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Report: Trump Ads Cost Taxpayers At Least $2.5 Million; Polymarket Announces New Safeguards As Calls Grow For Regulation; Sec. RFK Jr.: AI Is "Better Informed" Than Doctors. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 30, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: New CNN reporting this morning on President Trump's TV ads paid for by taxpayers. Critics say they look like campaign ads, and this one is repurposed from his 2024 run.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, POLITICAL AD: And we will liberate America from these villains once and for all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So far, these ads have cost at least $2.5 million in airtime. That's according to ad-tracking firm and that's just a fraction of the $20 million that sources say had been allocated, and it's coming from Customs and Border Protection. Democrats call it a "shockingly corrupt misuse of taxpayer dollars."

Joining me now is Tia Mitchell, the Washington bureau chief for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Kate Santaliz, a congressional reporter for Axios. Thank you both for being here.

I mean, when you see this and Axios reporting President Trump's personally selecting which government-funded ads his administration is airing ahead of the midterms -- he is fully in on this and that there are more to come -- what do you make of this and how do you think taxpayers are going to see this as they're concerned with their cost of living, and he is spending taxpayer dollars for these ads.

I'll start with you Kate.

KATE SANTALIZ, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, AXIOS (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah. I mean, we've seen some pushback from even Republicans here about this. You know, a few senators said that maybe they aren't so comfortable with this.

And I think this all comes as Trump is trying to push himself to be at the center of this election. He's telling voters to put himself on the ballot, and he's hoping that helps carry some of these Republican candidates who are increasingly looking at districts that are not looking great for them. But at the same time, a lot of candidates are saying maybe Trump shouldn't be at the center of this. I need to run my own race in the district that my -- in the way that my district wants me to run this race.

So I think we're going to continue to see some more pushback here about these ads. A lot of Republicans don't seem very comfortable with it. And a lot of Republicans do just want to be running their own races and not have this be so nationalized in the way that Trump is making this election and wants this election to be.

SIDNER: Tia, is this just sort of another breaking of a norm or is there something here that is veering into a legal issue?

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION (via Webex by Cisco): I think it might be a little bit of both. I think Donald Trump means it when he says he wants voters to think as if he's on the ballot in the midterms, and so he's running these campaign-style ads, you know, as if he were a candidate in the midterms.

But there are a lot of questions again, not just about the fact that it is taxpayer dollars, but which dollars. These are dollars that were allocated for border patrol and immigration enforcement that the president said he really needed. And there are members of Congress who are getting increasingly concerned about how Trump spends or does not spend money in the way Congress intended it to be spent.

Now, even if it is illegal, you know we've seen Donald Trump kind of play things out -- play the long game in court, so it's likely that by the time this thing, if it does get to the level of a court challenge, it may be well past the midterm elections and the ads are no longer on the airwaves.

SIDNER: That is a good point.

I want to talk to you about what a lot of folks are talking about across all social media accounts, and if we had water coolers, I think they'd be talking about it there too.

Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri -- how he went after former special prosecutor Jack Smith calling him a dirtbag after he thought he exposed him in a lie. Schmitt accused Smith of being in Atlanta for a Hawks basketball game as a ruse to secretly meet and collude with Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who was also bringing an election case against the president.

It all kind of blew up in the -- in the senator's face because as it turned out, Smith testified he was at a basketball game but not in Atlanta. He was in Maryland, and it wasn't the Hawks game, but the Hawkeyes game in Maryland because he wanted to see Caitlin Clark play back then.

I just want to get your thoughts on how Schmitt talks about this differently on two different networks. The first is with conservative media, the second with CNN. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW KOLVET, CO-HOST, THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOW: So you -- so you had text messages from his team confirming that he was going to a Hawks game, and he sat there acting dumbfounded and completely clueless.

SEN. ERIC SCHMITT (R-MO): It was the only-- it was the only NBA or NCAA men's game going on at that time in Atlanta. He claimed later that he was at another game.

I don't-- you know, here's the thing. My job is to ask the questions. He's already -- and if that's what his answer is, then that's what his answer is.

