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The Situation Room

Trump Losing Support of Latino Voters?; Estrogen Patch Shortage?; Student Protests Erupt in France. Aired 10:30a-11a ET

Aired October 06, 2026 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

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[10:32:03]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now: President Trump is losing the support of Latino voters, according to a new NBC News poll. Just 27 percent of Latino voters now approve of President Trump's job.

This comes just two years after President Trump made major gains with the key group of voters.

CNN's Kristen Holmes asked President Trump about the shift yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Your approval ratings with Latino voters has dropped down to 27 percent. What's your message to them?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You're fake news. You're CNN. You're fake news.

HOLMES: What's your message to Latino voters?

TRUMP: My poll numbers are great. And all you have to do is look at the crowds we're drawing. And every time I leave, that candidate will be losing and, by the time I leave, they're winning. So, CNN poll numbers are fake, and your whole outfit is fake, and so are you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, here now to discuss how this could impact potentially the midterm elections in a month, joining us, Mike Madrid. He's the co-host of "The Latino Vote" podcast and the author of the book "The Latino Century: How America's Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy."

Also with us, CNN senior political commentator, Ana Navarro.

Thanks to both of you for being here.

Mike, let me start with you. Latino voters aren't just souring on President Trump. Latino voters

now give Democrats a 24-point advantage over Republicans on a generic ballot of who should control Congress. That's up 12 points from September of 2024. How significant is this shift?

MIKE MADRID, CO-HOST, "THE LATINO VOTE": Well, it's extraordinary. The size and scope of it is a little bit breathtaking, maybe not surprising because of the actions that the administration's been taking for two years.

But to answer the question directly, this will be very consequential, IN not only who controls the House, but the Senate. And if this sticks, this really redraws the entire map of 270 electoral votes. So we are witnessing very, very measurable, consequential results from Donald Trump's failures, attacks, and terrorizing the community, but, most of all, just a fiasco of a job on the economy.

That's working-class people.

BLITZER: Ana, as you know, Republican Congresswoman Maria Salazar from Miami-Dade County criticized President Trump's immigration crackdown in this viral campaign ad. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR (R-FL): Careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policy. The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: That NBC News poll finds 67 percent of registered Latino voters now say the Trump administration has gone too far on immigration enforcement; 22 percent say it has taken the right approach, and 9 percent, 9 percent say it is not done far -- not gone far enough.

Is the administration taking the congresswoman's warning seriously, Ana? What do you think?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I don't think so, because I don't think -- I don't think anything has changed since that ad came out.

[10:35:03]

Listen, that is my district, Wolf. I live in Coral Gables. That's District Florida 27. And Maria Elvira Salazar has been a staunch supporter of Donald Trump. She voted in favor of the Big Beautiful Bill, which awarded billions of dollars for ICE enforcement.

So you better believe that, if a Cuban American from Miami, a Republican congresswoman, is making an ad, speaking directly to Donald Trump and telling him he has gone too far on immigration, is because she is seeing the poll numbers and she is desperate and knows she is in big, big trouble. And what she said is absolutely true. No group voted more for Donald

Trump than the Cuban Americans and the Nicaraguan Americans and the Venezuelan Americans in South Florida. And every day I hear from people who supported Trump in those communities. He has gone too far.

Add to that the foreign policy disaster when it comes to Venezuela. Those people feel betrayed. They were dancing in the streets and celebrating January 3, when Maduro was taken out of Venezuela, but now they see that 10 months have gone by and that Donald Trump every day empowers and legitimizes Maduro's vice president, who he has left in office.

Add to that the forever war. Add to that the cruelty in immigration. I mean, Alligator Alcatraz was in our backyard. We are seeing the cruelty on a daily basis. So, what I'm surprised about is that he still has 27 percent support.

BLITZER: It's amazing.

Mike, Republicans redrew, as you know, several House districts in Texas and Florida, for that matter, assuming they would hold on to Trump's historic gains with the Latino voters. Could that strategy now backfire?

