A Quiet Community Shattered by Violence

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1:02Pamela Brown: Happening now, a quiet community shattered by violence. I just figured, okay, today is a day that I'm sure that every teacher at the school thought, today is a day that I'm going to die, saving my kids. Three young children and a teacher gunned down inside an Oregon elementary school before the gunman is shot and killed. We're live in Bend, Oregon with the latest developments on the investigation. Plus, President Trump weighs in on the possibility of another impeachment if Democrats take control of the Congress in the midterm elections. Back in the spotlight, Elizabeth Holmes is the subject of a new documentary, but our Dr.

1:42Pamela Brown: Sanjay Gupta got exclusive access long before she went to prison. And strong winds fuel the fire threat in California as crews work to control the wildfires already burning. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is on assignment. You're in the Situation Room.

2:11Pamela Brown: We begin this hour with the horrific tragedy in Bend, Oregon, where a 16-year-old gunman killed four people inside a Silver Rail elementary school. This morning, police want to know why. The toll is devastating. Three young kids, children, just 5, 8, and 11 years old, and a teacher, all lost their lives. Right now, a 7-year-old child and another teacher, they are fighting for their lives in the hospital. A 5th grade teacher watched the terror unfold right through her classroom window. Listen to her describe those harrowing moments. They were so afraid. to look on their faces was really hard to see.

2:53It's trying to calm them down, you know. And, um,

3:00some kids were praying, some kids were consoling other kids. And so, but they were doing so quietly because they know you don't make any noise. I just figured, okay, today is a day that, I'm sure that every teacher at the school thought, today is a day that I am gonna die, saving my kids.

3:20Pamela Brown: We're learning the teenage shooter had a long gun. Investigators say he forced his way into the school by shooting through the locked doors. A community member followed him inside and shot and killed him before police arrived. At 1.02 p.m. our first officers arrived on scene. Moments later an officer reported that the suspect had been shot by a community member who had seen the suspect enter the school and pursued him into the school and engaged him. Our officers entered the building and confirmed the suspect was dead. CNN national correspondent Nick Watt is on the scene for us in Bend, Oregon.

3:58Pamela Brown: Nick, what are you learning about the community member who took out the shooter? Well, Wolf, on dispatch audio, he was described possibly as a father of one of the kids at the school. We do not know that. Community member is what we are told right now. Now, listen, the local police and the FBI are being pretty tight-lipped on details, not saying how many rounds were fired, not giving any details of that long gun while this investigation is ongoing. They're trying to figure out if this 16-year-old had any connection to this school. We do not know those details yet. We are expecting a press conference sometime during the day.

4:37As you can see, the sun is just coming up here in Bend. Now, yesterday was picture day at this elementary school, so kids dressed up to get their photos taken. And as one mother said on Facebook, some parents are going to get photographs of their children on the day that they lost their lives. That mother also described it as the most incomprehensible day. Now, as you laid out, Wolf, this all happened very, very quickly. That teacher we heard from, she saw the shooter walking into the school through her classroom window, called it in. Police were on the scene within three minutes of that first 911 call, by which time the shooter was already dead.

5:22As three children and a teacher were also going to die. We also have in the hospital still another teacher and a seven-year-old wolf in critical condition. Now, of course, there have been the usual condemnations from political figures from across the country saying this can't happen. We need things to change. Of course, things won't change. Wolf, this is the 36th shooting at a K through 12 school in America so far this year. So here in Bend, this picturesque town of about 100 ,000 people, it's waking up to another horror. the community will be rallying around the parents of the dead and the parents of the children who survived here.

6:10Wolf.

6:11Pamela Brown: It is so, so heartbreaking. Our deepest condolences to the families. Nick Watt, thank you very much for that report. Joining us now, CNN senior law enforcement analyst, the former Philadelphia Police Commissioner, Charles Ramsey. Chief Ramsey, thanks so much for joining us. What would be your top priority in this very early stage of the investigation? Well, right now, I believe that they're doing everything they can to get as much information about the shooter as they possibly can. Obviously, you want to check their social media footprint. You want to interview parents. You want to interview friends, relatives.

6:47You want to do all you can to try to uncover a motive and learn more about the shooter. They're also tracing that firearm that that individual had. from the time it was manufactured to the time it was sold. Now in Oregon, a 16-year-old cannot legally purchase a gun. So how he got his hands on a gun is part of that particular question. They may very well also still be processing that particular crime scene as well. So you have a lot of things going on right now as part of this investigation. And there are still an awful lot of questions that need to be answered. Hopefully many of them will be answered at this upcoming press conference.

7:27Pamela Brown: And you're also the former Washington, D.C. police chief, Chief Ramsey. That's where I got to know you. There's still a lot we don't know about this shooter. What are the biggest questions you have right now about the shooter? Well, I mean, a shooter, whether or not he had a history, I mean, I find it hard to believe that he didn't leave something behind. I mean, most shooters leave some indication that they plan to do something. A 16-year-old, I would imagine, would be very active on social media or elsewhere and would probably have told someone something that would indicate that they were about to do something like this.

8:05And so that's one of the main things that they'll be looking for. But also, just how he got his hands on the gun. Did the gun belong to the parents? Was it not secured? Obviously, it wasn't properly secured. We already talked about how he got into the school. The Apparently, he shot his way into the school, but that'll be confirmed through the police department, I imagine, through the press conference. And all those things will start to take shape. But right now, there's just so much. I mean, how can a 16-year-old get his hands on a gun and then do this? Does he have any connection to the school?

8:39Did he at one point in time attend that particular school and only goes to fifth grade? But he may have been a former student. We just don't know.

8:49Pamela Brown: The school district just spent, we're told, millions of dollars upgrading security at the school, specifically reinforcing door locks. But this shooter literally shot through those door locks. What do you make of the school security protocols? And should there be police outside all of these schools from now on? Well, there aren't enough police to be outside of every single school in America. It's just not practical that that would happen. And as far as security goes, nothing's going to be 100 percent foolproof. It'll slow a shooter down, but not necessarily 100 percent stop a shooter. Remember, we're talking about schools here and there's a balance that you have to have.

9:30I mean, do you really want kids like they're walking into a maximum security prison as opposed to a school? There needs to be security. And one of the things that I would like to see, I mean, the federal government spends money, I mean, billions of dollars on all kinds of things. Why not provide sufficient funding in the billions of dollars for schools across America and set some minimal standard for security, cameras, door locks, all kinds of things that they would need that would at least have an impact on someone that's trying to do some harm in a school? We have to do something other than just thoughts and prayers and sit around and and nothing happens.

10:13I mean, this is going to happen again. It's only a question of when and where. And in the meantime, unfortunately, our elected officials will do absolutely nothing. And that's the saddest part of this whole thing, because they won't do anything at all.

10:27Pamela Brown: It is an awful situation that's going on. Chief Ramsey, as usual, thank you very much for your expertise. And still ahead, happening now, Alec Murdoch back in court. The critical evidence under review just ahead of his retrial and later. We're now hearing from the family of the man who fell from a roller coaster and died. What his brother-in-law says were his final words. Stay with us here in the Situation Room.

