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Super El Nino Could Disrupt Crops, Supply Chains Worldwide; NYT: Russia Planning Most Powerful Blow Yet To Try To Freeze Ukraine; Man Learns Biological Dad Is Yacht Rock Legend Michael McDonald. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 02, 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: We're just 32 days away from the midterm election but who's counting? Well, a lot of folks are. Apparently, President Trump is as well. He is hitting the trail for several GOP Senate hopefuls in some surprising states. Today he heads to Alabama after stops in Texas and Oklahoma yesterday. Those states are GOP strongholds to say the least and Trump says he's rallying there to thank them.

But new polling suggests there's a real threat to Republican candidates in some typically red states. Razor-thin margins and strong Democratic candidates mean Democrats have a real chance of taking of Congress.

Joining me now is Democratic congressman from Rhode Island, Gabe Amo. Good to see you. Thank you for being here.

Let's talk about this possibility because we're seeing these numbers come in. House Democrats are also unleashing big amounts of money in red states hoping not just for a majority, but a big majority.

So with polling showing that Democratic voters want change from the status quo and don't have a high opinion of leadership, do you think a change in Democratic leadership will be necessary?

REP. GABE AMO (D-RI) (via Webex by Cisco): Well, look, I think what we're seeing in the behavior and actions from the Trump administration and their allies is fear. We are seeing the consequences to their high costs, their chaos, and the real cruelty that we've seen from this administration.

And so Democrats are united in combating what we've seen from a broken Washington led by Republicans in both houses of Congress and the president. So that's what we're fixated on is how we provide the leadership for the country that people are so desperately craving.

SIDNER: If Democrats were to win, which you know many of the polls indicate they may, do you think that, for example, Hakeem Jeffries should be able to be the speaker, or do you think there needs to be new blood? AMO: I think Hakeem Jeffries most certainly should be the Speaker of the House because he has held together a coalition of Democrats with a wide range of geography but a singular focus on making the lives of the American people better by lowering costs, by stopping the corruption in Washington, and ending Trump's chaos. And that leadership is something that we need to see in the position of the speaker, and we will see that in Hakeem Jeffries.

SIDNER: I'm curious as to some of the things President Trump has been saying and your reaction to them, one of which he posted on Truth Social just overnight, saying -- blaming the Democrats, saying, "Prices are down from what Biden and the Dumocrats..." -- as he has called you guys before -- ...left us. It's why I won the election and now prices are coming down rapidly..." and it is your fault. "The Democrats' fault, not the fault of Republicans, but we're fixing it."

How do you respond to that? Do you think that plays?

AMO: As far -- yeah, as far as I know, Donald Trump is the one who made the decision to wage his illegal war of choice with Iran that is causing Americans to pay hundreds of millions of dollars -- of billions of dollars more in fuel prices, driving up the cost of groceries. That's a choice that Donald Trump made.

Donald Trump decided to put forward the big, ugly law that is causing havoc on our healthcare system -- the biggest cut to Medicaid in our nation's history at a trillion dollars. That's a Donald Trump choice.

So, you know, he can spin whatever narrative he wants, but polling suggests it and the experiences and the pain felt by my constituents and people across the country indicate that there is broad disapproval for the direction of our country under Donald Trump's leadership.

SIDNER: Look, Americans have been saying that they are really concerned about AI. And we've got this new reporting this morning from Semafor showing that the idea for the pact that Donald Trump made with the AI industry to police themselves actually came out of a conversation from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. That Zuckerberg circulated this draft of broad principles of self-regulation to other tech executives to get consensus before Tuesday's meeting with the president. And then the president released the document as what he called the White House Accord on Super Intelligence.

Industry is often involved in helping to create policy. Do you see this as any different?

AMO: No. I think this is different in the sense that we know that the risks and the threats are growing by the day. And the president has consistently said that we don't have a role in government -- that Congress does not have a role. Speaker Johnson has said that. I think that's wrong.

