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15 Democratic Mayor in Red States Create New Political Coalition; Polls Show Health Care and Gas Costs Tied as Voters' Top Money Worries; Trump Says He'll Pay for Campaign-Style Ads Instead of Taxpayers; Israel's Main Airport was Alleged Flydubai Hijacker Likely Target; Audio Reveals Call Between Jane Doe and Fraternity Brother. Aired 8:00-8:30a ET

Aired October 06, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

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MAYOR JUSTIN BIBB, (D) CLEVELAND: -- to get the job done and solving the biggest problems facing the American people.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The fact of the matter is, as I've always said, America's mayors are the ones who have to get the job done. You hear directly from your constituents. You have to figure it out.

That is, you know, you hear about, forget the polls on affordability, you hear it every day. And what you're doing, what the push is at its core, is pushing back against political extremes in both parties. And we've seen this, we've seen the trend of where politics has gone and division has grown.

You see this growing influence of Democratic Socialism within the Democratic Party. Talks of that it's the democratic response to, you know, the GOP MAGA. Do you view that democratic extreme, Democratic Socialism, as dangerous and damaging as you think a political right extreme is?

BIBB: I'll say this. I'll leave whether or not folks are concerned about DSA or extreme MAGA Republican leadership across this country to pundits like you. But let me tell you what I'm hearing from folks on the ground in my city of Cleveland, Ohio.

They want our elected officials to be focused on investing in public safety to keep our streets safe. They want us to cut red tape and streamline permitting to build more affordable housing across the country. They want us to step up to make sure we have an economy that works for the middle class and the working poor in our respective cities.

And when you look at the work of the Democratic mayors in red and purple states in our coalition, we're doing that work. And for far too long, the national media has only focused on New York, L.A. or Chicago. But there are more than three cities in America.

And our goal is to change that narrative, reverse that credibility gap, and show the American people that Democratic mayors in red and purple states represent the future of the Democratic Party and the future of American leadership.

BOLDUAN: Let's see where this effort goes. Mayor Justin Bibb of Cleveland, Ohio, thanks for your time.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Did the president just joke about nuclear attacks on Los Angeles and San Diego? Is that the closing argument Republicans are looking for?

The investigation into the would-be hijacking of a flight in the Middle East with more than 160 people on board, new reporting on what the pilot/hijacker was targeting.

And a deadly chain reaction bus crash with children on board.

I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking this morning, a new poll just out showing what voters are really concerned about. As President Trump campaigns almost entirely in red states, worried that Republicans are losing ground. He's in Nebraska last night, back in Texas tomorrow, Alabama again Saturday.

He's also been to Ohio and Oklahoma in recent days, all states he won by double digits in 2024. There is one traditional battleground state that he says he'll visit soon, and that's Michigan, where former President Barack Obama will also be campaigning this month. In Nebraska, suddenly trying to ease the pressure of prices, the president signed an executive order aimed at lowering diesel costs, which have soared 68 percent since the war with Iran.

And he made some big promises about what that will do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The typical trucker will save over $100 every time they fill up, so it's more than $100 each time. And farmers will also save millions and millions of dollars. And this order will also drive down the cost of all goods, including grocery prices, very substantially.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And this should be no surprise to you because soaring prices are the top issue for voters. In a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 62 percent said it's extremely important for candidates to talk about the cost of living. And gas prices and the cost of health care are nearly tied as voters' top economic worries.

And as voters focus on the cost of just about everything, the president is now changing course on his taxpayer-funded ads. He says now that his Super PAC will pay for the campaign-style ads after millions of taxpayer dollars have already been spent. CNN's Alayna Treene is live this morning at the White House. A lot was

said, but one of the things that really raised eyebrows was what he said about California, particularly Los Angeles and San Diego, making a joke about being OK with them being attacked. Give us some sense of what the message is.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was really unclear what he was doing with that line. It did seem, of course, like an unscripted kind of aside that the president was making.

[08:05:00]

I will say we reached out to the White House to get more meaning on what he meant with that. But his whole point in bringing that up was talking about gas prices. And you showed in that poll from today, Sara, just how important the affordability and specifically the high cost of gas right now in this country is to voters ahead of the midterm elections. And the president was pretty blunt as well, acknowledging last night that this is a problem.

I will note at times he tried to blame the former president, Joe Biden, for high gas prices. Not necessarily the war with Iran that received a tepid reaction from the crowd. But there is a broad acknowledgement within this White House.

