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3 Children, 1 Teacher Dead, Bystander Kills Teen Shooter; Republicans Face Pressure in Key U.S. Senate Races; Journalist Hospitalized After Israeli Settler Attack; Ukraine, Russia Strike Energy Sites After Trump's "Ceasefire"; Elon Musk Settles Lawsuits over $1 Million Voter Giveaways; Google Strikes A.I. Deals with News Publishers, Including CNN; CNN Barred from White House Press Pool This Weekend; A Look Back Inside Elizabeth Holmes' Theranos 10 Years Ago. Aired 10a-11a ET
Aired October 16, 2026 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:07]
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And a warm welcome back to the second hour of the show. I'm Paula Newton in New York.
Classes are canceled for thousands of students in Oregon and condolences are pouring in after a shocking and deadly school shooting. Three students,
ages 5, 8 and 11, were killed along with a teacher at the school. A bystander shot the teenage attacker dead before police could respond.
Here's a portion of the emergency call as this crisis was unfolding. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looks like the shooter has been neutralized. Possibly shot by a father at the school. Not sure about patients at this
time. The police are arriving.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: CNN's senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem joins us now.
I mean, look, Juliette, you and I have spoken about incidents like this over the years far too many times. There has been tragically, though, a lot
learned that despite how painful the stats are about this one, this community member, as he or she is being described, is the one that really
prevented this. So what have we learned especially when we think about the incident in Uvalde?
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. So it's the approach for protecting our children in schools, which is a, you know, a
virus in America, basically, it happens consistently, is through what we call layered defenses. They begin at home with guns, children or a minor
who had access to a gun, to how the school is built in terms of securing it, access, locked doors to run, hide, fight, and protecting the children
and the teachers.
Between the first 911 call and the police arrival was anywhere between two and a half and three minutes, and already three children and a teacher were
killed. So this is a situation where we are looking at time is of the essence so you try to delay the shooter. And in this instance we have a,
you know, a situation where, but for this community member who was armed, we have no information about this person, more harm would have been done.
So we have to think about it in terms of all the kinds of defenses that we can put up because it's just very -- we have not been able to stop the
threat of this kind of gun violence in America.
NEWTON: You know, we heard from the teachers and what so many of them went through in that room in terms of we all know we have the confidence in
those teachers, God love them, that protect those kids no matter what. And I want to go back to the ages of some of these children. And one of the
victims was just 5 years old. But then think of yourself in a room with 25 5-year-olds trying to keep them calm when something like this is going on.
But then I do go back to the issue that it wasn't police that seemed to be able to neutralize this teenage attacker, but someone from the community.
There's so much debate right now, right, about whether or not -- I hate to say it -- there should be somebody who is armed in schools.
KAYYEM: Good guy with a gun. I -- you know, look, the politics of this aside, obviously in this case and in some other cases, not many, someone
who knows how to use a gun has been able to either distract or actually shoot and sometimes even kill the perpetrator. It is not as common as we
think. We are heavily armed country, and these instances happen maybe once every two years.
I will say, just taking a step back, what we are learning and have to be honest with ourselves about is that run, hide, fight is important in terms
of protecting children, especially at these ages, but in a lot of these cases, some form of distraction, trying to distract the shooter, not even
with a weapon, simply to delay them because it's that delay that then buys time both for the children and the teachers to lock down, but of course,
for law enforcement to arrive and eliminate the threat.
This is what we're learning. Unfortunately, we have a lot of data points to learn it. But in each of these instances, each is different. But in this
case, it is unique to have a -- as we say, a good guy with a gun available, present of the mind to be able to follow the shooter into the school, and
eliminate him. And I'm very curious who this person is, if they had training, and, you know, is it a parent? Was it former military? Because
that's not easy to do. Not all of us are built for that.
NEWTON: Yes. And hopefully we'll learn more in the coming hours.
Juliette, look, the CNN data analysis shows that there have now been at least 52 school shootings in the United States so far this year.
[10:05:09]
No, folks, I'm not talking about the last decade. I'm talking since January 1st. It's left 32 people dead, 50 other victims injured.
Juliette, you've been studying this for so many years now. Is there something that you are learning that will help in any way beyond turning
schools into armed camps?
KAYYEM: Right. And you can't. I mean, this one was armed, right? I mean, in the sense that it had the locks on, it had the secure rooms, but the
perpetrator was able to shoot through it. He probably he might have known the school. So I don't want people, you know, to think we're just throwing
our hands up. Gun laws, gun restrictions work. We know the data is clear in terms of the states with more vigorous gun control laws like Oregon, which
does, has more -- has fewer gun deaths.
