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Justice Department Files Election Lawsuits; Musk Accuses Ukraine of violating Starlink Terms; Obama Heads to Battleground States. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired October 26, 2026 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:34:15]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: So, lawsuits, raids by federal agents, basically a bunch of poll watchers. President Trump is continuing to deploy the power of the federal government as midterms get closer. In just the past week, for example, the Department of Justice, which Trump referred to as, quote, "my DOJ" just a few days ago, has already filed, not one, but two election related lawsuits. One tries to force California to set aside certain mail-in ballots. It's already being appealed. The other lawsuit takes aim at Alaska, trying to force the state to set aside the results if the incumbent Republican, Senator Dan S. Sullivan, does not win.
So, the president argues that the ballot in Alaska is confusing, that it's unfair because, yes, there is another candidate named Dan Sullivan, but it's Daniel J. Sullivan.
[06:35:04]
And that's also on the ballot. And the president took credit for that lawsuit last week. And we asked the attorney general about it
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Any thoughts on the Alaska lawsuit? Well, the ballot?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I'm the -- I'm the one that said do it.
DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: He's admitting it's political. Do you see your job as helping Republicans keep the seat?
TODD BLANCHE, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: He's not admitting it's political. Wait, you're saying that a president saying that there's a -- that there's an improper -- something improper happening at the ballots is necessarily political? He's the executive. He's the -- he's supposed to make sure that there's -- everything in this country is running right.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: So, joining us in the group chat, Ankush Khardori, senior writer for "Politico" magazine, of course, a former federal prosecutor. He's going to help me translate.
So, the thing that's interesting about this is Trump -- is the premise, if the Republican loses it's a problem. Like the DOJ wouldn't challenge it if the Republican won?
ANKUSH KHARDORI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: First, one very quick point of clarification. I left "Politico" a few months ago. Beyond that --
CORNISH: Oh, OK. Thank you.
KHARDORI: Yes, that is the claim that they are making that is sort of a lawsuit that's sort of there as a placeholder in case they feel like there --
CORNISH: A placeholder. OK.
KHARDORI: Well, because -- there has -- there has to be some sort of margin which this could actually conceivably even matter.
CORNISH: Oh.
KHARDORI: That's -- so that's why they're saying this is --
CORNISH: Oh. What's their standing? Like, you're not -- let states run their own elections.
KHARDORI: Yes, I don't think they have a legal claim here. Literally.
CORNISH: Yes.
KHARDORI: Now, when you bring a complaint in court, you have to have two things, a legal claim, which is the actual technical vehicle for your claim. So, it could be a statute that says you have a right to be free of employment discrimination or housing discrimination, right? Then you have facts that are supposed to feed into that claim. Now, in this case, the Justice Department has said its claim is based on prefatory language in the National Voter Registration Act that says that the law was passed to protect the integrity of elections. It does not provide the Justice Department with the cause of action under any circumstances, much less circumstances like this one. So, I expect the principle defense will be that the Justice Department has no claim and the (INAUDIBLE) is dismissed on the evidence.
CORNISH: What are you doing here, basically, legally?
KHARDORI: Yes.
CORNISH: OK. And then the Justice Department used to have this policy, and I say policy because it wasn't like law, right, about not taking any action that could interfere with the election less than 20 days until Election Day. Now, since then, obviously, voters on both sides of the aisle have felt like dubious things have happened. Do you think that's just completely out the window?
KHARDORI: Oh, it's definitely out the window. I mean, you just look at the search of Ilhan Omar's home, right? Weeks before the election, whatever you may think about her conduct --
CORNISH: Right.
KHARDORI: Or the questions you have, there's simply no reason that that search needed to happen then, as opposed to a week from now.
SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: So, and then is this, from your perspective, just about creating a narrative that the midterms and the elections cannot be trusted so that you are preemptively setting that tone to get people to either not vote or not trust the results? Like, why else would you be doing this if you don't have a really strong legal claim?
KHARDORI: Well, I think, at a bare minimum it's that. And I think that's really noteworthy, which is that even if none of this really, quote/unquote, works, it still has the effect of undermining the election in the sense that it will create some doubts.
FISCHER: Yes.
KHARDORI: That we won't be able to fully resolve, no matter how much we talk about it. But also, I don't think it's just about, you know, creating that appearance. I mean they are taking steps to interfere in the elections, right? The effort to file this lawsuit in Alaska is a partisan abuse of authority, right? The effort to -- the lawsuit against California, over 20,000 likely non-immigrants is, again, another partisan exercise of authority. These things shouldn't be happening so close to the election, if at all.
