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Trump And Obama Hit Campaign Trail Before Midterms; Trump To Vote Early In Florida Before Campaign Rally In Georgia; Clashes Break Out In Paris As Protesters Confront Police; Tight Races In Texas And Michigan 10 Days Before Midterms; Protest At Hostage Square Ahead Of Critical Election In Israel; Americans Turn To A.I. For Advice On The Candidates. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired October 24, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And then I said his ass, it's like, it's like a pile of muscle. And I looked at his shoulders and I tapped him on the and it actually hurt my hand. It's like a piece of steel. And I said, this guy is a monster.

MICHAEL IAN BLACK, TEAM CAPTAIN: Dear, oh, dear. Now I know why the president was sweating so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Oh, boy. All right. Watch this new episode with special guest, comedian Jenny Hagel and political commentator David Pakman tonight at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN, and streaming next day with an "All Access" subscription.

All right. Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Saturday. Very busy day on the campaign trail. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

With just 10 days now until voters head to the polls to decide control of Congress for the midterm elections, the 2026 election is intensifying today, with dueling rallies from the biggest names in each party. Donald Trump, former President Barack Obama, both taking different stages, of course. And look, Obama right now is center stage in Cleveland, Ohio. Let's listen in.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: $5 a gallon, diesel is over $6 and climbing. Now, I want to be fair. As a former president, I can tell you sometimes, sometimes, sometimes factors beyond the president's control end up foiling the best laid plans. That happens. A president doesn't have control over the entire economy. But that is not the case here. In this case, this administration s actions are directly responsible for rising costs.

The current president chose to make a series of bad decisions. Most importantly, he decided to start an unnecessary war that nobody asked for and nobody voted for. Now this is -- this is something I know a little about. Let's think about this Iran war. The original rationale was we're going to go in there and get them to give up their nuclear program, their nuclear weapons. Now, the thing was, Iran didn't have nuclear weapons because I had put a deal in place that everybody acknowledged kept them from getting nukes. And I didn't have to fire a missile to do it. I just had to --

WHITFIELD: All right. You've been listening to Barack Obama there in Cleveland, Ohio. He is stumping for former senator Sherrod Brown, who wants another go at it in the U.S. Senate, and Amy Acton, who is the Democrat -- Democratic nominee running against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy for governor. And President Obama there making a direct correlation to the rising prices that everyone in that arena and everywhere else is feeling.

He says the direct correlation is this administration, its actions, are directly responsible for the rising costs. And then, of course, you heard him talking about Iran as well, and the Iran nuclear deal that he helped put into place in his administration.

All right. Meantime, we're going to continue to monitor the former president's comments there in Cleveland before he then heads on to Michigan stumping. President Trump, well, he is equally busy today. He's hitting the campaign trail in Florida and then later returning to Georgia to stump for Republicans in tough Senate and gubernatorial races. Before departing for Florida the president will be voting with the first lady in Florida at an early voting location.

And of course, throughout it all, we have a team of correspondents out on the campaign trail covering all of the critical races.

Let's go to Detroit, which will be one of the next stops for former president Obama. Well, he's going to be holding a rally there for Democrats in Michigan. That's where we find CNN's Arlette Saenz already in position there. Folks are filling what looks like a -- is that like a high school arena or some sort of arena there in in the rafters there waiting for his arrival?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is.

WHITFIELD: What's at stake there?

SAENZ: Yes. We're at a high school gym here in downtown Detroit. And really this weekend is significant because there will be dueling presidential moments. Former president Barack Obama will be here in Detroit to rally for Democrats, while at the very same time President Donald Trump will be holding his campaign rally down in the state of Georgia.

[15:05:05]

And Trump is actually set to travel here to Michigan tomorrow, really setting up a significant presidential split screen between the two, the former president and the current president.

Now, Obama is reprising his role as the closer-in-chief for Democrats in this election. This is something we've seen the former president do time and time again, as he is still a really big motivator for the Democratic base.

Today, right now, he is down in Ohio rallying for Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown, a former senator who Obama actually campaigned with in 2008 and 2012, and also the gubernatorial nominee there, Amy Acton, who has really been thrust into the spotlight after her opponent, GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, released that controversial ad featuring her estranged mother.

