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Trump Lashes Out At Zelenskyy, Calls For New President Of Ukraine; Trump Warns Zelenskyy To Stop Attacking Russian Refineries; Trump Blames Ukraine's Zelenskyy For High Diesel Prices; Protest In NYC Over ICE Agents Shooting Man With Child In Car; Trump Campaigns In Deep-Red Tennessee Ahead Of Midterms; Trump Calls Guilfoyle Allegations "Too Bad." Aired 4-5p ET

Aired October 10, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN Newsroom. Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York. And tonight, President Trump sharply criticizing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy after Zelenskyy condemned Trump's diesel deal with Russia. Trump saying in his words, he suggests Ukraine get a new leader after Zelenskyy described the U.S.-Russian transaction as an investment that will help pay for, and prolong Russia's war on Ukraine.

President Trump also criticizing Ukraine's attacks on Russia's -- Russian refineries, which a U.S. official says is part of the reason Trump would allow Russia to sell its diesel to the world. Trump's war with Iran is being blamed for driving up energy prices around the globe. Let's bring in CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak, who's in Washington, and senior reporter Steve Contorno, who's in Clarksville, Tennessee, where the president is holding a rally tonight.

Kevin, let's go to you first. You spoke to the president as he was departing the White House today. How did he defend that new U.S.- Russia diesel deal?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. And welcome back, Jessica. And I did want to ask the president about this criticism of the diesel deal that he struck after a call with Vladimir Putin yesterday. A number of critics say that this wouldn't necessarily do much to bring down the price of diesel because of what Russia would be able to supply. And it would also, they say, prolong the war in Ukraine because it

offers Vladimir Putin this economic lifeline.

And the president really went off on Zelenskyy, criticizing him for targeting those refineries in Russia that has had the effect of bringing up diesel prices. Listen to what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers, with diesel fuel because Russia supplies a large portion of the diesel fuel throughout the world. And we told them, do whatever you want, but don't hit the diesel fuel because there's a big problem, big shortage. And what does he do? He goes and hits the diesel fuel.

I said to him, do what you want. Don't hit refineries. There's plenty of targets. Don't hit refineries.

And he went out, and he hit, and he's not going to affect our farmers, and he's not going to affect our ranchers. And he's not going to affect the rest of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: Now, the president also said that Zelenskyy could have settled this war many times, but that he chose not to. He did not similarly suggest that Putin make compromises to bring the conflict to an end. And he said that Zelenskyy only wanted to, quote, "make problems for the world" and that he thinks it's, quote, "time for Ukraine to get a new president." So clearly, the relationship there now at something of a crisis moment, probably the worst that we've seen it since the two of them went after each other in the Oval Office a month into president's term last year.

Now, I'm told that behind the scenes, the president has been fuming at Ukraine's attacks on these diesel refineries, that the U.S. had asked Ukraine to stop targeting them many times, but that the strikes had continued. That's part of what led the president to agree to this arrangement with Putin to begin selling diesel on the global marketplace and for the U.S. to lift some of its sanctions on Russia.

Now, where this goes from here remains to be seen. It is interesting, the timing, though.

Just yesterday, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president's envoys, were meeting with the Ukrainians down in Miami to try and come up with a new arrangement to bring the conflict to an end. But just based on what the president is saying today, it doesn't seem as if he's any closer to winding this conflict down.

DEAN: All right, Kevin Liptak at the White House. I want to go now to Steve Contorno, who is in the arena for the rally that will take place in Clarksville, Tennessee. And Steve, as you're listening to Kevin walk through all of this, you can't help but put all of these pieces together, which is the diesel prices are really high. Farmers rely on diesel to do their work. And when those prices go up, it's really hard for them to do. Well, we're now looking at midterm elections where we see the president going to these deep red states like Tennessee, which he won in 2024 by nearly 30 points.

