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CNN Headlines: Countdown to U.S. Midterms Barely a Month Away, as President Trump Hits Campaign Trail; Cornell University's President Speaks Out for the First Time on the Alleged Gang Rape Case as Calls for Accountability Grow in the Renewed Investigation; Tennessee Death Row Inmate Christa Pike Still in the Hospital and Unconscious After Last Week's Failed Execution. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired October 05, 2026 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:00]
BRAD SMITH, ANCHOR, CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS: The countdown to the Midterms is on, and the numbers suggest some trouble for President Trump and the GOP. What newly-released polling is revealing this morning. Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL KOTIKOFF, PRESIDENT, CORNELL UNIVERSITY: We must do everything we can to prevent what happened to Jane Doe and everyone before her, and anyone after her from ever happening again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Cornell University's president speaks out for the first time on the alleged gang rape case as calls for accountability grow in the renewed investigation. And Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike is still in the hospital and unconscious after last week's failed execution. What her attorney is now pushing for.
Good morning, everyone, I'm Brad Smith, this is CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, glad that you're with us today. Let's get started. There is less than one month until the Midterm elections, and the numbers are not looking good for President Trump.
More than a million ballots have already been cast. But a new poll out this weekend shows the President is losing critical support among Latino voters, a group that helped send him to the White House two years ago.
"NBC Telemundo" poll finds Latino voters overwhelmingly want Democrats to take control of Congress. Among all Americans, CNN's polling tracker shows Trump average approval rating at 34 percent. And with voters saying the economy is their top issue, well, that could spell trouble for Republicans.
And "AP" poll out last week found 82 percent of Americans disapprove of President Trump's handling of the cost of living. But the National Economic Council director is pushing back, saying that the economy is, quote, "booming". CNN's Julia Benbrook has the latest from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Those polls that you pointed out clearly show that Americans are concerned about the cost of living and the overall state of the economy right now. President Donald Trump and members of his administration are working to tamp down those concerns.
In fact, in an interview earlier today with CNN's Jake Tapper, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said that he believes that Americans are not looking at the whole picture, that things are better than what Americans are feeling right now.
But this comes as Trump is out on the campaign trail, making his case to voters. Of course, Republicans have control of the White House, the Senate and the House right now. But if any of that, changes, it leads to a big dynamic shift here in Washington.
Trump's schedule started out with appearances in Oklahoma and in Alabama, and there were questions, you know, why spend time in those just historically red states? He said that he wanted to go and thank them, that he wanted to show gratitude for the sweeping victories that have been delivered to him.
Last night, he was in Ohio, a GOP official tells us that those Oklahoma and Alabama appearances are really outliers, that he will be spending time in more battleground states. And while he was in Ohio, he was speaking just outside of Dayton. He delivered a familiar message.
He told voters that he wants them to pretend like he is on the ballot. He really wants to focus in on turnout. And Republicans hope that, that message still resonates as Trump's approval rating is now at an all-time low. But take a listen to what he shared.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, I'm just saying, we win when I'm on the ballot, and I've never really done this certainly to this extent, I don't think anybody has. I don't think any of the president has, certainly. But I'm really in to win it.
We want to win the Midterms if we can. We want to win the Midterms.
(CHEERS)
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And we have great people. So, if you don't mind, please pretend that I'm on the ballot.
BENBROOK: And there in Ohio, there is a key Senate race to watch, one that will play a big role in the balance of power between Republican Senator Jon Husted and former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown.
And a recent "New York Times"-Siena poll showed them in a neck-and- neck race. So, Trump, he's been out on the campaign trail, and we expect him to consistently do that throughout this next month.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[05:05:00]
SMITH: All right, thank you, Julia. Pressure is building at Cornell University as questions mount over the school's handling of an alleged gang rape back in 2024. Protesters held a rally off campus on Sunday in support of the accuser, with many speaking to their desire to make sure that Jane Doe and others in her situation are being heard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH MITCHELL, CORNELL UNIVERSITY STUDENT: We still see the ongoing issues that she endured and that she survived and made it out of, and we see how it's still impacting her, and the fact that she is still having to pursue her case two years later disgusts me.
NATALIE GILBERT, CORNELL UNIVERSITY STUDENT: I just wanted to show people in Ithaca and nationwide that there are people who care about them. They are not alone. There are others with experiences just like them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Governor Kathy Hochul expressed her support to protesters and apologized for not being able to attend the rally. CNN's Mark Morales has the latest on the investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER (on camera): We've heard from New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who has since put in the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, in charge of the criminal investigation on this side.
