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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump Rallies South Carolina Voters in Surprise Senate Battleground; Bipartisan Backlash After Ramaswamy Attack Ad in Ohio Gubernatorial. Race; New York Times: Billionaire Got Trump Pardon After $50M Deal with Alina Habba; Vance Slams Republicans Whining About Ad Featuring Acton's Mom; Campaign Attacks Escalate Ahead of Midterms; Trump Defends Choice Not to Impose Russia Sanctions After American Released. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired October 21, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DELSIA BARE, KENTUCKY FARM OWNER: ... little stone in the right place can bring down any giant that there is on this planet.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Donie O'Sullivan, CNN, Kentucky.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Absolutely incredible reporting from, Donie, there in Kentucky. Thanks so much to him and thanks, as always to all of you for joining us. You can stream our show live or watch with an AllAccess subscription. Thank you so much for watching AC360 starts now.
[20:00:30]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Good evening, it is 13 days to Midterm Elections. President Trump is in South Carolina, a state he won by 18 points in 2024. He is campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Darline Graham, the sister of the late Lindsey Graham.
Now, the race there seems to be tightening in the home stretch. Just yesterday, the Cook Political Report moved it from likely Republican to lean Republican. This comes as new polling from CNN shows 32 percent of voters in this poll approve of the job Mr. Trump is doing as President. That's his lowest approval rating ever while in office, including just after January 6th, 2021.
Now, among Republicans, his approval stands at 74 percent, which is also a historic low for this President. Democrats now have a 10-point lead in a generic matchup for congressional races, 49 percent to 39 percent. That is the widest advantage for Democrats since just before the 2020 election, which President Trump lost.
Obviously, former Vice-President Kamala Harris is on the trail today in Nevada for congresswoman Dina Titus and Vice-President Vance is in Ohio stumping for Republican gubernatorial candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, and what a day to be doing that. Just last night, Ramaswamy admitted his campaign produced what may just be the sleaziest attack ad ever put out by campaign.
It features Dr. Acton, his opponent's estranged mother, whom she has not seen since 1978, when she was 12 years old. In the ad, the mother, who does not appear to be well, urges voters not to vote for her daughter, calling her a liar. Dr. Acton says the reason she's not spoken to her mother since 1978 is because her mother's husband, Dr. Acton's stepfather, sexually abused her as a child.
The mother was furious that Dr. Acton testified in court against her alleged abuser, according to Dr. Acton, and he was indicted by the state. The man then fled the state and has since died. Dr. Acton's mother remained married to this man, who had allegedly abused her own daughter.
Last night, Ramaswamy defended the ad, pointing the finger at Dr. Acton because she has not debated him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Do you see this as a petty move, Vivek?
VIVEK RAMASWAMY (R) OHIO GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: Excuse me.
REPORTER: Do you see it as a petty move?
RAMASWAMY: On behalf of her mother to speak out? Her mother chose to speak out --
REPORTER: On behalf of the ad being put out. Sorry.
RAMASWAMY: For our part, we believe that the best way to do this would be to have an open debate between the two candidates. But in absence of that, I do think voters deserve answers about both candidate's background.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: In the latest CNN Poll of Polls taken before the ad was released, Ramaswamy was trailing Dr. Acton by six percentage points. Late last night, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who was Ramaswamy rival back in 2024 during the Republican Presidential primary, posted on social media, "He's a bad guy. It's a shame he continues to get away with it."
Republican Ohio Senator Jon Husted, who's running on reelection and appeared at a rally today with Ramaswamy and Vice-President Vance, released a statement to the A.P. today that read, "I would not have run that ad."
Vance, for his part, said he was disgusted not by Ramaswamy's decision to run the ad, but by Republicans who are outraged by it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) J.D. VANCE, (R) VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: 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)
COOPER: Late today, the President was asked about it before departing for South Carolina, said he knew nothing about it, but talked about it anyway.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You know, it was about a Republican, I could guarantee you they'd let it go. So, that's why you're asking. The fact is, I know nothing about it, but 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, so who knows? And you have to figure that out. it's a very unusual situation to have a mother hate a daughter that much, but I don't think that has anything to do with Vivek.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Lauren Fox is in Ohio tonight for the latest on all of this. So, what are you hearing from Dr. Acton and from voters?
LAUREN FOX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so I was just here at this event in Northwest Ohio with Dr. Acton. And she did address this ad.
I mean, it was about halfway through her conversation with a small group of voters here on this farm where she was talking to them about community hospitals, school budgets, and then one woman that she called on and asked if there was anything that was on her mind, said simply that she wanted to give Acton a hug, that she's been thinking about her since this video surfaced on Monday night.