And that's how we kind of start to connect all of these dots together. What do we expect to hear from the president there in Tennessee today?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Jessica, he is expected to say and tell this Tennessee crowd what he has been saying in these stops all across the country, including last night in Syracuse, New York. Vote as though I am on the ballot. And Donald Trump certainly is not on the ballot, but he knows that his supporters tend to fall off in these midterm elections. And Republicans really need them to show up and to match the enthusiasm that many are expecting the anti-Trump vote, the Democrat vote to be in this election.

[06:05:18]

Now, the question is, why is he bringing this message to Tennessee, as you said, a state he won overwhelmingly in 2024, where there is not a House race or a Senate race that is expected to determine who controls Congress in the fall. It's the question that people have raised about his appearances in Oklahoma and Alabama.

Talking to a GOP official, she said, look, Republicans know that Donald Trump is very good at getting his party enthused. And that is one of the reasons why they are just trying to get as many Republicans across the country energized going into the fall. It's also an opportunity for Trump to visit some parts of the country that he has had the chance to say thank you for the support for so many years, and that he will be shifting his schedule in the coming weeks to some of these battlegrounds.

But still, just because we are 24 days now from the midterm elections and there are so many key contests that will determine the control of Congress, whether or not his party will retain the House and the Senate. And the fact that he is spending time at this juncture in a state that is not really on the map has many people scratching their heads.

DEAN: Yes. All right. Kevin Liptak and Steve Contorno are. Thanks to both of you for that reporting.

Meantime, the Cook Political Report has updated its election forecast and spoiler alert; it is not looking great for Republicans. The new forecast moving 18 House races in the Democrats favor and that includes four Republican held seats in Iowa and also Pennsylvania is shifting from toss-up races to lean Democratic.

Cook now, projecting Democrats will gain between nine and 19 seats. That would be more than enough to retake the House. Senior editor and elections analyst for Cook Political Report, Dave

Wasserman is joining us now. Dave, always great to have you on. Thank you so much for making time today.

Look, we were just talking to Steve Contorno who is with the president in Tennessee when we are mere weeks away from the midterms. And I think that says a lot about where things are right now.

But you guys are tracking this shift toward Democrats that does appear to be spreading into these deeper -- deeper into these red districts. Tell us what is driving this and what you're finding.

DAVE WASSERMAN, SENIOR EDITOR AND ELECTIONS ANALYST, COOK POLITICAL REPORT: Jessica, Things have gone from bad for Republicans to potentially catastrophic. We're seeing shockingly close polling in districts and states that Donald Trump carried by more than 15 points in 2024, including Kansas, maybe even South Carolina's Senate race, although that's still in our likely Republican column. But Lexington, Kentucky's district, the sixth district there, the North Country of New York, where we're seeing some polls that show either dead heats or Democrats ahead.

And the common thread here is that the areas of the country that saw the most movement towards Republicans during the Trump era in the past 10 years are also the places with the potential for the biggest pro- Democratic swings this year.

And we've had midterm elections in the past that have been about unpopular wars, and like Iraq in 2006, midterms that have been about unpopular legislation like Obamacare in 2010 when Democrats lost 63 House seats. We've had midterms about unpopular prices like 2022, when Democrats lost the House. But we haven't had a midterm, at least in my lifetime that's featured all three of these things at once. That's what you call a perfect storm.

DEAN: Yes, and that is such a great point. You know, it's typical that the party in power in a midterm. It's really tough for them that is history. But to your point, to put all of these things together and stir them up and then see a president with his approval ratings both nationally and even in some of these states where he did very well dropping, that really suggests that by the time we get to election night, it could really be fascinating in some of these different districts.

What do you think in terms of all of those things you just listed, is it all of them coming together in this very specific way that's driving voters, or do you think that it is really affordability at the top and other -- other things below that?

