Return to Transcripts main page

Erin Burnett Outfront

GOP Senator's Perjury Trap For Jack Smith Backfires; Trump Ads Have Cost Taxpayers At Least $2.5 Million; New Calls For Review Of Cornell's Handling Of Rape Allegations. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired September 29, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:21]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

The Schmitt Show. A Republican senator humiliated after what he thought was a major gotcha moment. It backfired spectacularly. Breaking details this hour about how Schmitt got it so wrong when he questioned Jack Smith today.

Also breaking, paying for Trump's political ads. You are, taxpayers are, and tonight, we're learning just what the bill is, how much Trump's ads airing across the country are costing us.

And the student reporters at the forefront of the Cornell University alleged gang rape story are OUTFRONT as the fraternity and one student who's accused are speaking out tonight.

Let's go OUTFRONT.

(MUSIC)

BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

And OUTFRONT tonight, Schmitt happens today. Republicans calling former special counsel Jack Smith to the witness stand. You know, it was an interrogation and a series of insults. It went on for more than four hours and it was a show designed for the important audience of one, Trump, who wants Smith to pay a major price for investigating Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election.

But the whole thing, there would have been a lot to talk about. But it is going to go down for this one moment, the moment that backfired in what was a spectacular manner. Republican Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri was humiliated. He tried to tie Jack Smith to Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis.

He had a gotcha kill moment. You know, you perjured yourself. He had it all laid out. OK?

So let me play it for you. Here's Schmitt. He's smug. He's got Smith, he thinks, as he lays out his gotcha moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ERIC SCHMITT (R-MO): Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3rd, 2024?

JACK SMITH, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL: I'm sorry, could you say that again?

SCHMITT: Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3rd, 2024?

SMITH: What city would that be in?

SCHMITT: Atlanta.

SMITH: No.

SCHMITT: OK, what would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warrior/Hawks game on February 3rd, 2024, the day after Willis and Wade announced their affair.

I don't think you know that we have this stuff, so --

SMITH: Yeah.

SCHMITT: -- I'll give you a second to process it so you don't -- you know perjure yourself.

SMITH: You just took it down really quick if I could look at that again.

SCHMITT: I think you've already perjured yourself. You have weaponized the Department of Justice against political enemies to an extent that has never happened in the history of this country. You will go down as a total dirtbag.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: All right. So that was, you know, the killer moment, the mic drop moment. Schmitt thought he had Jack Smith, but he didn't because Smith was not at the Hawks game. He just wasn't. Here is Smith's side of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

I recall going to a University of Maryland basketball game where Caitlin Clark was playing. Right around that time, and the Marshall Service was there with me. You could check if that was the exact date. It was Maryland playing Iowa, I think February of 2024. But again, that's -- you could check that out if that's what we're talking about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: University of Iowa.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Is it the Hawkeyes?

SMITH: Yes.

KLOBUCHAR: Could it then be that University of Iowa is the Hawkeyes? Could that be it? And I would just say, for a U.S. senator, to have false information and imply based on a confusion about the name of a team, which I knew knowing my Midwestern sports and imply that you were in another city, that you were somehow involved that day in what was happening in Georgia and then call you a dirtbag is something that deserves an apology.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: I mean, he didn't imply it. He said it. He didn't know the difference between the Hawks and the Hawkeyes, right?

The whole killer. They're talking about what seat they're at. He's going to meet with Fani Willis, except for it was at a different game with a different team in a different state.

Wow, it's bad. All you have to do is look at Schmitt's Republican Senator Katie Britt, his colleague at her face as Schmidt was fact checked.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: Right around that time. and the Marshall Service was there with me. You could check if that was the exact date it was Maryland playing Iowa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: That expression Katie Britt welcome to being viral. I guarantee you that that'll be possible to use on X and everywhere else as a meme for a long time to come. And what's crazier about all this is that Senator Schmitt, whom "Axios" reported is close to Vance now, is a potential 2028 running mate.

[19:05:03]

He didn't even check the facts of what he thought was going to be a clean kill. I mean, when you go in with something like that, you know, it's like, does the glove fit, right?

Here's the text message that he showed on the poster board that he had popped up and put down. It was only visible for a brief moment. The text says, hey, man, is 109 row one reserved for Jack? Right?