But we also heard from Jane Doe's attorney, his issue from the very beginning was how the District Attorney's office was looking at the evidence that they had already had, and they based most of their decision not to pursue charges on a six-page document that Jane Doe signed.
But the attorney says that, that document was severely lacking in a lot of real key parts of evidence that it did not have. Take a listen.
KOTIKOFF: I've communicated enough about what the university did after the assault was reported, which has led to distrust. There are real, legal and privacy limits on what we can say, but we will make a greater effort to explain what we can to provide context about the actions Cornell has taken, and to be more transparent.
This message is the beginning of what we hope will be an ongoing, constructive and dynamic conversation with our community. In the coming weeks, we will create additional opportunities for members of our community to ask questions and hear directly from university leadership. That will include opportunities for Cornell leadership. MORALES: Now, remember, there's going to be two separate investigations happening here. There's the criminal side that's going to be done by the Attorney General and her office, and she's going to have the power to go through and conduct interviews, search for evidence, whether that's search warrants.
She's going to have the full prosecutorial power that's going to be given to her to find out what happens. But on the other side, there's major questions for how the university handled this. How did local university police handle this? And that's going to be done by an independent investigator that's going to be hired by the university to do that forensic analysis and to basically figure out what went wrong. Mark Morales, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: Thank you, Mark. Jane Doe's attorney told CNN Sunday that she's dealing with ongoing threats and attempts to reveal her identity. We're going to hear more later on from that interview this hour. We've also got some new video to show you from inside that Tel Aviv bound Flydubai flight that almost ended in tragedy, and a warning that the video you're about to see is graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vivid(ph), my head is --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, your -- just a head, just a head it appears.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My head is paining --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is hurting. It is hurting. Oh --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Karama(ph) --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me the pillow. Give me the pillow. Yes --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No sleep --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No sleep --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No sleep.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My head is hurting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, OK, do this --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me that, put that pillow --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, take this, take this. Take this --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I take, I take. (END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Israeli sources tell CNN that the co-pilot accused of attacking the pilot and trying to hijack the flight probably acted alone. The United Arab Emirates and Israel are both investigating the incident, which has raised some serious concerns about the security failures before the flight. CNN's Oren Liebermann has more from Jerusalem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF (on camera): Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport is known worldwide for its vaunted security. In the past, aviation safety experts would come to see how it's done.
So, how did Israel's security safeguards fail so spectacularly with this Flydubai flight? Ten years ago, we got an inside look at Israel's aviation security system. Listen to this from a story we did as we went inside the Ministry of Transportation's security operations center.
Each flight, each passenger, each pilot, and each member of the flight crew is checked long before arriving in Israeli airspace. This room is staffed 24/7. There's never a moment without pressure. An off-course aircraft, a flight without security clearance, all of this is flagged immediately.
DVIR RUBINSHTEIN, DIRECTOR OF AVIATION SECURITY & ISRAELI MINISTRY OF TRANSPORTATION: There is every day a situation that a flight can be -- and we have such concerns about it. And we checked that and verify that everything is secured, clear, and prior to entering the Israeli airspace.
[05:10:00]
LIEBERMANN: That's Dvir Rubinshtein, and he's the Director of Aviation Security at the Ministry of Transportation. He's describing exactly the sorts of checks that should have stopped this event from ever happening before it started.
But that clearly didn't happen. In fact, in a briefing on Saturday evening, the Transportation Ministry said it didn't know the names of the crew members on board the Flydubai flight. Instead, the ministry said it's the country's security agencies that have access to those lists, which the ministry doesn't have.
Those security agencies have yet to issue a public comment. The Ministry of Transportation relies on foreign airlines and foreign authorities to do the background checks for the pilots flying into Israel. In 2023, Israel passed a law creating a passenger and crew member information database.
It sits under the National Center for Passenger Data Analysis in the Tax Ministry. Even so, that data about who's on each flight can be used for the quote, "detection, prevention, forestallment, investigation and prosecution of members of a terrorist organization, of a terrorist activity, or of a terrorist offense."
But in this case, it clearly wasn't. One year later, Israel's watchdog issued a report warning that the country needs to conduct a thorough review of all aspects of aviation security, including incoming foreign flights. The warning was there.