WASSERMAN: That's the umbrella for everything, Jessica. And voters' concern about the war is not that we're in a prolonged conflict with boots on the ground, which we're not at the moment. It's that they're linking it to high prices here. This is the worst anxiety we've seen voters in farm country since perhaps 1986, when there was a nearly quarter in foreclosure rate on family farms. And you saw Democrats pick up eight Senate seats that year, including both Dakotas. Now, I don't think Democrats are going to pick up, you know, the Dakotas or Idaho this year, but the fact that Kansas and Nebraska are in play tells you everything you need to know about the political environment. It's not just the cost of diesel. It's also surging interest rates, which hurt, hurt farmers and voters all around the country.

[16:10:20]

And the White House's decision to import 300 million metric tons of beef has caused a blowback among cattle ranchers in key states, whether it's Iowa, Kansas, or Texas. So, it's possible that Democrats could sweep a lot of these battleground districts and states or come up just short. But if the election were held this week, Democrats would very likely take both houses of Congress.

DEAN: And I think, you know, the House was something a lot of people thought would likely happen. The Senate is a whole other can of worms as it is. And for that to even be a possibility again, that's a really hard, it's a hard thing for Democrats to do. They're really having to go on offense in a lot of places.

So tell us about, and defend some seats obviously as well that could be tricky. In terms of polling, a lot of people say, okay, listen, polling hasn't always been that accurate. What if it's -- what if it's off again? What if it's, you know, plus or minus two and it all falls the other way. And these, a lot of these seats the Republicans keep.

Where do -- how would you assess the polling at this point? You all are doing deep analysis into these races, so you're really looking at a lot of data points.

WASSERMAN: Well, caution is warranted because we're relying on a very small fraction of voters who are even responding to the survey. Less than 1 percent in some cases of voters who are either bored enough to talk to a pollster or not sophisticated enough to screen their calls to model the attitudes of the other 99 percent. So there's potential for nonresponse bias. And it's possible that polls are picking up the hyper-engaged and excited voters, angry voters who right now are Democrats.

However, every pollster is reweighting their sample to try and upweight demographic groups with low response rates to what they think the electorate will look like. Now, it's worth keeping in mind that in presidential years in the Trump era, it's true Republicans outperform their polls. But in 2018 and 2022, when Trump was not on the ballot, polls were pretty close to the mark.

If you were to tell me that on the day after the election, Democrats fell just short in a lot of these deep red states, I would suspect it's that the undecided share of voters that dislikes Donald Trump's job performance but are not yet sold on Democrats. At the end of the day, they came home just enough for Republicans, but that's not going to be enough to save control of the House.

DEAN: All right, Dave Wasserman, great to have you on. We really appreciate it.

WASSERMAN: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: Thanks. Still to come, at least two people are dead after Hurricane Isaias slammed the Gulf Coast. Hundreds of thousands, now without power.

Plus, eight people, including two children, are dead after a mass shooting in Erie, Pennsylvania. It is a scene that police described as deeply disturbing.

And protesters here in New York City are demanding answers after a man was shot by ICE agents in an enforcement operation in the Bronx. Here in the CNN Newsroom.

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[16:17:58]

DEAN: Post-tropical Storm Issa is now being blamed for at least four deaths. That storm slamming into the Florida Panhandle last night as a Category 2 hurricane, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. And one example of the storm's power is seen here as it just rips a roof off of a hotel there in Pensacola, Florida.

Its fierce winds also responsible for knocking down countless trees and power lines across Florida and Alabama. Authorities say one person died after a tree fell on a home in Birmingham, more than 200 miles from the Gulf Coast. Another person died in Florida after officials say a tree fell on their home.

As crews work to clean up the damage, nearly 700,000 people across the Southeast remain without power tonight. And the threats aren't over yet.

et's bring in meteorologist Melissa Nord, who can join us with the storm's latest pass. So what happens now? It's made landfall. What comes next, Melissa?

MELISSA NORD, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Jessica, these storms go through so many phases from before landfall to landfall and after. And at this point, Isaias is no longer a hurricane. No longer a tropical storm. But is still wide-reaching in its impacts.

You can see rain stretches from the Mississippi River all the way up into the mountains in Virginia. So, we're tracking the rain threat, we're tracking some wind threats, but also a tornado threat.

