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Difference for Republicans This Midterm; Sen. Fetterman Makes Video Appearance at GOP Convention; Trump Administration Working to Reshape the Election System; Lawsuits in Amazon Plane Crash; Wholesale Inflation for August; U.S. Has Hottest Summer on Record. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired September 10, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:31:22]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump will be headed back on stage in Dallas with another headline speech after he -- his headlining speech last night at the first ever Republican convention for a midterm election. How different, though, is this midterm fight from the one that he faced during his first term?

CNN's Harry Enten is running the numbers on that one for you today.

Hey, Harry.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Hello, Kate.

BOLDUAN: How -- give me the baseline, how different is, I don't know, the -- his standing today versus his standing during the first term at this point.

ENTEN: How different is it? Well, it's so different that I'm betting, and I know because it's been reported that a lot of Republicans wish certainly that he didn't make two appearances, which seems to going to be the case, but that he didn't make one appearance. I guess they're happy that, in fact, the one good thing about him going out during the NFL season actually beginning is most people will be watching the NFL. Maybe that was the strategy all along.

Because just look at this. Trump's net approval rating according to Ipsos -- Reuters/Ipsos polling. Look at this. You know, in term number one things were bad, right? In September of 2018. The president's net approval rating was 14 points underwater. That is his approval rating was 14 points lower than his disapproval rating.

But, you know, you saw a little bit of a spike, right, going into term number two at plus six months. But look at this. Look at this number. President Trump is 30 points underwater. He is under the Gulf of Mexico. Or to put it in President Trump's language, the Gulf of America. Thirty points underwater. He is twice -- more than twice as unpopular than he was at this point going into the first midterm election that, of course, he had during one of his presidencies. BOLDUAN: This is overall with all voters. What about independents?

ENTEN: OK, what is driving -- what is driving this? What is causing President Trump to be more than twice as unpopular at this point than he was during his first presidency at the same time? Well, Kate Bolduan, you set it up for me. It is independents. It is independents, the name of the game.

Just look at this. Trump's net approval rating among independents. Look at this. In term one he was 18 points underwater. Again, not too hot to trot. But look at this, 50 points underwater. Fifty points underwater. What is that? That's nearly three times as unpopular among independents. Look at this, he's nearly 50 points more unpopular than he was at the beginning of his second term. These are the types of numbers that, if you're a Republican watching that convention, knowing that President Trump is this far underwater with independents, you are going to yourself, what did I do to deserve this? Why? Why, why, why? These numbers are absolutely atrocious. They are historically atrocious for any president at this point in term number two.

BOLDUAN: And I'm assuming then, especially when you're talking about his remarks from last night, him trying to paint a rosier picture on the economy is not helping.

ENTEN: No, I don't think it's helping at all. I don't care what type of glasses you put on, because these numbers, when it comes to the economy, are absolutely terrible for the president of the United states, especially compared to where he was at this point in term number one.

Look, in term number one, the economy was a positive for him. Look, plus ten with independents, plus five his net approval rating was overall. Look at this now. He's 42 points lower. Minus 37 points among independents when it comes to the -- overall when it comes to the economy. Independents, I almost flipped them there. Look at this, even worse, 52 points underwater when it comes to that. What is that, Kate Bolduan? We can do some math here. School is beginning here in New York City. What is that? That is 62 points worse at this point among independents when it comes to the economy.

The reason why Trump was elected to a second term was the economy. And now it is the great anchor that is bringing his presidency down. And it may very well bring down Republican hopes in the midterms as well. I'm just not quite sure how Republicans can have a very merry election night, even with this midterm convention given these numbers. It's going to be quite dreadful indeed if these numbers, in fact, do hold.

[08:35:03]

BOLDUAN: If they hold.

ENTEN: If they hold. We'll wait and see.

BOLDUAN: Let's -- if they will. We are less than two months out.

ENTEN: A little too much, Kate? BOLDUAN: Yes.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much for that.

All right, one of the big surprises from night one of this Republican convention, Senator John Fetterman, the Democrat from Pennsylvania, made a special appearance at this Republican gathering via video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Yes, I'm a Democrat. Why am I here talking to you today? Because, well, I'm a commonsense Democrat. I'm always going to stand with America. I'm always going to reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, this sparked all kinds of new speculation that Fetterman could switch parties, which, of course, would make it harder for the Democrats to take control of the U.S. Senate, raised the bar even more.