So, he's like, oh, it's the Hawks. He's there. He's there to meet with Fani Willis. Well, he could have checked that since the 109 row one was, you know, reserved. You could check it. You could see, was he there?

He wasn't at whatever the Hawks game, but he was at the Iowa Hawkeyes versus Maryland Terrapins. The Terps game. And there he is. Row 10 -- there is Jack Smith.

Yeah, so I guess we know what game the text was about.

MeidasTouch found another shot of that game just outside Washington where you can see Smith even more clearly. There he is. Well, at least Schmitt could do is to say, OK, I -- I you know what? OK, this was -- this is embarrassing. This is bad, especially when you use the whole thing to call Smith this horrible dirt bag, to call someone a dirt bag in a -- in a hearing on Capitol Hill.

But Schmitt did not. Here you can watch him on Charlie Kirk show and a MAGA host cheered on the so-called gotcha moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW KOLVET, HOST, THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOW: Jack Smith is a total dirtbag and you caught him out on this NBA game too, by the way in Atlanta.

SCHMITT: Yeah.

KOLVET: But it was a great moment. So good for you on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: I'm not sure if Charlie Kirk actually obviously seen the whole thing since it appears he's not aware that he wasn't at the game and he was at the game with the Terps. Anyway, it wasn't just Smith who went after -- Schmitt who went after Smith today. I'm sorry. Senators Cruz, Senator Kennedy also went after him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): You make me want to throw up in my mouth.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Javert from Les Mis would look at you with astonishment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: These attacks, though, and the threats from Trump and his Justice Department to target Smith, well, Smith made it clear that none of these are going to stop him from telling what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: I will not be silenced by continued threats of prosecution from the president or others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And tonight's Trump threat to prosecute those with whom he disagrees is falling apart. There's now been two sudden resignations from Trump's so-called grand conspiracy investigation, which is his probe into political enemies.

Kurt Holson, who backed Trump's 2020 election lies, just left his post. His departure comes a week after another Trump ally, Joseph DeGenova, who had been leading the now year-long conspiracy investigation, also resigned. DeGenova told "The New York Post" after his exit, quoting him, "If you want indictments where there's no evidence, you have an ethical problem."

I mean, that's very clear, right? He said he went in and there's nothing there, so he's not going to, in good conscience, continue.

Lauren Fox is OUTFRONT on Capitol Hill.

And, Lauren, so Senator Schmitt trying to understand what would have led to such an error, which of course could have been caught in fact checking to prevent a public humiliation like that. What are you learning tonight about how all of this happened?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, so we actually have some new reporting, Erin, about what transpired behind the scenes. Essentially what I am told from a source familiar is that Eric Schmitt had reviewed these text messages that Jack Smith was at a basketball game on February 3rd, 2024. Well, they referenced and cross referenced what the schedule for games around the country was that night for both men's basketball and the NBA as well as men's basketball in college, and they only found one game, which was this game in Atlanta.

That is why Schmitt asked him if he was in Atlanta for the game, and then he jumped to the further conclusion of whether or not Jack Smith had actually met with Fani Willis during his visit in Atlanta. Now you saw there that Jack Smith made clear he wasn't even sure that he had ever been to Atlanta during his time as a special counsel. He said perhaps he had been to the airport at some point.

But what had not been considered was that there was a women's college basketball game at the University of Maryland against the Iowa Hawkeyes. It just happened to be a confusion between Hawks and Hawkeyes. Those exact teams were not mentioned in those text messages. It was just a basketball game in general.

So, you can catch that there's a little bit of irony there to begin with. But, Erin, it is just sort of one of those moments where these are high-profile congressional hearings. These are high-stakes moments for senators. These are an opportunity to both show the president, to show your base, to show the audience that you are fighting for the administration if you are a Republican. Obviously, this is not the kind of line of questioning that you want to have here.

Now I will note that our colleague Ellis Kim just caught up with Eric Schmitt at his office because we are undergoing a Senate vote here on Capitol Hill this evening and he essentially said who knew -- he kind of joked -- that Jack Smith was a Caitlin Clark fan.

[19:10:08]

Obviously, she was a member of the Iowa Hawkeyes at the time of that game, but he said, look, this is what these hearings are for. You ask questions, you get answers. He didn't explicitly apologize for the mix up, but you saw there Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat on the committee, she was arguing that he should have apologized if he didn't have his facts straight -- Erin.