In fact, we've got several little cells that I'm watching in east Georgia and also in the low country in South Carolina that have shown signs of rotation. Currently, that area under a Tornado watch until 8:00 o'clock Eastern Time later on this evening. And storm chaser video shows a couple of funnel clouds earlier this afternoon as well.

Current tornado warning in effect. This is an observed tornado, meaning somebody has spotted. It's not just radar-indicated. Allendale County in South Carolina. That's just east of Waynesboro, Georgia.

And a little closer look. These can spin up pretty quickly. So, it's a little rotation on the bottom side of it that we're watching for that. So, there is the tornado threat. There's also the rain threat.

In fact, some places kind of along the eastern slopes of the Appalachian Mountains could end up getting 6 to 10 inches of rain. Watch that rain spreading eastward this evening and overnight, pushing through D.C. and then first thing tomorrow morning on the doorstep of the Northeast.

[16:20:09]

So likely the remnants of Isaias bringing kind of a breezy and really wet start to Sunday there across the Northeast first thing tomorrow. Rain amounts, you can see east of the Appalachians still an additional 3 to 6 inches. That would mean in total up to 10 inches of rain in some of those places.

So, we are watching that rain threat, the soggy ground, plus still some wind gusts that could be 30, 40 miles per hour, maybe a little higher on some of those higher elevations. That will be enough to cause some isolated downed trees through tonight.

Here's the flooding outlook. It's really up against the mountains that we have that highest threat where we have the most rain for flash flooding, level 3 out of 4, moderate risk for that happening through the overnight. Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Melissa Nord, thank you so much for that. And let's bring in Craig Fugate. He served as FEMA administrator during the Obama administration.

Craig, thanks so much for being here with us. We appreciate your time. We are seeing this widespread damage as we laid out hundreds of thousands of power outages across the Southeast. Take us into the FEMA perspective and what that organization, what the agency is sorting through right now and what the immediate priorities are.

CRAIG FUGATE, FORMER FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: They're working with the states. They're actually staffing with the states, and those emergency operations just seeing all this play out. And I think we're moving in parts of this. We're moving out of response into recovery operations, getting roads open, getting power back on.

So what FEMA and states are looking at are things like, what are the impacts to housing? Is there going to be a need for temporary housing assistance? How many people have been impacted? What kind of assistance may be required?

And those are things that will go into the damage and ultimately into recommendations to the president if assistance is required.

DEAN: And this morning we had former FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell on our air, and she acknowledged that FEMA did lose a fair amount of its senior leadership and institutional knowledge after the cuts from the Trump administration. Do you think those reductions could affect recovery efforts?

FUGATE: That would be something we'll see longer. I think, in response, these are being led by the state, and FEMA supporting it. So I don't really see a drop-off there.

And I haven't really seen the level of damage that suggests this is going to require resources that we began -- would go beyond what FEMA has right now. Where we tend to see the breakdown is in the months that follow. If there are other disasters and this happened to us in the Obama administration, where we're having to pull people off of older disasters to go to the new disasters. And that's very disruptive.

So, we'll wait and see. But right now, I think FEMA is in a better shape because they didn't have a lot of hurricane activities before the storm.

DEAN: Right. And it helps when you don't have. When it starts compounding, like you're saying, that's when things get really tricky, when there are multiple responses needed. And just remind people, you did mention this, but FEMA works in concert with the states. Remind them how that all works and what those state governments are doing right now as well.

FUGATE: Well, governors are in charge. FEMA supports the states, and they work with the emergency management offices. They send staff down and work in the state side by side. And as states come up with issues where they need federal assistance, whether it's rescue teams or other resources, FEMA's there.

But you also got to remember both Alabama and Florida, as well as Georgia and some of these other states. They have very experienced teams. They've responded to numerous -- numerous disasters. They've activated their National Guard.