So the data is absolutely clear. Harsher gun laws, fewer deaths, even though something like this happened. But I do want to talk about one thing
that the data is also showing over these decades. Interventions have worked. Parents know. Parents can suspect. Friends hear things. People
post. People, you know, the community around these shooters almost always is aware that something could happen.
We've done -- we've got about two or three cases in the U.S. where prosecutors go after parents who were either negligent or like, you know,
grossly supportive of their children having access to guns or some parents in jail for this. And I think this investigation will have the same way.
16-year-old, how did he get access to guns? What did the parents know? But interventions work. The hair on the back of your neck that's telling you
that a neighbor, friend, someone you know might be coming violent tends to be right.
And we have to really support communities in these kinds of efforts to stop these before they happen. Buttressed by strong gun control laws and the
kind of defensive measures that we see at these schools.
NEWTON: Yes. And also, A.I. entering the stage as well. At this point, we've already had one case where it was involved in Canada, and that is
under legal scrutiny as we speak.
Juliette Kayyem, always grateful to you. Thanks so much.
Now, the grief in the city of Bend is, of course, palpable. The teachers union is asking for privacy for parents, teachers and students. Just to
give, of course, some space for everyone to heal.
I want you to listen to one teacher describe what it was like inside that school.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHY SHELL SMITH, TEACHER: Looks on their faces. It was really hard to see. Trying to calm them down. You know? And some kids were praying, some
kids were consoling other kids. I'm sure that every teacher at the school thought, today is the day that I am going to die. Save my kids.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: CNN's Nick Watt is following the developments. He is in Bend, Oregon.
I mean, look, Nick, just listening to that teacher, it is unfathomable to me that children go to school and teachers are in these classrooms and
front of mind on some days is how they will protect those students from an active shooter. We expect an update later today.
Do we expect to learn more? Because as we were just parsing with Juliette, a lot of questions about the community, the person in the community. It was
not police that was able to really take down this attacker.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yes. Listen, police and the FBI are being pretty tightlipped on details while this investigation goes on.
We know it was a 16-year-old shooter. We don't yet know what that 16-year- old's connection perhaps might have been to this school. We heard on the dispatch audio that this was perhaps a father of a child at the school who
had gone in and shot the shooter. We don't know that yet. We've also heard just community member. So we may get more details on that later.
What we do know, Paula, is that it was picture day at the elementary school, so kids dressed up for posterity. And of course, as one mother
pointed out on Facebook, pictures taken of some kids on the day that they lost their lives. That mother called this the most incomprehensible day.
But unfortunately, it is an increasingly common type of day here in the United States. This is the 36th shooting at a K-12 school in the U.S. so
far this year.
There have been, of course, the usual condemnations from political figures across the country. This can't happen. We must change. Of course, nothing
will change. Now, you mentioned that teacher who witnessed this. She apparently saw the gunman walking into the school with this long rifle. We
don't yet know the details of the rifle. We don't yet know how many rounds fired, but we know that this all happened very, very quickly.
[10:10:06]
12:59 was the shooting. Police were on the scene within three minutes, by which time the shooter was already dead. Four kids hit, two teachers. Three
of those children died. One of those teachers died. A 7-year-old child and a teacher fighting for their lives in hospital right now.
You know, one local business owner, little details like this that get you. One local business owner said, you know, the usual sound of children
playing in the yard, replaced by the sound of more sirens, more cops than she'd ever seen gathered together in one place. So later today, we are
hoping to get more details of how this happened. Details of the shooter, details of the community member who took that shooter out.
This could have been worse. We hope to get some more of those details later in the day as this community wakes up and rallies around the parents of the
dead and the parents of the children who survived, who were clearly going to be very traumatized by what happened in their school and what happens in
a lot of schools across this country -- Paula.
NEWTON: Yes. You think about it, police, as you are telling us now, were on the scene in three minutes, and yet look at the devastation.
Good to have you on the ground there, Nick. And we hope to learn more in the next few hours.
Now we are following growing pressure on Republicans in key Senate races ahead of the U.S. midterms. In Texas President Trump is already looking to
blame outgoing Republican Senator John Cornyn and political strategist Karl Rove for a potential loss. Trump's warning comes as his endorsement
candidate -- endorsed candidate Ken Paxton faces a potential defeat to Democrat James Talarico.
Meanwhile, in Alaska, Republican Senator Dan Sullivan and challenger, Democratic challenger Mary Peltola clashed in a heated debate Thursday,
with Sullivan questioning Peltola's character. With control of the Senate at stake, the race is drawing national attention. I want you to have a
listen now to that exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DAN SULIVAN (R-AK): Take a look at how she treats Alaskans when the cameras are off. Look at that "New York Times" story. She treats young
Alaskans horribly. 25 staffers quit on Mary Peltola because she abused them physically and emotionally, and then she slanders every other group,
African-Americans, special needs individuals. It is a character flaw.
