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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
Arkansas Democrat Chris Jones On Run For U.S. House Seat; Mayor Karen Bass (D), Is Interviewed About Trump Again Mentions Iranian Attack On California Cities; Becerra Defends Claim That He's Son Of Immigrants; Push for Answers in Russian Lab Death; Outbreak in Pennsylvania Now the Largest in U.S. in 30 Years; Three Election Deniers Running for Arizona's Highest Offices; Isaias Intensifies into Cat 1 Hurricane, Eyes Gulf Coast. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 08, 2026 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Very first hurricane, yes, it is very late in the season for that. At last check, the storm has sustained winds of 75 miles per hour, making it a category one hurricane. It's on track to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday.
[01:00:13]
The forecast track has narrowed to a landfall somewhere from the Mississippi coast to the western Florida panhandle. Already hurricane and storm surge warnings are in effect along the northern Gulf Coast. The governors of Florida and Alabama have announced a state of emergency for dozens of counties ahead of that storm.
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: It's 10 o'clock in Los Angeles, I'm Elex Michaelson.
Coming up, The Story Is, a Texas-sized rally for President Trump. The President returned to the Lone Star State for the third time in less than a month, the campaign for Senate candidate Ken Paxton.
The Story Is, clarifying comments. Speak with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass about the President's latest remarks concerning attacks on California cities, including Los Angeles.
And The Story Is, seeking answers, why the World Health Organization is now involved in a death investigation in Russia.
We begin, though, in San Antonio, Texas, with President Trump's strategy to save the Senate. The campaigner-in-chief making his third trip to the Lone Star State in less than a month, stumping for Republican Senate nominee, Ken Paxton. It comes amid new reporting from Axios about an audio recording of Paxton saying that the Iran war and high gas prices are hurting his campaign. The GOP is pouring millions of dollars into the state, which Trump won by more than 13 points back in 2024. Tonight, he urged voters to get behind Paxton and reject Democrat James Talarico.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So you need to go and vote for Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate.
If you get elected on job performance, you're going to have a blowout because there's nobody like him, right? Even Ted Cruz agrees.
Vote for Ken. Get him in there. It's so important. It's vital. And I think you will. I think it's -- there's no way you vote for the other guy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Paxton and Talarico locked in a tight race. A recent New York Times-Siena poll has Talarico up by six points, while "Fox News" survey shows no clear leader. Remember, no Democrat has won a statewide race in Texas since 1994.
The President's stops in red states are not enough to frighten Democrats. Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said that the party isn't just looking to take control of the House. They want as many seats as they can, which means flipping areas that the President won during the last election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY), DEMOCRATIC LEADER: We have extraordinary opportunities in districts all across the country because we have extraordinary candidates who have allowed us as House Democrats to push deeper into so called Trump territory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Joining me now from Little Rock, Arkansas, is Democrat Chris Jones, who's running for a seat in the U.S. House representing Arkansas's 2nd District. Welcome to The Story Is for the first time.
CHRIS JONES, ARKANSAS DEMOCRATIC U.S. HOUSE NOMINEE: Thanks for having me here.
MICHAELSON: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee just moved your seat from a red-to-blue program, meaning they think that you've got a real shot. Polls show your race close, which is amazing considering that President Trump won your district by 15.5 points two years ago. So in order to win, you need to win Republicans and Independents in order to get over the top. What is your message to Republicans and Independents who voted for the President?
JONES: Well, look, there are multiple messages, and thank you for having me on the show. For starters, I'll say that in that same poll, I'm leading my opponent 60 to 20 with Independents. So our message is getting out of there. And part of the message is, look at what you got. They voted to not go into foreign wars. They voted to bring prices down.
They didn't vote to cut Medicaid. And so what we're finding is all the things that they voted for, they are not getting. And Republicans are upset. Independents are upset. And certainly Democrats are upset. And we're bringing folks together here.