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11:44Pamela Brown: Happening now, President Trump is getting ready for his next stop in the midterm campaign blitz he's been engaged in. And today he heads to Georgia, a battleground state that could play a key role in controlling Congress. If Democrats flip the House and the Senate, they could define the last two years of his presidency, including the possibility of impeachment proceedings against him or members of his cabinet. CNN's Elena Trin is over at the White House for us. Elena, what did the president actually say about maybe facing impeachment for the third time? Yeah, look, this is actually something that I think is sometimes lost in these conversations about the midterms.

12:23And part of the reason you've seen President Donald Trump just so invested in ensuring, or at least in trying to ensure, that Republicans win in their races and can hold on to the majority. And part of that is because they are concerned about what Democrats could do if they gain power, particularly in a place like the House, where they could launch a ton of different investigations. We know, of course, back during his first term, two different impeachment trials were brought against the president stemming from the House. So he has a long memory when it comes to that. And it's something I should say as well, Wolf, that I know the president's team has actually been preparing for since pretty early on, since he got into office, knowing that they might be facing a slew of different investigations.

13:06But I want you to listen to what he said. He was interviewed by Newsmax on this yesterday and kind of detailed his thoughts on this. Listen. Well, you know, by the way, it is interesting. You know, they impeached me twice. I won very easily both times. And there are those that say it helped me as opposed to hurt me. And I become good at anti-impeachment. I call it the anti-impeachment movement. Right. But for them to do that is, it cheapens our country so much. Now, part of what the president was arguing there is that he's become so good at fighting impeachment. It's kind of a similar argument.

13:42you heard some people make when he was, you know, different charges were brought against him once he left office. Some people arguing that that helped him win a second time. But one thing he said there, too, as well, Wolf, that I found notable was that he actually said he has information on Hillary Clinton, as well as the former presidents, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and that he hasn't brought any criminal investigations against them out of respect for office. Not really clear what he was referencing, but he almost suggested that if Democrats were to bring impeachment against him again, he would perhaps consider moving forward with some of those plans.

14:15Just another thing that kind of ties into this, he did touch on pardons as well. It's something I know I've been hearing in my conversations with sources here at the White House, Wolf, is that this idea that he would pardon some of his top advisors and officials before he left office. And what he told Newsmax on this last night was that he doesn't want to see people that work for him to go through years of nonsense. He said, hire lawyers and everything else all for nothing. So kind of suggesting that perhaps he would be throwing out some pardons to his team to avoid legal trouble once he leaves office, Wolf.

14:49Pamela Brown: Elena, as you know, the White House's new press secretary, Katie Zachariah, is defending herself this morning against accusations that she claimed to be a lawyer without having passed the bar exam. What can you tell us about the latest developments on this front. Yeah, this has really kind of consumed Wolf, the entire introduction that Katie Zachariah has had to the White House press corps, these questions of her credentials of being a lawyer or an attorney. And of course, we have reported that she never actually passed the bar exam, despite frequently presenting herself as a lawyer publicly. She did address these both last night on Fox News and again this morning.

15:28Listen to what she said.

15:30Pamela Brown: Do you wish you would have disclosed to the president about the bar and not passing the bar? Yeah, well, Lawrence, those questions weren't asked. I'm being hired as White House press secretary and not White House counsel. The conversations and the reason I was, the reason that I was hired was to represent the president in the press. So there she's defending herself, saying that her legal credentials actually never came up in the hiring process and that she's not here to do legal work for the president. So that's kind of her way of pushing back on this. I will say, though, I found it interesting that Fox News also asked her this morning, Wolf, about whether she still has the confidence of the president.

16:11She argued, I'm still standing here as her reply. It just shows, I think, how tenuous and controversial her start has really been this week since her first day on Monday, Wolf.

16:22Pamela Brown: And just to be fair, She did graduate from law school, but she never passed the bar exam. And there's an issue of whether or not someone who is not a member of the bar is actually a lawyer or an attorney, as opposed to simply a graduate of a law school. Elena Trin at the White House for us. Thank you very, very much. Coming up, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Brussels, rallying support from European leaders as his relationship with President Trump turns very, very icy.

16:58Pamela Brown: HAPPENING NOW, RUSSIA AND UKRAINE TRADING STRIKES OVERNIGHT, TARGETING EACH OTHER'S ENERGY SITES. THIS COMES AS A SOURCE NOW TELLS CNN, UKRAINE HAS RUN OUT OF MISSILES FOR THE U.S.-MADE PATRIOT AIR DEFENSE MISSILES SYSTEM. THE UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODEMIR ZELENSKY IS IN BRUSSELS THIS MORNING. HE'S BEEN MEETING WITH EUROPEAN AND NATO LEADERS AS HE TRIES TO SHORE UP SUPPORT amid the ongoing war and a very bitter and escalating public feud with President Trump. I'm so thankful that we have such huge support from EU Council Commission and leaders, real leaders, so that they stay with us from the very beginning of this war.

17:41It's crucial and we count on the support. And really, our agenda is energy needs. This is point number one. And of course, we want to end this war as quick as possible. We don't see now signals from Russian side that they are ready for this, to end this war. That's why we have to prepare for the winter.

18:03Pamela Brown: All right, let's go to CNN's senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitkin. Fred, what more is Zelensky saying this morning specifically about President Trump? Yeah, one of the interesting things is he hadn't actually mentioned President Trump by name and some of that criticism. But when we heard there in Volodymyr Zelensky speaking about European leaders, calling them real leaders, he did seem to make very clear that right now his relations with the U.S. president certainly aren't where many people would want them to be, certainly where many European leaders would want them to be. One of the things that the Ukrainian president then also criticized, Wolf, was that diesel deal that the U.S.

18:38president did with the Russians, obviously sending some Russian diesel to the United States, but also to global markets. Volodymyr Zelensky, both in the session and in his press conference, said he does not believe that that diesel deal is going to change energy prices and do much for global energy supply. But he says what it will do is it will fill the coffers of the Kremlin to continue what the Kremlin still calls its special military operation in Ukraine. One of the other things that the Ukrainian president also criticizes, he believes that a deal like that sets a precedent. He says he believes that it will not remain a deal just for diesel, but in the future that there could potentially be deals for gas as well.

19:16So, He says he believes for Ukraine, it could be a dangerous precedent that could be set. In total, it really was clear that the relations between the U.S. president and the Ukrainian president certainly seem to be deteriorating. I want to take a listen to the Ukrainian president being asked a question about his relations with the U.S. president at a press conference. And his response are probably more accurate to call it a non-response. Here's what he said. his personal popularity is very low diesel prices in the u.s are very high and the war that he started in the middle east is not going the way he wants it do you think you are being treated as a scapegoat for his own problems

20:14This is my answer.