MARY PELTOLA, U.S. SENATE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR ALASKA: This campaign is not about me on my worst day, and I think it's a real sad statement that
I'm such a threat as a candidate that they're just willing to do and say anything about me to help Dan win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: CNN's Kevin Liptak joins me now from the White House.
You've put some miles in on the road as well, Kevin, perhaps it's not surprising that we've seen some of this heated rhetoric. The president
heads to Georgia today, and yet it is yet another state where Republicans are having difficulty.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And this one is interesting. You know, a lot of the places that the president has been over
the last couple of weeks are pretty reliably red states like Alaska or Montana. I just got back from there, or Alabama. Georgia is a purple state
through and through. This is a real swing state.
Now, the part of Georgia that he's going to is pretty reliably Republican up there in the northwest part of the state. He's in Dalton, but even
there, you've seen signs of trouble for Republicans. So President Trump won this part of the state by 37 points, so overwhelmingly in 2024. But there
was just a special election earlier this year to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, and the Republican there only won by 12 points.
And so even there, even in this Republican stronghold, you see signs of trouble for President Trump and for Republicans. And that's something that
the Republican candidates in the state are looking to overcome. And so the Senate race there between Mike Collins and the incumbent Democrat, Jon
Ossoff, you know, this is a race that a lot of Republicans at this point have kind of written off.
You know, Mike Collins is trailing in the polls. Jon Ossoff has really seen his national profile skyrocket as part of his reelection campaign. You also
see there the gubernatorial candidate, Rick Jackson. Unlike Mike Collins, he has not hewn as close to President Trump and to the MAGA agenda that the
president has been carrying out over the last two years. And it's interesting, Rick Jackson's race is a lot tighter.
He's running against the former Atlanta mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms. And so you can kind of see the risk that Mike Collins has taken in running so
closely with President Trump. And you see how unpopular President Trump is around the country. And that's obviously the risk that any Republican faces
as they decide whether or not to appear with him on the campaign trail.
[10:15:06]
They kind of face this conundrum. Do they align themselves with the president and some of his more unpopular policies, or do they try and
separate themselves, which could risk alienating some of the president's MAGA base? It's kind of a dilemma for a lot of these candidates, and it
will certainly be one as well. Not so much for Mike Collins, who is a MAGA through and through, but certainly for Rick Jackson, who has been trying to
in some ways run against President Trump over the course of this election.
The other issue that I think you might see come up today is the president's continued questioning of Georgia's election systems, and you've seen that
going all the way back to 2020. Actually, the last time he was in Dalton was two days before January 6th. And he questioned the results in Georgia,
questions how he possibly could have lost that state. And that has been a through line for the last six years. The president questioning Georgia's
election integrity, I should note, without any basis in reality, without any facts to back him up.
And so whether that comes up today, I think is an open question. It was notable in the Senate debate earlier this week, Mike Collins refused to say
whether Joe Biden had won Georgia in the 2020 election. Just shows how these questions about that race now, six years old now, continue to
underscore and underline some of the current day election issues that these men will be talking about today.
NEWTON: Yes, and setting up quite the cliffhangers on election day.
Kevin Liptak, for us, appreciate it.
Now you are watching CONNECT THE WORLD. Still to come for us, we'll discuss why the latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine war are causing Kyiv and
Washington's relations to turn quite sour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NEWTON: Now we go to Michigan, where a personal insult on the campaign trail has sparked a war of words in the U.S. Senate race. U.S. Vice
President J.D. Vance took aim at Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed while campaigning for Republican Mike Rogers. On Thursday, Vance accused El-Sayed
of being ungrateful to America and the people who built the country. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What excites him is this prospect of wielding the power of a country he hates. You deserve better
than a little weasel who should shut his mouth and show a little gratitude to the country that gave him everything.
ABDUL EL-SAYED, U.S. SENATE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR MICHIGAN: And let me tell you, nobody understands how deep and profound the gift of this country
is like a kid who was born here but for the accident of history that allowed that to happen.
J.D. Vance called me a little weasel today. I'm like, no, no, no, what you're talking about is a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) wolverine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[10:20:01]
NEWTON: OK. Without the profanity, that is a nod to the University of Michigan, El-Sayed's alma mater, whose athletic teams are known as the
Wolverines.
Pope Leo is expected to lead prayers on Sunday as he recovers from lung surgery. These are the first images of the Pope in hospital. He looks quite
well. The Vatican says the pontiff will recite the traditional Angelus prayer this weekend. It will be his first public appearance since having
taken his part of his lung removed. That was after a cancerous growth was discovered. The Vatican says new tests confirmed a steady improvement in
his condition.