When we see a harm caused in large part by the rapid growth of innovation, something that is something that we have to manage, we know that it cannot come from the people driving that same -- that same innovation. It has to come from a broad consensus.

[07:35:00]

Industry can have a seat at the table, but it can't be the sole decider. We need Congress to act. We need regulations. We need -- I believe we need a regulatory regime that tests and evaluates models, and we should have a federal agency that is capable of executing this core mission. But it cannot come from industry alone.

And I think that is because Donald Trump continues to get rich off of his investments and is always focused on what makes the bottom line work for the Trump family and not what is harming the American people.

SIDNER: Congressman Gabe Amo, I do appreciate you taking the time this Friday. Thank you -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We're standing by for a critical new jobs report, the last one before the midterm elections. One thing we will be looking for is if wages are keeping up with inflation.

With us now, Stephen Moore, former economic adviser for President Trump. Stephen, it's been a long time. It's always great to see you.

Look, one of the things we're looking for in this jobs report is wage growth, right? Because for the last five months, inflation has outpaced wage growth. In other words, what people are making just isn't keeping up.

So what will it take for that to change?

STEPHEN MOORE, FORMER TRUMP ECONOMIC ADVISER, CO-FOUNDER, UNLEASH PROSPERITY: Well, you're right -- for the last four or five months that's been the case. For the first 14 months of Trump's presidency we saw huge real income gains, so we estimate right now through the month of August that the average family is up about $2,000 in after inflation income. But it's all about what have you done for me lately and people have seen declines in the last few months.

Look, I think the job market is very strong. We have a surplus of jobs in the country right now, not a surplus of workers. In fact, anyone with a qualified skill, those jobs are out there. And in fact, just talk to employers and they will tell you they're having a hard time finding the workers that they need. So I think that's one of the healthy parts of the economy right now is that employment is strong.

BERMAN: OK. You mentioned that there was -- wage worth was outpacing inflation during the beginning of the Trump administration. It was during the end of the Biden --

MOORE: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- administration as well. I mean, for a few years at the end of the Biden administration.

MOORE: That's a -- BERMAN: Let me just tell you what has changed since January. Let me tell you what's changed since January 20 of 2025 since President Trump was inaugurated. Inflation was at three percent, now at 3.4.

MOORE: Yeah.

BERMAN: The 10-year bond yields were 4.57, now at 5.29. Gas prices were at $3.12, now at $4.40. The 30-year mortgage was below seven, now it's 7.28, and some of the highest rates we've seen in years.

MOORE: Yeah.

BERMAN: How do you think people feel that change?

MOORE: Well, first of all, again, let's just make sure we get the facts straight, and the average unemployment -- the average inflation rate over Joe Biden's four years was five percent. The average inflation rate under Trump in his first -- second term is three percent.

Now today, you're right, it's running about 3.4 to 3.5. So much, much higher inflation under Biden. Let's not forget, John, we had nine percent inflation under Biden four years ago. (INAUDIBLE) 3.5 percent.

BERMAN: Stephen, can I stop you for one second? Can I stop you for one second? Has inflation gone up or down since President Trump took office?

MOORE: Well, it was about 3.2 percent when Biden left office. It's at 3.4 right now. But I'm saying over his whole four year office --

BERMAN: So it's gone up. So it's gone up.

MOORE: -- the worst inflation records -- yeah, yeah.

BERMAN: So it's gone up.

MOORE: Yeah. But John --

BERMAN: Inflation has gone up since President Trump took office.

MOORE: But John, Joe Biden -- that is true. But Joe Biden had the worst inflation record of any president since Jimmy Carter in the 1970s.

So -- and I -- look, I do think that this is a big issue. How do you bring that inflation level down? Everyone knows what's happening is this is being driven by the oil price. The first thing I always do when I get up in the morning is look at what's happened to the global oil price.

BERMAN: Yeah.