20:19Ukraine's president saying there that non-answer is his answer when it comes to his relations with U.S. President Donald Trump. Of course, one of the other big questions at this summit with the European Union was also the question of Starlink, which, of course, the Ukrainians had said had been moving quite slowly over the past couple of days. The Ukrainian president making clear that the Ukrainians do not use Starlink to attack sites inside Russia, but use it to actually help themselves fend off Russian missiles, which of course fly into Ukraine, especially those jet-powered ones that are very fast and very difficult to intercept.

20:50And one of the key points, Wolf, that the Ukrainian president kept making that for them right now, they don't believe that the war is going to end anytime soon. And that is why they are looking to surviving the winter. That's why these energy questions for the Ukrainians, they say, are absolutely key to sort those out before it gets really cold there in Eastern Europe.

21:09Pamela Brown: Yeah, it looks like that situation is escalating big time. Fred Pleitkin reporting for us. Thank you very, very much. Coming up, 52. Let me repeat that. 52. That's the number of school shootings this year in the United States. 52. The latest less than 24 hours ago in Bend, Oregon. Up next, I'll speak to an activist trying to stop this horrible gun violence here in the United States.

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22:10Pamela Brown: Happening now, Alec Murdoch is back in a South Carolina courtroom just ahead of his second double murder trial. He was found guilty of murdering his wife and son back in 2023. But the state's Supreme Court threw out the convictions earlier this year. Murdoch will be retried in 2027. Today, his lawyers are pushing for information and evidence they say is crucial to their defense to be released.

22:39Pamela Brown: And there's more news we're following right now. Six Flags, Six Flags in Georgia reopens today just four days after a visitor died in the park. 42-year-old Hassan Karim fell to his death from the Goliath rollercoaster. He was there celebrating a birthday with several family members, including kids. One of them was sitting next to him when he fell. How she described it was, you know, he went up, like I guess as the ride was going, he would go up, he went down, he went up, he went down. And the third or fourth time that happened, the latch came undone, and that's when he fell out. At least 10 similar roller coaster rides in North America have temporarily closed as well as investigators work to try to establish what happened in Georgia.

23:28Pamela Brown: And law enforcement agencies are investigating suspicious substances that were mailed to several congressional offices, as well as election offices, in at least eight states. It's unclear if all the cases are linked. Arizona's Secretary of State said this about the letter sent to his office. Listen. A clerk in my office opened up an envelope today that had a white powdery substance in it, and we had to evacuate our office. This is what happens when people start spreading rumors and lies that are not founded in fact. This is the state that we live in right now across the United States of America.

24:04Pamela Brown: I'm terribly disappointed in the fact that there are still public officials out there who will talk trash about our election systems when it's perfectly inappropriate and they know better. We as Americans need to come together. We have to trust the elections officials that are out there that will deliver a free and fair election as we have always done. We, of course, will continue to follow the story and bring you any important updates. And happening now, shock, grief, and a search for answers after a teen gunman blasted his way into an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, and opened fire. He killed three children, 5, 8, and 11 years old.

24:42Pamela Brown: He also killed a teacher before a bystander shot and killed him. A 7-year-old and another teacher are right now in the hospital with critical injuries. They're fighting for their lives. Last night, the school superintendent struggled to keep his emotions in check. Today, an unthinkable tragedy happened at Silver Rail Elementary School. No community should have to do what we're doing right now. I don't have any words for what this community is feeling right now. I don't think anyone does. We are heartbroken. We are horrified. This is the kind of thing you hear about in other places, and pray that it never happens here.

25:22And it has happened here. Today it happened to our children, to our teachers, and to our families. To the families that have had loss tonight, we are with you and we will stay with you. To our staff who helped our students and protected our kids today, we thank you. You did what no one should ever be asked to do. I am so grateful beyond words for your efforts.

25:53Pamela Brown: Angela Farrell-Zabala is the executive director of Moms Demand Action, one of the largest grassroots organizations combating gun violence in the United States. Angela, thanks so much for what you're doing. Thanks so much for being here. The superintendent's words, as we just heard, are gut-wrenching as you hear him share the anguish and the heartbreak of an entire community. This is a tough question to ask, but have many Americans tuned out the horrors of school violence all across the country? Look, as a parent of four, this is horrendous for me to hear. And I know many parents are waking up, primarily these parents in Bend, that are now going to have to bury their child, their children.

26:38And we also have a teacher who was shot and killed. Look, as a parent, this is horrible. This is the reality of our situation in this country that we've had. You mentioned it at the top of this segment, 52 school shootings, 33 deaths so far this year. What should we be doing right now? It is the autumn time. As a mother, I know what that means. It means warm cider with my kids, picking pumpkins, Halloween costumes, not burying your child. So I don't think that people have lessened their feeling about this or have ignored this crisis. I think there's so many things going on and people often don't know where to start with that.

27:21And this is where we come in at Moms Demand Action, making sure that we're doing everything in our power to fight for common sense gun laws in the state and across this country that are going to protect communities.

27:33Pamela Brown: Your group was founded the day after the Sandy Hook tragedy back in 2012 when 21st graders and six adult staff members were massacred by a lone gunman nearly 14 years later. Is it surprising that school violence remains such a grotesque threat, maybe escalating threat to our schools across the country? We've done a lot of work over that time, and that's a horrible marker that you just mentioned. And I can remember where I was when I heard that news. Many people can. And there's a lot of work that we are actually doing to prevent these tragedies from happening across this country and right there in Bend, Oregon.

28:12We know that tougher gun laws save lives, common sense gun laws. And we have a coalition of teachers, parents, grandparents, gun owners, faith leaders that work with us every single day to make sure that this is not a tragedy that we're seeing. We should never see an elementary school as a place where a shootout happens. We should never have to contend with that when we're dropping off our children at school. Educators shouldn't have to contend with it either. And that's why we're not going to let up on as these details unfold on next steps and what we need to do to continue to strengthen and make sure that this does not happen again.

28:49Pamela Brown: And as you just mentioned, you're the mother of four children. and sometimes it must feel like you're pushing a mountain to try to bring about some serious change. What are the small and subtle contributions every parent can make? There's so many things that we can do. First and foremost, I would say you need to be able to talk about this. This is an important thing to talk about. Even simple things as if your child is going to a sleepover. Are the guns secure in the home? Are there gun owners? There's things like this. You can show up and use your voice. There are too many people that are survivors of gun violence in this country.

29:26And we need to use our voice. We also need to use our vote. That is really important. We need to have common sense, gun sense champions that are going to do everything in their power to keep our children and our communities safe, first and foremost. So I'd say there's lots that you can do. You can even join us at Moms Demand Action by texting READY to 64433. But there's lots of solutions to this. This is not an inevitability. And we're going to continue to work until we do not hear any more tragedies like this.

29:55Pamela Brown: Angela Farrell Zabala, thank you so much for what you're doing. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. And coming up, millions from Musk. New filings just out reveal the staggering amount of money the multibillionaire is now spending on the Senate race in Texas.

