Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Ukraine Out of Patriot Defense Missiles as Trump Feud Boils Over; Higher Energy Costs Stoke U.S. Wholesale Inflation; Diesel Prices Approach Record Highs Despite Trump's Russia Deal; Super El Nino to Determine What U.S. Areas Get Rain or Snow. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 15, 2026 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

MAJ. HARRISON MANN, FORMER U.S. ARMY OFFICER AND INTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL: ... Because if Trump withholds Starlink, withholds early warning about missile strikes, we're going to see a repeat of what we saw this week, which is Russia taking advantage of that and striking Ukrainian infrastructure unopposed. It looks like Zelenskyy has decided to risk taking that cost. That's a first for him because that's what's going to happen if Trump doesn't fold.

He's also kind of, it's interesting, adopting for the first time kind of Trumpian negotiation tactics. After years of appealing to moral and strategic arguments for why the U.S. needs to support him, he's now just kind of doing outright, we could call it pressure, call it blackmail, but trying to use the kind of strength that we have seen Trump respond to with other foreign leaders. I don't know if it's going to work.

And even if it does work, it may mean that Ukraine has to endure a period where Trump does withhold that critical support and Ukraine is extra exposed.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We'll see what comes next. Major Harrison Mann appreciate the analysis. Thanks so much.

So there's an unsettling surge in inflation just as midterm voting heats up. We're going to look at exactly what is costing Americans so much more and how this could play out for President Trump's midterm strategy. That's after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Inflation is one of the main issues for midterm voters with just 19 days left in this election. And today, a new report shows prices surging. U.S. wholesale costs made their biggest jump in four years, driven higher by rising energy costs. CNN's Matt Egan is with us now to break all of this down. So Matt, just how much are gas prices weighing on the economy?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Brianna, this has just been one of the biggest pain points for consumers really since the war with Iran started. Before the war, gas was cheap, right? $2.98 a gallon. But look at this, $4.33 a gallon nationally. And in some states, notably including some battleground states for the midterms like Michigan, prices are much, much higher. Now, it's true that gas prices were even higher four years ago under President Biden after Russia invaded Ukraine.

At one point, gas was over $5 a gallon. But the problem is, this year, gas prices have just been persistently high. In fact, today marks the 167th day so far this year where the national average has been $4 a gallon or higher.

That is the most on record for any year, blowing away the prior record of 2022 under former President Biden. And keep in mind, it's not even Halloween yet, so it could get much higher. The only other year where gas prices were ever about $4 a gallon was back in 2008, just before Lehman Brothers imploded during the Great Recession.

But it's not just gas prices, it's also diesel. And that's a big deal because diesel is the workhorse fuel that really powers the modern economy. Diesel before the war, again, it was cheap, well under $4 a gallon.

Now, $6.32 a gallon. Now, high prices for diesel caused President Trump to just last week announce this controversial plan to import diesel from Russia. He said that that plan would make diesel prices plunge.

But analysts that I'm talking to, they're very skeptical for two reasons. One, there's a lot of skepticism that Russia can really ramp up its diesel exports because a lot of the refineries had been damaged in the war with Ukraine. The other problem is that this is not even that much diesel.

It's really just a drop in the bucket. So the plan calls for the U.S. to import about 2.2 million barrels of diesel from Russia. That sounds like a lot, but not when you consider that every day, the U.S. consumes about 4 million barrels of diesel and heating oil, which is basically the same thing as diesel. So as one energy executive told me, this wouldn't even last the United States beyond lunchtime if all of those imports happened in one day. So look, bottom line here, Brianna, fuel prices, whether it's diesel or gas, it is making consumers very frustrated about the cost of living, and it's lifting inflation higher and higher and further away from the Fed's 2 percent goal. Back to you.

KEILAR: I've been doing a lot of third and fifth grade math as a helper, Matt, and it looks a lot like your graphic there. Very good job. Thank you so much for the explainer -- Boris.