And so, they had that exchange. And after all of that, it became so clear, Anderson, that that was really the elephant in the room. And at that point, Acton openly talked about the fact that this had surfaced, that this ad included her estranged mother, and she talked in detail about some of the abuse and neglect.
She says that her and her brother suffered when she was living with her mother. As you noted, her mother lost custody of her and her brother when she was just 12-years-old. And here's what she said about the ad itself.
[20:05:41]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMY ACTON, (D) OHIO GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: I'm not stunned, in the era we live in. What has also been remarkable to see, Lauren, is how many people are outraged by this because so many people have experienced some sort of trauma or abuse in their lives.
And so, I'm much more focused on a message that reaches them than on the antics of an out-of-touch billionaire who would be a danger to my state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOX: And, Anderson, I'll tell you that this video is also reverberating in Republican circles. I talked with a source today who said that Republicans here are deeply upset at the Ramaswamy campaign about the fact that they have now decided to put money behind this ad and to actually air it across the State of Ohio in the closing days of this race. One of the people that I talked to told me that one of the candidates who is running in this race running in Ohio actually asked Ramaswamy not to air this ad.
So that just tells you about some of the frustration that exists, some of the concern that might exist about what this could do to other candidates who are running in this very critical battleground state -- Anderson.
COOPER: Lauren Fox, thanks very much.
Joining me now is CNN political commentator, Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson, CNN political director, David Chalian, CNN senior political commentator Ana Navarro, and former White House spokesman for the George W. Bush administration, Pete Seat.
Ana, do you think this is going to backfire for Ramaswamy?
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, listen, just off the bat, what it has done is nationalize this race. I don't think that many people across the country who were not political insiders were paying attention to this race. I guarantee you that a lot of women, a lot of and allies of women did what I did last night, which was go to her campaign website, Amy for Ohio, and donate money'
Because I am so offended, I am so indignant. You have to understand; one out of five women have experienced rape or attempted rape in this country. Even more than that have experienced sexual assault. And this wasn't rape on an adult woman. We're talking here about pedophilia, and we're talking here about pedophilia with the same party, the same administration that is refusing to release the Epstein files.
So, it's bringing all of that up again, this is at a time when I thought I could no longer be shocked by American politics. This is the most disgusting, sleaziest, cowardly, inhumane ad I could possibly imagine to weaponize a child's trauma for political gain. Shame on Ramaswamy.
COOPER: Kristen, you're a pollster, how do you think this plays in the state?
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right now, there are, partisanship is so strong that I think candidates are so focused on just figuring out, how do I turn out my own side? And are, some of them are increasingly of the mind that you just do more extreme things to try to get more of your own side fired up.
I think Vivek Ramaswamy is going to learn that the same rules that may apply to someone like Donald Trump don't apply to wannabe Donald Trumps that things that in this moment feel like, well, gosh, all the rules of politics have been thrown out the window and people can do whatever they want, and they can break any rules and they can violate any norms, and they get rewarded by it, by the voters.
I don't think that's true and I think Ramaswamy in sort of crossing this line is going to find the partisanship only gets you so far. That Republicans, even in your own state, are may not look at this and go, well, you know what he's got an R by his name, so I guess I'll vote for him.
COOPER: Pete, I mean, do you think the backstory that that voters in Ohio are looking into the backstory of the ad? Again, her mother's husband was indicted for sexually abusing her as a child.
PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN FOR THE GEORGE W. BUSH ADMINISTRATION: Well, that's the big question that I have, Anderson. I mean, I could tell you my evolution on this. I first heard the ad, just the audio listening, of course, to the CNN simulcast while I was driving in my car yesterday. And my immediate reaction was, it was the most devastating and effective ad I had ever heard.
But then, as Paul Harvey used to say, I learned the rest of the story and my analysis turned from it was devastating for Amy Acton to it was devastating for Vivek Ramaswamy. But the big question is how many voters are going to hear that back story?
We know that our algorithms are built for us on social media. A lot of people may never see the other side of the story. They may never hear the other side of the story. They may have already casted their ballot or made their decision. And Amy Acton has a very small window now to get her message out whether she can cut an ad, get it edited, and put it on the air in time, I think is part of the timing here with the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign.
They knew what they were doing, putting this out just two weeks before the election.
[20:10:44]
NAVARRO: Amy Acton already cut an ad featuring her brother saying that she had taken the brunt of the abuse. And I guarantee you that Amy Acton is going to have money to put that ad on the air in a way that she wouldn't have 24 hours ago.
