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DOJ Sues To Block Alaska U.S. Senate Results If GOP Incumbent Loses; Brazilian President Lula Elected To Fourth Term, Defeats Bolsonaro; Musk Accuses Ukraine Military Of Violating Starlink Terms. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 26, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's not just that. The Justice Department is also already preemptively suing to block certification of Alaska's Senate election results. That is, if the Republican incumbent senator, Dan Sullivan, loses the race. He's Dan S. Sullivan and he's facing a challenge from a man by the same name, Dan J. Sullivan. And the DOJ is saying that should not be able to happen. They went to court Friday to block certification of the race if Sen. Sullivan loses.

And Attorney General Todd Blanche actually was out and about defending that lawsuit to CNN yesterday, arguing that their move is prudent as there could be a crime here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: President Trump is not trying to take over a state election in any way, shape or form. What we're trying to do is make it -- make it clear that if it is obvious after the election that confusion led to an improper and illegal result, that the Alaskan system should be able to address that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining us now, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig for more on this.

Todd Blanche, Elie, made the case that federal law essentially required them to make a move here and said that doing it, he would be -- they'd be doing it even if it was two Democrats on the ballot in this scenario.

What do you make of this?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Well, the attorney general is just simply dead wrong on both the law and the Constitution. So the U.S. Constitution tells us that election procedures are up to the states in the first instance or Congress if Congress passes legislation.

Now, if we look at the scenario here, this dispute all the way -- went all the way up through the Alaska courts, all the way to the Alaska State Supreme Court, which held that there do need to be some differentiators between the two Dan Sullivans, marking one as the senator, the incumbent, the Republica, and the other with none of those things. But the ballot can proceed as planned. So that's what the state of Alaska has said about how it wants to run its election.

Now, Blanche is saying, oh, but there's a federal law that was passed that allows us to get involved. However, if you look at DOJ's brief, the federal law they cite has nothing to do with this scenario. It's a federal law that has to do with outlawing poll taxes and literacy tests and telling us what election monitors can and cannot do. It has nothing to do with ballot design or potential confusion. And the language Blanche uses in his brief is from the preamble to that law. That's sort of the gauzy introductory language, which has no legal relevance.

So his whole argument is based on language that has no legal relevance from a law that has no application here. So despite the vitriol that we saw coming from Todd Blanche during that interview, he's just wrong.

BOLDUAN: You know, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis -- he is a man that has not hesitated to call out the Trump administration of recent. He seems to agree with DOJ on this one. Let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): Alaska has a candidate who just coincidentally happens to be the same name as my friend and colleague who came in with me in 2014. And they also have ranked choice voting. So I think it's appropriate to take a look at it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Is there anything, though, a federal court could do here, given, as you mentioned, this went to the Alaska Supreme Court. They already reviewed it and signed off on how this -- you know, the candidates that are on the ballot and how they would figure this out.

HONIG: Well, Sen. Tillis is wrong too, for the exact same reasons I just laid out.

And you raise an important point. There's also a practical problem here. Even if there was some violation of law here, which there is not, there would be no possible practical way to figure out whether voters who voted for one Dan Sullivan or the other actually meant to vote for that Dan Sullivan. I mean, if you imagine that the incumbent were to receive 100,000 votes -- the incumbent, Dan Sullivan -- and the other guy got 5,000 votes, first of all, there's no way to tell who even voted for those Dan Sullivans. You don't write your name on your ballot.

And second of all, the only thing you could really do if you somehow could know is go to everyone who voted the -- for the other Dan Sullivan and say, hey, did you really mean to vote for this other Dan Sullivan or did you actually mean to vote for the incumbent? There's no possible way to do that here. So there's legal problems as I laid out before. There's also major practical impossibilities really.

BOLDUAN: Let's turn to California for a second. A federal appeals court is now considering what to do about the Justice Department's appeal there in an attempt to force the state to set aside thousands of mail-in ballots. The argument from Justice there is that there are people on a list of potential noncitizens who could possibly vote illegally. The state says that that list that they have compiled and sent over is wildly outdated, is how they describe it.

What's going to happen here?

HONIG: Well, lots of problems with this lawsuit as well.