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31:13Pamela Brown: Happening now, President Trump is talking about possible pardons for himself and members of his administration before he leaves office. Here's what he said in a new interview. Listen to this. I'm allowed to do a pardon, a self-pardon. I'm allowed to pardon. One thing, the only thing Biden did is he proved that, you know, the pardon is very powerful. I know that. They say it's the most powerful thing a president has, the power of pardon. And I can tell you this, I don't want to see my people go through, because these people are lunatics on the left. All right, let's discuss this and more with Pete Seat.

31:50Pamela Brown: He was the White House spokesman during the George W. Bush administration, also with a CNN political commentator, the Democratic strategist Maria Cardona. Pete, let me start with you. What's your reaction, first of all, to what we just heard the president say about pardons? Well, it feels like the chicken and the egg, because as you recall, when Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, the argument was, well, Republicans are going to come after us when they take over. And so we need to protect our own. And they use that argument. And I think that very same argument is going to be used now just on the other side.

32:27We can debate who started it and who's going to end it if it ever ends. But I fully expect that the president would pardon himself and other members of his family and inner circle to protect them and shield them from any future investigations when Democrats take control of at least one House of Congress after the election.

32:47Pamela Brown: So what do you think, Maria? Did President Biden create a precedent on this issue of pardons? He may have. And I think Pete's right. The president Trump is going to use that very same reasoning to pardon people around him, including himself. We don't know whether that will work. Right. The self pardoning part of it. But I think that the reasoning between why President Biden did it versus why President Trump is doing it is very different, meaning that one of the biggest issues in this election, Wolf, is the issue around corruption. The American people have had it with how corrupt they are seeing this administration is acting.

33:28They gave Donald Trump their vote, hoping that he would keep his promises in terms of focusing on bringing down inflation, bringing down costs of groceries, gas and rent. And what Trump has done has been not only skyrocketing prices for American families, but he has lined his own pockets by billions of dollars in the White House in very corrupt ways. And his administration and the people around him have done exactly the same thing, including his family. So the American people are very anxious to hold those corrupt individuals accountable. And that is going to be one of the things that Democrats are going to focus on when they take over the House and possibly the Senate, in addition to really keeping the promises that Trump broke in terms of focusing on policies around affordability.

34:23Pamela Brown: You want to quickly respond to that, Pete? Well, I think the biggest challenge for Democrats is going to be what Maria just said there at the end. They're running on a bunch of promises, not necessarily policies. and they are going to fail at those promises as well, just as Donald Trump and Republicans have when it comes to affordability. A lot of promises were made on the campaign trail that just could not be kept. Presidents only have so much power to control the price of goods and services. Yes, this administration has taken actions on tariffs and the conflict in Iran that have contributed to those high prices, but a lot of those were already going up, up and up because of the previous administration.

35:05It set a new floor and it wasn't those prices weren't going to go down. So promises were made that could not be kept to win an election. And it's ultimately going to backfire with some losses in the House and the Senate here in two weeks.

35:20Pamela Brown: Pete, let me follow up with another political related question. CNN is now reporting that new campaign finance filings showed Democrats in several Senate battleground states raise a lot more money than their rivals. But the money from outside GOP-aligned groups offset that advantage based on our reporting. What does this tell you about Republican fundraising? Well, it tells me that there's a lot of enthusiasm among Democrats. They see this as a promising election cycle for them, and they should because there's a Republican in the White House. The same would be true if Kamala Harris had been successful.

35:58It would likely be a good cycle for Republicans. For my side of the aisle, I hope those dollars are going where they need to go and are being utilized in close races that are either leaning one way or the other to drive out Republican voters, particularly Republican voters who only show up in presidential cycles. Those voters are the key to victory in places like Texas. Making sure they show up is how a Ken Paxton wins over a James Tallarico.

36:28Pamela Brown: Maria, while Democrats clearly outraised their opponents in several key battleground states for Senate races, they also spent those funds aggressively in the third quarter. And in some instances, that left some candidates with less cash on hand than their opponents. Is this a concern for Democrats as we move into the final stretch, what, only a few weeks before the November 3rd midterm election? Well, certainly raising money has always been an issue for Democrats versus Republicans. and we have seen that. But what we're also seeing is, as Pete said, is there is a lot of grassroots enthusiasm with Democrats.

37:07They are continuing to raise money, even in these last days, from grassroots voters who are so sick and have had it with the corruption and the crazy and the chaos and the criminality of Republicans and the Trump administration. And they're showing that by opening up their pocketbooks. And I think that will continue. However, there is a ton of money on the other side. You mentioned it earlier. Elon Musk is pouring all of his money into all of these races, especially in red states, which I think indicates the desperation on the side of Republicans about how worried they are, even in states and in races that they shouldn't even have to think about in normal midterm cycles.

37:48But there is also this law of diminishing returns, Wolf, which means that no matter how much money you throw at a race, if a voter has had it and they want change, they're going to vote that change. And so Democrats are going to continue to focus on our message of keeping the promises that we've talked about on affordability, on making sure to hold the Trump administration accountable and on focusing on the issues that voters care about. And frankly, no matter how much money Elon Musk spends or no matter how much money the dark money groups spend, sometimes that kind of money cannot cover up the stench of that criminality and that corruption and that betrayal on behalf of Republicans and Donald Trump.

38:36Pamela Brown: I thought it was interesting, Pete, that President Trump was posting about the Texas Senate race only yesterday, already appearing to place the blame on outgoing Senator John Cornyn and Republican strategist Karl Rove for a potential loss there in Texas. Do you agree with him? I think he has a point when it comes to Senator Cornyn, only because Cornyn is a symbol of part of the problem that Ken Paxton is having, and that is Republican voters, some choosing to cast their ballots for James Tallarico. There There was a poll recently, I believe conducted by Fox News, that showed a fifth of Republicans who are, quote, non-MAGA Republicans were planning to vote or were going to vote for sure for Tallarico.

39:24And that is the challenge. You need those Republicans to come home. Now, John Cornyn is not helping Ken Paxton in any way. He's not out there publicly supporting him. His team says, well, Cornyn is supporting the ticket. He's not actively opposing Ken Paxton. So by default, that means he's supporting him. But it would be much more helpful if he was publicly out there saying, hey, this was a tough primary. It stinks that I lost. It stings that I lost. But we need to make sure we maintain a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate. You may not like Ken Paxton personally, and you may not like the idea of him being our senator, but you're sure as heck not going to like the idea of a Democrat controlled Senate for another two years.

40:10Pamela Brown: All right, Pete Seat, thank you very much. Maria Cardona, thanks to you as well. And here's what's coming up. All new right at the top of the hour in the Situation Room. Scammers targeting voters. A new warning about phishing emails and fake campaign websites. Inflation fact check. CNN's Daniel Dale will break down President Trump's claims about prices during his second term. And a Situation Room special report. what Elizabeth Holmes told our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta years before she was convicted of fraud and sent to prison. That's all new coming up right here in the next hour.

