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The Situation Room

Today, Critical Primary Races in Florida, Alaska, Wyoming; Historic Indiana Flooding Forces Hundreds from Their Homes; Trial Underway in Targeted Ambush of Microsoft Executive. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 18, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, primary day in a key state. Florida voters head to the polls as the president's endorsement power gets a major test.

Plus, no place to go, more than 1,000 people are homeless after deadly storms inundate Indiana with historic flooding.

And a targeted ambush. That's how authorities describe an elaborate plot where a Microsoft executive was gunned down in front of his toddler. Now, the justice system tries to untangle a web of money, malice, and murder.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Also happening now, new U.S. territory? While Iran issues a list of new demands, President Trump has other plans for the Strait of Hormuz.

Plus, sitting idle, Patriot launchers that can't be used. CNN has an exclusive look at the very dire situation in Ukraine.

And vaccine controversy, disturbing numbers revealing just how many kindergartners are heading back to school without their shots.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

Happening now, the all-important November midterms are taking shape. Voting is underway in these four states. First, in California. Polls opened just moments ago in the San Francisco Bay Area. The special election will decide who fills the remaining four and a half months of Eric Swalwell's term. The Democratic Congressman resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct that also forced him to drop his bid for governor.

One of today's elections in Florida will decide the Republican nominee to succeed Governor Ron DeSantis. President Trump has endorsed Byron Donalds, making him the favorite. The president's influence will be tested later today in other races across the country as well.

CNN Political Director and Washington Bureau Chief David Chalian is here with us in The Situation Room. David, Florida seems to be drawing a lot of attention today. Tell us about the key races there.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Well, it's got almost every storyline we've been covering this primary season in the Sunshine State today. Remember, Ron DeSantis pushed through a redistricting map so that in November, Republicans could try to squeeze like four additional seats perhaps out of Florida to help mitigate some of the overall political environment they're facing.

But you see the Democratic progressive versus establishment divide. You see in Jared Moskowitz's district, he's facing a challenge from the left, again with U.S. policy towards Israel front and center that we've seen play out in other races.

And on the Republican side, you noted Byron Donalds, of course, has the president's endorsement running for the Republican nomination for governor. He would be the first African American to be elected the state's governor in Florida if he gets there in November.

BLITZER: He's got a shot. There's no doubt about that. Alaska's also a key battleground state right now, as Democrats are hoping to flip a Senate seat there. Tell us about that.

CHALIAN: This is one of the most consequential Senate races on the board. As you guys know, for Democrats to try and win control of the U.S. Senate this year in the midterms, they have to flip deep red territory to blue turf in many places, and Alaska is one of them that they have in their sights. They recruited Mary Peltola the former Democratic Congresswoman from Alaska. They believe she is a strong recruit. But this is to take down incumbent Republican senator Dan Sullivan.

It looks like a tight race in the general election right now, guys. There's this story of two Dan Sullivans on the ballot, though, and you saw President Trump on Truth Social this morning was making the case that he believes Democrats are being fraudsters here, and they recruited this other Dan Sullivan to try and shave votes away from the incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan to confuse voters in some way.

We'll see when the results come in, Wolf, if that had any actual meaningful impact.

BLITZER: And these two Dan Sullivans have different middle initials.

CHALIAN: They do. And the middle initials are on the ballot to differentiate them and, and one is listed as the Republican incumbent.

BLITZER: Another dramatic development unfolding, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that President Trump's approval rating has now fallen to the lowest of his career.

[10:05:00]

Only 33 percent approve of what he's doing. 64 percent disapprove. How much will that affect the midterm elections in November? CHALIAN: An immense amount. I mean, this is the backdrop upon which this consequential midterm election season will take place. It is Donald Trump at historic lows in popularity. The unpopularity of the Iran war, high gas prices, all of that is giving Republicans some heart palpitations here as they're going in.

Now, they've done what they can do to try to mitigate this with redistricting. They expect to have more money to spend than Democrats do this fall. But none of that may actually thwart what a significance weight the president's unpopularity is around Republicans heading into this fall midterm season.

BLITZER: David Chalian, we always appreciate your analysis. Thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Let's bring in former Obama campaign manager and CEO of the Messina Group, Jim Messina, and CNN Political Commentator and Republican Strategist Shermichael Singleton. Great to have you both on.