TIANA LOWE DOESCHER, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, "WASHINGTON EXAMINER": I mean --
KHARDORI: So, I think it's a bit more, right, than just, they're trying to undermine the election. They are actively getting involved.
FISCHER: Does it -- does it force people to spend time, effort, energy, money and resources litigating these things, and that's a distraction?
KHARDORI: Absolutely.
FISCHER: OK.
KHARDORI: Absolutely. Look, the state election officials have been under extraordinary stress as a result of this administration. They've been dealing with months of requests for their voter's rolls -- voter rolls, threats of lawsuits, and now threats of criminal prosecution in California or other states if these election officials don't purge their voter rolls in certain circumstances, That's actually the request in California, to purge 20,000 --
DOESCHER: It's a very baseless charge if -- KHARDORI: So, I think that it's -- they're asking for a lot.
CORNISH: Hold on one second. I just want to play Trump over the weekend because we should hear specifically how the president is talking to voters about this election season.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've got to be careful with the cheating vote counters, though. That's one thing I got to tell you, please. Will you please watch it, fellas? Especially with Benson (ph). You got to watch it. Bad things happen with the vote counters, so we got to be careful.
Well, they want to watch. You know, when Fulton County, you know, that disaster, they want to watch. And they're not going to do anything other than watch.
When you look at the people that run Atlanta, as an example, when you look at some of the people around, yes, I would be in -- I would be worried about it, but we won't have to because we'll have professionals that just will be there to watch.
CORNISH: Then he's got election observers. And I heard the figure of 1,000. Who?
[06:40:03]
KHARDORI: Yes. So, typically, these are Justice Department employees, right, historically. And this is -- the reason why we don't actually ever talk about this is because it's usually not controversial. It's not being advertised.
Now, this is a very large number. I think they've even said it's the largest number ever.
CORNISH: Yes.
KHARDORI: And I think there are real serious questions about who these people are and what they might be doing.
CORNISH: Yes. We were doing some reporting, we're showing the audience now, about how we've already seem some folks work during the primaries and these are people who, in the past, had plead guilty, for example, to trying to access an election's website or things like that. So, there are people who basically -- who are doing this work, not all of them, but there are people in that pool who already believe the president somehow has had the election stollen.
(CROSS TALK)
DOESCHER: (INAUDIBLE) not the best disinfectant here.
CORNISH: Yes, that's what this is.
DOESCHER: Throwing the kitchen sink at, you know, all these systems before the election, right? One of the worst things about the lead-up to January 6th is that, how do you litigate something once all the ballots are signed, right?
CORNISH: Can I throw something out there.
DOESCHER: So -- and then --
CORNISH: But what he does is, it's not, hey, there could be a problem. He's like, that's a problem. That's a problem.
DOESCHER: OK, but some of these thing already --
CORNISH: (INAUDIBLE) are a problem.
DOESCHER: Like 160 non-citizens who have been charged with voting in elections.
CORNISH: Places he already -- how many times can he lose Fulton County for that to be -- why are we still raiding Fulton County? Like, I need help on, at what point does this president feel confident in the election system?
KHARDORI: Well, look, I think the reference to Fulton County proves exactly the opposite. He lied about there being fraud in Fulton County, right? So, it does not remotely support what is going on here.
And look, the real concern about the monitors is not simply the number but if, for instance, there is a particularly close race, whether it's Michigan or Alaska, and you have some ideologue, maybe a convicted felon who has now got the task of monitoring this election and they create reports that are designed to document false, that create the false impression that there are irregularities and that those reports are then filtered up to leadership in DOJ and then form the basis of lawsuits or other efforts. So, the monitors thing could be really messy and people are right to be concerned.
CORNISH: Can I add one more thing? There are new rules around mail-in ballots -- or not new rules, but there's a new system in the Post Office where they're basically like, we don't need to postmark all of these. Maybe in some areas we only get one delivery a day, not two. If you're a person who relied on mail-in voting at the last minute, is there a chance, a greater chance your vote might not be counted? And if that happens, can you appeal?
KHARDORI: So, look, state election officials, I think, have been pretty consistent in saying that your vote is safe. The mechanisms that we have in place in our various states are still legitimate, right, And that you should feel comfortable using them following our guidance. I have to say, though, just observing this Justice Department and their efforts to interfere in the mail-in balloting process with the rule that fortunately didn't get past this election, I would be very concerned. And me personally, if someone, an older person or anyone in my life were to ask me like if I can go in person rather than do the mail, I would tell them to go in person.
