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CNN This Morning

One Fatality Confirmed In Escambia County Following Hurricane Isaias; 9 Dead, Including Children, In Pennsylvania Shooting; Protests Erupt in New York City After ICE Agent Shoots Father In The Bronx; DeSantis Gives Update On Hurricane Isaias Aftermath; Trump To Hold Rally In Tennessee In Effort To Boost GOP Candidates; Trump Announces Deal For Russian Diesel As Zelenskyy Calls It A "Gift To Putin"; Trump, Vance React To Guilfoyle Quid Quo Pro Allegations. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired October 10, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:00:13]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, it's Saturday, October 10th. Welcome to a new hour of CNN This Morning. I'm Sara Sidner and Victor Blackwell is out today.

We begin with the breaking news, the latest on what is now post Tropical storm Isaias as it drenches the southeast storm made landfall on Florida's panhandle is a Category 2 hurricane with winds at about 105 miles an hour.

So far, there has been one reported death from the storm in Escambia County from a fallen tree. The worst of the storm has passed, but the storm is still strong enough to cause some serious issues as it travels inland. Right now, crews are out assessing the aftermath of the first major hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. since Milton two years ago.

Now as we speak, more than 870,000 customers are without power across the Southeast. As I said, Isaias continues to push inland. You're seeing some of the damage left there. Residents in Florida already working to clear the roads of a lot of fallen trees and debris as floodwaters are receding as well.

All hurricane warnings have been lifted, but there are still high wind and flash flood warnings for parts of northern Alabama and Georgia.

Now as a hurricane made landfall, the winds got up to 105 miles sustained per hour. And you can see what happened there. Look at the roof of this hotel in Pensacola. You see it's just being ripped to shreds and scattering debris all over the place.

One of the hotel guests was able to describe what happened, when it happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STORM MCCREE, HOTEL GUEST: They ripped the roof off and everything almost immediately. So as soon as it picked up, everything just came apart. I don't even know how to describe it. So I've been in a lot of storms and the howling and the whistling and stuff like that. You know the normal attributes you get with a hurricane. But this had like a growl to it. It almost had like a roar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Has a growl to it. CNN has reporters across the Southeast covering this storm. Some of our best, Ryan Young is in Montgomery, Alabama, and Allison Chinchar, our meteorologist, is tracking the storm in the CNN Weather Center. I'm going to begin with you, Ryan.

Look, the light is out. Things look like they fared very well there. Oh, sorry. We're starting with Allison. I'm sorry, Ryan. I'm sorry, Ryan. We're starting with Allison because we want to know where the storm is going and then we'll come to you where the storm has been.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. So we take a look at what we've got right now. Again, those winds are sustained at about 35 miles per hour, nowhere near where they were about 24 hours ago. But we are still having the potential here for some very heavy rain bands as the system continues to slide off to the north. And we will still continue to see some very gusty winds.

And that is going to be a concern for all of these areas without power because we need those crews to get out. We need them to reestablish those connections and get folks power back on.

Now when we talk about wind, it's not just going to be focused right there along the Gulf Coast. All of these areas you see here on the map, the orange color being a wind advisory and this deep red color being that high wind warning. A lot of these areas are still looking at the potential for wind gusts around 40, 50, even as high as 60 miles per hour today as the rest of that system finally begins to slide away.

Now as it's doing that, it is still going to bring some heavy rain at times. You've got some heavy rain across areas of Tennessee right now. Look at this line right here that's trying to form. Now that we're starting to get some daylight back into a few of these places, it's fueling the next round of showers and thunderstorms that will continue into the afternoon and evening hours too.

So this line here is going to continue to slide off to the north and east so that really by the time we get to the afternoon and especially the evening hours, we are looking at the potential for some severe thunderstorms. We're talking damaging wind gusts 60 to 70 miles per hour. And yes, even the potential for a few tornadoes are possible.

So here's a look. Let's break down the afternoon hours. Notice again, the heaviest rain really not going to be focused after say about 12-1 o'clock into the Carolinas, into Virginia and then by this evening, even though you do still have some lingering showers across say Georgia, Alabama and even Tennessee, the heavy rain really now starting to spread into areas of the mid-Atlantic and that's where it's going to be focused overnight tonight and certainly into the very early hours of Sunday.