COOPER: David.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Including $500,000.00 from the first lady of Illinois who sent her money.
NAVARRO: Yes, J.B. Pritzker.
CHALIAN: You know, Anderson, to what you were saying, I first of all, you think Vivek Ramaswamy would have learned that lesson when he ran against Donald Trump as a Donald Trump wannabe in the Republican primary and it didn't turn out well for him, but he didn't learn that lesson.
You know, the ad is obviously, it should be out of bounds and it's offensive and all the things. I think Vice-President Vance's response today gets at what Kristen was saying about our politics right now, which is like he made a determination that the only way through this controversy was to quadruple down on it. Because if you sort of dial, it up to 11 and create it as a, as now a culture war, they have to choose sides on you hope -- his hope is you're going to energize and motivate their voters to come out and vote.
We don't know what the actual impact of this would be. What we do know is Vivek Ramaswamy was losing this race. He threw a Hail Mary thing. There's been a ton of blowback, and it's hard to see how this is going to change the trajectory of the race.
COOPER: What Vance did is very appeased with being part of the Trump administration. I mean, Donald Trump, you know, rarely ever backs down, just doubles down on it. And I mean, he did it in a sort of more mealy-mouthed way of saying like, well, I don't know about the debate. What really annoys me are these Republicans who are complaining about it.
ANDERSON: Well, and that's a very common thing that you hear from Republicans during the Trump era, who Republican voters do feel like. I want my party to be strong. I don't want it to be weak. They don't want to see candidates' waffle. They don't want to see candidates do something and then back away from it.
And so, what Vance is doing is likely with an eye toward 2028 is saying, I'm not the kind of guy who backs down even from the stuff that makes other people cringe. Again, it's trying to take a page out of Trump's playbook, I don't know that Trumps playbook works for people who aren't Donald Trump.
COOPER: Pete, we mentioned former U.N. ambassador in South Carolina, Governor Nikki Haley. She weighed in saying, that Ramaswamy's a bad guy. it's a shame he continues to get away with it. Do you think more, do you think we're going to hear from more Republicans, or do you think they that the news cycle will move on and they won't kind of weigh in on it?
SEAT: Well, the news cycle may move on, I think we will be on this for at least a couple of days. And some of that depends on whether or not some other national profile Republicans speak out.
Nikki Haley of course, this is personal for her because Vivek Ramaswamy went after Nikki Haley's daughter during one of those debates. So, she obviously wanted to say something about this.
I do want to make one quick point about Vice-President Vance. Yes, publicly his reaction is essentially all is fair in love, war, and political campaigns that you're trying to win. But I have to wonder if behind closed doors, he was saying to Vivek Ramaswamy, you couldn't have waited two days. You knew I was coming to Ohio and you had to drop this right before I landed on the ground. Give me a heads-up next time.
COOPER: Yes, quite a day for him to be out there out front of the campaign.
We're going to take a short break. Everyone, stay with us. We'll have more on this. After all, this is one of several political attack ads leading up to the midterms. You'll see it from different political groups. We'll dive deeper into the tactic of dirty politics and what the former President's personal attorney, Alina Habba, is saying in response to a "New York Times" report.
This is extraordinary, "The Times" says a Venezuelan billionaire wanted a Trump pardon, and his family gave Habba a $50-million deal. I'll talk with the reporter who broke the story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:18:33]
COOPER: Alina Habba, President Trump's former personal attorney is hitting back at new reporting from "The New York Times", claiming she was given a lucrative deal from the family of a prominent Venezuelan billionaire just weeks before he was pardoned by Mr. Trump.
The banker, Julio Herrera Velutini, was indicted by the Justice Department in 2022 for an alleged scheme to bribe Puerto Rico's then governor in exchange for replacing a regulator investigating his bank.
In 2025, he pled guilty to a lesser charge a single misdemeanor campaign finance charge, and was pardoned by President Trump shortly before he was set to be sentenced.
Now, according to "The New York Times", while serving as New Jersey's acting U.S. attorney, Habba, finalized a more than $50 million agreement to work with a new company established by Herrera's daughter.
"The Times" says she started formally working with them just weeks before the President pardoned Herrera. Today, on social media, Habba denied any role in the pardon, saying the fake news still seems very confused by this, so, let me be even more clear. I was never paid to secure a pardon. I never met with anyone at the White House or DOJ about a pardon. Ive never done any work in any capacity whatsoever for a pardon for anyone.
A White House official told "The Times" Habba had nothing to do with the pardon, and that the administration follows a pardon review process that includes the White House counsel's office and the Justice Department.