MADRID: Yes, I spent a good part of the last month in South Texas to kind of go see for myself what's happening in San Antonio, Corpus Christi, down in little small cities like Beeville, Texas.

We're witnessing this extraordinary reversion, this incredible pushback on towns that were 70 percent Hispanic, and they were voting for Donald Trump 70 percent for Republicans. These are -- these -- we're witnessing 24-point swings back.

It's just -- it's hard to fathom, as somebody who does this professionally, who polls Latinos, to see that kind of a reversion this quickly. You can feel it on the ground. It's very palpable. People are angry. They're not just disillusioned. They're not depressed.

You're seeing nationwide in Hispanic-dense precincts five times the amount of turnout and early voting this stage, 30 days out, 27 days out of an election. Latinos are notoriously a day-of voter. We vote on Election Day.

But you see five times the turnout happening already is something that nobody has seen in 30 years of watching this stuff because it's never happened before. So, yes, South Texas is a place people should absolutely watch. This gerrymander is turning into a gerry-massacre for the Republicans.

They have cut themselves off at the head, at the pass here, and I think at least three of those five seats they carved out for themselves are likely to go to the Democrats. These are supposed to be safe Republican seats, Wolf.

So you could see just a huge amount of seats, 17, 18 seats that are Hispanic, have sizable Hispanic populations in all the contested battleground seats, every one of them going towards the Democrats this year.

BLITZER: Ana, I want you and our viewers out there to listen to what President Trump said last night at a campaign rally in Nebraska while defending the U.S. war with Iran. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They could take out a city. Let them take -- let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: That's -- this is a very small price to pay, and it's going to be over very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: There are millions of people, Americans who live in Los Angeles and San Diego. What's your response to that?

NAVARRO: Yes, by the way, it's I think it's no coincidence that those two cities have very large Latino populations.

My reaction to that is that it's outrageous, and we have got to not normalize the ridiculous, horrible things that Donald Trump says. I think it is outrageous that he is inviting a regime that we are at war with because in part they have assassinated Americans, and we are inviting them to come and take out two American citizens -- two American cities?

Again, it goes to this thing about Donald Trump thinking that he only represents people that voted for him, that there's two Americans, Trump's America and then the enemy. Look, it's disgusting, it's inappropriate, it's unpresidential, it's unpatriotic, it's horrible. It's just absolutely horrible every way you look at it.

BLITZER: Hard to believe.

[10:40:00]

Mike, you're in Los Angeles. What did you think when you heard those comments from the president?

MADRID: I'm literally in downtown Los Angeles right now. I will be in San Diego on Wednesday, so I'm starting to take it a little bit personally, actually.

Look, this is -- as Ana just mentioned, this is a dangerous time. This is a war that he engaged us and that he brought us into for no purpose, with no end in sight, and is now openly inviting the enemy to attack and kill people in a blue state, which is clearly leading the resistance to the effort to this regime. This is by design, as Ana pointed out. This is not a callous joke.

This is something that no president would even think, let alone verbalize. And it's a troubling, precarious moment where we're all going to have to be very vigilant and watch out, not for the dangers that he's set out around the globe, but also the danger that the president of the United States himself presents to the American people.

And it's why people absolutely have to be motivated to show up and resist and push back to what's going on in the White House right now in the next 27 days.

BLITZER: Mike Madrid and Ana Navarro, to both of you, thank you very, very much for joining us. Good discussion.

NAVARRO: Thank you, Wolf.

MADRID: Thank you.

BLITZER: Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: All right, Wolf, coming up: stress and confusion for millions of women struggling to get their hands on estrogen patches, a key method for managing perimenopause and menopause symptoms.

We're going to talk to an OB-GYN about the short supply, how long it can last, and what women can do about it.

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BROWN: Breaking news: unprecedented student protests erupting again. This is what you see here in France. It's happening across France. Hundreds of schools have been closed, and thousands of students have been arrested. There's also a lot going on in Paris as well.

