckon with the fact that an increasing number of people are getting their news not from places like CNN, but from social media. So, what do we do when the fact that these things hit catch like wildfire, are spread all over the place, and then are legitimized when legitimate media outlets run them in their -- in their polling averages.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: CNN has very strict guidelines when it comes in terms of poll. What we can put up there. MS Now ran this Wedgwood poll. I mean, you do a podcast called "The Death of Journalism." This is your -- this is your space.
ZIEGLER: Yes.
MICHAELSON: Talk to us about what's going on here.
MICHAELSON: Thank you. Yes, really, the media is to blame here. Look, I'm not in favor of people making stuff up, but for mainstream media organizations to buy into clearly fake polls is an abomination. And I -- on my podcast talk constantly about the news media falling for hoaxes. I think one just happened with the New York Times falling for this O.J. Simpson story. But this happens on a regular basis.
And for it to happen with polling, an industry I've worked in, I've worked in the polling industry, it's not difficult to verify a poll. All you got to do is look at a couple of pages of internal results, and you can verify whether or not it's real. This is 100 percent on the news media. Incompetence, falling for fakes, phonies, frauds, hoaxes, and being lazy. That's the real issue. Laziness in the news media.
MICHAELSON: Well, and these things can drive the narrative. Remember Francis Hong in Wisconsin? And everybody thought she was going to win big because of this fake poll that turned out to not be true. People turned in election night. They were surprised.
Abdul El-Sayed polls showed him much higher than he was against Haley Stevens. I mean, we've seen that this whole year.
COHEN: We've seen it. And you're right, it's a big onus is on the media, but a big onus is also on the general public to make sure that we kind of exhibit some digital literacy here. And so, for folks who are looking online, don't trust anybody with a siren emoji who offers up some poll, you know, because you saw it on Twitter.
MICHAELSON: Or breaking.
COHEN: Or breaking news poll.
MICHAELSON: And shows a clip that's three years old.
COHEN: Exactly. I mean, look, it is important to find trusted messengers in this moment. And again, not just find some random person on Twitter who's going to just throw a poll out with Wedgwood polls or whatever it is. It's going to be incumbent a lot of people.
MICHAELSON: There are lot of clips that show breaking, that show you with short hair and no beard. So, know that those are not breaking.
ZIEGLER: Not the real thing.
MICHAELSON: That didn't just happen. Let's talk about the biggest story that's been talked about today across the country is, which happened in Ohio.
Vivek Ramaswamy put out an ad where it quotes the mother of Amy Acton, who she's been estranged from for years. Amy Acton says that she was sexually assaulted by her stepfather. She then left the mother. The mother stayed with the stepfather.
Courts got involved, basically took away custody. And Vivek Ramaswamy is put out this ad quoting the mother saying that Amy Acton is a liar. Here's what President Trump and JD Vance had to say today.
[01:10:03]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I hear the mother went very rogue on the daughter. Doesn't have a lot of respect for the daughter, and I think the mother is a witness to things also.
JD VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I'll be honest with you. Whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern. But I have to admit that I'm a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the Congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MICHAELSON: That's what he's disgusted by?
COHEN: Look, I am not surprised here. It would be bad enough if Vivek Ramaswamy put out this ad. It's even worse that even though the truth has been exposed, he's adding another $4 million behind it. And it shows outright contempt for all of his voters that he is just trying to manipulate these people.
He doesn't care that the reason that she was estranged is because her mother decided to side with her husband who was molesting her daughter. That doesn't add up.
ZIEGLER: We don't know that.
COHEN: That is the -- that is the allegation.
MICHAELSON: We know that he was indicted.
ZIEGLER: Right.
MICHAELSON: Right? We don't -- he pled not guilty, and then apparently it seemed like he fled. They weren't able to find him. And there was never --
ZIEGLER: I don't know what happened either. I'm just saying, we don't know that.
MICHAELSON: There was never a charge.
ZIEGLER: We don't know that.
MICHAELSON: We know that's what the allegation -- know the allegation.