I know the president's advisers telling him repeatedly that this is an issue he needs to talk about because it's one that Americans care deeply about. But I do also, Sara, want to talk about the ads that you mentioned, because this is a major reversal from the president saying on True Social last night quote, "I've decided to do the patriotic ads among others and pay for them myself. And with money I raised for MAGA, Inc."

Now, these are ads I'm sure a lot of people have seen. They've been airing on a number of networks, including on CNN. And they've been paid for by the taxpayers.

Millions of dollars have been put forward for these ads that are really about boosting the president and his image. What's interesting is we did hear the vice president yesterday say, you know, that these aren't partisan, trying to defend them. But Trump kind of making this reversal, acknowledging that, look, we're going to start paying for them and he's going to take it from MAGA Inc., his political PAC, which has hundreds of millions of dollars in it to pay for these instead -- Sara.

SIDNER: It's an admission. They call them public service announcements. Now he is calling them ads and making that clear, although after the money was spent on the ones that were put out.

Alayna Treene, thank you so much for your reporting this morning from the White House for us -- John.

BERMAN: With us now, Jake Tapper, CNN chief Washington correspondent and anchor of "THE LEAD." Good morning to you, sir. And the president's statement about changing the payment plan for these ads, he said it's a rather standard thing to do.

He called them patriotic ads, Jake. Just quick reality check. How standard are they and are these patriotic government like ads or something else?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, THE LEAD AND STATE OF THE UNION: Well, there are ads that support President Trump. I mean, I agree with Vice President Vance. They're not partisan ads.

They're not boosting the Republican Party. They're boosting Donald Trump. One of the ads I saw during an NFL game on Sunday, a very painful one that you don't need to remind me of, John, is that the ads were largely word for word from a 2023-2024 campaign speech in which Trump rails against the media and the deep state and warmongers, which is certainly interesting given our current activities in Iran.

They were ads that were campaign style, very political, promoting Donald Trump, which, you know, if they were paid for by his super PAC or campaign would be pretty standard. But because it says right there paid for by the U.S. government, that was the controversy. I don't know why he reversed it.

There is criticism of it, but normally he doesn't really seem to care. I do wonder if maybe a lawyer told him, you know, these ads are going to get us in trouble. But whatever the reason, it was a distraction, I guess, they didn't need.

BERMAN: Yes, there's one other theory on that, which is that the whole idea of the government spending on something that benefits him directly plays into the idea that some Democrats are campaigning on, that this administration is about self-enrichment, that it's all about him and him benefiting. There was some suggestion of that overnight as well. I will also note there is a legal question about whether the government should pay for those ads in general, but there's also a legal question about whether politician Donald Trump can direct his super PAC to pay for them.

I'm not sure he cares much about campaign laws, though.

TAPPER: That's right. I mean, the super PAC is not supposed to be taking direction from the president. When asked for comment by The New York Times, I think the guy in charge of the super PAC said that they abide by -- or the guy that speaks for the super PAC, Alex Pfeiffer, said that they abide by all the laws.

But yes, I mean, that's a question too. Although, you know, in terms of all the standards that have eroded in the last several years, I don't know that it's, you know, top 20, but it's certainly questionable. I think the point you just made is a wise one.

I mean, here are these multimillion-dollar ad campaigns, and people see it, and, you know, the American people aren't dumb. They see what that ad's promoting, and it's not patriotism. It's Donald Trump and his agenda. The White House, when they attacked me for a tweet I had about this ad, compared it to the ads promoting Obamacare, which, you know, whatever you think about Obamacare, those were ads directing people to a website where they could try to get health insurance. I don't want to debate the merits of Obamacare right now, but it is a bit different.

BERMAN: One other piece of campaign news.

[08:10:00]

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was at a closed-door fundraiser here in New York trying to raise money for Democrats running around the country, and she was talking about this campaign this election season being about a generational change, and she said something that caught people's attention. I'm going to read you a quote from it.

She was talking about Abdul El-Sayed running for Senate in Michigan, specifically. "What we do is that we break open the entire political calculus in America, period. Because if you can win, if Abdul can win in Michigan, anybody can win anywhere. Anywhere."

Interesting wording that I think some people are picking up on this morning. Jake, what do you think is going on there?

