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The Brief with Jim Sciutto
CNN International: Putin Vows More Infrastructure Attacks; Settler Attacks Reported Across West Bank During Olive Harvest; Israeli Firm Allegedly Spies On Al Jazeera; Protesters Take To The Streets Of New Delhi, Tirana And Paris; Oregon School Shooting; New White House Press Secretary Fired. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired October 16, 2026 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST, "THE BRIEF": Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington, and
you're watching "The Brief."
Just ahead this hour, Russian President Vladimir Putin vows yet more strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure. His comments come as the relationship
between Kyiv and Washington fractures, plus new allegations an Israeli firm spied on the news network Al Jazeera by placing no-click ads that
penetrated their electronic devices. We'll get the details. And President Donald Trump fires his new press secretary just five days after hiring her,
ending Katie Zacharia's turbulent stint at the White House.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is vowing yet more war on Ukraine during his visit to a military command post.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): In response to strikes by the Kyiv authorities against our industrial and fuel and energy
sector facilities, the Russian armed forces continue to carry out strikes against Ukraine's military industrial complex and infrastructure
facilities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: The Kremlin released that video on the very same day that Putin spoke to Pope Leo, where he was in the hospital, expressing concern about
the humanitarian situation in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian City of Oleshky. This comes amid a growing rift between Kyiv and Washington.
Earlier today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised European leaders at a summit in Belgium.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I'm so thankful that we have such huge support from E.U. Council Commission and leaders, real leaders, so
that they stay with us from the very beginning of this war. It's crucial and we count on their support.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: He added that Starshield has not yet fully been restored. It is the military-grade version of Elon Musk's Starlink Internet service. The
restrictions disrupted Ukrainian air defenses as Russia was attacking. President Trump says he was not behind the slowdown in Starshield. A
bipartisan group of senators has sent a letter to the Defense Department Inspector General demanding an investigation.
Joining me now from Kyiv is photojournalist Robert Spangel. Robert, good to have you on tonight.
ROBERT SPANGLE, PHOTOJOURNALIST: Great to be here.
SCIUTTO: You spend a lot of time there, weeks on end, and have been going for some time. I just wonder, given the public comments we're seeing,
Zelenskyy today praising Europe's real leaders seems quite clearly showing his, well, his loss of trust, frankly, in the U.S. here. From Ukrainian's
perspective, is the relationship with the U.S. broken at this point?
SPANGLE: I think it's fair to say that as soon as we had missiles landing in Kyiv without the usual prior warning, which came from American
intelligence, there was a massive just storm of speculation amongst Ukrainians as to what had caused the breakdown or whether this was some
kind of glitch. But the consensus now amongst Ukrainians is that the intelligence is off and it may not come back in the foreseeable future. So,
there's definitely a rift.
SCIUTTO: I know that Ukraine has been looking for alternatives to the support that the U.S. provides. I mean, they've been trying to replace the
Patriot system, but it just takes time, right? And there's nothing at this point that can intercept those Russian ballistics like Patriots. Also, for
intelligence gathering, and they're getting some help from Europe.
But when you speak to Ukrainian officials, do they believe that those alternatives can undo what U.S. support does?
SPANGLE: I don't think that there's a sense that there are any immediate alternatives that are going to be available in a -- you know, in a scale of
months or quarters or probably even years. The kind of two-factor default here, one, a loss of early warning. And then on the other hand, the near
depletion or complete depletion of the Patriot missile batteries means there's no early warning system and also no defense. And there isn't
anything on the horizon that's going to fill in any of those blanks.
SCIUTTO: The speed restrictions that were imposed on the Starshield, you know, the military-grade version of Starlink, as I understand it, if they
can't move their drones fast enough to respond to incoming, particularly the jet-powered Russian drones, they can't hit them then. Can you explain
to folks, from where you're sitting and also given that you're a former Marine, what those disruptions mean for Ukraine's air defenses?
[18:05:00]
SPANGLE: Well, for the air defenses, for drones, and keep in mind, these are not the drones that the Russians were using six months ago or years
ago. These are jet-powered drones, so they're going twice the speed of the previous ones. When they're diving, they can be in an excess of 600 or 700
kilometers per hour.
At those speeds, traditional anti-aircraft, which are sort of like heavier, medium machine guns, really aren't effective. And you need the coordinating
benefits of satellite communications, and you also need the weapons that those enable. And with the throttling of those speeds, and some people even
have said that the satellite connectivity was just outright gone for a while, there really aren't alternatives to that.