BURNETT: Right. Well, of course it was the prelude to being a. a dirtbag and saying that someone had perjured themselves and they were going to this game in Atlanta to meet with Fani Willis. I mean, the implications from it were nasty and involved lying under oath. So, it would seem that it's more than a joke.

Thank you very much, Lauren. I appreciate it.

And I want to go now to the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Jamie Raskin.

I appreciate your time.

So, what do you make of Senator Schmitt making a mistake like this in the way that he did, right? It was built up to have someone perjure themselves and be a liar and be a dirtbag and be colluding with Fani Willis, right? That was the setup for all of this. What do you make of the mistake?

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Well, first of all, let's hear it for the women's basketball team at the University of Maryland. And I assume they've been undone by their sexism here because they weren't looking at women's basketball. They assume that Jack Smith must have been at men's basketball.

BURNETT: There is -- there is -- there is another very important layer to the onion with that point. I hear you.

RASKIN: Yeah, but look, I mean, as ever with MAGA, we are saved from their absolute malice and evil by their complete incompetence. I mean they went in with the idea of setting a perjury trap for Jack Smith and in fact he -- the Senator Schmidt basically pronounced himself the victor in the middle of his little tirade there and that Jack Smith had already perjured himself, which was clearly his entire aim. It was completely sinister, but also totally inept and incompetent.

And now he's trying to laugh the whole thing off after pronouncing Jack Smith a dirtbag and then you've got -- you know, Ted Cruz saying, is it a crime to be a Republican? Of course, it's not. Is it a crime to be a prosecutor and to do your job?

And see, and that's -- that is the success of the MAGA strategy here. They've made all of Jack Smith's testimony about this irrelevant procedural stuff as embarrassing as it is to all the Republicans because they were so dysfunctional in the execution of their plan. But they did distract everybody from what Jack Smith was there to testify about, which was essentially why he believed beyond any reasonable doubt that Donald Trump was guilty of having incited a violent insurrection and trying to interfere with the federal peaceful transfer of power.

BURNETT: So, as you point out, if the goal here was to set up a perjury trap, but the implication being that you were lying because you were lying because you didn't want anyone to know that you were colluding with Fine Willis, right? So that's the reason that you would be perjuring yourself.

After the hearing, Senator Schmitt gets asked about it. Okay, at this point, everyone has figured out this is hugely embarrassing. We're talking about a different team and a different gender in a different state. Here's the exchange. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHMITT: We're asking if he was in Atlanta on February 3rd because there's text messages about him being at a basketball game of Hawks game.

REPORTER: Did he perjure himself, sir?

SCHMITT: We'll find out. That's going to be up to a prosecution to determine. My job here today was to ask questions and get answers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Well, obviously didn't perjure himself on that particular issue. So, was he just asking questions? Is there any chance that he'll give Smith an apology?

RASKIN: Well, not from the looks of it. I mean, look, nobody ever heard of Senator Schmitt before, and nobody's going to ever hear of him again. He's basically disgraced himself and identified himself with this ridiculous little stunt where he thought he was going to perform some major service to Donald Trump. And it's all about being the most obsequious sycophant you can be.

And he proved that he was, and he doesn't even understand how much that he's utterly humiliated himself in the eyes of the country.

BURNETT: I don't know if you saw this the other day. I keep bringing it up because it just sticks with me. It is really, it is just something that's really stuck with me, which is when Jonathan Swan said recently that from all of his reporting, and he and Maggie Hiberman, of course, wrote the best-selling book, "Regime Change", that we only know five percent of what is going on in this White House. And that in the context of contracts that are being given out, deals that are being made, money that's being made off of government contracts and all of it, okay?

You, if you win the House, sir, if you win the House, you will likely be chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and in that role, you will have incredibly -- incredible power. You'll have the ability to subpoena officials. You'll have the ability to subpoena documents. You'll have the ability to refer for criminal prosecution. All of those things.

[19:15:00]

In the context of Jonathan Swan saying we only know five percent, do you have a list of things that you are immediately going to subpoena or try to get records for or investigate?