CORNISH: Go in person. OK. Well, Ankush, thank you, as always. Appreciate your time.
Next on CNN THIS MORNING, Elon Musk admits his company limited Ukraine's satellite access. Who holds the world's richest man accountable for these kinds of actions?
Plus, the president, President Obama, tells voters that change is in the air this midterm season. But why is the former president the only one to deliver that message?
We'll be back.
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[06:47:55]
CORNISH: So, after weeks of speculation over who restricted Ukraine's satellite access, Elon Musk is speaking out. According to Kyiv's military of -- accusing Kyiv's military of violating Starlink's terms of service by using the network for offensive drone strikes. Ukrainian officials deny the claim, calling it technically impossible under civilian restrictions.
So, the clash comes as Kyiv reports high speed access to Starlink and military grade Starshield have been fully restored following days of speed caps that hindered defense against deadly Russian drone attacks.
So, joining me now, CNN contributor Kara Swisher.
Kara, good morning. Always amazing to see you.
KARA SWISHER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning, Audie.
CORNISH: Thank you for being here.
SWISHER: Sure.
CORNISH: So, I was saying earlier, you know, at first people speculated that Elon Musk was somehow involved. He denied he had control over this access.
SWISHER: Yes.
CORNISH: Then it came out that maybe he had talked to Trump. So, where are we now? Why is he talking about this now?
SWISHER: Because he did it. Because he did it. I mean, I didn't speculate that he was telling the truth. I didn't think he was in the first place.
You know, he's got -- you know, things are coming to roost, unfortunately for him. And they couldn't -- eventually there was a -- people are going to find out it was him. I'm not sure why he did that tweet in the first place. Maybe he was up late and forgot to tell the truth at the time. But, you know, he's in charge of Starlink and the issue is why is an unaccountable, unelected person making battlefield decisions without any -- it's just -- it just boggles the mind that we're even discussing that one person can do this, a citizen, a private citizen.
CORNISH: Does it boggle the mind considering his relationship with Trump?
SWISHER: It always does for me. I feel like people who are unelected and unaccountable and the richest people -- person on earth shouldn't be able to make battlefield decisions. I just don't. I just -- it's one of my short -- weird things. I have a couple of things I think are important.
No, I -- it means that Trump is not in charge of what's happening here. I mean, I don't even -- no one understands how he can make such a decision without cooperation from the Defense Department or the Defense Department was asking him to do that.
[06:50:07]
I mean, it will all have to be sorted out eventually, but it's really quite frightening that he can make these -- make these decisions and people's lives hang in the balance.
CORNISH: Something you always said ahead of the elections when Elon was putting a lot of money into Trump is that he has a lot of business interests, right, that drive decision making.
SWISHER: Yes. Yes.
CORNISH: And then I thought about that as he has spent in Texas, right, putting $158 million donation to boost Ken Paxton.
SWISHER: Something like that. Probably more.
CORNISH: Yes.
SWISHER: It's probably more. Yes.
CORNISH: Here's an example of actually Talarico talking about that. I just want to play it for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES TALARICO (D), TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: Elon Musk wants our land. He wants our water. He wants our taxpayer dollars. He wants his very own personal United States senator. He is trying to buy Texas. But on November 3rd, we are going to deliver a crystal-clear message to the world's first trillionaire. Texas is not for sale!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Given the scale of his campaign contributions, $366 million --
SWISHER: Yes.
CORNISH: Is this just about again his relationship to the party or do you see something else at work? SWISHER: Well, in Texas he has a facility and he's moved there so he
could do whatever he wants. He's got the courts, you know, in his favor. He always does lawsuits down there. You know, the governor does whatever he says. So, he essentially owns a state and gets to do what he wants. And if James Talarico is senator, I mean, he's freaking out. I don't know if you've seen how many posts he does. It's almost like Trump late at night.
CORNISH: Yes. We should note, he has a giga factor for Tesla in Austin.
SWISHER: He does. Yes.
CORNISH: Yes. The Boca Chica Starbase and then the corporate headquarters for everything.
SWISHER: Yes.
CORNISH: So, the leadership of Texas matters to him, right?
