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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
OpenAI Cancels Release Of Newest Model Due To Safety Concerns; Top AI Executives To Meet At White House On Tuesday; Prosecutor Reopens Probe Into Cornell Gang Rape Allegations; Mexico Charts Harsh Conditions As Hurricane Polo Nearby Cost; Bloomberg Screentime To Discuss AI's Impact In Hollywood; Children in U.S. Immigration Courts Alone as They Fight Deportation; Ousted Disney CEO Airs Grievances in New Book; Lebron James Sets Expectations High with 76ers. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired September 29, 2026 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Period ends in about a month. Thanks for watching the first hour of The Story Is. The next hour starts right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, The Story Is with Elex Michaelson.
MICHAELSON: And I'm Elex Michaelson live in Los Angeles. Coming up, the story is, AI safety concerns are growing across the industry as President Trump prepares to meet with top AI leaders at the White House.
The story is case reopened after nearly two years after an alleged gang rape at Cornell University. Prosecutors are investigating again. The move follows a civil lawsuit filed by the accuser.
And the story is an inside look in a CNN exclusive. We take you inside an immigration court hearing where dozens of young children are seeking to stay in the US.
But we begin this hour with new developments in the effort to regulate artificial intelligence. One of the pioneers in the industry, OpenAI now says it will not release its latest model because it doesn't meet the bar for safety.
Company executives say the model, called chat GPT 6.1 Astra, wasn't doing enough to stay within its scope and authorization. The product's cancellation comes amid increased calls for government oversight of AI and calls from within the admitted industry for slowdown of development.
OpenAI as well as major competitors like Anthropic, Google and Meta, have all reported models that have either breached their testing environments or tried to do so.
Meanwhile, in the hours ahead, President Trump will host a meeting at the White House with the leaders of the top AAI companies. Looking at a live picture of the White House right now, the heads of Anthropic, Nvidia, Palantir, OpenAI and Meta's Mark Zuckerberg among those expected to attend. Sources say the meeting is meant to get the government and top officials on the same page in regards to AI oversight. But what page is that?
Joining me live is tech expert Lori Schwartz, who is the CEO and founder of Story Tech. Lori, welcome back to The Story Is. Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House talked about AI and that page. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-KY), U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: Instead of, instead of just smothering this with red tape, which is always the government's reflex and I think would be wrong and frankly, dangerous to national security if we did it here. We want to continue the innovation. We want to keep America's lead over China and all of our other competitors, but we want to make sure that it's being done in a safe way. So, a little oversight, a little transparency, I think would go a long way here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: What do we expect from this meeting?
LORI SCHWARTZ, CEO AND FOUNDER, STORY TECH: I mean, I think it's going to be a lot of trying to get Trump's ear and Wanting some breaks, wanting some official breaks. You know.
MICHAELSON: By breaks you mean what?
SCHWARTZ: Hold, holding back, create some regulations, give us some guardrails, make something official so that they -- all these different companies and their competitors are all aligned on the same page. Because if they're not all aligned, then there's a competitive piece to it, right? So one of them can keep going and get ahead. And so they're all wanting things to slow down, but to all be on the same page.
MICHAELSON: Do they all want the same thing, though?
SCHWARTZ: I mean, I think they all have different business goals and business needs and modes of operation. But yes, they want to be the software solution for AI, you know --
MICHAELSON: Right.
SCHWARTZ: -- and they need -- they need the U.S. to step in.
MICHAELSON: And then this interesting headline we want to put up on the screen didn't quite meet the bar. This is OpenAI not releasing new model due to safety concerns. What do you make of that and what are those safety concerns?
SCHWARTZ: I mean, it's -- it's been in the news and it's also not been in the news that all of these agents are going wild. Right?
MICHAELSON: Right.
SCHWARTZ: There's been a lot of breakouts of agents. So one, from a press perspective, a P.R. perspective, now is not the time to release something new. You know, even if it, you know, has a lot of fanfare, if anything goes wrong, it just goes into the ether of the negative press right now around AI. And there are a lot of models that are having releases and holding back. They were also going to have an IPO and they're holding back on that.