So, the senator did put out a statement last night after that video that said, quote, "I'm a lifelong Democrat who votes overwhelmingly with my party. And should the Senate flip in November, I will still be the 51st vote that I ran on."

Now with us now is Adam Jentleson, a Democratic strategist, Fetterman's former chief of staff. He's the author of "Supermajority: How Democrats Can Build Lasting Power."

Adam, great to see you this morning.

I got to ask, when you either saw the video as it was happening live or saw that it was coming out last night, what was your first reaction?

ADAM JENTLESON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST AND FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF FOR SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN: I was not surprised. I think that Senator Fetterman has sort of reached a point where he's just trying to do whatever he can do to get the most attention for the least amount of work, and that is what he's doing here.

You know, I think it's important and healthy for politicians to break with their party on issues where they care deeply. But, you know, this is somebody who has sort of stopped actually doing the job of being a senator and instead is just sort of seeking opportunities to, you know, put himself front and center and do sort of high-profile maneuvers like this.

So, you know, it sort of struck me as par for the course given what he's sort of decided to do with his -- with his seat.

BERMAN: So, when he put out the statement after where he said, you know, "I will still be the 51st vote that I ran on," how rock solid of a guarantee is that, do you think, that he will not switch parties?

JENTLESON: I would -- I think it's encouraging if you're a Democrat that he is saying that, but I certainly would not put too much stock in it going forward. I think that, you know, this is somebody who just wants to get attention. And if, you know, getting -- switching parties would get him a lot of attention if he's the deciding factor, I think we'll see what happens.

BERMAN: All right. So, you mentioned that you think he is not doing his job as senator. This, of course, follows, there was this "Wall Street Journal" article, what, last week at this point where it had quotes from former staffers, not you, you say, that were saying he was skipping meetings with constituents, not showing up to this event or that event. Fetterman himself said it's all disgruntled former employees making that.

But the descriptions in that article, how accurate -- you've been in that office -- do you see them?

JENTLESON: They struck me as very accurate. This -- the article described things that all happened since I left. So -- but they were consistent with the behavior that I saw when I was there and that sort of disturbed me deeply.

Look, I think senators, you know, are entitled to their own opinions. This is not about ideology. Many of the staff who work for him support him breaking with his party and taking stances that are at odds with the Democratic Party line. But I think what has really upset people is that, you know, these are instances of the senator refusing to meet with representatives of the children's Hospital of Pennsylvania, right, who were there to talk about Medicaid cuts. They're struggling with Medicaid cuts that are affecting children in Pennsylvania. This is a senator who refused to go to the funeral of three police officers who were killed in the line of duty in York, Pennsylvania, his hometown, because he didn't feel like putting on a suit and sitting through a funeral for three hours.

So, the category of issues here are entirely devoid of ideology. This is about someone who is paid by the taxpayers to do a job for the people of Pennsylvania, and he's simply not doing it.

BERMAN: So, some of these former staffers have told "The Wall Street Journal" they're going to have this Twitter account that's going to start posting other stories like this, I think, next week. What do you think about that?

JENTLESON: Yes, I would recommend against that approach. I think, as a matter of principle, it's important if you're going to come forward with a criticism, to put your name on it and say it on the record. I think people would be rightly skeptical of things that are posted anonymously from a Twitter account that nobody knows who's behind it. So, if anybody's listening, I would say, put your name on it and come forward. I think it's important to do as a matter of principle, and also to allow the public to judge the merits of what they're seeing.

[08:40:02] BERMAN: Adam Jentleson, former chief of staff to John Fetterman, we appreciate your insight this morning. Thank you.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: From sweeping new rules on mail-in ballots to widespread voter fraud investigations, less than two months out now from the midterm elections, and the Trump administration is still working on ways to reshape the country's election systems. CNN now has new reporting on a surprising new approach and tactic, banning certain voting machines.

CNN's Gabe Cohen has more reporting on this, and he's joining us right now.

Gabe, tell us what you've learned.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, Kate, as the Trump administration, you mentioned, it's been pulling a range of levers to seize more control over federal elections. And what we found here is that pretty quietly, Secretary Howard Lutnick and his Commerce Department have been playing this key and growing role. There are several major initiatives from the administration that tie directly back to Lutnick and his team.

