Acton Slams Ramaswamy Over Controversial Ad

0:01Happening now, speaking out. I'd hoped he wouldn't sink this low, but of course he did. Amy Acton is slamming the controversial ad from her opponent that features her estranged mother. Why the Democratic candidate is now calling Vivek Ramaswamy a, quote, danger. Bipartisan criticism swelling this morning. Hear from Acton in her own words straight ahead. Plus, breaking overnight. Reunited. 74-year-old Stephen Hubbard is now back on American soil after more than four years in Russian detention. Also, new body cam footage. What happened in the moments before police officers fired into a car killing one-year-old Cohen Wiley?

0:47The new video and the new questions it's raising. And why the Mississippi Attorney General is now saying use of force was justified. And later, Flu Alert, why a mutated strain is causing new concerns, and what you need to know right now to stay healthy. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in the Situation Room.

1:19This is CNN Breaking News. All right, happening now, in-person early voting is underway in several key states. So far, more than 18 million Americans have cast their ballots as candidates make their final push to voters. And we're going to start this hour in Ohio. That is where the controversial ad featuring a candidate's estranged mother is now drawing new criticism from key Republicans in the state and drawing sympathy from supporters. My heart goes out to you. Oh, thank you. Can I give you a hug? Oh, yes. Yes, you can. When I heard it yesterday, that's all I wanted to do was cry and hug you and tell you.

1:59Thank you. Thank you. I mean, it's a lot. Well, I can speak to that a little bit, I guess. Yeah, it's hard. It's a big elephant in the room, isn't it? Yeah, my brother and I had a mom who struggled. We experienced a lot of neglect and abuse, beginning really around the age of three. for me when my brother was born. And I often talk about it. The reason I talk about my childhood when I do is just, one, I started to realize that it might give other people hope that you can get out of circumstances. But I remember as a kid, people looking the other way or systems not working. But I also remember more the people who didn't look the other way.

2:52The ad from Vivek Rameswamy's campaign features Amy Acton's mother calling her daughter a liar and urged voters not to support her. She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She's lied her entire life. My daughter needs help and she can't help you if she needs help herself. don't vote. Now Acton has said she has not seen her mother since she was about 12 years old when she says a man her mother married abused her and faced criminal charges. Ramaswamy's campaign has doubled down announcing it was been four million dollars to run the spot. But key Republicans in Ohio are speaking out against the ad including Republican Ohio Senator John Hested who said he quote would not have run that ad.

3:43Our Lauren Fox spoke to Amy Acton about the response she's getting and the lack thereof from other Republicans. What was your reaction and when did you actually see this ad on Monday night? Thank you, Lauren. It was sent to me by my running mate who saw it post first and my reaction was, you know, I'd hoped he wouldn't sink this low, but of course did. We had known that, as I shared before, my mother has not been seen by me since I was 12 years old. This is a man who has said my childhood, I had a childhood of extreme physical abuse and sexual abuse as a kid. My brother and I, frequent flyers and children's services finally removed after a grand jury saw evidence that was so, so, so shocking that we were removed from my mother's custody.

4:53At age 12, my brother was nine. But this guy just keeps saying it was something that was just done to me. What do you think about, there have been some Republicans in the state who've spoken out against this ad. There are other Republicans who have stayed silent about this ad, what is your reaction to your Republicans in the state, some of whom you've worked with, who are silent right now? Well, as any victim of abuse knows, silence is something. Why do you think people aren't speaking out, though? Is it just people are afraid? Some people are afraid. Some people just don't have the courage. But this ad has crossed by everyone's everyone's summary any boundary that has ever been done before and but I don't I don't wait for people to do that I know you've talked about your childhood before yes I'm just wondering like were you prepared was your brother prepared for the amount of attacks and an attack like this one in in specificity here because you have a situation where your brother was very quick to come out did he do that on his own what is what has that been like for your family he actually my brother had done something sooner than we actually saw the ad because he really wanted to just all the things that my opponent's been saying on the trail.

6:27He wanted to refute and my brother, you know, has not spoken a lot about it. You know, I share my story as a doctor and a public health person because I've been fighting to help victims of abuse, child abuse, domestic violence, human trafficking, but I am honored that my brother would. It's a lot you carry and it never goes away your whole life. But it also is a source of great strength. It gives you skills that people don't always have. But we knew my opponent will do anything and say anything, not just to get ahead. He's out for himself, but he's a danger. What has also been remarkable to see, Lauren, is how many people are outraged by this because so many people have experienced some sort of trauma or abuse in their lives.