REPORTER: Will you admit that you just mixed up the basketball games?

SCHMITT: Who knew Jack Smith was a Caitlin Clark fan?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Does this sum up why the country is so polarized? He went on to joke about it, and it seemed that he realized his mistake, Tia.

MITCHELL: Yeah. I mean, I think it shows why people don't have a lot of trust in members of Congress, don't have a lot of trust at times in our political system because there was an opportunity for Senator Schmitt to say, I got it wrong. There was also an opportunity before he even arrived at the media -- meeting for Sen. Schmitt to do more due diligence because he drew a lot of conclusions based on one text message that said the word "Hawks."

[07:35:12]

You know, it wasn't just that he assumed that Jack Smith was in Atlanta, but he assumed without any evidence that he met with Fani Willis while he was purportedly in Atlanta.

There was just -- it just doesn't instill confidence in our elected -- in our government system, in our elected officials, and that's one of the reasons why people just are often voting for change. They're voting out the incumbents that they don't feel like they can trust.

SIDNER: Kate, how does this, though, make Republicans look as they try to investigate Jack Smith for his job as a special prosecutor?

SANTALIZ: Right. I mean, I think this is probably going to be one of the biggest takeaways from this hearing -- this embarrassing viral moment for Schmitt. And it also came on the same day that Axios had reported that VP Vance has been considering Schmitt as his running mate for a possible presidential run in 2028.

But I think, you know, Smith had testified before the House Judiciary Committee just a couple of weeks ago, so Republican senators here were really looking to see if there was anything new that they could unearth in this hearing, get any new viral clip, anything that could really stick on Smith. But this moment with Schmitt -- this, you know, mess up is going to be what this hearing is most remembered for. And you know, Republicans have been trying for years to get anything to stick to Smith and this definitely is not going to help their case.

SIDNER: It is the thing that a lot of people are going to remember. Tia Mitchell and Kate Santaliz, thank you both so much.

And if you have questions about the midterms, AI and more, you can join John Berman for "OFFICE HOURS" tonight at 7:00 on CNN All Access. You can submit questions at cnn.com/office hours -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, oil prices -- they are above $100 a barrel again. And there is also new CNN reporting that Iran is losing its grip on the key oil shipping channel at the center of the Iran war. Thanks to efforts by the U.S. Navy, more and more oil tankers are managing to move through the strait, fending off or evading Iranian attacks.

So what does all of this mean for fuel prices right now?

CNN's David Goldman has much more on this. What are you seeing with this?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, this is really stunning. I think that a lot of people feel like Iran has all of the leverage. It's actually losing a lot of it, and that is because we are starting to find this strait oil is coming out. And we've got 13.1 million barrels that escaped the strait every single day over the past week. That is 76 percent of what we had before the war, so that's a significant amount of oil.

But it's not the full --

BOLDUAN: Right.

GOLDMAN: -- story because 98 percent -- remember, there's a lot of oil that's escaping other places too being rerouted --

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

GOLDMAN: -- through pipelines. Ninety-eight percent of the crude is back to normal. We're effectively for oil back to normal from the Middle East, but only 58 percent of the actual refined products are making (INAUDIBLE).

BOLDUAN: It's a refining problem now.

GOLDMAN: Exactly.

We don't have an oil problem. We have a gas problem, and we have a diesel problem, and that's why you and I are still paying a lot at the pump and why we have all of those shipping --

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

GOLDMAN: -- surcharges. That is going to cost people a lot of money.

And the other thing that I really want to emphasize is it does not mean that we are safe, right? This isn't -- we're not done in the Middle East. There's a lot left that we need to resolve, including the fact that because of all of the, you know, the risk, we have enormous, enormous transportation costs.

For one oil tanker, which costs $135 million to build new, they are insuring them at $150 million -- old oil tankers. That adds a tremendous amount of cost --

BOLDUAN: Um.

