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Vance Campaigns in Texas to Boost Support for GOP; Interview with Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE): American Farmers Feeling the Strain from High Fuel, Fertilizer Costs; Hispanic Voters' Support for Trump Dropping Ahead of Midterms; Hegseth Announcing 20 Percent Cut to Senior Officer Ranks; DA Says Cornell Police Did Not Give Him Jane Doe's 2024 Transcript; New AI Tool Aims to Boost Latino Voter Engagement. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired September 30, 2026 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Today, Vice President J.D. Vance is hitting the campaign trail in Texas, making multiple stops as the administration attempts to boost support for Republicans ahead of the midterms. Earlier, Vance was at a groundbreaking ceremony at Port Alpha Shipyard in Brownsville, where he delivered this message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are rebuilding the American dream by the ground up by employing and investing in American workers and American businesses. So what this facility will mean is that 10,000 families have a good paycheck. 10,000 sons and daughters will see mom and dad go to work with purpose.

10,000 people will know that their country is being built not by people outside of the United States, but by their own fellow citizens and their own people in their own community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN has learned that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is expected to attend an event with President Trump tomorrow in Denton, Texas. That comes after The New York Times reported that the Texas GOP Senate candidate said Republicans' midterm convention, quote, dropped our numbers, according to leaked audio of a fundraiser. Paxton's campaign responded to The Times reporting, calling it, quote, more manipulated nonsense.

We're joined now by Republican Congressman Don Bacon of Nebraska. Congressman, thanks for being with us. I wonder what the takeaway is to you in this midterm election when you see Ken Paxton, he's getting this or needing this assist from the president and the vice president, but also that the president's assist at the midterm convention in Texas might have hurt him.

REP. DON BACON (R-NE): I've heard that from other political experts I've worked with over the last 10 years that our numbers went down quite a bit after the convention. So why that is, more analysis has to be done, but I've heard that from other people as well. And Texas shouldn't even be a tight fight.

I think if Senator Cornyn would have been there, this would have been an easy win for Republicans. But when you nominate somebody with some baggage, that's what we have here, there's a lot of Republicans who are wrestling. Do I vote for my guy, or do I just not vote at all?

And he's going to have to make the case, or Attorney General Paxton is, that he deserves their vote. But there's a lot of Republicans that are debating what they want to do there.

[08:05:11]

This is going to be a tough midterm. It always is for the party that has the president in the White House. And the president's numbers are low. That's what the Republicans have to overcome.

While we have a financial advantage on the Republican side, so that's a positive. So they'll be able to put out a lot of TV ads and inundate the airwaves.

But when it's all said and done, it's candidate quality. And candidates have got to be able to say this is what they've done, this is what they've done in Congress, this is how they stood with the president or against the president. And ultimately, that's what's going to drive the election results when it's all said and done.

KEILAR: There are ICE operations that are impacting farming and beef industry employees in places like Kansas here in recent days. Nationally, farmers are also dealing with higher diesel and fertilizer prices because of the war, tariff-driven sales problems with products like soybeans. I probably don't need to walk you through this.

Obviously, you're from Nebraska. You've heard all of this. You're hearing this from farmers and ranchers in your state.

Is that a messaging problem that the president or the Republicans can fix in the next month?

BACON: It's a little bit of both. I do think that the Iran war was merited or it needed to be done at some point. I mean, they've killed 1,000 Americans.

Iran with a nuclear weapon would have been an existential threat. I think the president had to make that case better and more, and he needed to work with Democrats more to make this case instead of making it more partisan. But I would say some of this is also policy and not just messaging.

I suggested to the president a year ago when I was in the Oval Office that tariffs are not popular in the Midwest. It raises the cost of fertilizers and all the input costs. Cars cost more now.

Combines cost more now. And it's not a popular policy. It's not been a Republican policy, by the way since World War II.

President Trump embraced it in the 80s, but he was a Democrat and brought that over. I think the Republicans could have done better to push back on tariffs. I know I have, and I did.

I mean, I voted against them. I forced a vote on the floor. But I think that this could have been one way to show separation with the president here.

And I wish I could have talked the president out of a global tariff. It's been a Democrat policy for decades, not a Republican policy. And our party has been the party of Milton Friedman, free markets, free trade, and it works.

But I think it's a little bit of policy, and I think not working hard enough to make our case in Iran.

KEILAR: You do speak up when you disagree with President Trump and your party. A few days ago, you actually wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post about your personal attempts to help a migrant woman from Mexico from getting deported, going all the way up to an appeal to the Secretary of Homeland Security. She ultimately self-deported, as you write about, before she could be forcefully deported.

Do you think the administration is listening to these anecdotes and warnings from Republicans like you? Why do you think you weren't able to prevail?

BACON: Well, there's more Republicans speaking up. I saw today that the Republican senator from West Virginia is also speaking up. We took a strength.

The Republicans own the immigration debate. The last election, 2-1, voters said they wanted Republicans to fix the border, get rid of violent people and criminals, and the president did that. But then we went from one extreme to the other extreme, where we're actually deporting people who are here legally and were working, were being a plus, or an asset to our communities.