So it's really a -- it's a press call. And then it's also -- they don't know what's happening. I think with their own solutions, you know, that they are holding back because they've seen what it's doing and they're not sure what's going to happen next.
MICHAELSON: Which is scary in itself. And then this headline from Nvidia, which launches a new tool to try to keep its AI agents from going rogue. Let's talk about -- here's how part of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang explained that on X he said, quote, trust and innovation are not in conflict. Safety is how trust is earned.
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We must build not only the most capable AI but the most trusted AI so that this is extraordinary technology can realize its enormous promise for the world. Jensen Huang's been kind of all over the place on this.
SCHWARTZ: Yes.
MICHAELSON: He's on a bit of a media tour. We see him all over the place --
SCHWARTZ: Yes.
MICHAELSON: -- including on CNN in the last few days.
SCHWARTZ: So he doesn't want AI to slow down necessarily, but he recognizes that people are going to be afraid to keep growing and developing these tools on his chips if there isn't some safety protocols. And so what he's basically doing is saying, OK, here's the chip that all your, your stuff is going to live on. I'm going to embed some safety in here so that the hardware, the product is safety so that you'll buy my product because I'm going to guarantee you some safety. And it actually has a double edged sword to it.
It has software on the chip itself, on the processor that's kind of making the rules. And then it has a security guard that's sitting sort of outside of the processor that won't let the agents out if they're not following the rules. So it's sort of like, think of it as there's parents now and then there's a security guard. And so it's going to stop things from getting out.
And he's saying, use my chip, use my stuff, because I will give you that extra security.
MICHAELSON: Do you buy it?
SCHWARTZ: I do buy it. I mean, he's -- he's on top of it, but he's the salesman.
MICHAELSON: Right.
SCHWARTZ: You know.
MICHAELSON: Very good at selling stuff, right?
SCHWARTZ: And it's insanely good timing --
MICHAELSON: Yes.
SCHWARTZ: -- for him to release this right now. And I know this has been in the plans for a while, you know, so.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
SCHWARTZ: And that's the same reason he bought Huggy Face. Get near -- get me near the developers.
MICHAELSON: Sure.
SCHWARTZ: You know, so everything he's doing is very strategic. But you know, we were talking about this before that when you go out and buy a new car, you want a car that has the best seller safety features. So people are going to be looking at which chat bot, which thing has the best safety. Which am I most secure with?
MICHAELSON: Yes.
SCHWARTZ: Right.
MICHAELSON: Which is why Jensen Huang, by numbers, is one of the best business people in the history.
SCHWARTZ: Yes, he really is. Yes.
MICHAELSON: Lori, thanks for coming in. Every day there's new headlines. Not only one, but three.
SCHWARTZ: I just want to say you don't have to be afraid.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
SCHWARTZ: Like the good news about all this news is that people are paying attention.
MICHAELSON: Right.
SCHWARTZ: That regulators are jumping in, people are looking at this.
MICHAELSON: Thank you for making us feel better and for sharing your expertise. We appreciate your time. This story is getting a lot of attention around the country.
Prosecutors in New York are now reopening their criminal investigation into the alleged gang rape of a former Cornell University student after she filed a civil lawsuit earlier this month.
The suit alleges seven fraternity members drugged and raped her in October of 2024. Cornell is accused of not responding properly after she reported the incident to university police. Earlier, CNN spoke to the local district attorney who explained the state's complex legal standards for lack of consent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEW VAN HOUTEN, TOMPKINS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Consent or lack of consent is very much -- very specific. Under New York State law, you either have to be physically compelled or forcible compulsion, physical force, or you have to be physically helpless, which is unconscious, or you have to be mentally incapacitated, which is having been given drugs without your knowledge that rendered you incapable of consenting. None of those things were articulated in her initial statement.
That being said, I don't -- that's what we knew in 2024. Now we understand that she feels differently and we want to talk with her. We want to give her a chance to speak her truth before the grand jury and tell the rest of the story, whatever information that she gained and insight she gained in the last two years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: So in an interview with CNN, the lawyer for the unnamed accuser argued that the alleged incident was in no way consensual.