SCIUTTO: I spoke to a 23-year-old Ukrainian yesterday from Kyiv who says that she believes, and many of her friends and family believe, that they've
been abandoned and that the world is forgetting about them. I'm curious, in your contacts with Ukrainians, do they say the same thing? And do they
respond to that with kind of further pride and strength and resistance, or are they worried that this might all fall apart?
SPANGLE: You know, the Ukrainians have a pretty interesting outlook on adversity. And I don't think I've ever seen any of them lose hope. They
always say, oh, they're going to find a way. Even this late into the war, and with the amount of political turns that have occurred, they're still
very grateful every time they find out you're a foreigner or you're oppressed. So, I don't think the spirits have sort of turned against the
aid that comes from the U.S. or from Europe.
But there is a huge looming question of how Ukrainian civilians are going to get through this winter, because there isn't any infrastructure left. As
of yesterday, the City of Kyiv acknowledged that they no longer have the ability to produce electricity at all. And that's -- you know, that's
historically unprecedented.
SCIUTTO: Now, for you personally, someone who's been there for some time, what is the impact of the lack of warning for these missiles? Because as
you say, Ukrainians are convinced, it seems, that, you know, that the intel that used to come from the U.S. that gave some time, right, to get into
shelters just isn't there anymore. How does that affect how you live and work in Kyiv?
SPANGLE: Well, in the past, you had probably a minimum of 10 and more likely not 20- or 25-minutes heads up when a missile was coming in, right?
And the missiles are really truly the dangerous thing. That's extremely disruptive for basically anyone who lives in Ukraine. But it also happens
so many times a day that, you know, how much can you adjust your life, right? If you're living under 12 or 16 or 20 hours of air raids, can you
spend your entire working day in a, you know, a bomb shelter? Probably not.
For journalists, it's become incredibly complicated because we no longer have the heads up that we did in the past for double strike attacks. So, if
we're going to go report on something, we have much less certainty that we're going to have two- or three-minutes warning that another missile or
another drone is coming in. So, it's made our job more dangerous and we probably won't know how dangerous until I guess there's casualties.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Until it's too late. Robert Spangel, thanks so much for joining and please do your best to stay safe.
SCIUTTO: Thank you for having me. I will.
SCIUTTO: Now, to the occupied West Bank, where a group of Israeli settlers attacked a group of Palestinians who were going to harvest olives. Also,
there, Heidi Levine, a photojournalist for the Washington Post. Levine says that settlers kicked her while she was on the ground. She was then rushed
to the hospital. Witnesses who spoke to the Washington Post said Israeli soldiers watched and did nothing. The assault is just one in a wave of
violent attacks by settlers across the West Bank. Jeremy Diamond has this report from Jerusalem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, if you look at Israeli settler violence in the West Bank over the last three years, it has been
steadily rising, doubling over the course of the last three years, where we're now seeing some 200 attacks a month against Palestinians in the West
Bank.
And what we are also certainly seeing now is that journalists in the West Bank identified with press vests on them and helmets, as Heidi Levine was
today, are also being targeted by these Israeli settlers. And that's exactly what happened to Heidi Levine, a veteran photojournalist who has a
lot of experience in the field, including in the West Bank, as she was surrounded by a group of Israeli settlers who pushed her to the ground,
beat her for several minutes before ripping her cameras, her gear, passport, her phone off of her body and stealing that stuff away. Leaving
on the ground bloodied, bruised and very much in shock.
[18:10:00]
Several other journalists and activists and medics in the area then came in to get her out as settlers tried to pursue them once again. She was taken
to a hospital where she's been treated for moderate injuries. She was clearly shaken up as she spoke with several journalists at that hospital.
And she described this attack lasting for several minutes. She said that the settlers simply seemed like monsters attacking her. And she also said
that she doesn't have any faith that these settlers will ultimately be prosecuted by the Israeli police.
And that's because we have seen a continuous cycle of impunity in the West Bank, as only about 6 percent of all cases in the West Bank of Israeli
settler violence against Palestinians are ultimately resulting in any kind of indictments.
Now, Heidi Levine was attacked alongside multiple other Palestinians in different parts of the West Bank today. We saw several people who were
bloodied in attacks. We saw multiple vehicles, including a fire truck that were set on fire.
And part of this is because we are now in olive harvest season in the West Bank. And it seems like just like last year, olive harvest season in the
West Bank is becoming synonymous with a dramatic increase in Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians, as these settlers have increased the
number of outposts and settlements in the West Bank and are now also trying to keep Palestinians from harvesting their olives, oftentimes on privately
owned Palestinian lands.