Joining me now is "New York Times" White House correspondent, Tyler Pager, who broke the story.
So, Tyler, can you walk us through the timeline of how Habba got involved with Herrera and his family and what they wanted from her?
[20:20:08]
TYLER PAGER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Yes, so it's unclear exactly what they explicitly asked her to do. What we know is that in October 2025, she was finalizing this deal to join a company called Concord Partners. Concord Partners, just days before this deal was being finalized, was registered in Florida by Isabella Herrera, Julio Herrera's daughter, and she was signing on to be general counsel. But in my reporting and in conversations with sources, it's unclear exactly what this company does.
COOPER: What did she get from them?
PAGER: Yes, so she got a financial contract that was $10 million a year for four years, plus a range of different bonuses that totaled $50 million at the minimum, oh more than $50 million at the minimum over the life of the contract.
COOPER: I mean, that's an incredible contract for any general counsel. She was still -- was she still working as a special government employee at the time she was given this contract?
PAGER: Yes, so she started formally at the firm on January 1st, 2026 and at the time, she was a senior advisor to attorney general Pam Bondi, overseeing U.S. attorneys.
COOPER: And Herrera's daughter also donated $3.5 million to Trump's Super PAC. Separately, "The Washington Post" reports she pledged $2.5 million toward the Presidents White House ballroom project before her father's pardon. What questions do those contributions raise in your in your view?
PAGER: Yes, look, Anderson, we have seen this pattern since Donald Trump came back to office. People that are looking for pardons have taken a series of steps to get them. And those include making financial contributions to political causes directly associated with President Donald Trump or causes that he supports. They've hired a select group of lawyers who have either worked for or are closely aligned with Donald Trump.
And so, we've seen this playbook before. And the reason we continue to see it is because it has worked. We have, you know, my colleagues have reported other cases where people have paid $500,000 or $1 million, for lawyers directly involved in pardon processes.
Now, again, we should make clear that Alina Habba says she had nothing to do with this pardon. But the Herrera family clearly saw a playbook that other people were having success with and adopted it.
COOPER: Tyler, thanks so much. I really appreciate the reporting.
PAGER: Thanks so much for having me, Anderson. COOPER: Back now with our panel. You know, regardless of this particular story, government corruption comes in second. I mean, if you look at the polling second, only behind the cost of living in the latest CNN poll of polls of top issues for voters this fall, that I mean, it doesn't really surprise me, but I think it's pretty remarkable. It's probably the first time we have seen this.
CHALIAN: It really popped in this poll that we released today, our final sort of national poll snapshot before the election as an issue. And yes, it's still far behind the economy. That is far and away than the number one issue. But the fact that it is up there and Anderson, you know, this story that you just talked to Tyler about and the stories about who donated to the ballroom and what they got.
This is just building the to-do-list for Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats if indeed they do take the House majority, I think you're going to see a very concerted effort among Democrats if they make it to the majority to focus their oversight and investigative powers on this kind of stuff and try to tie it directly to how voters are feeling, which is it's not just like, oh, this is corruption and the boy, that's terrible.
It's -- this system is rigged against me and people with connections get the benefit and I'm hurting economically, and they see the things tied together. And that has provided a really toxic brew for Republicans this campaign season.
COOPER: And I mean, does any of this surprise you?
ANDERSON: Ana, is here.
NAVARRO: Well, yes.
COOPER: I'm sorry, sorry, Kristen, sorry.
ANDERSON: No, this doesn't surprise me. We've been seeing political corruption rising in our polls as well. Some of that, I would note is Republicans who are talking about this as an issue in terms of things like government fraud.
So, it's not all about Trump administration mischief. But, you know, Donald Trump's case to voters for over a decade has been built on two things. I'm a business guy who's going to be good at the economy. And even as we've been discussing earlier in prior midterms, voters said, I don't like the guy, but at least he's good at the economy. That's now gone away.
But the other piece of Donald Trump's message to voters has always been, I'm an outsider. I'm rich myself, I don't need this job for anything. I'm doing this for you. I'm going to drain the swamp.
And now, voters are looking and they're seeing all of these people around the President making an awful lot of money off of cryptocurrency or contracts and it just feels very unseemly. And I have heard in focus groups, people who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 going, what is this guy doing? And that is part of what's creating these real headwinds for Republicans.
[20:25:23]
COOPER: And, Ana, I do want to make sure, I mean, Habba says she was never paid to secure a pardon, that she's done nothing wrong. "The Times" has obviously reported what it reported. The issue of corruption, though, do you hear this a lot from voters you talked to?