MICHAELSON: We just showed you some images of your opponent, French Hill, the congressman who is the chair of the Financial Services Committee in the House, a very powerful position. He was on "Fox Business Channel," and they asked him, what is the Republican message on the number one issue in the country, affordability? Here's his message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. FRENCH HILL (R-AR): Look, House Republicans have had affordability on the mind since President Trump came back to the White House. That's why we cut taxes on hardworking families to give them more take-home money, to counter the 20 percent price increase we had under the Biden administration. We're still suffering from that.
[01:05:12]
While inflation is down from 9 percent to 3, you saw that reflected in House prices that have been struggling. So many families have struggled to meet the test.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Your reaction to that?
JONES: Look, they may have had affordability on their mind, but they're doing nothing to help average Arkansans or average Americans. You know, when you think about what's driving up affordability or driving up prices now, it's tariffs that Congress has been feckless and hasn't said anything about, and French Hill is one of those. It's the Iran war that no one asked for, and it's causing oil prices to go up, which causes our gas and grocery to go up. It's the cuts to health care premiums, which cause our health care to go up.
And particularly for French Hill, who sits on the powerful Financial Services Committee, he is a banker, and he chose to not only vote, but to support a bill that removed the cap on overdraft and junk fees. So when you talk about it being on your mind, what Arkansans want to see and what Americans want to see is actually you doing something about it, and they haven't done anything.
MICHAELSON: So what are you going to do about it with a Republican president in office? How can you actually change any of the things that you just said?
JONES: Yes, well, I mean, I think there are a number of things that can be done. Certainly, the Congress constitutionally is supposed to be a check and a balance on the White House. So for one, the Congress can call for what's happening with the White House. The Congress can vote to rein in the tariffs. The Congress can vote to end this foreign war.
Think about it. There was a vote to end the foreign war, to pull the powers back from the President. The vote was 2-12 to 2-12. French Hill voted to allow the President to remain in this war. So there are Republicans that also want a better way, and certainly there are enough votes to do a veto-proof majority.
MICHAELSON: In terms of who you are, for a lot of our viewers watching around the country and around the world, they may not know your story, which is quite something. You went to Morehouse and MIT. You've got a degree in nuclear engineering, right? I mean, talk to us about your background. You've got a religious background as well. How all of that informs what you would be like as a congressman, because it's not necessarily a typical background for a member of Congress.
JONES: No, it's not. I mean, I am an ordained minister and a rocket scientist. I'm a nuclear engineer and an urban planner. My grandfather had a third-grade education. He drove a truck, and what he told me when I was a kid, he said, big man, get an education because when you get it in your head, no one can take it out. And I went on to get five degrees, two from Morehouse and three from MIT with a PhD in urban planning.
But he also said, once you get it, come back and help someone else. And so my life hasn't been about accumulating degrees. It's about doing the work of service to others. And that's why I'm back here. All of my trajectory has been to come back and be of service to those here.
MICHAELSON: Chris Jones in Little Rock, Arkansas, one of the races we did not necessarily think to watch earlier this year, but right now is very much a race to watch on election night. Thanks so much for being with us and sharing your perspective here on The Story Is.
JONES: Thanks a lot.
MICHAELSON: The state of Texas has carried out the first execution in the U.S. since the failed lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee. Jamal Howard was put to death just a few hours ago after a court denied two attempts by his attorneys to stop the lethal injection with the very same drugs that were used in Pike's failed execution. Howard was convicted of fatally shooting a convenience store clerk during a robbery in 2000.
When asked if he had a final statement, Howard apologized to the victim's family who watched the execution. Texas has now put six people to death in 2026 and has two more executions planned before the end of the year.
As for the Christa Pike case, a judge has ruled that the state of Tennessee must preserve all the evidence related to the failed attempts to execute her, which includes physical evidence, 9/11 calls, and communications between state officials. The judge did not rule on other requests from Pike's attorneys, including unshackling her arm while she remains in the hospital.
