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President Trump Hits Campaign Trail to Support Republican Candidates in Midterm Elections; Republican Party Reportedly Preparing for Democratic Takeover of U.S. House of Representatives and Senate; United Arab Emirates Attorney General Leading Investigation into Pilot that Attempted to Hijack Flydubai Plane Headed for Israel; New York Governor Kathy Hochul Appoints Special Prosecutor to Investigate Allegations of Gang Rape at Cornell University Fraternity House in 2024; Tennessee Department of Corrections Commissioner Resigns after Two Attempts to Administer Death Penalty to Death Row Inmate Christa Pike Failed; New Veterans Affairs Hospital in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Facing Chronic Staffing Shortages. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired October 03, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:30]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: One month out in the final stretch before the midterm elections and new CNN reporting on worries from House Republicans over their chances of holding on to the majority.

And news just into CNN, just days after the failed execution of Christa Pike, the Tennessee governor announcing changes at the state's department of corrections.

And later, brand new buildings but too few workers. What veterans, military veterans told CNN about the challenges that they are experiencing at the dozens of new V.A. health centers.

Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right, with just 31 days to go until midterm elections and politicians from both sides of the aisle are fighting hard to win the last-minute support of voters. And with polls showing Republicans struggling in some traditionally red states, President Trump is hitting the campaign trail to shore up support and energize his base. Today, he's stumping in Ohio, where the race for the Senate seat formerly held by Vice President J.D. Vance is in a dead heat right now.

Our Julia Benbrook is at the White House. Julia, you've been covering President Trump on the campaign trail this week. And what have, you know, been sort of the key takeaways? And how is todays stop different?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, President Donald Trump, he has promised to hit the campaign trail hard over this next month. And he has already had rallies both in Oklahoma and Alabama. I attended that rally in Oklahoma, and that's an area where Trump has dominated. In fact, taking a look at the last presidential election, he had the majority of votes in all 77 Oklahoma counties.

So when he was pressed on this, why spend time right now in those red states? He said that he wanted to thank them. He wanted to show gratitude to the voters there for delivering him some sweeping victories.

Now, part of the strategy throughout all of this is focusing in on turnout. Trump has repeatedly said that he wants voters to pretend like he is on the ballot. That's a message that Republicans hope still resonates even as Trump's approval rating has recently hit an all-time low.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: When I'm on the ballot, when I'm not on the ballot, people don't go and vote so much. Pretend I'm running, please. Just pretend, because I am on the ballot.

I feel a little foolish. You know, I'm saying go out and vote. Go out and vote. You're going to -- they're going to win in a landslide, but still go out and vote. But we're not worried about them. We're worried about Michigan. We're worried about Texas. We're worried about a few states. But it's all about 35 different contests, not states, contests. And I'm going to just about all of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: And a GOP official tells us that those stops in Oklahoma and Alabama are outliers in this overall travel strategy. And Trump is expected to hit more of these battleground areas. In fact, he is expected to be out and about almost every day this next month, really hitting the campaign trail.

Today, he is headed to Dayton, Ohio, and that has a key Senate race to watch. Now, this is where Republican Senator Jon Husted is facing off against former Democratic senator Sherrod Brown. And the Cook Political Report lists this as one of those Senate races that is considered a tossup.

I want to take a closer look at some of the other key Senate races to keep an eye out for. This is according to recent polling from "The New York Times" and Siena. You've got Iowa that is showing polling numbers very close right now. Then you have Texas. Trump is expected to hold a rally there in the coming days. That's scheduled for Wednesday in San Antonio. Then Alaska, a state that typically votes Republican. But that poll shows Democrats do have an edge. And then Kansas, a state that has not voted for a Democratic senator in decades. In fact, since 1932.

So as Trump hits the campaign trail, some advisers have privately acknowledged that that focus on turnout can go one of two ways. It can really energize his base to get out and vote. But it can also energize Democrats to get out and vote. Trump is still in Washington right now, but he is expected to leave for Ohio in a matter of hours.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julia Benbrook at the White House, thanks so much.

All right, Democrats are hoping to set a blue wave rolling over Capitol Hill and into the governors' mansions in many states next month.