For example, there are these strict new Postal Service rules for mail ballots that we are expecting the Supreme Court to rule on any day now. They have been widely covered in the media. Well, those tie directly back to this March executive order that President Trump signed. And at that time, in the Oval Office, it was Secretary Lutnick who was standing beside him. And what we have since learned is that Lutnick and his teams were really the architects of that order and of the directives that were included in it.

There was also this explosive Census Bureau report last month claiming to have found 24,000 non-citizens voted in the 2020 presidential election. Well, that analysis we also found was conducted by this group of partisan researchers who had been quietly hired by Commerce Department leaders who oversee the Census Bureau, and they had been given access to this tremendous amount of sensitive data, as the administration has been trying to overhaul the next census count. Again, that initiative that President Trump touted on social media directly connected to the Commerce Department leadership.

And then there is this issue that you mentioned of voting machines. And that may be the next shoe to drop that we are watching here because there are a lot of prominent Trump allies, including some in the administration, who are pushing Secretary Lutnick to use his sweeping authority, as the head of the Commerce Department, over supply chains to ban most voting machines by declaring them a national security threat because they have parts that are made in China, which could make them vulnerable to hackers. And what our reporting found, Kate, we uncovered these emails that show a pair of conservative activists who have talked about wanting these machines banned for a long time, last year, had spoken to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and other senior administration leaders about this issue, about potentially banning these machines. It did not go anywhere, Kate.

But the update here is, just last month, those same two activists said on their podcast that they just met for more than two hours with Secretary Howard Lutnick, and they pitched him their plan to ban these voting machines. And he told them, according to the podcast, that he would be, quote, "getting on it."

So, I know that is a complicated picture here, Kate, but the point is that Howard Lutnick and his team at Commerce, it seems, have had these growing ties to the administration's election agenda as we are just weeks away from the midterms and expecting potentially more action from this administration.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I mean, but the picture you paint is -- I mean the simple fact that when you are just less than two months away from an election and you're -- there are conversations about potentially -- I mean, here's, you know, the potential of the potential, banning voting machines that one might assume are already being prepared to be used in said elections, that is -- that is a statement. That is why your reporting is important.

Gabe, thank you very much.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, Kate.

New details this morning on the deadly Amazon cargo plane crash in Miami. Investigators now say moments before the plane overshot the runway, one of the pilots warned the plane was going too fast. The NTSB is still investigating the crash. Five people were killed when that jet slammed into a cleaning crew's van, destroying it. Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, who was driving that van, his widow has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the pilots, Amazon and the jet's operator. The suit claims multiple, concurrent failures led to this crash. Two other families are also considering legal action. A lawyer representing them says the families really are just still in shock right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORGE GUTIERREZ, JR., ATTORNEY REPRESENTING TWO FAMILIES OF CARGO PLANE VICTIMS: These individuals got up a day before Labor Day, and got up at three, four in the morning to go and clean planes to provide for themselves and their families. There's a very compelling story in that this happened the day before Labor Day, and they -- these families lost important members of their family that were providing for several individuals and leave behind a legacy of, you know, love and support and caring that cannot be replaced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:45:16]

SIDNER: Joining us now, CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson. Look, it's obviously clear the plane is responsible for killing these

five people who were inside that van that was destroyed by the plane. So, in their lawsuit suit, they certainly don't have to say who killed them. Who's responsible for it. What do they have to prove to try to get the compensation that they want?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Sara. Good morning to you.

So, what happens in these cases is, this is a negligence lawsuit. What does that mean? It means that someone was careless or otherwise irresponsible. And as a result of that carelessness or lack of responsibility, something like this tragically happened. When you file these negligence lawsuits, you go after everyone, as we're seeing here. Amazon, who they contracted with, right? Air 21, the pilots who operate in the car.

One other point, in the negligence lawsuit, you're establishing a few things. Number one, do you owe a duty to people to keep safe? Of course you do, right? Number two, did you breach or violate that duty by things that you might have done or not done? Number three, did those breaches of violations cause? A number four, the injury. Of course they did. Theres's death. And so, when you unpack that, they're going to be looking for what specifically happened.