So first of all, it's not at all clear that the list that came from the feds is even accurate in the first place. The feds have submitted similar lists in other states that have turned out to be wildly inaccurate. Second of all, there's just not enough time to go through this. Here we are, where ballots are being cast across the country. We're a week and change away from the actual Election Day. So there's no way that those ballots can be segregated as the feds want.

[07:35:13]

And third, back to my original point, the Constitution makes clear that it is up to the states how to handle their voter polls -- that the feds can't get involved unless there's some federal legislation and there is none here.

BOLDUAN: Good to see you, Els. Thank you very much -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now is Texas Congressman Pete Sessions, a Republican from Texas. Congressman, it's always great to see you.

I want to shift gears if I can here for a moment because I continue to be fascinated by this Fox News poll, which asks voters their concerns. And you can see their number one concern was corruption in government, 88 percent, even more than inflation or gas prices. So voters say corruption is their biggest concern.

What is it that you think they're talking about, or you think that they see?

REP. PETE SESSIONS (R-TX): Good morning, John.

I will tell you that that's not the number one issue in Texas, but if I were to take this on a national perspective, I would say that I believe that people believe that insider baseball is being played in Washington, D.C. And I'm not sure that people see that their best interests, perhaps by both parties, but at least by the candidates, is not being played out. And so they think that special interest is deciding who they'll be.

BERMAN: So insider baseball is being played in D.C. Insider special interests, you say. The president over the weekend was talking about how rising gas prices

and oil prices are actually, I think, what he was saying, good for oil companies, good somehow for the country. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we've done for this country, we're making money like this country has never made before.

No, I could just see the fake headlines. President Trump is talking about all the money they're making while people are suffering at the pump. That'll be the headline. But I said, I don't give a damn, I'm going to say it. We're making a freaking fortune. Our country is getting stronger and stronger all the time. And those pump prices are going to come down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So who's making a freaking fortune, as he would put it, with high oil prices and high gas prices? I can show you oil prices.

SESSIONS: You know, I'm not really sure, John. I would say to you that the American people believe that someone is making money. And I believe that the American people believe that when they look up at candidates across the country, they do represent either the left or the right and maybe not the middle.

And I think that there are a lot more people that are closer to a balance -- closer to a balance where we're able to admit the things that are right and wrong. For instance, I'm from Texas and I do not want gasoline prices for diesel at $5.50. I do not want the price of gas to be $3.70 and that's exactly where it is.

So I will be straight out and tell you, I think that they think that someone, special interest, is making decisions and I want things closer than I would say to the middle.

Now the thing the president's talking about is that we still have -- for every job that's out there we have seven million jobs that are available for people, and we need people to fill jobs. And that is a good economy. A good economy is one that I think that we relatively have now.

What they want is the discussion about what we're doing and where we're headed to be closer to where both sides come in and agree or disagree, but get closer in what they do rather than, I think, perhaps special interest.

BERMAN: You say you want candidates more toward the middle. Do you think that Texas Senate nominee Republican Ken Paxton is anywhere near the middle?

SESSIONS: Well, now, once again, let's not take this one the wrong way. You asked me my opinion about what the American people are saying. My opinion is that I believe that Ken Paxton is a conservative

Republican who will make sure that we oppose the things that his opponent is speaking about. Texas is Texas, it is not California. And Mr. Talarico, in his ambiguity, plays three sides of the coin and will not give a direct answer. Ken Paxton gives a direct answer and it's a Texas answer. Now that is my opinion.

[07:40:06]

BERMAN: I just -- because it seemed if you did say that you would prefer, you know, people in the middle and I'm just not sure Ken Paxton exactly fits that mold.

SESSIONS: No, no, I think -- John, you're very -- you're very smart and you're very good at this.

What I believe is that people, if you talk about the whole country, want to see things where people can explain where they are and they do not -- they do not want perhaps ambiguity that perhaps the president just said.

Let's just say it straight out. I'm for the consumer. I'm for the consumer. I'm for building our economy. I don't want prices high at the pump. I'm from Texas. I believe that, John.

Now what do I believe people want? I believe people want someone who can explain fully. What does that mean? Where are you? What are we attempting to accomplish here? And I want prices lower at the pump.