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41:24Pamela Brown: Happening now. Strong Santa Ana winds add fuel to the fire threat across Southern California right now. Two wildfires have prompted evacuations in Balibu and the San Diego area. Firefighters are racing to get them under control. So far, neither, neither is contained. Our meteorologist Allison Chinchara is joining us right now. So Allison, what are the conditions that emergency crews are up against today? Right, some of the worst, and that's going to be the same way for most of the morning hours today. We're hoping to get some improvement as we go later on into Friday. Look at some of these wind gusts, 78 miles per hour, 41, 40.

42:03Again, you've had quite a few of them in that 35 to 50 mile per hour range this morning, and that's really the peak for a lot of these areas. So you've got all of your wind warnings and wind advisories in place for much of the day today. The good news is the improvement will come once we get later on this evening. You've got the red flag warnings mostly in effect north of Los Angeles because that's where you have not only the high winds, but the ground is much drier than it is in places like San Diego, for example, which thankfully got some rain last weekend from tropical storm Rachel. But these areas, this is where it's that combination of dry ground and those very gusty winds that's going to fuel that fire threat for the remainder of the day today.

42:43Here you can see again this morning, still looking at several of those wind gusts up around that 40 to 50 mile per hour range. Once we get to this afternoon, dropping down to about 30 to 35 in most places. And then finally, once we head into Saturday, other than a few isolated spots, most of them should come back down to below 20 miles per hour.

43:00Pamela Brown: All right, let's hope for the best. Alison Chinchar, thank you very, very much. And the next hour of The Situation Room starts right now.

43:15Pamela Brown: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Pamela Brown is on a signed in today. You're in The Situation Room. We begin with the urgent investigation unfolding right now in Bend, Oregon, where police are trying to determine why a 16-year-old shot his way into an elementary school and killed four people, a teacher and three children, just 5, 8, and 11 years old. They are now dead. A 7-year-old child and another teacher are in critical condition, still fighting to survive. This morning, we're hearing from people who survived this massacre. Here's how a fifth-grade teacher described the horror.

43:56They were so afraid. to look on their faces was really hard to see. It's trying to calm them down, you know? And, um,

44:08some kids were praying, some kids were consoling other kids. And so, but they were doing so quietly, because they know you don't make any noise. I just figured, okay, today is a day that, I'm sure that every teacher at the school thought, today is a day that I am gonna die, saving my kids.

44:28Pamela Brown: Police say the 16-year-old was armed with a long gun and blasted his way through the school's locked doors. That teen was shot and killed by a community member before police arrived at the scene. Let's go live right now to CNN National Correspondent Nick Watt, who's on the ground for us in Bend, Oregon. Nick, what more are you learning about how all this unfolded? Well, Wolf, we know that the horror, the terror that happened at this elementary school behind me all took place in just three minutes. That teacher you heard from, she saw the teenage gunman walking, carrying that rifle. She saw him through her classroom window, called into the office.

45:10911 calls. Let's take a little listen to some of that dispatch audio. We are taking an active shooter call at 6153307 East Stone Creek Lane. It looks like the shooter has been neutralized, possibly shot by a father at the school. Not sure about patients at this time. The police are arriving. Now, we do not know the identity of that community member who followed the gunman into the school, neutralized, killed him. We do not know the identity also yet of the 16-year-old shooter or any possible motive or any possible connection to this school. So three children dead, one teacher dead, another child and another teacher fighting for their lives.

46:04We are expecting to get more details from the FBI and the local police who are investigating. We're going to get more details from them later. They are keeping details pretty tight, pretty close to the vest while this investigation is ongoing. Now, we're also hearing from community members. We hear Wolf that it was picture day yesterday at this elementary school. So you can imagine parents getting their kids dressed up in their finest for posterity. And of course, there were pictures taken probably of kids yesterday who then lost their lives. Now, we hear, Wolf, that this 16-year-old gunman shot his way into the school.

46:46Now, in 2022, they had new locks put on the doors in these classrooms so that they can be locked from the inside. There was also a vestibule system where you could come in, but then you had to be identified and buzzed into the school. We do not yet know how far into the school this gunman got. As I mentioned before, he was followed in by this community member who neutralized and perhaps made this disaster a little less tragic. It's, listen, three kids dead and a teacher dead. It's terrible, but perhaps it could have been worse. We'll get details, more details later. Wolf.

47:25Pamela Brown: All right, Nick Watt on the scene for us. Thank you very, very much. Let's discuss this with CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller. John, thanks very much for joining us. Suspect was only 16 years old. We don't know much else. So when you have a suspect this young, how do police go about learning more about him and a potential motive? Well, we've been looking into him as well overnight, and it's been challenging in that he doesn't appear in any of the normal social media platforms that a lot of kids appear in under his own name. So it seems that he's a little under the radar.

48:10Now, there are other platforms, whether it's 4chan or 8chan or Twitch, where people operate under handles that are different from their names. And that is really what the FBI has been assisting local authorities with overnight, which is, sure, there's the logical piece, Wolf, where you get a search warrant for the home, you lock that down so that nobody can come or go or remove anything while you're waiting for that warrant with a team of police officers. Then you execute that search, and what are you looking for there? You're looking for what's in his room. Did he leave a note or a diary, computers and phones, but at the same time they are executing search warrants in the virtual world.

48:52And that means they're laying subpoenas and preservation orders and search warrants on social media companies where they've detected he might have an account or communicated. What are they looking for? They're looking for, did he have a plan? Was there leakage? Meaning was he hinting at this for days or weeks ahead of time? And more importantly, was anybody else clued in or involved in the plotting or planning. These are, unfortunately, we've come to learn the normal steps that we take in law enforcement and intelligence after one of these school shootings. The answers to all of those questions as they developed overnight, some of them we may learn at the press conference that Nick mentioned that's coming up, But there are other questions.

49:40What were the dynamics of the shooting between this 16-year-old? Where did he get that weapon? Did it come from the home? Is it traceable to somewhere else? The dynamics of the shooting between the community member and the school shooter. Did they exchange shots? Did they face each other? Or was he able to get the drop on him and take him by surprise? Those are details that could emerge today. But the investigation is really in its nascent stage because they did all they could at the scene. There was teams working overnight. There were other people who were sent home to recharge who will be back at it today.

50:22Pamela Brown: The district, the school district, spent millions of dollars to harden their schools, including upgrading the heavy duty reinforced door locks. Yet the gunman literally shot his way through them. He had a long gun, as they say. From a tactical standpoint, what more can schools do right now around the country to deter potential gunmen? Well, you know, Nick covered a little bit of this, talking about how they, you know, had the locking outside doors and then the vestibule where you're confronted by a second set of doors. That's become standard. It's considered kind of a man trap, which is if the shooter can get through the first set, the idea is to keep him or her through the second set.

51:06But, Wolf, we also know that these shooters study each other. They study each other's TTPs, their training, their tactics, their techniques, their procedures. And, you know, if you look at the—remember the shooting in Nashville just a couple of years back at the Covenant School. school. You had a former student return to that school. She shot her way through the locked doors by blowing out the glass with her gun, and then the second set of doors the same way. She had done reconnaissance at the school by coming there and asking for a tour so she could bring back her memories. We saw the same exact dynamic in Minneapolis at the Annunciation Church shooting, where the person had asked for a tour.