Here in Detroit a little bit later this evening, Obama will be appearing with the Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, and the gubernatorial candidate here in Michigan, Jocelyn Benson. This visit from Obama also comes as El-Sayed is really looking to win over black voters, some who had sided with his opponent in the Democratic primary, and some who are skeptical about his candidacy.

Obama is a figure that certainly speaks to the black community and might be able to help with that bit of voters' sentiment here in the state. But Michigan is one of those very closely watched battles in the fight for control of the U.S. Senate. Michigan is a state that Democrats must win if they want to win back the Senate majority. Without Michigan, it would be very much more difficult for Democrats to win the Senate majority due to the fact that there are so many other red-leaning states where their battle plan runs through.

But for Obama, after he campaigns here in Michigan a little bit later in the week, he will be down in Georgia to campaign for Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms there. And it comes, as polling has shown, that Obama is perhaps viewed most favorably among the American public more than any other living president at this moment. And here in Michigan and down in Ohio, Democrats are hoping that he can really give that closing message to motivate voters to try to flip the Senate seat in Ohio blue and keep this one in the blue column here in Michigan.

WHITFIELD: All right. Arlette Saenz, thank you so much there in Detroit. Next stop for former president Barack Obama.

All right. On the Republican side, President Trump is also going to be heading to Georgia, but today to shore up support in the Peach State.

CNN's Rafael Romo is in Perry, Georgia, where the president will be holding a rally there in a matter of hours.

Rafael, some pretty important races for governor and the U.S. Senate. How are voters feeling in that arena?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they're feeling well. And Fred, let me tell you, we saw people lining up already when we got here around noon. People were already waiting to be allowed into this arena here behind me.

Now, you said, we're hours away from the beginning of this event. It starts at 7:00 p.m. here for Governor Trump. And even before this event started, Fred, there's already controversy because the Republican candidate to the governor's office here in Georgia, Rick Jackson, originally said that he was not going to show up for this event, that they were going to do a parallel campaign event in northwestern Georgia.

And then last night, at the last hour, they decided to change back and now his campaign says that, yes, he will be here, Rick Jackson will be here campaigning together with President Trump later today. And voters here in Georgia are very energized, Fred. By Tuesday this week, already one million, more than a million people had already cast ballots, early voting, so that gives you an idea, especially when you compare it to what happened here for the previous midterm election when 884,000 voters had done so by this time. 1.6 million altogether who have already cast ballots.

Now the Democrats are doing something similar today with former U.S. Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg campaigning earlier today with Jon Ossoff, the incumbent Democrat who is running to keep his seat in the U.S. Senate. So a lot of excitement here. The real question at this hour, Fred, is whether the president is going to be able to move the needle or whether he will be preaching to the choir tonight. Now back to you.

WHITFIELD: Great questions. All right, Rafael Romo, thank you so much.

All right. Meantime, President Trump is starting -- he did start his day in Florida, where he will soon join millions of other Americans who have already cast their midterm ballots.

[15:10:06]

And after voting, he then will travel to Georgia, where you saw Rafael Romo in that arena in Perry, Georgia.

Let's go to Julia Benbrook, who is in Florida.

And so, Julia, what's the plan on the president's vote today as well as his strategy overall during this midterm election season 10 days left?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ten days left, and as Rafael pointed out there, he is headed to Georgia this evening. He's going to continue this campaign blitz. He's been out on the campaign trail almost every day. Very frequently during this past month. And the White House remains adamant that he is the best messenger for Republicans here. But we are hearing that he will vote, he will participate in early voting here in Palm Beach County before he takes off.

And the election is still over a week away now but more than 23 million Americans have already cast their ballots. And we are getting a bit of insight into those numbers. In several key states Democrats have made up a larger share of early voters than they did at this point two years ago. So that really highlights some of that Democratic enthusiasm edge that we've been seeing in primary turnout, as well as polling and special elections as well.