Now turning to the Middle East, the conflict between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia continues to escalate. The rebels, backed by Iran, have carried out
a deadly attack on Yemen's presidential palace. The palace compound serves as the headquarters for the country's internationally recognized
government. Now, Houthi rebels say they were targeting an alleged Saudi operations center inside that compound. Yemen's government says the prime
minister is safe following the strike.
To the West Bank now, where a "Washington Post" photojournalist is in hospital after Israeli settlers attacked her. Heidi Levine, who was on
assignment, says settlers kicked her while she was on the ground.
The assault is part of a wave of settler attacks reported across the West Bank at the start of the Palestinian olive harvest. CNN has reached out to
the Israeli defense forces for comment.
I do want to bring in our Jeremy Diamond now.
I mean, look, Jeremy, you've been in the crosshairs of this kind of conflict several times over the last few months. I'm wondering what's at
work now and obviously quite serious in terms of her allegations of what happened there and how this is all, you know, going to what the fallout of
all of this is going to be going into quite a contentious election.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, I know Heidi. I've seen her in the field many times before. She is a veteran
photojournalist who has been on the ground for years, if not decades. And, you know, she suddenly found herself surrounded by dozens of masked and
hooded Israeli settlers who pushed her to the ground and began beating her for several minutes. According to a doctor at the hospital, she had several
bad bruises and wounds across her body.
She was described as being in moderate condition and speaking to journalists at the hospital after the attack, she was clearly still visibly
shaken up by what had happened. She described the settlers as monsters. She said that she, you know, repeatedly identified herself as a journalist, was
wearing a press vest and a helmet. But none of that protected her, ultimately, from the kind of attack that she faced.
Those Israeli settlers also stole all of her cameras, her phone, her passport that were on her and have not yet, as of now, been returned. This
was part of a broader scale of attacks that we saw across the West Bank, but in particular in this village of Abu Falah, where Israeli settlers set
fire to multiple vehicles, including a fire truck, and attacked Palestinians in the area who were harvesting olives.
And this is now the beginning of that olive harvest season, a time that last year also marked a dramatic increase in settler violence. Now, the
Israeli police, they have said that they have opened an investigation after receiving reports of this attack. They say they view any act of violence
with great severity, particularly when it involves members of the media doing their jobs. The Israeli military also put out a statement saying they
would examine all circumstances around the incident.
It's worth noting that after Heidi was attacked, the -- there were Israeli soldiers who came to the area and began firing tear gas towards the
Palestinians in that area and pushing them away rather than going after the Israeli settlers. That is frequently how the Israeli military operates on
the ground in the West Bank. I have witnessed that many times before, and again, beyond the statements that we are seeing from the Israeli police and
the Israeli military, it's also important to note that these attacks have happened before.
And, you know, the Foreign Press Association here and others have repeatedly called on the Israeli government to go after this kind of
lawlessness to ensure that journalists can do their jobs on the ground. And yet, ultimately, it seems that nothing has changed.
NEWTON: Yes. And we saw the video there of Heidi. This was not pushing and shoving. She was certainly traumatized and injured.
Jeremy Diamond, thanks for your reporting on this.
Now, hundreds of thousands of people have been left without power as Russia and Ukraine traded strikes on energy infrastructure. The attacks resumed
after Ukraine paused such strikes for three days, you'll remember, after Donald Trump declared a so-called energy ceasefire.
[10:25:04]
Now Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's patience with Washington appearing to wear thin. It follows the U.S. president's controversial deal
to supply global markets with Russian diesel and disruptions to a critical Ukrainian satellite system are raising questions about possible White House
involvement. As tensions escalate President Trump took a jab again at President Zelenskyy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Zelenskyy is a -- not a good guy for us to deal with. Biden gave him hundreds of billions of dollars,
billions and billions of dollars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you lost faith in him?
TRUMP: Well, I think they're going to -- if they're going to end up with a settlement of some kind, they're not going to do it with him. He doesn't
want to settle. He says he wants to settle, but he doesn't know. No, I'm not a -- I'm not a big fan of Zelenskyy. They've destroyed that country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: I want to bring in Nataliya Bugavoya. She is director of the Cognitive Warfare Center, and she is joining us live from Washington, D.C..
It is good to see you. I read your latest analysis with interest. And in fact, you say Ukraine and its allies now have the best chance they've had
since December 2022 of seizing the strategic initiative. But what you say next is also that there's a risk to momentum. Tell us more about your
analysis.
NATALIYA BUGAVOYA, DIRECTOR, COGNITIVE WARFARE CENTER: Thanks for having me. I think it's important to understand just how far Ukraine has come in
the last year. Ukraine has already seized operational initiative on the battlefield. Russia is advancing literally at full pace. Russia's summer
offensive has failed. Russia is nowhere near taking the rest of Donetsk region, one of Putin's stated war aims.