GOLDMAN: -- to shipping, for oil, all of that, and that's because Iran continues to attack. When they're cornered, they're going to keep attacking these ships. Sixty-eight attacks on vessels that are trying to exit the Strait of Hormuz, and that is why we're seeing gas prices well above $4.00. That's why we're seeing diesel prices well above $6.00, and oil, despite all of this --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: -- back up today over $100.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, it's still like -- it's like the oil markets have found their way, somewhat, if you will, but that -- I mean, but gas and diesel prices, I mean, if they don't go down, there's no -- there's no solution. So --

GOLDMAN: That's what we pay for.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: We don't pay for this. We can't fill our cars with crude.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: If only.

BOLDUAN: If only.

It's good to see you. Thank you so much.

GOLDMAN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now, CNN senior military analyst, retired Admiral James Stavridis. Admiral, great to see you this morning.

[07:40:05]

How much pressure does this put on Iran if the United States and the world is now getting 90 percent of its oil through the strait?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST, FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, VICE CHAIRMAN, THE CARLYLE GROUP (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah, I've been through those straits close to 90 times, John, and it is a tricky navigational detail, even when you're not being shot at. So the final comment you just heard that Iran could lash out again and drive prices, quite accurate. But the good news this morning, 13 million out of 20 million pre-war barrels going out of the strait is really quite a success.

So to conclude here, John, it's kind of a tale of two blockades at this point, right? It's the Iranian attempted blockade of the strait itself. That one is leaking pretty badly, no pun intended. And on the other hand, the U.S. Navy's blockade of the Iranian coastline, its major ports -- that one's really tightening on Iran.

So to answer your question, Tehran is feeling the pressure on both sides of the equation.

BERMAN: Admiral, some news from the Pentagon today. The Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, is expected to announce he wants to slash by 20 percent the number of senior officers -- four-star. You know, the flag officers in the Navy. You, sir, were one of these at one point.

What would a 20 percent reduction at this senior level do?

STAVRIDIS: I think it would be very significant and frankly quite turbulent.

We do have more admirals and generals by percentage compared to the overall force than we did -- for example, John, in World War II -- but war itself has changed. It's brain-on-brain warfare. You need that senior leadership -- all those years of experience that they've accumulated. By the time you make admiral or general, you've got 26, 27, 28 years. It takes 28 years of service to get 28 years of experience.

So if the military were a law firm and it was announcing it was gonna fire 20 percent of its partners you'd think, hmm, something's not going very well in that law firm. And I would say the U.S. military has been overall doing a pretty good job and is pretty successful.

Final thought, I hope this is not going to be targeted against Blacks and women. Secretary Hegseth came in, fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs who was Black. He fired the chief naval operations woman, fired the head of the Coast Guard, a woman. I hope these cuts are not going directed against groups like that in the military.

For all those reasons, John, I sense this is going to be quite disruptive.

BERMAN: Look, we'll have to wait and see where exactly these numbers come from, because it is a very, very large number.

Admiral James Stavridis, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much -- Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you, John.

New this morning the prediction site Polymarket is rolling out new sportsbook-style consumer protections and anti-addiction safeguards after growing calls to rein in the booming industry platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi have become hugely popular in the past year, allowing users to wager on just about anything from sports to culture, award shows, album releases, the weather, and much more. In lawsuits across the country, states are accusing these sites of

being illegal gambling operations that prey on young people, which the company denies.

CNN's Marshall Cohen is with me now. So what are these protections? What is Polymarket actually doing here?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: You know, Sara, these poly market and prediction market companies have just exploded in the past year, but a lot of people think that the rules and the regulations have not kept up. That's why we're starting to see the companies take some steps themselves. And that's what Polymarket is doing today, announcing new safeguards that they say will protect consumers and combat addiction.

Things like deposit limits so you can slow down how much money you're putting on the platform and hopefully slow down how much money you're losing on the platform. Something else called self-exclusion, where if you think you have a problem, you can actually ask Polymarket to ban you from their site for a month or a year or even forever.

And they're also partnering with a leading healthcare provider that specializes in gambling addiction and compulsive behavior to make sure that people that need counseling and therapy can have an easier access to that.