[14:05:00]

And Republicans are looking to hold on to as much power as they can as they face constituents who are growing increasingly angry over high gas prices, the ongoing war in Iran, and even immigration.

I want to bring in now Kadia Goba, political reporter for "The Washington Sun". Kadia, great to see you. So sources tell CNN that a growing number of Republicans are privately worried about their chances of holding the majority next month and are focusing on how to limit Democrats' power. But what are you hearing?

KADIA GOBA, POLITICAL REPORTER, "WASHINGTON SUN": Yes, this isn't anything new. As a as a reporter on the Hill, Republicans, House members especially have been saying this for a very long time. They feel that they haven't quite nailed the affordability messaging. And it makes them nervous.

They are also very fearful that their base is not turning out, primarily because many of them are upset with Trump being in a war as well as frustrated with gas prices and grocery prices. But even more shocking, about two months ago, I heard a senator say that very thing, that he was very doubtful about whether or not they would hold on to the Senate.

So I think the reality is setting in for many of them. And we kind of see it, where money is starting to shift, or there's conversations about shifting money about different campaigns. And then we see different kind of messaging for -- Republicans are talking about health care all of a sudden, which should be a big indication they're trying to reach someone outside of their regular voter base.

WHITFIELD: Well, interesting. Well, let's elaborate a little further on that, the change of the messaging, health care being one of those things. However, people are pretty upset, you know, about and whether you're a Republican or Democrat, about losing some of their coverage by way of the Affordable Care Act that has been weakened by this administration. So what other shifts in messaging are happening?

GOBA: Well, that's precisely it. Typically, Democrats sort of own the health care messaging, right? And they've done so for several years now. It's interesting to see people like Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Tom Kean from New Jersey, as well as Representative Valadao. Now, some of them have been talking about it on the Hill side, but to see actual ads about Medicare and, you know, health care. They're framing it around fraud. It's quite interesting. And to me, it indicates a sort of panic getting closer to the midterm.

WHITFIELD: And then in a twist, you know, President Trump, you know, is now urging Republicans -- again, this is another category of messaging -- to actually cast their ballots early, either in person or by mail. I mean, considering he has long decried mail voting as rife with fraud, even though he has done it himself, you know, mailed in his ballot, what does this message now tell you?

GOBA: I think we saw some of that in the 2024 election also, right, after several litigations over mail in ballots. All of a sudden there was a shift on whether people should vote by mail. I think, again, Republican -- the Republican base, or Republicans see that their base will, a lot of them are threatening to stay home. And that is a way to incentivize, incentivize people to actually come out.

But again, probably, you know, a message that, that they see something is wrong or they see numbers dipping, whether it's, you know, districts that were likely Republican are becoming, you know, sort of Republican, or if you look at the president's polling numbers, they're not great. So all of those are sort of indications that they need -- they have a base problem and they need to work on it.

WHITFIELD: All right, Kadia Goba, we'll leave it there for now. Thank you so much.

GOBA: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right, we're also learning new details today on the flydubai copilot suspected of attacking his captain on a flight to Tel Aviv. Sources tell CNN the suspect was removed from his previous job at Oman's national airline following concerns over his extremist views. Terrorist images and misogynistic posts were also found on his social media.

Also today, UAE's attorney general is calling the attack a terrorist attack. CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is with us now from Jerusalem. Nic, I mean, is anyone talking about how this suspect was able to get a job at the flydubai airlines given the history and these allegations?

[14:10:3]

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, I think from what we're beginning to learn, it really is going to be an area of focus. How could he have been hired by flydubai? How could he have been authorized to fly into Israeli airspace? At many levels there will be intelligence services in both countries, the airline as well, of course, facing those very, very tough questions.

We're just learning new details as well about the attack. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been speaking to the Indian captain, the one who was hit by this attacking pilot, Hamam al-Hammami is his name. That's the Omani pilot who did the attacking. We've, uh, we're learning from the Indian captain telling Prime Minister Netanyahu in this video phone conversation that they've had, saying that the pilot, the Omani pilot, asked the Indian captain, or told him that he wanted to pray. And for the Indian captain said, OK, I'll look away and I'll just look out the cockpit window here for five minutes.

