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New CNN Poll Shows Bleaker Midterm Landscape for GOP; Today, Emergency Court Hearing on Trump's CNN, MS NOW, Politico Ban; Cellphone Video Shows Man Telling ICE Agents "I'm a F***king U.S. Citizen. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 23, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, new record low approval numbers for President Trump. New record high numbers for voters who strongly disapprove, strongly, the last thing Republicans running for re-election want to wake up to this morning.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The president and the president's press ban goes to court today, and the Justice Department overnight laid out a new argument, claiming national security is at stake, and that press access is a, quote, privilege, not a right.

And with new warnings every week that A.I. could kill us all, there's now a Terminator-looking robot that's trained to fight. Berman's pumped. And is already knocking an influencer to his feet.

Sara was on the night shift. I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: All right. Breaking news, the headline in Punchbowl this morning, the Republican freak-out is here, and brand-new poll numbers from CNN show why. Democrats hold an eight-point lead over Republicans in the race for Congress.

The president's approval rating is at an all-time low in our polling. Just 33 percent approve. On the economy, it's now just 27 percent. That is down 22 points compared to the midterms in 2018, when the Republicans lost 40 seats in the House.

We're seeing more and more Republican candidates breaking with the president on key issues. Last week, it was immigration. This week it is the Iran war and China. One of his most loyal allies, the Republican candidate for governor in Florida, Byron Donalds, is now among those who seem to have scrubbed Trump's name from their campaign website.

CNN's Washington Bureau Chief and Political Director David Chalian is with us now with this brand-new poll. It still has new poll smell, David.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, John. I bet you didn't have Byron Donalds scrubbing Trump from his website on your 2026 bingo card, but these numbers definitely help explain why.

You noted here in our brand-new poll from SSRS, 33 percent job approval for Donald Trump. This -- he's been hovering right around here for a while now, but this is a numeric low across two terms of his presidency, disapproval at 67 percent.

You noted, John, about the strength, the intensity of that disapproval. A majority in this poll, 51 percent, strongly disapprove, so the intensity is against him. And I would note, if you look at this strong approval number, this 13 percent, that's about half of what it was just a year-and-a-half ago. He is really losing some enthusiasm among his most ardent supporters.

And when you look at his approval on issues, I mean, I just want to go to the bottom of this list. Inflation, which is like one of the top issues pressing on Americans' minds, is his worst approval number at 20 percent. I can't remember the last time I saw a 20 percent approval number. The economy, you noted, overall, at 27 percent, which is a low for him as well. So, this -- you don't see anything that cracks 40 percent approval on any of the issues we tested, John.

BERMAN: No. And when you look at the bottom there, it's inflation, Iran, the economy, helping the middle class. Those are all the major issues in this midterm election, so let's talk about the midterms. What do the polling say about the race for Congress?

CHALIAN: Yes. I mean, the -- what we call that generic Congressional ballot, you noted Democrats have an eight percentage point advantage. If the election were to held today, would you vote for the Democrat or Republican in your district? 49 percent say they would vote for the Democrat, 41 percent say Republicans.

I will note, John, among the most motivated to vote, this eight-point spread goes to a 20-point spread in favor of the Democrats.

What's driving that? Well, it's the fact that independents have really just left the president and are going to the Democrats for this midterm election. They -- Democrats have an 11 percentage point advantage on the generic Congressional ballot among Independents.

And I got to say, we asked folks sort of the Trump factor. How does he play into your Congressional vote? 44 percent say they are casting their ballot in these midterms to oppose Donald Trump, compared to only 19 percent who say they're casting a ballot to support Trump, 37 percent not a message about Trump.

[07:05:00]

I just want to note, we normally ask this. Usually, the plurality of voters hang about saying, hey, it's not about the president. That's not the case now. More than four in ten say it is to oppose Donald Trump.

BERMAN: And you have to imagine roughly zero of them would be voting for a Republican. Very few, let's say, of that 44 percent is voting for a Republican. So, that gives you a sense of the jumping-off point for Democrats.

Finally, David, I briefly mentioned the comparison to the president's first term in office, the midterm in 2018, what are some of the differences?

CHALIAN: John, I think this is the game changer of this election. It is a more important issue than it has been for the last couple midterm elections, and his handling of it is so far down. So, he's at 27 percent approval of the economy now, as you noted. Compare that to September 2018. That is a 22 percentage point decline. It used to be that even when Donald Trump was unpopular in his first term, I think he was at 36 percent approval at this point in his first term, the economy was still a strong suit for him. It was a bit of a shield for him. No longer.

