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GOP's Darline Graham And Democratic Annie Andrews Face Off In S.C. Senate Debate; Judge Orders Trump Administration To Stop Taxpayer-Funded TV Ads; Michigan Trail Deaths Raise Questions About Possible Serial Killer. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 12, 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: What have you been learning from Republicans who are seemingly very worried about what the results may be?

PATRICK SVITEK, CNN REPORTER: Thanks so much for having me.

Yeah, one of the big problems that you pointed out there is this widening Senate battleground map. So the top Republican Super PAC and Senate race is the Senate Leadership Fund recently put on pause its ad reservations in North Carolina. And as you pointed out, had to go into a very traditionally Republican state, Kansas, and start spending millions of dollars there. They also recently announced a $5 million investment in South Carolina, another state that President Trump won by double digits in 2024. And so you're seeing this Senate map start to expand into really red territory and that's stretching resources thin.

Now, look, I think the White House and a lot of Republican officials we speak to acknowledge this is a really tough environment right now. The White House is trying to deploy the president in very strategic ways. And so that's why, for example, today in Ohio, you'll see him in a more traditionally competitive county that seems kind of geared toward shoring up voters that have in recent presidential elections kind of swung toward him in that county in Ohio.

But then on Wednesday in Arizona, you're going to see him in a county in northwestern Arizona where he won the vote in 2024 with, I think, 78, 79 percent of the vote. So he's going there and he's going to be preaching to the faithful. This is going to be about him arguing to voters who voted for him in three presidential elections that, hey, you cannot sit on the couch. You've got to turn out in this election for Republicans, even though I'm on the ballot.

And so we're really starting to see in these final three weeks of the midterms tough decisions being made about where the money should be prioritized for Republicans and where to send the president where he can have the most impact, knowing of course that he is unpopular nationally and unpopular in a lot of these swing states.

SIDNER: Yeah, but they do have a huge war chest as well. We will see how it all works out. There's only 22 days left before we find out. Patrick Svitek, thank you so much. Do appreciate your reporting. Over

to you --

SVITEK: Thank you,

SIDNER: -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now, congressional reporter for Axios, Kate Santaliz, and co-author of Politico's Playbook, Adam Wren.

And Adam, I want to start where Patrick left off there with this idea of triage because the headline today in the Politico Playbook, out just minutes ago, was basically the Republicans are trimming the map here in the Senate races.

And just to go over what we just heard from Patrick there and Republicans all but pulling out of North Carolina in Senate spending, right? This is a state that was very, very close in the presidential election and has been in the last few, but needing to pour money into South Carolina, which the president won by 18 points just two years ago and put money into Kansas, which is almost never competitive at the Senate level. Again, a state that Donald Trump won by 16 points.

So Politico, with your reporting, Adam, that Republicans are trimming the map, where and how?

ADAM WREN, CO-AUTHOR, POLITICO PLAYBOOK (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah. So John, we report this morning, according to a top MAGA, Inc. official that essentially, they are cutting spending in Michigan eight. That's a congressional district here in the state where I'm at now that features a strong Democrat running, Kristen McDonald Rivet against the Republican Tom Smith that they have deemed not up to par for them. So they're cutting in congressional districts all over the country where they don't think they can win.

But they are doubling down on the Senate. We report that they're spending an extra $5 million this week in Texas where James Tallarico is giving them a tough time. Ken Paxton is struggling to close the deal and close the gap in the polls. They do think the MAGA, Inc. money is working. They say the MAGA, I mean, essentially kept a lot of Republicans alive, giving them a fighting chance in September when the bottom essentially fell out and the environment really darkened for the GOP.

BERMAN: Pouring money into Texas here, which you can see that Donald Trump won by about 14 points just a couple of years ago. This race getting very, very expensive.

Kate, I want to focus with you for a second, if I can, on Ohio, a state the president won by about 12 points a couple of years ago, and where he's going today. He's going to Mahoning County right there, Youngstown. This is where Youngstown Steel was. This is old steel country inside Ohio. And you can see the president won this county by about 10 points. But it hasn't been a Republican county really for that long. You can see in the Senate race there just two years ago with Sherrod

Brown, who's on the ballot this time around, he lost that race, but he barely lost in the county then, and he actually won this county substantially in 2018. So you can see a huge swing for Sherrod Brown and Mahoning County between 2018 and 2024. This is where the president will be today.