Now, of course, this recent data only shows who is casting their ballots. It does not show what they are voting for. And Republicans typically prefer to show up on election day. When it comes to that enthusiasm edge Trump, while speaking at a rally in Fort Myers last night, he said that he sees the people as he's out on the campaign trail, and he believes that that edge is actually with his party. Now his message on the trail has remained pretty consistent. We expect

to hear a lot of this in Georgia tonight as well as he focuses on turnout, really working to push his base to the polls. It's a message that many in his party hope still resonates as his approval rating has hovered near an all-time low. But take a listen to how he's framing this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: In this election I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot if you don't mind, because when I'm on the ballot, these are just easy statistics to remember. So every year I was on the ballot, we killed in the midterm because people we -- the equivalent of the midterm because people went out and they wanted to vote for Trump and they all voted. And if we can get the people out, then we're going to have landslides the likes of which we've never seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: So voting here in just a matter of hours, then taking off to Georgia. He will be at a rally in Michigan tomorrow. So he is continuing this pace, this almost consistent presence on the trail up until the midterms.

WHITFIELD: All right. Julia Benbrook, thank you so much. Putting on -- putting up the miles just like the president is as well with your traveling with them.

All right. Battle for the control of the Senate will come down to a handful of states like Michigan and Texas. We're going to dig into those two key races coming up. And next, police and rioters clashing in France with water cannons and tear gas being deployed. We're live on the streets of Paris.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:18:09]

WHITFIELD: All right. We're following breaking developments in France, where French officials say nearly 1,000 people were detained as part of nationwide protests. Earlier in the day in Paris, demonstrations were relatively peaceful, even though protesters were also met with about 70,000 law enforcement. But by nightfall, the tensions only heightened. Tear gas was being used to disperse the crowds.

Earlier, we saw protesters also taking on authorities. And we even saw some pictures of some demonstrators that were being kind of dragged by law enforcement to try to quiet things down.

Our CNN chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, is joining us live now from Paris.

Well, right now it looks pretty quiet behind you. But we also know that there have been curfews put in place. So tell us what you all have endured during these kind of ever evolving demonstrations. CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Fredricka,

we are now in central Paris, and as you mentioned, it's very quiet and actually in the area that we were in for our last live shot, it is now also very quiet there. That was after hours of back and forth clashes between the police and the protesters. We were sort of in the thick of it as we saw police launching volley after volley of tear gas.

They were using stun grenades. They were using the water cannon. On a couple of occasions, the protesters themselves were trying to start some fires. They were also lighting flares. (INAUDIBLE), crucially, Fredricka, and this is important, is the kind of looting and general vandalism that we had seen last week in Paris.

[15:20:00]

And so perhaps exactly for that reason, French authorities are really touting this as sort of job well done by the police. As you mentioned, they had deployed an extra 20 percent more police officers and riot police on the ground to try to avert the same types of images that, of course, we all saw last week. They didn't want a repeat of that violence.

Nonetheless, though, as the march finished, and I should say that the march itself was peaceful, lots of different types of people with lots of different grievances, high cost of living, rising fuel prices, lack of investment in France's schools, and also just a general sense of anger at the direction this country is headed in and at the leadership of France's president, Emmanuel Macron.

But once that protest march had stopped, it very quickly turned into something quite different. A lot of the protesters left and the ones who stayed tended to be more (INAUDIBLE).

WHITFIELD: All right. Sorry about that. We've lost our audio connection there with Clarissa Ward. Once that's resumed, we'll try to reestablish that. Meantime, let's continue to talk about the protests that have been taking place throughout France. We want to bring back our tour guide, Sophie Gacheny, for more local perspective.

I say bring back because, Sophie, you and I spoke last weekend and you talked about the importance of being involved in these demonstrations. You were certainly advocating for an improvement in schools. And even though there are demonstrators who are representing a lot of different causes, you thought it was really important that everyone come together in in this manner.

So, today, I understand you were back out there. Talk to me about how you describe your experience last weekend to this weekend with the demonstrations in Paris.

