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Oregon Mourns School Shooting Victims; Latino Voters Shifting Towards Democrats?. Aired 10:30a-11a ET

Aired October 19, 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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[10:31:55]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now: An investigation is under way after a major fire at a Canadian military base killed four service members and injured another 39 people. Officials say it happened during a combat training activity when strong winds caused a grass fire to shift rapidly.

Here's how one witness described this truly horrific scene:

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BRANDON SIMMONS, WITNESS: I seen a guy run by me that had his pants blown off. All he was, was in his blue underwear. I seen burns. I seen people that were getting unloaded out of the back of that military vehicle they were wrapped in -- in pretty much tinfoil.

I heard people screaming inside of those vehicles that will never end up being out of my mind. Like I said, it was just a scene from a war movie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We're getting new video of the moment when a 34-year-old woman drove her pickup truck onto a youth soccer field, killing a 6- year-old boy and a 35-year-old man. Ten others were injured. I want to warn our viewers, this video is incredibly disturbing. You can hear the tires of the truck screeching. Listen.

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(SCREAMING)

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BLITZER: The driver of the truck has been released pending toxicology results and a mechanical examination of her vehicle.

Other news: Pope Leo made his first major public appearance after undergoing lung cancer surgery. The 71-year-old pontiff led a prayer from the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square. He thanked his doctors and all those who prayed for him. Doctors say he has made a good recovery following his surgery.

Next hour, we will be joined by Father Edward Beck on the wider impact of all of this on Catholics -- Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: All right, Wolf.

The same economic frustrations among Latino voters that helped reelect President Trump could now cost Republicans control of Congress.

CNN's Arlette Saenz looks at why one of the largest groups of swing voters is shifting toward Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAYUMI CASTRO FERNANDEZ, VOLUNTEER: We have to make a difference.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mayumi Castro Fernandez is knocking doors in Miami for this election. But, this time, she's walking a different path after regretting her vote for President Trump in 2024.

CASTRO FERNANDEZ: The gas, the food, everything goes up. He don't make one promise that he did in that time.

SAENZ: She's among the Latino voters who could decide the midterm elections, as an NBC News-Telemundo poll showed only 27 percent of Latino voters approve of Trump's performance.

President Trump flipped Miami-Dade County in the last election, the first Republican to win here since 1988. And that victory was fueled in large part by Hispanic voters.

(through translator): Are you happy with President Trump or no?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I am extremely happy.

SAENZ (through translator): With President Trump?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Number one in the world.

[10:35:01]

SAENZ: Domino Park in little Havana sits in the 27 congressional district, where two former TV anchors are facing off, GOP Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar and Democrat Eliott Rodriguez.

ELIOTT RODRIGUEZ (D), FLORIDA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: We did not vote for this economy.

SAENZ: Salazar won by more than 20 points in 2024, but is now facing deep voter anxiety over the cost of living and Trump's aggressive immigration enforcement. As south Florida feels the sting of Trump's immigration crackdown, Salazar pushed back with this ad.

REP. MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR (R-FL): Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far.

RODRIGUEZ: I think voters in this district are smart enough to see through this and see this as crocodile tears. She voted for these policies.

SAENZ (voice-over): Karina Castillo, a Venezuelan American in a neighboring district, voted for Trump in 2024 but now regrets it, in part because of his immigration actions.

KARINA CASTILLO, INDEPENDENT VOTER: I saw all the executive orders that he signed, and I start comparing to the Constitution of the United States. I saw all the violations of the law. At the time I got scared.

SAENZ (voice-over): Kevin Cooper, chair of the Miami-Dade GOP, argues the Democratic alternative doesn't sit well with many voters who have fled socialist countries and may see similarities.

KEVIN COOPER, CHAIR, MIAMI-DADE, FLORIDA, GOP: Are we going to be free, or are we going to continue to embrace socialism from the left? And the left cannot -- cannot win. That's not an ideology that people here are willing to accept.

SAENZ (voice-over): Castro Fernandez is turning her frustration into action, canvassing with her local union.

CASTRO FERNANDEZ: We need to change. I changed my mind. They can change too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Arlette Saenz, thank you so much -- Wolf.

To discuss how plummeting Latino support for Republicans could impact the midterm elections, joining us now, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona and former National Republican Senatorial Committee aide Liam Donovan.