(BEGIN IDEO CLIP)
THOMAS P. GIUFFRA, ATTORNEY FOR JANE DOE: I don't know how anybody who was grossly intoxicated and drugged can consent to anything. I mean, the fact is she went to the Cornell University police to file a complaint because she believed she was a victim of a crime. If this was consensual, she did wanted to participate, she wouldn't have gone to the police in the first place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: None of the seven fraternity members have been criminally charged. Police in Ithaca, New York, where the school is located, say they were never contacted by the university and only learned of the allegations recently through media reports. We get more on all this now from CNN's Gloria Pazmino.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New York prosecutors are relaunching an investigation into an alleged gang rape at Cornell University. The new review after a former student identified as Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit claiming seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity drugged and sexually assaulted her in October 2024.
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While no criminal charges were filed then, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten says he will now present new evidence to a grand jury. Van Houten told CNN his office didn't bring charges in 2024 because Jane Doe's initial statement, quote, did not allege that she was drugged against her will or gang raped. On the contrary, Jane Doe's statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious and consensual.
His office released only partial statements from her original 2024 statement. Van Houten told CNN his office does not independently investigate crimes.
VAN HOUTEN: We rely on the police to investigate those crimes. And this -- the statement, without blaming her, she told the police candidly what she remembered, and maybe she remembers more now. And if she does, then we want to put that in front of the grand jury.
PAZMINO (voice-over): The civil lawsuit also states that after arriving at the frat house, she was visibly intoxicated and that she had consumed about 10 standard drinks within the past three hours. The lawsuit also includes a screenshot of a group chat where other fraternity members were allegedly invited to join the assault. The D.A. said the screenshot included in the complaint was not provided to his office at the time.
VAN HOUTEN: The text messages were completely vulgar and disgusting, but they had nothing to do with her consent.
PAZMINO (voice-over): CNN has reached out to Cornell University police for comment. It's unclear what other evidence police may have collected. According to the civil complaint, Cornell expelled two of the seven accused fraternity members, while the others received lesser punishments, including suspensions and written assignments. The frat was also barred from campus.
In a statement, Cornell University said, quote, none of the individuals charged were offered the opportunity to write essays as a sole consequence of their involvement. The complainant and respondents had the opportunity to testify and present evidence. At its conclusion, the hearing panel issued a range of sanctions, which included expulsions and suspensions from Cornell. Ultimately, her attorney says she wants accountability.
GIUFFRA: Her life has been destroyed. She's a woman who comes from a small town. She was not somebody who was a legacy or somebody who was from a wealthy family. This was her dream, and it was taken away from her at a young age. And it's just a horrific fashion.
PAZMINO (voice-over): Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: For more, I'm joined live now by Neama Rahmani. He's a former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers. Neama, welcome back to the show. Obviously, there's no official case yet, but if there is a case.
What is the prosecutor's case likely look like here?
NEAMA RAHMANI, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Well, the prosecution, Elex, needs to prove lack of consent. And there's really three ways you get there. That she didn't consent to the drugs, that she didn't consent to the sexual activity. I think the most likely is the third, that she was unable to consent because of the alcohol and the drug, specifically ketamine, which is a very strong tranquilizer and a disassociative.
I think that's the best way they can get there. Because the statement she gave two years ago, if you believe the district attorney, and I do, it's problematic, at least with respect to those first two prongs of consent.
MICHAELSON: If she's under the influence and the, you know, young men are there at the fraternity, and do they know that necessarily that she's under the influence? I mean, is that what makes this sort of thing tricky?
RAHMANI: It is because you have someone that started at her sorority, then she went to a bar, she started drinking, and then she comes to the fraternity and there she's given the drugs. Now, I don't know, obviously how much she took, if these allegations are true, but if she hadn't taken ketamine before or took a significant amount, that could put her in a position where she's unable to consent. And I think that's certainly the easiest way forward.
I think if you're going to argue that this was a forcible rape or that she was drugged without her knowing, I think it's potentially more challenging given that prior statement, again, relying on the DA's representation.
MICHAELSON: So, again, there are no criminal charges so far. If there are, what would a potential defense look like?
RAHMANI: The defense here is going to be consent. And if you're talking about sexual assault, usually the defense is one of two things. The sexual activity didn't happen or that it was consensual.
