Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) is Interviewed about the Midterms; Polls on President Trump; NFL Legend Terry Bradshaw is Interviewed about His New Book. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 15, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look to Jordan as the perfect foil to that given his experience leading investigations on the Judiciary Committee, given his experience with messaging, and his roles in the previous two impeachments that Democrats launched against -- launched against Trump.

Now, Jordan says that he is not running for leadership, that he is only focused on keeping Republicans in the majority and supporting Speaker Johnson. And Johnson says that he wants to remain in the top job. He thinks that Republicans are not only going to keep the House, but even if they don't keep the House, he wants to be minority leader. So, that sets up a potential clash between who would lead Republicans in the minority.

Of course, a big factor in all this is what does President Trump think about this? That's an unknown here at this point. But Trump, obviously, has a close relationship working with Johnson and a long history with Jordan. So, a lot that's happening behind the scenes, Sara, that we'll start to see play out in public view after November.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Certainly. But it is November that everybody is watching to see what actually happens. And that may determine the fate of these two men.

Annie Grayer, thank you so much. I do appreciate it.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us right now is Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey for more on this.

So, on this new reporting, Congressman, since I know you are in the business of giving Republicans advice, especially when it comes to their leadership positions, Jim Jordan or Mike Johnson, which would, do you think, a Democratic majority want to work with more?

One second. We are going to try to see if the congressman may be muted.

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ): (INAUDIBLE) problem. I'm back. I'm back. I'm back. BOLDUAN: And we're back.

GOTTHEIMER: Can you hear me now?

BOLDUAN: OK, let's play this out again. Let's play this out again.

Jim Jordan, for like --

GOTTHEIMER: Sorry about that. Sorry.

BOLDUAN: Jim Jordan and Mike Johnson, if Democrats win the majority, who would you prefer to be working with?

GOTTHEIMER: I was going to say that's their family and I'm from Jersey. I don't get involved in another person's business that way. Let's let them handle their family business, you know?

And, by the way, when you try, they mute you. So, you know, you -- I think it's the best thing to let them handle -- let them handle their own business.

BOLDUAN: OK. So, midterm predictions, they are all over the place, but there seems to be a growing consensus among the predictors that Democrats will win the majority. But I -- then the question becomes, how big of a majority in the House? What are you -- how many seats do you think Democrats will gain?

GOTTHEIMER: Well, you know, listen, I'll leave it to the predictors to get into that. I think what you're hearing, though, I'll just tell you what I'm hearing on the ground here in Jersey, and I think it's a great indicator all across the state, and places that -- you know, and folks I'm talking to around the country, my colleagues, people have had it with the cost of everything.

And when you turn around and say, well, who's to blame for this, there's only one person to blame for all of it and -- because he's been leading -- he's been orchestrating the higher tariffs. He's been, you know, just -- you know, you see what he's doing right now, cozying up to Putin. We're looking at the health care prices. We tried to actually get the ACA tax credits extended, to get health insurance premiums down. And issue after issue, Donald Trump has said absolutely no. The only thing we should do is actually raise tariffs, increase costs, make life harder for people. And now I think it's coming home to roost.

And that's what you're seeing. People are saying, I've had it. This is chaos. I want -- I want to make my life more affordable. I want less of this craziness. I want people who are going to be responsible to actually govern the country. And I really believe that's where they're going to turn to a strong Democratic majority and to Hakeem Jeffries as our speaker.

BOLDUAN: You mentioned the deal that Trump has struck with Russia over diesel. That gets me to what's gone on with Ukraine in the past 24 hours. Ukraine has reported that Elon Musk's Starlink and Starshield, which are critical to Ukraine's fight against Russia, has faced like puzzling disruptions in service, impacting drone flying speeds and more.

Elon Musk responded to questions about it, saying that the systems are owned and controlled by the U.S. government. And the way he puts it is, "any limits on speed or usage are decided by the U.S. military and ultimately POTUS." You're on the intelligence committee. Do you know what happened here or, most importantly, the motivation behind it, if it was ordered by the U.S. government for there to be some changes here?

GOTTHEIMER: Well, I've asked for an intelligence briefing on this, but I'll tell you, you know, what's concerning are the rumors that we would do anything to cut off our intelligence relationship with Ukraine and Russia -- to Russia's benefit. And if we're -- if you're cutting off Starlink or Starshield, which is the military version of Starlink, and literally undermining the security of Ukraine, and their ability to defend themselves and to fight back against a dictator that has done nothing except attack Ukraine again and again and going after their energy sources, right as we head into winter here.

[09:35:12]

You know, and, again, this is all, I believe, President Trump doing everything he can to divert attention away from higher gas prices, higher diesel prices. You know, this deal he supposedly cut with Putin is ridiculous. It won't do anything to -- actually the amount of diesel that we'd be importing is minimal. It would do nothing to help these high prices that we're dealing with right now.