To both of you, thanks very much for joining us.

Maria, as you know, a recent Pew Research poll found that Democrats have a 27-point advantage right now over Republicans among registered Hispanic voters in a generic ballot for control of the Congress; 18 percent say they haven't decided who they will vote for yet.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's right, Wolf.

And I think your story was very clear as to why the Democrats and the Republicans are in the position that they're in. Latino voters have always been a swing vote. I know a lot of times my party looked at them as a base vote, and I have always thought that was a mistake, because we would take them for granted. It happened in '24.

So, now I am thrilled that all of our candidates and the party is focusing on Latino voters. They did that from the beginning of this cycle, not at the very end, not at the last minute. And they are focusing on those broken promises that Mayumi just talked about.

Donald Trump promised to bring down the cost of groceries, gas and rent, promised to deport just the criminal, most violent, undocumented immigrants. And he has broken those promises across the board. For Latino voters, they have taken that extremely personal, because they trusted him on the issue of the economy and they trusted him to take care of their families.

And he is doing completely the opposite by separating families, deporting people to even countries where they don't -- they have never come from and they don't know anything about. And on the economy, you have failing businesses because people don't even want to come out of their houses. They don't have workers because they have been deported.

People don't want to come out on the streets. They feel unsafe. And so, for Latinos, that has been a major, major betrayal. And they are looking at Democrats for the solutions.

BLITZER: As you know, Liam, the latest polls show just 24 percent of Latino voters approve of President Trump's job. That's down 14 points from when Trump started his second term. Have Republicans taken this key swing group, especially in Florida, for granted?

LIAM DONOVAN, FORMER NATIONAL REPUBLICAN SENATORIAL COMMITTEE AIDE: I think, first, we need to take a step back, because these are important data points and interesting statistics.

We need to compare that to the broader country. I think the good news for Republicans, particularly in recent cycles, and particularly in the 2024 cycle, is, Hispanics have become a swing group. This is a group that Democrats are used to, as Maria said, taking for granted. They have been getting 60, 70 percent of the vote.

That wasn't true in 2024. And so what you have seen over time is a sort of a depolarization from a racial perspective. It's happened in other groups as well, but Hispanics in -- particularly. So the good news is, Hispanics are voting much more like just the rest of the country. They're being treated as voters, not just as a demographic group.

The bad news is, right now, Republicans are suffering all over the place. So, as the country shifts against Republicans right now -- I think it's about a D-plus-nine generic vote -- Hispanics are at something like D-plus-27. So if you have to look at that Delta, that difference.

In 2018, Democrats won Hispanics by about 40 points. So, actually winning -- or losing Democrats -- or Hispanics by 25, 30 points, that's not good, but I think you need to put that in historical perspective.

[10:40:10]

So I don't think Republicans can afford to take Hispanics for granted. But I think the key is, thinking about the whole country, thinking about the concerns of Hispanic voters that are the same as the entire country, speaking to those affordability concerns and keeping those margins as small as you can, particularly in key areas like Florida and like Texas.

BLITZER: I want to quickly turn, Maria, while I have you guys, to the key Senate race in Michigan unfolding right now between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers.

Listen to this exchange between El-Sayed and a voter over the issue of the Muslim Brotherhood. Listen to this.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: Sure. Yes, absolutely.

But I want to -- I want to ask to the question that you're asking, why are you asking the question?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, because they're a terrorist group.

EL-SAYED: You're asking the question because implicitly you assume that I will have dual loyalties, right? And I'm just telling you that, for me, that Constitution is the guiding light.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: A former DHS spokesperson for the Trump administration posted this -- quote -- "El-Sayed's campaign posted this thinking he somehow looked good trying to dress down a voter. Now millions are watching the candidate look like an angry, overly defensive jerk' -- end quote.

El-Sayed did disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. So what's your response?

CARDONA: I think El-Sayed is right. He did disavow the Muslim Brotherhood.

And I think what he actually did was lay bare the strategy, I think the disgusting strategy, on behalf of Mike Rogers and Republicans to try to make this about race, to try to make this about religion, to try to fearmonger, which is, frankly, it looks like the only thing they have left.