And then the Indian captain said, suddenly I felt a blow on the back of my head. And what we've learned from the Emirati attorney general who is leading the investigation, who calls this a terrorist act, he said that the attacker had taken the emergency ax from inside the cockpit. This is the -- this is the ax that's kept there in case the plane crashes or they need to, you know, need to break out some part of the aircraft. He took the emergency ax and attacked the captain.

And of course, we've heard from the captain recounting the stories of how essentially on his last effort, he was able to open the door, allow the passengers to get on board to subdue the Omani pilot. But as you're saying, there are details that are emerging about this Omani pilot.

His background. He'd worked for a number of years, and this is coming from his social media, he'd worked for a number of years at Oman Air, but then been let go in 2025, had been let go because there were concerns about his extremist views. He then worked for about six months for Air Maroc, the Moroccan airline. That job terminated early this year. There's nothing more on his social media about joining flydubai. So he has this questionable track record on his social media.

And the other things that are becoming apparent about him are these postings to his social media that were released a few hours later in the day after his attack. And they appear to indicate some quite extremist views, mentions sort of derogatory terms about women, but also about apostates, nonbelievers in Islam. And interestingly, at the end of those, one of those social media posts, there's pictures of a former Al Qaeda leader.

So this, of course is going to feed into the investigation, feed into what the Emiratis and the Israelis are joining in on that investigation. We understand the attorney general there in the UAE leading the investigation that he's called a terrorist act.

WHITFIELD: Wow, all incredible details. All right, Nic Robertson, thank you so much.

Coming up, a first for the Kennedy Center honors. The ceremony is moving out of the venue that gave the awards its very name. The move comes as the Kennedy Center remains closed amid a legal fight over its future.

And she was just at Cornell University this week talking about misogyny and gender based violence. That was the invitation to come. Now Cynthia Miller-Idriss joins us as that campus faces renewed scrutiny over a rape -- over rape allegations and questions about how the case was handled.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:18:39]

WHITFIELD: New York Governor Kathy Hochul has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of a gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity house back in 2024. The governor says she is deeply disturbed with the original investigation that was conducted by the Cornell police. Now she has appointed New York State Attorney General Letitia James to take over the case.

We also heard in records obtained by "The New York Times," the Tompkins County district attorney's office in November of 2024 declined to review any additional evidence, including more interviews gathered by campus police beyond the six page statement signed by Jane Doe. That's according to a Cornell police investigator whose note about a conversation with the D.A. was obtained by "The Times." "The Times" also reported prosecutors did not express interest in the additional evidence because they had decided, based on Doe's statement, that, quote, "criminal charges would not be pursued in this case." The investigator's note said that.

CNN's Jason Carroll has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL, (D) NEW YORK: What we learned yesterday raised even more troubling questions about what was done and not done after this young woman came forward.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: New York's governor visibly angry as she stood next to the state's attorney general, focusing her ire on the Tompkins County district attorney and the Cornell police department.

[14:20:07]

KATHY HOCHUL: In what world would the police learn from a victim that she'd been literally gang raped while intoxicated by five men in a fraternity house and not elevate those allegations to the district attorney?

CARROLL: Governor Kathy Hochul referred to crucial statements Jane Doe allegedly made to Cornell police in 2024. A "New York Times" report showed, according to a university internal investigation, Jane Doe allegedly told campus police, "I can say with 100 percent confidence I was raped." That allegation was not included in what university police handed over to the district attorney.

HOCHUL: Them sending a partial record over is a, in my judgment, a failure.

CARROLL: Attorney General Letitia James, now leading the investigation.

LETITIA JAMES, (D) NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL: Every New Yorker deserves to know that when they report a crime, it will be investigated fully and fairly, that they will be seen and heard. That is the promise of our justice system. I stand ready to lead a process guided by the facts and the law.

CARROLL: According to "The New York Times" report, there were about 120 pages of Jane Doe's interviews with Cornell police and the school's Title IX office. The Tompkins County district attorney telling CNN earlier this week he received a six-page statement which did not include her explicit rape allegation. The D.A. says he supports the governor's decision, saying, "It has become clear that we were not provided the full picture by the university."