SOPHIE GACHENY, TOUR GUIDE: Yes. So today was different compared to last week because basically it was in a way a bit more organized, but also not as well organized. What happened? Actually, yes, I don't know if you already talked about this, but we had the first route that was supposed to happen from Bastille to Nation. And if you know Paris, you know that this is in the heart of the city where most of the revolutions have happened for the past decades and centuries.

And just some hours before the beginning of the protest, they decided to switch to another itinerary, which was very confusing for everybody because we didn't know where to go. And so we ended basically protesting in the margins of Paris. What never happened before in any social movements that happen in Paris before, so it's new in terms of history. It's also very interesting about what he's saying about what's happening right now.

And the protest was, from what I saw, very peaceful. People had a lot of messages to tell. We talk to each other. Once again it was a very friendly and warm because we need this very interesting atmosphere and very, very quiet until the end.

WHITFIELD: So, do you feel still that this kind of consolidation of causes is getting the right attention? Do you feel like it is going to help get to the destination, you know, of your choice, some resolution, too, in your case, trying to improve schools? Do you feel like this is going to work?

GACHENY: I hope so, we hope so. And I'm -- and I mean, it has been the way for French people to act when they are against something. This is what we do. We go in the street and we try to the conversation if the government doesn't want to do it in the regular ways, we're going to say. So I really hope for the students right now and also for people working in schools, for all the teachers, all the people part of the public service is that they're going to be heard by Macron.

But also, which is, of course, this is the main goal of the protest, but which is also interesting to mention, according to me and very important, is that some people today, they decided to go in the street. They were not necessarily here last weekend and they decided to go today because Macron, our president, threatened the right of protesting this week by saying that actually not all the protests would be authorized.

And this is something that never happened under our republic right now, the fifth republic. So people are scared about the turn that the end of the mandate of Macron is taking.

[15:25:09]

WHITFIELD: So what do you think what kind of impact do you believe this is going to have on Macron by saying that as the response particularly to how things unraveled last week because there was destruction of property? Thus far we have not been told about destruction of property this weekend but do you think there is going to be backlash against Macron because of the words that he chose?

GACHENY: I don't know. It's hard to say, but which is sure is that one of the main sentence and the song that we heard today at the protest, it was Macron demission. So basically people wants to see Macron out of state, even if he still has six months to go. Personally, I don't think that it's going to happen, but which is sure is that his mandate is not going to end well. And I mean, he is not popular at all right now in France, but which is sure is that he's not going to be president again. So for him, it's like, OK, now the job is done, you know, which he sure is that he's not ending in the right way.

WHITFIELD: Now, quickly, how much longer do you think these protests are going to go on?

GACHENY: Very hard to -- very hard to say. I think we'll see because now the students are on holidays. So we'll see when they get back to school, if it keeps going and if it's increased.

WHITFIELD: OK. Sophie Gacheny, thank you so much again for joining us.

GACHENY: Thanks. See you.

WHITFIELD: All right. The last time Texas sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate, Bill Clinton was president. So with a few days to go before the midterm elections, where does this key Senate race stand? We'll talk about it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:31:20]

WHITFIELD: All right. Live pictures out of Cleveland, Ohio. Former president Barack Obama there stumping for Amy Acton, who is the Democratic nominee in the gubernatorial race, and former senator Sherrod Brown trying to get another chance at being senator. Obama from here leaving Cleveland will be heading to Michigan, stumping for Democratic candidates there in Detroit later on this evening.

So look at the calendar. Just 10 more days to go until the polls close. And President Trump is also on a final campaign blitz through the country's traditionally red states in an effort to turn out more Republican voters, particularly his MAGA base. And two races that could very easily dictate which party will control the Senate for the next two years, Michigan and Texas.

In Texas, you've got Democrat James Talarico taking on Republican attorney general Ken Paxton. This race has become historic, becoming the most costly Senate race ever. And it's close. And then in Michigan, the tight race between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers. And this race, well, it's become, shall we say, personal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), SENATE CANDIDATE FROM MICHIGAN: Let's talk about this. He keeps raising this question about this association with an organization I've never been a part of because my mom, who's a nurse in Missouri? It doesn't make any sense. And it's actually really quite beneath you, Mike. It's really quite beneath you. To call into question my loyalty to the Constitution --

MIKE ROGERS (R), SENATE CANDIDATE FROM MICHIGAN: It's not -- it's beneath you not to own up.

