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Inside Politics

Shooter Kills Three Children & One Teacher At Oregon School; Police Search For Motive In Deadly Oregon School Shooting; Can Progressive Dem Angie Nixon Flip A Florida Senate Seat?; Johnson: South Texas Will Literally Decide The Majority; Dems Look To Win Over Latino Voters Who Supported Trump In 2024. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired October 16, 2026 - 12:30   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- you don't make any noise.

[12:30:03]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Nick Watt is live in Bend, Oregon. Ben -- excuse me, Nick, what is the latest on the investigation?

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Dana, what CNN is hearing from a source is that investigators have executed a search warrant at this alleged shooter's home, taken away electronics, computers, et cetera, and also spoken to the parents who are described as being cooperative. Now, we still don't yet have a clear motive, but according to the parents, we're told, this 16-year-old did attend Silver Rail Elementary.

Now, let's hear from one of the kids who was inside the school, a 10- year-old who spoke to ABC just a little while ago. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AIZEN, STUDENT, SILVER RAIL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: We didn't really take it in as a gunshot. And then maybe 10 to 20 seconds later, we heard more gunshots, and this -- and that time, we definitely knew it was a gunshot.

I locked the door, and I went back behind our lockers, as all my classmates did the same. All of my classmates and my teacher were safe. But we were definitely scared, and most people were crying, and it was really hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Now, you heard that little innocent voice talking about locking the door. Now, a few years ago, in 2022, they installed new locks on the doors here at this elementary so that they can be locked from the inside. There's also a vestibule at the entrance to the school where you have to be buzzed in.

It's unclear how far into the school this shooter got before that local community member who followed this person in and shot that -- shot the shooter before perhaps this rampage could get even deadlier. Now, we hear it was picture day here at the elementary school, so kids dressed up in their finest only to have a gunman come in and shoot three of them dead.

Another 7-year-old still fighting for life in the hospital along with a 54-year-old teacher. And, Dana, you know, speaking to people around here this morning, they talk about the quiet. They talk about the sound of children playing being replaced by the sound of sirens while it was happening.

And then yesterday afternoon, just this blanket of silence. There weren't kids out playing this morning. There were not kids and parents walking to school. It is a community waking up, as so many American communities do, to a disaster, to a school shooting. Dana?

BASH: When are we going to stop having to report on these horrible, horrible shootings? And you're right, that sweet boy's voice, it just -- it spoke volumes about how --

WATT: Yes.

BASH: -- ridiculous this is and how tragic. Nick, thank you so much for being here.

Coming up on Inside Politics, we are going to go to Florida, which hasn't sent a Democrat to the Senate in over a decade. Up next, I'm going to talk to the candidate trying to change that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:37:54]

BASH: Democrat Angie Nixon surprised a lot of national Democrats when she won the primary for Florida's Senate race eight weeks ago. But now she is the Democratic nominee for Senate, and she is trying to unseat the Republican incumbent Senator Moody.

And Democrat Angie Nixon joins me now. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it. Hopefully you can still hear me. Thank you so much.

I want to ask about the race for sure, but I do want to start with the breaking news that we were sadly talking about in the last segment, and that is three children and a teacher are dead after shooting at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon. The suspect was a 16-year-old with a long gun. That's all the information that we have now.

If you are elected to the United States Senate, what will you try to do legislatively to stop these horrible mass shootings?

ANGIE NIXON (D), FLORIDA SENATE CANDIDATE: So, first of all, my condolences go out to the families, the parents -- no parents should have to bury their child -- and, you know, the families of the teacher. And listen, I lost two of my cousins to gun violence, and so I know the impact and devastation that it has on families.

And I know that gun violence is a public health crisis, and we need to work on preventative measures as much as possible. We need to make sure that we are passing common-sense gun laws. We also need to make sure that we are providing children and people with the mental health services that they need. And also making sure that parents don't have to work two and three jobs and that they can honestly spend more time with their children and build better relationships with them.

And so I am welcoming all folks, you know, not just the gun violence prevention groups, but also some of the gun owners to have conversations on what we can do to address this issue.

[12:40:04]

BASH: Talking about your race, you are set to campaign all weekend with Senator Bernie Sanders. I think you're going to have four events across the state. You can't win in Florida now solely with Democrats. Just to explain to our viewers the imbalance on the voter registration, there are about 1.5 million more Republicans than Democrats now in Florida.