BERMAN: And the issue of corruption, obviously, Ken Paxton and local Texas politics was impeached by Republicans inside Texas.

How much is corruption factoring in? You said you don't think corruption is a major issue in Texas. Why not?

SESSIONS: Well, I think what happened is he had a fair trial. He had a fair trial and was not convicted. So I don't know why we would convict him when he was found innocent of the charges that were made against him. All the charges, he was found innocent. So that was a fair trial. I also believe, while I was not present, that it was a long layout. It was an opportunity that was publicly held and he was found not guilty.

BERMAN: He was not convicted by the Texas Senate, that is true.

Congressman Pete Sessions, it is always good to see you.

SESSIONS: He was not.

BERMAN: Yeah, I agree. Yeah, he was not convicted by the Texas Senate.

Thank you for joining us this morning. Appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: New reporting into CNN today. Former Vice President Kamala Harris hitting the road again this week stumping for candidates in Wisconsin and Georgia. And while some Democrats have made it clear they do not want her to run for president again in '28, others say that she is an effective voice, and they're waiting to see what she eventually decides.

CNN's Isaac Dovere spoke with the former vice president on the trail. Isaac, what did she tell you?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER (via Webex by Cisco): Well, we caught up in Mississippi last week, which is a state that, of course, Democrats are hoping to win. They're trying to put that on the board in these last couple of days before the election. And Scott Colom, the candidate there, really thought she could help. And we are seeing that come across with a bunch of other candidates who are saying they want Harris on the trail.

She was in New Hampshire since I spoke with her. She'll be in Wisconsin today and she'll be in Georgia. She is out and about and doing more stops than Barack Obama for sure and then a lot of other prospective 2028 candidates.

but I said to her, "Well, with all of that, where -- you keep on giving this answer about 2028 whether you'll run again. You say you're not sure yet, right." I said, "Do you have a lean?" And we weren't on camera but let's take a listen to what she said to me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I go back and forth.

DOVERE: Yeah.

HARRIS: I honestly go back and forth. Um --

DOVERE: Because of what?

HARRIS: Oh, there are so many factors. I'll be very specific. If I run, it would not be -- my motivation is not to beat other Democrats.

DOVERE: Yeah.

HARRIS: It's to actually do the job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOVERE: So she is thinking about this. She says in a different way -- she says a lot of other candidates talk about or want to look at themselves in the mirror. She thinks Americans are looking for people who want to look at the people. And she's trying to figure out what that means for her and whether she fits into that in a way that she wants to do in running again.

BOLDUAN: She -- clearly, there are candidates who would like to have her campaigning with them on the trail. As you say, she's in Wisconsin just today, but others have made very clear that they do -- they don't necessarily need her to show up for -- to help them.

How does she feel about that? Did you bring this up with her? DOVERE: Yeah, and it's not that they don't necessarily need her. They say they don't want her around. They say, please don't come, don't campaign. And I said to her, "OK, well, you know, you've got candidates for governor in Iowa, for example, and the Senate in Kansas that are saying that. What do you say to them?" And here's what she said to me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I know that I can help.

DOVERE: Yeah.

HARRIS: And how can I sit at home in the comfort of my home when I know there are things I can do to help?

DOVERE: Um-hum.

HARRIS: I don't -- that's the -- I don't know any other life, but that.

DOVERE: Yeah.

HARRIS: That's my point. I don't know any other laugh -- life that is not about there's a problem. What can I do to help --

[07:45:00]

DOVERE: Yeah.

HARRIS -- fix it? Um --

DOVERE: To the people who are saying, I don't want her to campaign -- I don't want her -- what do you say to them?

HARRIS: Oh, I want them to do whatever they need to do to win.

DOVERE: Yeah.

HARRIS: I mean that sincerely. I mean that sincerely. I have run for local, state and national office. I am not naive.

DOVERE: Yeah.

HARRIS: And I want them to win, and I respect whatever decisions they need to make in order to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOVERE: So there -- there's a lot on -- more from this interview that I did with her and a lot more about the reception that she is receiving out in the world, which is a little bit different from some of the political insider conversation. It's very clear on not wanting to run. You can read all that up on our website on cnn.com right now. The article's right there to go through in full.