Now, obviously, I think what happened here is horrific, and you're talking to someone who not only prosecuted rape cases. I just represent victims right now, including sexual assault victims.
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But I can tell you I've been with my victims at the district attorney's office, and I've tried to convince them that the activity wasn't consensual. And district attorneys have told me, look, Neama, it's not what I know, it's what I can prove. How can I prove this case unanimously, beyond a reasonable doubt?
So expect this defense to be consent. You already see the lawyers for some of these young men making that argument right now publicly.
MICHAELSON: So you're saying these sorts of cases are especially tricky for prosecutors.
RAHMANI: No question. You got to get 12 out of 12, and it doesn't matter if it's a Sean "Diddy" Combs' case. These cases are very polarizing. The burden's on the prosecution. You got to get unanimous 12 men and women to agree that the conduct wasn't consensual. It's not easy. And I think that's going to be the biggest challenge here for not just the plaintiff's lawyer, but also prosecutors if they do go to the grand jury.
MICHAELSON: Well, you say the word polarizing, we're already seeing a lot of attention on social media. Does that potentially lead to political pressure as well?
RAHMANI: Absolutely. So political pressure can affect a case. Now, obviously, you have the district attorney coming out, making a pretty aggressive statement defending his office for not filing charges. Now, typically when prosecutors go to the grand jury, they go to the grand jury to get an indictment.
But, Elex, there's one key exception. Sometimes prosecutors go to the grand jury for political cover because they don't want to prosecute a case. We sometimes see that with, you know, officer involved shootings, for instance, they'll go, they'll present the evidence and then lo and behold, or maybe even a Nolan Wells type of case where that gives the prosecutor cover, saying, you know what? The grand jury chose not to indict. There's not probable cause. We can't bring this case because, look, if they wanted to file charges, they can just file a complaint and arrest all these individuals.
MICHAELSON: Really interesting. Neama Rahmani, always great insight. Thank you so much for your analysis.
Still ahead this hour, Hurricane Polo battering Mexico's Baja Peninsula. The latest on its path and the flood threat. Ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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MICHAELSON: Mexico is bracing for life threatening winds and flash flooding as Hurricane Polo nears landfall in Baja California. Despite hitting the peninsula first, Polo is expected to remain a hurricane as it makes a second landfall in mainland Mexico.
Forecasts show the storm system will rapidly weaken on Tuesday as it tracks further inland. But the National Hurricane Center warns increased rainfall could produce mudslides in areas with street terrain. Moisture from Polo is also moving north, raising the risk of flooding across parts of the southwestern and central US.
As the White House prepares to meet with top AI executives on Tuesday to try to get on the same page, more discussions will be happening right here in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Bloomberg Screentime is gathering the biggest moguls in Hollywood to discuss and debate the future of the entertainment industry and the impact of AI on creativity.
Key speakers will include film producer, president of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, co-CEO of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, comedian Conan O'Brien, and actor and director Ben Affleck.
With us now, the man who's going to be interviewing almost all of them, the host of the event and entertainment reporter for Bloomberg News, Lucas Shaw. Welcome to The Story Is for the first time.
LUCAS SHAW, ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Great to be here.
MICHAELSON: We've talked a lot about AI how a lot of people and a lot of industries see it as a potential existential threat. How does most of Hollywood see AI?
SHAW: Well, the average worker feels like a lot of the people you're talking about, the average person is scared. They think that they're going to lose their jobs. They think that it will be, you know, produce lots of slop and generally be a bad thing.
It is still, I'd say, on the fringes of the industry. We are seeing big companies talk about it more than they have previously. You know, you mentioned Netflix and Ted Sarandos. They bought Ben Affleck's company Interpositive, earlier this year for quite a bit of money. Amazon has talked about using AI to bring down costs in animation. Disney briefly had a partnership with OpenAI.
But we are a long way away from a studio using AI to make a full movie or a full animated film or anything like that. And I think it's still going to be a couple more years at a minimum until we see anything like that happen.
MICHAELSON: You say the music industry more concerned about AI than the movie industry right now?