In fact, so far, Putin has accomplished none of his war aims five years into this war, and Ukraine's deep strike campaign is crippling Russia's
energy sector and is also making Vladimir Putin make increasingly hard choices domestically, including about what to protect with Russia's air
defense assets. On the other side, Russia is also understanding that Ukraine's and Western strategy of pressure is working, and therefore,
Russia is trying to disrupt Ukraine's initiative.
And it's doing so in a number of ways. The first one is Russia's drone and missile strike campaign against Ukrainian cities. This winter will aim to
inflict maximum terror, maximum civilian harm. Russia is also combining that with increasing kinetic attacks in Europe. But also on the other side,
steaming offers of cooperation, like the energy deal.
But all of that is a part of one effort with the main objective to force us back into the reactive stance and away from what matters the most, which is
reinforcing and investing in sustaining and growing Ukraine's battlefield initiative and the success of Ukraine's deep strike campaign into Russia.
NEWTON: And I want to get to your take that, you know, allies and Ukraine have perhaps been too reactive. What do you mean by that? And I am also
wondering what you make of NATO's plans. I mean, it unveiled this week its theory of victory should Russia attack. I mean, I might argue that NATO has
been far too timid so far, but I'm wondering if that fits with your analysis of this reactive mode.
BUGAVOYA: Absolutely. Russia's main strategy has been to ensure that West doesn't even think in terms of initiative, that it remains in reactive
stance, that it focuses on tactics, that it focuses on countermeasures and responding to crises that Russia generates for the West and for Ukraine.
And it's important to unpack why Russia is so focused on breaking Western initiative because it understands that it's vulnerable to sustain pressure
and it needs time and space to adapt so it can prolong and sustain the war.
And this is what the Kremlin is trying to do right now. And let me be very clear, less pressure on Russia now means longer war likely means greater
war with greater escalation risks and costs. On the other side, Ukraine and partners have been regaining initiative and becoming more proactive. So we
are in the moment where Russia is seeking to break that proactive stance and bring the West and Ukraine back into reactive posture.
NEWTON: Yes. And some may argue that it is working as far as Russia is concerned. There is a provocative take right now that, and I'm going to put
it bluntly to you, that the United States has switched sides. Maybe that's too extreme. Maybe that's too equivocal. But what are you seeing on the
front line right now, especially when it comes to the United States? Are there intelligence sharing? We had this, you know, this so-called
disruption to communications on the battlefield. What are you seeing?
[10:30:08]
BUGAVOYA: We have reports from Ukraine that the Starshield capability has been restored. And we do not have reports to essentially confirm the fact
that Ukraine has suspended any intelligence sharing. The bigger point is that Ukraine and U.S. have remained strategic partners in this fight. U.S.
will remain key strategic partner for Ukraine. Ukraine is a growing asset for United States including for U.S. objectives for the defense in Europe
of Europe.
Therefore, there are ebbs and flows in this war. Wars are not linear, but the fundamental realities in my assessment remain. Lastly, I would also
mention that Russia's strategy has been to isolate Ukraine from its partners. The Kremlin knows very well that it cannot defeat Ukraine if the
West continues to support Ukraine. Therefore, part of the objectives behind Russia's sustained and growing missile and drone strikes, including on
logistics and transportation in and out of Ukraine, and Russia using the energy -- recent energy deal with the United States to drive the wedge
between Ukraine and U.S. is precisely to use this moment of vulnerability to drive a decisive wedge between Ukraine and its partners.
NEWTON: Nataliya, we'll continue to follow your analysis, as this conflict becomes more and more complicated entering its fifth year. Thanks so much.
Appreciate it.
BUGAVOYA: Thanks for having me.
NEWTON: Still to come for us, Elon Musk settles a yearslong legal fight over his 2024 election giveaways, but he's not pulling back on political
spending with the U.S. midterms just weeks away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NEWTON: And welcome back. I'm Paula Newton in New York, and you are watching CONNECT THE WORLD. These are the headlines this hour.
Classes are canceled for thousands of students in Oregon today after a deadly shooting at a local school. Three students and a teacher were
killed. The motive of the teenage attacker, who was fatally shot by a bystander is unclear at this hour. The FBI is helping with the
investigation.
Ukraine and Russia are trading strikes on energy sites. Just three days after President Trump announced a so-called energy ceasefire. This comes as
Ukraine's president rallies support in Europe. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he felt betrayed by the White House deal to import Russian diesel fuel.
[10:35:00]
Yemen's government says the prime minister is safe following a strike by Houthi rebels on the presidential palace. The palace compound is the
headquarters of Yemen's internationally recognized government. Houthi fighters say they were targeting an alleged Saudi operations center inside
that compound.