And I can give you many different examples. In this young woman's case, her mom brought her here at 16. They came to the border, reported into the border.

They were allowed in, so they came in legally, by the way. She taught herself English. She was an honor graduate at high school and college.

She got herself a pilot's license, wanted to work for the airlines. This lady pulled herself up by her own bootstraps. She was abandoned, and we deported her.

And I can't see a single positive for deporting someone like that. And there's a lot of other examples like this. So I think the Republicans or President Trump took a strength and turned it into a weakness within two years.

Most voters want something that's common sense, secure borders. We don't want violent people. We also want some common sense on who we're deporting.

People have been here 10, 20 years, have families, own homes. They're working. They're adding to their community.

What good is it to deport those folks? And there was no goodness deporting Mariana, who I was talking about there. We've taken people who have been here legally under TPS.

They're here legally. They're working. They have families.

We're deporting them. And I don't see a benefit to America or to these people. And I think most Americans want a more humanitarian, a Christian, or a decent policy here.

[14:40:00]

But they also rejected President Biden's open borders. They want something that's common sense and more in the middle. And we're going from one extreme to the other extreme.

And I think it's going to hurt us in November, unfortunately.

KEILAR: I want to ask you about Secretary Hegseth's speech next hour. You are a retired Air Force Brigadier General. Hegseth is expected to announce plans to cut the number of positions reserved for generals and admirals by 20 percent.

In the firings that we've seen, in the holds on promotion that we've seen, they have significantly impacted women and officers of color. Do you think that these cuts are needed? Do you have concerns about them?

BACON: We have two questions there. First of all, I have grave concerns about the firing or withholding promotions to 80 generals and admirals. And I think it's indefensible.

He may have a legal right to do it as the Secretary of Defense, but it doesn't make it morally right. It doesn't make it wise. And I think it's hurt the military, and I've been hanging around a lot of the active duty military over the last two or three weeks.

And I hear the concerns and complaints from the ranks there. Now, about reducing the number of generals, it depends where he reduces them from. We have a lot of commands out overseas, whether it's Korea, Europe, the Middle East.

It's important to have the right general with the right rank representing our country in those situations. So I wouldn't recommend just taking a cleaver and knock off 20 percent of the generals and admirals. But I do think we're overstaffed at the Pentagon.

I was a one-star general, and I commanded 8,000 people in Omaha, Nebraska, and I was the only general, but over 8,000. And then I go to the Pentagon, and I'm put in charge of 55 folks in the Pentagon, and there were four other flag officer or general rank people working for me. So you're talking like five general officers within a group of 55.

So I do see that we're -- I think we have too much rank and too much bureaucracy at the Pentagon itself. So if I was to look at reductions, I would look at the headquarters and other headquarters functions that we have in the United States.

But we should be careful where we reduce. I do think it's interesting. The secretary always talks about the number of four stars today compared to what we had in World War II, but he never mentions the number of five stars we had in World War II, and we have none today.

So there were some differences back then, and we had a handful of five stars, which we have none today.

KEILAR: Yes. Times have changed since then. Congressman Don Bacon, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

BACON: Thank you.

KEILAR: We'll be right back.

[14:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: There are new developments in the investigation into an alleged gang rape at Cornell University, and that is prompting questions on why criminal charges were not filed in 2024 when the alleged incident happened. A former Cornell student going by Jane Doe alleges in her lawsuit that she was drugged and gang raped. The Tompkins County District Attorney said his office did not receive a transcript of Jane Doe's interview with Cornell campus police and that his office is still waiting for it.

Cornell officials say the university, quote, shared all investigatory information with the DA's office.

KEILAR: CNN affiliate WCBS obtained that transcript, and it reportedly says that Jane Doe told Cornell police, quote, "I can say with 100 percent confidence I was raped." Documents that the DA did receive from campus police said that Doe said she was heavily intoxicated. We're joined now by CNN's Brynn Gingras.

So, Brynn, what more are you learning about the case?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, guys, it's important to create these two distinctions between this transcript that WCBS had, our affiliate, and also this six-page written statement that Jane Doe made to police weeks after this assault happened in 2024 that the district attorney did receive and still decided to not press any charges at the time. But again, as you know, he has since opened this investigation. Now, in that six-page written transcript, basically written statement, rather, that Jane Doe provided to police, it's pretty detailed.

And essentially it starts out by saying that she did, you know, she was extremely intoxicated that night that she went to this Chi Phi fraternity house, that she was pretty OK, quote, unquote, with some of the sexual encounters that she was having inside that fraternity house. But as the night continued to go on, as she became more intoxicated, that's when she felt like she was not consenting to things, that she was assaulted, that she actually might have been raped. These are all things that are in this six-page written report.

As you guys just noted, CBS says in a transcript separate from this written statement, we're not sure what that transcript is from, but she says, quote, "I can say with 100 percent confidence I was raped." Now, it's important to make these two distinctions because it raises these questions of who had what, what investigation happened between the DA's office and the campus police and the police department, who didn't receive certain paperwork. I mean, there are so many questions raised getting to the point of how were criminal charges not filed in this case.