The Israeli military, for its part, has said that these are quote, grave and unacceptable acts. But we have seen time and again, as the Israeli
military has said that they are going to confront this Israeli settler violence, yet it still continues.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: Joining us now is Jasper Nathaniel. He is a journalist who was there as this attack happened and in fact, rushed to help Levine. Jasper,
so good to have you on. First, just an opportunity here to tell our viewers exactly what you saw.
JASPER NATHANIEL, JOURNALIST: Well, it was the day of the olive harvest in a village called Abu Falah, which is east of Ramallah. There is a settler
outpost on top of hill, right on the outskirts of the village. An outpost is a settlement that is not even authorized by Israel. So, it's illegal
under international and also under Israeli law. But the government knows it's there, the army knows it's there and they allow it to remain there and
they actually support it, fund it, arm the settlers.
So, anyway, the olive harvest is typically a peaceful celebratory family affair for Palestinians. But lately, and especially in a place like Abu
Falah, where you can literally see the settlers, it's just the men, the family, the women and children stay at home and they're rushing as fast as
they can to get the olives off the trees.
Because as they were doing that, we were literally watching the settlers on the top of the hill, put on their masks, they're all wearing black, pick up
their clubs. I mean, we watched them prepare for this attack. Maybe an hour into the harvest, they came charging down the hill, throwing stones, they
have these like slings that they use to launch, not just like rocks, like really big stones. They launched in a really long way. And a lot of the
people in the olive fields retreated, but the olive fields are the last thing between the settlers and the village.
And so, if the settlers were able to get through, they would in all likelihood gone and launched a pogrom on the village. And so, a number of
young Palestinian men basically stepped up. And just with stones, they were able to hold off the settlers. And so, for a while, there was a sort of
like, the settlers were pushing forward with their stones, the Palestinians were pushing back. And then the army arrived, the Israeli military.
The military, rather than stopping the settlers, who again, were all wearing masks and had weapons on them, firing tear gas at the Palestinians.
And I was embedded with the Palestinians as was Heidi Levine. So, then we have to retreat. And then a settler truck comes racing down the hill, a
white pickup truck. And in the back, there are several settlers in all black with machine guns, firing their machine guns. So, indistinguishable
from ISIS.
[18:15:00]
So, now, you know, there's tear gas, there's stones and there's machine gun fire. So, everybody is just in a full retreat now. And the settlers are
charging forward with the -- you know, the IDF providing cover for them. And as that retreat was happening, Heidi got caught. And, you know, when
the tear gas cleared enough that we could --
SCIUTTO: OK. Question. Jasper, just as you're telling, by the way, this account is enormously valuable. And I'm just wondering if you could talk a
little bit more about what's going on right now. When Heidi got caught in the midst of this group of settlers, she says, and you said elsewhere, that
she was deliberately attacked and surrounded and repeatedly attacked. Tell us exactly what you saw as they came upon her.
NATHANIEL: I mean, it was barbaric is the word that comes to mind. I mean, there were maybe five or six surrounding her. These are not sticks. These
are clubs. I mean, these are weapons. And they were standing over her, beating her over and over with these clubs.
At one point, I saw somebody, I thought maybe he was helping her up. He like grabbed her by, her vest and pulled her up. And he held her there so
another settler could then kick her and knock her back down. And they continued beating her and clubbing her. They stole all of her equipment off
of her cameras, her phone, her wallet. And, you know, it was truly horrific. I mean, I was worried that she was going to be killed.
So, me and a couple others were, you know, trying to get back to her, except, you know, we were running through tear gas and stones and machine
gun fire at this point. Again, a group of young Palestinian men --
SCIUTTO: Machine gun fire from where? You said soldiers came, but you had said earlier that they were standing by. Are you saying they were
participating?
NATHANIEL: No, sorry. So, the initial machine gun fire was the settlers. Later, after the attack on Heidi, the soldiers, rather than going after the
settlers who had just, you know, launched this vicious attack, went into the village and started firing their guns and shot a 54-year-old
Palestinian man who works for the village municipality in the leg. The bullet shattered his femur. He's now in hospital, going to need to have a
major surgery tomorrow.
So, during the attack on Heidi and during that part of the attack, it was the settlers firing their machine guns. Later, it was the soldiers. But,
you know, when I, the reason I was able to get to Heidi is, again, it's because this group of young Palestinian men stepped up and provided cover.
I mean, all they have is rocks.
And, you know, to be clear, if one of these young men was caught throwing a rock, they would -- they could do 20 years in prison if they were not
killed by -- you know, killed on the spot for it. If they had not -- to be very clear, if those young Palestinian men had not thrown those rocks,
Heidi could be dead. And I would not have been able to get to her. But, you know, fortunately, they stepped up.
SCIUTTO: You have seen Heidi -- I understand she's in the hospital now. Have you seen her since? Do you have any report on her condition as well?