So again, yes, the storm is weaker now, but it's not over just yet. And really going forward the next 24 hours, the focus is really going to be in the eastern states, like I said, the Carolinas, all the way up through areas of the mid-Atlantic that's where we could be looking at widespread rainfall totals of about 4 to 6 inches. But it's not out of the question for some of these areas to pick up as much as 8 or even 10 inches of rain before this system finally exits completely on Sunday.

[08:05:06]

SIDNER: Allison, thank you so much. Giving us a sense of where this storm is going and reminding people that there is still some really crazy weather that they could be experiencing and they need to be paying attention to what's happening in their local areas.

Let's go now to CNN's Ryan Young. I tried it first, Ryan, to come to you because, you know, it's the Florida connection I think. It's the south Florida connection. Look at the storm -- the storm, as you saw there, mostly past the area where you are.

What are you seeing? Is there any damage? It looks like things have gone actually fairly well there.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So far, so good. I want to point out one thing, though. Allison made a great point because he talked about all that rain that will be falling, especially north of where we are right now. The last time we had a major storm about two years ago, it was that rainfall that hit for 20 and 24 hours that really made it really difficult.

So we see even as far north as Atlanta where they're trying to make sure all the systems are ready so they can take on that extra rainfall here. Right now the power is pretty good in Montgomery, and so far things have been moving pretty smoothly. But we do know over 300,000 people in the state do not have power. They've been positioning themselves all throughout this state to have the response ready to go should power be knocked out in several different locations.

There was an impact here. There was supposed to be a homecoming game today for Alabama State versus FAMU. They moved that game to yesterday. They played FAMU won by a point. So that was good so far. But you got to think about all the people they were worried about in the state, especially coming for the Georgia, Alabama game. That game, of course, is going to happen on time.

But this is the real story. These crews are getting ready to go out once they get their orders to try to get the power back on throughout the Alabama area. So far, we haven't heard of any injuries in this area, but we're checking with emergency management to make sure things run smoothly.

We did hear one report of a tree maybe down on a house last night, but we didn't hear the howling. We didn't get heavy rain here. But if you think about it, they got almost a month's worth of rain just in 24 hours, Sara, so it's still busy, but just not as impactful as we thought it was going to be in this area.

SIDNER: And as you mentioned, saturated so if there is more rain, then that is where people say, hey, look, there could be flooding.

YOUNG: Yes.

SIDNER: There could be other issues like more downed trees and just to be. Yes, exactly. Just to be careful out there. Ryan, it is so good to see you. Thank you so much. I appreciate you this morning.

YOUNG: Good to see you.

SIDNER: Let's go down to Rafael Romo. He is in, I think, Escambia County. We're learning -- you're in Pensacola. We are learning, I think, that there is a potential fatality there from authorities this morning.

What are you learning and what are you seeing as far as damage there? Because this is the area where the storm really hit hardest as it was coming in as a Category two.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Sara. Unfortunately, I can't confirm that. Earlier today, PIO with Escambia County confirmed that one person died due to a downed tree here in the county. Right now I'm standing in downtown Pensacola and we were talking last hour about downed trees, about loose debris throughout town, and this is what we found here.

Take a look at these tree branches that were torn off from the tree by the power of the storm.

And then also speaking earlier with Mayor D.C. Reeves, he was telling us that one of the main challenges are downed trees and power lines. And take a look at this light pole here, all the way down blocking the street. It goes all the way across.

And it makes sense because when we got here, there is no power seemingly to this side of the street, but that side of the street seems to be fine. And that's the challenge that officials are going to have, Sara. Mayor Reeves was telling me that originally 103,000 customers were without power during the storm. That figure is probably going down hour by hour.

Governor Ron DeSantis said yesterday that as many as 16,000 linemen were ready to go to start working on those downed power lines, trying to bring power back on.

Now coming here, Sara, let me tell you, we had to use two different bridges. And I'm glad to report this is very good news for the local residents that the box -- the Bob Sykes Bridge is open as well as the bridge people here know as the Three Mile Bridge. So that's really good news.

However, one word of caution before I go, Sara. Mayor Reeves was telling me that it is their preference that people do not go out right now because they want to make sure that they take care of things like these so that people don't put themselves at risk and are able, the crews and the first responders are able to do their job without having to put up with traffic and other issues along the way, Sara, back to you.