The last time your party won the Senate seat, you Democrats outnumbered Republicans significantly. So there's been a big shift to the right, as I don't need to tell you. How does campaigning with Bernie Sanders help reach out to those voters?

NIXON: Yes, for sure. So listen, we are traveling all across the state of Florida from the Panhandle to the Keys. And the message is very clear. And my proven track record of fighting for hardworking everyday people is pretty clear.

Look, the message is that Ashley Moody, my opponent, is a part of an elite corrupt D.C. club of insiders who actually sit on committees with insider information and then they profit off the stock market. And they also take big profits. They take big donations from health insurance companies and they vote along their interests and not the interests of regular everyday people.

And that message has been resonating to the point where we were in Putnam County and what was supposed to be a meeting with seven to eight people turned out to be a town hall meeting. It was supposed to be a roundtable, a town hall meeting of over 100 talking about Medicare for All because people are frustrated. And it was half Republicans in that room.

And so folks are fed up with what's happening in Washington, D.C. They are ready for people who are in Washington, D.C. to be held accountable. We see Ashley Moody and Donald Trump working less and less and less and getting richer and everyday folks are working harder than ever and struggling with their most basic necessities and needs.

And so I'm letting them know that I have their back. I'm going to put them first and make sure we get rid of some of these working family taxes that are in the form of tariffs. We wind down this thoughtless war that is driving up the cost of gas and diesel prices and making everything unaffordable. And that's been resonating.

We have Republicans and MPAs --

BASH: OK. NIXON: -- Independents, that are on our campaign volunteering and that's how we're going to win.

BASH: OK, so you mentioned Medicare for All. That's just part of your unapologetically progressive platform. And on your website you list other priorities, a national rent freeze, abolish ICE, universal jobs program, higher minimum wage, including for incarcerated workers, direct payments to households earning under $150,000 a year.

As I mentioned, you are running in a state that has not elected a Democrat statewide in almost a decade. A lot of voters are unhappy right now and you just gave some anecdotes of what you're experiencing when you meet those voters. But can you win in Florida with some of those proposals that I just mentioned?

NIXON: We can absolutely win in Florida. We've been winning in Florida with very progressive proposals. We had tons of citizen-led ballot initiatives that I helped lead and spearhead across the state of Florida where we won or we came close with over 55 percent, right?

And so the problem is that people have divested from the state, particularly around, like, Democratic candidates. But in this moment right now, we are letting folks know that with good old-fashioned grassroots organizing and building diverse coalitions of people and going out and actually having conversations with voters that we can in fact win.

I am not just targeting Democrats. Like, I am having conversations with Republicans, with Libertarians, with all of those folks, and it's been resonating.

BASH: And Republicans are OK with abolish ICE and a national rent freeze?

NIXON: What --

BASH: You think that they will be --

NIXON: Republicans are very --

BASH: -- that they will be OK with that?

NIXON: Yes, Republicans are upset with the corruption and chaos that's happening in Washington, D.C., and they realize that ICE has become an agency that is weaponized and that is terrorizing people in their homes. They realize that they are kidnapping children from elementary schools and using them as bait and locking them -- locking their parents up in cages only to benefit the campaign donors of Donald Trump and Ashley Moody because they are these for-profit detention centers.

It's the biggest shakedown that we have seen ever in my entire lifetime from a sitting president and from senators and governors here down in the South. And so they are tired of the corruption. They are ready for a government that works for people and not against them. And that's been resonating. And that, again, is how we're going to win. [12:45:02]

BASH: One last question. This is on a similar vein. On taxes, you support a billionaire wealth tax taking capital gains as income, raising corporate taxes. And this is a state in Florida. A lot of people are flocking to Florida from other states because they are anti-tax.

How are you sensing that voters there who maybe are on the fence are responding to these proposals that you want to push in Washington to raise taxes?

NIXON: The majority of Floridians understand and they feel squeezed in this moment. And they know it's because the policies that are coming out of Washington, D.C., are only helping the ultra-wealthy. They aren't helping the teacher. They aren't helping the firefighter. They aren't helping the nurses or the fast food workers.