One of her attorneys says Pike is angry and confused and aware that the state tried to execute her. Despite what happened, some Tennessee residents still want to see the execution move forward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE NOWELL, TENNESSEE RESIDENT: I am a Tennessean, born and raised, and a taxpayer and a voter. And we have paid enough for Christa Pike. The worst part is that Colleen has been forgotten. All we hear about is Christa, Christa, Christa. Today in that courtroom as I sat in there and listened and then on the steps just a few minutes ago the attorney talked about cruel and unusual punishment and when is enough, enough. I would say she doesn't know cruel and unusual punishment. Colleen is the one that knew cruel and unusual punishment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:10:15]
MICHAELSON: Pike was convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the 1995 killing of Colleen Slemmer, a fellow student at a job training facility.
New York prosecutors are expected to bring new charges against former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. Sources tell CNN those charges relate to alleged torture of Americans held in Venezuelan government custody in recent years. Maduro and his wife were captured by the U.S. military during a raid in January. They pleaded not guilty to charges including narco-terrorism, conspiracy, and more.
More than a dozen Americans were detained while Maduro was in power and some have spoken out about the brutal conditions and alleged abuse that they experienced. An announcement on those new charges could come as soon as the day ahead.
After a record-setting deployment, the USS Abraham Lincoln is almost home. The carrier will dock in Coronado, California in the day ahead after nearly 11 months at sea, including more than eight months without a port call. The deployment includes operations against Iran. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that he, that the strike group received the Presidential Unit Citation, the U.S. military's highest unit award for collective heroism and action.
But the long deployment raised concerns about morale and mental health among the crew. Here's what Hegseth said about those issues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: There were a few folks in the media who tried to turn the USS Abraham Lincoln into some sort of a symbol, a symbol of dysfunction or a symbol of low morale or a symbol of a failed mission. And what I look out at right here and when I talk to your leadership and I have had a chance to talk to a number of you, I know it's the exact opposite. (END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: There are also reports of issues with supplies and living conditions aboard the Lincoln. The ship had the second longest Navy aircraft carrier deployment since the Vietnam War. Our Pam Brown is on board that ship. We'll have a report from her in our next hour.
Still ahead this hour on The Story Is, our political panel is here to discuss the President's aggressive midterm campaign schedule. You see him right there, Governor Gray Davis and Mike Murphy. Plus, we'll talk to L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:16:53]
MICHAELSON: President Trump scheduled a campaign Friday in Syracuse, New York, for Republican candidate for governor, Bruce Blakeman. He is running to unseat incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul. Protesters repeatedly interrupted the President's speech in San Antonio, Texas, tonight. And police escorted at least 12 people out of the venue, some in handcuffs, and one wearing a MAGA hat.
The President was there to campaign for Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton. But he also repeated a controversial line, sort of, tried to clear up a bit, a line from a speech in Nebraska over the weekend about Iran. Listen to what he said tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And I said it the other day, let them hit a missile into San Diego or Los Angeles on the way. Let them hit, you want to see a horror show? You want to see problems? Let them hit San Diego. Let them hit Los Angeles, and you want to see some bad things happen? You want to see a country that would be in free fall? We're not going to let that happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Joining me now from Los Angeles, from the official mayor's residence, is the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. Welcome back to The Story Is.
MAYOR KAREN BASS (D), LOS ANGELES: Thank you very much. Appreciate being on.
MICHAELSON: What's your reaction to the President not only making the comment the other night, but going out of his way to bring it up again tonight?
BASS: I mean, you know, we all are aghast at statements that he makes. One of the things that I fear, Elex, is that people acclimate to his madness and get used to it and accept it. And I do not. The words that come out of the mouth of a President can influence national markets, international markets, foreign leaders, and it's irresponsible. The number one job of the President of the United States is to protect and defend the American people. The words have to be spoken with care. And for him to be so reckless and so irresponsible that he would make the statement he did yesterday and then act as though he's doubling down and maybe at the end he's trying to clean it up, we don't know what he's doing.
Anyway, either way you look at it, it is irresponsible. I immediately got on the phone with my congressional friend and colleague, Robert Garcia, the former mayor of Long Beach. I called him. I know it was late in D.C., but I was so concerned I wanted to talk to him right away.
