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The Situation Room

Interview With West Virginia Attorney General John B. McCuskey; Talarico Campaign Surging?; Ukraine to Resume Strikes on Russian Refineries?. Aired 10:30a-11a ET

Aired October 15, 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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[10:34:18]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happening now: new video of a Russian strike on a Ukrainian supermarket in the Odesa area. And this comes as we learn that Ukraine has run out of missiles for the Patriot air defense system and as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will resume strikes on Russian oil refineries after what he called a dangerous withdrawal of U.S. intelligence sharing.

Tensions between Zelenskyy and President Trump have escalated since Trump announced a deal to buy Russian diesel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, FOX NATION HOST: Do you feel betrayed by what has been happening?

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Really, yes, really, between us. But, I mean, it's a little bit more complicated than just my emotions or my feelings.

[10:35:03]

Yes, it depends not on my -- not on me. I mean, this -- our country has to survive. And we count on our real partners, strategic partners, United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right, so let's go live now to CNN chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh.

What more is President Zelenskyy saying, Nick?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, this is certainly a perilous time for the already fractious and sort of seesaw relationship that he has with President Trump.

Clearly, the last 10 days has set Ukraine on a path where it believes the United States is no longer going to act as ally, and indeed that Zelenskyy should call that out. He's also been today referring in an interview with a British publication called "The Financial Times" about President Trump's well-known fondness for essentially dictators who stay in power for decades.

Clearly, Zelenskyy now in a position where he may see some kind of fiery reaction from the U.S. president. But how did we get there and where does this leave Ukraine? Look, it's important to point out that we're looking now at a Ukraine that, as according to a source familiar with the situation has told Victoria Butenko in Kyiv, has run out of Patriot interceptor missiles.

Ultimately, the U.S. is the biggest supplier manufacturer of those. They have had a similar crisis back in August when I was last there, and then some European states rushed to assist and fill a slight gap. That's run out. That's crisis number one.

The next big ballistic missile attack against Ukraine will not be intercepted, it seems, at this point. Secondly, it appears that, after the tensions of the last week or so, the United States has begun to restrict some technology and possibly intelligence, according to Ukrainian officials.

The key one here is the fact that Ukrainian officials say they haven't received the early warnings about Russian ballistic missile launches that they have relied upon for years now. They're the reason why sirens sound, and they're the reason why people get minutes to get to the shelter.

They say they have not been receiving those for some time now, although President Trump has publicly stated there's been no stoppage in intelligence sharing. Over the past few days too, we have had this issue about the speeds, the flying speeds at which Starlink dishes, useful for long-range attack drones, medium-range, and also some defensive drones, the speeds at which some of those Starlinks can function.

That appears to have been a bit of a blip that seems to be being rectified, although Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX is behind those Starlinks, has interestingly distanced himself from the decision process around that, saying it's the U.S. government, the White House that make it, but clarifying he doesn't really want Starlink dishes used in offensive operations, so a bit of a mess there in terms of operation on the front line being interrupted.

But all of this comes after the diesel deal and the energy cease-fire, which President Trump announced. He said that hundreds of thousands of Russian barrels of diesel would suddenly be on the market, a bid to get prices down at the pump, although many analysts say that would be a tough one.

And he also declared an energy cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine said that was the first they'd heard about it, and Russia bombed Ukrainian energy infrastructure a matter of hours later. We're in a very messy place here.

But strip all this aside, ultimately, it's Ukrainians now facing another sleepless night without interceptors or ballistic intelligence warnings, ultimately from the United States, they say, so a very dangerous moment here for Ukrainians and in that vital relationship between Zelenskyy and Trump.

BROWN: Yes, very dangerous.

All right, Nick Paton Walsh, thank you -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Also new this morning, a record fund-raising haul in a critical midterm race. James Talarico's campaign reports $64 million raised in the third quarter for his Senate bid.

The man vying to be the first Texas Democrat to win a statewide race in more than 30 years faced voters last night in the CNN-Jubilee town hall. He took questions on border security, immigration, his faith, and a lot more.

CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Paul Begala is joining us right now.

Paul, this $64 million is the most ever raised by a Senate candidate in the third quarter. So what difference do you think that this will make?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And he's still going to be outspent. The amount of money in our politics is just crazy, Wolf. You and I are old guys. You were covering the Bill Clinton campaign in 1992. I was helping to run it.

From the convention to the general election, we spent $52 million. And we won 33 states, 33. This is just one state, one quarter, and the Democrat has raised $64 million, and he's going to be outspent enormously because the wealthiest man on Earth, Elon Musk, and others are putting dark money into that race.

Midterms are about mood, momentum, and money. I think the mood is very much anti-incumbent, anti-Republican, anti-Trump. The momentum is very much in the Democrats' side. They have outvoted the Republicans in their primaries, and the few places that are early voting seem to be more Democratic.