Let's go live now to CNN senior international correspondent Melissa Bell. She is in the midst of those protests in Paris.

What are you seeing?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're here at Nation, which is where the protests are coming towards.

They have been marching for a few hours now, Pamela. And what we have seen just here as we arrive were a lot of tear gas, scuffles between the police and the protesters. It isn't just students anymore. What we have seen this Tuesday are unions, parents, public sector workers coming out in full force to say they want to protect the students from the police.

And that's because what we have seen over the course of the last week, especially, is this intensification of this student movement. At the heart of their gripes, demands for urgent funding to give them decent classrooms, the fact that they say teachers aren't replaced, they're not able to learn properly, their classrooms are leaky, if they function at all.

They want the government to address that. But that anger that we'd seen at the barricades over the course of the last week really intensify and sweep across the country has been further fueled by what the students say has been the lack of a government response and a police response that they say has been disproportionate.

We have seen hundreds wounded already. There have been wounded amongst the police men and women, amongst teaching staff, but also amongst the students, with one child -- we're talking about high school children -- who had his hand blown off when he tried to pick up a crowd dispersal grenade, another who lost the use of an eye.

And that is what has led so many of these unions onto the street today. So, again, you can see this afternoon a great deal of tension here at the Place de la Nation as this protest march arrives from Republique.

The students and the adults who are now accompanying them have been really taking on the police, who've been using tear gas to try and disperse them, but a great deal of tension, not just in the heart of Paris this afternoon, Pamela.

Across the country, there are marches and protests that have just intensified. In fact, the unions are saying that, outside of Paris, there are 260,000 people on the streets of France, and that is a huge number when you look at it in the context, for instance, of the yellow vest protests of a few years ago.

BROWN: All right, Melissa Bell from Paris, a lot going on. Thank you so much.

More when we come back.

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BROWN: Happening now: Tensions are flaring between lawmakers and health officials as millions of women are struggling to get consistent relief during menopause.

Now the Democratic Women's Caucus is urging Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to address what they say is a shortage of estrogen patches. This is a product commonly used to manage menopause symptoms. But the FDA insists they are not in short supply.

Joining us now is OB-GYN Dr. Mary Claire Haver. She is the author of "The New Perimenopause: An Evidence-Based Guide to Surviving the Zone of Chaos and Feeling Like Yourself Again." And she's also one of my expert guests on a new series airing on CNN this Thursday, October 8, called "BODY LANGUAGE." We're going to have more on that soon.

But, first, Dr. Haver, what's going on here? What is behind the surge in demand for these patches? And, in your view, is there a shortage?

DR. MARY CLAIRE HAVER, OB-GYN AND MENOPAUSE SPECIALIST: There's a shortage. My patients cannot get their estrogen patches filled at this time.

It is a game of like a scavenger hunt of try this pharmacy, try that pharmacy, consider a different dose, or switch to a different preparation. We think this is happening because we're seeing a historic surge in estrogen prescriptions, one, because the black box warning was removed, which had led to millions of women being afraid of hormone therapy.

We have seen this huge uptick in prescriptions, and then this is the supply chain patches. Estradiol patches are generic. We have five strengths, so they're very inexpensive, and we have lots of flexibility. And being transdermal means we don't have the clotting risk that we would see with oral preparations.

So that kind of trifecta made them very, very popular.

BROWN: So tell us more, on that note, of the health implications of occasionally skipping a patch because you can't get one or switching up the dosage and other forms of estrogen.

HAVER: So we are seeing some patients are trying to try different brands of patches, and they're starting to see breakthrough hot flashes and not having the same symptom control that they had.

[10:55:00]

Patients are desperate and they're trying to cut their patches in half to ration them. They're borrowing patches from other friends. There are other transdermal options, but they're not generic, Pam. So we are seeing they're just so expensive, and patients aren't able to afford them.

So when you dramatically stop your estradiol, the symptoms come right back. You're clinically suffering the hot flashes, the sleep disruption, the mental health changes. So, women are really suffering from this.