And I told him that we were considering calling for a congressional investigation into his behavior. And we'll see whether or not we do that and whether or not Congress is willing to take it up. Of course, my fingers are crossed that ranking member, Robert Garcia, will soon be chair of the Government Reform and Investigation Committee.
MICHAELSON: But do you really think that he's calling for an attack on the United States by Iran? I mean, CNN's fact checker, Daniel Dale, who has come out against President Trump many times, said on this one, his stuff is being taken out of context. Let's put this up on the screen.
[01:20:15]
He said that he claimed high prices are temporary in the suggestion they're artificial, contrasted that to the damage Iran is supposedly taking to the city, then in an especially confusing style repeated his old point that this, as a consequence of the war, is a small price to pay to avoid something like a city being wiped out. It's Trump's fault. You kind of have to be steeped in Trump rally speak to know what he was saying last night. And, of course, you can say it's inappropriate, regardless for the President, to casually float the possibility of a city being wiped out. But the context exists and is important. I mean, you really think that's what the President was trying to do here?
BASS: No, my point is, is that it is irresponsible for him to say anything close to that. It is unbelievable that the President of the United States would literally say come attack my country. Everybody heard what he said yesterday. If today was a cleanup, then it was a pretty sloppy cleanup. And the point is, is that it shouldn't be said.
Now, you are in L.A. and you know that our city is still traumatized from June of last year, when our city was literally invaded by federal troops, by the National Guard. You know that many sectors of our city have not recovered economically from those statements that are made. And you also know that even though the raids are not headlines like they were before, that they continue to take place on a daily basis.
So you have a population that continues to be in fear. And nothing that came out of the President's mouth assists that. What the President should have said tonight, if he wanted to walk back his comments or if he wanted to clean it up, he should have retracted his comments and he should have apologized to the country, but especially to Los Angeles and to San Diego. That is a responsible thing to do for the President of the United States.
MICHAELSON: But just to be clear, he did not call for the cities to be wiped out. I mean, is that the way you interpret his comments?
BASS: Well, you heard what he said yesterday. And do I think he actually meant that? I certainly hope not. I don't think he did. But he is the President of the United States and his words matter. One person asked me, well, what if another politician said that? There is no politician that comes anywhere near to the President of the United States.
We know his tweets impact foreign policy. His tweets impact stability. Well, if that's a tweet for him giving a speech like that and to have what appears to be hundreds of people behind him thinking that it's funny. Elex, I'm sorry, but that's a problem.
MICHAELSON: Well, I think two things could be true. He may not have meant that, but if Joe Biden would have said that, he would be criticizing him and he would probably have --
BASS: If anybody else.
MICHAELSON: He would. Yes. So and he has sometimes taken people out of context, as we know, in the past. Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, thank you so much for joining us last minute on this breaking story tonight.
Our panel is back to talk more about all of this. The former governor of California, Gray Davis, and strategist Mike Murphy. Governor as a Californian --
GRAY DAVIS, FORMER DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA: I mean, amen to what Karen said. And there's no business for the President of the United States to be even contemplating, much less talking twice about a missile attacking L.A. or San Diego. The mayor spoke to L.A. San Diego, where the Abraham Lincoln vessel is docking tomorrow, is where the Navy SEALs are. They were the Navy SEALs that took out bin Laden under Obama. Bin Laden started the Al Qaeda attack on the United States in 2001, 9/11. I was the governor then.
We don't want to be jeopardizing them. Pendleton is another big base. That's an elite Marine base. Why do we want to be attacking San Diego or L.A.? That thought should never come to you. Forget Iran for a moment. What about all the deranged people in this country? Well, the President wants me to take out L.A. I'm not going to drop a bomb or I'm going to --
MICHAELSON: I know you're no fan of Trump, but I know you also know a whole lot of Republicans who feel like this is like ridiculously being taken out of context and the Democratic officials are piling up. No, I know.
MIKE MURPHY, POLITICAL STRATEGIST & HOST, "HACKS ON TAP" PODCAST: I think the larger point is, one, it is incredibly irresponsible for the President of the United States to play nuclear scare games on his own population. Two, he's addled and often stupid. The Iranians do not have a missile that can make it one quarter of the way to California.
