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CNN News Central

Rubio Downplays Removal of U.S. Bombers From U.K. Base; Trump Stumps in Red States as GOP Plays Midterm Defense; Trump Departs White House to Campaign in Nebraska Soon; Sources Say Alleged Flydubai Hijacker Likely Wanted to Target Israel's Ben Gurion Airport; Former Prince Andrew Takes Legal Action Over Epstein-Related Arrest. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 05, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

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J.D. VANCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- to do what the Iranian State has done for 49 years, which is engage in acts of terrorism against the United States and against a lot of other people as well. So we are being extremely cautious.

MARCO RUBIO, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: The only reason why you guys are focused on how many planes are in Fairfield is because of the threat that happened last week, But it is not unusual to see rotations happen and movement of assets to different parts of the world based on exercises, redeployments, people changing out and new people coming in, new planes coming in, old planes going out.

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ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: So it's interesting Vance sort of connecting this potentially, without specifically doing so, to the arrest last week, the incident last week and a suspected terror plot which U.S. and U.K. officials have alluded to being tied to Iran, whereas the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio really downplaying the significance and any connection to that incident, saying that there's regular rotations of U.S. assets, which is true.

But at the same time, the move back to the United States rather than redeploying these forces elsewhere is unusual and a question that remains unanswered.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah, the timing would be very coincidental to have that rotation, especially all of them coming out. Zach Cohen, thanks much.

So up next, do Democrats have a real chance of winning Texas? President Trump adding another campaign event in the Lone Star State. We'll discuss right after this.

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[13:35:26]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": President Trump is pulling out all the stops as he is trying to push his party over the midterm finish line. He's added yet another stop in Texas. Wednesday's rally in San Antonio will be his second campaign trip to the Lone Star State in a week. The president hoping to fire up the base in a red state October blitz.

He's barnstormed five states in the last week, all of which he carried by double digits in 2024. So let's talk about it now with former Fox News Host, Geraldo Rivera, who is now a correspondent at large for News Nation. Geraldo, it's great to see you.

GERALDO RIVERA, FORMER FOX NEWS HOST: You too, Brianna. I'm delighted. How are you doing?

KEILAR: I'm doing great. I wonder how you're looking at all of this. What do you think of his strategy? Is this a winning one or are you seeing this as more of a Hail Mary?

RIVERA: I see it as desperation, Brianna. It seems to me that, you know -- let me just say that among Latinos, for example, anyone who voted Republican and has historically, not anyone, but I would say two out of three have now decided to go the other way, back in many cases to the Democrats from Florida to Texas to Arizona, California.

I think that huge Latino belt in the southern part of the country is going to go overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly for the Democrat.

KEILAR: Yeah. I mean, new polling, to your point, from NBC and Telemundo finds 27 percent of Latino voters approve of Trump's job performance overall, 20 percent approve of his handling of cost of living issues.

So I hear how you're thinking about that. But do you think that is going to be enough to say really make the difference when it comes to, say, Texas?

RIVERA: I think cost of living is very important to voters. So is the war in Iran that the president started with no clear idea how to end. But I think, really, if you were to ask me my heart of hearts, Brianna, I think it is the absolute cruelty, the abject cruelty with which the Trump administration has administered its immigration policy.

You know, it is appalling to me how Latinos have become this targeted group where racial profiling is happening, where ICE is allowed to wear masks. The only law enforcement agency in the country, as far as I know, that is masked. And they are preying largely on Latinos. And you can see how that toxic brew has had a profound impact.

People are sad. People are frightened. You know, they said they were going to go after the worst of the worst. Instead, they're going after Juan and Maria, the babysitter and the apple picker. It's something that's deeply unsettling. And I think that if the Republicans are ever to regain the trust of the Latino voter, now the border is secure in the South.

OK, there were terrible problems with the border. We get that. But now that it's sealed, basically, why not have compassion for people who have been here for years and years and have committed no crimes? You know, it's something that is very, very personal, Brianna, to many Latinos like me.

KEILAR: Yeah. You're joining us from Cleveland. The president was in your home state of Ohio this weekend. He was campaigning for Republican Senator Jon Husted, who was appointed to fill J.D. Vance's seat when he became vice president.

How are you seeing data centers playing in that race? And are you seeing Trump helping with that issue?

RIVERA: I don't think the president's helping at all in the issue. He seems to be doubling down on it. He wants to have the whole state wired. And this one issue, in the case of our Senate race here, Sherrod Brown has been catapulted to the front of this race largely because of the concern over data centers and how controversial they are.