COHEN: That's what the allegation is. And you know what?
MICHAELSON: And we know that her brother says that she was abused and sides with her.
ZIEGLER: Okay. Fine.
COHEN: But you know what? It also doesn't surprise me that a party that promised one thing on the campaign trail as it relates to the Epstein files that is now going soft on pedophiles is -- is --
ZIEGLER: We don't know if there was a pedophile here or not. We don't know that.
COHEN: But we have -- we have an allegation of molestation. Wouldn't that -- wouldn't the allegation be enough to dissuade a gubernatorial candidate from airing this ad and putting another $4 million on top of it? And add that most of the Internet, most of the political spectrum, left and right, are condemning?
ZIEGLER: I loathe Vivek Ramaswamy so much that I created a name for him, Vivek Obamaswamy. I really don't like this guy, but I don't understand why it's not at least relevant that the candidate has a mother who thinks that she's a liar and has a broken relationship with her.
Now, context is important. Your side should say, here's why that relationship is broken. How is it not relevant? I can guarantee you that if -- if Ramaswamy had the same relationship with his mother, that the liberal media would not be saying, context, context.
This is out of bounds. This is out of bounds. The reality here is that it is a legitimate issue with a legitimate rebuttal. Make your rebuttal. Make the argument.
MICHAELSON: They have made the rebuttal.
ZIEGLER: That's fine.
And it's gotten more attention in the rebuttal, and it probably hurts Ramaswamy quite a bit.
ZIEGLER: That very well may be the case.
MICHAELSON: And of all the issues to bring up, why bring that up as compared to policy differences or other's --
ZIEGLER: Because he's losing. Because he's losing.
MICHAELSON: I mean, I don't know if that helps him. Last point.
COHEN: You know what? Because he is desperate and he's starved for attention and he doesn't care about manipulating his own voters. If, just like Donald Trump, it's just one thing he can do to stick his face in front of people, regardless of how much they're manipulated or exploited.
All Vivek Ramaswamy is focused on is buying himself a gubernatorial seat in Ohio. And he doesn't care what, like the -- the depths he has to stoop to in order to get there. And so that's why he's putting more money behind this ad. That's why he's ignoring bipartisan condemnation and continuing to make this his closing message in Ohio.
MICHAELSON: Yes, but the president and Vice president not condemning it tonight, and that's part of the story as well.
ZIEGLER: Well, these candidates are terrible. These candidates are terrible.
COHEN: JD Vance and Donald Trump refusing to condemn sexual predate -- predators is not surprising in the slightest.
MICHAELSON: All right. We're going to leave this one there. John Ziegler, Brian Tyler Cohen, thank you so much for coming.
COHEN: Thank you.
MICHAELSON: And sharing your perspective. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff says he had what he's described as a constructive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in talks aimed at advancing peace efforts in Ukraine. The two sat down for about three hours in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.
At Witkoff's request, Putin said he'd be ready to resume trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. after November 10. Ukraine's president said he'd like to meet by the beginning of next month. He also pointed out that Russia has previously said it was ready to meet only for plans to be cancelled.
A key outcome of Wednesday's meeting was Witkoff announcing that Russia had released American Stephen Hubbard. Last hour, Reuters showed us live images from Texas of a plane believed to be carrying the retired teacher touching down in San Antonio at a military base.
The 74-year-old Hubbard was detained for more than four years and was accused of fighting for Kyiv, charges both his family and the State Department said were fabricated. Witkoff had this to say to Putin after Hubbard was freed.
[01:15:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY: You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that. I commend you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You describe him in that same way.
TRUMP: You mean Steve Witkoff said he was a humanitarian?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
TRUMP: Well, I guess you could say for that particular purpose, for the purpose of allowing a man who was thinking he was going to be in prison for life out. But you know, I wouldn't say anything one way or the other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Now to two deadly new attacks in Saudi Arabia. Authorities say a strike on an oil field killed two workers. One person was killed at the Dammam International Airport. Damage assessments in the works.