NAVARRO: From everyone and it wasn't just on the CNN poll. It showed up as one of the top issues of concern for voters on the "Fox News" poll.
And listen, this is part of the drip, drip, drip, right. So, this week it's Alina Habba and this alleged contract. Last week we learned about Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.'s former fiance, Ambassador to Greece for Donald Trump and her alleged request of $100,000.00 from a Trump donor to pay for her AmEx bill.
COOPER: Honey, please.
NAVARRO: Just -- you know me, who doesn't ask a friend for $100,000.00 to pay for the AmEx bill. The week before that, we learned that Donald Trump Jr., a company that he just invested in had gotten billion dollars in contracts from the government.
Weeks before that, we learned that Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding party, the party at his wedding, had been paid by a Russian oligarch. Weeks before that, we learned about, you know, the ballroom, Melania's documentary sold to Amazon, the crypto grift.
I mean, it's just one thing after another while regular Americans are paying $5.00 for gas, $6.00 for diesel, $6.30 for a pound of ground beef, and making, you know, having a hard time making ends meet. And these people are just like in this, you know, let them eat cake, Marie Antoinette, you know, who cares? Type of mode, it's horrible.
COOPER: Pete, I mean, when you were in the George W. Bush White House, this is a far cry from anything. I mean, it's a far cry from anything we've seen before.
SEAT: Well, we actually had an incident in the George W. Bush White House in the final weeks of the administration in December of 2008. In fact, it was two days before Christmas when President bush issued 19 pardons and then a news report was published about one of the individuals pardoned and the fact that his father had donated to the Republican National Committee. Photos surfaced of this father with President Bush at a "Grip and Grin" fundraiser.
And for those who have ever been to one of those, you know, you get literally about seven seconds with the President. But there was that appearance of impropriety that people were concerned about, and some shady dealings that took place, or some personal connections or friendships that led to the pardon.
So, what President bush did was he rescinded. He revoked the pardon the next day on Christmas Eve, because it had not yet been personally delivered to that individual. So, the Department of Justice deemed that he was able to do that.
It was an unprecedented decision, but it was for this very reason, so that the public did not think there was something corrupt happening, and that led to the pardon.
COOPER: The idea of that, I mean, it seems like a quaint, like I mean, it's remarkable looking back now at something like that.
ANDERSON: Yes, absolutely. I mean, and for Republicans, you know, they look at things like this and they go, well, what did Joe Biden do as his last act on the way out the door? He preemptively pardoned a bunch of his family members that you can think back to the end of the Clinton administration and the pardons that came at the end of that. And that was a huge political firestorm. And we've just now gotten so far away from that to now, where a quarter century later, things like this can happen. And they're but a blip not a week's long --
NAVARRO: One of the cudgels that they used in the 2024 campaign was Hunter Biden. And frankly, the money that Hunter Biden got from Burisma seems like chump change in comparison to the numbers that are being thrown around. And in such, you know, it's not just the sun, it is practically everybody around Donald Trump.
Now, Hunter Biden had to go in and testify for seven hours in front of a Congressional Committee.
So, to your point, the question will be, will Democrats have the spine to do the same?
COOPER: Everyone, stick around.
Up next, the controversy from the Ramaswamy campaign, maybe the sleaziest ad in certainly recent political history, but it sadly tracks with the mud being thrown in races across the country. We'll have more on that ahead.
Later, American Stephen Hubbard wrongly imprisoned in Russia for more than four years, freed today. What President Trump said to Vladimir Putin to bring him home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:33:56]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST OF "ANDERSON COOPER 360": More now on our top story. Vice President, J.D. Vance on the trail back at his home state of Ohio where there's a growing controversy in the race for governor that the vice president is defending. Vivek Ramaswamy, who launched an attack ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton. Vance is also going after fellow Republicans speaking out against the ad telling them to stop whining.
It's just the latest example of some dirty politics we've seen during this campaign season. More on that from our Tom Foreman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sex abuse at a fall church camp. A child predator working for Adam Hamilton's megachurch.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Kansas, the Republican Senate candidate launches a claim his opponent concealed a sex scandal. Democrats respond with a rocket of their own.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doctors pledge to do no harm. Roger Marshall must've forgot. When his patients couldn't pay, he squeezed them for every cent they got.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Both sides deny the accusations, but rhetoric is going nuclear like this all across the country. In Texas --
[20:35:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anti-oil, anti-beef, anti-Texas, that's radical James Talarico.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Republican Ken Paxton is ripping his Democratic opponent with help from Vice President, J.D. Vance.
