Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Gas Prices Skyrocket in States with Critical Midterm Races; Polls Suggest Young Men Turning on Trump, Republicans; Trump DOJ Sues to Block Alaska Senate Results if GOP Incumbent Loses; NASA Shares Update on Artemis III and IV Missions; Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, today expressing deep distress over sex abuse claims involving her estranged father. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 23, 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]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: ... group is losing faith in President Trump's economy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: With time running out before Election Day, gas prices just keep running up. The most dramatic impacts are being felt in states that could decide the balance of power in Congress. CNN's Matt Egan is here, and Matt, what are you seeing?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Brianna, this gas price spike is stunning, and so is the timing. Voters were already very mad about high gas prices. Now, they're going much higher ahead of Election Day in some of the biggest battleground states.

Talk about an October surprise. Now, let's zoom in on Michigan in particular, one of the biggest battleground states of all.

[14:35:00]

Two days ago, the average in Michigan was $4.44 a gallon. Not cheap, but look where we are now, $4.77 a gallon. So that is a 33-cent increase. You could go weeks or months without that kind of an increase, but we got that in just the last 48 hours.

And it's not just Michigan. When you look at other states in the region, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois, all of them moving sharply higher, all of them in the last two days. And look at Ohio in particular, another major battleground state.

We're looking at a 39-cent increase in the last two days. So why is this happening? Well, this is all about local refinery issues.

In particular, the ExxonMobil refinery in Joliet, Illinois, is suffering an outage. Exxon confirms to CNN that, yes, they are experiencing ongoing operational issues, but the company hasn't specified exactly what has gone wrong, nor have they provided any sort of time frame for when it will get back to normal. But look, this is just compounding the global refinery shortage caused by the war in the Middle East and the Russian-Ukraine war.

There's just no margin for error right now. And that's why a refinery outage in Illinois can have such widespread impact. And look, Michigan was already experiencing the biggest 12-month increase in gas prices of any state in the country.

Prices there up $1.67 over the last 12 months, more than any other state, more than even what's been experienced in California. And this is just squeezing consumers right before the election. Brown University has some research out where they've found that consumers in Michigan are paying an extra $2.6 billion more since the Iran war started. That's just on gasoline. It doesn't count diesel. It doesn't count interest rates.

This is costing the typical household almost $650 more. So, bottom line here, Brianna, voters were already angry about high gas prices. Now they're going much higher in some of the very places that could decide the balance of power in Congress.

Back to you.

KEILAR: Very interesting. Matt, thank you. So, as the price of gas and so many other necessities climb, polls are picking up on a stunning shift, and that is young men.

A group that helped propel President Trump to the White House just two years ago appear to be souring on him and the Republican Party. Steve Contorno is with us now on this story. So, Steve, you recently went to Michigan, which is one of these states that could decide control of the Senate, to see what's behind the shift.

What did you learn?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, absolutely, those gas prices that Matt just mentioned came up repeatedly in my conversations with young men there. And they are certainly frustrated with the cost of getting by. But there are deeper anxieties that I heard from young men about what it is like to be trying to enter adulthood at this moment.

And that the concern is that the ability to buy a house, to get ahead, to move out of their parents' basements and start a family, start a life, is just becoming more and more out of reach. And they're worried that they won't be able to go into the careers that they want, that they won't be able to turn their degrees into something worthwhile. And all this angst is building up right at a moment when these elections are going to be very consequential.

Take a listen to what a few of them told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I voted for him, I can't lie. But seeing how he's just been a tyrant with his power, to be honest with you is the best way to describe it. Starting wars that were not needed to be started.

Gas prices have continuously gone up. I drive a truck, I have to pay $100 for gas every time I fill it up. It's a little bit ridiculous.

And just a lot of the moves he makes are just spearheaded and they're not smart at all for the state that we're in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just basic necessities, you know, lower gas prices. We want to be able to buy a house, we want to be able to have a family. And I don't -- I haven't seen, and those things were promised to us and so we are all hopeful.

And I think that's why the majority of my generation was backing those type of values. But I think that's shifting over his presidency where we're not seeing those things come to fruition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now take a look at how those frustrations are manifesting themselves in the poll. This is from Harvard's Youth Poll. Likely young men voters under 30.

58 percent of them say they are going to -- or they prefer Democratic candidates over 32 percent for Republican. That's quite a shift from 2024 when this age group was basically split. Now the big question is will they show up to vote?