SHAW: Yes, it is one of, not the dominant topic in the music industry right now. You look at the stock prices of companies like Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, even Spotify, it's down because there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty as to how AI is going to impact music. There's already been a surge in the amount of music being produced and released all the time using apps like Suno. That just made it very easy and made people concerned that it will devalue sort of the average hit song.
MICHAELSON: In terms of the movie industry itself, it's been a very good year at the box office. The best year potentially since COVID. Let's look at the box office hit. So five star this year. "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" two and a half billion, "The Odyssey", 1.7 billion, "Toy Story 5", 1.1 billion. "Michael", the Michael Jackson movie, "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" each about 1 billion.
What's going right in Hollywood? And how are the folks that you talk to feeling about that right now? SHAW: So you just showed that graphic. That's five movies that have crossed $1 billion worldwide.
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Expectations are that the new "Avengers" movie out this December will cross that threshold. The new "Dune" movie could, whether it does or not. That is already the second most on record after that year of 2019 that you mentioned.
You've got a really good diversity of movies. Part of it is just that volume is up, right? Volume went down because of the pandemic. Volume went down because of the labor stoppages in Hollywood a few years ago. So this is the fullest slate that we've had since before the pandemic.
You've got kind of both really interesting installments and popular franchises. So a new "Toy Story" movie, that's something that people love, but also, you know, new exciting things. One of some of the movies that folks are most excited about were "Obsession" and "Backrooms", which were directed by two people who sort of were most well-known for, for making videos on YouTube.
And I think that is what people in Hollywood are feeling good about is it's not just one or two big movies. It is 8, 10, 12 movies that people got excited about and felt they had to leave the house to go see in the theater.
MICHAELSON: Which is great news. I know you say that the TV business, especially the streaming business, not in as good of a shape right now, which is all things that you're going to be discussing at screen time in the days ahead.
Congratulations on once again gathering the biggest names in the business. Lucas Shaw, really great having you here on the story is for the first time.
SHAW: Well, thank you so much for having me. This has been fun. And yes, I hope to see you at the event sometime.
MICHAELSON: Sounds fun. Coming up, children as young as two are appearing for deportation hearings in a Texas court with no attorney. CNN with exclusive reporting. Next.
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ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: A disturbing development in the handling of undocumented migrant children in the U.S. Dozens of children are attending deportation hearings in immigration courtrooms, but without an attorney representing them. That includes children as young as two years old.
CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has more in this exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Migrant children are increasingly going through immigration court alone, the place where an immigration judge will decide if they stay in the United States or they're removed.
That was the case in a Texas immigration courtroom today, where 25 children appeared before an immigration judge, many without attorneys that included an eight-year-old, a nine-year-old, a 13-year-old from Honduras who was ordered deported.
Again, he did not have an attorney. And during his back and forth with the immigration judge, he said, quote, "I have no one. I have nothing." As he burst into tears talking there about Honduras, his home country.
Now, there was also a three-year-old who played with the mic. His attorney beamed-in remotely.
Now, in some of these sketches that you'll see here, there are adults that are sitting with the children. Well, those are caseworkers. They are there to supervise the children, not to provide them legal representation.
And it is becoming more challenging for children to get legal representation after the Trump administration allowed a contract for legal service providers to lapse. That was a contract that subcontracted to 100 legal service providers around the country.
Now, the administration has since struck another contract. However, multiple sources I spoke with say that is not enough. There is a large population, hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children who need help in the courtroom, as well as through the immigration process.
And these are children who cross the U.S.-Mexico border alone or were brought into custody after a family member or guardian was detained by ICE.
And these are children that are in shelters that are operated by the Department of Health and Human Services. And in a statement, an HHS spokesperson said, quote, "Under the Trump administration, ORR remains committed to ensuring that every unaccompanied illegal alien child has legal representation in the immigration court."
But as was the case in Texas, there are still multiple children, very young children who are continuing to go through this process and face deportation on their own.
Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: Disturbing.
Priscilla, thank you.
Our panel is back. Marc Adelman, founder of Adelmania Consulting, and Mike Madrid, founder of the Latino Working Class Project.
Mike, you are one of the leading experts in the country on Latino voting.