RASKIN: We know that the whole government is engulfed in corruption because of Donald Trump and his family determining that they're going to make as much money as possible. They obviously have no real program to lower prices for Americans or to get health care to Americans or to take care of the environment. Their program is self-enrichment, and that is why we are drowning in

political corruption. So, we're going to have to look very systematically at everything that has taken place, from the crypto corruption, opening up rivers of cash flowing in to the president from pardon seekers from foreign governments, from lobbying corporations. We're going to have to look at all of the military industrial complex contracts and other federal contracts that have gone to Donald Trump, Jr's business advantage. And he seems to have a near clairvoyant sensibility now into who's going to be getting a contract and what kinds of regulatory favors are going to be dealt by the various administrative commissions that have been taken over by the Trump administration.

He made more than 100 percent for his customers of his major investment fund 10 times what other, you know, private investment funds are making and it's obviously because he's trafficking in classified off the books inside government information. And he's doing it to his benefit. So those are just a couple of the things that we're looking at.

But we know that there's been just pervasive corruption. The antitrust laws of the country have been utterly corrupted, where basically people who are caught up in an antitrust enforcement action where a prosecution are essentially able to pay their way out or buy their way out through political influence with President Trump and his family.

BURNETT: Harrison Raskin, I appreciate your time and thank you so much for being on the show tonight.

RASKIN: You bet.

BURNETT: All right, and next we have breaking news. We have just found out how much American taxpayers have paid for Trump to air his own campaign ads on national television. Brian Stelter has the numbers.

Also breaking, we're now hearing from the fraternity linked to the alleged gang rake at Cornell University, the lawyer for one of the accused students speaking out tonight.

And brand-new projections from one of the nation's top election forecasters. He is just moving 11 House races in the Democrats' direction. So, what does that mean for control of the House and where it stands tonight?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:21:55]

BURNETT: Breaking news, at least two and a half million dollars. Our Brian Stelter just learning that is the number. That is the number of how much President Trump's government funded campaign style ads have cost American taxpayers so far in airtime. Okay, so that's paying people to air them. That does not count the taxpayer-funded salaries and time of the people who put them together and all of that, which we understand our reporting is just done at the White House.

The ads, of course, are not original. One of the ads even uses the same exact words and shots from a 2024 campaign ad for Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is the final battle with you at my side. We will liberate America from these villains once and for all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So, of course, they've said that it's not a campaign ad, but as we just showed you, it is actually in fact identical to a campaign ad.

And as our Kristen Holmes first reported last night here on OUTFRONT, it is Trump himself who is the driving force behind these ads.

So, let's go to Brian Stelter because he's OUTFRONT with the breaking news.

And, Brian, you've got the number in terms of you know what taxpayers are paying television networks to air these ads, and it adds up.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yeah, Erin, millions of dollars spent so far and many millions more to come. Elected officials in both parties are criticizing these ads, and washout groups are calling it illegal propaganda. The ad tracking firm Ad Impact has been monitoring all the airings and they have found three different Trump ads airing on Fox News and the four big broadcast networks in recent days. About 30 percent of the ads spent has been dedicated to NFL and college football games, so that's interesting.

But most tellingly, Ad Impact has been estimating how much this is costing that it's not cheap to run those ads on football games or on primetime network television.

BURNETT: Yeah.

STELTER: So the company's come up with this $2.5 million estimate, but the true total is even higher. Notably, because these ads are being called a public service announcement, when in fact they are propaganda, they're not being disclosed as traditional political ad buys, and that's why we don't have the actual solid numbers. But the true total is in the millions already.

BURNETT: Right. And as we said, so the number already, and you point out a lot more to come. And then as I was saying, also, there's the cost of putting it all together, which was done, we understand, at the White House, and that is taxpayer-funded salaries.

So, what are you learning about sort of how they're paying for this or where the money just approximately is coming from?

STELTER: Yeah, you mentioned Kristen Holmes, our colleagues, she has brand new reporting on this as well. The money has been allocated to the Department of Homeland Security. Kristen's sources say that earlier this month, the White House Office of Management and Budget allocated $20 million total to Homeland Security, specifically the Customs and Border Protection Office, for, quote, "commemorative events relating to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act from last year".

So that appears to be the pot of money that's being spent. So far, at least $2.5 million have been actually spent on the airwaves, and if $20 million is budgeted, you might wonder, is anyone going to put a stop to it at some point?

[19:25:04]

Earlier today, two Democratic senators wrote to the Homeland Security secretary and said this is theft of taxpayer money. It must be stopped and it must be refunded.