What do you think the goal for the administration or for Republicans is with this Ohio outreach?

KATE SANTALIZ, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, AXIOS (via Webex by Cisco): Right. I think Ohio has just become a really surprisingly competitive state for Republicans overall. You know, we have a really tight Senate race between Jon Husted and former Sen. Sherrod Brown. And then we also have a really tight governor's race between Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton. So these are races that Republicans thought that they potentially would not have to be worrying about this close to the cycle, but they have become really close.

[07:35:05]

And the fact that Trump is in Ohio -- you know, a state that he won comfortably in 2024, I think just speaks to this broader theme that we've seen of him campaigning in very red territory. You know, in recent weeks, we've seen him go to Oklahoma and Texas and Alabama, and these are all states that voted overwhelmingly for President Trump.

But Republicans are really worried about voter turnout in states that they won, in states that they should feel comfortable in, and Trump is out there trying to energize his base and getting people to vote up the ticket for these Senate races and these governor races. And of course, there also are some very competitive house races in Ohio, too.

BERMAN: I just want to follow on Ohio, Kate, while I have you here. And I'll pull out -- I don't have the data in front of me, but again, this is a state that the president won by about 12 points.

There's new early voting data out today that CNN has been talking about -- the Secretary of State of Ohio released it -- which shows that there's been a 27-point shift toward the Democrats in terms of who has voted early. Here it is. You can see it right here, a 27-point shift in Ohio statewide as to who has voted at this point compared to two years ago.

When Republicans see that, what do they think?

SANTALIZ: Yeah. I mean, I think that this is something Republicans have been worried about for months now, that Democrats are really energized and excited to get out and vote in these midterm elections. And it's a trend that we've seen over the past few months and the past two years in special elections that have overwhelmingly gone towards Democrats, even in states that are -- have been more red or districts that have been more red.

But Democrats are really excited and energized here, which is why President Trump is out there campaigning in red states because he needs to get Republicans and his base out and motivated in the same way that Democrats are.

Of course, these are just early polling numbers, so we know exactly how that's going to shake out. But Democrats are excited here to vote in the midterm elections.

BERMAN: That's right. We don't know how people voted. We just know sort of what party the people who voted were from.

Adam, I got to say the president going to Alaska. This is later this week -- tomorrow. This is something we just don't see. We just don't see or rarely see in a midterm election having to compete that far away in a state that is that comfortably usually Republican here.

How does this belay the fears that might be going on inside that campaign?

WREN: Yeah, John, it tells you a lot about the environment there in Alaska and elsewhere. Mary Peltola is viewed as a strong candidate for Democrats and really, you know, a recruiting win for Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. You know, Dan -- you know the candidates that she's running against, both the Independent and the Republican, are struggling to sort of narrow the gap. And so this just tells you a lot about a deteriorating outlook for Republicans, and their defending their majority in red places deep in the country.

BERMAN: And Dan -- just very quickly, you talked about the money that Republicans think they may have been able to stem a little bit of the tide that Democrats had in September.

Do they think -- do Republicans think they have enough money to take them all the way to November at this point, three weeks and one day? Do they think the money will be determinative?

WREN: Yeah, they do. They think the money is working. They still have about a quarter of a billion dollars to spend. They've told us that they're going to "empty the tank" and they do think that the money has given their candidates a fighting chance.

But they tell us that it's really up to the candidates -- the individual candidates to close the deal with voters and to offer them a positive vision of what they're going to do for them and not just sort of tear down the Democrats, which has been their method of operation over the last few months to make this a contrast election about socialism and communism versus common sense. And clearly this -- if these officials that we've talked to said that that's not working. That's not enough. They need to offer a positive message down the homestretch.

BERMAN: Adam Wren and Kate Santaliz, great to see you both this morning. Again, three weeks and one day till the midterms -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: To South Carolina now, where a surprisingly competitive Senate race in that deep red state is heating up even more. Sitting senator, the Republican Darline Graham, is facing another debate stage and even higher stakes because of, well, her previous debate performances. People are still talking about her primary debate when Darline Graham, the sister of the late Lindsey Graham, admitted "National security is not my thing." Graham is now trying to turn the attention from herself to her main opponent, Democrat Annie Andrews.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DARLINE GRAHAM (R) SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE CANDIDATE: Annie Andrews will not stand up to the Socialist Democratic Party; she's only going to join them.