NATHANIEL: Yes, yes. I was just at the hospital with her. I mean, look, she's, she's like every bit as wonderful as every -- all of her colleagues
say she is. You know, I just met her today. But, you know, she's holding my hand and calling me her new friend. And she remembers everything. She can,
you know, recite it in vivid detail.
But she has, you know, severe injuries, actually significantly worse than initially thought. After they did more testing, they found she has a broken
rib, a broken vertebra. She -- her finger is, is completely mangled down to the bone. She needs surgery on that. And the doctors believe that, I mean,
she has cuts and bruises all over her body. And the doctors believe that at least one of the cuts may be a stab wound in her back.
So, I mean, she's like -- she's in bad shape. I mean, this is not -- if she did not have a helmet on, she'd be dead. If she was Palestinian, I think
she'd be dead. You know, she's lucky to have, you know, gotten out in the state that she's in.
SCIUTTO: Well, Jasper Nathaniel, we appreciate you sharing your eyewitness account. And we're glad you're safe as well. As we've noted in CNN's
reporting prior, this is not the first instance of settler violence in the West Bank. Thanks for joining. Jasper, we appreciate the time.
NATHANIEL: Yes, my pleasure. Thanks.
SCIUTTO: Well, now to disturbing new allegations that an Israeli firm spied on the news network Al Jazeera. Discover Tech allegedly used online ads to
track targets and help hack into their devices. The most troubling part is that users did not even need to click on the ads for those programs to
begin spying. Instead, the ads simply needed to load onto the user's device. This, according to two separate reports from Canadian cyber
watchdog group Citizen Lab and American advertising security firm Confiant. In a statement, Al Jazeera condemned the attacks and demanded
accountability.
[18:20:00]
The network, however, is not alone. The ads also appear to have been shown to users in the Pentagon, the United Nations, NATO, and in many other
government and high security settings. They are also ubiquitous in the Palestinian territories.
Bill Marczak is a senior research fellow at Citizen Lab, and he joins me now. Bill, so good to have you here. First, your investigation describes
what you call the first known case of targeted advertising used to deliver zero-click spyware. Explain the significance of that, because to date, of
course, the guidance had been to protect you from programs like this, just don't click on unknown links, et cetera. But this one didn't even need the
click.
BILL MARCZAK, SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW, CITIZEN LAB: That's right. There's nothing the target needs to do in order to become infected. Just have the
ad pushed to their device by the attacker, and then malicious code runs in the background, and the device can get infected with spyware.
SCIUTTO: How did you draw the line back to Israel for this software?
MARCZAK: Well, it's a great question, and it's always really, really tricky to do the sort of attribution for any cyber-attack, especially one which is
so ephemeral. The ad is there on screen one second, and the next it's gone. But what we were able to do is look at the network logs that Al Jazeera was
able to capture during the attack.
And we saw that right before the spyware activated, there were a bunch of hits to domain names that were registered to these heretofore obscure
Israeli ads company called Discover-Tech.
SCIUTTO: If no click is necessary, is there any defense against a software or a program like this? Because in my years covering this kind of thing,
the digital hygiene advice of them, don't click. So, I mean, if you don't have to click, is there any defense?
MARCZAK: Well, unfortunately, there's not any very good defenses, and that's sort of the problem. There are some things that users can do to make
it a little bit trickier to get targeted in these sorts of attacks. For example, every mobile phone has what's called an advertising identifier.
Now, Apple and Google allow you to turn this off or delete it in the settings, like the privacy settings on your phone. So, that's a good step,
but it's not a silver bullet. There are still ways that advertisers can track and deliver ads using identifiers that they synchronize between
different companies. So, it's a huge problem, and I don't think that there's really much that individuals can do at the end of the day. It's a
systemic problem with the online ads ecosystem.
Look, the online ads ecosystem is designed to enable advertisers, meaning anybody who has cash, to push not only images and videos, but also code
that runs within the apps on the websites where you see these ads. And until that design, that architecture of the ads ecosystem changes due to
force or pressure from regulators or researchers, we're going to keep having these sorts of attacks.
SCIUTTO: Al Jazeera's technology team first noticed unusual activity back in 2024. It continued into 2025. I mean, that's a long period of time. Do
you -- can you monitor or quantify in any way the number of devices compromised or the kind of data or information that was captured by this?
MARCZAK: Well, the network logs showed that at least 45 devices within Al Jazeera were infected and data was exfiltrated from them. Now, the spyware
that was delivered was from a company that was formerly known as Candiru, now known as Integrity Labs, with new U.S. owners. And their spyware, we
weren't able to fully analyze the payload. Again, you know, the spyware companies don't want their spyware to be captured and analyzed. So, it
exists for a short period of time and then self-destructs on the computers.