51:55One of the questions they're asking today is, was this 16-year-old ever a student at Silver Rail School, and had he been there either in the parking lot or visiting the school to try and formulate this plan? A lot of questions. We may get some answers today.

52:14Pamela Brown: And as you know, in Oregon, a 16-year-old can't purchase what's described as a long gun. So they're trying, I'm sure they're trying to figure out where did this 16-year-old get that gun? Well, while the FBI has been working on those electronic search warrants and preservation orders, ATF has been looking at the serial number on that gun. And what they can do is, there is no national gun registry. You can't run a serial number on a gun the way you can a license plate on a car and come to a registered owner. But what you can find is, where was the last point of sale from a licensed firearm dealer?

52:48You can go to that dealer and they can look up paper records on that sale and tell you who the purchaser was. We know statistically in most cases where juvenile school shooters are involved, the guns come from the home. We don't know the answer to that in this case.

53:05Pamela Brown: All right, John Miller, lots to work on. Thank you very, very much. Still ahead, pardon power. What President Trump is now saying about whether he would consider pardoning himself. and later, Trump's economic message. The president is touting inflation numbers while he's out there on the campaign trail, but are they accurate? We have a CNN fact check just ahead. We're live right here in the Situation Room.

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54:34Pamela Brown: Happening now, President Trump is heading to Georgia. The next stop in his midterm campaign The president has been on a cross-country swing this week, stumping for Republican candidates amid sagging popularity polls for himself and for his Republican Party. The highly contested state features a critical Senate race in the battle to try to control Congress in Trump's final years in office. CNN's Kevin Liptak is over at the White House for us. Kevin, some Democrats say if they flip the House and the Senate, they will launch impeachment proceedings against the president. How is Trump responding to that threat?

55:10Yeah, and it's interesting, this question of impeachment and of investigations of the president and his aides are something of a subtext to this entire midterm season. It's one of the reasons that why I think the president is fighting so hard and out on the road so often to try and retain the majorities in the House and the Senate. It's because he and his team are very aware that if Democrats come into power, they will see a flurry of these investigations, subpoena power, all kinds of things that kind of hampered the president in the final two years of his office during his first term. And that includes impeachments.

55:48Now, remember, the president was impeached twice during his first term. He insists and he insisted in this Newsmax interview that he did yesterday that that actually benefited from him, that he had retained what he calls this anti impeachment authority in which he sort of saw his own political powers underscored. And there could be some truth to that. You know, the president did go on to win 2024. But what he isn't ruling out is this idea of pardons, that if Democrats come in and begin these investigations that see himself or his aides embroiled in any kind of legal peril, he's not ruling out using that ultimate executive power of pardons to see them, their situations eased in some ways.

56:37Listen to what he said on that particular front.

56:41Pamela Brown: I'm allowed to do a pardon, a self-pardon. I'm allowed to pardon. One thing, the only thing Biden did is he proved that, you know, the pardon is very powerful. I know that. They say it's the most powerful thing a president has, the power of pardon. I can tell you this, I don't want to see my people go through, because these people are lunatics on the left. So the president not ruling out either a pardon for himself or a pardons for his team. The other interesting thing he said in that interview, and he didn't really have any evidence for this, but he said that he had his own information on Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, saying that he hadn't used that at the Justice Department just yet because of respect for the office, but holding out the potential that he could use that if he sees his own authority coming into question in the final two years.

57:31So not clear exactly what he meant by that, but I think all suggesting that this could be a very contentious final two years in office if Democrats do take the majorities in November.

57:43Pamela Brown: All right. We'll see what happens on November 3rd, the midterm elections. Kevin Liptak, thank you very, very much. Also happening now, with less than a month until Election Day, President Trump is trying to sell his economic message while he's out there on the campaign trail, and he's taking aim at former President Biden. Listen. 1.7 inflation in the last three months. Think of that. 1.7.

58:11He had real inflation. He had real inflation of 19 percent. 19 percent. Look, we're at 1.7 percent inflation for the last three months. We inherited a terrible inflation from Biden, the worst in the history of our country. And we have for the last three months, 1.7, 1.8 percent. Very low. We're doing great. We're doing great.

58:34Pamela Brown: All right, let's go live right now to CNN. Senior reporter Daniel Dale. Daniel, first of all, tell us about the facts about what we just heard from Trump. The facts show, Wolf, that the president's numbers simply don't make sense. We have not had anywhere close to 1.7 or 1.8 percent inflation any time in the last three months. We had 3.4 percent in July, 3.4 percent again in August, and an acceleration to 3.7 percent in September. Now, as for this so-called 19 percent figure for Biden era inflation, I do not know where Trump is getting it. He didn't explain. The White House refused to provide a response when I asked them for any answers about what he was talking about.

59:10But in a 2022 speech, Trump correctly noted that peak Biden era inflation was 9.1 percent in June of that year. And then in an ad lib, he said it's actually not. I believe it's double that. So if you double the 9.1, you add a little bit more, you get to 19. Of course, you can't do that. You can't double economic numbers because you feel like it. Peak Biden era inflation, again, was nowhere near 19 percent. Now, again, I have to emphasize, I'm not sure what kind of inflation numbers he was referring to for either himself or Biden because we did not get any explanation. So in an article on CNN.com that people can read, I walked through a couple other possibilities, like maybe he was talking about core inflation, cumulative inflation.

59:49But however you slice and dice it, it is simply not true. And I want to add, Wolf, that we keep hearing from President Trump that he inherited the worst inflation in history from President Biden. Simply not true. The inflation rate was down to 3.0 percent in the month he returned to office, January 2025. We know there was significant, considerable inflation under Biden. Again, a 40-year high of 9.1 percent in June 2022, but it then plummeted. And even that 9.1 percent rate was nowhere near the all-time high of 23.7 percent. It was nowhere near the Jimmy Carter era high, 14.8 % in 1980. So President Trump is entitled to talk about the fact there was significant inflation under Biden, but saying he inherited the worst ever, just not true.

1:00:29Pamela Brown: What other claims is President Trump making, Daniel, about inflation as these midterm elections approach? So many of them. Wolf, I think he's on a lying spree, frankly, about inflation, trying to concoct some sort of alternative reality that's much better than the reality we're actually in. So he said this month alone that we've already stopped the inflation. Obviously, you saw the numbers. He has not stopped it. He said that all of your prices other than gas are rapidly falling. The majority of prices continue to rise, we know. And he's even said that overall price levels, the overall prices are now way lower than they were than he inherited from Biden.

1:01:07So saying that overall prices are lower than the ones he inherited in January 2025, that is not even close to correct. Overall prices have increased on average 5.4 percent, consumer price index figures show. So, no, not a decline, a 5.4 percent increase.