And it is grim out there in terms of how people are assessing the economy. Only 28 percent of Americans say current economic conditions are good. That was 69 percent in the 2018 midterms, John. It's a different universe when it comes to his unpopularity on issue number one.

BERMAN: I was just going to say, it's a completely different political planet, but you're right. It's much bigger than a planet. It's the different political universe that we're looking at here.

David Chalian, wow, thank you so much for all of this.

And so we see it in the polling, Kate, and I think it's also interesting, we're also seeing it with Republican candidates as well, right? When Republican candidates start to split, you know they're seeing this too.

BOLDUAN: And it's not just any Republican candidate. When Byron Donalds, who wanted to be vice president -- be Donald Trump's running mate in this second go 'round, when he's scrubbing it, it's a something. And there's a whole lot going on behind you. It's really fun.

BERMAN: Ooh.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: Nice.

BOLDUAN: I know. Spicy.

BERMAN: Nice.

BOLDUAN: Let's move to this. Breaking overnight, the Justice Department responding over President Trump's ban on, of several media outlets, including CNN. In this late night court filing, the DOJ argues some reporting threatens national security, and that the president has the right to kick journalists out of the White House. That argument heads to court today, and in just a few hours, an emergency hearing could decide if President Trump's ban will stand. Let's get to CNN's Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter. He's tracking this one. Brian, what else are you picking up from this new court filing from the administration overnight?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: This is a far more aggressive response than we've seen in past efforts by Trump to ban members of the media, and it is now going to be tested in court later today.

The Justice Department says that these news outlets can be shut out from areas of the White House at the president's will. It says that the White House and access there, access to the White House is, quote, a privilege, not a right, in spite of First Amendment protections around press freedom, and numerous court rulings against viewpoint discrimination.

And the government response, maybe most importantly, is pointing to recent coverage of the Iran war and Trump's ballroom construction in order to argue that the coverage could amount to a national security risk that justifies the ban.

Here is one of the key quotes from the government's response to the CNN/MS NOW/Politico lawsuit. It says, quote, the president has found that plaintiffs have engaged in a number of reporting incidents that have threatened national security. Such reporting directly raises national security concerns.

National security, that's going to be the defense that, that the government's going to push today at this hearing at 3:30 P.M. Eastern Time in Washington.

You know, I want us to remember that last Friday, when the president suddenly announced this ban, and he talked about it in the Oval Office, he generically claimed this was about negative coverage, supposedly fake stories that he didn't like. He did not cite any supposed security concerns back then. But national security is the president's new favorite go-to message whenever he is making a decision that's highly controversial.

Think about the ballroom and his claim that's now a military center with drones and weapons on top, and also a bunker down below, which we know is under construction because CNN's reported that. Think about the arch across the Potomac in Northern Virginia. He continually cites national security to try to push through items that he wants, or in this case, a ban that he wants to defend.

But the president has repeatedly said he expects he will lose in court today, or at least signaled that he expects that, because he's been attacking the Trump-appointed judge who's been assigned to the case.

So, we will probably learn more later today during this hearing. It's possible the judge will rule right away, or certainly in the coming days, Kate, we're going to find out if the court is going to let this stand.

BOLDUAN: All right. Brian, thank you so much for the context. More on what we've learned overnight, and clearly much more to come today. Brian Stelter on that.

ICE officers target a U.S. citizen in Chicago by mistake and leave him injured and lying on the ground. There's new details on that, and also new details coming out about that DoorDash driver in Texas who was shot by ICE officers.

[07:10:06]

We've got that coming up for you.

And breaking overnight, Russia targeting a shopping mall in Ukraine just after President Zelenskyy met with President Trump in New York. Zelenskyy says he's ready for talks with Vladimir Putin.

And one of life's great lessons from Arrested Development, there's always money in the banana stand. Police find nearly $4 million in cash stuffed inside the walls of this apartment.

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[07:15:00]

BERMAN: This morning, an investigation is underway after Illinois officials say ICE mistakenly targeted a U.S. citizen, detained him, and then left him on the ground with multiple injuries. There's brand- new cell phone video from the scene. It shows the two ICE agents and the man on the ground. The man appears to be shouting at them, I'm a U.S. citizen. I'm a U.S. citizen.