BROWN: That's really interesting. They're getting the same, what they think is the same patch, but it's really not because they're getting these breakthrough symptoms.

HAVER: Exactly.

BROWN: What would a declaration from the FDA do to help in this situation right now?

HAVER: Right.

So what it would do was, it will unlock some regulatory pathways for other -- to look for different supply chain options for patients. So, right now, FDA has said that they're going to work with the top six manufacturers to try to increase production. However, by making -- declaring this an official shortage, it would

unlock actual federal funds to make this go quicker.

BROWN: Do you see this shortage as simply a supply chain failure or a systemic issue over gender bias within health care, which I know is something you talk about a lot?

HAVER: I think, in the short term -- in the long term, yes.

In the short term, no. No one -- we could see it coming, right? The women who are actually asking for the patches and prescribing the patches, but these are hard to make. It's not like a pill where they can quickly turn around and press medication into a pill.

These patches require very specific production, and it's not easy to do. I actually had a talk with Mark Cuban about how could we increase production? He said it would take about five years to build a new factory up to standards, and so really just leaning on the current manufacturers we have to increase production.

BROWN: And, for our viewers, Mark Cuban is in the women's health space as well, which is why you were talking to him.

(CROSSTALK)

HAVER: He owns a pharmacy, right?

BROWN: Yes, exactly.

And I know, just for anecdotally in talking to friends who are on these estrogen patches, they can really be a game changer for them and their symptoms. How are you advising patients who say they're having trouble getting access to their prescribed patches and how can they work with their pharmacist to find a solution here that works for them?

HAVER: So call around. Ask your friends if they're getting their patches filled. The Mark Cuban Cost Plus pharmacy, some of the other online options, HRT Club, do have patches in stock right now.

Talk to your clinician and see if they have heard where they can also find the patches, considering switching to one of the alternative transdermal formulations if you can afford it as well. And oral options may be good for a certain percentage of the population, which is much less expensive, so you can always ask for that too.

BROWN: All right, so let's turn to the episode we did together with Dr. Jessica Shepherd on perimenopause for my new women's health series this Thursday. We actually talked a fair bit about what therapies are available for women, including estrogen patches.

And so we discussed this period of a woman's life that is so often dismissed or misunderstood. We also include testimonials from real people who talked about their experience. They felt like they were just really doing great in life, and then, suddenly, bam, they entered this phase. How do you think this series will resonate with women?

HAVER: I'm so excited about it, because not only do you cover perimenopause and menopause. You're also covering seven other aspects of women's health.

And I just love that CNN has gotten on board with women's health. I think the patients and the women and their stories are what is driving this, not so much the doctors, right? Because we look at endometriosis. You're covering polycystic ovary syndrome, or PMOS.

You're looking at thyroid disease, so many aspects of women's health that are underfunded, understudied. But now I think the Internet and conversation has exploded around women's health, and women are looking to be validated in how they feel, and they're looking for, where can I find answers?

So I love how you have set up the series because you're providing validation stories so women feel seen and heard, and then you're also giving them resources, so that they can take the issues that they're having and have an educated conversation with their providers.

BROWN: That's so true. So much of it is nuanced, right? And you talk about it a lot with perimenopause. Talk to your providers. But you're giving them the information and you're arming them with that so that they're empowered to ask the right questions.

I'm so grateful you're a part of this series. It drops on Thursday. Dr. Mary Claire Haver, thank you so much.

And the first four episodes of my new series, "BODY LANGUAGE BY CNN," it premieres Thursday, October 8, for free on CNN.com/bodylanguage.

BLITZER: We will be watching, for sure.

The next hour of THE SITUATION ROOM STARTS right now.

BROWN: Happening now: swift backlash. President Trump suggests Iran could -- quote -- "take out" Los Angeles or San Diego. Officials there are now responding.

BLITZER: Plus -- quote -- "We're all angry."

Cornell's president is now speaking out again after thousands of people protest the school's handling of a gang rape allegation.