So they are well staffed on the response. I think the biggest question, and that's still to be determined as they are counting, is what's the cost? And that ultimately is what the federal taxpayer will be looking at, is the cost to help rebuild from this hurricane.

DEAN: Yes. And then just finally, as we're looking at images here while you're talking, but also, you know, we're continuing to get information about the impacts of this storm. It's also continuing to kind of move its way across the southeastern part of the country. How would you assess the level of damage here?

It sounds like you think this is something obviously that FEMA is equipped to deal with at this moment, that the states are equipped to deal with at this moment. Is that right?

FUGATE: Yes. I mean, I've responded to a lot of hurricanes in the Florida Panhandle. Most notably was Hurricane Ivan, Hurricane Dennis. And I think you're seeing similar patterns.

This is not like Hurricane Michael, which was a Cat 5. This is a storm that knocked down a lot of trees, power lines. The type of damages you'll get from that, where they hit houses, hit cars, and getting the roads open, this is something these areas are very familiar with. It doesn't take away from the damages, but these are things that they are equipped and trained for. And it's really about getting the roads and getting the power back on.

And what I have found in these areas, once you get power back on. It really narrows down the response to just now what had the significant damages versus the sheer number of people that are impacted when the power is out.

[16:25:10]

DEAN: Yes. All right. Craig Fugate, great to have you. Thanks so much.

FUGATE: Thank you.

DEAN: The country of Panama dealing with the aftermath of a very powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake which struck southern Panama Friday. Multiple strong aftershocks continuing to rattle that area. And a local TV station captured the moment when the quake hit. The crew was live on air. And then you see the building beginning to shake as they're broadcasting, forcing hosts to run for cover.

In Panama City, scores of residents gathered in the street after rushing out of their buildings in a panic. There have been minor injuries, but no reports of any fatalities or missing persons. Several buildings though have been badly damaged.

Still ahead here, new developments in the case of the death row inmate who survived her attempted execution by lethal injection. She's been discharged now from the hospital. We have the latest.

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[16:30:00]

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DEAN: In Erie, Pennsylvania, police say eight people, including two children, died in a mass shooting in a home Friday night. When police arrived on that scene, they found two women dead outside the home. Officers then used drones and a robot to search the house.

That's when they found more people, including those two children, dead inside. They also found the person believed to be the suspected shooter, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Officials say eight of the people involved were related. Erie's police chief told a local news station he doesn't think Erie has seen a loss of life on this scale ever.

The death row inmate who survived Tennessee's attempt to execute her by lethal injection has been discharged from the hospital. According to Christa Pike's attorney, she's back in the same prison where she's been housed for 30 years and is still receiving medical care. Her attorneys also say she's grateful to the first responders and her medical team. She survived two doses of a lethal drug as the state attempted to execute her on September 30 for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer.

More protests today here in New York City following an ICE shooting on Thursday. Federal agents shot and wounded a man in his vehicle while a 5-year-old child was in the back seat. Thousands of protesters marching in the city Friday.

More hit the streets today. ICE officials say officers fired into the vehicle after 28-year-old Oscar Belgal used the car as a weapon during a targeted enforcement operation. Belgal is in ICE custody after suffering a superficial wound to the neck. His son was not injured, and we're told is now with family members.

NYPD released video footage of officers responding to that scene after the shooting. And a source tells CNN two federal agents were also injured in the encounter and have since been treated and released from the hospital. Let's bring in CNN's Mark Morales, who has been following all of this. What is the latest with these additional protests today, Mark?

MARK MORALES, CNN REPORTER: Well, Jessica, we're seeing what happened in the moments that led up to this shooting, as well as the moments after this shooting. And as you mentioned before, like, this is really caused a lot of protesters to be demonstrating in the streets since this action happened, even today in Herald Square in New York City. And part of it is obviously the incident of the officer shooting into the vehicle.

But the other part that people are very upset about is the fact that this man's 5-year-old child was sitting in the back seat. Now, we saw the body camera footage from a responding NYPD officers who were responding to a 911 call.