And, you know, we're talking about $6.33 a gallon of diesel here in Jersey. It's crushing farmers. It's crushing people who, you know, drive trucks and build stuff that add that to the $4.28 a gallon of regular gas and people, between their gas prices and utility bills, and as I mentioned, their health insurance premiums are just hurting and trying to divert attention by suddenly doing a deal with a dictator at the expense of our allies is ridiculous, to the point that even Republicans in the Senate and the House have come out strongly against this, calling it a gift to our adversaries and a betrayal of our allies. And that's what you're dealing with here. And whether you're talking about intelligence sharing or this new move to buy Russian diesel, which violates our own laws, makes no sense.

BOLDUAN: You are one of the members of Congress who is seen as basically one of the few who gets it when it comes to A.I. and is getting deeply involved in trying to work out some kind of government guardrail on the A.I. frontier models. On the most basic level --

GOTTHEIMER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: The question for me remains, when this technology is changing this fast, faster than anything we have seen before, how is a Congress, and we know how slowly it works, how is a Congress ever going to keep up with it?

GOTTHEIMER: Well, I think what you need to do is build guardrails that allow for innovation and change to occur, but also protect our national security and the American people. And so you have to write them in a way. And I believe we can. And that's what we've been working on for the last year. And, obviously, urging our Republican colleagues to take action here. And I've done a lot of bipartisan legislation on this.

You build it so that it can move and breathe and stretch as A.I. changes. But you -- but there are certain basic things that you can account for, and we do this in our laws all the time, that allow change to occur. The key is taking action and not sitting back because we see what's happening with rogue agents. We see the threats to our national security and our critical infrastructure, our water infrastructure, our health infrastructure, and what's happening around the world. There's action we have to take in a responsible common sense way.

And, you know, it doesn't have to be, you know, people have set up this false choice where we're either going to lock this stuff up and make it go away and throw it in the Hudson, which is not tenable and then we would just lose to our top competitor and adversary in China, who would just continue to develop their models. We'd be stuck on their models. Or the other view, which is just, we should do nothing and let it rip, which the administration has kind of leaned toward. And I think there's obviously a happy medium here. And that's what we've been working toward on the A.I. commission, which I co-chair with Valerie Foushee and Ted Lieu, and working very closely with Leader Jeffries, who's been incredibly focused on this issue.

BOLDUAN: Yes, it -- no matter who's in the majority in the next Congress, this is becoming a huge issue for everyone.

GOTTHEIMER: Huge issue. Huge.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GOTTHEIMER: We're there already. We're there already on it being a huge issue.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

GOTTHEIMER: But now we've got to act.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Thanks for coming in. Appreciate your time.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, Kate.

Ahead, were tracking updates to a CNN exclusive. The U.S. military now developing new strike plans on Iran that include using the mother of all bombs.

Plus, Terry Bradshaw is here revealing his TV career is, quote, coming to an end. The Hall of Famer turned legendary sports broadcaster is our next guest. John Berman will be hanging out with him.

Those stories and more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:43:29]

BERMAN: This morning, new rough numbers on inflation. The biggest jump in wholesale inflation in four years. It follows consumer prices yesterday, much hotter than expected, and it all spells trouble for the president on the economy, where his numbers have been sagging.

With us now, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

We talk about this, but it really is the most important trend in this campaign. What are you seeing?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Its backbreaking. It's backbreaking for Trump and Republicans. I mean, just look at these numbers. Trump's net approval rating on the economy. You know, you look at a retrospective approval rating, according to "The New York Times" back in 2024. Look at this, he was 34 -- 31 points on the positive. Look at it now, 26 points in the negative. What is that? That's a 57-point shift away from the president of the United States.

You think that's bad. How about let's go into the Hudson River. No, we're going in the Harlem River. Look at this. Plus 38 points among independents and now minus 38 points. That is a shift of 76 points away from the president of the United States. To quote Fran Tarkenton talking about Jim Marshall, you're going the wrong way. You're going the wrong way. Deep underwater now.

BERMAN: Yes, this was a huge positive. Now it is a huge negative for the president.

ENTEN: Negative.

BERMAN: Where does he rank historically? Is there any comparison that maybe should make him nervous?

ENTEN: Oh, I think he should be incredibly nervous. And the Republican Party should be incredibly nervous. Because we're talking about 26, right, negative 26. Well, let's take a look at term two presidents, right? At this point in term number two, their economic net approval ratings.