Our pal, Gustavo Arellano of the "L.A. Times" has a column out, he put it this way. He says, quote, "Heads' up, Latino men. The future of democracy hangs on your vote." What does he mean by that? And is that true?
MIKE MADRID, FOUNDER, LATINO WORKING CLASS PROJECT: Brilliant essay, great mind Gustavo. Been on the show here with him before.
Look, Latino men are the swing vote in American politics today. This is the group that moved decidedly towards Donald Trump.
And because of the issues that were brought up in this last segment, there's a reckoning. There's this understanding of who we are as a people. And I mean, as an American people, as Latinos, as human beings, there's a reckoning that has to be, I think, remedied.
And the article goes into great detail about what that means. It's time to acknowledge those failings in terms of the votes that were cast by Latino men. And he does a brilliant job of saying that's probably why this big swing back will come, in large part because of what we have allowed to happen and what we've allowed to happen to our very souls.
[01:34:46]
MICHAELSON: And Marc, you look at a state like Texas, where along the Rio Grande, along the border, there was a huge swing towards Donald Trump in 2024. If James Talarico becomes the next senator from Texas, it's going to be because areas like that swing back towards the Democrats.
MARC ADELMAN, FOUNDER, ADELMANIA CONSULTING: 100 percent. I mean, what country are we living in? Kids, minors without parents, without guardians having to go to court, not understanding the system, maybe not even understanding the language.
This really disturbed me today. I'm not a dad. I can only imagine if I had kids how I would feel. I know how I feel just as a human being.
I, you know, years ago was a close-up instructor in Washington. You know, which high school kids come to D.C. and you teach them about civics. And I worked with the program for new Americans. They were all students that had been in the country less than two years.
And a lot of those kids were what we would call at the time, Dreamers. They had come over with their parents. They were not American citizens. And I think about them all the time.
They're young adults now. Where are they? What happened to them? This is a -- a reckoning is the word.
What does this say about our society? I believe in laws. I believe in strong borders. Democrats do.
But this is not who we are. This is not what our country is about. And it's really something that I think a lot of us have to look in the mirror and go, what are -- what are we doing here?
MICHAELSON: Yes. Well, there seems to be a reckoning in terms of the politics of this moment. And we just had some breaking news in terms of a new poll just came out from Marist within the last hour in the state of Ohio.
Now, we think of Ohio for many years was the swingiest of swing states for the presidential election. And it has become a Red state but maybe not anymore.
Who are you supporting in Ohio Senate race? 51 percent say Sherrod Brown, who used to be in the Senate, is no longer. Jon Husted is the incumbent senator.
If that goes through, that's a Democratic pickup, which they need.
Let's look at the Ohio governor's race. Amy Acton, the Democrat, ahead of Vivek Ramaswamy, who of course, we know was so closely associated with Donald Trump during the campaign. And Amy Acton ahead. Right now, there is a Republican governor of Ohio.
And let's dig into the numbers. President jobs -- President Trump's job approval rating among Ohio registered voters is 42 percent, while 56 percent disapprove of how the president is doing.
Back in 2018, 44 percent of voters statewide approved of the job President Trump was doing, 48 percent disapproved. 6 percent were unsure. That's a huge swing.
Mike, you are one of the leading experts on polls. You're digging into the -- into the crosstabs. What are you seeing?
MADRID: This is a vertiginous fall from --
MICHAELSON: Vertiginous.
MADRID: Yes. But by that, what I mean is there's --
MICHAELSON: I've never even heard that word before.
(CROSSTALKING)
MICHAELSON: What do you mean?
MADRID: There is a Republican vertigo that has set in, a dizziness that --
MICHAELSON: That is vertigo.
MADRID: -- leaves them completely unaware of the situation that they're trying to deal with. To see a state like Ohio with these numbers is quite shocking. It's why North Carolina is in such a strong position for Democrats,
and Georgia. These are races that should be very competitive in worst case for Republicans solidly moving outside the margin of error in places like Ohio. This is going to be a really extraordinary year.
MICHAELSON: And a reminder also Marc, that candidate quality matters. I mean, Sherrod Brown, of course, has been a senator from Ohio for many years, knows the terrain, very well-connected with working class voters. And that seems to be paying --
ADELMAN: 100 percent.