[08:10:10]

SIDNER: I have to say, Rafael Romo, you and your crew are freaking me out. So close to that downed power line. But as you say, it is not electrified at this point in time, but it is a reminder and a warning to people that there are electrified lines, that people have to be very, very careful with the trees down and those power lines as well. Thank you so, thank you so much for your reporting there from Pensacola this morning after Hurricane Isaias powered through.

Now to some headlines this morning. Several people have been killed after a mass shooting in Erie, Pennsylvania. Our affiliate WSE is reporting nine people, including two children are among the dead. We have not been able to independently confirm the number of dead at this hour, but there are witnesses saying that the suspect was seen firing a gun before entering a house Friday night.

And a SWAT team did arrived there. You could see the video of that SWAT team there. They tried to get the man to surrender. But more shots were heard coming from inside that home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF RICK LORAH, ERIE POLICE: I want to be candid with our community. This is one of the most difficult and heartbreaking scenes our officers and investigators have ever encountered. The loss of life is devastating and the circumstances we are working through are deeply disturbing.

At this time, we can confirm that the suspect is deceased. Based on the information currently available to us, there is no ongoing threat to the public.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Authorities say the shooter died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The identities of the victims have not been released and there is no idea of the motive here at this time.

All right. Another night of protests in New York after ICE agents shot and wounded a man in his car while his five-year-old son sat in the backseat. Thursday shooting has drawn criticism from New York City officials and ignited protests with demands for federal ICE agents to leave the city. The mayor called ice rotten to its core.

President Trump held a rally in Syracuse last night where he went on the attack against New York's officials. Now, a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit southern Panama on

Friday, causing damage. You can see some of it there. And there were some minor injuries as well. The quake's epicenter was in an area about 125 miles from Panama City that is not densely populated. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, when the quake hit, thousands were forced into the streets for safety.

Look at what happens here. This is why this is a local television program where the quake hits while they're on air live and they end up running for cover. Watch as this just shakes up that room, making the TV, the lights, everything move violently.

All right, next for you on CNN This Morning, the residents in Florida panhandle getting their first look. Daylight has happened at the damage left behind by Hurricane Isaias. We'll have more on the cleanup there.

Plus, FEMA will be stepping in to help those impacted communities along the coast what the recovery effort is going to look like this morning.

And President Trump back on the campaign trail just weeks before the midterm. His message to voters in Syracuse last night.

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[08:18:08]

SIDNER: Isaias continues to wreak havoc as it makes its way through the Southeast. In Pensacola, Florida, you can look at how the strong winds of the hurricane ripped a chunk of the roof right off of this hotel. Watch it as it goes. See the remnants flying all over the place from the punishing winds.

Now, President Trump has approved emergency declarations for Alabama and Florida. Now joining me now to discuss how the disaster assistance will be coordinated and recovery efforts are underway is former FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell. Thank you so much for being here.

You have seen these storms before. This could have been a category three, but it ended up being a two with 105 mile sustained winds as it came through. What will the recovery efforts, how will they shape up? What will they

look like? And how many resources do you think will be needed after this particular storm?

DEANNE CRISWELL, FORMER FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Good morning, Sara. Well, the first thing is that the emergency declaration allows FEMA to come in and support the states if they have any immediate lifesaving needs or any immediate stabilization needs. That's the most important thing right now is they're assessing the damage as they're identifying where people may still need assistance. That's what that emergency declaration is going to do, but also reimburses those local governments for all of their activities that they're going to do to help with these immediate life-saving situations. And then they will work closely with the state directors to understand

what their longer term needs are going to be and then determine whether a major disaster declaration would be warranted. And that'll be based on the amount of damage and the impact. And then that opens up a whole lot of other resources to support the recovery effort.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about the status of FEMA because the Trump administration did make some sweeping cuts and restructured the agency.

[08:20:05]

Will this impact, you know, recovery and aid efforts?

CRISWELL: Well, there are a lot of really dedicated people still at FEMA, but they have lost a lot of their senior leadership. They've lost a lot of the institutional knowledge. And so I think that the people that have been there, that have been maybe in lower positions, are really going to have to step up and maybe learn new positions as they go out and try to support these states.

But it is a strain when you lose all of that senior leadership and you lose that knowledge and understanding what has happened in the past in these jurisdictions, in these states, you know, that will take time perhaps, to make sure that they're getting the right programs in place to support them.