They didn't know what they were walking into. They get out of their vehicles, and they see Belgal cuffed with his hands behind his back, sitting on the pavement. They made the call once they saw him that they needed to get medical attention to him as soon as possible.

So you see the officers grab him and throw him in the back of his -- of their patrol car and drive to the nearest hospital. You see them speeding away in the car and really dramatic footage. You saw that, but you also saw this sort of eye-in-the-sky perspective, where you see the moments that led up to this shooting.

And you see Belgal parked in his car at a -- at a hydrant. And you see, ever so slightly, the car go in reverse before into frame comes the ICE officers, guns drawn. One comes up to the driver's side window. The other one comes through the front of the vehicle. And you see Belgal take the car and then try to spin out of the parking spot.

Now this really goes to what DHS officials in the past, in similar instances, have been referring to, is using the car as a weapon. Tom Homan spoke about this earlier today. Take a listen.

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TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR, WHITE HOUSE: The men and women of ICE perform -- they perform exactly as they're trained. This man tried to run an officer over. He feared for his life. So he took -- he took action.

And now this person is in custody. He'll be charged with a federal crime of assaulting a federal law enforcement officer. But many of these instances could be -- could be avoided if they simply give us access to the bad guy in the safety and security of the jail, rather than release them in the community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORALES: So while tactics and this legal charge come into play, there's still that big question about the deportation itself and whether or not they'll be able to actually deport Belgal. Now he's got a legal team, and they're fighting to get him released. The big question is now about venue.

His legal team had filed a motion trying to get him out of ICE custody in New York. But by the time that they actually filed this motion, he was already at a -- at an ICE detention facility in New Jersey. So both legal sides have to -- have to fight this out.

And while this is happening, their attorneys finally were able to speak to Belgal for the first time yesterday, where he told them that not only did he still have the bullet in his neck, but he's still suffering in a lot of pain. And, of course, he was worried about his son. Jessica.

[16:35:15]

DEAN: Mark Morales with the latest. Thank you for that. Still to come here, President Trump is in Tennessee tonight campaigning for the midterm elections. And you're looking live at images out of Clarksville, Tennessee, where he's speaking at a rally. We're going to talk more about this when we come back here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[16:40:12]

DEAN: Tonight, President Trump rallying in Tennessee, another campaign stop in a state that historically tends to be very red. He won that state by almost 30 points in 2024. His campaign rallies come as polls show Republicans in danger of losing control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections.

CNN Political Commentators Shermichael Singleton and Karen Finney are both joining us now. Really good to see both of you. As I've been out on maternity leave, I've seen you from afar. But it is nice to have two friends back with me here on the desk. So thank you.

Shermichael, let's start first with you. The president is now in Tennessee tonight. As I noted, it's a state he won handily in 2024. The kind of pervading -- per -- prevailing kind of narrative around all of this is that Republicans are in trouble, even in places where they've historically done really well.

And as it was just described to me by Dave Wasserman, the affordability is kind of the umbrella over all of this -- the affordability crisis in this country. Where do you kind of -- how would you assess where we stand right now from a Republican perspective?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, it's going to take Democrats five seats in order to flip the United States Senate. There's a cash advantage on the Republican side compared to the Democratic side. Now, some people may say because of the environment, that doesn't matter. I beg to differ.

I think it is material to our ability to be competitive and defend those races, as opposed to Democrats who are going to have to figure out where to send those dollars, what races they decide to focus on. It's why you've seen Chuck Schumer sort of moving all over the Senate map, trying to figure out where -- how much dollars do we send to one state as opposed to another state.

Now, as it relates to the president campaigning in traditional Republican states, it's because if you were to look at the focus group data, the survey data, polling data, just four or five months ago, Jessica, it revealed that there was an enthusiasm gap between the president's base and Democrats writ large. As of today, about 71 percent of the president's base say that they believe that this is a critical -- a critically important election for them to vote in.