And that is one area where Democrats still need to make progress.

[14:40:00]

32 percent of young men say that they are unlikely to vote or definitely won't vote in the November election. That is up 7 points from Trump's first midterm election -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Steve, thank you so much. Obviously, a phenomena to watch here.

The Trump administration suing to block Alaska Senate results if the Republican incumbent loses. Trump just saying he's the one who said to do it. We'll have those details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Major developments today in the race for the U.S. Senate. The Department of Justice preemptively filing a lawsuit to potentially block Alaska's results before the first ballot is even counted. The race features four candidates, including two with very similar names, as you see here.

[14:45:00]

You have incumbent Republican Senator Dan S. Sullivan and then independent challenger Dan J. Sullivan. The DOJ says that similarity may confuse voters, even though the ballot identifies Dan S. Sullivan as the incumbent and lists him as a registered Republican.

Under Alaska's election system, voters have the option to rank candidates in order of preference. The Justice Department argues that even if a majority of Alaskans wish to vote for Senator Sullivan, Daniel J. Sullivan's presence on the ballot will result in a victory for Peltola, who happens to be the Democrat.

We're joined now by former Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. She's also the director of the Center for Law and Public Trust at NYU Law. All right, Vanita, first, let's listen to something the president actually said just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any thoughts on the Alaska lawsuit?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I'm the one that said do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right, Vanita, I know we all know that the attorney general, Todd Blanche, isn't big on independence from the White House. He's said that. But is it problematic what the president is saying there?

VANITA GUPTA, FORMER ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, it's problematic for a few reasons. One is what you said, which is we have a president who is literally running the Justice Department and is telling them to do some fairly radical things that are not holding up in court at all. And we can talk about that.

Yes, so that is one problem. But the second problem is that the department's lawsuit that he, the president, is now saying he told them to file is completely meritless. And so we have a Justice Department now that is supposed to represent the American people, you and me and everyone else in this country, but is instead the president's lawyer doing his bidding, filing completely meritless lawsuits like this one in Alaska, and they're going to lose.

But it seems to me that they don't much care about whether there's actual any basis for filing this lawsuit. They're just doing the president's bidding. And that's a real problem.

KEILAR: Let's talk about the basis here. DOJ is relying on introductory federal voter registration, this kind of law, right? Do they have the authority to weigh in?

GUPTA: So first of all, it needs to be stated very clearly that in our Constitution, the states run our elections, not the federal government. So this effort for the Justice Department to say that they are going to -- they're asking a court to basically block the certification of a Senate race if Senator Dan Sullivan loses and if votes for the second candidate who is also, as you noted, named Dan Sullivan, changes the outcome. And there's no federal statute that authorizes the relief that the Justice Department seeks.

And actually, the Alaska Supreme Court, which does have the authority, the states, as I said, run the elections, and courts sometimes have to intervene at the state level. The Alaska Supreme Court has already concluded that both men named Dan Sullivan will stay on the ballot. There's already been litigation up and down through state Supreme Courts.

And because our Constitution is clear on the fact that Washington politicians don't get to administer our elections, neither does the Justice Department, the Constitution says that Alaska, not the U.S. Justice Department, is the authority on who's on the ballot, how votes get counted, the certification of the election. There's no role for the Justice Department to play. And so this move to block certification if the administration's preferred party doesn't win is really unprecedented.

And frankly, it's just further proof that we have a Justice Department right now that is serving as the president's lawyers and not the American people's lawyers.

KEILAR: Yes, the Alaska Superior Court judge rebuffed the Alaska Division of Elections' attempt to take him off the ballot, saying that their decision that his candidacy was not in good faith, was not based on the U.S. Constitution. Alaska law or the division's own regulations. It's interesting, though, here, this filing about this filing being before Election Day.

Is that something that is new or significant to you?

GUPTA: It's highly significant, and I should just add the Alaska Supreme Court affirmed the Superior Court's decisions there. But this type of action is unprecedented, and it's important that we all really understand that. The Justice Department doesn't get involved in certification questions.

It's never happened before. And so this is a matter of setting a radical departure for the department. It is not, as I said, the purview of the federal government to get involved in certification.

[14:50:00]

That is entirely run state by state. Our state and local election officials have been doing incredible work the last 18 months against a torrent of death threats and threats of federal takeover by this Justice Department and by the president. But I should also add they are holding the line, and the courts have been very clear.