[01:25:09]
So he either never reads the briefing book or he's making it all up to justify a war he started that he is losing to a third rate power while wrecking the American economy. So this is Trump at his very worst. Now, do I interpret it literally as, hey, Ayatollahs fire an imaginary missile that exists only in my Trump mind and wipe out San Diego and, of course, get a nuclear retaliation that would turn the entire landmass of Iran into a sheet of glass? No.
MICHAELSON: Right.
MURPHY: Do I think he's trying to play politics to justify his morons war? Yes.
MICHAELSON: Let's stay in California. You know a thing or two about being the governor of California and winning that race. There is a race right now for the governor of California. Xavier Becerra is running against Steve Hilton. Both of them did their one and only debate literally right here in this studio, which was transformed for that last week. Here was Xavier Becerra's opening line in that debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
XAVIER BECERRA, CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: You make it tough for folks like my parents who came to this country with $12 and they settled in California.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: So that concept, he says he's the son of immigrants. His parents came here with $12. He has repeated it from the first day of his campaign. Well, it turns out that's not entirely true, that his father was actually born in Sacramento and was a citizen and that he went to Mexico and then came here with his mother, who was born in Mexico.
Xavier Becerra talking about this with the L.A. Times saying, I'm very proud of my parents and I consider them immigrants because even though my dad was born in the U.S. in a country that wouldn't treat him the way it would treat other U.S. citizens, my dad was a proud immigrant. I am proud that I'm their son. I am the son of immigrants. This was uncovered online by Anthony Cabrasa (ph) looking at the Sacramento B obituary of Xavier Becerra's dad. That's where this came from. Does this controversy matter?
DAVIS: Well, we were talking earlier, if he was Jewish, it would be no problem because his mother came from Mexico.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
DAVIS: But let's remember --
MICHAELSON: If you're Jewish it's about whether your money is from. Yes, yes.
DAVIS: -- let's remember the time frame. This is 1960 he was born. There was a lot of civil rights action. Martin Luther King, a lot of a lot of states still rebelling against the Brown v. Board of Education. So this was a tough time to be a Hispanic American in 1960.
And he has had a hard life. But unlike his opponent, his life has changed other people's lives. As attorney general, he saved the Affordable Care Act and he negotiated reductions in the cost of drugs used for cancer, for blood clots, for diabetes and directly affected people's health by providing those drugs that are reliable.
So he has done things that improve people's lives. And that's why he's faring so well in the polls.
MICHAELSON: Well, Steve Hilton may have been in the U.K. working for that government when he was a citizen there. But in terms of this, this this idea, because he's only been --
DAVIS: He's only been in this country 15 years.
MICHAELSON: This has been a --
MURPHY: I do think, though, that Steve Hilton's at least his father was an immigrant. He was Hungarian, a soccer star there who came out there, his mother.
MICHAELSON: And he's an immigrant.
MURPHY: Yes. Yes. Immigrant here. So in the immigrant battle, score one for Hilton. The bigger question I've got, I'm a conservative. I know and like Steve Hilton. Steve's not going to win. It's California. It's a Globetrotters game. And he's the Washington generals. It's just a map. There's no way in this cycle a Democrat is going to, excuse me, a Republican is going to beat Becerra, which means Xavier Becerra. Excuse me. I've been fighting a little dental work today. So I have a half paralyzed mouth. It's killing me.
He's going to have a lot of power and he's going to win his election. What I'm waiting to see is somebody who's worked for a California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, will he use that power to make some changes in reforms? Because he's got a lot more power than most governors, one party state and he's in charge. Or is he just going to water the status quo garden of Sacramento?
MICHAELSON: And he hasn't really said.
MURPHY: And he hasn't said that.
MICHAELSON: When I've tried to press him on that, he has not laid out a plan. He kind of said that the strategic decision to allow himself a lot of cards and a lot of --
MURPHY: When you're running an election, it's almost impossible to lose. You know, take a little chance, do something, get on the record, try to get a mandate to change a status quo that's not working. DAVIS: OK, can I just --
MICHAELSON: Really quick because we're out of time.