I believe that's in part because of him campaigning, constantly talking to them, getting them excited about November, and reminding them of some of the promises that he's delivered on that maybe some folks may disagree with, that his base certainly applauds. And so in places like Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, where even the Democrats are appear to be a little more competitive than normal, I think the president's presence there is absolutely going to make a numerical difference.

DEAN: Karen, do you agree with that?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, I agree there is a huge cash advantage. So if any of my Democratic Party donors are listening, please open up the checkbook and send the money because we need it. That being said -- thank you for that, Shermichael.

No, but look, I think there's a couple of other things, though. I mean, this really reminds me of 2006. I was at the DNC. It's the last time I really felt the dynamics in place for a major tectonic shift.

And it is largely because the president's base is shrinking. You are seeing -- I mean, you're seeing younger men, some of the ones who shifted to him in 2024 -- they're angry. Farmers. You're seeing -- you know, so lots of the groups in places where -- you know, Kansas is competitive. Ohio. They're shifting dollars to that Senate race.

So across the board, yes, Chuck Schumer is shifting dollars. I mean, we all are. This is that point of the -- of the race where everybody's trying to figure out where the dollars best spent. But -- and part of the challenge we have is the playing field is so much bigger than we expected. And so I think that means on election night, we're going to see some things. You know, I think we'll see some things that we can predict and some things that we just -- it will have to -- it will come down to turnout. And so, you know, the other thing I want to remind us, though, is that while Trump mobilizes -- can mobilize the core of his base, he also mobilizes our base.

And we're also seeing him have an impact when he shows up on those independents who are frustrated and angry. They may not vote for Democrats. In some places, they might. But they -- it also means they just may not show up because they're not particularly excited about electing more Republican candidates who are just going to do the president's bidding. We're hearing that over and over again.

DEAN: And so, Shermichael, at this point, the president is obviously doing what he can to pull these Republicans over the finish line in some of these places where maybe they didn't expect it would be this tight. What else can Republicans do in these final weeks to try to get Republican voters to either not sit on their couch or to come home, you know, and vote for their candidates?

[16:45:03]

SINGLETON: Yes. Look, that's the duality of this, as Karen sort of highlighted, right? In one vein, the president absolutely has the ability to turn out his base. But I think there is something that Karen pointed out in her analysis that was spot on.

What happens with the independents? Do they stay home? Do they come back for Republicans? Do they come for Democrats, or do they again stay home?

And if they do stay home, then the question becomes -- to Karen's point -- about turnout. Which party can gin up enough excitement among their base to help them get across the finish line? Now I go back to having a lot of campaign dollars in your coffers to make a difference, because that allows for a multi-pronged approach targeting an engagement strategy leading up to November. That means you're campaigning, knocking on doors, phone calling, the traditional stuff.

You're running ads digitally. You're targeting some of those nontraditional, low-propensity voters who, by the way, when you look at polling data, they're typically not captured. A lot of the data that we're seeing, in my opinion, skews to the Democratic side, maybe about five or six points.

And so when you factor in some of those voters who don't want to answer polling surveys or phone calls, then you do see a far more competitive map going into November 1 that I still fundamentally believe puts the Republican Party in a position of strength when compared to my Democratic friends.

Now, the House is a different picture. I think that's where Democrats actually do have a slight obvious advantage. The Senate, I would beg to differ.

DEAN: I do. Karen, we have about one minute left, but let's -- Texas is one that jumps out.

FINNEY: Yes.

DEAN: That's one that obviously Democrats are really hopeful of flipping when it comes to that Senate seat. James Talarico is back on the campaign trail. He's been absent for almost two weeks due to what his campaign says was the flu. How did Democrats close the deal there?

FINNEY: Look, I think we closed the deal by continuing to do what they've been doing. I mean, James Talarico has run an excellent race, so has Gina Hinojosa. And this is an example of one of those states. We're seeing this, frankly, in places like Ohio and Michigan, where we have a very strong candidate running for governor and a very strong candidate running for Senate in, you know, what are tough and some tough races.