In recent days, Yemen's Houthi rebels have been ramping up their attacks on notable Saudi targets. The volatile security situation has prompted the U.S. State Department to order non-essential embassy staff to leave the Saudi capital and issue new warnings to Americans about potential attacks at Saudi airports. Iran-backed Houthis have been behind several deadly drone and missile strikes on the Riyadh International Airport this month.
Still ahead on The Story Is a judge in New Mexico says deception was central to Meta's business model. Now the company faces one of the biggest penalties the tech world has ever seen.
Lori Schwartz, live with us. Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:20:52]
MICHAELSON: Meta has been hit with a $25 billion fine in New Mexico for misleading Facebook users about their privacy. A state judge announced the penalty on Wednesday, saying that deception was central to the company's business model. The case dates back to 2018, when the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, remember them, obtained private information from up to 87 million Facebook users. Meta says it plans to appeal for more.
We're joined by technology expert Lori Schwartz, the CEO and founder of the marketing firm StoryTech. Lori, welcome back to The Story Is.
LORI SCHWARTZ, CEO AND FOUNDER, STORYTECH: It's always great to be here.
MICHAELSON: So talk to us about the backstory here. This goes back a long ways.
SCHWARTZ: Yes. So if you remember, Cambridge Analytica had basically gotten access to Facebook data and then had used it apparently to help in some Trump, you know, voting the voters stuff and also just used it to their advantage, sold that data. So years later, it's taken this long for --
MICHAELSON: Right. Almost a decade.
SCHWARTZ: Right. For this case, case to reach the courts. And the big piece of information for me which would make great like courtroom TV show, is that Mark Zuckerberg had said back in 2010, "We don't use Facebook users' data." So what the New Mexico legal team did was they literally took the amount of New Mexico residents, and they multiplied it against that statement, basically, like each user.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
SCHWARTZ: And that's how they came up with like the 2 million violations.
MICHAELSON: Wow. Which leads to $25 billion fine.
SCHWARTZ: Yes.
MICHAELSON: $25 billion would hurt most of us.
SCHWARTZ: Right. Right.
MICHAELSON: Meta, is that a drop in the bucket? Does that hurt them?
SCHWARTZ: I mean, I don't think it hurts them, but I do think it hurts their reputation, right? And this is after multiple other New Mexico lawsuits earlier in the year, coupled with group lawsuits in many different states. So, it's constant now.
It's constant. A lot of it is about youth protection. Right. Mental health.
MICHAELSON: Sure.
SCHWARTZ: And now just regular people's data. So, it's going to be interesting to see because I think there is a lot of consumer pushback against data centers and against other things that matter is now being associated with.
MICHAELSON: Yes, we saw some of that in a story in our last hour. Daniel Sullivan in Kentucky.
Let's talk about AI, which is one of your main topics. And there was a new reporting that I helped find a critical secondary flow affecting 70 percent of Internet.
So I saw that headline, I said, I don't understand what that means. So for those of us here's -- here's the -- that's the headline from the meta story.
Let's talk about this AI story, though, real basically, for those of us that aren't AI experts like you, what does this mean?
SCHWARTZ: Okay, so basically this software, this like a scripting software that's used generally for, you know, lots of websites, 70 percent of the websites in the Internet, it's called PHP and AI software, there's a bunch of different companies that are always scanning the Internet, finding vulnerabilities.
So, a bunch of them found vulnerabilities. And what OpenAI actually did is said, let's put a coalition together and really attack this. And they basically found these incredible vulnerabilities that could be hacked, that could actually allow anyone to remote in to a website, to the back end of a website without any authority, and really basically destroy all these websites.
And think about it, PHP is used on Microsoft, on Wikipedia, you know, on all the different newspapers in the world. So, finding these vulnerabilities was amazing because of the speed, right? Because it would have taken, say, months and months of teams of people to find what was found quite quickly.
MICHAELSON: Wow. And we've talked so much about AI and all the potential bad effects of it, including ending humanity, which is pretty bad, right?
[01:25:04]
SCHWARTZ: But would we know it was happening to us?