DAVIS: As someone that came from nowhere to somewhere because of my opponent advertised for a month that I was running against him. He was going nowhere until the front runner dropped out.
MICHAELSON: Eric Swalwell.
[01:29:57]
DAVIS: He feels his whole life that so many examples of how he improved other people's lives. He doesn't have to do anything. He can answer questions. He was in four debates. Hilton was in all of them. A couple of debates he didn't qualify for.
MICHAELSON: This was the primary.
DAVIS: He did a debate with you and may do you another debate. Let him run his campaign. He's going to win. And I think he'll be a very good governor.
Nobody has more experience, maybe me, but I'm going to give him the edge. He has more experience than I do.
MICHAELSON: All right. Former governor, Gray Davis, Mike Murphy, great to have both of you here.
Russia says there is no risk of an epidemic after a worker dies at an anti-plague laboratory. But the U.S. and world health officials are pushing for more answers.
Dr. Anne Rimoin with us live, next.
[01:30:39]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MICHAELSON: The Trump administration is pushing to get clear answers from Russia about the death of a lab worker at an anti-plague research facility in Siberia. The State Department says the U.S. has escalated its request for more information from Moscow.
The president on Wednesday acknowledged that Russia has not disclosed many details so far. But he says he does not believe that the incident is linked to a bioweapon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER DOOCY, FOX NEWS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Is the plague in Russia a bioweapon?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we don't think so. We're going to find out soon enough, but we don't think so.
And if you listen to them, it's under control. You know, people have said that before about other things. So we hope it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: A Russian health watchdog said on Wednesday that there is no risk of an epidemic following the lab worker's death last week.
But global health experts, including the World Health Organization, are still urging caution and asking for more transparency from Moscow.
World health officials say they don't have enough information from Russia to give an accurate risk assessment. Still, Russian authorities are winding down some public health restrictions.
An ongoing measles outbreak in Pennsylvania is now the largest and deadliest in the U.S. in more than 30 years. The state's Health Department reports more than 1,000 cases and five deaths since the outbreak began just six months ago. That surpasses Texas' record breaking 762 measles cases last year.
The majority of cases in Pennsylvania this year have involved people who were not vaccinated.
Joining me now is Anne Rimoin. She is a professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Welcome back to THE STORY IS. Always good to see you.
In terms of this measles outbreak, this seems kind of crazy because this is something that should not be happening, right?
DR. ANNE RIMOIN, PROFESSOR; DEPARTMENT OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, UCLA FIELDING SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Well, exactly. You know, we were not having cases of measles very regularly in the United States. Now we have thousands of cases right here.
And it's because it's such a contagious virus. You don't need to have close contact. You just need to share air.
MICHAELSON: Share air. And there is one way to prevent this that seems to work pretty well.
DR. RIMOIN: We do have a very effective and safe vaccine. So -- and it's very effective. In fact, it is so effective, it's up to 97 percent effective. So really you have something that can prevent severe disease, death -- all of the potential complications -- it's getting vaccinated.
MICHAELSON: And yet we have seen an increase in vaccine hesitancy in the last few years. And now it seems like a very objective reaction to that is an outbreak and people are getting sick.
DR. RIMOIN: Indeed. You know, measles is one of these viruses. It's so contagious. For example, if you have ten people who are susceptible in a room that are exposed, up to nine of them may become infected.
MICHAELSON: Wow. DR. RIMOIN: It's just -- it's very, very contagious. One of the most contagious viruses known to man.
And so that's why when you have pockets of people who are unvaccinated, it spreads like wildfire.
MICHAELSON: Something else that is contagious is the pneumonic plague, which is something that folks dealt with back in the 1300s and 100 million people died from it.
Now we have antibiotics and there are fears that pneumonic plague may be back in Russia. There's this woman who died, we're not quite sure what she died of. She was working in a lab, potentially on plague. We don't really know.
I mean, what do we know right now?