Shermichael, let's kick this off with you. You have GOP Congressman Byron Donald who is viewed as a front runner in the race to replace Don Ron DeSantis as governor, right? Donald has President Trump's support, but was not endorsed by DeSantis. In fact, CNN reported last month that DeSantis actually shared his concerns privately with the president. How much do you think that will matter today?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, not at all. I mean, Byron has raised about $111 million in total as of a couple of days ago, Pamela, and currently has about $56, $58 million cash on hand. That is a significant amount of money. When you compare that to David Jolly, who I believe he's going to ultimately run against, David has around $6.3, $6.4 million. Those dollars mean in a large state like Florida with multiple media markets within an individual state, you can run a significant amount of ads drawing a contrast between you and your opponent.

It also means in a large state like Florida, you can direct a significant portion of those dollars to your actual operations on the ground. You're targeting your mobilization efforts to turn out your voters, and even target some independents to get them across the finish line as well. I think when you look at that in culmination, I think Byron goes into this thing in a very strong position.

BROWN: All right. Jim, the leading Democrat in the Florida governor's race is actually former Republican Congressman David Jolly. As you know, the last time a Democratic presidential candidate won Florida was back in 2012 when Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney. Do you think Jolly really has a shot here?

JIM MESSINA, CEO, THE MESSINA GROUP: I do. And the fact that we're just talking about this is amazing. I mean, Florida's not gone Democratic since the campaign I ran in '12. But part of why is the movement of, of Hispanic voters, Hispanic men who Donald Trump carried by ten points, now Trump is underwater by 41 points with those same voters. That's a 51 percent swing, Paula. We just don't see swings like that.

And so the fact that we're even talking about Florida in the governor's race and maybe the Senate race is proof of what your commentator was talking about earlier. President Trump's numbers are just weighing down the Republican ticket across the country, including in the great state of Florida.

BROWN: Shermichael, the White House meantime is defending President Trump's decision to vote by mail in Florida's Republican primaries. Let's watch how he has talked about this issue over the years.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Mail-in ballots are inherently corrupt.

Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating. I call it mail-in cheating, and we got to do something about it.

You will never have an honest election if you have mail-in. And it's time that the Republicans get tough and stop it, because the Democrats want it. It's the only way they can get elected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: How do you square that, especially as President Trump tries to limit the use of mail-in ballots with the SAVE America Act?

SINGLETON: Yes, I actually see this very differently. When you look at the current coalition that has been built within the GOP since Trump's first term to the most recent 2024 election, our coalition, it's more blue-collar workers, people who typically have to work longer hours, and also a significant portion of GOP voters are just aging. They're, they're a lot older when you compare and contrast them to our friends on the other side.

And so as a strategist, I'm always thinking about, Pamela, how can I maximize my voter participation within my own party? And that means you have to afford opportunities for those older voters or those blue- collar voters who work longer hours. This is a bit unique for the Republican Party today. You have to afford them the ability to participate. How do you do that with ease? Mail-in voting.

And so my advice has always been to the president since last year, I think we need to walk back this strategy and look at the posture that is going to best position the GOP for competitiveness going into 2028. Again, as a significant portion of our bloc is starting to age, when you look at the Democrats, a lot of younger people, the enthusiasm differences are just frankly there. A lot of our voters are also in rural parts of the country as well. You want to make it as easy as possible for those voters to turn out and vote, and I think the easiest way to do that is say, hey, the GOP backs mail-in voting because we know it's going to give us a competitive edge.

BROWN: Well, and the president himself --

SINGLETON: And the president's clearly doing it and who's also older. [10:10:00]

So, there you go.

BROWN: There you go. Point made, Shermichael.

All right, Jim, one Democrat that's capturing a lot of attention right now is Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff after he accused President Trump of wanting to build his ballroom and travel with his close aide, Natalie Harp, rather than leading the country. Let's watch.

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REPORTER: What is your response to Jon Ossoff.

TRUMP: You mean Pee-Wee Herman? Pee-Wee Herman lookalike? No, I would much rather do other things. It's a -- we're building a great facility here.

SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Well, I've heard this particular aide referred to as his security blanket, and I think we could say that about any number of the senior aides in the White House. They're not telling him what he needs to hear. They're telling him what he wants to hear.