CNN Law Enforcement Correspondent Whitney Wild is in Chicago. What's the latest on this, Whitney?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we're still learning more about what happened here, but according to police, witnesses, and DHS themselves, this incident did happen. It happened about just before 10:00 A.M. Sunday, and here's what we've learned, from all of those sources and certainly surveillance video that CNN has obtained.

The Department of Homeland Security says that at the time of this incident, DHS agents were conducting a targeted operation, and they came upon a man who looked like the target. And when this man refused to provide identification and did not cooperate, this incident ensued. Although DHS did not respond to questions and didn't really address the injuries that this man sustained during this incident.

What we know from police, according to the Evanston Police Department, was that they found this man on the ground around 9:49 A.M. Sunday. And as they were investigating, police interacted with a federal agent who said that there were about five federal agents who were working on this investigation. They again claimed that the man resisted detention, and one of the Evanston police officers who responded observed blood on the hand of one of the agents, but the agents declined medical help.

Now, again, we have this video from the scene. Let's play it, because in this video, you hear the man say that he is a U.S. citizen. Let's listen.

It is not clear that those ICE officers rendered any kind of aid to the man, and witnesses said that an ambulance was called later after the man on the ground reported that he had injuries to his head, neck, and teeth.

As I mentioned before, Evanston Police responded. They're investigating. They're doing their best to preserve any evidence, including witness video and surveillance video and potential body camera from that incident.

Finally, John, this is the latest in a string of incidents between the public and DHS agents that began last year during Operation Midway Blitz. Legal challenges in several of those incidents remain ongoing. John?

BERMAN: Yes, indeed they do, and now this will add to that.

Whitney Wild for us in Chicago this morning, Whitney, thank you very much.

Two students at the same college die the same weekend. The clues found at the scenes that could be tied now to the deaths.

And then a driverless Waymo vehicle plows straight through a farmers market. The question is, with no driver, who gets the ticket?

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[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: So, this morning, there are multiple agencies now investigating the deaths of two University of Mississippi students. Both deaths happened after a busy football weekend on campus, when Ole Miss beat rival LSU. Right now, police say the only thing possibly linking these deaths is a substance that can be found at gas stations.

CNN's Isabel Rosales has more on this. A lot of questions surrounding what's happening here, but what are you picking up?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, good morning. And, understandably, these student deaths have rocked campus. The university noting that there is a lot of unverified information that's been floating around on social media. But here's what we do know. According to the Lafayette County Coroner has confirmed that two students have died.

The students have not been identified. Oxford Police has, have not released any information as to their gender or their ages. But our affiliate, WAPT, is reporting that the autopsies are in the process of being scheduled. One of these students was found dead on campus, the other off campus. Now, the Lafayette County Metro Narcotics is the lead agency on this.

They're saying that they have no confirmed evidence that these two deaths are connected, and they cannot say whether kratom or any other substance was a contributing factor to these deaths. However, as you noted, they did find packaged kratom, which can be found at gas stations, in both of these death investigations, and they are warning students that regardless, right now, avoid kratom and any other substance that is not prescribed and they're not getting from a trusted source.

Listen to a student reacting to these death investigations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we didn't think to come back to like such sad news of losing two classmates. We have so much life ahead of us. And, you know, college is supposed to be where we grow and like gain new experiences. It's not supposed to be where our lives end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And the vice chancellor, too, of the University of Mississippi, vice chancellor for student affairs also said this, the university is heartbroken by the recent loss of two students and extends our condolences to their families, friends, and loved ones during this difficult time.

Now, kratom poisoning calls, by the way, have spiked up 1,200 percent between 2015 and 2025. This is a psychoactive herb that is not federally regulated, and states where this is not banned, it's easy to find.

[07:25:06]

Gas stations, smoke shops, convenience stores, powders, capsules, teas, can be found in a lot of different ways. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Well now, a lot of new concern around it all.

Thank you so much, Isabel. I really appreciate it.

So, more and more Republican candidates are very publicly, very obviously distancing themselves and their campaigns from the president. One former top surrogate for President Trump even scrubbing references to Trump from his campaign website.

And a fight over Dolly Parton's estate bursting into public view, accusations of threats of violence over money and her legacy. The new details that we're picking up on this today.

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