MICHAELSON: Right. Yes. Who knows? AI might tell us.
SCHWARTZ: Yes.
MICHAELSON: But in terms of the good things from AI, what are you most excited about?
SCHWARTZ: Well, so, so without AI, we wouldn't have known about these vulnerabilities.
MICHAELSON: Right.
SCHWARTZ: And it wouldn't have happened this fast. And it could have been extremely dangerous if this had happened, if it had gone down and these vulnerabilities were actually there for 10 to 14 years.
MICHAELSON: Wow.
SCHWARTZ: So sitting there, waiting.
MICHAELSON: But beyond this.
SCHWARTZ: Well, beyond this, I think in general, I use AI every day as a tool. It's a tool, but I'm using it. I'm directing it. I'm paying attention to what I'm doing.
You know, I'm not someone that maybe a college student is grabbing what it writes and using it right away. I'm using it as a partner. I think that's exactly what happened in this case, is that these analysts and these researchers were using AI as a tool.
The problem is the other side of it is, these agents are going rogue. So the key is, and we've talked about this before too, is the human in the loop is that human beings working with AI and recognizing that it's a tool and not the be-all and always monitoring it, always being watchful.
You know, not getting too hubris-oriented about. We've created the greatest thing ever. Goodbye. You know?
MICHAELSON: Right. The thing I'm most excited about is the potential for medical research.
SCHWARTZ: Yes. And medical --
MICHAELSON: And the idea that maybe cure cancer, and things like that.
SCHWARTZ: And it's already doing amazing work in just giving access to people who say can't afford to go to a doctor or something like that.
MICHAELSON: Right. Great to see you, Lori. Thank you so much. I always feel smarter after I talk with you.
A warning from the head of the FCC about fake polls ahead of the midterms. What he's threatening to do about the so-called election interference.
Plus, California Congressman Kevin Kiley so his district redrawn under Democrat backed redistricting plan. Now the former Republican is an independent. Kevin Kiley, live with me next on The Story Is.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:26] MICHAELSON: President Trump is taking his midterm campaign blitz to
Iowa, Florida, Georgia and Michigan this week. He spent last night in South Carolina stumping for Republican incumbent Senator Darline Graham. She's in a closer-than-expected race with Democrat Annie Andrews.
The president fired back at protesters during the rally, calling them crazy and serious losers.
Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance is defending a controversial ad from the Republican candidate for governor in Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy. He says politics is a tough business. People should stop whining about the ad.
It features the estranged mother of Democrat Amy Acton, telling voters her daughter is a liar. Acton says she hasn't seen her mother since she was 12, when her stepfather was arrested for sexually abusing her. He pleaded not guilty but was indicted by a grand jury.
Numerous polls show Democrats poised to make big gains in the midterm elections, but the Republican chair of the FCC is advising local broadcasters that some of those polls could be fake. He's even threatening to penalize stations for distortion and hoaxes.
CNN's Brian Stelter with us now with more, Brian.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Hey there. Yes, this is a story with a lot of layers. President Trump and his top media regulator are targeting so-called fake polls.
At the same time, highly respected pollsters are seeing data showing Democrats poised to make big gains in the midterm election.
So you have First Amendment groups saying that Trump and FCC chairman Brendan Carr are trying to chill news coverage about these polls, discouraging news coverage about bad polls for Republicans.
But at the same time, there are some actually made-up polls that are floating around out there. There's a scandal in the news this week about a totally fictional polling firm.
So you have many reputable, highly respected polling groups finding Trump with record low approval ratings, finding Democrats ahead in key Senate races. But there is a concern about polls that's legit.
So, here's what Brendan Carr said that caused so much criticism on Wednesday. He wrote on X, quote, "During this election season, there has been a significant surge in entirely fake polls and suppression polls." He went on, "Many journalists and broadcasters have been amplifying or airing these polls without regard to basic journalistic ethics."
Then he said, "Broadcasters advised to avoid engaging in news distortions or running broadcast hoaxes by airing polls that would violate their regulatory obligations."