And, you know, these electronic Frankensteins, I call them, you know, to come and gobble the fresh water and the clean air from Ohioans. You know, and the president saying, you know, the 26-odd that we have now, he's implying that he would like to see many more. And that freaks out a lot of people.

I mean, certainly, the people who are in the areas or in the neighborhoods where these monstrous facilities are being built, Brianna.

[13:40:00]

KEILAR: And Kansas is now on CNN's list of Senate seats most likely to flip in 2026. The Republican incumbent there, Roger Marshall, is facing off against Adam Hamilton. He's a Republican-turned-Democrat megachurch pastor.

Trump won Kansas, Geraldo, by 16 points in 2024. It was a landslide. There hasn't been a Kansas Senate Democrat in 94 years. How are you seeing the issues of tariffs and diesel prices playing into that race? And do you think it could make a difference?

RIVERA: Crazy. Absolutely. It costs a thousand bucks to fill up with diesel, at least here in Ohio. I'm sure Kansas can't be far behind. There are truckers we hear about who are leaving their rigs by the side of the road rather than -- and just waiting for a tick down in the diesel price because of the shortage of diesel.

And I would recommend to the president that he follow through on that promise or that suggestion that he would embargo the exporting of diesel, at least for a while, because it is terrible what's happening. And I just think that -- I'm not sure how -- the president is the charismatic, wonderful, larger-than-life figure that has dominated in the Midwest since 2016. But the president can't be everywhere. And the fact that the president is not in battleground states but is rather in red states like Kansas, you know, tells us that there is within the inner sanctum of the Republican Party a kind of desperation brewing.

Tomorrow is the last day to register to vote and the first day for voting. But I just think that this could be that kind of blue wave that gives the Republicans shudders, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yeah. We're going to see, a long way off still. I know it's not quite a month, but it still is a long way off politically. So we'll see how this shapes up.

Geraldo, always great to see you. Thanks for being with us.

RIVERA: You too. You too. Delighted. Thank you.

KEILAR: Next, brand new reporting on the Flydubai attack. Sources telling CNN the alleged co-pilot-turned-hijacker was likely planning to crash the plane into a well-known target.

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SANCHEZ: New details are emerging about that attempted hijacking of a Flydubai flight last week. Israeli sources tell CNN the accused co- pilot, Hamam al-Hamami likely wanted to target Israel's Ben Gurion Airport. They also believe he probably acted alone. Now, the UAE's attorney general calls the attack an attempted terrorist act.

Let's go live to Tel Aviv, Israel with CNN's Jeremy Diamond. So, Jeremy, what are investigators saying at this point?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, this is obviously still a developing investigation, and we are seeing that the twists and turns happen in real time. But the latest information that we have, according to an Israeli official and an Israeli source familiar with the matter, is that it appears that this suspect, the co-pilot, the Omani co-pilot on this flight, likely wanted to target Israel's Ben Gurion Airport.

And so while initially, clearly, the plane was starting to go down, there were questions about whether or not he wanted to simply crash the plane where he was at the moment, which was over the Arabian Desert, now investigators are now indicating that it was likely he wanted to take that plane further and cause more casualties beyond simply the 170-plus passengers who were on that flight.

Now, we know that Israeli officials are receiving regular updates from Emirati investigators. He is, of course, still in Emirati custody. But there is a close security partnership between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. And so Israel does have some window into how this investigation is proceeding.

We also know that the Australian federal police and New Zealand police have also been looking into this suspect in this case because, apparently, he had spent some time in both Australia and New Zealand.

Here in Israel, the questions are really turning not just to, you know, the suspect and how he got on this plane, but also to the security failures that led to this situation. Last week, we had a lot of focus on the heroic passengers on this plane who prevented an absolute catastrophe from taking place, a catastrophe that we're still starting to grasp the potential scale of.

But now, the questions are really turning to the failures internally in Israel as well, including at the Ministry of Transportation, which would have been responsible for vetting the pilots on these planes from foreign aircraft flying into Israel.

Apparently, the Israel Tax Authority would have received the names of these pilots, but the Ministry of Transportation said its procedures did not include checking the names of flight crew members, which is obviously a glaring oversight here.

So a lot of questions being asked here in Israel about this Israeli government, the Ministry of Transportation, and these clear warning signs across the board that were missed or simply procedures that were not abided by. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much for that update from Tel Aviv. Brianna?

KEILAR: The wars in Iran and Ukraine have caused a major missile shortage for the U.S. military, and now a small town in Arkansas finds itself on the frontline of rebuilding the nation's depleted missile arsenal. This is a monumental task that has turned Camden, Arkansas, into a test of whether America's defense buildup can move as quickly as Washington wants and needs.