So far, there have also been multiple watchdog groups making complaints, but it's unclear if anybody actually has the legal standing to file a lawsuit to try to stop this, Erin.

BURNETT: Yeah, I mean, it is really quite stunning. I mean, but just on every level. But then when you get to Customs and Border Protection via DHS to somehow be paying for political campaign ads, it gets more and more tangled and impossible to understand.

All right, thank you very much, Brian Stelter.

So those new details there from Brian on the numbers bring us to former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb who is OUTFRONT.

So, Ty, Brian points out, two and a half million dollars, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg, right? Because they're planning on airing a lot more. They're airing them in expensive spots, and that doesn't count for the cost of production and all of that, which also would be added on. And that they've got this $20 million pot at least.

So, you know, that -- that's -- that's all taxpayer money.

TY COBB, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE LAWYER: It's all taxpayer money. Trump believes the taxpayers money is his. We know that Todd Blanche and Trump, you know, tried to take $1.8 billion of taxpayer money to reward Trump and to reward, you know, the violent protesters from January 6th. So, the $20 million, sort of pales in comparison to $1.8 billion.

But this is an administration that just simply does not care. The rule of law has been tossed aside. I mean, if Trump is selling his advanced thoughts to Wall Street firms for $100,000 a week and if he made $2.2 billion in crypto last year, this is the kind of thing where -- you know, Trump doesn't care about the law, this is all about his -- you know, his self-aggrandizement which is prohibited under the -- under the law.

BURNETT: And you're referring with $100,000, that they were saying, oh, you could pay extra money to get access to Trump's Truth Social posts before other people when those truth social posts can move markets, right? Would be the definition of insider trading by any sensible use of the term. But you talk about the rule of law. I guess that's what I'm curious

about, Ty. People can look at this and whatever their political persuasions say, I'm uncomfortable with taxpayer money being used for political campaign ads for a sitting president, whatever their party may be.

And you could go down the line and people would have issue with it. But where is the consequence? Where is the consequence? The outrage is there, but where is the actual consequence? And if there is none, have we not just weakened the rule of law more broadly in this country?

COBB: Well, that's -- I mean, and that's -- that's the concern. I mean, you know, Trump has thrown so much lawlessness and throw much so much corruption at the American people that his hope is that people just accepted that they think this is the way it is and that they and they surrender to him.

You know, John Thune, Thom Tillis, John Cornyn, even John Kennedy, you know, said that this was improper that they shouldn't spend public funds for this. They know it's illegal, but are they doing anything now? We've got a cowardly Republican-led Congress and in the absence of Congress, you know, getting involved and taking charge, we know that Todd Blanche is going to do nothing. We know that the GAO is going to do nothing. We have the Russell Vought, Brendan Carr, Stephen Miller-led apparatus of Project 2025.

They're out there to serve the president. They aren't there to serve the rule of law or enforce it. And sadly, that's what this election is about. We need to step up and take the country back and thankfully have people like Jamie Raskin waiting in the wing.

BURNETT: You know, I'm reading Robert Harris's book, "Agrippa", and it's just a very interesting parallels raised in that book.

COBB: Great book.

BURNETT: Secretary Hegseth -- it is a great book.

Secretary Hegseth announced that he's directing the military to utilize intelligence and cyber capabilities to defend the election from foreign interference, okay? Something the military has done in the past. But when you saw this, you saw something different, that Hegseth has a different objective here, that this is not a parallel to what's been done before. Can you explain?

COBB: Certainly. You know, the cybersecurity and infrastructure security apparatus is one that Trump has hollowed out. I mean, you know, that it's been gutted. You know, this is the group that Hegseth is, you know, allegedly tasking, you know, with these substantial responsibilities.

This is not being done, though, as it has historically over our time to facilitate, you know, people being able to vote. This is being done solely so that they can say we had people on site and we found these very concerning bots or, you know, potential international interference. you know, so that they can declare an emergency and perhaps seize ballots and seize voting machines.

This is all part of the part and parcel of Trump's assault on elections from the post office, you know, to the cybersecurity infrastructure, to the Justice Department Civil Rights Division, sending a 300 percent increase in poll watchers to the polls who are not there as they have been historically since the 60s, you know, to enable people to be allowed to exercise their vote.