BOLDUAN: A really interesting conversation, Isaac. Thank you so much for bringing it to us -- John.

BERMAN: You don't often hear candidates sort of on the candid spectrum. That was a little --

BOLDUAN: On the candid spectrum.

BERMAN: That was a little bit closer to candid than you normally hear most politicians.

BOLDUAN: I love that term, J.B., the candid spectrum.

BERMAN: No. It just -- it just felt -- it just felt like, you know, for a moment there that a politician was speaking in ways you don't often --

BOLDUAN: Broke through.

BERMAN: -- hear. Maybe a little bit.

All right, breaking overnight, a stunning election comeback. Brazil's Lula da Silva reelected. The 80-year-old leftist leader, defeated Trump ally Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro in a runoff. Bolsonaro is now challenging the results, saying he's going to request the whole election be annulled.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a historic win for Lula, but his opponent is refusing to concede and says he will go to court to try and have the election annulled. Now, the dispute of that centers around a decision to extend voting nationwide by two hours, which both campaigns had actually requested because of problems with public transportation and heavy rains that had impaired some parts of voting in Brazil. Now, still the electoral authorities say Lula won with 51.8 percent of the vote and a margin of nearly 4.4 million votes.

And the result itself is historic. Lula, who will soon be 81 years old, lost the first round to Flavio Bolsonaro by more than 2.2 million votes. Then he came back to win the runoff. It's the first time since Brazil returned to direct presidential elections in 1989 that the first-round loser has gone on to win the presidency.

And part of what made that turnaround happen was mobilization. More than 33 million voters had stayed home during the first round, so getting people back to the polls became critical for a Lula win.

Now, for the Bolsonaro family, this is a major political blow. Former President Jair Bolsonaro had hoped to return his family to the presidency after losing in 2022. Jair is now serving a 27-year sentence for plotting to overturn that very election.

And similarities aside, there are real implications here for Washington. The Bolsonaros had cultivated close ties to the Trump administration, and Trump stopped short of formally endorsing Flavio. But Flavio touted that relationship -- that closeness to Trump throughout his campaign in Brazil. What Lula's victory does, it is denying Trump of another potential conservative ally in the region, a region where right-wing candidates have recently been gaining more and more ground.

But for Lula, aside from that challenge, his main challenge now will be to govern a deeply divided country with a powerful conservative opposition and now a defeated candidate who is already challenging the legitimacy of the election results.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: All right, critical elections in Israel, their first national election since the October 7 terror attack, and Benjamin Netanyahu and a big question of what his future is. Will he remain in power? We've got much more ahead of that.

And fire breaks out at an Oregon seafood plant, sparking concerns over threats of a dangerous chemical leak.

And for more of the stories you need to get your day going, my show "5 THINGS WITH KATE BOLDUAN" is streaming on the CNN app and CNN All Access right now and every morning. We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:54:00]

BERMAN: Overnight football. I have to say we are in the era of defense now. It's these exciting, dynamic defenses that seem to be dominating -- dominating everyone, even the once undefeated Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes.

Let's get to -- right to Coy Wire. Seattle, the dominant D.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: I love that you set it up that way. We've talked plenty about offense, justifiably so, but yes, defense. And it was a defensive masterclass by Seattle. They rolled out the red carpet for their reigning Super Bowl MVP running back Kenneth Walker who is now with the Chiefs, right? Well, then they pulled the rug right out from under him. The NFL's leading rusher, averaging more than 130 per game coming in, held to 36 yards.

Meanwhile, Seattle's Jackson Smith-Njigba had nine catches, 150 yards and a touchdown, JSN, JS-insane.

[07:55:00]

With Seattle's defense, as John mentioned, suffocating, Patrick Mahomes never even reached the red zone, a career first. Just three points. Fewest ever in a Mahomes start. Seahawks win 20-3, handing the Chiefs their first loss of this season. Twelfth man loud; Seattle's defense louder. How about a feel good story this morning? Atlanta Falcons touchdown

pass to Kyle Pitts. Afterwards, the players don't celebrate. Why? A woman is knocked down. They huddle around her to make sure she's OK. She was awesome.