I think that Mike Rogers is very concerned that El-Sayed will win this race, and he's not focusing on the issues. And this is exactly the point that El-Sayed was making. He is focusing on the issues. El-Sayed is focusing on the issues of the economy, of health care, of education, of everything that keep voters up at night.

This is not one of the ones that keep voters up at night. It does keep Mike Rogers up at night because that's the only thing he has to offer.

BLITZER: Listen, Liam, to what Republican opponent Mike Rogers had to say about that exchange of El-Sayed disavowing the Muslim Brotherhood. This is what he said to CNN's Dana Bash. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: This is about the way you think, not the way you pray. This is about your ideology and how dangerous it is. He didn't disavow it. He goes on this word salad trying to get around the fact that he can't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, what do you think? Do you think voters in Michigan care more about this specific issue or overall the economy?

DONOVAN: I think it's a pattern.

I think if Republicans, right now, if they're running on the economy, they're having a tough time. But I think if you're going to win in individual races, it's making about that choice, that choice between Mike Rogers, who Michiganders know and trust at some level, and this new guy that kind of came and upset the establishment from Democratic side.

I think they're very uncomfortable with this. And so if you can call into question...

CARDONA: No, I don't think we're uncomfortable with that.

DONOVAN: You're aren't? OK.

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: We are supporting him. Clearly, we are supporting him.

(CROSSTALK)

DONOVAN: And I think that's a point of a point of discomfort when you have the people that had extreme misgivings getting behind him. I think part of this is the function of, on a good night, somebody like Abdul El-Sayed could win.

He's going to run behind the ticket. But you have to make this a choice. You can't run on the big macro issues, particularly as the party in power that's trying to hold power. You need to make it about the choice that voters have, raise questions. And this is about a pattern.

Like, whatever you say about the Muslim Brotherhood, he has associations and he has things in his past that are not things that voters have heard enough about. And I think it's completely fair game to press him on those issues and make him defend himself.

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: But, see, Liam just admitted that this is the only thing they have left is focusing on the fear, focusing on the division, focusing on what they believe will scare Michigan voters. And I think what El-Sayed is trying to bring this back to is, that's

not what Michigan voters care about. What keeps families up at night, not in Michigan -- and not only in Michigan, everywhere else is the economy. And Liam just admitted that they can't run on the economy, and this is the only thing they have.

BLITZER: It's the economy, stupid, I think...

CARDONA: Exactly.

BLITZER: ... somebody once said.

All right, guys, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

CARDONA: Thank you.

BROWN: Great to have you guys on.

All right, coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM: A 25-year-old teacher who was working her dream job, and three children ages 5, 8, and 11, all killed in a school shooting in Oregon, we're going to bring you their stories just ahead.

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BROWN: In Bend, Oregon, Silver Rail Elementary School is closed again today as the community mourns the three students and teacher killed in Wednesday shooting attack.

Rhoam Summer was the youngest victim at 5 years old. His father posted on social media that his family is broken and lost. The other two students were 8 and 11 years old. Their families have requested they not be identified publicly.

Megan Lambert was also killed. The 25-year-old taught special education, and she grew up in Central Oregon, the town of Bend, and her family says working at Silver Rail was her dream job. Kaylub Giamanco is being praised as a hero. He has two daughters in the school and just happened to be passing by in a lunch break when he saw the gunman shoot a pickup truck in the parking lot.

He grabbed his firearm and followed the shooter into the school, where a teacher had thrown her cell phone at the gunman and tackled him. Giamanco says the struggle -- the struggle and then fired his handgun several times, killing the shooter. He was involved in that struggle.

[10:50:06]

Joining us now is former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. He is a CNN senior law enforcement analyst.

Andy, police have not released a motive for this attack by this 16- year-old boy who was a former student at that school. Walk us through the investigation and where police are looking for clues here. ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, Pam, I would

expect that the police don't have a clear understanding of the shooter's motive at this point.

But the work that they're doing now to get there is super important. As you know, there won't be a prosecution here. The gunman was dead at the scene, but it's so important to be able to deliver these sorts of answers to the community, to the family members of people injured and killed, to people who were there and experienced it with their children.