EL-SAYED: I'm talking.

ROGERS: Own up to it.

EL-SAYED: I am talking.

ROGERS: All right. Own up to it.

EL-SAYED: I'm talking.

ROGERS: Well, own up to it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Excuse me. Yes. Go ahead.

EL-SAYED: Can I have a few more seconds?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Go ahead.

EL-SAYED: Thank you. To bring into question my commitment to the Constitution is really beneath you. I am proud of America. I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is your time, Dr. El-Sayed.

EL-SAYED: And the question that you would ask that I think is actually really quite shameful as somebody who's actually served under that Constitution. It is shame -- shameful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And joining me right now is Domenico Montanaro. He is a senior political editor at NPR.

Always great to see you, Domenico.

DOMENICO MONTANARO, SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT, NPR: Great to be with you.

WHITFIELD: All right. So let's stick with Michigan right now because early voting started today across the state. What issues are driving voters most there, especially after that debate performance we saw for the Senate race?

MONTANARO: Well, you heard right there that really nasty exchange between Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed. I mean, this idea of El- Sayed's loyalty to the country and really, you know, El-Sayed's sort of like viral with this clip of him explaining to someone who asked him this question about that really was centered around his faith, and he talked about the Constitution. And it's been a barrier. It's been a hurdle for him to have to try to overcome.

And look, he's a very talented candidate. He's somebody who really is able to make the argument well. And the thing that he says back to Rogers, you know, has been what is his stance, you know, on the Iran war and on MAGA and Donald Trump.

Remember, Michigan is a purple state. So while El-Sayed has these challenges in trying to take a more progressive stance and be able to win over maybe those purple, you know, voters, some of those moderates in the Detroit suburbs and elsewhere, you know, Rogers has a hurdle as well because Trump is so unpopular and he's done so much, Rogers, to try to ingratiate himself with the MAGA wing, even though he always had a reputation as a member of Congress as a moderate.

So this race is just one of those just looks like it's coming down to the wire very closely. For me, I'm going to be watching if Abdul El- Sayed can get out black voters in Wayne County.

[15:35:03]

Democrats have to overperform there. And it's not a stronghold of his right now. So I'm really, really going to be watching closely those returns in Wayne County.

WHITFIELD: Maybe another way in which El-Sayed is responding to people who are challenging, you know, his identity, he released this ad last night. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EL-SAYED: My name is Abdul El-Sayed. You might have heard a bit about me. The D.C. elites spent millions trying to blame me for things other people said. But we agree on a lot. Don't want to take my word for it? How about some folks you know a little bit better?

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: You got to respect Abdul because he beat the machine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's very charismatic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His campaign now, America First.

JESSICA TARLOV, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: And Abdul El-Sayed, who, by the way, was captain of his high school football team. Mike Rogers wants to pick a fight with him about it.

LARA TRUMP, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: He's a good looking guy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he's better.

L. TRUMP: He's a great speaker.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't vote for Mike Rogers at gunpoint.

REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): Democrats spent a skyrocketing $65 million to defeat him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He shows the muscles.

WATTERS: This guy is a force that Mike Rogers is going to have to deal with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow. What's the audience that he is, you know, targeting? MONTANARO: Well, I think what's fascinating there is how many clips

you saw from FOX News, right? I mean, this is -- there was a debate during the 2020 primary on the Democratic side on whether or not Democrats should even go on FOX News. You know, they don't want a platform what they saw as something too conservative and didn't want to give it attention.

Well, there's a lot of other Democrats now heading into this I would say 2028 presidential election, you know, who are thinking about whether or not they should be trying to speak to conservatives because people take in their information in ways that are so, you know, driven by the algorithms and only really looking at the things that they see. So if El-Sayed, the idea is not to win over every Republican, but if he can win the argument sometimes with a few people and humanize himself so that he doesn't become a caricature, I think that's part of the goal here.