So which polls was Carr talking about? Well, he didn't say, and he didn't respond to my request for comment. But some of Carr's predecessors, former FCC chairs from both parties, say that Carr is engaging in inappropriate, outrageous threats trying to intimidate the news media.
This is a statement from a coalition of former FCC leaders saying that what Carr is doing is part of a, quote, "accelerating White House strategy to tilt the electoral playing field in the president's favor and deny election results that don't go his way".
The former officials also noted that the FCC has zero authority to dictate editorial decisions. But because Carr's agency does license local TV and radio stations, station owners do have to pay some attention, and Carr has used that limited power to pressure broadcasters.
Brian Stelter, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: Thank you.
Now to this question. Can an independent candidate win a House seat in today's deeply divided political environment?
Well, last year, California voters passed Proposition 50, which redrew congressional maps to favor Democratic candidates in response to a Republican-led effort in Texas.
[01:34:49]
MICHAELSON: Among those affected by the new maps was then-Congressman Kevin Kiley. He was one of those targeted by all of this. This year, Kiley responded by leaving the Republican Party and registering as an Independent.
He advanced through California's primary and now faces Democrat Richard Pan, a former state senator, in November. And just last week, Kiley picked up an endorsement from former Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE MANCHIN, FORMER WEST VIRGINIA SENATOR: I totally, absolutely, 1,000 percent endorse Kevin Kiley. And the reason I'm endorsing Kevin, I'm inspired by his independence.
He's basically been in Washington. He sees the toxic atmosphere we have. They weaponize both sides, where you're either on one side or the other.
Well, you know what? Kevin's in the middle. He's basically for Americans. And I said, there's only one side, the American side.
We have so few independent-minded people that are willing to go the extra mile to just show that you don't own me.
The only people that own Kevin is the people that send him there from his sixth district. And basically, he keeps his commitment to the constitution to defend and protect. That is it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Joining me live right now from Roseville in northern California is Congressmember Kevin Kiley. Welcome back to THE STORY IS.
REP. KEVIN KILEY, (I-CA) Thanks, Elex. Great to be with you.
MICHAELSON: Congrats on the endorsement from Joe Manchin, one of our viewers, when he was alerted that you were going to be on tonight, responded with this question put up on the screen.
"Ask Kiley why voters should trust that he is a true Independent voice and did not become an Independent just because his district was changed."
He points out that you vote most of the time with Republicans. You've caucused with Republicans in the past. Why is this not just a stump or a loophole to get around a system?
KILEY: Well, if it were such a great loophole, I'm not sure why I'm the only one who's done it. You know, you have people who have been affected by redistricting all across the country.
My voting record, by the way, Roll Call just came out with their official rankings, and I'm right in the middle of the house. Exactly in the middle.
And by the way, if I had wanted to under this redistricting scheme, I could have gone and run in a safe district and had a seat that, you know, these people -- people stay in these seats forever.
But I didn't think that was the right thing to do. I thought that would be making things worse. I thought that would be exploiting the gerrymander system, and I wanted to try to make things better.
And like so many other Americans, I think that partisanship has just gotten out of control. It's gotten too extreme. It's weakening our country.
And so for me, this is a way to say, ok, why don't we just set partisanship aside and see if we can focus on finding solutions for our country and for our communities?
MICHAELSON: So the way the house operates, as you well know, though, you got to vote for Speaker of the House. You got to pick a team to caucus with. And if you're with the winning team, the majority team, you get better committee assignments and you get more influence over legislation.
So if the Democrats win the House and you win your seat, is there any chance that you caucus with the Democrats?
Kiley: I don't accept the premise of the question, actually, I don't think you have to caucus with one side or another, and I'm not going to caucus with either side.
In fact, I'm in the process of trying to change the rules of the House. I recently testified before the Rules Committee to make it so you don't have to conference with one side or another just in order to get seats on committees.
I think the House would function better if we had at least a few more Independents. Right now, I'm the only Independent in the House of Representatives. And I think that we'd find ways to actually, you know, work towards solving a lot of these problems that have only continued to linger because of partisan gridlock.