1:01:21Pamela Brown: All right, Daniel Dale with his fact checking. Thank you very, very much. Up next, from visionary to convicted fraudster, Elizabeth Holmes is back in the headlines just ahead of a new documentary about her life. We'll have a Situation Room special report on what she told our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta a decade ago. it's probably the most important question i think anybody who's watching has about this does it work yes you're confident in that i am confident in that

1:01:56Pamela Brown: today a new documentary about disgraced theranos founder elizabeth holmes is hitting theaters the film follows her as she prepared to report to federal prison back in 2023 Holmes was convicted on multiple charges, including conspiracy to defraud investors and wire fraud related to her now defunct company. Back in 2016, our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta sat down with her for an exclusive interview. He was the first journalist allowed inside Theranos to see how the blood testing hardware allegedly worked. It's sort of surprising to literally see screwdrivers and scissors and nails and screws and everything.

1:02:38And this is a literally from the ground up sort of operation here. Absolutely. That's Elizabeth Holmes in 2016. So this is the inside of the mini lab. We could actually run a protocol with a live blood sample. Taking me inside Theranos to reveal the device she hoped would revolutionize blood testing. We wanted to realize a world in which people are determining the onset of disease in time for therapy to be effective, which is the origin of the word theranos. No one has ever seen this. You're the first one. She claimed that a mini lab could run a full range of tests on droplets of blood taken with the prick of a finger.

1:03:19I'm gonna do this myself. Tiffany, hello. I even went through the testing process with Holmes by my side. That's still a needle in there. Lancet. A lancet, okay. Needle has a hole. If we can make it affordable, if we can make it accessible, they can use it to avoid having to say goodbye too soon and to be able to live better lives. Silicon Valley investors were smitten. After all, the 19-year-old who founded Theranos in 2003 then dropped out of Stanford had echoes of Steve Jobs. The portrayal is, look, he was an icon for you. You even dressed like him. You behaved like him to some extent. the secretive nature of how he was, the reality distortion fields of Steve Jobs, that charisma that got things done even if people didn't fully understand it.

1:04:09Are those fair comparisons? I mean I've always said I don't think there is a comparison to Steve Jobs. He was an amazing entrepreneur and an amazing part of the legacy of Silicon Valley and you know I hope to have the privilege of being Elizabeth Holmes and building something around around a vision and a dream that's that's my dream and I know she's not wearing the black turtleneck today we have to talk about the black turtleneck a previous chapter you know I I was 19 when I started Theranos I was a young woman in a world in which there aren't a lot of young woman and I didn't want how I looked or what I wore to be what people were paying attention to and so I dressed in a very conservative way for a very long time until it became all that everybody was talking about and then when that became what people was talking about I changed it because it was never about that.

1:05:06That's it can I hold it? So this is my nanotainer blood. You know to get all that out of a single finger prick. For what it's worth that blood test put my cholesterol at 170. My own doctor found it to be 169 just the week before. But things began to collapse outside this lab at retail sites using the technology. Studies found those results to be inaccurate. Holmes said she never intentionally deceived anyone. It's probably the most important question I think anybody who's watching has about this. Does it work? Yes. You're confident in that? I am confident in that. But after this interview, an indictment was filed against Holmes and Theranos' president, alleging that they had schemed to defraud investors and that they knew the analyzer had accuracy and reliability problems and only performed a limited number of tests.

1:05:58In 2022, both were found guilty. Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison. Even during our interview, there were signs of the trouble to come. There's this man who goes by the initials RC right now in Arizona, who is suggesting that the lab results that he got from Theranos were not accurate and it led to him having a heart attack. Based on what you know, is it possible that what he's saying is true? I'm not the lab director, and so... I know, but this weighs on you. You're the CEO and founder of the company. I mean, this is as serious as it gets. What I know is that I've put the best people in place to be able to investigate every aspect of this and ensure that we meet the quality standards that we hold ourselves to.

1:06:44And I know they're doing that. By 2014, Holmes was a billionaire on paper, named one of the richest women in America by Forbes magazine. Most fascinating to me, though, the$945 million she raised, even though the investors seemed to have no idea whether or not the technology worked. Were they confident that it worked? Did they know? Did they understand? That's why they invested. People don't always invest because they know everything. They invest because they've been convinced somehow. The force of one's personality, their charisma, their appeasement, all those terms. I'm not sure that I frankly still understand all of it.

1:07:22Do people who are putting in tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars fully understand Theranos? I'm trying to think of the best way to answer that. The reasons they invested in the first place, right? These are sophisticated investors who chose to come into a startup company based on our intellectual property, based on our patent portfolio, based on our mission, based on the people who are here. They chose to come into something that was long-term, very intentionally. And that was a very explicit discussion about the nature of this and the magnitude of this. It's sort of hanging out in the window over here.

1:07:55Someone could take a peek in from outside and see what's going on. Something about this opening up and transparency theme. Is this a metaphor for that? Put them right there in the open? I, I, unintentional, but yeah. A decade after our interview, I wish I knew. Holmes is back in the spotlight. A new documentary follows her last days of freedom. I think this is the moment in time to capture this story before I'm gone. Early glimpses show what appeared to be a fragile Holmes days before reporting to prison. I thought back to our interview and this question. You feel beaten up? We've been beaten up.

1:08:34I don't let myself feel it. You don't have any bruises or anything. But inside, do you feel beaten up? I mean, I've been beaten up, right? I mean, it's been horrible. Has anything prepared you to be able to handle this sort of scrutiny, this sort of adversity? I don't know if there's a way to be prepared for something like this. I mean, it's really hard and it's really painful. Either you let it tear you down or you use it to become better. And I'm trying to use it to become better. We're trying to use it to become better and to realize even more why we started this in the first place. And this is a dream.

1:09:15This is a mission that has to be realized. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.

1:09:20Pamela Brown: And our special thanks to Dr. Gupta for that report. And we'll be right back.

1:09:28Pamela Brown: It's happening now. Now, police are still trying to determine a motive in the deadly elementary school shooting in Bend, Oregon. Investigators say a 16-year-old shooter used a long gun to blast his way inside the Silver Rail Elementary School, killing three children, just five, eight, and 11 years old. A teacher was also killed. Two more victims right now are still fighting to survive. Police were on the scene within minutes, but say a community member followed the gunman inside the school shot and killed him before officers even arrived. Joining us now is the former FBI Special Agent Ken Gray.

1:10:05Pamela Brown: Ken, thanks very much for joining us. The FBI director said the Bureau is assisting in the investigation, saying, and I'm quoting him now, we will make every resource they need available, end quote. What does that coordination you think look like right now on the ground? Hi, Wolf. Well, this is a new policy by the FBI, a relatively new policy by the FBI, that whenever there is any type of event like this anywhere in the country, the FBI is going to provide manpower to assist in investigations and provide resources like the use of the lab or any type of other resources that the Bureau could facilitate.

1:10:44So if they have those resources available, they are partners with the local and states and they will provide those resources.

