Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Paxton Declines to Debate Talarico in Tight Texas Senate Race; Eight States Sue OpenAI Over Alleged ChatGPT Risks to Kids; Vatican Says Pope Leo's Recovery After Surgery Is Proceeding as Expected. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 15, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:33:08]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": This is going to be one of the most critical races of the midterm cycle. Last night, voters got to talk face-to-face with one candidate who could help Democrats flip the balance of power in Congress. CNN and Jubilee Media hosting a town hall event with Democratic Senate nominee, James Talarico in Fort Worth.

With just four days until early voting begins in the Lone Star State, polls show no clear leader between Talarico and Republican Attorney General, Ken Paxton.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Talarico is trying to become the first Democrat to win a statewide race in Texas in more than 30 years. And last night, voters pressed him on everything from his faith, the economy, abortion, and even his own party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES TALARICO, (D) TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: I will stand up to my own party if they mess with our oil and gas industry, and I will stand up to the other party if they mess with renewables. Joe Biden failed us during his administration by not securing the border. I'm a border security Democrat. I'm a proud Texas Democrat, but I already have a religion and I already have a sports team.

(APPLAUSE)

So I have no problem sharing hard truths with my party if it's what's best for Texas. The only minority destroying America is the billionaires. They are constantly trying to divide us.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Talarico has seen a surge of donations here in recent months. His campaign says they brought in a record-breaking $64 million in the last quarter alone, which is more than triple what Paxton's campaign reported, $18 million for him. We're joined now by CNN Political Commentator and former Democratic State Representative in South Carolina, Bakari Sellers, and conservative Radio Host of "The Jason Rantz Show" on 770 KTTH in Seattle, Jason Rantz.

All right, Bakari, first, Democrats, I mean, they're looking at this very hopefully.

[13:35:00]

I guess, you can't blame them because this is the best chance that they have had in some time. But do you think this will really happen for them in this Senate race?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, I think it's a chance, and I think it's one of the best chances that we've had in a very long period of time, as you stated, and it has to do with a few things. One, if you just look at the granular map, you see that James Talarico is overperforming.

I mean, he's up 22 points in Harris County. If things like that hold, he will be the next United States Senator from Texas. You see how he's overperforming with Hispanic voters. You see the money he's raising. You see the Libertarian still tracking, you know, two percent of the vote, which is necessary in a race like this. And then you just have a very fundamentally flawed Ken Paxton.

So all of the stars are aligning. I do think Democrats are very happy about the positioning of people like Jon Ossoff in Florida, very happy about Roy Cooper in North Carolina, feel really gung ho about Sherrod Brown in Ohio. And if we're able to pull off Iowa and/or Texas, I think that you'll see that maybe tides are turning in this country.

SANCHEZ: Jason, I wonder what you made of Talarico's performance last night, especially in light of the fact that Paxton has refused to debate Talarico. He's also not responded to an invitation to join a town hall, a similar town hall event. Isn't that missing an opportunity in a race that is this close, where he would have opportunities to address concerns about his record and controversies in his past?

JASON RANTZ, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST, "THE JASON RANTZ SHOW" ON 770 KTTH: Perhaps. I mean, you could also look at it and say the reason why Talarico is interested in doing that is because the polls aren't actually correct, that it might be tight, but he's not actually in the lead. Generally, when you are a flawed candidate and there's no doubt, look, Ken Paxton is a flawed candidate. So is James Talarico, which is why he's walking back so much of what he's previously said.

But if you're in the lead or you believe you're in the lead, you're not going to want to risk that by getting into any kind of controversy. And you don't want to give any kind of -- you don't want to cede any kind of momentum to the opponent. So in that sense, assuming that's what he believes the polls actually indicate, he's making the right move.

I think ultimately, well, I'm glad James Talarico certainly did the town hall. I think it gives actually a lot of ammunition to conservatives to use against this campaign. You know, I think local media is what's most important. And the money coming in to expose James Talarico's past, I think, is going to be meaningful. You know, even Bakari, (inaudible), you're not saying that this is for sure, it's going to happen.

A lot of Democrats are saying that. And I think that they are misreading some of the polls.

KEILAR: OK, so when I -- I will tell you, Jason, when I heard Bakari say Iowa and Texas, correct me if I'm wrong, I saw you raise an eyebrow. And I just want to know what that was -- were you -- were you raising that eyebrow in response to Iowa and Texas, or was it just because of the polls and your questions about that?

RANTZ: Well, I think it's a little bit of both. I don't think the Senate is going to switch. I think it's going to maintain the Republican control. I think the House is going to go to the Democrats. I just don't know by how much.

I think people don't -- I think people are underestimating or maybe overestimating some of these polls. Iowa, I do actually think, is going to stay Republican. I think it's been very difficult to get Republican voters to respond to polls.

There's been some information coming out over the last 24, 48 hours showing about how maybe Democrats are being oversampled in a lot of ways. Rural voters in particular who are Republican and Trump supporters are not easy to poll. They've never been easy to poll.

