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Trump Making Midterm Blitz With Just Over Two Weeks to Election Day; Oil Prices Fall as Investors Weigh Russian Supply Hitting Market; Macron Condemns Those Who Sought to Bring Down the Republic. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired October 19, 2026 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: New look at the country's mood when it comes to the president. The new data showing President Trump is more unpopular than ever as he gears up for a week straight hitting the trail campaigning in red states he honestly shouldn't have to.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Will violence explode again today in France after a weekend of chaos across the country fueled by anger at the government over the spiraling cost of living and education underfunding? President Macron placing blame, yet urging calm as well.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A horrifying accident. An Air Force tech sergeant with 15 years of service falls to his death while rappelling at a college football game.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: All right. So, happening today, voters are voting starting today in eight more states. And with 15 days to go and the balance of power at stake, early in-person voting kicking off in three Senate races that we are closely watching. We're talking about in Texas and Alaska and South Carolina, and here are all the states where early voting begins today.

Democrats continue to appear to have the edge in the race for who will hold the power in Congress. They're leading 54 to 45 in the latest CNN poll of polls, choice for Congress among likely and registered voters. One GOP strategist told Politico, at least when it comes to Iowa, quote, I think the congressionals and the governor's races are effed.

President Trump's approval rating is not helping. CNN poll of polls also has him at just 34 percent approval right now. In facing these strong and seem to be just growing stronger political headwinds, the president is hitting the trail, campaign trail again today, with a plan to campaign in seven states over the next seven days. What could come from it?

CNN's Kristen Holmes is live at the White House for us this morning. Good morning, Kristen. What do you see? What are you hearing from the White House about the plans? KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Kate. And today, President Trump is going to be in ruby red Kansas. And I just want to be very clear. You mentioned this a few moments ago. These are states that President Trump should not have to be campaigning in. This is a state that has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since the 1930s. President Trump, just two years ago, won this by double digits, and yet he is on the ground campaigning for Senator Roger Marshall, a staunch ally of his, because this race is so close.

We also know that the Senate Leadership Fund, which is a Republican PAC, is pouring $14 million into this race because it is now considered a toss-up. I mean, that is not the kind of money they're spending in Texas, but it's also not a small amount of change.

Now, President Trump, he talked all this weekend at various events about why he was doing this. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't need to do this. I could sit home. I already won. Somebody said, good luck with the election. I said, no, I already won. I don't need to do this, but I have to because if they win the midterms, all of a sudden you're going to see a slide, and all of the crap that we talk about, the incompetent stuff that we talk about, is going to come back, and we're going to go through the same process, and I don't think our country can handle it again. I really don't. So, that's why I'm here working my ass off for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, what's interesting about that, you know, he says he's working his ass off for the American people, for Republicans, going to all of these various states. Well, part of the problem in Kansas is that there are a number of farmers who are working their butts off as well and not seeing any kind of change. They are worried about diesel prices. They are worried about tariffs that are affecting all of this different farm industry. They have concerns about the Iran war, which is driving up costs. I mean, these are all the things that they equate to the current administration.

And when you hear President Trump talking about shenanigans and things that'll happen if Democrats are elected, one of the things he's not saying outright, although he has in the past, is they are looking at potential impeachment hearings, investigations, all stuff that this administration also does not want to deal with.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Clearly, one thing of -- one point of agreement is there are lots of people working their you know what's off right now. But for what, for whom and to what end, there's where the debate lies.

[07:05:00]

It's great to see you, Kristen. Thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Joining us now to discuss more, Political Reporter for Axios Stef Kight. Thank you so much for being here.

Look, one of the races that's really heating up and getting a lot of attention is, of course, Michigan, the Senate race between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers. The president has been attacking El-Sayed over the weekend. He even called him a jihadist. His opponent is trying to link him to the Muslim Brotherhood, and El- Sayed is responding. He- here is what he said to a voter who came to a town hall and accused him of the same. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: Sure. Yes, absolutely. But I want to ask to the question that you're asking. Why are you asking the question?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, because they're a terrorist group.

EL-SAYED: Okay. No, but what are you implying? Do you assume that I wouldn't? You're asking the question because implicitly you assume that I'll have dual loyalties, right? You assume that somehow I wouldn't disavow, or that I'll have some higher order allegiance than to the Constitution. And I'm just telling you that for me, that Constitution is the guiding light.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Constitution is the guiding light, he says. Is there any chance that answer will put this question to bed?

STEF KIGHT, POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: I mean, I don't think anything is going to fully put some of the attacks to bed when it comes to this issue, but it is very interesting to see how Abdul El-Sayed has been going even harder against these attacks, calling them out explicitly. And this is not even the first time recently. There have been other interviews where he's been given an opportunity to kind of respond to what has been kind of the theme of the Republican campaign in this race.