[19:30:22]

No, they're there with the hope that they can find something that provides a pretext or justification for a declared emergency that can be used to then interfere with the election. So, we're in -- we're in trouble. We have to be vigilant, and people need to get out and vote in big numbers.

BURNETT: All right. Ty Cobb, thank you very much. It is always good to see you.

And next we do have some breaking news.

COBB: Thank you, Erin.

BURNETT: New calls from top officials for an investigation to Cornell's -- the university's handling of the alleged gang rape case. The student reporters who put this story on the nation's radar, student reporters are the reason everyone's talking about this. They are speaking out here tonight.

Also breaking, new projections from one of the nation's top election forecasters. He says Democrats are now in, quote, "serious contention to flip the Senate". So, in what way? What are the races he's focused on?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:35:50]

BURNETT: Tonight, several fast-moving developments in the alleged gang rape at Cornell University. Both the governor of New York and the New York Attorney General now calling for independent reviews into how Cornell handled it as the fraternity is speaking out for the first time, saying it, quote, "unequivocally condemns sexual violence," end quote. And a lawyer for one of the accused men denies taking part in, quote, "any sexual activity or drug use," end quote, during the alleged incident, which was in 2024.

The story is now a national story, national outrage and national attention. Two years after it happened, after the student referred to as Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit against the school, the fraternity, and the fraternity members. The D.A. then reopening the investigation, telling CNN he hopes to speak with the accuser as soon as tomorrow to begin his preparations to present to a grand jury.

OUTFRONT now, Sophia Dasser, the editor in chief of "The Cornell Daily Sun", and Cereese Qusba, the senior editor who broke the story on this lawsuit more than a week before any major outlet. You can see her story here in the headline. She's been doing extensive reporting on the case.

It's -- thanks to both of you and your journalistic team that we all know about this story and it's getting the national attention it deserves.

Cereese, I want to get to your reporting in a moment, but I just want to start with where you all are right now. What is the feeling on campus at Cornell at this moment as this story, you know, day by day, we are finding out so many more disturbing and disgusting details.

SOPHIA DASSER, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "THE CORNELL DAILY SUN": I think the reaction is definitely multifaceted. I mean, there is shock, there is outrage, but there's this underlying feeling that the majority of students are unsurprised by the situation. And there's this huge wave of solidarity and kinship with Jane Doe that I think both Cereese and I have experienced through our inboxes and our voicemails.

It was one of the reasons why "The Sun" then released a sexual misconduct tip line specifically for community members to talk about their Title IX processes at Cornell. But we've been absolutely floored by how positive the reactions to the coverage and how supportive the community has been to Jane Doe. And so, we are really, really grateful to the community at large for being so supportive.

BURNETT: So, Cereese, when you, you know, put the story, wrote this story, it ends up on the front page days before the national media picks up on it, right? You all did this work. Did you realize -- did you -- did you realize that this could become a huge story, a national story, an international story, frankly?

CEREESE QUSBA, SENIOR EDITOR, "THE CORNELL DAILY SUN": Yeah, it was so interesting to watch this story from something that was very small where only a select few people really knew about it. I was anticipating the lawsuit being filed as well as a few other people, and Sophia also is aware of it as we prepared to cover it. But I don't think you could really expect the national attention it got, and I think that's largely due to the fact that we included. graphic details of the lawsuit that the lawsuit wrote, and we did not sugarcoat anything in our coverage. And we've continued to offer transparency to the Cornell community, but also to everyone.

BURNETT: So let me just follow up to you there, Cereese, when you looked at the 2024 incident at the fraternity house, you know you did so before the civil lawsuit was filed before the DA announced he was reopening the investigation. So, you know, this required you noticing something and saying this needs another look. What stood out to you? What made you say this -- this deserves this right now.

QUSBA: Yeah, back in the fall of 2024 when we first got a notification from Cornell University as well as CUPD, the fall of 2024 when we first got a notification from Cornell University as well as CUPD, our campus Police Department, that there was a complaint for sexual assault at the Chi Phi house, it really had an impact on the campus culture and community. [19:40:10]

And you could feel that.

And it was a time when there were other tragedies on campus that were also happening and it was really dark time and now about half of the student body was there on campus and remembers that feeling. And then there was silence for a long time from the administration, from the Cornell administration and this -- I really wanted to look at what was happening. I wanted to find out where the defendants were, what happened to the Title IX proceedings, what happened to a criminal investigation.