MOORE: And when that oil price comes down, and hopefully it will be soon, you'll see inflation down. But John, look, you're kind of ignoring the fact that the United

States economy right now is very, very strong. Look at all the indicators that have just come out in the last few weeks. I mean, they bumped up the GDP number. We've got record investment in the United States. Manufacturing is strong as it's been in my lifetime. Construction industry is doing very well. For blue-collar workers, this has been a real boom period.

BERMAN: Um-hum.

MOORE: So this -- you know, other than the fact that inflation is ticking up, almost all of the other indicators of the economy are strong. We have by far the strongest economy in the world today.

BERMAN: Yeah.

MOORE: There's no country that wouldn't trade places with the United States.

BERMAN: I do wonder if the other than that is like, other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, why did -- you know, how did (INAUDIBLE), right?

MOORE: OK, I get that.

BERMAN: Because people --

MOORE: Look, John, I --

BERMAN: Steve, let me ask the question here --

MOORE: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- because, you know, AP-NORC polls that just came out on the economy, you know, 26 percent say they --

MOORE: Right.

BERMAN: -- approve of Trump's handling of the economy, 73 percent disapprove. On his handling of cost of living, 17 percent approve, 82 percent disapprove.

So you said I was ignoring the big picture. Are the American people ignoring the big picture, Stephen?

[07:40:00]

MOORE: Well, I would say this, that, you know, I've been in this game for 40 years. I've never seen such negative coverage -- I mean, 90 percent of the coverage, and this was a media research center by the media has been negative. When in fact, as I said, we have the best economy in the world.

We have a strong stock market. We've got a good job market. Real wages have been rising. They'd been falling a bit in the last few months. But that's a pretty strong picture when you look at all the hundreds of billions of dollars of investment coming in the United States. So I remain very bullish about where the U.S. economy is right now.

The question is, will it be bullish enough over the next four weeks before the election to save Republicans? I can't answer that question.

BERMAN: Yeah, that's a political question. Look, and it's the same situation that faced Joe Biden --

MOORE: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- which is that people feel the way they feel, right? So, Steve, you know, you can point --

MOORE: Sure.

BERMAN: -- to indicators that the economy is strong, and it is strong by some indications, but people aren't feeling it.

Stephen, you do acknowledge that, yes?

MOORE: I get that. I get that. Yeah, you see that in the polls. And that's because people hate inflation. They hate gas prices, you know, at $4.25 a gallon. And that's why if

Republicans are going to win in November, that gas price has to come down. Because, you know, I've been an economist for 40 years. The one thing that we've always used as kind of the gauge of how the economy is doing is what are you paying to fill up your tank?

BERMAN: Yeah. I think it's $4.39 this morning -- the national average for AAA. I looked at it before I came on. Four-twenty-five is aspirational at this point.

Stephen Moore, it's great to see you as always. I appreciate it -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John.

Christa Pike's attorney, -- he's now calling for the governor of Tennessee to commute her death sentence after she survived two doses of lethal drugs during a botched execution. She reportedly remains in critical condition this morning. The governor has called off all executions for the rest of the year while there's a third-party review of what went wrong.

Pike's attorney says they warned authorities she had a vein condition that would be an issue. Prison officials say they followed the proper protocols administering the legal doses, and in the end, she ended up not dying after two tries. And as you know, she is now in critical condition, John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, the near record Super El Nino in the Pacific could soon hit Americans in the grocery aisle, driving up food costs, including for things like coffee, cocoa, and palm oil. And one new analysis estimates that extreme heat could contribute to more than 450,000 deaths worldwide by February.

I want to go right to CNN's Bill Weir. When you talk about 450,000 deaths, I don't want to bury that, but I think you're going to talk about food prices first and the impact that the Super El Nino could have on crops, Bill.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, John. But, yeah, that number, that is not a peer-reviewed study yet, but just looking at excess heat deaths and where we're headed with the Super El Nino, that's where that staggering number comes from. We'll show you the country breakdown in a second.