EGAN: Of course, Brianna.

SANCHEZ: Let's talk more about what all this means for the president's midterm strategy with Marc Short. He's a former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, now serves as board chair for the conservative advocacy organization Advancing American Freedom. Marc, great to see you.

MARC SHORT, Of course, thanks for having me. SANCHEZ: Let's start with this Russian diesel deal. There are questions about the effectiveness. Matt walked through the numbers.

Is this simply a messaging plan by the president to try to show American voters that he's doing what he can to lower energy prices?

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO VP MIKE PENCE: Perhaps, charitably, that's what it is. It's a pretty terrible policy, and it's a pretty bad message. Matt walked through the reality that it's 4 million barrels a day in diesel Americans consume. We actually refine and produce over 5 million.

So we actually have a surplus daily in America that we are exporting. So why would taking in diesel from Russia lower prices when we're actually having a surplus produced every day in America? So economically, it's nonsensical.

But even if Russia's basic refineries have been, in many cases, destroyed and disabled, they don't have the capacity to do it. But if they did, and we were buying it, it's just blood money to Russia to kill more Ukrainians. Meanwhile, Russia's providing intel to Iran, who is using it against our men and women in uniform.

[14:40:00]

So this whole policy makes no sense economically. But from a national security perspective, it's even more nefarious.

SANCHEZ: There are also questions about whether it's even legal, given some of the sanctions that have been passed by Congress.

SHORT: And a law in 2022 that basically forbids us from accepting any Russian oil and gas until Russia has reached a settlement and basically vacated from Ukraine.

SANCHEZ: So how did this policy come about? Why did the president --?

SHORT: I don't know that, Boris. My assumption, again, as you said, he's trying to figure out ways to lower energy prices. And I assume that probably Putin told him that he could help with that and he accepted that.

But I just think it's a very misguided policy.

SANCHEZ: Notably, the president's other effort on the issue of energy prices has been to pivot and place the blame on Joe Biden. And you saw the chart there back in 2022, gas prices hovered over four dollars a gallon for 158 days. Now, four years later, 167 days.

And for some reason, after Halloween, it's going to get it's going to get worse, according to Matt. Is shifting the blame an effective strategy? Do you think voters buy that?

SHORT: I think at this point, after nearly two years, that it's the president's responsibility. I think, Boris, as somebody who supports his kinetic action in Iran, feels like he's taking the right course. The peace dividend in Iran could be huge, but I don't think it's been explained to the American people.

I think they're willing to accept higher prices if there's a clear explanation of what this is going to achieve in the long run. But I think we have to keep in mind that much of the energy prices that are elevated are on top of a trade policy that already had prices higher. And so you look at the battleground states for Republicans right now, and you're basically fighting in states of Ohio, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, reliable Republican states, but are suffering under high fertilizer costs, high diesel costs and basically inability to export their agricultural products because of this trade war.

So it's like it's compounded. I think there's a lot of focus just on the gas prices, but I think in any cases there was already anxiety because of the trade war. And this is added on top of it.

SANCHEZ: So I wonder what you make of the argument from Jason Rantz, for example, a conservative radio host we just had on. He made the case that in a lot of these states that Democrats feel very bullish about, the polling, it's under sampling voters who just don't want to participate in polls.

And we've seen this before. And Democrats have bought into polls before that that appear very promising. Sometimes they divert resources there.

You are much more pessimistic about Republicans chance.

SHORT: Well, look, it could be it could be the polling's wrong. As you said, I think there's analysis that showed in the summer months, the last few election cycles that they've overestimated Democrat turnout like 70 percent of the time. So it could be that that's happening. But I think if our message two weeks out, number one message is, hey, the polling's wrong, then I'd like to think we had a message that was, you know what?

Here's what Democrats economic policy would be. Here's why it's to be disastrous for the country. But instead, I think what you're having is daily messages out of the White House is not focused on what the Democrat policy would be.