[09:45:01]

You see Trump here, minus 26 points. The only one who's really close at all is George W. Bush back in 2006. He was 23 points underwater. But Donald Trump takes the cake in terms of being the least liked when it comes to the economy. The only one that's close. Bush and, of course, his party lost the House and the Senate. He is doubly as unpopular as Obama. Way different than Bill Clinton, who was plus 50. And then, of course, Ronald Reagan's party in '86, who lost the Senate, Reagan was on the plus side of the ledger. And now Trump is 26 points underwater. This forecast very, very bad things for Republicans in the midterm elections.

BERMAN: I mean voters continue to tell us that the economy and price is the number one issue. Who do they think -- which party do they think would do a better job?

ENTEN: Which party do you think will keep you prosperous? All right, this is the question. This is the question. Party trust to keep the U.S. prosperous. Look at this, Democrats with a 14-point lead. I went into the -- into the Delorean, went into the time machine. Any time that Democrats hold a double-digit advantage on this question, the party trusted to keep the U.S. prosperous, each time they won not just the U.S. House, but the U.S. Senate as well in that election.

BERMAN: The Fed's got a big decision over the next few weeks based on some of these inflation numbers. What are the prediction markets saying they'll do?

ENTEN: Yes, they're saying, hike those interest rates. Look at this, in December, 78 percent chance now. A month ago, what were we talking about, just a 25 percent chance. And that is something I know that Donald Trump really doesn't want to hear.

BERMAN: This is in December. By the end of the year. There are new questions about whether it will be done within the next two weeks.

ENTEN: It could be. I mean, we'll see.

BERMAN: We'll see.

ENTEN: We'll see, exactly that.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

BERMAN: A lot of news this morning. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:50:35]

BERMAN: All right, four Super Bowl rings, a Hall of Fame career, decades as one of the most recognizable faces on TV, period. Now Terry Bradshaw is opening up about fame, his struggle with depression, battling cancer, and what comes next.

We are super excited --

TERRY BRADSHAW, FOUR-TIME SUPER BOWL CHAMPION AND AUTHOR, "LOOKING FOR TERRY: A MEMOIR": I hope nothing.

BERMAN: Yes, no. No. I'm not convinced there's not more coming next.

With us now, NFL legend Terry Bradshaw. His new book, "Looking for Terry: A Memoir," is out now.

And it's really good, really interesting and really not what I expected.

BRADSHAW: Well, that was -- the hardest thing about selling that book to the publisher, and I couldn't sell it, John, I'm going to tell you, it was a hard sell. HarperCollins finally took it on. But everybody said, we don't want a football book. We're tired of football. We don't want that. We don't want that. And I kept saying, it's not a football. I'm a football player. It's not a football book. And I couldn't. So, it took -- it took three years to finally get someone to take it on.

BERMAN: There's a great line early in the book where you say, you know, I'm the guy who plays Terry Bradshaw on TV.

BRADSHAW: Right.

BERMAN: And then for the rest of the book you proceed to sort of explain how that person is similar and different, right?

BRADSHAW: Right.

BERMAN: How the real Terry Bradshaw is similar, but also different than the role you play on tv. What did you learn about yourself here?

BRADSHAW: Well, that's the reason I did the book, because I hadn't done a book in 21 years. And you hit on, you know, I had two bouts of separate cancers. I wanted -- I wanted everyone to know, OK, I'm opening up here. I've been divorced three times. Ashamed of that. How do you -- how do you finally get the great marriage? How do you finally do -- finally find that person? That took a lot of years to do that.

Then the depression thing. I was hesitant to talk about depression because I didn't want to be -- I didn't want to be laughed at, which I have been and does happen quite often. So, I was very careful. Then I said, you know what? I'm an open book. My wife tells me, honey, you're an open book. And I did -- I didn't learn anything about me, but I give what I know about me to you through the book.

And it was -- it felt good. And I know if it sells five copies or 50, who knows? It's -- this book is going to help people that are, that are struggling with any of those issues.

BERMAN: And I think it will. And also, I mean, your Terry f-ing Bradshaw. And it's nice to hear you say something that people can relate to with their difficulties, right? What do people need to know about depression?

BRADSHAW: Well, first of all, it's ugly. Second of all, it's not your fault. A lot of people, we take it personal. Oh my God it's -- it's a horrible disease. And you can catch it if you hang with me, John. If we go out, you and I, you're going to get it. I'm going to give it to you. But that's not how it is. It comes on you. It's in your brain. It's an imbalance. It's a sickness. And I -- if I could describe it to you, the sickest you've ever been times ten. It's a horrible feeling. And you can't get away from it. And you have to face the fact that something's wrong.

And it took me years before I said, I can't deal with this anymore. And I finally sought help through -- three separate doctors. I ended up with a psychiatrist at the very end to find out about it. But it is a miserable thing.