J.D. VANCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, he's just a guy who shows a weird focus on transgender kids.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But James Talarico is hitting back at Paxton's checkered past.
JAMES TALARICO, (D) TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: I've never been indicted for fraud. I've never been reported to the FBI for bribery. I've never been impeached by my own party, and I've never given a sweetheart deal to a pedophile.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Weighing in on the Michigan race, President Trump has called Republican Mike Rogers' Muslim opponent Muhammad and a jihadist.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'm the President of the United States. I can call you whatever the hell I want.
ABDUL EL-SAYED, (D) MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: Trump is a vain, narcissistic idiot.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is not having it, laying into Trump and Rogers, too.
EL-SAYED: Weak, cowardly, won't stand up until his poll numbers drop.
FOREMAN (voice-over): In South Carolina, Trump also took aim at the Democratic challenger to Republican Senator Darline Graham. On Truth Social, he repeatedly slapped the slur 'Trannie' on Annie Andrews, a physician who is not transgender.
And on it goes. In Georgia --
SEN. JON OSSOFF, (D-GA): Mike Collins himself has amplified neo-Nazi propaganda online.
MIKE COLLINS, (R) GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: Imagine being a U.S. Senator and out there recruiting, endorsing and supporting these people that want to see Israel wiped off the map.
FOREMAN (voice-over): In Ohio, Maine and more, furious words and bitter accusations.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every time it matters, Susan Collins sides with Trump.
FOREMAN (voice-over): As the midterms burn down to the end.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Coming up, U.S. Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff called Vladimir Putin, whose war of choice in Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands, a humanitarian. More on that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:41:01]
COOPER: American Stephen Hubbard, a retired English teacher and U.S. military veteran who was detained after Russian forces took over the Ukrainian city he was living in during the 2022 invasion, is finally returning to the United States after a request from President Trump.
Today, the president defended his decision not to impose sanctions on Russia because they would have scuttled negotiations for Stephen Hubbard's release, writing in part on social media, quote, "If sanctions would have been placed, certainly those negotiations would have come to a complete and total halt." He also claimed that the U.S. gave up nothing in exchange for Hubbard's release, although he was challenged on that by CNN's Kaitlan Collins.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We were in the midst of negotiating and a lot of stupid people said and people that don't know how life works, they said why aren't you putting righteous (ph) sanctions on this. In the midst of a negotiation, to try and get along for a passage back from --
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: But you said you didn't give Russia anything in exchange for his release.
TRUMP: If I would have done that, you would not have Mr. Hubbard coming back.
COLLINS: So you did give him something in exchange for the release.
TRUMP: You don't know anything. I mean, you're fake news, CNN.
COLLINS: But you're saying you lifted the sanctions in exchange for his release, right, Mr. President?
TRUMP: You don't know what you're talking about. You're a dummy. You work with CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: After Russia agreed to release Hubbard, White House Special Envoy, Steve Witkoff praised Vladimir Putin, a man who started an unprovoked war against a sovereign neighbor which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, calling him a humanitarian.
(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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: We are joined now by Democratic Senator, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who sits on the Homeland Security and Armed Services Committees. When you hear the top man who's the top negotiator calling him a humanitarian and saying he salutes him for that, were you surprised?
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, (D-CT): HOMELAND SECURITY AND ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEES: Sickened and surprised. I think it will go down like Chamberlain's promising peace in our time or the praise for Stalin is one of the most famous misspoken comments of all time.
After all, what he did to Stephen Hubbard was to torture, starve, freeze him in a penal colony designed for everyday prisoners. He is enabling Iran to target our troops and potentially kill them in the Middle East with intelligence sharing about their locations and providing fiber optic technology.
And Steve Witkoff ought to talk to the 30,000 children who've been kidnapped by Putin, the people who've been shot and killed. I traveled to Bucha in one of my 11 trips to Ukraine and saw the mass graves there that --
COOPER: Yeah.
BLUMENTHAL: -- in effect were the result of Putin's slaughtering Ukrainians, which he's doing right now by pummeling them with missiles and drones. It is heartbreaking, Anderson.
COOPER: You were part of a bipartisan group of Senators who spoke to Zelenskyy this week. When you heard about -- Ukraine has been saying that the Starlink -- their version of Starlink has been slowed down. The Wall Street Journal was reporting that Elon Musk ordered that slowdown of the military-grade Starlink. Has that been restored? Do you want answers on exactly what happened on that?