I actually was able to talk earlier this week with Polymarket's new head of global safety, Malea Otranto, about these new tools. Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MALEA OTRANTO, GLOBAL HEAD OF TRUST & SAFETY, POLYMARKET: We're giving people more power and control of how they want to leverage the platform. I think right now the number one priority is just getting this out. Giving it into the hands of the millions of people that leverage and use us and trust us to protect them and keep them safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:45:10]

COHEN: You know, Sara, a lot of people don't realize that these companies, these sites aren't actually gambling. They are very similar to gambling, but they are regulated like financial markets by the federal government, and the Trump administration is not requiring them to do any of this. They're doing it on a voluntary basis.

And we've seen a lot of states say that it does not go far enough, including right here in New York. Just last week, the Attorney General Letitia James sued Polymarket. She's trying to shut down the company in this state. Polymarket filed their own countersuit and they, of course, deny wrongdoing, but now it's in the courts.

SIDNER: So the -- basically Polymarket and the prediction markets say, look, we are not a gambling site, but the states are arguing that they are?

COHEN: Correct, and they want to apply their state --

SIDNER: Rules.

COHEN: -- gaming laws --

SIDNER: Yeah.

COHEN: -- and they also want to collect state taxes.

SIDNER: Yeah. Great reporting, Marshall Cohen. Thank you so much. I do appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So will your next doctor's visit be powered by AI? Is it already? What HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is saying now about the future of medical care in his view?

And Six Flags is closing a famous roller coaster down after a CNN investigation that exposed years of injuries and deaths associated with it.

And for more of the stories you need to get your day going, my show streaming -- "FIVE THINGS WITH KATE BOLDUAN" is streaming on the CNN app and CNN All Access right now and every morning.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:51:00]

BOLDUAN: New this morning, artificial intelligence getting a big endorsement from another arm of the Trump administration right now from America's premier public health institutions. Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., speaking from the stage at the second annual Make America Healthy Again conference, told attendees that AI has the power to free the country from "medical tyranny."

On stage with the Vice President, Kennedy recounted a conversation he had with Open AI CEO Sam Altman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT KENNEDY JR., HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: He said, but today it would be malpractice for a doctor to make a diagnosis or to make a prescription without at least checking AI. And AI -- and one of the things that we're doing in our agency is we're making it easy for every American to use AI so that you'll have access by the end -- by the time we leave, every American will have access on their cell phones to their own medical records.

And you may have a medical record that's 1,000 pages long. You have six minutes with a doctor today. He's not going to be able to review it, but the AI can, and he can distill it -- it can distill it. It can give you a second opinion that is much better informed than any doctor in the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: "Much better informed than any doctor."

Joining us right now, CNN medical analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, with some perspective on this.

I mean, AI was such a topic and focus of this summit that when JD Vance first spoke, he apparently joked "I guess I'm at the wrong summit. I thought this was about weight loss and acid, not AI."

And then Kennedy also said -- I mean, just -- but that point that Kennedy made is that he said that a second opinion is going to be much better informed from AI than any doctor in the country.

I mean, what do you think of that?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST (via Webex by Cisco): Look, I'm not a doctor that is trying to push AI away. I'm actually trying to pull it closer. I use it basically, you know, every day as do about half of the doctors in the United States. And I do think pretty soon it'll be just built into your -- you know, your office visit with your physician.

I think it's going to democratize medicine for doctors. It's going to make more doctors more compliant with what we call guideline recommended practices. And I think it's going to empower patients -- patients to have more information coming into their visits with doctors, and it's also going to allow patients to sort of fact check their doctor a little bit, and patients can do that now.

And I think if your physician prescribes for you a new medication and you're on a list of others, ask any of the AI products right now that are easily available to patients -- ask them if the new medicine has any interactions with your existing medicine. AI can do that right now. Doctors use that and patients can use that as well.

So I don't think this is -- this is going to sort of get in the way of how we practice medicine. I think it's going to move patients and doctors closer together. And in fact, I think it's going to give doctors more time, you know, with patients because what AI is also going to do and is doing now is allowing doctors to do less chart work and spend more time with patients.

So I'm all for it and I can't wait to see where it takes us.

BOLDUAN: As a daughter of a doctor, that was always one thing that you knew -- charts and chart work is not the highlight of the day or not -- definitely took away from patient time.