But these are the prices that a lot of people are noticing already. The Super El Nino touching off in the Pacific, already breaking records from the last Super El Nino in 2015 that was set in November. So it's happening much earlier, much faster. But those crops there -- coffee, palm oil, rice coming out of India -- these are major exporters of these and as a result will trickle out into the rest of the global economy.

What El Nino does is take bad supply chains and make them that much worse. The Strait of Hormuz situation, diesel prices for farmers, all of that compounding as to what we're happening right now. Soybeans in Indonesia, sugar crops down in Brazil -- all of this affected by this super-hot weather that comes with every El Nino.

And if you look at the numbers now, this is why it's happening. It is climate change already baked into the system. The higher temperatures, this drought in Central America, flooding in Southeast Asia, wildfires in Indonesia, India's rice harvest. They export so much, so if they start holding back, it affects prices for everybody right now.

And if you look at the numbers just in terms of what we expect, the El Nino is supposed to push temperatures about 2 1/2 -- or about two degrees Fahrenheit over that above average and then increase the number of excess heat days by 44 percent. So those really sweltering heat dome days, John, are expected to intensify going forward.

BERMAN: That -- it's a -- it's a big temperature increase and those are some big numbers in terms of the days.

And what countries are expected to be hardest hit, Bill?

WEIR: Well, it's Africa that really takes the brunt of this. If you look at the list of projected heat deaths, and this doesn't -- this doesn't include storms or, you know, the offshoots of this heating. But Nigeria, 31,000, Indonesia, you know, Sudan, DRC, Niger, Chad, all in Africa. South Asia, Vietnam, Philippines, India there. Brazil, for those coffee prices, as we talked about. When you put it in human lives, just from excess heat deaths, John, it's staggering to think about.

[07:45:00]

But so much of those numbers will be affected by policy, country by country and how they anticipate, how they adjust to what's baked in for the next hellish year.

BERMAN: That's a staggering number, and we're not talking a very long timeframe here.

Bill Weir, thank you very much for being with us.

All right, dozens and dozens of cars and huge trucks in a mammoth pileup. It left traffic crippled for just hours. Look at that.

And rapper and music executive Rick Ross arrested on Domestic violence charges. What the judge let him know in pretty blunt terms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE MINDY GLAZER, CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA: Oh, hi, Mr. Roberts. I have no idea who you are except as somebody here in the court who's going to be treated fairly just like everybody else here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL)

BERMAN: Overnight, Ukraine says Russia launched more than 100 attack drones across the country. One hit an apartment building in Kyiv killing one person.

[07:50:00]

This comes as The New York Times has new reporting about a Russian plan to freeze Ukrainians into submission this winter. The goal, they say, to plunge cities into cold and darkness, something he's tried to do in previous winters, though. But this time the Times obtained what Ukraine describes as an intercepted Russian plan to cause the energy system to collapse. And part of that plan involves forcing Ukraine's three operating nuclear power plants to shut down.

With us now is Meghan O'Sullivan, director of the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center and former deputy national security advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan under President George W Bush. Great to see you this morning.

So Ukraine says Russia has these big plans --

MEGHAN O'SULLIVAN, DIRECTOR, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL'S BELFER CENTER, FORMER DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER FOR IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN UNDER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Hello.

BERMAN: -- already starting to see it play out.

What can they do and what do they need in terms of support -- Ukraine -- to try to survive this?

O'SULLIVAN: Sure. Good morning, John.

This is not an unexpected play by the Russians. If we think back to last winter, this was also one of their objectives -- was to make the winter as difficult as possible for Ukraine. And again, we're -- we see that same playbook. But the dynamics have shifted in a way that Russia now has a major uptick in missiles and ballistic missiles that it is able to get into Ukraine, and not just in a certain geography of Ukraine, but really across Ukraine.