Now, remember, negligence lawsuits, it's not like, you know, when we talk about criminal cases --

SIDNER: Right.

JACKSON: We talk about beyond a reasonable doubt. Very high standard, 12 jurors. When you have cases like this in negligence, is it more likely than not, right? More likely than not.

SIDNER: Very different standard.

JACKSON: Very different standard. Six jurors, if it gets that far. Generally these cases don't. They settle. It doesn't have to be unanimous verdicts, et cetera.

But when you look at that, what the claims are, number one, what did the pilots know? Were the pilots incompetent? Were they adequately trained? Should that plane have been in operation such that they were flying the plane? It was 32 years old. What about the equipment on the plane? Was it operating properly or was it not? Were they coming in too fast for the runway? Did they have enough runway to come into? What steps, if any, could they have taken to prevent this? So, there are all these allegations.

SIDNER: Yes.

JACKSON: And in terms of the allegations, Sara, you file the actual complaint. That's what list of factual discrepancies. There will be an answer filed by the defendants to that.

And then there's this process of discovery. What is that? Its information gathering. And that's important. SIDNER: Let me -- let me ask you about that because you mentioned the

pilots, and there is this detail that stands out from the NTSB already from comments that they've made that says that on the cockpit voice recorder one of the pilots repeatedly warned that the Amazon Air Boeing 767 was approaching the runway at excessive speeds. So, what is it they'll be looking for? What will they be asking for to try and say, like, hey, there are all these things that happened that should not have. And if they hadn't have happened, our loved ones would still be here.

JACKSON: Exactly, Sara. So, a couple of things.

First thing is, of course, is that the National Transportation Safety Board, they're still investigating.

SIDNER: Yes.

JACKSON: I think that that report is going to be critical with respect to what happened, how it happened, why it happened, equipment failures, et cetera. So, that will be looked at.

With regard to what was said in that cockpit. It cuts both ways. If you're suing, you're going to say, aha, plane going too fast, incompetent, unable to train or irresponsible training, not supervising. What were they doing there? What about the plane? What about its condition, et cetera.? You're going to say that.

If you're on the other side, from a defense perspective, you're going to say, they recognized it and, as a result of it, they try to correct. They didn't have the opportunity to, but certainly they recognized something was happening and took appropriate action at that time. What way that plays remains to be seen.

I think, Sara, again, these cases generally don't go to trial. There's discovery and all this information that's provided. You sit for depositions when you question people. No judge, but you're questioning to get out the intel. They'll look at the NTSB report, National Transportation Safety Board report, and all of that. There will be a mediation outside of court to see if they could settle. And if not, you go to trial.

Tragedy didn't need to happen. The issue is, who's responsible for doing or not doing something. That all remains to be seen.

SIDNER: Joey Jackson, it is always good to have you. Thank you so much for being here this morning.

JACKSON: Thank you, Sara. Appreciate you.

BOLDUAN: So, maybe the hottest summer ever. The new read on the record heat and what it means for the climate crisis.

And buck on the lam. Officers were responding to a call about an intruder. Well, they found that, a deer hiding inside the home. What happened next?

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[08:53:36]

BERMAN: All right, breaking just a few minutes ago, we're getting some brand new data on inflation. This on the producer side. And it's a little hot. And a lot of this has to do with the war in Iran.

Let's get to CNN's Matt Egan with the latest on this.

What do you see?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, John, this is just more evidence that inflation is way too hot. In fact, it got even hotter during the month of August.

So, yes, this is Producer Prices. This is kind of like an early warning system that shows pricing pressure building in the system before it hits all of us as consumers. It showed that prices were up by 0.4 percent on a monthly basis. That's exactly as expected. But that's an elevated figure.

Annual basis, inflation ticking up to 5.4 percent, relative to a year ago. Again, that's expected. But that is also a very elevated figure. A lot of this, it might not shock you, was driven by energy and the war with Iran.

Now, when we look at the trend for monthly producer prices, there was a little bit of a lull a few months ago, right? June, there was actually a negative number. July, there was a slight increase. But look at that, moving in the wrong direction.

Now, on an annual basis, for this inflation metric, we're not in as bad of a situation as we were four, five, six years ago, right? During Covid, this was extremely high. Then after Russia invaded Ukraine, look at this spike a few years ago in 2022. So, we're not there.