And the president, surrounded by enablers in the West Wing, is playing golf, is trading stock, and is decorating his ballroom. It's a disgrace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And he was asked why did he single out the one female aide. Ossoff is up for re-election in Georgia this cycle, but he's also viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender, as we've been discussing. How, Jim, does this clash impact his prospects?

MESSINA: Well, look, Jon Ossoff has exploded online in the Democratic Party and been one of the biggest names in the party right now to take on President Trump. And he has the advantage of pulling away in his Senate race. He now leads by double digits in Georgia, which is one of the swingiest states in America, which shows you the kind of year Democrats are having.

But he's able to start to bring himself into the national conversation, and the best way to do that in Democratic Party is to directly take on Donald Trump. Some Democrats are too afraid to do it. He's not, and he's able to do it in a way that is really social media influenced. You look on TikTok and he's now one of the biggest Democrats on TikTok because he's going straight at Donald Trump.

So, it's doing him no damage in his state of Georgia, and it's starting to move. He's now in the top three in polling in the presidential race. It's way too early. Wolf and I have been talking about how much I hate polling for 15 years. But if you start to look at, we're 80 days before the election and 81 days from when every Democrat thinks about running for president, and Jon Ossoff's name is now at the top of that list.

BROWN: Shermichael, what do you think about Ossoff? Do you think Republicans should be worried about him? And what do you think about his explanation there about why he name-checked this one aide, Natalie Harp?

SINGLETON: Yes. Look, objectively, I think he's a very talented guy. Clearly, he's a great orator. Physically, he has the aesthetics that I think will play out well in commercial ads. This is just the strategist in me. But I don't like the idea of using women as props.

Now, Pamela, you've interviewed me many times over the years. We've talked about the president and some of his statements about women, and you know I've been very clear that I just think there's a certain type of politics that just should not be permitted.

Now, I hear Jim, and it's one thing for the senator to draw that contrast against the president on policy. I'm a Republican, but I look at the polling, I look at surveys. I know that Democratic voters, they want a fighter. And, look, I understand why. They believe their party hasn't done enough to draw the contrast to the other side.

Those are all legitimate, objective points to make, but I don't think you have to debase yourself by saying, well, if the other person's going this low, then therefore we should too, should erase our ethics, erase our morals to meet them where they are. I don't think voters want that. And that's where I would object.

Again, I've been critical of my own side when we've gone this far, and I'm going to have the same criticism for the other side as well.

BROWN: All right. Jim Messina and Shermichael Singleton, thank you so much.

And tune in tonight for live primary coverage as the polls close and the votes are counted. Election Night in America begins at 7:00 Eastern on CNN and on the CNN app. Wolf?

BLITZER: And still ahead, more than 1,000 people forced from their homes, and tens of thousands without power right now as people in the Midwest deal with the staggering scale of destruction after days of intense rain and floods.

BROWN: Plus, fraternity brothers accused of running a cocaine trafficking ring and forcing pledges to pack the drugs.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: Happening now, recovery efforts are underway in Indiana after a week of historic flooding. Storms that brought relentless rainfall left at least seven people dead, and state officials estimate more than 1,000 have been displaced. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL DAILY, INDIANAPOLIS RESIDENT: I've been trying to keep a positive mindset. I've been trying to just not think about it too much, because I know as much as I want to things to be all right, it's obviously not.

OLIVER RIGGLE, INDIANAPOLIS RESIDENT: We don't have a safety net. I think at this point, the plan might have to be something along the lines of like a GoFundMe. And I guess just kind of putting faith in the fact that Indianapolis has always had my back so far, and hopefully they'll have it again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: President Trump approved a federal emergency declaration authorizing disaster relief in the state. The flood surge is drawing south -- is draining south from the hardest hit areas. But new fears are raising over damaged infrastructure that's sending raw sewage into the white water.

Our Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is at the CNN Weather Center monitoring all of this. Derek, what does the week ahead look like as officials assess the damage?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Okay. Well, we still have widespread minor to moderate river flooding across Central Indiana, the state that was battered the hardest from this repetitive rounds of rain. So, the cleanup efforts are going to be kind of hampered by that, because there are still rivers that have over-flooded their banks as that water slowly drains out of the area.