And, you know, it is a very forceful response, and it's clear that the campaign feels that it is helpful for him to not just brush past these questions, but to try to be very direct in his answer to them. And I think it's notable that Republicans also -- while this is certainly one of the focuses of their campaigns, we've also noticed in Michigan Republican Mike Rogers and people in his camp also trying to shift and not only attack Abdul El-Sayed for, you know, supposed, you know, links to the Muslim Brotherhood but also trying to focus again on gas prices, on cost of living.

Because at the end of the day, while there are certainly voters in Michigan who will care a lot about how Abdul El-Sayed responds to these attacks, we've also seen him successfully pivot to this issue of affordability, which is always top of mind for voters across the country.

SIDNER: Yes, and that is the number one issue at this point.

I do want to ask you about another race garnering huge amounts of political spending. It also does have the nation's attention, and that's the Senate race i- in Texas, where you have Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico. Let me just give you a sample of the two speaking over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN PAXTON (R), TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: James Talarico is a vegan who hates meat. Hey, he announced his campaign had officially become a non-meat campaign because our meat consumption supposedly causes major climate change. In Texas, that's not a campaign, that's a cry for help.

JAMES TALARICO (D), TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: Republicans know just as well as Democrats that there is no place in Texas for guys like Ken Paxton. That's why these two parties that don't seem to agree on much these days came together to impeach the most corrupt politician in our state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Look, Talarico is a- also saying that, look, he's the underdog in this. And there's a lot of excitement around him, but given the huge number of Texas voters who are Republicans, won't he have to really flip quite a few of them to win this particular race? How do you see things?

KIGHT: Yes. Look, it's Texas. Texas is extremely Republican, has been for a very long time. And, you know, Democrats have gotten their hopes up before. We've seen this film before where Democrats feel excited about their candidate and feel like they can finally flip a statewide seat.

That's still going to be difficult, if only for the population in Texas. It's going to rely a lot not only on Talarico flipping independents and flipping some Republicans to his side, but also it's going to come down to turnout, and that's something that I'm hearing a lot from Republicans, where so many of these races, it's really going to come down to do Trump voters turn out for these Republicans at the top of the ticket? Can Ken Paxton convince enough Republicans in Texas to turn out for him even if he's not their favorite politician in the state, even if they would've rather a John Cornyn or someone else to be running against Talarico? And that's what we're going to be watching into November, not just, you know, these ongoing fights but how do they actually turn out voters come Election Day.

SIDNER: Stef Kight, it is good to have you. Thank you so much for getting up real early for us to discuss all of this. Appreciate it. John?

BERMAN: Well, the woman who drove a truck onto the field during a kids' soccer game, killing two people including a six-year-old child, has been released without charges.

[07:10:03]

Then 15 days before the election, which way are gas prices headed with so little time left?

And the horrifying fall in front of thousands, an airman dies while rappelling before a college football game. We have the latest information on all this, this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. This morning, you see oil prices are mixed. Brent crude was actually down quite a bit more a little bit earlier, but it's crept back up again, this after investors were anticipating Russian oil hitting the market.

[07:15:07]

President Trump signed that executive order waiving sweeping sanctions on countries that import Russian oil and gas. Those sanctions passed by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in Congress.

The treasury secretary says oil prices could go down before the end of the year, but that will depend on the Iran war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: So, Kristen, let's be clear here. This is an energy supply side shock. We will get to the other side of this. This is one factor.

KRISTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS HOST: Do you anticipate gas prices will come down by the new year?

BESSENT: Well, again, it will depend on what happens with the Iran conflict.

BERMAN: Indeed, it will.

With us now, CNN's Matt Egan. We can see West Texas now crept a little bit negative, but this is basically flat compared to what it was earlier. What's expected over the next two weeks?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, John, I mean, it's all about what's going on in the war, both the war in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Now, as you mentioned, Brent down but only a little bit, right, down less than 1 percent, and also down from very high levels. Right, $110 a barrel was where Brent finished on Friday, highest level in five months.

But you mentioned that the executive order that the president signed over the weekend, and that does appear to be a factor taking some pressure off energy prices. This executive order, it does pause tariffs of up to 100 percent on goods from major buyers of Russian oil and natural gas, also pausing tariffs of up to 500 percent on U.S. imports of Russian goods. Ironic here to see the president, who has embraced tariffs more than any modern president here, find tariffs that he doesn't like. In this case, these are tariffs designed to pressure Russia.

Now, the oil market is basically saying, okay, less tariffs on Russia means more energy from Russia, so the energy market seems to like this. But keep in mind, I mean, prices are very high. This is Brent going back over the past year or so. You can see where the war started. Oil prices -- when the year started, oil was at around $60 a barrel. Now, again, just below $110 a barrel, and really near the highest levels of this conflict.

And, look, these have been historic gains for Brent. Brent, so far this year, up almost 80 percent. There's almost -- there's really nothing that compares in modern times. You look back to the president's first term in office, and there were some years with slight gains, some years with slight losses, but nothing like this. In fact, Brent is on track for the biggest annual gain since 1999, and, of course, this has kept prices at the pump very high.