But look at this. It had been moving in the right direction. In fact, at this point last summer, we were looking at sub three percent inflation. Now, again, 5.4 percent.

[08:55:06]

So, let's pull out some of the key items here that have been driving prices higher. One thing that's notable is a lot of this is driven by the Strait of Hormuz, right? When you look at nitrogen-based fertilizer spiking 22 percent year over year, that is going to really be very painful for farmers. That's something that's going to show up in food prices at the grocery store. Diesel as well. Farmers use that to power their tractors, 78 percent more expensive than a year ago. And then, lubricating oil, that goes into motor oil, it's doubled in price. And, remember, we're looking at August numbers. John, we now know that prices have gone even higher this month.

BERMAN: Yes. We've got $103, $104 Brent. And diesel. Diesel is now at an all-time high, just a couple pennies away from $6 a gallon. So, you put it all together, and again, this does show the cost of living is too high. And this is going to be something the Fed is going to have to consider next week as they debate whether or not to do their first interest rate hike in three years.

BERMAN: Yes, and this diesel price, $5.98. I mean this will cross $6 in the next day or two. And that will be -- I mean it already is historic. That will be even more so.

EGAN: Yes.

BERMAN: All right, Matt Egan, thank you very much for this report. Obviously, we're going to keep an eye on this. Consumer Prices tomorrow. A much clearer sign of where things are.

EGAN: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, guys.

All right, on our radar for you, in Atlanta, a car wreck that has a lot of people asking how in the world? You see the driver's legs there, dangling, after the car somehow got lodged between concrete beams on an interstate overpass. His car just suspended up there. That in and of itself seems a bit strange, right? But then we find out that the driver survived this without serious injury. Investigators haven't said what caused this wreck or how the car got up there in the first place. All right, the driver, though, was apparently able to get out of the car without any help.

All right, and next, this is some stunning, new video. Scary. Released by Maine officials showing the exact moment that a bridge collapses while crews are working on it to build a brand new deck. Three people were injured there, one of them with a broken ankle. The bridge was under construction when it gave way and was not luckily open to traffic at the time. An initial investigation found one of the supporting beams had buckled, which likely triggered that collapse that you see there.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes. All right, so this was the hottest summer ever recorded in U.S. history. New data from NOAA tracking temperatures from June through August shows a record set back in 1936 has even been broken now. The extremes from that triggering disasters that we've been watching unfold across the globe. Maybe the biggest problem, though, here is that scientists are now saying this could be the new normal.

CNN's Bill Weir tracking this one for us, and he's here with us now.

BILL WEIR, CNN CLIMATE CHANGE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, we've got also a report from Copernicus, the European Space Agency, that August, the hottest month ever globally, which is notable because usually July is the hottest month.

BOLDUAN: Yes. WEIR: So, this is everywhere. But here in the U.S., the brutal, hellish summer of '26, I'm afraid, is just the opening attractions due to forces both natural and manmade.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WEIR (voice over): It's official, the summer of '26 was a full three degrees hotter than average. And it showed us vividly how the symptoms of this manmade fever range from annoying, to expensive, to deadly. Summer camps and fireworks displays disrupted by wildfire smoke and extreme heat. Explosions of ticks along hiking trails and algae blooms on lakes and reflecting pools. A hotter atmosphere brings wetter wets and drier dries, which meant record wildfires in the parched northwest and near constant flash flood warnings from the hill country of Texas to the canyons of New York City.

Data from Copernicus shows similar overheating around the globe, with deadly heat domes in Europe, fires in Indonesia, and that glacier collapse in the Himalayas. And the record does not include the full force of a growing el Nino, which is just starting to shatter temperature records in the Pacific and could devastate a California coast already reeling from mudslides and erosion.

2026 now unseats 1936, when a heat wave turned disastrous, agriculture policy into the dust bowl. And there are parallels today. The United Nations just announced that humanity will definitely break the Paris Accord promise to hold global heating at temperatures lower than they are now. While American politicians shrug off climate science and protect polluters. So, a lot more heat is on the way.

And for the rest of our lives, the only question is how much?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:59:55]

WEIR (on camera): And the country lost the great farmer poet Wendell Berry recently. And one of my favorite quotes, Kate, of his is that whether we or politicians know it or not, nature is party to every deal we make.