So, I started to look into this and I was able to get in contact with Jane Doe and communicate with her and with her lawyers as well and also communicate with the university on their policies and get some background. So, when the lawsuit was filed, we were really prepared because we had this this all this background information and had been communicating with the sources for a really long time and thought it was really important to bring this to light.

BURNETT: I mean, and as I say, it's broken through. Sophia, you helped write an editorial calling out Cornell University. In part, you write, "We refuse for this victim to be reduced to just another story. Cornell has failed to protect its students. Cornell has failed to address the growing issue of sexual assault on campus with its pathetic task force.

Cornell has failed the student allegedly raped by those seven men at Chi Phi in October 2024. Cornell has failed her. Cornell has failed us."

You know, do you think that Cornell in this that that administration at Cornell, that there will be people who will be held to account?

DASSER: I think at the end of the day, "The Sun" is really asking for something that everyone deserves, which is a level of transparency and accountability. We are students. We have the right to demand safety from our university administrators, and we have the right to demand things like anonymized data reports of outcomes and sanctions and punishments from cases that were reported.

To "The Sun", it was extraordinarily concerning that the last we had heard on any solution from the case was a sexual assault task force that had approached sexual misconduct as an educational problem, one that could be solved with workshops and lectures and website links. And within the paper and kind of clearly, to anyone who's reading those websites, the individuals who would probably be committing the sexual misconduct or not the individuals who will be showing up to these workshops. So, we fundamentally believe that this was a poor approach to the issue.

BURNETT: Yeah, that's just a really, a really fair and important point.

Sophia and Cereese, thank you both very much. And again, so everyone knows you are. You are looking at the two women who are really responsible for the fact that we are now talking about this obviously important and disturbing story. Thank you both so much.

And next there's breaking news. A top election forecaster tonight moving 11 house races in the Democrats direction. So, what does that actually mean for the balance of power?

Plus, an OUTFRONT update, you're going to hear again from a restaurant owner who barely survived COVID. You met him back during COVID on this show. But right now, his restaurant cannot survive the current economic crisis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:47:45]

BURNETT: Breaking news, brand new projections from one of the nation's top election forecasters moving several races in the Democrats' direction.

Larry Sabato and his team at Sabato's Crystal Ball writing tonight, "Will Republicans wake up as September ends? Eleven more House ratings changes towards Democrats".

And Larry Sabato's OUTFRONT now, editor-in-chief of director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia and the man behind Sabato's Crystal Ball.

So, Larry, always a pleasure to talk to you. Thirty-five days until the midterms, you're making major moves and obviously, voting has begun in some states, right, with heavy mail-in ballots. Your projection for the House as of this moment, Democrats with the advantage in 213 races, Republicans in 202, which leaves 20 races as what you call toss-ups.

So obviously, toss-ups could change the whole thing. So put this in context. What does this mean? Is this a big Democratic night for the House or not?

LARRY SABATO, FOUNDER & DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR POLITICS: Well, it probably will be a big democratic night. It almost certainly will produce a democratic majority of some size. Now look at it this way of the 20 toss ups. Only five of them have to go to Democrats to get to 218.

And as we move along in October, at least based on prior midterm elections, the momentum for the party that's ahead tends to increase. It gathers steam as you get closer to the election, and that should mean that maybe some of the lean Republican seats currently will move into toss up or lean Democratic categories.

BURNETT: So, I guess to that context momentum when you move 11 house races tonight, I just want to note every single one of those 11 move towards Democrats. So that's a momentum issue, right? Not one towards Republicans, so is that significant just on its face? SABATO: Oh, absolutely. You know, earlier in the cycle, all of us who forecast would move, you know, five in the Democratic direction, three in the Republican direction, or whatever the balance was. But it's really difficult, almost impossible, to find seats that are moving in the Republican direction.

So that itself is a bad sign. And the overall enthusiasm rate among Democrats continues to be 15 to 20 points higher than for Republicans.

[19:50:01]

And you know, it's a midterm election. You need an extra push to get out to vote to get your partisans out and Democrats are raring to go and Republicans are not necessarily.

BURNETT: So then that brings me to the Senate, where it depends who's prognosticating. But the crystal ball team says Democrats, quote, "are in serious contention to flip the Senate". And obviously, you know, in the Senate, you've only got a third of the races up. It depends which ones are up in which places, right, in which states to get to your outcome.