So I do want to read what Cornell says in response to all of this. They essentially are saying that they did share all this information with the DA's office at the time, and the DA is saying that they didn't get that transcript where, again, she says, I can say with 100 percent confidence I was raped, according to CBS, but that they are now going to look further into that. So, again, two separate documents, but they both reveal some pretty alarming and damning and really just quite chilling information that really only raises just more questions and more distrust in how this whole system, how all these allegations were handled, not only in 2024, but quite frankly now.

[14:50:00]

SANCHEZ: Brynn Gingras, thank you so much for the update on that important story.

Still to come, a major voting block getting some high-tech help ahead of the midterms, how one company is using artificial intelligence to boost Latino voter turnout.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: As campaigns look for new ways to connect with voters ahead of the midterms, one Latino civic engagement group is looking to AI.

[14:55:00]

Mi Familia en Accion is launching Nubi, a bilingual AI-powered tool designed to help people find trusted information about voting, citizenship, civic participation, and their rights. The organization says its goal is to also fight misinformation and help Latino voters make informed decisions. With us now to discuss is Hector Sanchez Barba, president and CEO of Mi Familia Vota. Hector, thank you so much for being with us.

First, I'm curious about turnout because during midterm elections, it's widely known that Hispanics, for whatever reason, are less likely to turn out than presidential elections. Pew Research actually found that the demographic was twice as likely as white adults to not have voted in any of the last three elections. 41 percent, 41 percent of eligible Hispanic voters stayed home.

Why is that? HECTOR SANCHEZ BARBA, PRESIDENT AND CEO, ME FAMILIA VOTA: It's a very important point and it's a historical fact. I travel all over the nation in other states doing the work on civic participation, and I have seen probably one of the highest spaces of interest in our community to participate in these midterm elections. But at the same time, I am also witnessing a lot of confusion out there from everything that is coming from the White House, the constant changes to make it harder for our community to participate in the democratic process, and this is exactly what we are trying to address.

We are an organization that is on the ground organizing people, but for five years, we have been investing in technology, and we want to bring the best and the most advanced technology to address the concerns and the issues on misinformation, disinformation, and our people shouldn't be lawyers to be able to vote. So in this tool, Powered by AI, with frameworks to protect it, it's going to be able to answer all the questions that our community has on where to vote, how to vote, what to do, voter registration, early vote, vote by mail, et cetera, in one space by zip code. So we're very excited about using technology and complementing it with our organizing on the ground.

SANCHEZ: So help us understand how this works. Is it a chat bot, essentially, that if you have a question about, say, where to register or whether you can vote by mail, it helps you answer the question?

BARBA: It's one of the most sophisticated tools that we have right now in the nation. We have been investing in technology for five years. It's not a chat box.

We are evolving and using very well a structure by humans. There is a structure of protection to make sure that there are guardrails protecting this information and the data that we're getting from or not getting from our community. But basically, it's going to be able to answer all the questions that you have related to voting, early vote, vote by mail, engaging in the democratic process in your state.

So this is very exciting. It is very exciting. And it's a way to scale up.

We have the largest field infrastructure in the Latino community, but sometimes we cannot reach rural communities, or we cannot go to some spaces because of limited capacity. So we're very excited to bring the best technology to empower our community and more importantly to protect and make democracy more accessible.

SANCHEZ: I'm curious about that because you mentioned the administration's efforts to reshape the midterm elections. We've seen a number of Supreme Court decisions impacting mail-in voting, which they ruled against the administration on. But then also, the question of how certain agencies are going to potentially influence who is at voting sites through either observers or even the question of whether we were going to see ICE agents at polling sites.

What are you hearing from members of the community about the message that the administration is sending regarding access to the ballot box? BARBA: Donald Trump and this administration wants to make it harder for Latinos to participate in the process. And it's very clear at this point for two years he has been trying everything to make it harder. We are trying to do the opposite.

We're trying to provide the best information available for people to have answers to these questions. It's understandable that they're concerned. And another element that is unacceptable is voter intimidation.

The president said, this White House, said that they're going to be using ICE at the polls clearly with the intention to intimidate Latino voters. He has one of the lowest historical rates in terms of approvals in the nation, especially from our community. And we need to embrace democracy.

We claim to be the best democracy in the planet, so we need to make sure that people have easy access to participating and to engaging in the process, not the opposite.

SANCHEZ: The administration, to be clear, has not ruled out the potential for ICE agents to be at voting sites. I do wonder what your response is to the argument that these efforts are being made to ensure that there's no fraud in elections. They say that they want to make sure that it's citizens voting in federal elections and making sure that there's no sort of subterfuge.

I should also note, side by side with that, are largely false allegations from the president about widespread electoral fraud. But what do you say to them in the argument that they're trying to make sure that who is voting should be voting?

BARBA: There is enough research ...

END