I've got -- I know we don't have much time, but I will say this, my wife gave it a name. Tammy calls it, calls him Roy. And when Roy starts to show up, when it creeps in, then what happens is I become isolated. And I know it. But she sees it two or three days before I feel it. And I'll isolate myself. And she'll come out and she'll go, honey, is Roy paying a visit? And I said, yes. I'll say, yes. Yes, he's trying to come in. And we'll sit down and start talking about it. It -- I mean it -- support group is huge for people with depression, not to mention the fact that there's medication, there's counseling, there's so many things to do. But your support group is so important.

BERMAN: And it's so important that you're talking about it so other people can see it and identify it and not be scared about it, because you can say, hey, if Terry Bradshaw is dealing with this and talking about it, I can too.

BRADSHAW: Well, you got to get past the celebrity thing because people make, oh my God, he's got depression. Well, maybe if he drinks, maybe he'll, you know, it's horrible that people make fun of you. And I think that's why we isolate our feelings and keep them to ourselves. And I finally said, you know, to hell with it.

BERMAN: So, our friend Harry Enten, who you met backstage --

BRADSHAW: Yes.

BERMAN: Was showing me a clip of your very first broadcast on Fox, on Fox Sports there.

[09:55:04]

But the reason we were watching at it, because we've been in TV, I've been in this -- doing this a minute or two.

BRADSHAW: Yes.

BERMAN: You've been doing it for 43 years.

BRADSHAW: Right.

BERMAN: You are so good at the TV part of it. And that's what Harry was showing me. He says, watch him walk through the studio here, you know, without making a single mistake and handling it almost perfectly. No, no, it's true. But I do hear you in these interviews for the book talking about the possibility that maybe you're going to be done with all this soon.

BRADSHAW: Oh, I'm 78. Kate, it's hard to believe, isn't it?

BOLDUAN: And never looked better.

BRADSHAW: That -- yes, 78. And I haven't said I'm going to retire, but I'm pretty sure they're going to want me to retire. So, I'm never -- I'm never going to announce it. I'm just not going to show up. And I'll be 80 by the end of my contract. My wife driving over here this morning said, do not talk about retirement.

BERMAN: OK.

BRADSHAW: And so -- but, come on, let's be real here.

BERMAN: The electric shocks, don't talk about it. Zee, zee, going to stop talking about it.

BRADSHAW: That's a good color on you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: I mean, you sure are --

BRADSHAW: Sara, you guys, best dressed bunch.

BOLDUAN: I think you -- he is -- that -- he's got -- he's got a good eye and a good sense of color

BRADSHAW: Oh, yes.

SIDNER: Thank you for really removing the stigma of it.

BRADSHAW: Thanks, Sara.

SIDNER: Because I think a lot of people don't like talking about it.

BRADSHAW: No.

SIDNER: And they see you talking about it and they think, you know what, I'm going to do something about this.

BRADSHAW: Yes, that's the key. The key is, you got to face your demons. You got to seek help. You can't go into booze and you can't go into drugs and chase women or men and think that's going to bring you happiness because it's not, it's going to make it worse.

BERMAN: Who's going to win the Super Bowl this year?

BRADSHAW: Who's in?

BERMAN: That's a great -- that --

BRADSHAW: Well, I know Sara's a Rams fan.

BERMAN: Patriots.

BRADSHAW: Patriots.

BOLDUAN: I married into a Lion's fan.

BRADSHAW: Well, that ain't going to happen.

SIDNER: You thought it was going to happen. And we're in trouble.

BRADSHAW: I think -- I think -- I think you probably have -- no, you're not going back. You got a chance.

SIDNER: Well, maybe.

BRADSHAW: Right now in the 49ers in Seattle look really good. And the Rams got counted (ph) the other day. New England has won two in a row now, John. So, you got to be happy about that.

BERMAN: I am happy about it.

BRADSHAW: Starting to look good again.

BERMAN: I am happy about that.

BRADSHAW: I'm -- you know, right, and Kansas City's got a running game now, so they are really good.

SIDNER: By the way, you're hired.

BERMAN: Yes.

BRADSHAW: Thank you.

SIDNER: You know, beside us.

BRADSHAW: I need a -- I'll need a job in two years.

BOLDUAN: Yes, but do you really like to wake up at 0:00 in the morning?

SIDNER: Ah, that's true.

BERMAN: Terry Bradshaw.

BRADSHAW: No.

BERMAN: The book is "Looking for Terry."

BOLDUAN: Love to have you.

BERMAN: You're going to find him here, early mornings with us.

BRADSHAW: Oh, yes.

BERMAN: Very, very shortly.

Thank you so much.

BRADSHAW: Thanks, John, Kate and Sara. My pleasure.

BERMAN: The book is wonderful. Thank you for everything you're doing.

SIDNER: Thank you, Terry.

BOLDUAN: You are such a delight, Terry.

BERMAN: "THE SITUATION ROOM" up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)