But we did have a sample of this spyware from 2021. So, we have a glimpse of what sort of data it collects. And it gives pretty much unparalleled
visibility and access into everything on a device. Pretty much the --
SCIUTTO: But if this is going -- if these ads showed up not just on Al Jazeera devices, but inside the Pentagon, the U.N., I mean, that sounds
like the numbers could be astronomic.
MARCZAK: Yes. It's hard to understand how many total targets of this attack there were. But what we know about the way that this operates is that the
ads were at an enormous scale. So, hundreds of millions of impressions, meaning hundreds of millions of these ads were shown on devices over a
period of a few months.
[18:25:00]
Now, just seeing the ad doesn't mean that the devices is ultimately hacked and the sophisticated spyware is installed. But even devices that don't get
hacked, that aren't the, quote/unquote, "real targets," there is still quite a bit of invasive data collection from those devices.
So, we're talking on the order of, you know, millions and millions of devices from which these ads have scraped the internet. And we know get
their hands on basically in the browser or the app. So, cookies, trying to de-anonymize the user if they're using a VPN to find out their real IP or
their phone number. So, very invasive data collection for -- at a huge scale and then a smaller number of targets targeted with a very
sophisticated payload.
SCIUTTO: That's -- I mean, the scale is just beyond. Bill Marczak, thanks for walking us through it. I'm sure it's not the first -- the last rather
we hear about this.
MARCZAK: Thanks, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Well, around the world, protesters are voicing their anger, frustration and solidarity from India to France. In New Delhi, more
protests expected Saturday after police detained the leader of India's so- called Cockroach movement. The youth-led Cockroach Janta Party and student organizations have held almost daily protests this month, demanding the
resignation of India's election chief.
In Albania, protesters marched through Tirana, clashing with police on the fourth day of demonstrations in the capital there. A student-led campaign
has grown increasingly violent. Protesters demanding that the prime minister, Edi Rama, resign. They accuse officials of corruption and
neglecting education. The prime minister says he's not going anywhere.
In France, French authorities are preparing for nationwide protests there on Saturday. Trade unions and the famous Yellow Vest movement are now
expected to join student demonstrators frustrated by teacher shortages run down school buildings as well.
Here in the U.S., we are learning more about yesterday's deadly shooting at an Oregon elementary school. The bystander who shot and killed the shooter
has now been identified as Caleb Giacomo, the father of two children who attend the school.
On Thursday, police say a 16-year-old opened fire inside a special needs classroom at the Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon. Three
children, age five, eight, and 11, were killed, along with a teacher. The shooter was a former special needs student at that school. His mother spoke
to CNN and apologized to the victim's parents, but would not comment on how her son obtained the gun he used in the shooting.
Still to come, more red arrows on Wall Street, the NASDAQ closing out its worst week in months as A.I. fears intensify.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:30:00]
SCIUTTO: Welcome back. In today's Business Breakout now, another tech selloff on Wall Street, the NASDAQ tumbling more than 2 percent on
continued fears about the A.I. industry's heavy borrowing and future chip demand. The NASDAQ and S&P closed out their worst week since June.
Also, today, oil prices shot higher after new Iranian attacks in the Strait of Hormuz. Brent Crude settling up more than three and a half percent to
its highest level since back in May. Brent touched $110 a barrel at one point during the session, finishing just below that.
Well, court filings show that Elon Musk has settled remaining lawsuits stemming from his super PAC's $1 million voter giveaways during the 2024
presidential campaign. Musk was sued by multiple voters who claimed they were duped about their chances to win the sweepstakes. They say the money
was not given out at random, as Musk claimed. His lawyers later conceded that winners were chosen based on whether they'd be strong spokespeople for
Republicans. Musk is not commenting on the settlements. He previously denied claims the sweepstakes were fraudulent, but now we have the facts.
Musk continues to pump huge amounts of money into Republican campaigns during the midterm election cycle. He has donated some $276 million to
Republican races so far. New filings show the bulk of that money has gone to the main super PAC supporting Senate Republican candidates. The big
beneficiary appears to have been Ken Paxton, who is in a tight race in Texas with Democrat James Talarico.
Still coming up on "The Brief," after only five days on the job, White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia is out. We'll discuss this record
short tenure next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:35:00]
SCIUTTO: Welcome back to "The Brief." I'm Jim Sciutto, and here are the international headlines we're watching today.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is vowing to keep up strikes on Ukraine's infrastructure. He spoke during a visit to a military command post today.