TAPPER: Well, certainly, I mean, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is contemplating running for Senate if Schumer retires and also running for president, and that would be her theory of the case. It's a Bernie Sanders-rooted theory of the case, which is that there are a lot of dormant Democrats or would-be Democrats who don't vote because the Democratic Party doesn't give them anything to vote for. I don't know that I agree with Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez.

I mean, I assume she's speaking a bit hyperbolically. Abdul El-Sayed is competitive, but it's a dogfight in Michigan right now in a state that goes back and forth, back and forth, and has a sizable progressive population and a sizable Muslim and Arab population, so I don't think his possible victory, or at least his competitiveness, is anywhere. I mean, Michigan is a state where he could win.

I don't know that he could win in other states, certainly not in Alabama, certainly not in Louisiana. But that said, I mean, that is the AOC theory of the case. It's the Bernie Sanders theory of the case.

Give progressives a reason to vote, and they will.

BERMAN: Jake Tapper, we are four weeks away from election night here at CNN. You will be leading that coverage. Hopefully we'll talk to you before then, and we will see you on "THE LEAD" at 5 p.m. today. Jake, great to see you.

And if you out there have any questions about the midterms and really what it's like to be behind the scenes in a campaign, special guests on "OFFICE HOURS" tomorrow night at 7 p.m., Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was communications director for President Trump, and Chuck Rocha, who was working on James Talarico's campaign in Texas, among others. You can ask them anything you want about being on the inside right now.

Join us tomorrow at 7:00 and submit questions now at cnn.com/officehours -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Cornell University is now facing protests from students and faculty alike. The move toward a no-confidence vote for the school's bosses over their handling of the gang rape investigation there.

Plus, there are also new details coming out about the co-pilot accused of trying to hijack the Fly Dubai flight, what investigators believe he was really trying to target.

Plus, Chipotle has a fresh new sound. The new song that the company says is recorded entirely from vegetables.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: This morning we are learning disturbing new details about the co-pilot accused of trying to hijack a Flydubai flight bound for Israel. Sources say that the pilot likely was trying to target and was targeting Israel's Ben Gurion Airport. We are also learning from a diplomatic source now in the region that Flydubai and UAE authorities did not reach out to this man's previous employer, Oman Air, before bringing him on, before hiring him.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us now with fresh reporting on this. Jeremy, what are you learning?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, we're getting a better sense of how bad this incident really could have been. How catastrophic had this alleged hijacker been successful in his attempt to take that plane and crash it. And also, we're getting a better sense of the security procedures that clearly failed and the cracks that existed that allowed something like this to happen in the first place.

As you noted, Kate, we do have sources indicating that this Flydubai hijacker was likely aiming to crash that plane into Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport. An incident that would have not only killed the 170-plus passengers on board, but of course potentially dozens or even hundreds more at that airport itself had he made it all the way there. And then there is this question of how he got hired as a pilot for Flydubai in the first place.

We understand that Flydubai and the Emirati authorities had not spoken with Oman Air, this pilot's previous employer. At Oman Air, he was actually on track to becoming a pilot, but after some of his extremist views surfaced, he was reassigned to a desk job and eventually left that airline altogether. And then of course there are the questions here in Israel about how an Omani pilot with a track record of extremist views wound up in the cockpit of a plane headed to Israel.

In particular because Oman does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and therefore, he should be barred from flying into Israel, whether in a cockpit or as a passenger. But Israel's transportation ministry, despite receiving the information about the passenger and the crew manifest before this flight took off, it did not run the background checks that it should have run. In fact, Israel's transportation ministry said that it didn't have a regular practice of running those kinds of checks, even though it clearly could have.

So there's a lot that's going to change here in Israel, a lot of accountability questions that are currently being raised, and of course it's also notable that it's now being raised in the context of an election here in Israel that is set to happen in three weeks' time -- Kate.

[08:20:00]

BOLDUAN: That, again, important perspective on it as well. Jeremy, it's great to see you. Thank you so much for your reporting -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, ahead. The children of the former American Idol contestant convicted of shooting his wife to death speak up in court. Their heartbreaking victim impact statements ahead.

Also, President Trump approves the U.S. Army's first execution by firing squad since World War II for the gunman in the Fort Hood mass shooting. New details we're learning this morning about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: New this morning, Cornell's Daily Student newspaper is reporting that Cornell's president met with a student group yesterday about the university's response to the alleged gang rape at a fraternity house in 2024. Thousands gathered yesterday to protest the school's handling of the incident. Some demanded the school revoke degrees of the men accused.