MICHAELSON: Richard Pan is your opponent. From a policy perspective, what is the biggest difference between the two of you, and for voters in your district, in a Democratic district who may want to see a Democrat, why should they choose you instead of the traditional Democrat who's backed by the party.
KILEY: Well, the biggest difference is just when it comes to cost of living. You know, this is someone, Richard Pan who has voted to raise the cost of living in our state every chance he's had.
He voted for a gas tax increase that is more than doubled the gas tax we have in California. And we now pay over about $2 more than the national average.
He has been part and parcel of all of the policies, the overreaching policies in Sacramento that have raised our electricity rates higher than anywhere. Our housing prices, our gas prices, our water bills higher than just about everywhere, anywhere.
So I've been -- tried to be a check and balance against those overreaching policies. But at the same time, I've also been a check against overreaching policies from Washington, D.C.
So tariffs, for example, have raised costs. And so I was one of the few people who stood up and reclaimed the ability of the House to weigh in on tariffs and then voted to disapprove the Canadian tariffs.
So that's what I think voters in our district are looking for. There's a lot of frustration with Sacramento. There's a lot of frustration with Washington.
They want a representative who's going to be a check against both, who's going to put our communities first, and who's going to work with both sides to bring down costs.
[01:39:49]
MICHAELSON: I mean, this is an experiment what you're doing. What is the message that it sends to the rest of the country if you win and if you lose? KILEY: Well, if we win, I think it's going to be a history-making
moment. You know, there's only been one Independent elected to the House of Representatives in the last 70 years, even though almost half the country identifies as Independent.
And so I think that, you know, right now we actually have a really good chance to win this race. The polling shows that it is neck and neck. The one public poll shows that it's a tie.
So if we win this race, I think it will make history, but it will also set a precedent. And I think it will provide an opportunity for other folks to do the same thing.
And the interesting thing, Elex, when I'm talking with people, you know, as I mentioned, almost half the country identifies as Independent. But even people who identify as Republican or who identify as Democrat or some other party, they find it refreshing this idea that, ok, we can just set the party label aside and focus on the actual issues.
MICHAELSON: Well, we've invited Dr. Pan to join us. We hope that he will. I know he has not debated you, even though you have offered to do that and news organizations have offered to do that.
He has not done as much in terms of media as you have, but we appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective.
Kevin Kiley joining us from northern California. Thanks so much for being with us.
KILEY: You bet. Thanks for having me.
MICHAELSON: And thank you for watching THE STORY IS. For our international viewers, "WORLD SPORT" is next.
For our viewers in north America, I'll be right back with a former NFL player to talk about a serious health issue with one of the league's top quarterbacks.
And is the NFL leaning a little too into money when it comes to some of this overseas trips? Stay with us.
[01:41:31]
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MICHAELSON: THE STORY IS sports.
A new scrutiny over how the Philadelphia Eagles handled star quarterback Jalen Hurts' health. Hurts played in London and then flew home before doctors found a blood clot had traveled to his lungs.
The NFLPA, the players union, is now calling for a full investigation, and Commissioner Roger Goodell says he welcomes that investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The NFLPA said last night that they have called for an investigation into the medical care received by Jalen Hurts. What's your view of and understanding of what happened with Jalen Hurts and the care they received, and what your reaction to the NFLPA calling for an investigation.
ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: Well we welcome that. That's part of our processes, that's fine. We have, chief -- our chief medical officer has been through the protocols that were followed.
So we welcome that. If that's what they do, they have that right. We're welcome.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joining me now live is former NFL player, 15-year veteran Chad Brown, frequent commentator on TV and radio. Welcome back to THE STORY IS.
CHAD BROWN, FORMER NFL PLAYER: Thanks for having me on.
MICHAELSON: How does this happen with Jalen Hurts -- excuse me.
BROWN: Bless you.
MICHAELSON: Thank you.
BROWN: The -- yes. The NFL obviously is based on the players on the field. But they're not just players. They're people. And when a player like Jalen Hurts has a blood clot the week before to travel internationally and then to play in a football game, now you're thinking about the player, not the person.