The Russian president spoke to the Pope by phone earlier. The Pope, who is recovering from lung cancer surgery, expressed his concern about the grave
humanitarian situation in a Ukrainian city occupied by Russia.
Dozens of Israeli settlers attacked a group of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during the olive harvest. Heidi Levine, a veteran photojournalist
for the Washington Post, was also there. Levine and other witnesses say settlers kicked her while she was on the ground, even though she was
clearly identifiable as a journalist. She was rushed to a hospital, you see her there, for treatment in Ramallah.
More protests expected Saturday in New Delhi after police detained the leader of India's Cockroach movement. The youth-led Cockroach Janta Party
and other student organizations have held almost daily protests this month, demanding the resignation of India's election chief. The protesters believe
he removed 130 million names from voter rolls, which they say therefore favor the Indian prime minister's party.
White House advisers say President Trump has now fired his new press secretary, Katie Zacharia. Her first news briefing on Tuesday was shaky,
and her false claims about being an attorney added further to scrutiny. President Trump said he encouraged her to reconsider the job.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, Katie's been treated very badly by the media very badly, very unfairly, I think. And I just spoke to her about it.
I said, Katie, is this for you? Because, you know, she's been treated very wrongly. And she's a nice person, very nice person. I've watched her for
years on television. But I said, Is this for you, Katie? Because honestly, you don't need this. You don't have to be treated -- the -- I would say the
fake news, but just generally the media's been very rough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: The president held a rally in Georgia just a few hours ago, but there was no pool coverage by the major television networks. This after the
White House, once again, blocked CNN from traveling on Air Force One and fulfilling its pool duties, despite a court order.
Joining me now, CNN political commentator and Republican strategist, Shermichael Singleton. It's so good to have you, Shermichael.
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good to see you, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Lots to ask you about. I'm just going to first ask you about that. The, the court ordered him to stop this, but he's still -- I mean, is he
ignoring the courts at this point?
SINGLETON: I mean, look I got to tell you, this close to the midterms, what, 19 days, 18 days away, the president is crisscrossing all over the
country. Georgia's a critical state. We had Herschel Walker go against Raphael Warnock, which is why we ultimately lost. Now, you have Ossoff
raising 20-plus million dollars. I think our candidate has raised about 2.6. He's not doing very well.
And so, the president's strategy, which in part has been implemented by Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is to try to turn out those low-propensity
voters which we do not account for in the polling data and the survey data. That's why I've always argued that the delta we see, I think, is variable.
Because if you're not accounting for those people, it's really difficult to see how accurate some of these races are.
That said, you want CNN and MS NOW, and all other outlets there reporting on what the president is saying so that those low-propensity voters can see
some of those stories as they're going about their day-to-day lives.
SCIUTTO: What do you think of the president's strategy here? Because as you know, there are a lot of candidates who are running away from the president
and directly contradicting him and don't want him around. Seems his strategy as well, for the low propensity voters, we'll have a turnout
strategy here. What wins out, do you think, in the final --
SINGLETON: Yes, I think you have to have both of those things in tandem. I think you have to allow candidates like Mike Rogers, Susan Collins, Senator
Marshall, I believe, out of Kansas, have whatever degree of separations they -- separation they need from the president and his policies if it's
going to lead to some type of a strategic advantage.
At the same time, though, you still want the president crisscrossing the country, talking directly to his MAGA base. These are folks, Jim, who
typically don't vote. They're not active participants in the political process. But they do move every single time Trump is on the ballot. We know
this.
And so, with him not being on the ballot, the hope is that him trying to motivate them, talking about some of his "campaign promises,"
quote/unquote, will help turn those voters out.
SCIUTTO: The trouble is his campaign -- he didn't deliver on his campaign promises. I mean, if his central one was to make life more affordable, he's
not, right?
SINGLETON: Yes, yes. That's a fair critique.
SCIUTTO: And if it was, I'm not going to get you involved in, you know, endless wars --
SINGLETON: Foreign conflicts, and here we are.
SCIUTTO: -- here we are.
SINGLETON: No, that's a very fair critique.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
SINGLETON: But I think what the president is going to say, he's going to avoid those things. He'll talk about immigration. He'll say, look at what
I've done at the border. We've removed a lot of violent people. That is a big deal among his base.
SCIUTTO: He also removed a lot of people who weren't violent at all.
SINGLETON: But the base doesn't -- I hate to say this, Jim, but the base are not motivated by that.
[18:40:00]
That doesn't necessarily concern them, I would argue.
SCIUTTO: Hispanic voters are motivated by it.