So you asked what do the Ukrainians need if they're going to survive this winter? And that, of course, is the big question. And the real answer to that question is they need more interceptors. And this is the weak link in the overall global supply chain here. There's something called PAC3s, which are the interceptors which are capable of intercepting the kinds of missiles that are being launched vis-a- vis Ukraine, and there's a real shortage of them. And we can see that is changing the balance of power and events in Ukraine and potentially setting up the Ukrainians for an extremely difficult, very cold winter.

BERMAN: In terms of what's happening between the United States and Iran right now, there does not seem to be progress in negotiation. The situation seems to be very much status quo with some oil getting out of the Strait of Hormuz. Perhaps not enough to drop the oil prices down to lower U.S. gas prices substantially.

But what would change what appears to be this stalemate?

O'SULLIVAN: Sure. So you're right that there's been a little bit of movement on the diplomatic front with Iran and the U.S. having proximity talks, talking through an intermediary on the margins of the U.N. meeting last week, but that has not appeared to lead to anything meaningful.

You mentioned that there's a little oil getting out of the Gulf. I would just say, actually, if you look at the numbers, the oil coming out of the Middle East is now pretty much up to --

BERMAN: Um-hum.

O'SULLIVAN: -- the levels it was before the war. The reason that it hasn't brought down the price below $100 is because there's a lot of other things going on.

The first thing that is to note is while oil is getting out of the strait, it is under almost daily attack or harassment by the Iranians. It also requires a very expensive U.S. operation to move oil through a particular passageway with military escort and then to be loaded onto other tankers on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz.

So there's a range of factors that are increasing uncertainty, increasing the insurance that anyone needs to pay to actually move oil out of the Gulf into the global economy, and that's keeping prices high. So I think that is going to be maintained until there is some kind of meaningful agreement between the U.S. and Iran. And as you said, I don't see that in the offing in the near future.

In terms of diesel, it's a whole nother product market, and that is a crisis which we're beginning to see crescendo, not just in other parts of the world, but also really hitting an uptick in the United States and in Europe. BERMAN: Yeah, no. The situation right now is hard to sustain for a long time, it seems, for certainly Iran, but maybe in some ways the United States as well. We will see how long it goes on for.

Meghan O'Sullivan, always great to talk to you. Thanks so much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John.

On our radar for you this morning video from South Carolina showing the aftermath of a huge tractor-trailer pileup on I-95. Look at those images. Around 50 cars and tractor-trailers crashed, shutting down the highway for hours. Several people were injured and one taken to the hospital. Authorities blamed the pileup on heavy fog there at the time.

Rapper Rick Ross is out of jail on bond this morning after being arrested on domestic violence charges. This happening in Miami. Ross, whose legal name is William Roberts, appeared virtually for his bond hearing where his attorney asked for his expedited release. Here is what the judge said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLAZER: Oh, hi, Mr. Roberts. I have no idea who you are except as somebody here in the court who's going to be treated fairly just like everybody else here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:55:00]

SIDNER: Ross pleaded not guilty and denied hurting his girlfriend.

Now to St. Louis. A man there has learned his biological father is yacht rock royalty. Michael Goessling always knew he was adopted and when he found a half-brother through a DNA website that led him to his father -- well, his father turned out to be none other than singer Michael McDonald.

Our affiliate KMOV has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE HARRIS, REPORTER, KMOV FIRST ALERT 4 (voiceover): Michael Goessling has quite a story to tell.

MICHAEL GOESSLING, MICHAEL MCDONALD'S BIOLOGICAL SON: I always knew I was adopted.

HARRIS (voiceover): He was conceived when his biological parents were both 14 years old. They were told they were too young to get married, so Michael was adopted as an infant by Paul and Kay Goessling.

GOESSLING: I had a wonderful childhood. I could not have handpicked two finer folks to raise me. HARRIS (voiceover): Still, he always wondered who his birth parents were until the half-brother he didn't know he had did a 23andMe DNA test. And on his 58th birthday, Michael met his birth mother and later talked to his birth father on the phone.

GOESSLING: I said, "So tell me about yourself. What do you do?" And so he said, "Well, I'm a musician." And he went on to tell me that in fact, looks like we'll be touring this summer, and we'll be stopping into -- will be stopping in St. Louis.