So, the national average, $4.30 a gallon, it has come down from a month ago, but look at this, dramatically higher than before the war started, and this is just historically high for this time of year, when demand is usually really cooling off and prices usually would be coming down.

One last point for you is diesel. So, diesel, before the war started, well under $4 a gallon. But look where we are now. $6.32 is the national average, only about 20 cents off the record high set in September. And what's also notable here is diesel, it's actually a little bit more expensive than it was on October 9th. That's when the president announced that controversial deal to buy diesel from Russia. So, diesel is actually more expensive than it was then.

BERMAN: And I got to say, with Brent crude flirting around $110 a barrel, it's hard to imagine diesel or gas prices at the pump going down substantially in the next 15 days.

EGAN: Yes, that's right, John. Brent would just have to come significantly lower to get any sort of relief at the pump.

BERMAN: All right. Matt Egan, thank you very much for that. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, France is reeling this morning after the protests there just erupted into dangerous violence this weekend, violence that is now spreading across Europe. We're going to take you there.

And an annual tradition, yes, that has hundreds of daredevils jumping off a bridge.

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[07:20:00]

SIDNER: This morning, France is reeling from the worst rioting it has seen in many years. Widespread riots and looting swept across the streets of Paris after initial peaceful protests that began with students angry over overcrowded and underfunded schools, but swelled with citizens furious over the skyrocketing cost of living.

French President Macron is vowing to hold those responsible, blaming what he called ultra left-wing radical groups for the violence. More than 2,000 people have been arrested in all this, and Macron, though, did acknowledge legitimate demands across France over the cost of living, studying, and deteriorating public services.

CNN's Melissa Bell is joining us now from Paris. You have been watching this and been in it, seeing what is happening. What are you seeing now? What is the cleanup, and are you expecting this to start all over again for more of these huge protests?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The end of this doesn't look like it's going to come any time soon, Sara. Still this Monday, massive cleanup operation, not just here in Paris, but across France because of the remnants of what were these extraordinarily violent riots. You know, we go to these protests time after time. They tend to start off fairly peaceful. They end in tear gas and clashes. They started in clashes on Saturday and again on Sunday. There was more damage caused on Sunday night when rioters took back to the streets of Paris right here where I am around Republique with an extra 350 people arrested.

So, a lot of soul searching this morning about the police response, why there weren't more policemen on the streets to try and prevent some of that looting. More than 1,500 businesses were looted over the course of Saturday.

We've had the interior minister offer his resignation.

[07:25:00]

The French president has refused it, urging him to stand on. But a lot of criticism about that police response, how it could have been so inadequate, Sara, when they knew that there were going to be many people on the streets of France on Saturday night. So, still the remnants all over the city. You can see here they've been trying to sweep some of this debris to the side as they clean it off.

We've even heard this morning a great deal of anger from the mayors of some of these major French cities, here in Paris, Marseille, and Nice. Again, very angry about the police response or lack of it, with the mayor of Paris going so far as to accuse the government of having deliberately allowed this protest movement to degenerate. Sara?

SIDNER: Can you give us some sense of how this may play out politically right now there?

BELL: I think that is the big question at this stage. So much of this explosion of anger was fueled by huge dissatisfaction with public services with the government, with Emmanuel Macron's policies over the course of the last eight years, and a great deal of renewed popularity for the far right and the far left. So, this huge polarization of French politics with fears for what that could mean for the election in six months' time. This is what the French prime minister just had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIEN LECORNU, FRENCH PRIME MINISTER: This raises several questions for us, the first being how to protect the very democratic framework, the presidential election. There's no way we will allow violent minorities to impose an agenda of violence and prevent us from holding this election. For me, this raises the issue of candidate safety, personal safety. It raises the issue of safety at campaign rallies regardless of the political parties.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BELL: One of the things the French president announced in an address to the nation that's been widely criticized, by the way, for being very short on concrete measures, was this meeting of all of France's political classes to try and urge calm and get them to agree on public positions denouncing the violence and pledging no longer to stoke it. It's very difficult to see how that happens given how the far right and far left have so far instrumentalized these protests one way or another.

So, a lot of concern now about what happens next, and already, Sara, the Yellow Vests that were so central to the protests here on Saturday, such a big part of it, are announcing a fresh demonstration for next weekend.

SIDNER: All right. We will see how that goes down, and I know you will be there giving us really a view as you're walking through there of the things that are boarded up and some of the damage that you're seeing still this morning.

Thank you so much, Melissa Bell, great work. John?

BERMAN: Breaking overnight, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says his country just saw a wave of Russian ballistic missile attacks and he got no early warning, this as President Trump continues to bash the Ukrainian leader and move U.S. policy in a way that helps Russia.

An emu on the lam, deputies say the bird had one goal, to wreak havoc.

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