SWISHER: Of course, because they've been so cooperative and I would say doormats is the word I would use. And so he moved there because California wasn't always going along with everything, although I think California was very supportive of him, it just wasn't supportive enough for his tastes. And so he moved down there. And now the prospect of Talarico is freaking him out. And that's why he makes all these accusations about trans things. He just -- he -- and then the money.
I -- look, let's not focus on his silly tweets because he does them like every five seconds about Talarico. But let's talk about the money. I mean, just this amount of money is unprecedented that one single person puts this much money into the midterm elections and is -- and it's obviously for economic interests, which is, I think, something I told you years ago when he was backing Trump is --
CORNISH: Yes.
SWISHER: Every economic interest. And that's all you have to pay attention to. Let's get away from all his strange tweets and his problem -- they are so problematic on every level, whether it's --
CORNISH: Yes. Although, Kara, I have to say, he finally was taking a shot at you, right?
SWISHER: Oh, yes. That one was accurate.
CORNISH: Like all of a sudden, "live by the sword, die by the sword. Sounds like Swisher really wants to go to prison."
SWISHER: Yes, I guess -- you know, Walt Mossberg (ph), who is my longtime partner, said the only way I'm going to go to prison is if I'm interviewing him there. I'm like Nathan Fielder (ph). So, no, I'm not going to prison. It's just ridiculous. He didn't just attack -- he's done attacking me. He would attack the bulwark. He attacked Congress. I forget, he's attacking someone new every day. And it's always, live by the sword, die by the sword. I don't even understand. I don't know what to say about that.
CORNISH: Yes, lashing out.
SWISHER: But it's just, you know, he's obviously tweeked, you know. It's string. And it's actually quite dangerous, I -- just to do that, especially to congress. I mean, he and I have a weird and strange relationship, but honestly, to say that to Congress is really quite dangerous in my estimation.
But this is what he does. This is how he acts. And it's never about the thing. The thing is about the money. You know, he can say all the mean things he wants. He can tweet all he wants. He can dance on stages with chainsaws. But the fact -- and this is all in his economic interest. And that's what we should be paying attention to.
CORNISH: OK, Kara Swisher saying follow the money.
Kara, always good to talk to you.
SWISHER: Thanks.
CORNISH: I want to turn to this now. The former president, Barack Obama, off the bench, already hit Ohio and Michigan, and his midterm blitz continues this week, heading to Georgia to campaign for Senator Jon Ossoff. He has raised more than $15 million for his party. That's according to new reporting from MS Now. And he's dropped more than two dozen ads for Democrats across the country.
So, now the party is hoping he can work his magic as closer in chief once again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Does anybody really think this guy is spending all -- that much time thinking deeply on these issues? I don't know if you've noticed, but he is very focused on home renovation.
He should be on HGTV. What's up with the goal?
He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.
Remember, roll back the tape. We're going to drain the swamp. The only thing they drained is the Reflecting Pool.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:55:02]
CORNISH: Group chat is back.
He's here all week.
The thing that I notice is, when I look at where he's going, it's weird. He seems to be going in places that traditionally a president at the midterms would be going, like swing states, and Trump was going to all of these super red states. And I was like, I can't figure out what's, you know, why this is so off.
FISCHER: Well, the point on Michigan, we were talking about this before, that El-Sayed having an issue with reaching black voters there, it makes a lot of sense that president -- former President Barack Obama would be there. I just think that -- I see the former president with his sleeves rolled up.
CORNISH: Oh, yes.
FISCHER: It really feels like he is getting to work here for his party. And it begs the question, I brought this up earlier, why is he the primary surrogate for this party? Why is there nobody else who's going to be able to come back out? Obviously --
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I can answer that question.
FISCHER: Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's very easy. First of all, he's the most popular person in the party. And not only in the party, in the country in terms of just a political leader. That's the first thing.
The second thing is, one of the great critiques in 2024 was, where is Obama?
CORNISH: Yes. Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: People felt like he had sat that out and was not engaged.
CORNISH: Could have been more helpful. Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And they -- and that was a big criticism of him. And the third thing I'll say is that there is no leader of the Democratic Party right now.
FISCHER: I was going to say, what's the -- is that a problem?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And their -- and what Democrats would say is, there shouldn't be. They're about to litigate that a hot minute after the midterms.
CORNISH: Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Because, of course, it's an open -- it's an open season.
CORNISH: In the meantime, you've got Bill Clinton speaking in Florida at a first public midterm event.
DOESCHER: But it say something that there's no one from that prior admin.