What are the risks though when you hear -- when you hear, you know -- you have been highly critical of Robert Kennedy. There's no secret. You and I have talked about this many times in the past. But when he talks about how AI could free the country of medical tyranny or give -- or AI is going to give you better medical advice than a doctor is going to, what is the balance here? Because as you said, more and more doctors are embracing AI, but where's the balance, what's the line, and what do you think the -- I guess maybe the -- your -- do you have any fears of what patients would take from this?

[07:55:15]

REINER: I think AI is going to allow patients to fact-check what their government tells them.

So it's funny you should ask this because this morning, when I read his quote this morning, I actually asked Gemini what it thought about the HHS secretary's comment that he thinks no vaccine is safe and effective, and I'll read you what AI said this morning. He said, "The secretary's comment contradicts overwhelming scientific consensus, extensive clinical data and public health authorities worldwide."

So I think these kinds of tools are going to allow patients to basically get second opinions on what they're being told, you know, from public health officials, and I think that's -- and I think that's great. And I think it gives patients more ownership.

And what he said about having -- about having your medical record in your pocket. Every one of my patients has the medical rock -- their medical record in their pocket. Almost every electronic medical record offers patients the ability to access that, and I think that's great. What we need is that more of our -- we have more of silos now. What we need is more, you know, interconnectivity of your medical record with maybe a place you've never been that has a different EMR.

But I think integrating AI into healthcare in the United States is going to empower patients. I'm not -- I'm not afraid of that and I think it's going to give patients much more insight into what's going on.

BOLDUAN: Also, there's also this -- some of the chatter around this Make America Healthy Again summit.

There is a post by a MAHA ally that was interesting that's gotten picked up. Originally -- that the original -- stating basically that the MAHA base is accusing them of now selling out. Here it is. "The capture of MAHA. The corporations moved in. The outsiders were pushed aside because nothing screams medical freedom like United Health, Elevance Health, Walmart..." and so on and so forth.

And one anti-pesticide activist actually told the Washington Examiner this, doctor. The MAHA summit lineup does not reflect the issues that birthed the original MAHA movement and drove voters, especially women, to show up and vote for this coalition. I don't recognize this version of MAHA."

What do you think of that?

REINER: Well, that was my thought when I -- when I looked at the agenda for yesterday and I caught -- I caught a little bit online of the sessions.

So MAHA arose in the aftermath of RFK Jr.'s discontinuation of his presidential campaign after he threw his support behind President Trump. And his grassroots movement -- you know, sort of ragtag, loosely grouped together advocates for, you know, cleaner food and getting, you know, corporate influence out of healthcare, and anti-big ag, anti-big pharma, anti-corporations, right? That was sort of his movement.

But when you look at the MAHA summit yesterday, the -- I think the biggest supporter of the summit is a company called GRAIL that makes a $1,000 test that screens for cancer. There was OpenAI and Anthropic there. You said Walmart. Walmart is the -- not just the country's biggest grocer, it's the third-largest pharmacy in the United -- in the United States. So a lot of the things that MAHA has sort of railed against were not just like -- not just sort of highlighted there, but they were the supporters of the MAHA movement.

And some of the major elements of MAHA that I completely disagree with -- their anti-vax -- their anti-vax movement, their promotion of unproven, you know, peptides and supplements were absent from it. Very interesting to me that there was really very little open talk of the medical freedom movement and the anti-vax movement. And some of that might actually have to do with the current measles outbreak in the United States and they're trying to move away from -- move away from talk of measles vaccines.

BOLDUAN: Hmm.

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, it's good to see you. Thanks so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Six Flags says it is permanently closing one of its most famous roller coasters about a month after a CNN investigation exposed years of serious injuries and deaths linked to the ride. The X2 at Six Flag Magic Mountain in Los Angeles County has been closed since July after two women suffered brain injuries just days apart. Six Flags says the ride has consistently passed safety tests, but guest confidence has been affected.

New video from Vietnam of lightning striking a woman while riding a motorcycle. According to reports, the strike caused her to lose control of the motorcycle and crash onto the road.