And we've learned that over the course of the last few election cycles. And I think we just have to keep that in the back of our minds. I do think it's going to be close. Right? The economic issues are going to be difficult for the Republicans to overcome. And again, you've got one party in power. They traditionally do not do well when it comes to the midterm elections. But I'm not all that worried about the Senate side. The House side is different.

SANCHEZ: Bakari, what are your thoughts on that question about polling? Not just because it maybe guides the conversation in a certain direction if polls overestimate certain candidates, but also it could determine where Democrats send precious resources at a time where generally they trail in fundraising.

SELLERS: Yeah. So the only poll that matters is November 3rd. Right? And I think Democrats, particularly in places like Texas, have learned that lesson where Texas has been fool's gold in the past. I'm reminded of Beto's race a few years ago, I believe it was against Ted Cruz.

But when you have a race like this, the difference is and I just want to correct my friend Jason for a moment. There may be policy flaws or things that James Talarico once said that he doesn't espouse now. But there is no questioning the character of the two candidates.

Ken Paxton is a fundamentally flawed individual in terms of his character and who he is as a person when no one is looking. [13:40:00]

You can have all the issues you want to have with James Talarico, but those issues are usually policy based and those are fair for the arena. Those two things are apples and oranges, and that also is why we have a legitimate shot here because for Democrats to win in these southern states, you have to have money, you have to have excitement, you have to have a fundamentally flawed candidate on the other side, and in most places, you have to have a third-party candidate that can maybe help you win a race that you don't quite get to 50 percent of the electorate, which you have in Texas.

And so yeah, I think that we put money in places like Texas, I think we put money -- or pull money from places like Georgia, pull money from places like North Carolina, because I think even Jason and other Republicans would tell you that those races, in the words of a great R&B song, are signed, sealed, and delivered.

KEILAR: Jason?

RANTZ: Yeah, I think there's some cases Roy Cooper I think is going to win. I also think that some of the Democrats claiming that Kansas and Nebraska are going to flip are also overestimating things and they're welcome to spend their time and some of their money there.

I don't think it's ultimately going to go anywhere. The good news in going into all this for Republicans, that we have a whole lot more money than the Democrats. The DNC is effectively broke. Obviously, money is funneling in and James Talarico is certainly leading into Hollywood cash and Reid Hoffman cash and others, but I think Republicans have enough money that they're going to be able to really stay competitive in some of the places that Democrats thought they were competitive.

KEILAR: We'll have them back first week in November.

SANCHEZ: We would love that, yeah.

KEILAR: We're going to fact-check this interview, guys.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: All of these questions will answer themselves. Yeah.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, yeah, we will revisit it. Bakari Sellers, Jason Rantz, thank you both.

RANTZ: Appreciate it.

SELLERS: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Next, why eight states, mostly led by Republicans, are suing OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:46:15]

KEILAR: OpenAI is facing a new legal fight over the alleged risks that ChatGPT may pose to children. Attorneys general in eight states are suing the company, accusing it of hurting children and deceiving parents by falsely marketing the chatbot as safe for young people. The states allege ChatGPT can be dangerous to vulnerable users, including kids. They say, in some cases, the technology has coached many users to commit suicide or to harm or even kill other people, and they're seeking penalties and court-ordered safeguards.

OpenAI counters that it's done a better job when it comes to kids compared to many others, saying quote, "We've built industry-leading age-specific protections into our product that many other A.I. products lack," pointing to parental controls, break reminders in its ChatGPT 14. Let's talk to one of the state attorneys general who is suing OpenAI, Mike Hilgers of Nebraska.

Thank you so much for being with us. I want to talk to you about sort of the approach here, because obviously to be successful in a lawsuit, it would be very important for you all to show that OpenAI sort of knows that it has these problems, that there is culpability. Do you have the goods? Do you have evidence that they know they have been doing something wrong and continue to keep doing it?

MIKE HILGERS, (R) NEBRASKA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, thanks for having me on. We certainly have to show that they're culpable and that they violated Nebraska law. We absolutely believe that we have the goods. Take the two different types of harms that we've articulated. One is that they are deceiving parents and children by communicating and marketing their product as being safe for kids.

They put it on the app stores being appropriate for kids age 13 and up, and what we know is that that is not the case. And under Nebraska law, which is just a classic consumer protection issue, you cannot say that your product is safe if it is in fact not safe. We don't have to show beyond that they had some special level of knowledge, although we think that we will.

But nevertheless, we think we have that. At the same time, a company cannot sell defective harmful products into a state. Again, whether they know or not is actually not relevant to what we have to prove in front of a Nebraska jury, although we think that, ultimately, we'll be able to do that.

KEILAR: I mean, it can be incredibly effective though, right? You've seen that with social media companies. So if you say you think you will be able to show knowledge, for instance, in 2021, there was the Facebook leak. You had Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower, who revealed that executives were aware of the risks to young people.

She had the goods. She had the documents. Do you have that? Or are you hoping that this lawsuit, these other lawsuits from other states, will actually bring those kind of folks out of the woodwork?