The department keeps losing in all of these efforts, whether it's to insert the U.S. Postal Service, to complicate mail-in voting procedures. They got smacked down by the United States Supreme Court, and we're told you can't do that. The department is now, I think, 27- 0. They've lost - sorry, 0 for 27.

They've lost every case seeking private voter data from states where that's been challenged. So they've been throwing a lot of spaghetti at the wall and have, frankly, not been prevailing. I'd put this in the mix, but it's very distressing that the Justice Department is engaging in these types of tactics.

KEILAR: Vanita Gupta, thank you so much for taking us through that. We appreciate it.

GUPTA: Thank you.

KEILAR: We do have some breaking news. NASA is holding a press conference right now revealing its plans to send humans to low-Earth orbit and soon back to the moon. Here's NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED ISAACMAN, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Now, in this incredibly demanding and dangerous business of putting astronauts on the moon, NASA must own the near impossible rather than shifting the burden to our partners. That is how we get -- we give Artemis 4 the greatest possible chance of safely and successfully returning Americans to the lunar surface in 2028.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right. Pete Muntean has been tracking all of this for us. What are we learning about Artemis Missions III and IV?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Artemis III will be a very elaborate dress rehearsal in low-Earth orbit. And NASA said it was going to get an update on a timeline today calling this a bit of an acceleration, although this is not necessarily an acceleration. The headline is NASA is providing new details today on its plan to return American astronauts to the moon in 2028.

The real development is how this is changing the mission that will try to make that deadline. What is different here is that NASA is working with Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin on two very different approaches to landing astronauts on the moon. In the SpaceX concept, Starship would actually help propel NASA's Orion spacecraft toward the moon.

Blue Origin has a different proposal involving multiple propulsion stages. NASA is keeping both of those options for a lunar lander alive right now rather than choosing a winner right now. What happens next year is this big dress rehearsal next summer on Artemis III.

Four astronauts will be aboard the Orion. Dock first with the Blue Origin test vehicle, then with a SpaceX test vehicle. And the astronauts would actually enter Blue Origin spacecraft but remain in Orion during the Starship docking.

This is intended to be a test of critical systems before any attempted landing. The big caveat here is NASA still wants to land astronauts on the moon in 2028, something America has not done since 1972. Still a lot of things to iron out here and so many details in this essential battle of the billionaires.

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos on their different lunar lander designs as we sort of come to a conclusion that will ultimately crescendo after Artemis III here. So this is essentially an in-Earth orbit, in-flight test. A lot of test flying to be done before we ultimately land on the moon.

Still a lot of kinks to iron out though.

KEILAR: All right, but we're going to the moon.

MUNTEAN: That's the big headline, yes.

KEILAR: All right. Pete Muntean, thank you so much.

So still ahead, the father who took down that shooter at that Oregon elementary school where we saw that recent mass shooting is now speaking out about what happened that day. We have that interview just ahead.

[14:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, today expressing deep distress over claims involving her estranged father. British newspaper The Sun reporting that Thomas Markle Jr., which is Meghan -- that's Meghan Markle's half-brother, told authorities he found images depicting child sexual abuse among his father's belongings in the Philippines. Thomas Markle Sr. denies those allegations. CNN's Anna Stewart is joining us now from London. Anna, tell us the details here.

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: So, deeply disturbing allegations made against Meghan Markle's father by his son, as you say. He says he found hundreds, if not thousands, of images depicting child sex abuse at his father's home in the Philippines earlier this year. He says they were in storage boxes, they were on computer hard drives, they were on a phone, and he alerted authorities, feeling like that's what he had to do.

The Philippines Justice Department has told CNN that they are investigating, but Thomas Markle Jr., this is The Sun, also reported this to the U.S.'s FBI hotline, to the U.S. National Center for Exploited and Missing Children, and state police in Pennsylvania, which is where Thomas Markle Sr. was living at the time. We believe he's now living in a rehab center in Florida. Thomas Markle Sr. has vigorously denied all of these allegations, speaking in The Daily Mail newspaper today. And his other daughter, his elder daughter, Samantha Markle, is also backing her father. However, as you say, we've also heard from Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. She released a statement today saying she's deeply distressed at the news.

She also says that she looks back to 2018, which is the year, actually, she got married to Prince Harry. She says a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police here in the U.K. and shared with her that that made disturbing allegations against her father. And she says that is one of the key reasons why she decided to distance herself from her father and to not allow ...

END