ANNIE ANDREWS, (D) SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE CANDIDATE: She's been told to come out here and call me Bernie Ocasio Mamdani. That's what's in her script. But the truth is, my name is Annie Andrews, and there shouldn't be any confusion about that, because unlike my opponent, I haven't changed my name.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: President Trump carried the state by more than 17 percentage points for -- just two years ago.

[07:40:00]

So where is this headed now? CNN's Diane Gallagher tracking this one. Diane, what are you picking up? What happened last night?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, okay, unexpectedly competitive in the Palmetto State. I spent most of last week talking with South Carolina Republicans, and they are concerned about Darline Graham's campaign, but insist that with enough money, it will all be fine. And they do believe that Republicans will win on Election Day.

Andrews, though, sees and has seized on the opportunity, and that was on display last night in a contentious and sometimes personal debate as Graham, the Republican who, of course, was appointed to finish the remainder of her brother's term after he suddenly died in July, traded barbs with Andrews, who has been gaining grounds in that reliably Republican state.

Now they, along with libertarian Kasie Whitener, clashed on issues like spending, immigration, data centers, and healthcare. Graham sought to paint Andrews as part of the radical left and masquerading as a moderate, while Andrews painted Graham as an unserious and unqualified candidate who was handpicked by Washington insiders and will do their bidding.

Now, Republicans sunk about $5 million into this state, which is an indicator that they are worried about South Carolina despite Trump winning the state by nearly 18 points just two years ago. We didn't really hear Trump's name, though. Remember, he encouraged -- he encouraged Graham to run, but she didn't separate herself from Trump or his policies necessarily like we've seen some other candidates do. And Andrews made note of that, including on the war with Iran, which she used as a way to bring up that embarrassing answer from that primary runoff debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREWS: My opponent is the only one on this stage who had the opportunity to vote to end the war. But three times in a row, she voted to continue it. And several days after one of those votes, she had the audacity to walk out onto this stage and admit that national security isn't really her thing.

South Carolina, if your surgeon said that appendectomies aren't really his thing, would you still hand him a scalpel? No. So why would we hand Darline Graham a full term in the U.S. Senate? She is unserious and unqualified.

GRAHAM: Talking about "not my thing," let's talk about what's not your thing. Your thing apparently is not being honest with the people of South Carolina. At least I'm honest. If I don't know something, I am glad to say it, and I'll say it again tonight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Now, Graham also twice stuck in little jabs on transgender issues against Andrews, which is something that her campaign has hammered her hard on. But they weren't asked about it, and neither candidate actually had to delve into the issue on stage.

Some of the Republicans I talked to after the debate last night say they think that Graham did enough to kind of reunite this fractured party and bring them to her campaign. But Andrews made a direct appeal to disaffected Republicans last night and is going to continue to do that up until Election Day. This is likely the one and only time that we will see them debate, despite Andrews pressing Graham multiple times for another one.

BOLDUAN: All right, Diane Gallagher. Thank you so much. Appreciate it -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, Kate.

Breaking overnight, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to cancel any further airings of the controversial taxpayer-funded ads that promote the president's agenda. In an earlier filing, the government said it had already spent $19 million in taxpayer money on those ads.

The ruling comes as corruption in government is one of the things that are becoming a big concern for voters ahead of the midterms. Take a look at this recent Gallup poll showing that a record high 89 percent of Americans believe that government corruption is widespread, up from 59 percent in 2006.

Joining me now, Richard Painter, the former White House ethics lawyer. It is so good to have you.

Look, President Trump has defended his taxpayer-funded ads as what he put as "rather standard" in social media posts. You argue this is anything but that.

What do you see in this case?

RICHARD PAINTER, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ETHICS LAWYER (via Webex by Cisco): We have never seen anything like this before where a president uses $19 million of our money, our taxpayer money, to run ads that promote himself and attack his political enemies. And that's what those ads -- that's what they're all about. We know why they were run weeks before the midterm elections, and that's not what our tax money is to be used for. That's a waste of taxpayer money.

And this is on top of the president making billions of dollars in the cryptocurrency industry during his presidency, only a few years after he said that Bitcoin was a scam.