So, for you right now, Larry, what are the top races you're looking at?

SABATO: Well, we're looking at five, quote, "toss ups". We all have opinions about which way they would go, and I think a majority of them would go to Democrats if the election were held now. Alaska, Texas, Iowa, Maine. We've already pushed Michigan to the Democrats and we pushed New Hampshire to the Democrats as well.

So, essentially, I hope I mentioned Ohio as well.

BURNETT: Yeah.

SABATO: This is a group of Senate contests that would normally be Republican because since Trump came on the scene, they've been moving more and more in that direction. But they seem very unhappy about Iran and gas prices and diesel prices and corruption, which is not getting the attention at the national level that I think it probably deserves based on what we've seen from the districts and the states.

BURNETT: Yeah, corruption, which of course, if you look at what happened in Hungary, that seemed to be the issue that made the margin so great that there was no way to mess with it there. Thank you very much, Larry. I appreciate your time.

SABATO: Thank you, Erin.

BURNETT: And next, an OUTFRONT update on a restaurant owner we spoke to during the COVID pandemic. His business struggled. He did get through that, but now he says it is the rising prices that have crushed his business and shut it down.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:56:02]

BURNETT: And now tonight, an OUTFRONT update. You may remember Tom Sopit. He owns a restaurant in Los Angeles. He first appeared on this show during COVID. He was fighting at the time to save his restaurant and the jobs of more than 40 employees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM SOPIT, OWNER, EMPLOYEES ONLY: I'm upset, I'm frustrated. You know, over 100,000 restaurants have closed permanently in the last 200 days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: His restaurant survived COVID, but six years later it could not survive this economy.

Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight is last call. Employees only restaurant and bar. The final pour for owner Tom Sopit closing after nearly 10 years in West Hollywood.

SOPIT: It's just becoming increasingly tough to operate in this state and in this city. So we decided to close.

LAH (voice-over): A bittersweet end to service after surviving the pandemic.

SOPIT: I'm concerned.

LAH (voice-over): This was Sopit in March 2020. COVID-19 gripped the country, so its restaurant shut down with all the others. His rent was $1,000 a day. He was completely underwater.

SOPIT: All we can do is help each other.

LAH (voice-over): Help is what he did. Sopit's small staff prepped free meals for any worker who lost their job. For weeks, he donated food to emergency rooms across Los Angeles. He turned his parking lot into an outdoor patio, pivoting with ever changing protocols.

LAH: How do you survive that, that you have to close now?

SOPIT: Through the years, the economics of the state and the country has really changed. We've tried. It's not one thing that took us out. It's just what I like to say, death by a thousand cuts.

Affordability has really impacted our state. The cost of goods, the cost of labor is much higher than everyone else in the country. California labor laws are really tough.

Insurance is a big part of it, with wildfires controlling the premiums and increases, all the carriers leaving the state, and that's why it went up so quickly.

LAH: How much did the shrinking of Hollywood impact you?

SOPIT: Oh, immensely. It disappeared overnight. We're not really Hollywood anymore. All these people that used to work here, used to work in the city of Los Angeles, are now gone. All the businesses close early because there is no foot traction. It's a completely different city now.

LAH: Tell me about what you see when you drive around West Hollywood.

SOPIT: There's a lot of four lease signs up, a lot of businesses that are shutting down just a few months after they open. It's really sad.

LAH (voice-over): Sofit voted for Gavin Newsom, but is today a registered independent. He says the political system is failing people like him.

LAH: Your advice to the next governor of California?

SOPIT: My advice is focus on the issues. Focus on the real challenges. Drive up and down the street. Get your hands dirty.

I think you can't just keep taxing businesses and people. How are we just keep paying more taxes, but somehow the state just keeps going downhill? That doesn't make sense. There has to be some real change there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: And I did ask Tom Sopit if he felt it was going to matter who the next governor is, and he says he doesn't think so. Erin, he is hoping that whoever does occupy that office at their number one issue is affordability for the middle class -- Erin.

BURNETT: Yeah, Kyung is really incredible and obviously an indictment for the state. Thank you very much.

And don't miss CNN's debate with the two candidates vying to be the next governor of California. That is tomorrow at 9:00 with Jake and Dana.

Thanks so much for joining us tonight.

"AC360" begins right now.