SIDNER: Look, speaking of time, there was this tornado disaster in Wisconsin, and they've been waiting since July to get assistance, get monetary assistance, and the president just approved 18 million in aid. That's quite some time between the time of the disaster and the time where people are finally maybe going to be able to see some relief.

Are these kind of delays something that you may expect in the future?

CRISWELL: Well, I know during my administration, Sara, what we did is we wanted to be able to come in as quickly as possible. And so that's one of the reasons I would go to a disaster site, meet with the governor and see the damage firsthand. So if it did, if I thought it was going to meet the criteria for a FEMA declaration, and we could expedite that.

But the other way that you can do it is you can go through house by house and gather all of that data and submit it. And that may be possibly how this administration is approaching it. And that does take time. But these people need help right away. And if you can get that assistance out there sooner and that declaration sooner, then it helps them with their questions about what their recovery is going to look like.

SIDNER: What should people know? What should people have if there is damage, if they do need help from FEMA? Give us some sense of what you can personally do to try to help yourself when you've been through something like this. CRISWELL: At the first thing that they need to do is they need to contact their insurance company. Right? The insurance company is the number one resource that they're going to have to support their recovery efforts. And then they need to start documenting. They need to take pictures and photographs of the damage to their home or their belongings. If they can do an inventory of that, they need to gather their personal documents and their information that they're going to be needed to submit like bank account records and so forth.

And then if there is a major disaster declaration that includes individual assistance, then they'll be ready to provide all of that information and they can speed up that process to help them get additional assistance if needed.

SIDNER: Typically, when you have like a Category 2 storm, what we're learning from authorities is that this is really more of a wind event than it was a flooding event where there's a lot of trees down and so forth.

How does FEMA play into this with the local authorities? Do they help with those sorts of things or are they doing something different?

CRISWELL: Well, the state and locals always have the responsibility to manage the response and the recovery. This kind of stabilization part. Right. That has always been the case and that's never changed.

Where FEMA can come in is they can provide financial assistance if there's, if it falls under the emergency declaration or financial assistance if it comes under a major disaster declaration. And they can also -- if they don't have contracts in place or they don't have the resources, that's when FEMA can tap into other parts of the federal government like the Army Corps of Engineers to come in and also assist.

And so they do that in coordination with the state, understanding what tools and resources they have and what they have gaps in. And then FEMA makes a determination of the best way to fill that. Sometimes it's called an EMAC, an Emergency Management Assistance Compact, where it's a state to state mutual aid. They can come in, the states can request that assistance, but FEMA can reimburse for those costs if there's a major disaster declaration.

SIDNER: Deanne Criswell, thank you so much for getting up bright and early for us this morning as people finally are going out to see the and assess the damage that happened from Hurricane Isaias. Appreciate your time this morning.

And by the way, we're standing by for a press conference from Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis expected here. You're seeing a live look where the podium is. He will update us on the storm's aftermath, any recovery efforts that are happening, any injuries or fatalities. And you know what the state is doing about those hundreds of thousands of people, up to 400,000 plus people who are now without power there in the state of Florida.

OK. Ahead, a military execution by firing squad to be live streamed for the public. That's the controversial plan for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says that is drawing major bipartisan backlash.

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[08:29:23]

SIDNER: We're standing by now for an update from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on the impact from Hurricane Isaias on the panhandle there in Florida. We know one death has been confirmed so far in this storm in Escambia County.

Now, the person died in that county after a tree fell with daylight. Residents in the part of the state are now getting a look at the damage left behind by Isaias. Reporter Melanie Levy from CNN affiliate WEAR filed a report for us from Milton, Florida.

[08:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELANIE LEVI, WEAR REPORTER: I'm on Park Avenue right now over in kind of the eastern Milton area. And you're absolutely right. The debris and the destruction here is very real.

Now take a look behind me. You can see that this gigantic tree was literally ripped out from the ground. It just makes me wonder personally, how fast was the wind going to be able to rip it from its roots and get it out. If you want to come a little bit over here, you can see just how gigantic and this is somebody's yard. This is not good.

They took down their fences and everything. This poor person. They've also got, if you want to turn this way, they've got a child swing set. They've got more fencing all coming down. This is their entire backyard. You really just got a feel for the probably hundreds of thousands of people in northwest Florida affected by Hurricane Isaias.

And as the daylight comes, you know, we really, all we can do is just hope that things get a little bit better. And I feel like as the sunlight starts to come out, we will start to see more pictures, more videos online, maybe more calls to the station about some of this crazy destruction.