[07:45:10]

This is on top of scandal after scandal. Every couple of days, there's a new scandal.

And we just heard that the ambassador of Greece was asking a big donor to pay off $100,000 of her AMEX bill, and then that she'd introduce them to various people in the administration. This is a catastrophe from an ethics perspective.

And I was very critical of the Biden administration, for sure, and the Penn Biden scandal and Hunter Biden and all of that. But what we've seen under the second Trump administration is one of the most corrupt presidential administrations in American history.

SIDNER: I think that you have argued that this ad scenario alone could or should lead to an impeachment. How so?

PAINTER: Well, our taxpayer money is to be spent as appropriated by Congress, and Congress specifically prohibits the expenditure of public money for propaganda and publicity of this nature by statute. And when Congress tells the president he can't spend money on something and he just goes ahead and does it anyway and ignores a federal statute, that's when it's time for Congress to step in and act.

It's going to be very difficult to get the courts to intervene, although courts increasingly are intervening with respect to the conduct of the Trump administration. But Congress has duties to and Congress has a duty to investigate and to act. And unfortunately, when Congress is controlled by the party of the president, Congress usually does nothing. And this was true when the Democrats were there and doing very little about the problems of the Biden administration, including the president's inability to run for a second term. So it's not a problem unique to the Republican Party, but right now it is.

This Congress is doing absolutely nothing to stand up to President Trump and to hold him accountable for ethics violations. And that's what this election really is about, is ethics and public integrity. It's not about do you believe in socialism or whatever these words are being thrown around to describe the other side. I do believe in public integrity and traditional American values. A traditional American value is not that public service is for private gain. We cannot tolerate that in this country.

SIDNER: Look, you talked about some of Trump's own disclosures and you mentioned cryptocurrency, and he made $1.4 billion in his family's cryptocurrency business alone his first year back in 2025 in office. And there's this huge deal as part of that with the United Arab Emirates that bought nearly half of the Trump family's main cryptocurrency, World Liberty Financial. This is a president who you mentioned has made so much money as president and has such a large war chest.

Do you understand why he would have decided to use taxpayer funds here or is this just some sort of test?

PAINTER: I think he's doing it because he thinks he can get away with it, and Congress will let him get away with it. And that's what's happened over and over again in this administration. He does it because he can get away with it.

And at some point, Congress needs to say, no. When we tell you it is illegal to spend taxpayer money on propaganda -- it's right there in a federal statute -- you go ahead and do it anyway. We're going to hold a hearing and we're going to investigate exactly who authorized that money to be spent and find out who in your administration is accountable. We're going to make sure that the $19 million goes right back to the American taxpayer. That's our money they're wasting, and American voters expect fiscal responsibility from their government as well as the highest standards of ethics and integrity from our public officials, and that's not what's happening here.

SIDNER: Richard Painter, it is good to have you. We will see. Democrats are certainly talking about this in their campaigning as well. We will see what happens with some of these cases going forward. Thank you for being here. Appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So a string of deaths along a river trail is this morning now sparking fears of a serial killer. What police are saying about it this morning. We're going to bring that to you.

And there's video of a bystander and a state trooper jumping into action to save a driver trapped inside of a sinking car. What happened here? We've got more coming up.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:54:10]

BERMAN: This morning, police in Michigan are investigating a possible serial killer after a string of reported deaths along a popular river trail.

CNN's Randi Kay has been tracking this and is with us now. So what links these deaths?

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's pretty disturbing, John. Five men found dead. Authorities believe that they may have been targeted. These are all unhoused men, so they don't have anywhere else to go. They're spending the night overnight on this river trail, and investigators believe that these crimes could represent a pattern of someone targeting white unhoused men. They also fear, John, that there could be a serial killer at play here. It is something that they are looking into.

As I said, they've all been found along this same river trail in Lansing, Michigan. This is an area that there's like 20 miles or so of paved trails that connects all the parks or many of the parks in the city. And three of the five cases have been ruled a homicide.

[07:55:00]

And if you look at the injuries, these are pretty severe. One man was found unconscious with a crushed skull, trauma to his head. Others had stab wounds, broken ribs, broken bones. They're all sleeping along the river.

Now, the mayor, of course, is telling everybody -- the general public -- that they are safe. But the police chief does believe that these attacks happened overnight while the men were either lying down or possibly even sleeping. So these are horrible attacks. The deaths go back about a year. In fact, just this month. The men range in age from their 20s to their 70s.