Instead, it's a policy on Russian diesel exports or it's talking about, you know, public executions or, you know, it's a new story of corruption every day. And so we talk about affordably inflation. There is a new poll out of Fox today that showed corruption is now at the top with inflation.

And so it's hard to get -- I'd like to see our message be focused on what the Democrat policies would be and how dangerous they'd be. But instead, it's hard to break through.

SANCHEZ: And before we go, the question of the messaging coming from the White House, we're trying to learn more about the new press secretary, Katie Zacharia. She's presented herself as a lawyer. She doesn't meet the legal requirements in her home state to actually describe herself as a lawyer to use that title. CNN's White House team found no evidence that she passed the bar exam in the states where she lived and worked since graduating from law school. Doesn't that pose a question of credibility and --?

SHORT: It does. It's an unforced error. I think it's one that can be overcome. I think we'll have to see how she does in the next few press availabilities.

It's clear she doesn't have a ton of experience in this, but the president has confidence in her. And so, you know, let's give her a chance.

SANCHEZ: Do you think the president needs a press secretary?

SHORT: Well, that's a good question. I mean, yes, but I do think that President Trump, you know, he enjoys talking to the press himself a lot. And so it does negate some of the value the press secretary does to being that interface and intermediary between them and the president.

SANCHEZ: Marc Short, thanks for the conversation.

SHORT: Thanks, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

So if you walked a mile in his shoes, you'd still have a long, long way to go. After the break, one man's extraordinary journey around the world.

[14:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. OpenAI is accusing a former employee of stealing files about an unreleased device and sharing some of that information with Apple. The employee had worked at Apple then spent six months at OpenAI before going back to Apple.

The company says it found no evidence to support the allegations. This, of course, all part of an ongoing trade secrets lawsuit between the two companies.

KEILAR: Texas facing a lawsuit over a computer glitch that delayed 600,000 voter registration applications over the past year. Advocacy groups accused the Texas Secretary of State and other offices of violating a 2021 settlement that allowed residents to register to vote online while renewing a driver's license or changing their address. The state says the backlog has been cleared but the glitch left county officials scrambling to process the applications in time for the midterms.

And a daring rescue caught on body cam shows the moments here where New York police officers pulled a man from a burning car after a wrong way crash. NYPD says a good Samaritan alerted officers to the crash that helped them get there in time to pull the man through a window. As you can see, the car was burning.

He was hospitalized with severe injuries. Four other people also taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

[14:50:00]

And the El Nino that supercharged several storms this season will now determine what winter looks like. That new outlook after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: NOAA has released its winter outlook, and they are predicting a warmer winter in the north, a wetter season in the south. CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar joins us from the weather center with a breakdown of the forecast. Allison, how's it look?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, so in a typical El Nino winter pattern, that's kind of similar to what you would see. You would normally have warmer than average temperatures off to the north, especially into the northwest. And then down to the south, you would have wetter than normal conditions.

The interesting thing though about this particular El Nino is it's not a regular typical El Nino.

[14:55:00]

We are forecast to get to a super El Nino this winter. So the real question becomes these above average temperatures reaching those super levels. What does that mean in turn for the forecast?

So when you look at the new winter outlook that just came out, you'll notice you've got above average temperatures across the normal tier. That is normal. What's not normal is how far south some of those temperatures dip.

Places like Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis looking at above average temperatures, which is not typical in an El Nino winter. Then you take a look at the precipitation outlook. Yes, you have above average precipitation across the southern tier.

What's not normal is seeing how far north it stretches up and down the eastern seaboard. So again, noting that yes, there are some similarities to a typical El Nino winter, but there are definitely some components of this that are unusual, likely due to the fact that it is expected to be a Super El Nino. Now, when we talk about the precipitation, especially those above average numbers for much of the south, keep in mind there are some areas that this is good news for them to hear, especially the southern plains where you have a lot of drought conditions and in some cases prolonged drought conditions.