It's really just not going great over here. I actually just got a call from a man who I'm going to go to his house in a little bit. He said that his jeep is completely barricaded into his house because the trees all around it are just blocking him in. He said things over there are pretty bad.

So I'm probably going to make my way over even further east into Milton see what I see and then I will, of course, get back to y'all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: All right. Thank you to reporter Melanie Levi from CNN affiliate WEAR. All right. President Trump canceled plans to attend tonight's Alabama, Georgia football game in Tuscaloosa because of the remnants of Hurricane Isaias. But he does plan to headline a rally today in Tennessee where early voting is going to start in just a few days now.

We are going to go live now to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis who is giving us an update on what has happened after Isaias hit the panhandle.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R) FLORIDA: Southeast representative and we've been working with FEMA, had a call with the administrator this morning. And then we also have General Haas from the Florida National Guard. As everybody knows, the hurricane made landfall at 09:30 Eastern Time in Destin as a Category 2 hurricane. It continued moving north through the Florida panhandle and then is now has impacted Alabama, Georgia and beyond.

There were wind gusts of up to 116 miles per hour near Santa Rosa Sound and over 100 miles an hour near Pensacola and Panama City Beach. Water levels were approximately 5.5 feet higher than normal. As of 5:00 a.m. this morning the storm has weakened into a post-tropical cyclone and those sustained winds are now down to about 35 miles per hour.

Although the center of the storm has moved out of Florida, the threat of flooding remains. Forecasted rain totals of 4 to 8 inches across the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend this weekend. Water levels along Florida's gulf coast are expected to continue receding throughout the day.

As of now there have been no confirmed fatalities. I know that there's a news report of a fatality in Escambia County that's not yet been confirmed by the state, but that very well may be the case and that was as a result reportedly of a downed tree.

Power restorations, well, the emergency missions, we intake missions at the state level from locals. We have completed 150 of those missions. Some of the outstanding requests that were made at the start of the storm have been canceled by the locals. We take that as a good sign. It means that they have things under control and so some of the things that were requested I think are not needed by some of the local communities, which we are glad to see.

The power restoration as we noted, we had over 16,000 linemen pre- staged before the storm to be able to commence rapid power restoration as soon as it was safe to do so. Last night in the wee hours of the morning those crews began working. As early as 3:00 a.m., both the Florida Department of Transportation and Highway Patrol began cut and toss operations and bridge inspections to clear roads and to allow that power restoration work to begin at first light.

Thousands of linemen and utility crews have convoyed from Sandestin and along the I-10 corridor to get to work focusing on outages in the hardest hit communities.

As of 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time, 448,000 accounts are without power, including 323,000 customers from FPL and 110,000 from various coops throughout Northwest Florida.

[08:35:00]

County outages, some counties are over 80 percent. Santa Rosa 90 percent without power as of this morning. Holmes County 89 percent. Washington County 86 percent without. Walton County 85 percent without. Escambia 75 percent without and Okaloosa 53 percent without. These guys are working. We're going to get a better assessment from FPL as they're able to go and survey all of their assets that are there.

When these things -- if the tree knocks a power line down, they get that hooked up. If somehow a substation was destroyed, sometimes they have to rebuild that. We don't know if that happened on this particular storm. It's happened in Category 5 storms. This may not have been one that would have permanently damaged any of their power infrastructure. They're going to make that assessment this morning and I think that'll give us a good sense about the future for the rapidity of the power restoration.

FDOT led cut and toss operation. Crews began operations as soon as the conditions allowed. So it was pitch blackout. The storm had passed, it was safe enough to go out and they were doing it. We had 30 FDOT teams that are actively conducting damage and flooding assessments across the Panhandle.

As of this morning, all state owned bridges are safe and have been reopened for travel. Crews finished inspecting all the coastal bridges by 0600 this morning. Also by 0600, 40 cut and toss teams had cleared Interstate 10 and crews cleared and reopened U.S. 98. So all state owned bridges are back open and then the major thoroughfares I-10 and U.S. 98 are back open.

There are smaller arteries that still have debris and Florida Department of Transportation is clearing that. They don't anticipate there being any major problems. It's pretty standard practice for them. So that is ongoing right now.

And those localized events are in places like of course, where the storm went, Okaloosa County and some of those other areas.