[08:25:00]

ABC News obtained audio of a secretly recorded phone call between the alleged victim, Jane Doe, and a Chi Phi fraternity member after the alleged assault took place. The audio of Jane Doe has been removed so as not to identify her, but in it, Jane Doe talks about how much she drank before the alleged rape, saying quote, "You already knew when I came in, I was 10 shots deep." But the fraternity member rebuts her.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did tell me you were sober, by the way. You did. You said you hadn't been anywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So Jane Doe then asks how many people ended up in that room?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FRATERNITY BROTHER: I have racked my brain from this mystery. You know, it's possible that both of us, like, remember this, and it's not true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: According to ABC, Jane Doe pushed back and said quote, "No, no, because I remember looking up and being like, that is too many people."

Joining me now, CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, Joey Jackson. Look, Joey, we just heard the excerpts of one of these calls. And when you listen to it, of course, there's two versions of the story, as happens in all of these cases, basically.

So how do investigators use this as the AG looks into this case?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Sara, good morning to you. So starting off, you look at the big picture, and the big picture here looks at consent versus the lack thereof. It looks at consent and the capacity to consent.

Why do I say that? Because then you get into the mental state of the parties. Was there excessive alcohol there such that it impaired or affected your ability to consent?

Was there drug in this ketamine use? And then you get to the other issue, which is how many weren't involved, and what specifically did they do, and when, and how did she appear at that specific time? So those are the overall big picture issues that are going to be identified.

Stepping back from that, Sara, I think when we identify any piece of evidence, it's always important not to look at it in isolation, but to look at it as part of a whole. You know, we attorneys love to cherry- pick things that favor our case, but it has to be, and in this instance, this particular recording, really evaluated in the context of so much more. Now, in terms of the tape itself, every case is going to have disputes.

There's going to be disputes here, as I just noted, with regard to consent. There's going to be disputes here with respect to state of mind. And so I think this tape, you're going to look at also who else did she speak to, what was said there, with respect to this current conversation, were there statements made after that, like at the Title IX investigation, when the school investigated and had a hearing because it gets federal funds and has to be in compliance?

Were there statements made that were contradictory? We call those prior inconsistent statements. So what's my point?

My point is that it's a significant piece of evidence, but we should really be cautious of really looking at this in isolation as opposed to looking at it as it relates to the other evidence and other calls involved in the case. SIDNER: Right. You make clear that if you were having this phone conversation and then when that same person was asked by the university what happened, if there were some inconsistencies, these are all the kinds of things that the AG's office will be looking into. I do want to ask you about the Cornell police because we have learned that they drafted requests to two phone companies, Verizon and T- Mobile, asking them to preserve text, calls, any other data, ostensibly video, but it's still unclear whether those requests were actually sent out because there was what we learned that there were drafts. What does this tell you about the handling of this case?

JACKSON: It's troubling to say the least. Now, just to be clear, preserving evidence is standard fare. What do I mean?

I mean, in any case, you're going to go back to what happened at that given point in time. Well, generally when you're ferreting that out, either in the grand jury or at a trial at some point later, you want to take everybody back. And so you preserve the evidence, and you preserve the evidence such that you'll have it.

And without having that, there presents significant gaps in the case. Now, just to be clear, it may in fact be that this was part of the evidence that was used, as I noted before, in the Title IX case. But phones tell us everything, Sara.

Who did you call and when? Don't tell you the content, but who are you speaking to? How many phone calls are there?

You get to the text messages. What are the contents of those text messages? Who are you texting?

What specifically do they say? They have certainly video data on them. There's pictures on them.

It even tracks our movements in terms of whether we were moving, what were we doing at that particular time. So it's critical evidence that might not be available. Might not be available, right?

And I think that is a problem when you're trying to piece together a case that's predicated upon facts that are hotly contested.

SIDNER: And a case that is now two years old. There is a lot to look into. Joey Jackson, thank you --

JACKSON: Always.

SIDNER: -- for analyzing all that for us. We do appreciate you.

JACKSON: Of course.

BERMAN: The NTSB opens an investigation following a major chain reaction school bus crash that left two people dead.

And new this morning, CNN learns the U.S. and China have been discussing visits --

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