So now if we can add in some of that moisture to a lot of these areas, it is likely going to improve the drought conditions. Unfortunately, it's not going to improve them in the short term. It's likely just going to be more of a long-term improvement once we actually get into December, January and February of the upcoming winter. SANCHEZ: Allison Chinchar, thank you so much for breaking that down for us.

With just 19 days until Election Day, it's really anyone's guess whether Democrats will be able to flip control of the House or Senate. North Carolina has essentially become a must-win for Democrats if they want to win the upper chamber.

CNN chief national correspondent John King is speaking to voters all over the map.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Big Pillow Brewery was among the first Hot Springs businesses to reopen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's beautiful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about them apples?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Perfect.

KING (voice-over): Owner A.B. Rubin is an independent who leans blue, calls Trump classless and corrupt, makes clear she wants big change.

KING: Have you ever been this close to an election in recent years thinking a Democrat can win this House seat?

A.B. RUBIN, OWNER BIG PILLOW BREWERY: No.

KING (voice-over): Why the Democrats have better odds even here this time is no secret. Higher prices make recovering from the flood even harder.

RUBIN: We had hoped for a busier summer this year than last year, and that didn't happen. I think the economy has been really hard on people for travel this past summer.

KING: The history in North Carolina in recent years is overwhelmingly Republican when the winner of an election goes off to work in Washington. Republicans, for example, have won nine of the last 10 presidential elections here. North Carolina last elected a Democrat to the Senate 18 years ago, back in 2008.

And Republicans have easily won all seven elections here in the 11th congressional district since the lines were redrawn and the district was made more red after the 2010 census. Republicans in those elections here averaging 58 percent of the vote.

KING (voice-over): But the 11th district is a toss-up in the final days this year. This isn't the only North Carolina House race critical to the balance of power in Washington. A second is 400 miles east along North Carolina's Atlantic coast.

KING: It's a big late campaign question because the president's poll numbers are simply so bad. Are Democrats going to have a good midterm election night or is there a big blue wave brewing? Well, where I'm standing right now will be a big part of the answer.

This is North Carolina's first congressional district. Democrat Don Davis is the incumbent. Back in 2024, Congressman Davis narrowly won re-election. But at the same time, President Trump carried his district by three points.

So Don Davis was going to be a top Republican target this year anyway. But then North Carolina Republicans redrew the lines. They took away from the district several predominantly Black Democratic counties and they added a handful of Republican counties like this one.

Under the new lines, President Trump would have carried the district by 11 points. So by that new math, in 2026, Congressman Davis should be toast, right?

KING (voice-over): Laurie Buckhout is the Republican candidate.

KING: It's a side charger.

KING (voice-over): Nick McFerrin bought this gun shop in Moorhead City 10 years ago. Says business is pretty good. His politics could not be clearer.

KING: What is it you like about him?

NICK MCFERRAN, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: What's not to like about him? I think he's straightforward. I like what he does.

KING (voice-over): He's confident Republicans will turn out and flip the House seat.

MCFERRAN: Constantly people talk about the election. I think definitely she will win.

KING (voice-over): Moorhead City is in Carteret County. Trump won 71 percent here two years ago. Local Democrats, though, insist that even here, the midterm mood is change.

LISA HOLMAN, 1ST VICE CHAIR, CARTERET COUNTY DEMOCRATS: We're going to roll it blue. We are going to roll it blue. And what's interesting is the people that we're talking to, we have a lot of unaffiliateds that in the past, have potentially have voted red.

People are angry. They're ready for a change.

KING (voice-over): Be skeptical, especially when it comes to this House race. But North Carolina hugging the Atlantic coast has two big pluses. One, it's gorgeous.

And on election night, it gives us a giant early test of the midterm blue wave debate.

John King ...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

END