So this is a -- yet another example of the NFL not necessarily looking to protect its players.
As the franchise quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, Jalen Hurts is going to want to be on the field for his teammates, for his -- for his team, for the city of Philadelphia.
But there's got to be someone within each NFL organization that goes with the person, not the player, and decides, you know what, young man? You're not going to play today. There's just too much at risk here.
The blood clot in the lower leg moved up and became multiple blood clots in his lungs. The risk of heart failure is just around the corner when you suffer like that. He's going to be on blood thinners for months and months now.
And there's even a question whether he can actually return to play ever after all this. Other professional athletes have lost their playing careers behind blood clot situations similar to this.
MICHAELSON: Well, and talk about some of the warning signs before the game that he did play in. BROWN: Well, again, there was the blood clot in the lower leg the week
before.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
BROWN: And in fact, he was hospitalized when he was over in London and was told, I mean, we're getting different reports on this, not to sleep for 36 hours because that could move the blood clots.
If you were asked not to sleep the night before the NFL game, I can't think of anybody who would say that's the best way to prepare for a game.
MICHAELSON: Right.
BROWN: So to put that particular player in that kind of jeopardy, I think was a massive mistake by the Philadelphia Eagles medical staff, the training staff and the front office.
MICHAELSON: So there's all these protests happening in Paris. The NFL is supposed to play there this weekend. Obviously, the protests are not of the NFL but just of conditions there.
There have been more international games this year than any other season in history. But it also creates challenges health wise for the travel, for all these guys.
How do you think it's working and do you think the trade-off is worth it?
BROWN: I don't think the owners necessarily care about the health and implications to the players in any real significant way.
The owners want to have $25 billion a year revenue for the NFL. And I believe they're just a couple billion dollars away.
NFL football is already a religion and interwoven into the fabric of America. So if you want to gain more money and gain a bigger audience, you got to take that overseas.
So we've seen the NFL increasing its efforts overseas. My former team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, to your point, are playing in Paris. So riots or player health that does not get in the way of the NFL machine in its quest for more dollars.
[01:49:51]
MICHAELSON: Yes. Those games expected to go on as scheduled.
Chad Brown, 15-year NFL veteran, thanks so much for sharing your perspective. Great to see you back on the show.
Stay with us. We'll have our top stories --
BROWN: It's good to be on with you. Thank you.
MICHAELSON: -- when we come back.
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MICHAELSON: Let's take a look at the stories we're following for the day ahead.
Vice President J.D. Vance scheduled to attend a rally in North Platte, Nebraska. Today in Ohio, he defended Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy over a controversial campaign ad and told the crowd politics is a tough business. People should stop whining about that ad.
[01:54:46]
MICHAELSON: French President Emmanuel Macron vowing to prevent a repeat of last weekend's riots as France braces for more protests on Saturday. The country has seen some of the worst rioting in years, along with peaceful protests over the past week.
Lawmakers from across the political spectrum grilled the government for answers about how it plans to address the social and economic issues behind the unrest.
A new subtropical storm has now formed in the Atlantic. Josephine is churning a few hundred miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Josephine is expected to remain at sea and dissipate over the weekend. But coastal flooding is possible for the Mid-Atlantic to Cape Cod through Friday.
We have encouraging update on Pope Leo's health. The Vatican says he will not need any more treatment for lung cancer after a successful surgery last week. Doctors say the cancer was localized and the all- clear arrives ahead of the pontiff's planned trip to South America, which we know he really wants to take.
Thanks so much for being with us for a very busy night here on THE STORY IS. It's been packed.
Tomorrow, we've got a packed show as well. Elisha Krauss and Joe Walsh are on our political panel. That should be fun.
And I'm especially excited to go one on one with broadcasting legend Bob Costas, one day ahead of the World Series. We'll talk baseball, politics and more with Bob Costas when I see you tomorrow for THE STORY IS.
In the meantime, the news continues next here on CNN after a quick break. Thanks for watching.
[01:56:15]
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