Northwest Florida Beaches Airport has reopened to commercial service. Destin Fort Walton Beach Airport in Pensacola remain closed to commercial service at this time.

State search and rescue teams are ready and able to conduct operations in impacted communities. And of course they will prioritize areas experiencing significant flooding and storm damage. We have not yet received any request for search and rescue deployment and I take that as an optimistic sign.

But our resources are prepared in the event that the need arises, particularly with respect to any flooding that may occur on the back end of this storm. And we're likely to continue to see in some areas water levels continue to rise. So we have Florida National Guard search and rescue teams. We have our State Guard. We have all of our other state agencies, including Fish and Wildlife. Their assets are there, their assets are ready should they be needed. But fortunately they have not been needed up to this point.

As you begin going outside, if you're in this affected region, you start assessing damage, you want to start cleaning up, just please be cautious of your surrounding areas. There could be downed power lines. Those are hazardous. There could be floodwaters. Stay out of those. Certainly don't try to drive if there's high standing water. Those do represent hazards on all these storms.

You will have impacts directly from the storm on people's lives and safety. Then there tends to be injuries and unfortunately deaths in the days after. So it's still a very hazardous situation. All the assets are there to get the power back on, make sure all the roads are clean and safe. And that's being done. But just please continue to exercise caution in the next couple of days.

I want to thank everybody for their effort. They really worked hard to be ready for the worst. And that's what we said from the very beginning. We are assuming that we are going to get a landfall as a Category 3 major hurricane. It did not ultimately make landfall as a Category 3. It was a Category 2 at about 105 miles per hour, which is serious.

But we had assets in place that assumed the storm might strengthen rather than weaken. And I think that's the way you want to do it. You want to be over prepared. And if you don't need assets, you can always just send people back. I can send General Haas' troops back home. I can send State Guard troops back home.

If you don't have enough resources, then you end up scurrying to try to be able to get things done. And that's not the position we ever want to be in.

[08:40:03]

So there will be updates throughout the day on the power restoration situation. All those assets are now on the ground and they are working very hard. And we understand that it's a top priority not only for the companies themselves, but also of course, for the state of Florida and for the constituents that are there.

We will also be likely visiting areas that were affected by later today and I'll have some of our folks down there and we'll be meeting with some of the local officials and local citizens and providing any help that we can. But all in all, we had a significant storm. There's obviously damage, there's obviously debris.

But in terms of some of the other storms we've had, we've had to really mobilize massive search and rescue and bring people out of very perilous situations. Fortunately, that has not been something that's been requested of us. And my sense is from talking to some of the local officials that they've been able to fulfill needs and requests through their ordinary course of business. So we'll just keep working together and make sure that we get everyone back on their feet as soon as possible. It's a great part of the world to be in northwest Florida. Unbelievable beaches, unbelievable people. We'll get everything back up and running and let people go on with their lives as soon as possible.

OK, we're going to hear from the, the Attorney General and then we are going to hear from Jared Perdue.

SIDNER: All right, you just heard from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis giving an assessment of what happened after Hurricane Isaias hit the Panhandle, saying it came in and Destin. He said that it is still a very hazardous situation in parts of the Panhandle after Isaias came in as a Category 2 storm with wind gusts of 116 miles an hour. He warned of the danger of downed power lines and to watch out for flooded roads and said there's still a large swath of areas without power this morning but said that crews are working and began their work about three in the morning to start restoring power because there were about 16,000 linemen who had been pre staged to try and deal with this before the storm.

We will bring you more updates on what is happening there in the Panhandle after Hurricane Isaias blew through. And you can see just how powerful that storm was whipping up the waters there on Fort Walton Beach. It is also now downgraded, no longer a hurricane, but it is still the remnants of it pushing through and up through Alabama and Georgia. And we are watching what that may do as well. More on this story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:47:19]

SIDNER: All right, turn into politics now. Last night, the president made a stop in Syracuse and he lashed out at New York City and state leaders as protests erupted over an ICE shooting of a man with his child in the car.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: They're corrupt, incompetent. The city and state are dirty, filthy places. We're losing our tax base and everybody wants to leave. This is not the state that I remember 10 years ago when I went to Washington, D.C. to be your president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: President Trump will be back on the campaign trail today. He's scheduled to hold a rally in Tennessee as he continues his push to shore up Republican candidates ahead of the midterm election. CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger has graced us with his presence this early morning on a Saturday. And I do appreciate you taking the time, David.