HARRIS (voiceover): So who is Michael's birth father? Well, it's someone you might have heard of, or better yet, it's someone you might have heard on the radio.

HARRIS: Yeah, he's kind of well-known.

GOESSLING: And then I finally said, "Are you Michael McDonald?" And he said, "Yeah, I'm afraid so."

HARRIS (voiceover): Yeah, Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers. The guy who wrote and performed songs like "What a Fool Believes" and "I Keep Forgetting." And the fact that they had the same name was a complete coincidence.

GOESSLING: I was unnamed, so it was my mom, Kay, who named me.

MICHAEL MCDONALD, GOESSLING'S BIOLOGICAL FATHER: Can you see me all right?

GOESSLING: I can.

HARRIS (voiceover): Michael Face Timed his father so I could ask him about his journey.

MCDONALD: I always carried that guilt with me and -- but just to know that he was OK and that he had a good life and a life certainly that I wouldn't probably have been able to afford him at that time in my life, you know, was, you know, a great reward.

GOESSLING: And I really appreciate you giving me a shot in this world and you've always been heroes in my story.

MCDONALD: You know, the real rock stars in this story for us are his adopted parents who, you know, really gave Michael everything a child needs, you know, in terms of love and security.

HARRIS (voiceover): And when they first met in person --

GOESSLING: And he just put his arms out and just gave me a big old bear hug and told me he loved me, and I told him the same.

MCDONALD: It was a wonderful, wonderful experience to see Michael and me to get to meet my son, you know, after all these years, you know, thinking about him.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SIDNER: It's such a beautiful story.

All right. Speaking of beautiful, we get to talk to our sports phenoms. The Atlanta Braves, moving on in the postseason thanks in part to an unlikely hero.

Andy Scholes joins us now with more. What are you learning here, Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Sara, you know baseball's postseason, it always brings us new heroes, right? And Braves pitcher Ray Kerr -- he's such a great story. So he bounced around foster homes growing up. He thought his baseball career was over after high school and was actually working at a 7-Eleven and a movie theater at some time.

But last night the 32-year-old made his first ever postseason start after battling back from Tommy John surgery -- and Kerr, who only pitched 18 innings all season was just lights out. He pitched three in the third, giving up just one hit. He left the game with the lead thanks to Michael Harris, the Braves' centerfielder. He had a rough game too and bounced back in a big way. Three-run home run in the first and Truist Park just going crazy.

And with the Braves up 6-2 in the 8th, Atlanta turning to game one starter Chris Sale to close things out. And the Braves ace, he told manager Walt Weiss to use him if he was needed. He struck out three of the four batters he faced, and Sale is the first pitcher to start game one of the series and then also close it out since Sale did it with the Red Sox in the 2018 World Series.

Now, the Braves -- they win. They now move on to face the Dodgers in the divisional round tomorrow.

In the WNBA, meanwhile, Caitlin Clark and the Fever are now out of the playoffs.

Now there were questions on whether Aces star A'ja Wilson was going to be suspended for this game after confronting a Fever fan in the stands in game two, but she was not. And that was great news for Vegas because A'ja scored 36 points.

The game was tight late and Chelsea Gray -- a clutch bucket right here. Vegas would end up winning 94 to 83. They're on the semifinals for an eighth-straight season. They await the winner between the Valkyries and the Wings.

All right. And week four of the NFL season kicking off last night in Cleveland as the Browns hosted the Steelers. And Aaron Rodgers and the coaching staff not getting along very well early on. Rogers very mad at how long it was taking to call in a play, and head coach Mike McCarthy then used profanity towards Rogers. McCarthy expressed some regret after the game for that moment.

Now Rogers did lead two fourth-quarter touchdown drives to tie this game up late, but Deshaun Watson, for a third week in a row, leading the Browns on a game-winning drive. They kick a 56-yarder with 10 seconds left to win it 27-24.