[13:50:00]

CNN Senior Enterprise Reporter, Isabelle Khurshudyan joins us now on this story, which you did. It's a great story. Talk to us about this small town, Camden, Arkansas, and how it's really caught in the middle of this defense production acceleration.

ISABELLE KHURSHUDYAN, CNN SENIOR ENTERPRISE REPORTER: Yeah, this is a town of just 10,000 people. And we know there's a lot of pressure right now on defense contractors to build more faster. That's putting pressure on this small town.

Now, the people I spoke to when I visited there, they love their town. They would love for this defense industrial boom to be a boom for the town as well. They see this as their opportunity to kind of change the town's fortunes. But right now, they're dealing with the same issues as a lot of places in rural America, the hospitals navigating bankruptcy, people told me the school districts are not the best and there's a lack of affordable housing.

In fact, there's just simply not enough housing infrastructure there to accommodate the roughly 4,000 workers who work at these defense companies. So people who work there, most of them, they're commuting from up to an hour away in most cases. They don't actually live in the town. They don't see the town as a viable option to live in.

So that's why, you know, the people I spoke to, they really want some investment in the town from the defense firms. And they hope that, hey, invest in us right now, make this a better place to live. And that will help you, the defense companies, hire more people. And that's something they have to do. They have to increase that workforce by 50 percent.

KEILAR: These are huge companies, right? I mean, we see pictures of them here. Lockheed Martin is one of them. Who else is there?

KHURSHUDYAN: Raytheon, General Dynamics, L3Harris, which makes small rocket motors that go into these missiles. And we spoke to about more than 12 engineers there, I would say. And, you know, they're saying it's intense times inside these factories right now, that they're working up to 70 hours a week, more than 70 hours a week in some cases.

Some of those engineers are salaried, so they're not even getting paid overtime. Now, they understand, you know, the production quotas are going up. There's urgency and demand from the Pentagon. And they feel that inside there. They hope the workforce gets bigger to take some of that strain off. And the companies told us, hey, we are hiring more people. We're also going to add automation to parts of that production line to help the process go faster.

The goal is, across the board, increase that production by three to four times. And a missile that right now takes years to make, they want to get that production time down to a couple of months.

KEILAR: You can't work from home necessarily with this kind of job, right?

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: I imagine the commute makes it tougher.

KHURSHUDYAN: Yeah. I mean, ultimately, this is what the town is saying. Hey, make us a cooler place to live, that people don't view this as a stepping stone of just two or three years. They view this as a place we're going to stay for a long time, because retention is an issue at these places too. That a lot of -- you have several companies clustered together.

They're poaching from one another. And people also just see it as a two to three year stop in their career.

KEILAR: Yeah, they're sort of, they are stealing from each other. You talk about it in your story. Izzy, thank you so much for the great reporting. Really appreciate it.

And coming up, you are hired. Former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has a new gig. We'll tell you what it is.

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[13:58:00]

SANCHEZ: King Charles' younger brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, is taking legal action against U.K. police over his arrest earlier this year. The Telegraph first reported this legal challenge by the former prince. Remember, he was detained in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office following revelations from the Epstein files. Mountbatten-Windsor has vehemently denied any wrongdoing in his dealings with Epstein.

CNN's Max Foster joins us now with the latest. So, Max, what exactly is Mountbatten-Windsor challenging?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you remember back in February when he was arrested in a very high-profile way, it became global headlines, and he was questioned and then released, and we saw that extraordinary image of him leaving the police station, which went viral, of course.

Now, whilst he was in the police station, his home on the King's Norfolk estate, where he had a temporary address, was being searched, so was his other home that he'd moved from on the Windsor estate near Windsor Castle, and this is where he is challenging. So not so much the arrest, but the search warrants that were issued at those addresses.

Thames Valley Police, which conducted these searches, they had gone to a court for the warrants, by the way, but they conducted the searches, so they are engaged in legal proceedings, and we've now learned there is a court hearing set for Thursday at the Royal Courts of Justice to discuss this.

A note from the court has told us that the case concerns an application by Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor for judicial review to quash search warrants issued back in February. So, quite why he's doing this or what that means is unclear at the moment, but presumably it could mean that any evidence they gathered during those search warrants, they wouldn't be able to use against him. That's some of the legal commentary that we've heard today.

I have to say, it's clearly caught the rest of the family off guard because we've had a royal source speaking to us today saying Mountbatten-Windsor's legal defense is a matter for him and his lawyers. They're trying to distance themselves. We have no role in determining the strategy or actions. They don't want to interfere in the case.

And in terms of funding, they are saying --