But they are helping each other, and they are both running excellent campaigns. They are focused on the issues that people are talking about. We've seen, you know, their popularity actually increasing over time.

They are within the margin of error, if not leading. So it's -- you know, it's tight races. And so a lot of it is, you know -- again, in this moment, it's turnout. Because -- I mean, I think people already know how they feel about Ken Paxton in particular in Texas, because he's just been around. He's such a known entity.

And so it's going to be really hard for them to change people's minds about him. You might be able to change people's minds about whether or not they're going to vote, but it's going to be hard to persuade people to vote for him if they've already decided they don't like him.

Whereas Talarico and Gina, frankly, both still have a pretty open electorate in terms of bringing in more, persuading people to turn out and vote. So a lot of it is ground game. I -- you know, again, it's another place where I want to have more resources on the ground because we're being dramatically outspent. But I think -- you know, at the end of the day, I think one of the stories out of this election may be looking at how the dollars versus the ground game and what things really made the difference.

DEAN: All right. Shermichael and Karen --

SINGLETON: Spot on, Karen. Spot on.

DEAN: Yes. A lot -- a lot to talk about.

FINNEY: We'll be back.

DEAN: And we still got many weeks to go. But thanks to both of you. I wish we had more time. Thank you to both of you. Good to see you.

SINGLETON: Yes.

DEAN: Still to come. President Trump reacts to allegations of quid pro quo against the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[16:53:22]

DEAN: President Trump now weighing in on the pay-to-play allegations surrounding his ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The news reports about Kimberly Guilfoyle, your ambassador to Greece -- she seems to have been --

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I just heard about it. Too bad. I mean, I don't know. She's an ambassador. I just heard a little bit about it. I don't know too much. But she was always very nice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Betsy Klein has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, over and over again we have seen President Trump make clear that he is very unhappy when his allies appear to profit off their relationship with him. And it's unclear at this stage whether there are going to be consequences. But these are very serious allegations of a quid pro quo between a top Trump ally who serves as U.S. ambassador to Greece and a former Trump donor.

This is Eric Deters. He's the former donor who ran for Congress in Kentucky. And he says that Kimberly Guilfoyle asked him to wire her $100,000 to pay off an American Express balance just six days before her confirmation hearings to be the ambassador to Greece.

Now, of course, Guilfoyle is a person who is incredibly close to the Trump family. You may recall she was engaged to the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., for about four years and enjoys a very close relationship with that family. And after the breakup, she received that plum ambassadorship posting.

Now, according to these text messages that were provided to CNN by Deters, Guilfoyle writes, "Honey, please, I need you to get this done today." And she also appeared to be aware that this was improper.

[16:55:00]

In another series of text messages, she said, "It won't show up anywhere if you wire money to American Express. That's all it will show. Please." And then she later says she can get him in for a meeting on the matter that they had discussed.

Now, this is all raising eyebrows in Trump world. There are allies of both the president and his son, Donald Trump Jr., who say that this episode is embarrassing. But Vice President JD Vance was asked about this and declined to withhold -- or was withholding judgment for now. Listen.

JD VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Look, these are accusations. You don't take messages that people allegedly had between one person or another or one person's story and say, oh, because of that, Kimberly Guilfoyle is guilty. I think that's absurd.

Let's actually see what the facts are. Let's see what the truth is. And obviously, if there was something bad that happened, then people have to suffer consequences for it.

KLEIN: Deters ultimately did not wire Guilfoyle the money. He says he did not have the liquid assets at the time. And a lawyer for Ambassador Guilfoyle is disputing the authenticity of those text messages. But Deters tells our colleague Jake Tapper there is, "No question it was a quid pro quo." Betsy Klein, CNN at the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Betsy, thank you. And still to come here, more on President Trump suggesting Ukraine get a new leader after Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the diesel agreement Trump reached with Vladimir Putin. We've got more on that when we come back. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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