DR. RIMOIN: Well, we don't know very much.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
DR. RIMOIN: And so most of this is just speculation. We know that a young woman who was a lab tech working in a lab that really specialized in plague and other, pathogens -- dangerous pathogens, died from pneumonia.
Now people die from pneumonia. You know, young people can die from pneumonia. But when you work in a lab that deals with dangerous pathogens, this is something that if you become sick, if you have any symptoms, you usually are reporting it to occupational health and then you have an investigation, a lot of understanding.
But the problem here is that we just don't know what's going on. We don't know what's happened. We don't know what she died from. We don't know if it was something that came from that lab. Were people exposed? So we just -- we're lacking a lot of information.
MICHAELSON: We do know, though, that there's been quite a response. Quarantines, close contacts all being monitored, which would indicate that this may be more than just typical pneumonia.
DR. RIMOIN: Well, exactly. If this was something that -- pneumonic plague is treatable with antibiotics. And in this kind of situation, normally you would, you know, look to see who has potentially been exposed.
[01:39:48]
DR. RIMOIN: There would be a, you know, people would get treated with antibiotics prophylactically. But so -- it just -- it seemed disproportionate to what we -- what we saw as a, you know, a potential plague exposure.
And I think that that's what's caused all of these questions. And that's what the World Health Organization is now asking about too. Everybody would like to have more information. And when you're dealing with high-consequence pathogens, transparency
and rapid, rapid assessment and risk assessment is critical.
MICHAELSON: Which is not something that the Russian government is always known for.
DR. RIMOIN: Indeed.
MICHAELSON: Yes. All right. Dr. Anne Rimoin, thank you so much for coming in and for sharing your perspective on all this. We really appreciate it.
Real quickly, in terms of ebola, where are we at on that?
DR. RIMOIN: Well, you know, we have an outbreak. It's the largest, most deadly outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's continuing to spread. And now we have a case in Kenya that managed to travel through several borders, arrive in Kenya and died there.
So it just really demonstrates that an infectious disease like ebola may make it through. You know, if you have border restrictions, it's not necessarily the only thing that matters. You need to have good surveillance in place.
MICHAELSON: Excellent. Now, Dr. Anne Rimoine, thank you so much for coming in.
You are watching THE STORY IS.
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MICHAELSON: Arizona has several key offices on the ballot in the upcoming midterms, but the state has a complicated past with elections. False claims about the 2020 election sparked a lengthy, controversial audit, and the fallout still follows some current candidates.
CNN's Kyung Lah traveled to Arizona.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: The people who helped build a conspiracy and a lie years ago, they're back and they're back on the ballot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Cowboy Church.
Let's hear it. Biggs. Biggs. Biggs. Biggs. LAH: At the Cowboy Church north of Tucson, we find Congressman Andy
Biggs, the Republican nominee for Arizona governor, headlining a political revival.
REP. ANDY BIGGS (R-AZ), GUBERNATORIAL NOMINEE: Are you ready to turn Arizona Red again?
LAH: Election denialism is still a part of the political gospel here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They will rig that all day long.
LAH: The faithful here receive it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to be fired up. You're going to be excited.
LAH: And echo it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't believe the last election was proper.
LAH: What about 2020?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 2020? I think Trump won. Yes.
BIGGS: I join the objection to counting votes of electors from my home state of Arizona.
LAH: Let's go back to January 6th, 2021. That's Biggs on the House floor, speaking just as rioters broke into the U.S. capitol.
In Arizona, The conspiracies were exploding.
Hi, Congressman. I'm Kyung Lah from CNN.
Today, candidate Biggs claims he didn't deny election results even when asked directly.
If you are elected governor and you politically disagree with what the voters of Arizona say in subsequent elections, will you certify the Arizona election results?
BIGGS: So I'm not an election denier, but what I would tell you is I'm very comfortable that this election is going to be great. Win, lose or draw -- I have a feeling I'm going to win. So that'll be easy to certify.
LAH: Months after Biggs voted to block the certification of Arizona's 2020 electoral votes, the GOP-controlled Arizona state senate subpoenaed and seized Maricopa County's ballots.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to decertify.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Until we are absolutely certain that this election was not stolen. LAH: The movement was led in part by Warren Petersen, then chairman of
the Arizona senate judiciary committee. Now he wants to be the state's attorney general.