But the money, even with Talarico breaking the record, the money is on the Republican side. It's really astonishing.

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BLITZER: Yes, it's a lot of money that's going on.

A woman at the town hall, as you noticed, I'm sure, she expressed typically single issue -- she said she was a single-issue voter on the issue of abortion rights for women, but she said she disagreed with Talarico. She still walked away, she said, really impressed because he didn't sidestep this very sensitive issue.

He also said he doesn't support abolishing ICE and supports a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth under 18. Does he have a chance to win over conservative voters with these specific views?

BEGALA: I think yes.

I mean, the whole town hall, Talarico was dialed in on Republicans and independent-leaning Republicans, many of whom voted for John Cornyn in the primary, but now kind of don't like Ken Paxton for a whole bunch of reasons. So, yes, I think he did a wonderful job of listening, engaging.

I just thought he was so authentic, and yes, very, very moderate, which is something I as a moderate really like, but that's where elections are won. This whole nonsense that somehow the left is resurgent in the Democratic Party is nuts. It's moderates like Talarico, who -- if the Democrats win the midterms, and I think they will, it's moderates like Talarico who are going to do it.

I thought last night was a -- just a master class in how to appeal to people who you even have some disagreements with. You can't win in Texas unless you win some people over who had supported Donald Trump in the past. And I think that's exactly what Talarico was doing last night.

BLITZER: Yes, he's obviously clearly a religious guy, and that has an impact.

President Trump is on a campaign blitz, as you know, yesterday hitting Arizona and Montana. Tomorrow, he will be in Georgia. His message to voters is to pretend he is on the ballot in an effort to turn out base voters. How do Democrats respond to that? And is it enough to be anti- Trump?

BEGALA: Well, as you know, I'm a religious person, a very faithful Catholic, and so I want to thank God almighty for Donald Trump's health. And I really mean that. I pray for the president's health, but also for his campaigning, because everywhere he goes, he hurts his party and helps the Democrats.

The problem that Republicans have is that Trump is desperately unpopular. His last midterm in 2018, Trump was at 45. The Republicans lost 41 seats. He's about 35 now, below that in some polls. And yet he keeps getting in voters' face. It's a really bad strategy.

I know the Republicans are upset about it. There's not much they can do, because they're afraid of him. They're intimidated by him. He is very, very powerful in primaries in their party. But everywhere he goes, he reminds these people, many of whom voted for him, good people who voted for him, that he's betrayed them.

He promised no wars, and we're stuck in a war in Iran. He promised to cut the cost of gas in half. And it was under three bucks when he took office. It's over four bucks now. He promised to drain the swamp, and the corruption has been just mind-blowing.

So I love, as a Democrat -- and I know all the Democrats love seeing him out there, because, frankly, it only helps the Democrats to remind people who voted for Trump that this guy betrayed you. BLITZER: Paul Begala, as usual, thank you very, very much. Appreciate

it.

BEGALA: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Wolf, coming up: Eight states are suing OpenAI, alleging the company made ChatGPT unsafe for young people and misled parents about those risks, which OpenAI denies. The attorney general from one of those states joins us next.

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BLITZER: Happening now: Multiple states are suing OpenAI. They claim it's ChatGPT chatbot is dangerous for kids. Attorneys general in eight states have now filed the suits and allege the company falsely advertises that ChatGPT is safe.

CNN tech reporter Clare Duffy is joining us right now.

So, Clare, how is OpenAI responding?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yes, Wolf, this is really significant. This is the first coordinated action that we have seen by states to go after OpenAI for these allegations that ChatGPT is unsafe for young people.

Florida filed a similar lawsuit earlier this year separately, but this is the first time we are seeing all eight of these states filing individual lawsuits in their state court with similar allegations here, that OpenAI has told parents on the one hand that ChatGPT is safe for young people, but, on the other hand, designed the chatbot to be -- quote -- "overly agreeable and feign human compassion," which they say has made it dangerous for vulnerable users like children.

Now, OpenAI is pushing back against these allegations. And I will read you a statement from spokesperson Drew Pusateri, who told me -- quote -- "We have built industry-leading, age-specific protections into our product that many other AI products lack. While no system can be perfect, we will continue to work with experts to inform our work and build additional safeguards, such as parental controls, break reminders, and age-appropriate model protections that exist today.

"We're committed to working with states on advancing pragmatic AI policies that apply to the entire AI industry, not just one company."

OpenAI has also pointed to safety protections that they have rolled out, including a ChatGPT-14 experience it rolled out earlier this year, which it says provides default safeguards for users under the age of 18, things like study tools and parental controls.