SINGLETON: Sure, but I don't think we're going to win those voters this midterm. I think it's going to take a whole other different type of
Republican to articulate to those voters and try to win them back. I do think they're persuadable, though. They were Democrat, Republican, back
Democrat. Maybe we can win them back.
SCIUTTO: Back to y cycle, yes.
SINGLETON: Correct.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
SINGLETON: So, that said, I think there is something to say to the strategy. My question, though, is, Jim, can we turn out enough of those
people to make a numeric difference when we're looking at some of these races and it's a two-point difference between a Democrat and a Republican?
SCIUTTO: Where do you stand? As you and I know, there's been a lot of bad polling in recent cycles. It tends to be better in the midterm elections
than the general elections, but still, you and I wouldn't bet the farm on it, right?
SINGLETON: I would not.
SCIUTTO: So, where do you stand on the horizon? Do you believe the polls showing a blue wave hold up?
SINGLETON: No. I don't believe the polls showcasing a blue wave because I don't see where the wave would come from. When you look at the
congressional maps, for example, this isn't 2018 or 2006 where you see 50, 60 possible seats where a party can flip those seats. This time around,
you're seeing the competitiveness of 20, 25 seats, which I actually will cede to Democrats, by the way, Jim, but I just don't see what we would
traditionally define as a wave. But the competitiveness is there, though.
SCIUTTO: OK. Let's talk about the press secretary just for a moment here. Listen, I don't want to, you know, dump on anybody. This is highly personal
and it's very public, but President Trump chose her. He did. Is this on him rather than her?
SINGLETON: They didn't vet her, Jim. They didn't vet her. And I would even say if she was skilled at the job, as skilled as Karoline Leavitt, whatever
you may think about her, I think people would have asked her about this and she would have said, look, you know, I probably misspoke a couple of times.
I shouldn't have. And it would have been forgiven because of her skill set at doing the job effectively.
But I think you have that critique of not really being a lawyer but then also not being good at the job. Both of those things can't coexist at the
same time. And so, yes, the president chose someone without telling his team we need to properly vet this person. I'll bet you this, though,
whomever they choose next, they're going to vet them like heck.
SCIUTTO: Yes, yes.
SINGLETON: They have to.
SCIUTTO: Is -- I mean, there's been some reporting about Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, being the next in the crosshairs. Is that --
SINGLETON: I don't believe that to be true, and I've actually reached out to a couple of folks about that. Susie Wiles is literally overseeing the
midterm strategy. And, again, her theory, which I think is an accurate one, if you turn out the low propensity voters, it allows Republicans to be more
competitive than what the currently public available data suggests, and I think she's right about that.
SCIUTTO: OK. Well, we'll know in two weeks and three days.
SINGLETON: We will.
SCIUTTO: Shermichael Singleton --
SINGLETON: Good to see you, man.
SCIUTTO: -- thanks so much for joining us.
SINGLETON: It's always a pleasure, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Appreciate it. Just ahead, the secret list of who exactly is paying for the White House ballroom. The Washington Post is out with an
exclusive report on the massive amounts of money raised from corporate America. I'll speak with one of the reporters who broke the story.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:45:00]
SCIUTTO: The Washington Post published an exclusive story this week about who exactly is funding Trump's White House ballroom project. The Post
reports that private donors have committed more than $330 million so far Some of the biggest names in tech are on that list, including NVIDIA and
Apple, both kicking in $25 million. Google, $22 million. Microsoft and Palantir, $10 million each.
Outside the tech space, the Adelson family, one of the most dependable donors to the Republican Party, is giving $25 million, as is Dish Network
chairman Charles Ergen. One prominent person not on the list, President Trump himself. He said today that he will chip in when and if private
donations run out. He has suggested in the past, however, that he would be the one paying exclusively for the project.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And I'm paying for it. I'm paying for it. The country is not, and that's an expensive ballroom.
It would actually be a beautiful addition. It's going to cost nothing. I'll spend the whole thing myself.
I think there'll be nothing like it. And it's being paid for 100 percent by me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Jonathan O'Connell joins me now. He's one of the investigative journalists who wrote the story. I mean, right there, the president was
lying, of course, when he said that he would pay for it himself. Your reporting uncovered an internal spreadsheet documenting that third of a
billion dollars in private donations to the White House ballroom. Tell us what was the most significant revelation, not public, prior to your story.
JONATHAN O'CONNELL, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Oh, prior to the story. I mean, well, so a year ago, when he sort of announced
that there were several dozen companies and individuals who had put up money, you know, he used those names, but didn't say how much anybody had
given. And since then, you know, it's been a secret for really a whole year about who really gave money and how much money it was.