And so they're tired of that. And folks are ready -- our message is cutting through. Our message is cutting through and letting them know that we want to repeal that big BS bill. We want to remove these working family taxes in the form of those tariffs. And we want to put people first.

And so folks are agreeing to that. They're joining our People Power campaign. Folks who are watching now can join us at angienixon.com. Sign up to join us. Follow us on social media, Angie for Florida. And we're going to win.

BASH: Angie Nixon, thank you so much for being here and thank you for your patience. There's a bit of a delay in the signal today.

We have invited Senator Ashley Moody on the program as well, and we hope she will join us before Election Day.

And up next, the Texas map was redrawn. Five seats where Republicans thought they were definitely going to add, right? Well, House Speaker Mike Johnson is now warning Texas the path to majority is in your hands.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:51:25]

BASH: When Republicans redrew the map in Texas, they saw a clear path to gaining five seats. But now, not so clear. In fact, House Speaker Mike Johnson was there again and said the fate of the House majority could lie in South Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Almost everybody agrees 22 seats that would decide the fate of the Republic, that would decide whether we keep the Republican majority and keep moving the Congress forward. Of those 22 seats, three of them, three of the most important seats, are standing right behind me right now. (APPLAUSE)

I hope you understand me. I'm not exaggerating, OK? South Texas will literally decide the majority in the Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Carolina Peguero of CNN Espanol is there in McAllen, Texas. Carolina, thank you so much for being here. You were at that event with the House Speaker when he was rallying alongside Republican candidates.

John King was just down in Texas, and he was saying earlier in the program that it's remarkable, and it is remarkable that the Speaker is down and trying so hard to get Republican voters out in these districts that they actually moved. They moved the lines thinking that it was a no-brainer, and suddenly it's not a no-brainer. Are the comments that we're hearing from the Speaker and, more importantly, from the Republican candidates, are they moving the needle?

CAROLINA PEGUERO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dana, this is a very important district, and yes, Speaker Mike Johnson came here to support the Republican candidates including Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz, and they believe and say they don't want to listen to the polls. They don't believe in the polls and are urging Trump voters to turn out like they did for President Donald Trump in 2024, where he won in this district by more than 18 points.

Now, like I mentioned, this is a very important race. Most of the Democrats, according to the Texas Southern University poll, are leading in that three of the major races here in Southern Texas and have more than 48 percent of the Latino vote.

And in this race specifically, it's going against Democrat and Mexican Tejano singer Bobby Pulido, who is also leading by five points. And this, again, is a very populated community in the valley of more than 80 percent of Hispanics just alone in this district. And while there was a new redistricting plan, it could be a challenge for Congresswoman De La Cruz.

BASH: You're talking to voters. Is there a common issue that comes up that's going to determine their vote?

PEGUERO: Dana, there's several issues, and most of the concerns for the Latino voters here are the economy, high diesel prices, affordability, and immigration enforcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO DEL ANGEL, TEXAS VOTER: A lot of illegals, like I said before, they're committing a lot of crimes.

PEGUERO: But are you OK with the ICE detentions here, with immigration enforcement?

DEL ANGEL: Yes. PEGUERO: And why is that?

DEL ANGEL: Like I said, they're committing a lot of crimes. They're taking Americans' jobs.

CASSANDRA GARCIA, TEXAS VOTER: It's scary for people who are just trying to live their everyday life. I know that there's been multiple raids at targeted areas, like the food markets and stuff, and I think that that's really insanely crazy. And I think that our administration should be doing something about that and they should be trying to help change and protect our people, especially locally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:55:04]

PEGUERO: And Dana, I've spoken to voters of all ages, students, local business owners, and they all are saying that this election is very crucial for them. They are some considering to shift blue, those who are Republican and Independent as well, while early voting starts here on Monday. Both candidates are continuing to make stops to get momentum and support from these voters.

Dana?

BASH: Carolina, thank you so much for being here. It's really wild. The Republicans redrew the lines, especially where you are, in the hopes that the gains that President Trump made with Latino voters would stay that way for Republicans. And, you know, that's the big question, whether they were right.

Appreciate it.

Thank you for joining Inside Politics. Also, big thanks to WCSH News Center, where we are in Maine, for hosting us today. Join me on Sunday on State of the Union. I'm going to speak with Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson, as well as Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers. I hope to see you this Sunday at 9:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)