But, Wolf, independent online safety researchers have already raised concerns about the effectiveness of those safety guardrails that OpenAI has put in place. And I think you really get a sense of the fact that states are trying to get a handle on this issue of safety for kids with AI chatbots a lot faster than they did with the previous social media era -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Clare Duffy reporting for us.

Thank you very much, Clare -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Wolf, joining us now is West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey. The state is among the eight suing OpenAI.

[10:50:03]

Thanks so much for joining us.

So, as you heard there from Clare, OpenAI says that it has safety features like parental controls and ChatGPT for Teens provides automatic protections for young users. Why aren't these protections enough, in your view?

JOHN B. MCCUSKEY (R), WEST VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Yes, so let me start by saying that's what OpenAI's lawyers said.

Let me read to you what ChatGPT said about this lawsuit. So, yesterday, we asked ChatGPT: "What is your opinion about state A.G. lawsuits versus AI companies?"

And ChatGPT said: "I support state A.G. actions against AI companies when they target demonstrable deception, exploitation, or unsafe commercial practices. AI companies, including OpenAI, should have to answer for what they market, what they knew about their products, and what they did with that knowledge."

So that is OpenAI's own chatbot called ChatGPT responding to the question that you just asked. And so the specific safety harms here stem from the fact that we know computers don't have values, and we know that parents do.

And the people that program these AI -- these AI platforms, we have to substitute their values into what our children are asking them. And we know that OpenAI rolled all of these products out in an incredibly fast way, and they did it in a way that was unsafe.

And we know it was unsafe because there are countless examples of children having been instructed how to commit suicide, how to engage in dangerous sexual activities with other children, et cetera. And all of these things happened in very, very recent time frames.

The other thing we know is that AI is here to stay. We also know that America needs to win the AI race, but we have to do it in a way that is safe for our vulnerable children and vulnerable adults as well.

BROWN: I was actually curious too. So I was on ChatGPT this morning before this segment asking it about the controls around kids and suicide and so forth. And it said that, if suicide comes up, that it would direct a person or a child in this case to resources. And so, yes, there were cases early on where you did see some harm

there between children using that these bots, but, since then, OpenAI says, look, we have put in these controls, we are making sure we're protecting kids.

So, the question is, why are the state A.G.s filing this now?

MCCUSKEY: Well, now is -- there's no better time than now when the safety of our children is at risk. And I think this is another example -- and we have actually talked about this before -- where there's more than 100 bills in Congress right now attempting to regulate how AI interfaces with our nation's children.

And what we have seen is that Congress has been unable to find enough unity to pass laws even in these incredibly important places, which is where the attorney generals in a bipartisan way are stepping up to try to make sure that these regulations happen. Do these cases involve money?

Yes, but they importantly involve injunctive relief that we believe will reshape the way that parents and their children interact with AI into the future, hopefully marketwide.

BROWN: Some have pointed out that ChatGPT can really assist students in understanding a concept. It can be a tutor that doesn't have to be paid and will never get tired. Do you concede there are uses that could be positive in a child's life when it comes to this?

MCCUSKEY: I don't just concede that. That is one of the main reasons why we filed this suit.

AI has the capability of completely reshaping and bettering the lives of so many Americans and people all over the world. And we want to make sure that America leads that race. We want to make sure that we're beating China and Russia in that arms race.

But in order to do that, we have to do it in a way that is safe for our children, and we have to give parents confidence that these platforms aren't going to harm them.

BROWN: OpenAI says it does more in terms of protections for children than other AI products. Why are you singling OpenAI out here in this case?

MCCUSKEY: Yes, I mean, I -- that sort of sounds like Marlboro saying the Marlboro Man was an adult and the camel was for children, right?

Just because you're doing more than the person who's in last doesn't mean you're doing enough. And the reason why we are singling them out is, they aren't singled out. They're just first.

BROWN: So, do you plan to file suit against other AI companies?

MCCUSKEY: We plan to file suit against any company that we see that is -- that has the capability and the lack of controls to harm the children of the state of West Virginia and, with our bipartisan partners, children all across this country.

BROWN: All right, West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey, thank you so much for coming on.

MCCUSKEY: Thank you.

BROWN: Wolf.

BLITZER: And here's what's coming up all new right at the top of the hour in THE SITUATION ROOM.

New CNN reporting on suspicious letters with white powder sent to election officials across the country. What we're now learning about the investigation.

[10:55:04]

Plus, Michael Whatley's campaign goes dark on TV. The Republican Senate nominee in North Carolina has zero, yes, zero dollars remaining in TV ad reservations for his battleground race. Does that spell more trouble for the GOP?

And Greenland is once again contradicting President Trump after he said massive oil and gas drilling is about to begin there.

That's all new in the next hour.

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BROWN: Happening now, breaking news: President Trump announces, the livestream of the execution of the Fort Hood shooter will not happen.