THOMAS GIUFFRA, ATTORNEY FOR JANE DOE: She clearly said I was 100 percent raped. She clearly said she was hit and there was violence utilized. All that was sanitized out of the six-page police report.

I think there was a lot of protection of the university and its reputation. And I don't like the word "coverup", but it feels like a coverup was going on.

CARROLL: Some students here telling us they welcome the attorney general taking over the investigation, many still critical of the university's response, saying there has not been enough transparency, accusing the university's president of not publicly addressing the issue enough.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the administration needs to talk to our students, not just handle it and let our students have to do it. Our students are the ones who have to conduct the town hall to be heard and understood, whereas they get to just like, leave, go home, and send out an FAQ with no type of real explanation about our disciplinary process.

CARROLL: The administration at Cornell have released written statements since the alleged assault two years ago, including one on Tuesday saying, in part, "The events that took place on our campus in 2024 were appalling then and remain so now. We recognize that these reports have raised difficult and understandable questions about how Cornell responds to allegations of sexual misconduct on campus."

We visited the university president's office but were unable to meet him, and he did not respond to our multiple calls requesting an interview.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, Jason Carroll, thank you so much.

My next guest is a Cornell alumna who returned this week as an invited speaker. She was there to discuss her book and give a lecture Wednesday on the links between misogyny and violent extremism, and the pathways that lead to it. That lecture was scheduled before the 2024 allegations of gang rape came to light.

Joining me right now to discuss is Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss, director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University and author of the book "Man Up, The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism."

So good to see you, professor. And I'm wondering, you know, while you were invited to the campus to kind of talk about something else, you were compelled to say, I'm going to address this because of all that has been reported in this investigation, and, you know, where it's gone. So this does hit close to home to you as a former student at Cornell. So I'm wondering when you did enter that auditorium, even though you had an idea of what you were going to address, what did you witness in these students? How did you kind of read the room? What did you observe in them?

DR. CYNTHIA MILLER-IDRISS, AUTHOR, "MAN UP, THE NEW MISOGYNY AND THE REISE OF VIOLENT EXTREMISM": Yes. Well, thanks. It's great to be here, even under these circumstances. Good to see you again.

I would say the feeling of campus was even before I walked into the auditorium, I'd gotten there the day before and I had breakfast with students and lunch with students and a dinner with faculty the night before. And I met the son of a friend who is a freshman there for coffee, and asked, you know, so all of these occasions to ask how they were doing.

[14:25:00]

And across the board, I think everyone is feeling raw and very angry at the university and really despondent at the lack of response, as of that message that they got Tuesday night that we just heard on the segment was the first time anyone had heard from the university since the allegations were -- since the news was broken by the student journalists the previous week. So they hadn't heard anything. And I think when you let liability get in the way of your own humanity and your empathy for the community, we have, you know, an incredible problem on campuses.

WHITFIELD: And then in your lecture, you know, you actually did express disappointment in the journey of these investigations, the way the school administration has allegedly handled things you felt, in your words, "let down". Can you elaborate a little bit further on what you said to them?

MILLER-IDRISS: Yes. I said -- you know, I mean, I was about to give a lecture on the invisibility of gender-based violence and misogyny and its repercussions for things like political violence where there's a documented connection. And so I felt like, how could I possibly, as an alum, I went there, my mom went there. This is a place that means a lot to me. And so I said, you know, I thanked them for having me and for selecting me. It is an incredible honor to be the university's lecturer for the year. It's one person gets chosen, you know, it is an honor.

And at the same time, I feel incredibly let down by an administration who has not only handled this horrifically, right, in every documented way, but where nothing seems to have changed in the 36 years since I was a freshman, because these kinds of stories were prominent then, and everyone knew, I knew, my friends knew it didn't make any difference if you reported it.

WHITFIELD: What do you mean by that?

MILLER-IDRISS: And so many people didn't.

WHITFIELD: You're saying there has been a pattern of the this kind of behavior that is tied to allegations of this caliber over 36 years?