He helped hire a company with no election audit experience named the Cyber Ninjas to do a hand recount of more than two million ballots.
BILL GATES, FORMER MARICOPA COUNTY SUPERVISOR: There were so many surreal parts to it. These colored shirts sitting there with masks on, looking up at ballots, the spinning tables.
LAH: This is Bill Gates, a Republican, and the former Maricopa County supervisor. The county board helps oversee elections.
GATES: The Cyber Ninjas were not experts in elections. They also were not ninjas, just in case people were wondering.
LAH: Did they find anything?
GATES: After all of this, they didn't find anything.
LAH: One of the people leading the hunt was Ken Bennett.
KEN BENNETT, FORMER ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE: We'll just talk about all things elections.
LAH: A former Arizona secretary of state, Bennett was hired to help oversee the Cyber Ninjas' audit.
You guys chased every conspiracy?
BENNETT: Absolutely. Hey, we hand counted the ballots. Trump lost Arizona -- Sorry. All of a sudden, I went from, like hero to devil.
LAH: The devil?
BENNETT: Oh, yes. The MAGA, right, part of the Republican Party turned on me like I was evil.
LAH: How much of an impact is that going to have this November?
BENNETT: People now running for statewide office, top three statewide offices -- they're still saying that the 2020 election was stolen. Or they won't say that it wasn't stolen. I think it will affect their electability in this November's election.
LAH: Bennett is especially blunt about Alexander Kolodin, the Republican nominee for Arizona secretary of state. Bennett knows him as.
ALEXANDER KOLODIN (R), NOMINEE FOR ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE: Alexander Kolodin here on behalf of defendant Cyber Ninjas, Inc.
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LAH: Kolodin was a lawyer for the Cyber Ninjas. Now, he's running to oversee Arizona's elections.
BENNETT: The thought is so abhorrent to me, I can hardly express it. What he really is, is a liar, and I cannot support liars.
I don't want you anywhere near being in charge of the voter registration system for the entire state.
LAH: We've been trying to talk to Kolodin and Peterson, asking their campaigns for interviews. Now they're here at this political event near Tucson.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you guys with CNN?
LAH: Oh, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're going to need to stay off the property. There's no media allowed.
LAH: Do you know if the candidates all left?
Any dice? Any dice?
Is he coming out?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No dice.
LAH: No dice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No dice.
LAH: On the Democratic side this November.
I think she's in back.
A different connection to the Cyber Ninjas audit. Governor Katie Hobbs, the incumbent, being challenged by Biggs.
You were secretary of state back in the Cyber Ninjas era. Is that something that is now pulling forward to this election today?
GOV. KATIE HOBBS (D-AZ): We should be done talking about an election that happened six years ago. My opponent repeated false election claims, supported the Cyber Ninjas audit, and he still refuses to say that Donald Trump lost in 2020 or that I won in 2022. And that is really dangerous.
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MICHAELSON: CNN reached out to Alexander Kolodin's campaign about what the former Arizona secretary of state said in that interview. The campaign called it, quote, "falsehoods and petulant gossip".
When we come back, some major weather news.
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MICHAELSON: We're getting live pictures from Mobile, Alabama as residents along the Gulf Coast are now on alert as Isaias has rapidly intensified into the Atlantic season's first hurricane. At last check, the storm has sustained winds of 75 miles per hour, making it a Category 1 hurricane.
It's on track to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday. The forecast track has narrowed to a landfall somewhere from the Mississippi Coast to the western Florida Panhandle.
Already, hurricane and storm surge warnings are in effect along the Gulf Coast. The governors of Florida and Alabama have already announced states of emergencies for dozens of counties ahead of that storm.
Tomorrow night, U.S. Senate debates in Georgia, Michigan and Maine. With us live, Senator Thom Tillis, Democratic Congressman Everson Blair and our political panel, Bob Shrum and Melanie Mason, all on set with us tomorrow.
See you then.
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