Full disclosure, I worked for Sherrod many years ago. I don't know if he wants to admit that.
He and his wife, Connie Schultz, they're dynamos. You can go to every county, 88, I believe, in Ohio. You know, he wears a canary in a coal mine pin, which I think is very telling about how he feels about the people he represented and understands what it means to live in Ohio and work in Ohio.
He always talks about working in Ohio and working in a blue-collar job and how much harder it is when you reach the age of 60 versus if you are maybe here in Los Angeles doing something like on a set or something like that.
He's somebody who really gets it. He cares. He's able to talk about people and to people, and I think really make people feel empowered.
And in a time right now where I think a lot of people don't feel like they have agency over their lives and certainly over the politics in this country, Sherrod is that guy.
MICHAELSON: We've got about a minute left. Just wanted to get your thoughts real quickly on the debate that's happening in our studio --
MADRID: Yes.
[01:39:48]
MICHAELSON: -- which is why we're in the newsroom. Xavier Becerra versus Steve Hilton. Xavier Becerra very ahead in that race. Your thoughts going into it, Marc?
ADELMAN: Well, look, you know, these are different kinds of guys. They're not Gavin Newsom or Jerry Brown or Arnold Schwarzenegger. And so I think you're going to see a different kind of tempo.
But Xavier Becerra is somebody who served in Congress, served as attorney general of California, obviously was in the Biden cabinet.
And you've got Steve Hilton. And who doesn't love a guy with a British accent? So I think this will be really fun.
MICHAELSON: California voters --
(CROSSTALKING)
ADELMAN: Well, we'll see.
We'll see how they do on the debate.
MICHAELSON: 25 percent going into it.
Steve Hilton, well known for being a great TV performer, was a Fox News host. Is very good on the stump and did very well in the debates going in, in the primaries.
MADRID: Yes, I think this could be a historic blowout here, really, because of the overall mood of the electorate nationally. The Donald Trump numbers are so bad, the Republican collapsed, the vertiginous fall we were talking about.
This is going to be a real problem for any Republican to overcome, and I just don't see it in the cards.
ADELMAN: But you get Jake Tapper and Dana Bash in L.A. That is a win.
MICHAELSON: That is a win.
And so be sure to tune in Wednesday, 9:00 p.m. You can see Jake and Dana, 9:00 Eastern, 6:00 Pacific for the governor's debate. It will be replayed at 9:00 p.m. Pacific time as well, followed by a special edition of THE STORY IS.
MADRID: It will be vertiginous.
MICHAELSON: It will be -- that was the big thing I learned tonight. Thank you both. Great to see you.
Our international viewers, "WORLD SPORT" is next. I'll be back with more news. Bob Chapek and Disney, when we come back.
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MICHAELSON: Disneyland is known as the happiest place on earth, and the company promotes a brand of childhood wonder, inclusion, and joy.
But former Disney CEO Bob Chapek says his time running the company did not have a fairy tale ending like a Disney movie, and he has been, in his words, erased from Disney history.
Chapek says his predecessor as CEO, Bob Iger, slowly reasserted control of the company before forcing Chapek out of the company he had worked for three decades, Chapek leaving in 2022.
He writes about it all in his upcoming book, "Behind the Castle Walls: My 30 Years at the Happiest Place on Earth".
Bob Chapek joins me now from New York.
Bob, welcome to THE STORY IS for the first time. Great to have you with us.
So, you have said that a big reason you wrote this book is that you went four years without saying anything publicly, and everybody else was writing your story and a lot of it wasn't true.
So what's the most important thing that you want people to know about your story? What was most people getting wrong about you?
BOB CHAPEK, FORMER CEO OF THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY: I think what most people got wrong was the assumption that the rhetoric that was put out by the company as a reason for my termination was actually the real reason for my -- the end of my Disney years. And I think I saw the problems brewing early on.
Now, remember, I got the job in early 2020, in February of 2020, and COVID was announced literally a week or two later and everything shut down.
So not only did I inherit the job under very difficult circumstances, but several weeks later there was there was a Sunday, I'll never forget it. And there was an article in the "New York Times" that was between Bob Iger and Ben Smith.