MILLER-IDRISS: I think that there has been not just at Cornell, but at in Greek life more broadly, a longstanding history of rampant abuses that are fueled by alcohol and drugs, and that don't -- either the women are unconscious, or they are, you know, the allegations are not provable. I mean, what my friends have heard, what I've heard on social media this week from members of my own class of things they observed at the time that I was there were things like they reported it and were told there's not enough to go on. Right?

So that was the 90s, and I just assumed that things were better now. And so to hear that the university handled this so badly, and I don't think Cornell is an exception here, was a deep, cutting disappointment to me, especially as a scholar of gender-based violence and as an alum.

WHITFIELD: And I do want to mention, you know, a statement from the university that says in part, the university conducted a, quote, "thorough Title IX investigation, and the university supports the referral to a criminal grand jury." You were, you know, booked over a year ago to discuss your book, and then you pivoted because of all that's taken place recently. But do you see some real overlap here in what you had planned to talk about and what you consequently felt you needed to shift to talk about?

MILLER-IDRISS: Absolutely. I mean, one of the things that I talk about in my book is that 60 percent of all mass attackers in the U.S. have a documented criminal history of domestic and intimate partner violence. That doesn't even include things like stalking or harassment or sexual assault.

When you look at those types of things, it's very nearly everyone. And so, you know, we ignore that in the field, in part because these things are so invisible. They're considered private or there's not enough documentation or local law enforcement handles it and dismisses the cases.

And so one of the things I point out is when we when we provably ignore these things at the interpersonal level, we do tremendous harm to victims and survivors, of course. And we also create bigger risks, because one of the biggest predictor we have of rising support for political violence and willingness to engage in it is misogyny. And so, you know, when we ignore it, we ignore it at all of our peril. And the best way to a safer society is to reduce some of this interpersonal violence at earlier stages.

WHITFIELD: What is your advice to parents, parents who are watching right now, parents who may have been in the audience there and excited about their kids being in college? You know, all parents, all of us who worry sick about our kids who are away in college, young men and young women, you worry about how they're going to handle, uh, certain crossroads, what kind of choices they're going to make. So what is your advice on, I guess, allaying those concerns or fears?

MILLER-IDRISS: Yes, I think the first and most important thing for both young men and women is to have open and very frank conversations with them, both about the risks in the hazing system and the sexual assaults that happen in alcohol and drug fueled contexts like fraternities, but also other types of contexts like that on college campuses. [14:30:01]

And so I would, I would really urge them to be aware, to be allies, to be supporters, to be looking out for each other. When you see something that's off, when you see someone that appears inebriated or drugged, potentially, and so being support members for each other on these campuses.

And also I would urge parents to really ask for transparency on the part of universities. How many reports were there? How were they resolved? "The USA Today" reported this week that there were 1,200 sexual assault reports at Cornell over the last seven years. And I think only one percent resulted in expulsion or suspension of the of the men, seven cases." So, you know, that's not a great figure to, to be looking at, especially when most women don't report, most victims don't report.

WHITFIELD: All right, all incredible points. Dr. Cynthia Miller- Idriss, thank you so much for being with us.

MILLER-IDRISS: Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: Coming up, a botched execution in Tennessee is raising new questions about what went wrong and what happens now to the inmate who survived.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:35:26]

WHITFIELD: Breaking news. The head of Tennessee's prison system is stepping down. Governor Bill Lee just announced that Corrections Commissioner Frank Strada will resign this month. This is following the state's botched attempt to execute Christa Pike earlier this week. Her attorney says Pike remains unconscious and on a ventilator.

Let's get right to CNN's Rafael Romo. You've been following this. Where are we right now with this?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: A lot of people following this closely for the fallout, especially after what happened on Friday, Fred. And it's been almost three days since Christa Pike survived Tennessee's attempt to execute her via lethal injection on Wednesday. And there are still many, many unanswered questions about how something like this could have happened.

In a statement, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced in the last few hours that the head of Tennessee's prison system is resigning. In the same statement, Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada said that stepping down is, quote, "in the best interest of Tennesseans."

