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The Situation Room

Trump Considering Pardoning Himself and Administration Before Leaving Office; Shooter Kills Three Children and One Teacher at Oregon School. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 16, 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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[10:33:28]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now: Alex Murdaugh is back in a South Carolina courtroom just ahead of his second double murder trial. He was found guilty of murdering his wife and son back in 2023, but the state's Supreme Court threw out the convictions earlier this year.

Murdaugh will be retried in 2027. Today, his lawyers are pushing for information and evidence they say is crucial to their defense to be released.

And there's more news we're following right now. Six Flags, Six Flags in Georgia reopens today, just four days after a visitor died in the park; 42-year-old Hassan Kariem fell to his death from the Goliath roller coaster. He was there celebrating a birthday with several family members, including kids. One of them was sitting next to him when he fell.

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JOSHUA NELSON, VICTIM'S BROTHER-IN-LAW: How she described it was, he went up -- like, I guess, as the ride was going, he would go up, he went down, he went up, he went down. And a third or fourth time that happened, the latch came undone, and that's when he fell out.

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BLITZER: At least 10 similar roller-coaster rides in North America have temporarily closed as well as investigators work to try to establish what happened in Georgia.

And law enforcement agencies are investigating suspicious substances that were mailed to several congressional offices, as well as election offices, in at least eight states. It's unclear if all the cases are linked.

Arizona's secretary of state said this about the letter sent to his office. Listen.

[10:35:05] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADRIAN FONTES (D), ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE: A clerk in my office opened up an envelope today that had a white powdery substance in it, and we had to evacuate our office. This is what happens when people start spreading rumors and lies that are not founded in fact.

This is the state that we live in right now across the United States of America. I'm terribly disappointed in the fact that there are still public officials out there who will talk trash about our election systems, when it's perfectly inappropriate and they know better. We as Americans need to come together.

We have to trust the elections officials that are out there that will deliver a free and fair election, as we have always done.

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BLITZER: We, of course, will continue to follow the story and bring you any important updates.

And happening now: shock, grief, and a search for answers after a teen gunman blasted his way into an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, and opened fire. He killed three children, 5, 8, and 11 years old. He also killed a teacher before a bystander shot and killed him. A 7-year-old and another teacher are right now in the hospital with critical injuries. They're fighting for their lives.

Last night, the school superintendent struggled to keep his emotions in check.

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STEVEN COOK, SUPERINTENDENT, BEND-LA PINE SCHOOLS: Today, an unthinkable tragedy happened at Silver Rail Elementary School. No community should have to do what we're doing right now. I don't have any words for what this community is feeling right now. I don't think anyone does.

We are heartbroken. We are horrified. This is the kind of thing you hear about in other places and pray that it never happens here. And it has happened here. Today, it happened to our children, to our teachers, and to our families.

To the families that have loss tonight, we're with you and we will stay with you. To our staff who helped our students and protected our kids today, we thank you. You did what no one should ever be asked to do.

I am so grateful beyond words for your efforts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Angela Ferrell-Zabala is the executive director of Moms Demand Action, one of the largest grassroots organizations combating gun violence in the United States. Angela, thanks so much for what you're doing. Thanks so much for being

here.

The superintendent's words, as we just heard, are gut-wrenching, as you hear him share the anguish and the heartbreak of an entire community. This is a tough question to ask, but have many Americans tuned out the horrors of school violence all across the country?

ANGELA FERRELL-ZABALA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MOMS DEMAND ACTION: Look, as a parent of four, this is horrendous for me to hear. And I know many parents are waking up, primarily these parents and then that are now going to have to bury their child, their children. And we also have a teacher who was shot and killed.

Look, as a parent, this is horrible. This is the reality of our situation in this country that we have had -- you mentioned it at the top of this segment -- 52 school shootings, 33 deaths so far this year.

What should we be doing, Wolf, right now? It is the autumn time. As a mother, I know what that means. It means it means warm cider with my kids, picking pumpkins, Halloween costumes, not burying your child. So I don't think that people are have lessened their feeling about this or have ignored this crisis.

I think there's so many things going on, and people often don't know where to start with that. And this is where we come in at Moms Demand Action, making sure that we're doing everything in our power to fight for commonsense gun laws in the state and across this country that are going to protect communities.

BLITZER: Your group was founded the day after the Sandy Hook tragedy back in 2012, when 20 first graders and six adult staff members were massacred by a lone gunman.

Nearly 14 years later, is it surprising that school violence remains such a grotesque threat, maybe escalating threat, to our schools across the country?

FERRELL-ZABALA: We have done a lot of work over that time. And that's a horrible marker that you just mentioned.