HILGERS: No, that's a great question. Nebraska, we were on the forefront of that Meta case, and we didn't have some of the information that we had when we filed the suit. But discovery ultimately proved out our claims there, which is why we ended up in a landmark settlement. It's the same thing here. We have a tremendous amount of publicly available information, including public statements relating to the safety protocols and really the erosion of safety for ChatGPT.

So we think we have more than enough to get to where we are today, which is just the beginning of the legal process. But certainly as this case plays out, we are confident that the internal documents, the conversations that we're going to have, the depositions, will ultimately allow us to prove our case in front of a Nebraska jury.

KEILAR: And you hear OpenAI touting their parental controls, saying they're the leaders when it comes to parental controls, essentially. What do you say to that?

[13:50:00]

HILGERS: It's something that we've heard in the social media context, whether it was TikTok or Meta or Roblox. It's kind of a common thing that a lot of these companies point to, and it actually makes our argument stronger because if you say you have these leading controls and if you say that it is incredibly protected and safe, and it is not safe, what you are doing is violating Nebraska law and that was the problem we had with social media companies.

They would tell parents like me, I have four little kids, that it's industry leading safety protocols when in fact that wasn't the case. And so I think the more that they say that, the more they run risk that if they are not actually implementing those types of safety protocols, which we do not believe that they are, that they actually are just walking right into a Nebraska state violation.

KEILAR: There have been some analyses of A.I. controls that show failures in some instances to trigger alerts, for instance, to parents in instances of mental health emergencies, perhaps delayed notifications, missing what a psychiatrist would consider to be an indicator that there is imminent danger. We've seen a lawsuit filed in Canada against OpenAI because of a school shooting and a failure to notice what was going on there. Are you expecting that kind of thing to come into play here?

HILGERS: Well, we've already seen it. This is some of the allegations that are in our complaint. I mean, very tragic stories. We had a young person who had suicidal tendencies, had depression, and the chatbot discouraged that young person from getting help. He ultimately committed suicide. We had someone else who got very bad medical advice. Again, a young person who combined Kratom and Xanax and ultimately passed away.

And these are the types of things that we're concerned about because they have actually happened in real life. And I think it undermines any statement about world-leading safety protocols. We are not seeing the same thing, by the way. We would apply the same standard to any frontier lab, but we have not seen the same types of things that we've seen with ChatGPT and OpenAI with the other ones, say Grok or Anthropics' Claude.

KEILAR: And just very quickly before I let you go, the Trump administration does not share your concerns when it comes to A.I., right? When it comes to a chatbot like this, when it comes to ChatGPT. Does that at all affect, you think, potentially the outcome that you could have?

HILGERS: Well, I actually disagree with the premise. I don't think the Trump administration said anything about whether or not state consumer protection or UDITPA laws that bar deceptive marketing as the safety of a product doesn't apply here. I actually don't think they've said that.

In fact, I think a lot of what the Trump administration has done rightfully at the national level is to balance speed with some safety and guardrails so that we win the national security -- for national security purposes, win the race with China.

So actually, I think there's been from the beginning, both the Trump administration and the states, an understanding that there's a federal role and there's a state role. And I will say this falls squarely within historic state powers. The Consumer Protection Authority in Nebraska has been around for decades.

And quite honestly, I'd be surprised if anyone says that, oh yeah, this is something that's appropriate for these A.I. companies to do.

KEILAR: All right. Mike Hilgers, thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

HILGERS: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: The Vatican releasing an update on Pope Leo as he recovers in hospital after his lung surgery and cancer diagnosis. We are live in Rome right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:57:59]

KEILAR: Prayers and well-wishes are pouring in for Pope Leo two days after surgeons removed a cancerous growth from his right lung. His doctors say they are confident the cancer has been removed and the Pope spokesman said today, the 71-year-old pontiff is progressing as expected. Let's get details now from CNN Vatican Correspondent, Christopher Lam who is in Rome outside the hospital where Pope Leo is being treated.

Christopher, officials gave an update earlier on his condition. What more did they say?

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, basically, the Pope is recovering well following the surgery to remove part of his lung. He has been getting up and about. He's been receiving a senior official from the Vatican. He's been doing some work activities. So it seems that the post-operation recovery is going well.

The X-ray, we're told by the Vatican, shows that the lung is recovering. I think more broadly though, there is still a lot of concern. A cardinal who knows the Pope very well, Cardinal Cupich of Chicago, has given an interview to a Catholic Magazine America saying that he was really shocked by the news and that there's been palpable sense of shock across the Vatican.

I'm here at the hospital. We've been down to the front of the hospital. There's a statue of Pope John Paul II here because, of course, this hospital has a long association with Popes. People have been praying, singing down here at the hospital for Pope Leo.

There is, of course, a lot of hope too that the Pope can recover. He is someone who is in good physical shape and you know, before he was Pope, he had a personal trainer and he had that to make sure he was in shape.

Incidentally, the personal trainer didn't actually know who his client was until he saw the Pope coming out on the balcony after his election. So whilst there's a lot of concern for Leo, there is a lot of hope that he can recover, but we've got to wait to see what the final test results show. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Christopher, we will be looking for those results. --