It's an end to a two-year legal saga for tech billionaire and Republican mega-donor Elon Musk. According to court filings, Musk is settling the two
remaining fraud lawsuits over his super PAC's $1 million giveaways to voters during the 2024 election. Musk had said publicly that the money
would be given away at random.
CNN senior reporter Marshall Cohen is covering the latest from Washington.
I mean, given we're two years on here and in the middle of another contentious election with Elon Musk, I will say, spending again about a
quarter billion dollars. What's in these, you know, latest settlements and what could they mean for elections going forward?
MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, I know that 2024 feels like a lifetime ago, but this is still relevant to today because of
what Elon Musk is doing to influence the current midterm elections. But going back to that 2024 election and the settlement that you just
mentioned, we did learn yesterday that Elon Musk settled these cases that were still lingering from those million-dollar giveaways to voters in 2024.
There were concerns about that sweepstakes. The Justice Department even warned Musk and his super PAC that it could violate federal law against
vote buying. He never faced any charges on that front, and he, of course, denied all wrongdoing. But after the election, multiple voters filed these
civil lawsuits against him and his super PAC. They claimed that it was fraudulent when Musk had told everyone that he would give this money out at
random to any voter that just signed his petition.
His lawyers were later forced in court to concede that this wasn't random at all. This was not selected by chance. People were selected based off of
whether they would be a suitable spokesperson for the pro-Trump super PAC. In other words, you had to have some sort of ideological agreement with
Musk. So we don't know what is in this settlement. That wasn't part of the court filing. We reached out to Musk and to the voters that sued him for
comment.
But bringing this back to today, Paula, Elon Musk has reprised his role as the top donor, supporting Republicans, trying to help them hold the House
and Senate. Look at these numbers. They are staggering. $276 million supporting Republicans this cycle, according to the latest disclosures.
That's from Elon Musk. That includes $150 million to help Ken Paxton the Republican nominee in Texas who is in a fight for his life right now
against Democrat James Talarico.
Musk there by far the biggest person influencing spending in that race. It makes him the top megadonor of this cycle -- Paula.
NEWTON: Yes. And a reminder of not just the federal interests that Elon Musk has, but the interests specifically in Texas to his businesses.
Marshall Cohen, thanks so much for following up on that story. As you said, it is relevant to today's election.
Now, we want to get right up to speed on some other stories that are on our radar right now.
Strong Santa Ana winds are raising the threat of fire spreading across Southern California. Authorities say firefighters are battling two blazes
that have prompted evacuation orders. The American Red Cross says it has opened a shelter north of Malibu for people and pets displaced by those
evacuations.
Accused murderer Alex Murdaugh is back in South Carolina court ahead of his retrial next year. His lawyers are pressing prosecutors for more evidence
after reports that police may have handled the murder weapons, which then went missing. Murdaugh's convictions for killing his wife and son in 2021
were overturned.
Students across France are taking to the streets again, demanding better conditions in their schools. High school students in Paris are blockading
campuses, while more demonstrations are planned in Stroudsburg. The protests have gained support from teachers and parents. Students are
pressing the government for concrete action.
Up next, an unlikely partnership between news publishers and big tech. Why media companies are striking deals with the very ai agents, the giants,
disrupting their industry.
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[10:41:39]
NEWTON: Google is striking deals with news organizations to bring their reporting into its artificial intelligence products. Now, CNN is among the
companies signing on with its journalism, helping inform A.I. generated answers to news related searches. Now, the deals come as news publishers
grapple with how tech giants use their content and how they should be compensated for that content.
We want to bring CNN's chief media analyst, Brian Stelter.
Now, Brian, some people will say, well, this is self-interest on the part of the media organizations. But we would argue, right, Brian, that this
goes to accuracy. I would say, would anyone generating A.I. ask for sources? This is part of that deal, right?
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes. This is about figuring out the financial terms in the A.I. era. How are news publishers and other
purveyors of information going to be compensated when A.I. chatbots and other tools are regurgitating that information and informing the public,
sometimes cutting out the journalists that are in the middle. This is about the financial terms and yes, also about accuracy for these A.I. systems.
And that is critical.
And you have these ai companies increasingly striking deals to try to ensure they have accurate information. It's basically a carrot and stick
approach that I've been covering involving the news publishers and the A.I. platforms. The carrots involve financial relationships. The sticks involve
lawsuits. CNN, for example, earlier this year filed suit against Perplexity, one of the big A.I. model makers.
But this new deal with Google was announced yesterday, and it's one of about 400 deals that Google has struck with both big and large news
publishers, sorry, big and small publishers all around the world. You'll hear it described as a partnership. I will translate it for you. It
involves Google cutting big fat checks, at least in CNN's case and some of these other publishers cases. Google is paying up for the rights to license
news content that's going to feed Google's A.I. overviews, its audio summaries of the news and other projects it's working on.