And they have increased surveillance and lights in the area. There weren't any witnesses, there weren't any cameras. So now they have all of that in place.

There is one suspect in custody related possibly to one of the deaths. He's still being looked at in case there might be some connections to some of the other deaths. He's being evaluated. We couldn't reach his attorney for comment.

But I just want to share with you one quote from the first victim's relative. He said, "There's a serial killer on the loose in my estimation. It's either a serial killer or a copycat."

So police have a lot of work to do.

BERMAN: It seems like a pattern -- one geographic area, a lot of similarities.

Randi Kaye, thank you very much for sharing that reporting -- Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you, John.

On our radar for you this morning, Pope Leo says he will undergo surgery to remove a lung nodule. It was found during recent health checks and was caught at a very early stage, he says. The 71-year-old pope is expected to undergo the procedure early next week and spend about a week in the hospital recovering. The Vatican says it will operate as normal during his recovery.

In upstate New York, body camera video showing a dramatic rescue after a car plunges into the water at a marina. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POLICE OFFICER: How many people are in there? Just you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

POLICE OFFICER: Just you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

POLICE OFFICER: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Police say that the man -- you can see them trapped inside as that vehicle is sinking. A trooper jumped into the water, smashed through the sunroof. With help from a Good Samaritan the two pulled the man to safety moments before that car went under -- wow.

Now to a Coast Guard rescue in California. Officials got a call about a sinking sailboat there, but they couldn't get to it by boat because it was simply too dangerous. They had to call in a helicopter aircrew which lowered an officer into the choppy waters. They pulled the man up into the chopper as the sailboat took on water below. He was later treated by medics at the scene -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So Baltimore got a big boost from the backup. The backup quarterback leading the team to a comeback win against the Atlanta Falcons in overtime.

Coy Wire has much more on all of this. Coy, what happened? Look at that face.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Kate, you know --

BOLDUAN: Look at that face.

WIRE: You know I played for the Atlanta Falcons, right? You had to lead with this story, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sorry. I still love you so much.

WIRE: Good to see you. Sorry, not sorry.

Nearly 60 percent of the NFL games this season have been decided by one score.

A wild day in the NFL, including Sunday night primetime drama. Atlanta hosting Baltimore without Lamar Jackson. The Falcons leading most of the night but fourth quarter, Derrick Henry. Here comes the 250-pound bowling ball covered in baby oil. He ties the game with a two-point conversion.

And then Atlanta quarterback Michael Penix gets rocked and knocked out of the game with a rib injury, so it goes to overtime. That's where Baltimore "Snoop" Huntley, backup QB, bulldozes his way into the end zone. And now Atlanta needs a touchdown with backup Tua Tagovailoa. Somebody call security. The Ravens All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton

commits grand theft football. Picked him off. He played high school ball right here in Atlanta. Seals the Ravens 30-23 win, improving to 4-1.

All right. Across the pond in London, ending so wild even the clock couldn't believe it. The Eagles take a one-point lead with eight seconds to go. Game over, right, Kate? Wrong. Ameer Abdullah -- watch him rumble 53 yards on this kickoff return and he gets tackled with one second left.

Enter kicker Cam Little -- big leg, big moment -- 57 yards in London. He is money. Jaguars win 19-17 and with their long snapper injured, a defensive lineman snapped that winning kick. Little delivers a walk- off and Philly their third-straight loss.

Another wild ending. NFC East rivals Giants and Commanders overtime. Washington in position for a game-winning field goal. Kate, the clock's ticking. No timeouts. All they need to do is spike the ball or toss it out of bounds. But Jayden Daniels runs it and gets tackled. They don't know what's going on, it seems. They never get to kick it.

Head coach Dan Quinn rips off his headset and watch this. Uh -- no penalty for roughing the headset, but a 27-27 tie feels like a loss. Commanders' fans everywhere want to know what in the world happened.

NLCS game one. Dodgers, Brewers in a rematch of last year's series and L.A. strikes first. Andy Pages drives in Shohei Ohtani. The fourth inning comes around though, and Brewers Bryce Terrain goes boom. A solo shot off a two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal to tie the game. In the next inning rookie Luis Lara delivers the go ahead single.