[10:20:00]

But let's remember how we got to this point, just repeated rounds of showers and thunderstorms that were driven largely around a heat dome that's built across the Deep South. That was last week. But the point is that that set up the weather pattern that drove these thunderstorms into the area.

And, by the way, Northwestern Indiana, that was hit by a straight line wind event that knocked out power for tens of thousands of customers, still without power and that was a week ago. So, that is just compounding the problems across the state of Indiana and parts of the Midwest.

Now, more of a regional view, these repetitive rounds of storms put one in 1,000 -- 1 in 1,000 year rainfall events across many locations, including Central Indiana, where some of the river levels here remain at a moderate flood stage, and that is forecast to continue.

The White River into the Wabash River, the East Fork White River as well, these are locations that local residents are familiar with. That's why we still have the flood warnings kind of following the trajectory of these rivers as they slowly drain out. But there are no active flashflood warnings at the moment. However, unfortunately, there is this cold front that is headed towards the Midwest. What this is doing is bringing a rainfall threat that could bring flooding to portions of Central and Southern Iowa and into Missouri. Notice Indiana and the Ohio Valley, not included in that, but, of course, our weather systems move from west to east generally, and we could see some of these showers and thunderstorms move over some of those hardest hit areas.

This is the last thing that this area needs. It's a saturated ground. That means any additional rainfall could elevate those rivers once again. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, sad situation. Derek Van Dam, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: And coming up, Wolf, a Microsoft executive shot and killed just a few feet away from his two-year-old. Now, his ex-wife's husband is on trial. New details on the alleged murder for hire plot up next.

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[10:25:00]

BROWN: Happening now, prosecutors are presenting evidence in a case where they say a Microsoft executive was ambushed and murdered. Mario Fernandez Saldana is accused of arranging and paying someone to kill Jared Bridegan, in what prosecutors call an elaborate murder-for-hire plot.

Bridegan was shot and killed in February of 2022 in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, and prosecutors say the killer planted a tire in the road to lure him out of his car.

Let's go to CNN correspondent Isabel Rosales. Isabel, this is a very complicated case. Walk us through the details here.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pam, indeed, this murder case is a complex web involving four people. This involves the victim, his ex- wife's husband, and then a trigger man.

Right now, standing trial is Mario Fernandez Saldana. Prosecutors have been arguing that while the killer was a stranger to the victim, Jared Bridegan, the killing in and of itself was deeply personal. We have heard from prosecutors saying that Fernandez hired a gunman, Harry Tenon, to kill Brideganand paid him over three checks, a sum of $10,000.

They claim disguising that money in this murder-for-hire plot that they allege as regular fees and payments for landscaping, for roof repairs. But, really, that money, they say, was all designed to pay for the killing of Bridegan.

Now, the theory that they have laid out in court is that this was a contentious divorce and, and post-divorce relationship between Bridegan and his ex-wife, Shanna Gardner, that they were contentious and fighting over everything. They couldn't even converse with each other. Everything was done via text.

They were fighting about a custody battle over their twins. They were fighting about school, doctor's appointments, and even religion, because Bridegan, the prosecutors say, was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His ex-wife, Gardner, did not want their children to be raised under that. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINA STIFLER, ASSISTANT STATE ATTORNEY: Jared was very religious. He wanted to raise the children in the church. At some point during their marriage, Ms. Gardner began to question her religion. She wanted to leave the church. She did not want to raise her children the way that she was raised in the church. They had strife, they got divorced. And in some time had passed, the acrimony of that divorce never did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And, Pam, you mentioned off the top there this tire that was key, this tire that prosecutors are saying was set up in the middle of the road to lure Bridegan to get out of his car, and that's when the gunman shot him dead, leaving him there on the side of the road.

The key break in this case, according to the state, is a tire that they found at a rental property connected to Fernandez. That tire was also connected to this Harry Tenon and -- who prosecutors claim was the trigger man.

And I want to say this, defense said that Tenon was hired to do work. He was never hired to carry out any sort of murder, and they also claim that Fernandez had no reason, no motive, to do this to Bridegan.

BROWN: All right. Isabel Rosales, thank you for laying it out for us. What a sad case. Wolf?

BLITZER: Very sad indeed.

And just ahead, the multi-billion dollar family feud over the record- breaking sale of the Los Angeles Lakers, what it means for the future of this iconic team.

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