Google has to pay and it is paying, and so are some of the big A.I. companies as well. But it's both carrot and stick because when they don't
pay, they get served lawsuits. And "The New York Times" has a long running lawsuit against OpenAI, along with many other publishers. So there's a lot
of legal battles going on, but also many lawyerly negotiations going on at the same time.
NEWTON: Yes, as we said, sometimes the legal things take a long time and it is better to actually try and negotiate these things.
Brian, listen, we just had a piece of news out right now as well that once again the White House is barring CNN and other news outlets from Air Force
One and other access. Can you explain where this fight with the White House is going, especially given the fact that there was earlier legal news on
this earlier this week that actually reinstated CNN's access to the White House?
STELTER: Yes. A federal judge earlier this week reaffirmed that the president cannot ban CNN or other outlets from the White House grounds. But
there's this ongoing litigation involving the Associated Press about whether the president can bar journalists from Air Force One or other close
quarters, where only a few members of the media are able to fit in the space. So the president has taken CNN off the list for his trip today to
Georgia and Florida, and this weekend in Florida. Basically, the president forbidding CNN aboard Air Force One to serve as the out of town TV pool.
[10:45:05]
This matters because CNN was on the schedule to serve as the pool on behalf of all the major networks. What it means is that there will not be pool to
TV coverage of the president's trip for the next three days. We are likely to see a lot less video of the president as he's out there rallying for GOP
candidates and spending time at Mar-a-Lago.
The impact here, yes, it involves CNN, but it involves all the networks around the world and all the other publications around the world that rely
on the video provided by the TV pool. So even though a federal judge has said you can't, you know, ban journalists from the White House property,
there's still this ongoing dispute about access to Air Force One and other kind of more small, harder to reach areas.
And it seems to me the president just wants to use this power wherever however he can, even though there's this ongoing court fight about the
White House access.
NEWTON: And, Brian, we only have about 30 seconds left. But, you know, what has been heartening through years of conflicts with the White House has
been the solidarity among news outlets, are we going to see that same solidarity in the days and weeks to come here?
STELTER: In this case, yes, because the other major networks, FOX News, NBC, ABC, CBS, they're not agreeing to fill in and just take CNN's place
today or tomorrow or Sunday and just do the work themselves. They are refusing to do that. So that is a show of solidarity by the other major
networks. Now, the White House is bringing in a small pro-Trump streaming service and basically pretending that that's the pool instead.
But the major networks are not going along with that. The major publications in the U.S. are not going along with that. So the bottom line
is the president once again trying to control TV coverage, trying to keep CNN out. And we are seeing solidarity from other major networks.
NEWTON: Yes. And more legal disputes to come because the White House says that this antitrust issue with the pool. We'll continue to follow it.
Really grateful to you, Brian, because it is getting complicated. Appreciate it.
Now up next, the new documentary has thrashed embattled Elizabeth Holmes back into the spotlight. More on that when we come back.
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NEWTON: So the story of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is thrust back into the spotlight after a new documentary details the days before she was
to report to prison.
Now, Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look back into what the embattled Holmes at the time told him a decade ago, and how her life has unfolded since.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's sort of surprising to literally see screwdrivers and scissors and nails and screws and
everything. This is a literally from the ground up sort of operation here.
ELIZABETH HOLMES, THERANOS FOUNDER: Absolutely.
GUPTA (voice-over): That's Elizabeth Holmes in 2016.
HOLMES: So this is the inside of the mini lab. We could actually run a protocol with a live blood sample.
GUPTA (voice-over): Taking me inside Theranos to reveal the device she hoped would revolutionize blood testing.
HOLMES: We wanted to realize a world in which people are determining the onset of disease in time for therapy to be effective, which is the origin
of the word Theranos. No one has ever seen this. You were the first one.
GUPTA (voice-over): She claimed that a mini lab could run a full range of tests on droplets of blood, taken with the prick of a finger.
I'm going to do this myself. Tiffany, hello.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello.
GUPTA (voice-over): I even went through the testing process with Holmes by my side.
It's still a needle in there.
HOLMES: Lancet.
GUPTA: A lancet. OK.
HOLMES: Needle has a hole.
[10:50:01]
If we can make it affordable, if we can make it accessible, they can use it to avoid having to say goodbye too soon and to be able to live better
lives.
GUPTA (voice-over): Silicon Valley investors were smitten. After all, the 19-year-old who founded Theranos in 2003, then dropped out of Stanford, had
echoes of Steve Jobs.