As for Christa Pike, she remains unconscious in a Nashville area hospital where she is intubated and on a ventilator. Pike's attorney said Friday that she is receiving lifesaving care after being injected with two ostensibly fatal doses of pentobarbital. In a statement, Pike's attorneys Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen said that their client is being treated for the serious effects of pentobarbital administered during the execution attempt, including significant injuries to both arms.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, announced the day after the state tried to kill her a thorough and comprehensive review of Pike's case will be done by a third party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BILL LEE (R-TN): That investigation will be thorough, and it's going to take time. And therefore the last scheduled execution for this year will not take place. Tennesseans deserve a justice system that's fair, that's consistent, that is faithfully administered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Governor Lee also announced he has halted the execution of death row inmate Gary Sutton, which was scheduled for December. Pike, who was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years, was originally sentenced to death after being convicted of the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Randy Spivey, one of the Pike's attorneys, said the governor's call for a review of the execution protocol doesn't go far enough. He called for Lee to commute her sentence, saying Pike has endured punishment, quote, "greater," he said, "than any other person in the history of the American death penalty."

But again, many questions here also about what's going to happen with Pike. If she is taken off that ventilator, can she survive? So many unanswered questions.

WHITFIELD: And who ultimately would make that kind of decision, still unanswered. All right, Rafael Romo, thank you so much.

All right, coming up, a brand new V.A. clinic billed as a state-of- the-art crown Jewel is struggling to keep its doors staffed. Veterans say they are paying the price.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. EUGENE VINDMAN, (D-VA): It is the fact that they can't keep staff, that they can't hire staff, that it's taking too long, that's making wait times too long. It's making it impossible for veterans to actually get in the door.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:42:39]

WHITFIELD: A search is underway off the coast of Massachusetts for a medical transport plane with six people on board. The gulf stream was flying from Bermuda to Boston overnight when the FAA reported losing contact with the aircraft early this morning. The plane is registered to a Canada based air ambulance company. More on this breaking story in the next hour. And for the first time ever, the Kennedy Center honors will not be

held at the Kennedy Center. The annual awards ceremony is moving to Washington's Capital One Arena in December. The change comes as the Kennedy Center remains closed while a legal and political battle play out. Leadership at the iconic venue says the building needs a major renovation and has raised the possibility of adding President Trump's name to the cultural landmark. Both of those fights are currently tied up in court.

And CNN has new reporting on another challenge for U.S. military veterans trying to get the care they need. The Department of Veterans Affairs has built or updated dozens of health care facilities after benefits were expanded under the Biden administration. But many are now struggling to staff them. That's leaving some veterans with trouble getting appointments even when they need help urgently.

Here's CNN's Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have new reporting on staffing problems at V.A. clinics, including a brand new V.A. clinic in Fredericksburg, Virginia, which was supposed to be a real crown jewel. It cost more than $350 million to build. The V.A. touted it as the largest V.A. health care clinic in the U.S., spanning more than 470,000 square feet, completely state of the art.

But now, 19 months after the ribbon cutting, the V.A. is struggling to staff the facility. According to our sources and some veterans are telling us their care has suffered as a result.

Now, according to V.A. data obtained by CNN, the Fredericksburg clinic has a staffing vacancy rate of nearly 40 percent, which means more than 350 positions there have not been filled. The V.A. says it has opened 41 new clinics across the U.S. That same data that we obtained shows that roughly half of those new facilities had double digit vacancy rates as of July.

At Fredericksburg, that's translated into hardship for some veterans. I spoke with one marine veteran who sought treatment there, Michael Dunlap, who told me he's gone through four primary care doctors in the span of a year-and-a-half at the Fredericksburg clinic.

[14:45:05]

They've all quit, he says, just sending him a form letter saying they wouldn't be there anymore.

MICHAEL DUNLAP, U.S. MARINE VETERAN: You have to start over every time. You know, they can look at your records, but until they talk to you and know you, it slows everything down, you know? And you build up a rapport with a doctor, and now you've lost a little bit of confidence because now you've got to explain everything all over again.

TODD: Other veterans told us they had problems getting in for initial appointments at Fredericksburg, and one was turned down for urgent care visits. All they say, because of staffing shortages. Now, those veterans described going to a gleaming, clean facility without many people in it, and with a huge parking lot, much of it very empty, as these recent pictures that I took show.