BLUMENTHAL: Anderson, it has not been restored, and I have that reliably from people in Ukraine. And what it means is that the drones that are traveling more than 100 miles an hour are able to circumvent the air defense that Ukraine is trying to use to stop them from killing civilians in homes, apartments.
COOPER: They can't get the drones knocked out of the sky anymore because the drones aren't going fast enough.
[20:45:00]
BLUMENTHAL: Exactly, and also there are continued disruptions in the intelligence sharing, but the idea that Musk or Trump, one of the two of them, had to approve or order the continued disruption of access to --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: And it's bizarre, because Musk in his statement said, well only, you know, it's the Pentagon and only, you know, ultimately it would come from the President of United States, any kind of decision like that. He seems to be pointing the finger at the president and the Wall Street Journal reporting that there was conversations between the two beforehand, unclear what actually those were about.
BLUMENTHAL: I'm demanding information. I've written to SpaceX. I will be writing to Musk as the Ranking Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation. And frankly, not just I, but all the American people are entitled to know why Donald Trump, and ultimately, I think he has to be held accountable, or Musk, or someone in the Pentagon approved this order to disrupt the service and degrade, even now, the Starlink connection.
COOPER: Zelenskyy has clearly pointed to a confluence of things that the Trump administration has done. Do you think this is part of a plan by the Trump administration or desire by the Trump administration to, you know, to force Zelenskyy to some sort of an agreement?
BLUMENTHAL: Well, to attribute a plan to Donald Trump is a bit of a stretch, but it is certainly part of a desire. And the desire basically is to bleed Ukraine, strong-arm them into submission, and it's part of a pattern that appears very conscious and purposeful.
The purchase of diesel, the lifting of sanctions, now the degrading of the Starlink service and other means essential to their defense, and holding up the interceptors for their Patriot missiles that are vital to stopping the ballistic missiles that increasingly Russia is using.
So part of a plan, Putin is playing Trump again, preying on his anxiety and fears about soaring prices of gasoline and groceries and his low approval numbers, and I think Putin is celebrating. They're popping corks in the Kremlin.
COOPER: I want to bring in the rest of the panel here. Ana, were you -- when you heard Witkoff describing Putin as a humanitarian, what did you think?
ANA NAVARRO, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I thought somebody should go ask Brittany Greer, or maybe somebody should ask little Angelina, the 14-month-old baby who we all saw killed in her stroller when she was walking -- when she was out in the park with her mother, what it was last week, killed by a Russian drone.
It's, you know -- it makes absolutely no sense, and this is happening during an election where Donald Trump is constantly talking about communism and communism coming to the United States, using that as a boogeyman to scare people to the polls.
And I can think of no more cruel communist right now than Vladimir Putin, a foe of the United States, and here is Donald Trump squeezing our ally, Zelenskyy, so that he caves to Putin and coddling Putin. It's just -- it makes no sense, make it make sense how we call Vladimir Putin, out of all people, a humanitarian.
COOPER: Kristen, I mean, what do you see or what do you hear from voters or looking at polls in terms of, I mean, price of diesel, oil, obviously all tied up in both the war in Ukraine and the war in Iran.
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER: Yeah, the president's job approval on foreign policy is quite low, and it has trended lower and lower and lower throughout the last two years. And when, in my polls, when we ask voters, what do you think is contributing to high cost of living, foreign conflict, what's going on in Iran, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, comes up at the top of that list.
So for many voters, issues of foreign policy have become issues of domestic policy because it's affecting their pocketbooks.
COOPER: Do you think -- Senator, do you think if the Democrats get control of the House that they will investigate Elon Musk, his companies?
BLUMENTHAL: I think that they should, and I can't predict whether they will, knocking on wood. You're right that we will gain control of the House and possibly the Senate, but certainly, Elon Musk's control and potentially his misuse of this vast power of communications, think of it for a moment, our Starshield, which is related to Starlink, is essential for our own defense.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: It's the military version of Starlink.
BLUMENTHAL: It is the military version of Starlink, and we depend on it. What control is Elon Musk exerting over Starshield, which is the basis for our warning the Ukrainians and helping them with their defense?
[20:50:00]
And I think the point that you make about Donald Trump going after Democrats because supposedly they're communists and now he is not only coddling a communist tyrant who imprisons and tortures his people and also wants to bleed Ukrainians into submission, while he is destroying a free people. And remember, Putin wants not only to subjugate, he wants to destroy their culture, their religion, their language, their schools, which is the reason that he's regarded as a war criminal.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR & WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: This pivot to Putin that Trump is making here in the closing days, I don't know that that's a voting issue. I don't know that voters are going to be dialed into that. But it has been fascinating to watch Republicans running in these tough races put on the spot about this.