And it essentially said that Bob was reasserting himself as the CEO of The Walt Disney Company because of the extraordinary times that the company was about to face because of the pandemic.
And the interesting thing about that is I had no head's up warning. And from everything I understand, the board didn't know about it either.
So it was a unilateral decision to essentially reassert himself. And little did I know that that would foreshadow the tenure of my next three years.
MICHAELSON: You said that he sort of thought of himself almost like a reincarnation of Walt Disney. What do you mean by that?
CHAPEK: Well, what I mean by that is the fact that, you know, I had a conversation with him and, you know, we were talking about how, you know, as soon as the CEO moves on, obviously there's going to be some changes, but it's not like the company won't persevere.
In other words, the company is much bigger than any one individual. And instead of getting, oh yes, I completely agree with you because he's always, you know, a Disney guy in terms of, you know, what he said it. I got the impression that he thought that he was different than the rest of the litany of CEOs.
By the way, it's a very short litany because there's only been now eight CEOs in the history of The Walt Disney Company. But what the impression I got was that he felt that he was somehow different and above the rest.
And I think, you know, if there were warning signals for me as a new CEO of The Walt Disney Company, that certainly would be yet another one.
MICHAELSON: We reached out to Bob Iger for comment. We did not hear back. Have you?
CHAPEK: No, no. I have not spoken to Bob since he retired the first time.
MICHAELSON: And now, of course, he just retired a second time from that job. On to other pursuits, including owning the Los Angeles Lakers, it appears.
How would Disney be different if you were still in charge?
CHAPEK: Well, you know, there's so much about Disney that is history and legacy. So a lot of it obviously would be the same.
I happen to think that Disney Plus might be further evolved than it is right now. You know, Disney needs more than anything in my opinion, a growth vehicle. And I think that's why the stock has been stuck for the last four years.
And you know to create a growth vehicle, you've got to make investment. You've got to make consistent investment and you've got to have a path forward, a vision for this thing.
And if you play the quarterly earnings game as the only barometer for success, you're going to end up with a bunch of businesses that, frankly, are, you know, mature businesses that will not drive that growth.
[01:49:48]
CHAPEK: And until Wall Street sees some promise for a growth vehicle for Disney, I think -- I think the stock is going to be plagued.
MICHAELSON: I know you have not been to Disneyland. Your family goes. You say it's too painful for you to go. Do you consider Disney to be the happiest place on earth still?
CHAPEK: I still do, yes. I think my story is not certainly the story of all the fans of Disney. It's a very personal thing for me. It was a very painful thing for me. It was a very costly thing for me.
But I still believe Disney is the happiest place on earth. And millions of fans would agree with that.
MICHAELSON: Well, it is great being in the park. I've enjoyed my time in the past in the park with you. So thank you for being my guide in the past and congratulations on the new book.
Bob Chapek, thanks so much for being with us.
CHAPEK: Thank you very much.
MICHAELSON: We'll be back with more of THE STORY IS right after this.
[01:50:40]
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MICHAELSON: -- the bill to overhaul college athletics, but his future in the House is still uncertain. The bill, known as the Protect College Sports Act, would set national standards for how college athletes can profit on their Name, Image and Likeness.
NBA superstar Lebron James, who never played college sports, appeared at 76ers' media day Monday wearing his new Philadelphia 76ers jersey in public for the first time.
The 41-year-old signed a two-year-deal with the Sixers this summer. He's set to become the first player in NBA history to enter a 24th season. He says the reason he chose Philly is to win the title.
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LEBRON JAMES, PHILADELPHIA 76ERS PLAYER: You have to fall in love with doing things that's uncomfortable. And if we can do that, then we can be a great team.
If we don't do that, then we'll be like, oh man, it was a great team on paper and we had a lot of great talent and we lost in the second round. Like, I don't want to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Interesting to see what happens there.
Thanks for watching THE STORY IS.
We've got a big lineup tomorrow. With us live, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Michigan, Abdul el-Sayed. The Attorney General of California, Rob Bonta, will be here live on set. Plus, analysis from Melanie Mason and Ron Brownstein.
I'll see you then.
The news continues on CNN after this.
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