Also awesome, the game. The Falcons hosting the undefeated Niners. Look at Jessie Bates' ridiculous interception of Brock Purdy. Then rookie Kendal Daniels taken off on a stretcher last week but snags another interception from Purdy in the fourth.

And when San Francisco needed to score in the final minutes, Jessie Bates again. Punch out. Here it comes. George Kittle coughs up the pill. Four takeaways for Atlanta's defense, two sacks. Forty-niners undefeated no more. Atlanta wins 29-20. Rise up.

Say hello to the AFC North leader, the Cleveland Browns. Tied with Tennessee, final seconds. Deshaun Watson hits Harold Fannin for 36 yards, setting up Andre Schmidt -- and holy Schmidt. Again, for the second straight week, John, walk-off field goal for him 32 yards out. Browns win 27-24. Watson's fifth fourth-quarter go-ahead scoring drive this season. Cleveland's 5-2. That dog pound is barking.

How's this for motivation? Giants running backs were called out by head coach John Harbaugh for nobody stepping up. Well, now they are stepping up and flipping out. Cam Skattebo, zero touches last week. This week a touchdown, a career high 124 yards rushing -- overtime. There he goes in Houston skattin' for 42 yards. And then it was former Texan Devin Singletary running at 30 yards for the walk-off touchdown.

The Giants win 27-21 from the doghouse to the penthouse. New York moves to four, two and one. And all three running backs there celebrating on the field together. Awesome stuff.

Now, tonight the Rays are going to try to circle the wagons at home down two games to none in their best of seven World Series with the Brewers. Junior Caminero, John, says that he already forgot about the last few days and the series starts now. Ten teams have come back from such a deficit to win. We will see. Pressure can burst pipes. It can also make diamonds, so we'll see if they can rally just like those Giants running backs did.

BERMAN: These are some good baseball teams. I would not count the Rays out just yet.

Coy Wire, great to see you. Thank you very much -- Kate.

WIRE: You, too.

BOLDUAN: Happening right now the mystery over Ukraine's access to Starlink takes another turn. This morning Elon Musk is accusing Ukraine's military of violating Starlink's terms of service by using the network for "offensive drone strikes to kill people." Ukrainian officials deny that even happened. But still unclear is who made the call in the first place to throttle these connections critical to Ukraine's ability to survive on the battlefield.

CNN's Sebastian Shukla is tracking this one for us and joining us right now. What are you hearing now?

SEBASTIAN SHUKLA, CNN FIELD PRODUCER: Yeah, good afternoon, Kate.

Well, whilst Starlink maybe back up and operational fully for the Ukrainian armed forces, what seems to be very much the case is the relationship in the speed and connection between Washington and Kyiv is still very much down because we now have this briefing where the two sides are saying what they appear to be at complete odds with one another.

The Ukrainians saying that we, of course, do not use Starlink as civilian service to launch our medium and long-range drone strikes into Russian territory for a couple of reasons. One, that is not allowed under the service agreement. But secondly, that Starlink is not operational in Russia, therefore making it almost impossible for them to be able to use it for that purpose. Whereas Elon Musk is saying the converse to that. He is saying that they have used Starlink, the civilian version, to target Russia and to kill civilians.

It -- Kate, it is all boiling down again and focusing on the idea of this relationship between Kyiv and Washington, which has taken a very serious turn for the worse in the last few weeks. It began with the president unleashing Russian diesel onto the market whilst his negotiators were meeting with Ukrainians in Miami. Then we had a spat and a disagreement again over intelligence sharing and whether the U.S. was still providing it or not. And now we've had the Starlink on top of that.

The main thing for the Ukrainians is that Starlink is back operational. Its units on the ground are being able to use it at the speeds they were before, which means that they are protected or able to protect themselves to give them the best opportunity to protect them from drones that they use this Starlink service for.

It is a very delicate situation at the moment, Kate, one that I think is likely to run on for the next few days. And we will see as well how this ceasefire plays out that has been broken by the first lady, which begins tomorrow.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. And there is that in the midst of all of this.

Sebastian, thank you very much for your reporting -- John.