You can just watch their discomfort because it is so against the grain of what the Republican Party has stood for, had been calling Putin a thug. And, you know, from Chris Christie, not running, criticizing this as a closing message, but even Mike Rogers in this tough race in Michigan, you can watch him squirm on this that he doesn't agree with this, but then has to give the president some credit for trying anything to lower prices, which we're not even sure this would have that kind of impact.
This for candidates, for Republican candidates, puts them in a bind right now.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Yeah. Want to thank everybody on our panel, Senator Blumenthal as well, thank you so much.
Coming up, the president once again talking about Ohio Republican Senator, Jon Husted, highlighting his assets.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I looked at his ass and then I looked at his legs and I said, his ass is like it's like a pile of muscle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:55:50]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COSMO KRAMER, PLAYED BY MICHAEL RICHARDS, SEINFELD: Assman? No, no, these don't belong to me. I'm not the Assman. I think there's been a mistake.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's your name again?
KRAMER: Cosmo Kramer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cosmo Kramer? You are the Assman.
KRAMER: No, I'm not the Assman.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, as far as the state of New York is concerned, you are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, big news for Kramer tonight. He is no longer New York's most famous Assman. Erstwhile, Manhattanite and Derriere aficionado President Donald J. Trump, whose approval rating, according to a new CNN poll, is currently at a bouncy 32 percent, thanks to all his political junk in the trunk, is once again making sure voters know that as far as he's concerned, Ohio Junior Senator, Jon Husted is an unmitigated smoke show.
TRUMP: I'm studying his body. I've never studied the body of a man before. It's not my thing. Nothing wrong with it, of course.
(LAUGH)
TRUMP: Nothing. I always precede it by saying nothing wrong. But it's never been my thing, to be honest with you. But I looked at his ass.
(LAUGH)
TRUMP: And then I looked at his legs. And I said, his ass is like, it's like a pile of muscle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Just to be clear, that was last night in North Carolina, where the president's chosen Senate candidate is so far behind, so to speak, that the Senate GOP's campaign arm has canceled most, if not all, remaining spending there. It's no heated rivalry. The Democratic candidate in Ohio, Sherrod Brown, is out in front.
The assman-in-chief says his fixation with Ohio's second-highest- ranking senatorial caboose is just a one-off. It's never been my thing, you heard him say. But -- and I do emphasize, but -- the beauty of the male form is not exactly forbidden fruit for him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I never did that with a man before.
(LAUGH)
TRUMP: I examined his ass. And then I looked at his shoulders. I looked at his feet. This guy walks through the door. I said, look at this beautiful guy.
I actually think Mike Collins is a good looking man. Rick Jackson's a very handsome, distinguished, beautiful looking guy. Oh, he's a good looking guy.
You're not allowed to say that about women or men anymore. It's the end of your political career. But yeah, he is a good looking guy.
I wish Tim didn't look that good. You know, he's a very handsome guy. I don't like handsome guys. I started examining his body. I watched up and down. I looked at his ass.
Is he central casting, by the way? You can't miss a big, strong, handsome Oklahoma studs. No, I'm looking at the legs there. He's this beautiful guy. He's got legs like tree trunks.
He's a handsome guy, by the way. I didn't -- it's usually not my thing, but he is a good looking sucker.
Arnold Palmer was all mad. When he took showers with the other pros that came out of there, they said, oh my God, that's unbelievable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: I'm not sure if the sound you're hearing is Arnold Palmer rolling over in his grave, if that's even possible, or of Senator Husted giving back his key to the locker room at Trump Doral. What I do know is that there's nothing at all unusual and certainly nothing gay about a president who dances daily to YMCA and who publicly pined for a prize of Betty Buckley in Cats.
With less than two weeks left to go, there's no telling where this might end up, the president bouncing his own gold meme coin off the rock-hard rear end of another ally in political jeopardy. When you're a man's man, you can do and say it all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If you watched her being interviewed by Alison Cooper the other night, who's a nice person, do you know Alison Cooper? CNN fake news. Oh, she said, no, his name's Anderson. Oh, no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: He's been working -- he's been workshopping that bit for years now. I just turned the other cheek. As for Senator Husted, his ass may be hard, but his polling is soft. According to the latest CNN poll of polls, he's down five points.
You can stream the show live or watch any CNN program on demand anytime on any screen or mobile device.
[21:00:00]
All you need is an All Access subscription. Scan the QR code on your screen or go to cnn.com/watch to learn more. I'll see you there. That's it. "The Source with Kaitlan Collins" starts now.