So, investigators are going to be looking for anything that this young man said or read or spoke to friends or wrote down or drew a picture of. They're going to look for every sort of artifact that could shine some light into what his mindset was in the weeks and days leading up to the shooting.

And let's remember he was only 16 years old. So, unlike a mass shooter who's a fully grown adult and who is able to drive themselves and has a job and has lived a longer life, the record that they have that they will be able to access about this young man's life is going to be considerably shorter.

But, nevertheless, they're going to talk to family members. They're going to talk to friends, and, of course, only the parents of friends and associates first, because all of those sorts of witnesses in this case would also be minors.

They're going to look at electronic devices to see what sort of things that this young man was looking at online, whether or not he had any social media accounts, that sort of thing, and then, of course, writings, drawings, artwork, anything that a kid might have done that would render some sort of self-expression.

BROWN: Police say the gunman opened fire in a special needs classroom, and that the 16-year-old had attended special needs classes at that school.

How unusual or not is it for a gunman to target his or her former school?

MCCABE: You know, unfortunately, it's not unusual in this country at all. We have numerous -- we have over 100 school shootings this year alone.

Right now, according to the Gun Violence Archive, we have had, I think, 354 mass shootings in this country as of the end of September, so the end of the third quarter. That's an increase. We were at 327 at the end of the third quarter last year. So mass shootings are going up. We're in the 292nd day of the year. So we're well over one mass shooting per day.

And many of those shootings take place at school. We have seen in many occasions where especially a juvenile or a younger offender, a younger shooter will go back to the school that they attended. We saw that in Tennessee. We have seen it in other places. So there are all sorts of assumptions I think that investigators are probably working with right now about this shooter's motivation.

And many of those are tied to the fact that he went back to his own school. But, really, you don't know with any clarity until you have gone through all the evidence.

BROWN: And it does raise the question about school security, because this school apparently had the doors locked. It had a glass vestibule you have to go through. But the gunman was able to get around all of that.

MCCABE: Yes, that's really going to be very frustrating for people trying to learn lessons from this shooting, because this is a place where, according to gun safety folks, schools are really doing it well.

They had modified the school to be more safe. They were, as you mentioned, keeping the doors locked in an effective way. Oregon is a state with very restrictive gun -- relatively restrictive gun laws, so there's not a kind of a glaring vulnerability there.

Nevertheless, a committed assault by a shooter wielding in this case a .12-gauge shotgun, that's going to defeat a lot of security measures. I mean, just that's the sad reality of it. We're told that this shooter used that very significant load of the .12-gauge shotgun to basically shoot his way through a glass door on the side of the building and gain entry through that broken glass.

BROWN: Yes.

MCCABE: So it'll raise all sorts of questions about, should they start thinking about changing the glass to bulletproof glass? That's incredibly expensive. We have hundreds of thousands of schools that would need that sort of protection.

So, again, we're making some very tough choices as a society.

BROWN: Yes.

MCCABE: How do we protect our children as they're in school every day?

[10:55:00]

BROWN: And, apparently, this gun came from -- the mother bought the gun. We don't know all the circumstances around it. But what do you think this could mean for the parents?

MCCABE: You know, it certainly could lead to a situation like we have seen in recently in the last few years in Georgia and also Michigan, where parents have been charged criminally.

Now, in order to do that, it's -- they will -- prosecutors will need more than the simple fact that the that the parent purchased the firearm. They will need evidence, actual proof, that the parent knew that, let's say, that the minor was in a vulnerable state, and the parent, despite knowing that, basically gave the minor access to the firearm, knowing that they might be in a vulnerable position.

Those are all hard things to prove after the fact, so we will have to see what comes out of the investigation. But I would assume that the parents are taking this all quite seriously. We know they are cooperating with investigators. They were interviewed over the weekend. So we will have to see where that goes.

BROWN: All right, Andy McCabe, thank you -- Wolf.

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

Women's health issues coming up at the White House with the first lady, Melania Trump. We will have details.

Plus, seniors just got a bump in Social Security benefits. Is it enough? We will "Make It Make Sense." That's ahead.

And one-on-one with the former U.S. Ambassador to NATO. Kurt Volker will join us in THE SITUATION ROOM on the growing rift between President Trump and Ukraine's President Zelenskyy and how it's impacting America's role on the world stage.

That's all new in the next hour.

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