Look, the president's headed back to Tennessee. He did the same thing in Texas, going to Texas twice this past week. Why is there a strategy of going repeatedly to states that supported him by large margins in 2024?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Sara, he clearly is looking at the same polls we're looking at, and he's recognizing the Republicans appear to be in deep trouble, even in places that they thought were safe, places that he won by 13, 14, 15 points just two years ago. And I think it tells you how quickly things have changed.

Now, that's for a number of reasons, but I think that the fundamental decision in February to attack Iran and then not anticipate the effects on gas prices, on the sense that the United States is being chased out of the region now that we've had to close so many bases there, and you saw the evacuation from the British base last weekend. I think all of this has sort of cast in doubt the question of the degree of American power.

SIDNER: Yes. I do want to just touch on this because you wrote a really interesting piece on what happened in Britain, and you wrote that the war was intended to demonstrate the reach of American power, and it's now done the opposite. It is a lesson in unintended consequences. What are those?

SANGER: It's revealed American vulnerability, Sara. Right. We had these bases, three, four or five bases that were spread around the Gulf, including one in Bahrain that was supplying our navy. They were all badly damaged during the early days of the war.

[08:50:02]

The result was that the U.S. now has had to evacuate them, and frankly, there's no visible plan to go rebuild them. They'll probably get rebuilt elsewhere. And then the threat of terrorism, which, you know, led to the understandable caution last weekend to get those B1 bombers out of the airfield in Britain.

But the overall sense is that the President has made a major strategic mistake here, that he failed to anticipate what was going to happen to the markets. He failed to anticipate what would happen to supply. He failed to anticipate what would happen if the Iranians struck back.

Now, is that the only reason that people are telling pollsters that they're looking elsewhere now? No, a lot of that goes to other affordability issues. But I think it starts with the gas pump.

SIDNER: Speaking of which, clearly he sees that this is a real issue, especially diesel. And now the President is saying, to the surprise of many, that the U.S. is going to import oil from Russia as diesel prices surge to try to bring them down. Of course, you have the response from Ukraine's President Zelenskyy saying the move is weak. Let's listen to the President's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think you heard about the oil deal with Russia. That is a big deal. That is massive amounts of oil coming into our country. And I want to thank President Putin, to be honest with you. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Zelenskyy said you're weak because of it. He just criticized you.

TRUMP: Who said that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Zelenskyy. Ukrainian president just said you are weak because of the deal.

TRUMP: OK. Go ahead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: I mean, this is quite stunning, being that the relationship between the United States and Russia is certainly not a friendly one. What might be the impact of this politically?

SANGER: Well, first, let's just talk for a moment about what a reversal it is. It was just three weeks ago the President was signing into law the Lindsey Graham Act, named for the late senator. Mr. Graham had. Senator Graham had initially sponsored this to put more sanctions on Russia because of its activity in Ukraine.

So now the President is going in the opposite direction. It was only a few months ago that we were threatening countries that were buying oil from Russia. Right. So now the President has shifted around, and he said yesterday that the reason was very clear, that price of diesel was too high. Well, that's exactly the complaint the Chinese, the Indians, and others have been making about fuel generally.

So the only thing that's going on here is that he can make an announcement that he hopes will indicate greater supply. In fact, the Russians don't produce enough diesel right now to really affect the global market price.

SIDNER: There is a lot to be talked about here. And this will be an issue going forward for sure. David Sanger, thank you so much for such great analysis this morning.

SANGER: Great to see you.

SIDNER: Appreciate it. All right. President Trump weighing in on the pay to play allegations surrounding U.S. ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle. Trump called the accusations, quote, too bad, but stopped short of saying whether she still has his support. Betsy Klein has been following this story for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETSY KLEIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 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, quote, honey, please, I need you to get this done today. And she also appeared to be aware that this was improper. In another series of text messages, she said, quote, 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.

[08:55:05]

But Vice President JD Vance was asked about this and declined to with or was withholding judgment for now. Listen.

JD VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: 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.

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, quote, no question it was a quid pro quo. Betsy Klein, CNN at the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: There is certainly a lot of discussion about that story. And thank you so much for joining us. Again, we have been watching what is happening with the remnants of Hurricane Isaias. We are learning that there are hundreds of thousands of people still without power this morning. Smerconish is up next.

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