And I can remember where I was when I heard that news. Many people can. And there's a lot of work that we are actually doing to prevent these tragedies from happening across this country and right there in Bend, Oregon.

We know that tougher gun laws save lives, commonsense gun laws. And we have a coalition of teachers, parents, grandparents, gun owners, faith leaders that work with us every single day to make sure that this is not a tragedy that we're seeing. We should never see an elementary school as a place where a shoot-out happens.

We should never have to contend with that when we're dropping off our children at school. Educators shouldn't have to contend with it either. And that's why we're not going to let up on -- as these details unfold on next steps and what we need to do to continue to strengthen and make sure that this does not happen again.

[10:40:07]

BLITZER: And, as you just mentioned, you're the mother of four children, and, sometimes, it must feel like you're pushing a mountain to try to bring about some serious change. What are the small and subtle contributions every parent can make?

FERRELL-ZABALA: There's so many things that we can do.

First and foremost, I would say you need to be able to talk about this. This is an important thing to talk about, even simple things as, if your child is going to a sleepover, are the guns secure in the home? Are there gun owners? There's things like this.

You can show up and use your voice. There are too many people that are survivors of gun violence in this country. And we need to use our voice. We also need to use our vote. That is really important. We need to have commonsense gun sense champions that are going to do everything in their power to keep our children and our communities safe first and foremost.

So I'd say, there's lots that you can do. You can even join us at Moms Demand Action by texting Ready to 64433. But there's lots of solutions to this. This is not an inevitability, and we're going to continue to work until we do not hear any more tragedies like this.

BLITZER: Angela Ferrell-Zabala, thank you so much for what you're doing. Thanks so much for joining us.

FERRELL-ZABALA: Thank you.

BLITZER: And coming up: millions from Musk. New filings just out reveal the staggering amount of money the multibillionaire is now spending on the Senate race in Texas.

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[10:45:56]

BLITZER: Happening now: President Trump is talking about possible pardons for himself and members of his administration before he leaves office. Here's what he said in a new interview. Listen to this.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm allowed to do a pardon, a self-pardon. I'm allowed to pardon -- one thing, the only thing Biden did is, he proved that the pardon is very powerful. I know that.

They say it's the most powerful thing a president has, the power of pardon. I can tell you this. I don't want to see my people go through -- because these people are lunatics on the left.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: All right, let's discuss this and more with Pete Seat. He was the White House spokesman during the George W. Bush administration. Also with us, CNN political commentator the Democratic strategist Maria Cardona.

Pete, let me start with you.

What's your reaction, first of all, to what we just heard the president say about pardons?

PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: Well, it feels like the chicken and the egg, because, as you recall, when Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden, the argument was well, Republicans are going to come after us when they take over, and so we need to protect our own.

And they used that argument, and I think that very same argument is going to be used now, just on the other side. We can debate who started it and who's going to end it if it ever ends. But I fully expect that the president would pardon himself and other members of his family and inner circle to protect them and shield them from any future investigations when Democrats take control of at least one house of Congress after the election.

BLITZER: So, what do you think, Maria? Did President Biden create a precedent on this issue of pardons?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He may have. And I think Pete's right that President Trump is going to use that very same reasoning to pardon people around him, including himself. We don't know whether that will work, right, the self-pardoning part of it?

But I think that the reasoning between why President Biden did it versus why President Trump is doing it is very different, meaning that one of the biggest issues in this election, Wolf, is the issue around corruption.

The American people have had it with how corrupt they are seeing this administration is acting. They gave Donald Trump their vote hoping that he would keep his promises in terms of focusing on bringing down inflation, bringing down costs of groceries, gas, and rent.

And what Trump has done has been not only skyrocketing prices for American families, but he has lined his own pockets by billions of dollars in the White House in very corrupt ways. And his administration and the people around him have done exactly the same thing, including his family.

So, the American people are very anxious to hold those corrupt individuals accountable. And that is going to be one of the things that Democrats are going to focus on when they take over the House and possibly the Senate, in addition to really keeping the promises that Trump broke in terms of focusing on policies around affordability.

BLITZER: You want to quickly respond to that, Pete?

SEAT: Well, I think the biggest challenge for Democrats is going to be what Maria just said there at the end. They're running on a bunch of promises, not necessarily policies, and they are going to fail at those promises as well, just as Donald Trump and Republicans have when it comes to affordability.

A lot of promises were made on the campaign trail that just could not be kept. Presidents only have so much power to control the price of goods and services. Yes, this administration has taken actions on tariffs and the conflict in Iran that have contributed to those high prices, but a lot of those were already going up, up and up because of the previous administration.