1:10:51Pamela Brown: When you look at the raw facts of this case in these very early hours, what are your biggest questions? So interestingly enough, this shows how quick law enforcement can be on the scene and yet that the event has already transpired. They get a call at 1259 that there is a shooting at the school. A person in a car outside the school is the one that made that call as he was being shot at. And then he got out of the car and followed the shooter up to the school. And the shooter shot through the lock on the door and gained entrance to the school that way. And so the person, the father, I believe it was, followed the shooter into the school and stopped them from getting any further access into the school.

1:11:47Had this not happened, had the bystander not neutralized the shooter, this could have been a much more tragic event than it was. As bad as it is now, it could have been worse.

1:12:00Pamela Brown: Because he had ammunition. He had bullets available. A 16-year-old cannot legally buy what's called a long gun in Oregon. Walk us through how investigators will find out where this gun came from and who, including the parents potentially, could be held responsible for letting it fall into a teenager's hands. So like the FBI is providing assistance anytime there is a violent act that involves firearms, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will also be assisting. They can trace the weapon by the serial number on the weapon to see where it was first sold. Now, that does not necessarily show who currently possesses the weapon because weapons get stolen, they get traded.

1:12:45And so the serial number will take you to the first purchaser of that weapon. But ATF will be the one providing that investigative assistance.

1:12:54Pamela Brown: I suspect we're going to be learning a lot more about this horrible situation in the coming days. Ken Gray, thank you very much for joining us. And coming up, voters beware. This is important. Scammers right now are using phishing emails and phony campaign websites to get your financial information, sensitive information. What you should look out for. We have details when we come back.

1:13:22Pamela Brown: Happening now, a new cybersecurity threat just ahead of the midterm elections. A new report reveals a new phishing scam targeting voters' private data through fake campaign messages and merchandise sites. CNN senior reporter Marshall Cohn is here with me in the Situation Room. He's got details. Marshall, how widespread are these scams and what should we all be looking out for? You know, these are not necessarily the most high-tech scams, but they can still get you. So be on the lookout. This is a new report that came out yesterday from a group called Checkpoint. They are a security firm that keeps an eye on this stuff and is raising concerns just two weeks before the midterms about two big things going on.

1:14:05First would be the spear phishing attempts, emails and text messages going out to voters, impersonating election offices claiming, hey, you got to check to see if you're registered. You got to sign up for your ballot. And when you click the link, it takes you to a page that is definitely not official. You may hand over your login credentials and other things. That is something to be on the lookout for. So far, it's happened in at least three states, Washington State, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, according to Checkpoint. But this group also flagged an issue with fake websites selling merch for campaigns that have no affiliation with the campaigns.

1:14:46Look at these screenshots here. One of them is from what looks like the Tallarico campaign. and this one is the Ken Paxton campaign. It says Team Paxton official shop, but, well, it's not official, and neither is this one from James Tallarico. That's his real logo on the top left corner, but according to the analysis from Checkpoint, these websites have no affiliation with the campaigns. They are, in fact, affiliated with each other, which means there are groups out there making money, cashing in on both sides of these campaigns, but if you think you might be donating to your preferred candidate, you're not.

1:15:23By the way, of course, you can always reach out to your election officials for the folks out there at home. If you have concerns about a text message or an email that you receive, it seems fishy or strange, reach out to your election office. You can Google your county or your city plus election office. Call them up. They are here to help. They are eager to help. All the election officials I talk to say they want to make sure everybody's vote gets counted correctly.

1:15:47Pamela Brown: And if it sounds fishy, don't submit your sensitive information, social security number, date of birth, stuff like that, which could be used potentially to steal money and stuff like that. Absolutely. All right. Thanks very much, Marshall Cohen. Appreciate it. Tomorrow, by the way, on The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, CNN senior correspondent Donnie O'Sullivan examines the cracks emerging in the MAGA movement, as some of President Trump's most loyal supporters have begun to question their allegiance. From the war in Iran to data centers, Doni has traveled the country to find out what's driving former Trump diehards to break with him and what it could mean potentially for the future of the Republican Party.

1:16:29Pamela Brown: Let's go live right now to senior correspondent Doni O'Sullivan for the details. Doni, tell us a little bit more about what Trump's supporters have been telling you. Hey, Wolf, this second presidency, this second term for President Trump really is putting the test of the loyalty of some of his most ardent supporters, really straining it. One issue that has really broken through where many in his base are not happy with how Trump has handled it is the Epstein files, anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein. We spoke to one woman, Tricia Hope. She's from Texas. She was called a front row Joe. She went to dozens of Trump rallies, traveled all around the country going to Trump rallies, voted for the president three times.

1:17:22But last year broke with him in July 2025 when she heard his response. He was asked by a reporter about the Epstein files and when there would be more transparency around that. And he said, you might remember, are we still talking about Jeffrey Epstein. I can't believe that. We spoke to Tricia and we were actually there when she met a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein's. Take a look. Tricia, this is Dani. Hi, nice to meet you. It's very nice to meet you. Dani was a 17-year-old aspiring ballerina in New York City when she was sent to Jeffrey Epstein's townhouse as a masseuse. More than a year of sexual abuse followed.

1:18:04She's become an advocate for justice, even testifying before Congress.

1:18:10Pamela Brown: Thank you so much for coming and being a part of this and taking the time to support. I'd love to hear. I'm so sorry. I'm just... Can I hug you? I'm so sorry. I can't imagine.

1:18:32There are people who care. A lot of people who care. They may just be learning, but they care. Thank you for saying that. It's true. It means a lot. I was a Trump supporter for a long time, and I mean, a really hardcore Trump supporter, 42 rallies. And I am so sorry for any pain.

1:18:55Pamela Brown: I'm so grateful that you took in that moment and were able to really see it for what it is. I am too. I am sorry we didn't see you. Thank you. And I won't make that mistake again.

1:19:11Yeah, and Wolf, as you see there, a very emotional moment. Tricia really coming to terms with, you know, President Trump and a person she has supported for so many years. She now says she looks at everything the president says very differently. That being said, she is still very much a conservative. She said she's planning on voting for Ken Paxton. for governor in the Texas race down there. And she's also, you know, she wants to vote for a Republican in 2028 in the presidential election. Also, she does still believe election conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, which I think really just underscores just how sticky those types of misinformation and conspiracy theories are.

1:19:54I should also mention, Wolf, that we speak to a lot of people who have broken with Trump in this hour, but there are still a lot, millions of Americans still in the very hardcore MAGA base remaining loyal to the president. We speak to a lot of them as well. And all of those we ask about whether it comes to the wars or the price of gas, they say, well, look, things are still a lot better under Trump than they would imagine it to be under Biden or Harris.

1:20:22Pamela Brown: Doni O'Sullivan, thanks very much for your report. And make sure, this is to our viewers, make sure to watch Doni's full report on the whole story with Anderson Cooper tomorrow. 8 p.m. Eastern on CNN and the next day on the CNN app. I'll be watching. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media at Wolf Blitzer and at Pamela Brown CNN. We'll see you back here Monday morning, every weekday morning, 10 a.m. Eastern for two hours inside politics with our friend and colleague, Dana Bash starts right after a quick break.

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