WHITFIELD: Wow. All right. Let's turn to Texas now. It's been nearly 40 years since voters elected a Democrat in Texas. Yet the latest polling shows that Talarico is leading Paxton. I mean, is it that Talarico is a particularly strong candidate, or is it something else?

MONTANARO: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Oh, OK.

MONTANARO: It's interesting really.

WHITFIELD: It's all that.

MONTANARO: I mean, Talarico is -- has a particular strength when it comes to how he makes the argument, right? Another person who's willing to go on FOX News, be in Republican places to try to make the argument. I mean, the fact is he's a seminarian. He's somebody who decided that he was -- he went viral by, you know, and really launching his campaign by being able to say, no, religion isn't just something that the right owns, but there are teachings from the bible and from Jesus Christ that say something different about how people are supposed to live their lives. That's something that a lot of Democrats had ceded territory on.

Now, so saying that, John Cornyn would have walked into this seat most likely to win reelection, and Republicans have been telling me for months just how annoyed they are with the fact that Trump decided to weigh in on this and put Ken Paxton over the line during the runoff. Republicans were really, really hoping that they could get Trump to say, hey, I endorsed Senator John Cornyn, let's win this seat, because it's going to cost you.

The warnings that Republicans in D.C. said that they told Trump, with that, it's going to cost you $300 million to be able to win Texas, and even to keep it close that's about how much money they've been having to spend where we've seen half $1 billion spent in this state since the primaries.

WHITFIELD: More money. MONTANARO: It's really something else.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Big bank. So if not Talarico then, I mean, what will it say about Paxton and, you know, Texas voters?

MONTANARO: Yes, I'm in Texas right now, and I can tell you, driving around the Dallas-Fort Worth area, you see these billboards everywhere of, you know, Ken Paxton, the, quote-unquote, "most corrupt politician in America." It's something that Talarico has been running a lot of ads on. You look around and you see this -- the lawn signs in very mixed areas. I was in a red area a few days ago, and you saw maybe 30 percent of the signs were Talarico and still you had obviously a lot of Paxton there as well.

This is a state, it's one of those red states, though, that there's a lot of Republicans. So if Trump or others can get those Republicans who would have voted for him fired up to get out to vote, that's where the floor is. What they're trying to do is raise some of the floor to try to get those Republicans out to vote. But Ken Paxton is a uniquely disliked figure in this state, even among Republicans.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Yes. Amazing races that we continue to watch here. Just 10 days to go to. And we'll, well, we'll get closer to finding out what the outcome is because we don't really know if it's going to be 10 days from now.

MONTANARO: Yes, let's hope so for all --

WHITFIELD: You're right.

MONTANARO: Let's hope for all of our sanity that we're not spending weeks trying to figure out what's going on in Alaska. Right? Which is very possible.

WHITFIELD: I know. Yes. We're ready for all of it.

[15:40:00]

All right. Domenico Montanaro, thank you so much. Stick around, though. Don't go too far. We're just going to give you a little break for now.

MONTANARO: Will do.

WHITFIELD: All right. Straight ahead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for his job as voters head to the polls Tuesday. Tonight in Israel, thousands of demonstrators, though, are gathering in Hostage Square.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:01]

WHITFIELD: All right, turning now to Israel, where families of October 7th victims and former hostages are leading a mass demonstration at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv. They gathered three days before one of the most critical elections in Israel's history. They want to see an end to Prime Minister Netanyahu's government and they're demanding an independent inquiry into Hamas's attacks three years ago.

CNN Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond brings us the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Three days before the elections thousands of Israelis have come out here for what many hope will be the last anti-government protest. We are here in Hostage Square, which for the first two years of the war became a weekly protest site. Every Saturday night, thousands of Israelis coming out to demand a ceasefire and a hostage release deal, and in many ways, to protest against Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

And now, tonight, three days before the election, thousands of Israelis have come back out here to demand the ouster of Netanyahu's government and also to demand a national commission of inquiry to investigate the failures that led up to October 7th. Netanyahu and his government have repeatedly refused to establish such an independent commission, and so many of people's hopes here as they go into the elections are being pinned on the opposition winning these elections in order to establish such a commission.