It set a new floor and it wasn't -- those prices. weren't going to go down. So promises were made that could not be kept to win an election, and it's ultimately going to backfire with some losses in the House and the Senate here in two weeks.

[10:50:03]

BLITZER: Pete, let me follow up with a another political-related question.

CNN is now reporting that new campaign finance filings showed Democrats in several Senate battleground states raised a lot more money than their rivals. But the money from outside GOP-aligned groups offset that advantage, based on our reporting. What does this tell you about Republican fund-raising?

SEAT: Well, it tells me that there's a lot of enthusiasm among Democrats. They see this as a promising election cycle for them, and they should, because there's a Republican in the White House. The same would be true if Kamala Harris had been successful. It would likely be a good cycle for Republicans.

For my side of the aisle, I hope those dollars are going where they need to go and are being utilized in close races that are either leaning one way or the other to drive out Republican voters, particularly Republican voters who only show up in presidential cycles.

Those voters are the key to victory in places like Texas. Making sure they show up is how a Ken Paxton wins over a James Talarico.

BLITZER: Maria, while Democrats clearly outraised their opponents in several key battleground states for Senate races, they also spent those funds aggressively in the third quarter, and, in some instances, that left some candidates with less cash on hand than their opponents. Is this a concern for Democrats as we move into the final stretch, what, only a few weeks before the November 3 midterm election?

CARDONA: Well, certainly raising money has always been an issue for Democrats versus Republicans, and we have seen that. But what we're also seeing is -- as Pete said, is, there is a lot of grassroots enthusiasm with Democrats.

They are continuing to raise money, even in these last days, from grassroots voters who are so sick and have had it with the corruption and the crazy and the chaos and the criminality of Republicans and the Trump administration. And they're showing that by opening up their pocketbooks. And I think that will continue.

However, there is a ton of money on the other side. You mentioned it earlier. Elon Musk is pouring all of his money into all of these races, especially in red states, which I think indicates the desperation on the side of Republicans about how worried they are, even in states and in races that they shouldn't even have to think about in normal midterm cycles.

But there is also this law of diminishing returns, Wolf, which means that no matter how much money you throw at a race, if a voter has had it and they want change, they're going to vote that change. And so Democrats are going to continue to focus on our message of keeping the promises that we have talked about on affordability, on making sure to hold the Trump administration accountable, and on focusing on the issues that voters care about.

And, frankly, no matter how much money Elon Musk spends, or no matter how much money the dark money groups spend, sometimes, that kind of money cannot cover up the scent of that criminality and that corruption and that betrayal on behalf of Republicans and Donald Trump.

BLITZER: I thought it was interesting, Pete, that President Trump was posting about the Texas Senate race only yesterday, already appearing to place the blame on outgoing Senator John Cornyn and Republican strategist Karl Rove for a potential loss there in Texas. Do you agree with him?

SEAT: I think he has a point when it comes to Senator Cornyn, only because Cornyn is a symbol of part of the problem that Ken Paxton is having.

And that is Republican voters, some choosing to cast their ballots for James Talarico. There was a poll recently, I believe conducted by FOX News, that showed a fifth of Republicans who are -- quote -- "non-MAGA Republicans" were planning to vote or were going to vote for sure for Talarico.

And that is the challenge. You need those Republicans to come home. Now, John Cornyn is not helping Ken Paxton in any way. He's not out there publicly supporting him. His team says, well, Cornyn is supporting the ticket. He's not actively opposing Ken Paxton, so, by default, that means he's supporting him.

But it would be much more helpful if he was publicly out there saying, hey, this was a tough primary. It stinks that I lost. It stings that I lost, but we need to make sure we maintain a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate. You may not like Ken Paxton personally, and you may not like the idea of him being our senator, but you're sure as heck not going to like the idea of a Democrat-controlled Senate for another two years.

BLITZER: All right, Pete Seat, thank you very much. Maria Cardona, thanks to you as well. CARDONA: Thanks, Wolf.

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

[10:55:03]

Scammers targeting voters, a new warning about phishing e-mails and fake campaign Web sites.

Inflation fact-check. CNN's Daniel Dale will break down President Trump's claims about prices during his second term.

And a SITUATION ROOM special report, what Elizabeth Holmes told our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta years before she was convicted of fraud and sent to prison.

That's all new coming up right here in the next hour.

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BLITZER: Happening now: Strong Santa Ana winds add fuel to the fire threat across Southern California right now. Two wildfires have prompted evacuations in Malibu and the San Diego area. Firefighters are racing to get them under control. So far, neither, neither is contained.

Our meteorologist Allison Chinchar is joining us right now.

So, Allison, what are the conditions that emergency crews are up against today?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, some of the worst.