I think the biggest surprise, I mean, some of it is like just the enormous sums that are being contributed, especially at a time when, you know, many
Americans are obviously struggling financially. You know, I guess a big surprise for me, Jim, was the fact that you could choose to remain
anonymous throughout this process rather than have any sort of, you know, accountability or transparency to it. That was a big surprise for us, I
think.
SCIUTTO: The White House identified 37 donors. Your reporting has revealed at least $77 million came from donors who still, who requested and still
have anonymity. I mean, presents obvious conflict of interest dangers, right? Because we don't know what business they had before the White House
as they gave that money.
O'CONNELL: Exactly right. I mean, they're not anonymous now thanks to the story the other day. But yes, this is the -- I mean, the thing that
overshadowing all of this really is the Democrats thinking they will win either the House and/or the Senate and have the opportunity to actually
investigate some of this stuff. I mean, many Democrats in the Hill, top Democrats have been livid that these companies have been able to provide
funding for this project anonymously, not knowing who was really giving it all this time.
And I've written many, many letters to donors and possible donors and the companies who demolished the swing and are rebuilding it now. But, you
know, none of that has really made much of a mark. They have, they don't have any control.
But if they do, if the Dems were to win the House or the Senate, it could issue subpoenas and drag people in front of them for hearings. Like, it's
obviously already a big topic in the midterm -- you know, the midterm elections right now where people are out on their campaign talking about
this vanity project to them. It's going to be a big issue come January if the Dems win either side of the Congress.
SCIUTTO: You said that companies and executives with federal government contracts accounted for at least half the donations. How did the White
House respond to what are obvious conflicts of interest?
O'CONNELL: Well, they deny that there are conflicts of interest for one. They think, you know, they would, the way they would describe this is
people and companies who are contributing to a charity for a very patriotic cause, which is to rebuild the White House with a brand-new ballroom.
And they deny that there is any conflict of interest in that. There are previous instances in which the same process had been used to renovate the
Rose Garden and rebuild the White House's tennis center. But the amounts of money were so small then that it just seems very different to people.
[18:50:00]
I think certainly a lot of Americans and certainly many of our readers that to raise a third of a billion dollars anonymously and build a ballroom that
Congress never approved seems like a different sort of endeavor than trying to renovate the Rose Garden.
SCIUTTO: Well, speaking of conflicts of interest, you have this banker, Julio Herrera Velutini, just as an example, pardoned by Trump for bribery
after his daughter committed $3.5 million to the ballroom. I mean, I mean, how far apart were those two things?
O'CONNELL: I mean, I think it's a few months because I think his pardon was in January. I mean, his daughter, who did not respond to our calls or
emails, and neither did her father, she's in her mid-20s and committed to donating millions of dollars to the ballroom. She hadn't been a political
goner to anybody except for Mr. Trump, where she recently also gave a number of millions of dollars to his campaign also before her father was
pardoned.
So, really striking. It was completely unknown that she had donated to the ballroom ahead of time. And when he received a pardon, it was unknown that
his family member or daughter had donated. So, it was one of the more striking ones.
I mean, like you said, a lot of these companies and individuals have business before the administration or business before the federal
government. They're looking for contracts, they're being investigated. And we can't know for sure that they're making a donation with those things in
mind, but these potential conflicts are certainly on the minds for a lot of Americans, I think.
SCIUTTO: Yes. And listen, if you're looking for quid pro quo, they get stuff in return, at least they got stuff, right? Whether there's a direct
connection is another question, but it's right before our eyes. Jonathan O'Connell, thanks so much for joining.
O'CONNELL: Thank you, Jim, appreciate it.
SCIUTTO: And we'll be right back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Well, we're now expecting to see Pope Leo in public on Sunday for the first time since he underwent lung cancer surgery just this week. He's
planning to lead the traditional Angelus prayer. Earlier today the Pope held a private mass in the hospital where he's been recovering from
surgery. The Vatican says his latest blood tests and x-rays show a, quote, "steady improvement."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): But in your opinion are these photos of him celebrating mass alone today a good sign.
CARDINAL PIETRO PAROLIN, VATICAN SECRETARY OF STATE (through translator): Certainly. Absolutely. It seems that all the information points in that
direction. The surgery went well. The hospital stay is going well and the recovery is too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: And finally, tonight, in a cosmic first astronomers say they have identified a star with a rare green glow. It is the dense remnant of a
dying star known as a white dwarf located some 284 light years from Earth. Scientists say sodium in the atmosphere of the star changes the light
around it causing that ghostly green hue. Researchers say the discovery reveals how the extreme conditions around these types of stars can produce
colors they never expected. Cue the superhero origin stories.
[18:55:00]
Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington. You've been watching "The Brief." Please do stay with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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