We have reached out to the Ministry of Transportation for comment, much of the focus now in Israel is on the failures in vetting and background checks that allowed this to happen. So far, no one has taken responsibility.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: Former "American Idol" contestant, Caleb Flynn, will be sentenced today after being found guilty in the murder of his wife, Ashley. Flynn faces life in prison. He was back in an Ohio courtroom last week for a hearing and is now registered as a violent offender.
We've got lots more to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, new developments in the case of the Tennessee woman who is on death row, whose botched execution left her hospitalized. What her attorneys want the governor to do now.
And a weekend block party with more than a thousand people took a terrifying turn after leaving two dead and dozens injured. We've got that story and more coming up here on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS.
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[05:15:00]
SMITH: Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike is still alive and critically ill after her failed execution on Wednesday night. Her attorney tells CNN that she is on a ventilator while hospital staff attempted to clear the lethal drugs from her system this weekend.
He says that there may be issues with her competence if she does recover, and the governor should commute her sentence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN FERRELL, CHRISTA PIKE'S ATTORNEY: At the very least, the governor should commute Miss Pike's death sentence to a life sentence, at the very least. We had already asked that the governor commute her for many good reasons, I think she's spent over 30 years in prison, most of that in solitary confinement, only to be taken out and not executed, but tried to execute her.
And that we don't know right now, and we may never know what sort of torture she endured during that process, where her consciousness was, what physical pain there was, what mental torture she went through.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: Tennessee's Department of Corrections commissioner has stepped down in the wake of the botched execution. The state's Governor, Bill Lee, has ordered an independent review of the situation. Developing this morning, Chicago police are investigating the shocking and seemingly random stabbing of a young girl who was walking down the street with her older sister, Saturday.
Seven-year-old Eddimar Paola Hernandez was killed in the attack. Police say witnesses held the 48-year-old woman down until officers arrived, and she's now charged with first degree murder and is due in court today. Hernandez's family gathered for a vigil yesterday.
They released balloons to honor her memory. Her stepfather described the little girl as happy, who had dreams to be big.
A neighborhood block party turns into a deadly mass shooting in South Georgia. Two people are dead, dozens more are injured. Gunfire erupted early Sunday morning in Vienna, Georgia, it's about two hours south of Atlanta.
The Dooly County sheriff says that deputies were already in the area when the shooting started. Two young men, just 21 and 23 years old, were killed. Investigators are still trying to figure out what led to the violence, and right now, it's still not clear whether anyone is in custody. We'll keep you apprised of any developments there.
Still to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, the U.S. military making a major change after an alleged terror plot on an air base that it uses in the U.K., and details on who has been tasked with leading the U.S. government's A.I. task force, and what the job will entail. Stay with us. We've got more to come on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS.
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[05:20:00]
SMITH: Well, new this morning. A major redeployment by the U.S. Air Force as British authorities investigates the alleged plot targeting a U.K. air base used by the United States military. CNN's Julia Benbrook has the latest from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BENBROOK (on camera): We are still gathering information on this, but according to a source familiar, the United States has moved its long- range bombers stationed in the U.K. back to their American home stations following an unspecified new threat.
A U.S. official tells CNN in a statement, quote, "we can acknowledge now that all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have redeployed to their home stations in the United States. That official did not go into detail on why these planes were moved.
Now, this is happening just days after the British government arrested a number of individuals in connection to an alleged Iranian plot to target the U.K. air base, where those planes were located. The arrests were made, but those individuals were quickly released on bail.
[05:25:00] Iran has denied any connection to that incident. Now, that air base
had been used to deploy B-1 bombers used in the war against Iran. We have reached out to the White House for more information on this new threat. A source familiar referred to it as a real-world incident. Julia Benbrook, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SMITH: Thank you, Julia. We've got some new details on who will lead President Trump's newly announced A.I. task force. The President making it official this weekend, naming National Intelligence Director Jay Clayton as well as members of the FTC and Defense Department for the roles.
In a Truth Social post, Trump says the group will protect the interests of Americans while ensuring the nation has the edge in the A.I. race. The President, who met with tech leaders at the White House last week amid growing calls for regulation, previously described fears of A.I. as a hoax.
Straight ahead on CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS, protests and outrage mounting over the alleged gang rape of a former Cornell student, and now the president of the university is speaking out. What he's saying straight ahead.
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