CORNISH: To your point about favorability. CNN actually asked this question in May, who do you like? And Barack Obama, 57 percent favorability. The next person is George W. Bush. Fascinating, because he's down there helping out Talarico. Basically helping anyone but Ken Paxton. So, you have another person coming off the sidelines.
DOESCHER: He's also helping Susan Collins in Maine.
CORNISH: He is, but he's a Bush in Texas, not helping the Republican candidate in Texas. As I said, Bill Clinton coming off the sidelines and then Donald Trump, at the time, 34 percent favorability, which is pretty close to what his approval rating is.
DOESCHER: And then Joe Biden ranking last, which, again, is the huge problem.
CORNISH: Yes.
DOESCHER: You can't defend the record. And so --
CORNISH: But should he be fourth (ph) the -- Trump?
DOESCHER: I mean, yes. Sure. Right. We're in the thick of it, right? I think like that automatically confers a negativity because you get a little bit of a halo effect on past presidents.
If Obama wants to come and campaign on his own personality, then you have to call into question the record of him and his vice president, right? Real gas prices adjusted for inflation are lower now than they were in 2013, 2014. Obama knows this because it was a product of the Libya incursion, right? There is a price to pay in foreign policy.
CORNISH: Do you think, though, at a certain point people do -- does the average voter, or even the low propensity voter who already doesn't pay that close attention to the news, is reaching back to fuel prices in 2013?
DOESCHER: OK, but what about right now?
CORNISH: No, I'm just asking. Yes.
FISCHER: I don't think so.
DOESCHER: Actor attacks --
FISHER: I think right now --
DOESCHER: Real household income is up 1.8 percent.
FISCHER: I think right now there's two big things that are on voter's minds. One, obviously, is fuel prices. The other is mortgage rates and interest rates. And I think that both of those things right now, whether or not it's right, Tiana, people are tying to this war. People are tying to the economy because of what's happening with this war, which does not play well for President Trump.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: People feel -- DOESCHER: The interest rate environment is because of the federal deficit, which is also -- which is indeed partially Trump's fault, right, the fact that the deficit was up 12 percent last year even --
CORNISH: Can I throw something out there? One thing we are learning --
DOESCHER: But that's a bipartisan issue.
CORNISH: Out of Biden era is people seem to care more about inflation than they do about unemployment.
FISCHER: Ah, correct.
CORNISH: Because the unemployment numbers are pretty good, right?
DOESCHER: Yes.
CORNISH: But they don't care because the prices are high and it makes them feel poorer because their dollar doesn't go far enough. And I feel like that hurts.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But, wait. But I want to talk about employment actually --
CORNISH: OK, go ahead.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Because it's interesting because I was about to say, people, I think, feel stuck. I mean if you look at the employment, it's a, it's a high, relatively high employment and low firing environment. So, there's not a lot of movement, right? People are staying in their jobs because they're worried about getting another job. And that's the same thing with housing. If you're lucky enough to be in the housing market, you're not going to move, right, because you don't want to double your mortgage rates. Hello, that's me.
So, it's -- people are feeling stuck.
CORNISH: Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: If you talk to people, people just feel like they're frozen in place. It's not that dynamic economy that people feel happy about.
CORNISH: Well, I'm just putting it out there because I think on these panels we end up cherry picking, this number's good, this number's bad, this number's good.
FISCHER: Right.
CORNISH: But what's proving to be the number that's most nettlesome is inflation and high prices.
DOESCHER: Yes, it's a mix.
CORNISH: People actually punish policymakers for that.
DOESCHER: Yes, it's a mixed bag economy where, yes, the labor market's great. I mean part of that's just demographic, right?
CORNISH: Yes.
DOESCHER: We're an old economy.
CORNISH: And the -- and the Biden people ran into the same thing. They got out of the pandemic. But the way they did it kept unemployment down and made inflation go up.
DOESCHER: Well, they let the economy -- yes, you --
CORNISH: They got one well, and the other one didn't work so well.
DOESCHER: I mean, if you overheat an economy, that's what happens.
CORNISH: Yes.
DOESCHER: And right now that's what the mortgage market is saying.
[07:00:02]
The mortgage market is saying, we need to cut Social Security and cut Medicare and Medicaid. And unfortunately, Donald Trump doesn't want to do that. His problem is that on the economy he's far too liberal and left wing. And until that happens, mortgages are going to stay up.
CORNISH: Thank you, guys, for being here. Thank you for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish. Stay with us because "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" is next.