One health care provider at Fredericksburg who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, told us doctors and other providers at Fredericksburg are burned out, exhausted, and that's why they're leaving. This provider likened the work atmosphere there to, quote, "a car production line." That was reiterated to us by Democratic Congressman Eugene Vindman, a veteran himself, who represents that district where the Fredericksburg V.A. clinic is located.

REP. EUGENE VINDMAN, (D-VA): It is the fact that they can't keep staff, that they can't hire staff, that it's taking too long, that's making wait times too long. It's making it impossible for veterans to actually get in the door. And that's what needs to get fixed.

TODD: The V.A. is staunchly defending its operations at Fredericksburg. V.A. Press Secretary Quinn Slavin, in a statement to CNN, said, quote, "The Fredericksburg V.A. clinic is opening in phases. It met its hiring goals in the first three phases and is now in phase four. In less than two years since opening, the clinic has already completed more than 245,000 appointments and is ahead of schedule for enrolling new patients."

Outside analysts tell us some of this is not the V.A.'s fault. They say the V.A. opened these clinics as the entire country is experiencing a shortage of doctors, nurses, and other providers, with even greater shortages projected in the next decade. And they say the V.A. has to deal with an unwieldy bureaucracy and often cannot pay doctors the same salaries that they would make in the private sector.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: And coming up on the Iran war, President Trump says part of the problem with ending the conflict is not knowing who to deal with. I'll be joined by a former U.S.-Iran envoy about the message coming from Iranian leadership.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:52:04]

WHITFIELD: Chef David Chang is on a cross country food journey with an all new episode of "The Detour". This week, Dave hits the road in northern California. CNN's Sara Sidner sat down with David Chang to talk about the people and the episode and the food along the way.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: You jump in a car with your buddy, longtime friend. And you go to northern California. DAVID CHANG, CHEF: I love San Francisco. I love the Bay Area wine

country. So many of my closest friends live there. I think it's one of the most special places in the world to eat and to travel. Great produce, and it was a no brainer to go there.

SIDNER: There's an incredible array of food, but there is a down- homeness about that area as well, because it's farmers who are doing --

CHANG: And winemakers that are doing it a little bit counter to what is in vogue right now.

SIDNER: It was, by the way, the first place I ever ate dim sum. My close friend Amber Lee took me to a dim sum restaurant, and she goes, I cannot believe, because I'd eaten a lot of things from a lot of places. She said, I cannot believe you've never had this, and I have not stopped eating it.

CHANG: I feel like I've traveled Sonoma and Napa quite a bit. So part of this was going to places and challenging what I actually know, and my biased assumptions, like everything's the same thing. I was wrong about everything. It was always great hanging out with Chris, but California was fun. And there was a lot of stories that we could have told for sure.

SIDNER: Maybe I'm a weirdo. Do you ever put kimchi on it?

CHANG: You know what's up.

(LAUGHTER)

SIDNER: So, California, how is this one different? Because you're with someone who knows you, knows you. You could tell that.

CHANG: I always joke that the point of having friends is trying to make fun of each other.

SIDNER: Yes, because they know you love them.

CHANG: Chris and I tried to make fun of each other all day, every day, and tried to get under each other's skin. And that's what a road trip is. If you haven't been on a road trip with your friends, if you're not making fun of each other, it's not a road trip.

SIDNER: You're looking at your phone. Get off the phone. Don't let the algorithm tell you what to do.

CHANG: Have a conversation in real life, not on Facetime, not on Zoom. And just have a different experience.

SIDNER: Because you might just find some joy.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: This all-new episode of the CNN original series "The Detour with David Chang" airs tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern and pacific.

An all-new next hour. Coming up, artificial intelligence is helping drive stock markets to record highs. But there's another side to the boom. New data shows jobs disappearing in some of the industries embracing A.I. the fastest.

Plus, nearly 90 years later, could we finally learn what happened to Amelia Earhart after she disappeared while trying to fly around the world? A new expedition is heading to a remote Pacific island to try to solve the mystery.

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