The portrayal is, look, he was an icon for you. You even dressed like him. You behaved like him to some extent. The secretive nature of how he was,
the reality distortion fields of Steve Jobs, that charisma that got things done even if people didn't fully understand it. Are those fair comparisons?
HOLMES: I mean, I've always said I don't think there is a comparison to Steve Jobs. He was an amazing entrepreneur and an amazing part of the
legacy of Silicon Valley. And you know, I hope to have the privilege of being Elizabeth Holmes and building something around a vision and a dream
that's my dream and --
GUPTA: I know you're not wearing the black turtleneck today.
HOLMES: We have to talk about the black turtleneck.
GUPTA: A previous chapter.
HOLMES: You know, I was 19 when I started Theranos. I was a young woman in a world in which there aren't a lot of young women. And I didn't want how I
looked or what I wore to be what people were paying attention to. And so I dressed in a very conservative way for a very long time, until it became
all that everybody was talking about. And then when that became what people was talking about, I changed it because it was never about that.
GUPTA: That's it. Can I hold it? So this is my nanotainer blood. You able to get all that out of a single finger prick.
(Voice-over): For what it's worth, that blood test put my cholesterol at 170. My own doctor found it to be 169 just the week before. But things
began to collapse outside this lab. At retail sites, using the technology studies found those results to be inaccurate. Holmes said she never
intentionally deceived anyone.
It's probably the most important question I think anybody who's watching has about this. Does it work?
HOLMES: Yes.
GUPTA: You're confident in that?
HOLMES: I am confident in that.
GUPTA (voice-over): But after this interview, an indictment was filed against Holmes and Theranos' president, alleging that they had schemed to
defraud investors and that they knew the analyzer had accuracy and reliability problems and only performed a limited number of tests. In 2022,
both were found guilty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison.
GUPTA (voice-over): Even during our interview, there were signs of the trouble to come.
There's this man who goes by the initials RC right now in Arizona, who is suggesting that the lab results that he got from Theranos were not
accurate, and it led to him having a heart attack. Based on what you know, is it possible that what he's saying is true?
HOLMES: I'm not the director. And so --
GUPTA: I know, but, you know, this weighs on you. You're the CEO and founder of the company. I mean, this is as serious as it gets.
HOLMES: What I know is that I've put the best people in place to be able to investigate every aspect of this and ensure that we meet the quality
standards that we hold ourselves to. And I know they're doing that.
GUPTA (voice-over): By 2014. Holmes was a billionaire on paper named one of the richest women in America by "Forbes" magazine. Most fascinating to me,
though, the $945 million she raised, even though the investors seem to have no idea whether or not the technology worked.
Were they confident that it worked? Did they know? Did they understand?
HOLMES: That's why they invested.
GUPTA: People don't always invest because they know everything. They invest because they've been convinced somehow. The force of one's personality,
their charisma, their appeasement, all those terms. I'm not sure that I frankly still understand all of it. The people who are putting in tens of
millions, hundreds of millions of dollars fully understand Theranos.
HOLMES: The best way to answer that, the reasons they invested in the first place, right, these are sophisticated investors who chose to come into a
startup company based on our intellectual property, based on our patent portfolio, based on our mission, based on the people who were here. They
chose to come into something that was long term, very intentionally, and that was a very explicit discussion about the nature of this and the
magnitude of this.
GUPTA; It's sort of hanging out in the window over here. Someone could take a peek in from outside and see what's going on.
HOLMES: Something about this opening up and transparency theme.
GUPTA: Is this a metaphor for that? Put them right there in the open?
HOLMES: I -- unintentional, but yes.
GUPTA (voice-over): A decade after our interview --
HOLMES: I wish I knew.
GUPTA (voice-over): Holmes is back in the spotlight. A new documentary follows her last days of freedom.
HOLMES: I think this is the moment in time to capture this story before I'm gone.
GUPTA (voice-over): Early glimpses show what appeared to be a fragile Holmes days before reporting to prison. I thought back to our interview and
this question.
You feel beaten up?
[10:55:02]
HOLMES: We've been beaten up. I don't let myself feel beaten up.
GUPTA: Not that you have any bruises or anything on you, but inside you, I mean, do you feel beaten up?
HOLMES: I mean, I've been beaten up, right? I mean, it's been horrible.
GUPTA: Has anything prepared you to be able to handle this sort of scrutiny, this sort of adversity?
HOLMES: I don't know if there's a way to be prepared for something like this. I mean, it's really hard and it's really painful. Either you let it
tear you down or you use it to become better. And I'm trying to use it to become better. We're trying to use it to become better and to realize even
more why we started this in the first place. And this is a dream. This is a mission that has to be realized.
GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: OK. And that is it for CONNECT THE WORLD. Stay with CNN. "ONE WORLD" is up next.
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