In fact, a majority of Israelis in recent polling have said that October 7th will be front of mind as they head to the ballot box, hoping for a measure of accountability for the failures that led up to that day and the decision-making of course that followed. We have seen many of the opposition candidates coming out here tonight to meet with many of the families of victims of October 7th, to meet with some of the people who have come out here to demonstrate.

Chief among them, of course, is Gadi Eisenkot, the man best positioned perhaps to replace Benjamin Netanyahu as the next prime minister of Israel. He has vowed that if he comes into office, if he becomes prime minister, one of his first duties in office will be to establish that independent commission.

I spoke with him very briefly tonight. He told me that he feels confident in victory in these elections on Tuesday. But the polls are very, very tight here in Israel. In fact, neither Eisenkot's opposition bloc nor Netanyahu's governing coalition right now are showing the possibility of reaching that 61-seat majority threshold in Israel's parliament. It is neck and neck. It is very close.

And what Eisenkot has indicated is that if he does not get that majority, he is still willing to form a minority government, if necessary, to avoid repeat elections and to keep Benjamin Netanyahu out of power.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:52:08]

WHITFIELD: All right. With the midterm elections now just 10 days away, some voters are now asking A.I. to help them figure out who to vote for. It's a trend that's emerged this election cycle, and it's hard to imagine it won't become even more prevalent in elections to come.

NPR's Domenico Montanaro is back with me now.

OK, so you took part in a podcast on this. And what was the consensus?

MONTANARO: Well, the political consultants basically put a poll out asking people if they use A.I. to tell them whether or not, you know, they -- who they should vote for and how and why. And then we sort of tested it out a little bit to see who -- you know, I asked a few of the different ones and said, hey, who should I vote for? And it's like, oh, well, it's your decision. And then you start to tell them like what your, the numbers, you know, what your policies are.

And then they sort of push you in the direction of, you know, which candidate feels that way or not. But really not many people, 4 percent to 6 percent, something like that, are using chatbots to explicitly ask them for election information. It's the election information into a lot of these chatbots is a little dicey still. They don't quite have all of it scraped exactly correctly from the internet, but you're seeing an increasing number of people not even realizing they're using A.I. because when you Google something, right, you're seeing a lot of those summaries, those A.I. summaries, and not everybody even knows that those summaries are A.I. generated.

So you're just going to see this increase more and more. And we've seen it in advertising this year, too, where over $130 million has been used to have A.I. generated ads. And that's just going to expand in 2028.

WHITFIELD: So while you say, you know, like there is that use of it, a lot of it by default, do you see a willing intentional use of A.I. increasing over time?

MONTANARO: Yes, I think it's only -- it's only going to get bigger. And I think the thing when you talk to some of the A.I. companies, what they notice is they see the top line numbers and they understand that A.I. is not as popular as they would like it to be. And yet usage is also going up at the same time. So we're seeing this dichotomy in American society where people are becoming more reliant on A.I. for work, for, you know, general life, things like asking how to work out, what you should eat.

And then yet also being really, really nervous about A.I. data centers, particularly in their communities, and about job losses. And I think there was a recent ABC poll showed that two-thirds of people would be against an A.I. data center being in their community. When I talk to Democratic strategists about this, they say, look, I don't care what the future potentially is of how it could benefit the economy, right now it is an overwhelmingly negative issue that people don't want these data centers in their backyards. [15:55:03]

And they're advising candidates to run against it hard, especially because President Trump has doubled down on this and said he's in favor of it, and people should be in favor of it, too. And I think we're seeing the results of that in something like the Ohio Senate race, where Sherrod Brown has very deftly sort of put Jon Husted on the defensive in calling him the face of A.I. data centers. Of course, Jon Husted is the incumbent Republican. Sherrod Brown, the Democrat who used to hold a seat in the Senate.

WHITFIELD: All right, Domenico Montanaro, we'll leave it there for now. Great to see you. Thank you so much.

MONTANARO: You got it. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. President Trump, former president Obama, both on the campaign trails this weekend as we hit crunch time ahead of the midterms. We're live at both rallies.

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