7:32And so I'm much more focused on a message that reaches them than on the antics of an out-of-touch billionaire, it would be a danger to my state. I'm going to see an impola polls acting as leading Ramoswamy among likely voters by six points. Wolf. And Pamela, there were two very key debates last night in battleground states that potentially could possibly swing the balance of power in the Congress. First to Michigan, Senate candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers squared off and did not hold back. Listen. If you are going to go to the United States Senate, we need to know, are you for America or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?

8:17You can grin and you can smile and you can talk real pretty, but I'm going to tell you what, that is a risk to our national security. To bring into question, my commitment to the Constitution is really beneath you. I am proud of America. I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray. And the question that you would ask that, I think, is actually really quite shameful. During the debate, Der Rodgers tried to tie El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood, saying he was bought off by the Islamist group. El-Sayed has repeatedly refuted any ties, but the charge comes, as President Trump claimed, the Democratic candidate is, in his word, a jihadist.

8:59But it was El Sayed that weaponized President Trump against Rogers. Listen. You're going to hear the MAGA vision, where you stand hip to hip with Donald Trump on all of his worst policies, the policies that are raising the price of your gas, making it impossible to afford your groceries. And you're going to hear a form of MAGA bingo, because the thing about MAGA is whenever they're talking, they are trying to distract you. He wants to make this about Donald Trump. I mean, the bingo game ought to be how many times can he put the word Trump in any answer? Rogers, like some Republican candidates in other states and other races, has made several pivots away from President Trump's policies, including the trade war with Canada and most recently the waiving of Russian sanctions.

9:47The latest CNN data shows a very tight race with no clear leader. And in Kansas, a different tone as incumbent Republican Senate candidate Roger Marshall touted his relationship with President Trump, but another name came up more than Trump's during this debate. We've heard Chuck Schumer mentioned, I don't know, 50 times, maybe I'm going to exaggerate, maybe 20 times so far. I find that interesting. I've already said I wouldn't support Chuck Schumer for the Senate majority leader if the Democrats to control the Senate. President Trump is not always right, but I do think that it's great that I have a relationship, that I can pick up the phone and discuss with him the pros and cons of what he's contemplating.

10:29Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton is trying to appeal to voters in what's seen as a deeply red state, presenting himself more down the middle compared to the rest of his party. Because of this, Kansas has become a surprise battleground state this midterm cycle. Wolf? All right, joining us now, CNN's Arlette Sines. Arlette, I know you have some new reporting about the Senate seats, most likely potentially the flip. Is Kansas on your list? Wolf, yes, Kansas is on our list. It made its debut last month, and it's actually rising in this month's ranking. Democrats are feeling very enthusiastic about the prospects of potentially winning control of the U.S.

11:06Senate in November, but it's far from a sure bet, a reminder that Democrats would need to pick up four Republican-held seats while holding on to all of their own if they want to win back the Senate majority. And if you take a list of our latest rankings of the states most likely to flip, one through five are currently all seats that are held by Republicans. And number four, Senator Susan Collins, is facing one of her toughest re-election battles yet, but she has proven resilient in past races. Then if you take a look at Texas, that is perhaps one of the states that has garnered the most attention in this campaign.

11:43The latest CNN poll of polls average shows that there is no clear leader in this contest between Democrat James Tallarico and Republican Ken Paxton. This is a state that President Trump won by double digits in 2024, and it's one where Tallarico has really made this very competitive. But still, he has to win in Republican ground, which could be a tall order. Then at number six is the state of Michigan, which we just heard some of those clips from the very contentious debate that played out last night. This is a must win state for Democrats. If they were to lose Michigan, which currently has no clear leader in the contest, that would require them to pick up at least five Republican held seats.

12:28Both of these candidates have major challenges. El-Sayed is still trying to win over black voters and Jewish Democrats who might be uneasy about his campaign. while Rogers is contending with the Trump factor and the deep unpopularity of the president, including in that state that he narrowly won back in the last election. And then number eight is Kansas. It actually flipped spots with New Hampshire as Kansas has shown signs of growing even more competitive, something that we've seen play out in a lot of Midwestern states. Both parties are planning to spend big in the final two weeks. And so that's a little bit of the landscape of this fight for the U.S.

13:05Senate. Democrats feel the mood and environment is on their side, but the Republican-leaning map should not be underestimated here, really, with so many races in toss-up territory at this moment. Arlette Saenz reporting for us. Thank you very much, Arlette. Pamela. All right, Wolf, breaking news. Just into the Situation Room, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, And the head of the Democratic Governors Association is closing out his midterm travels with an eight-state tour that will reach into deep red territory. Starting today and running through November 2nd, Beshear will visit Nevada, New Mexico, Georgia, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma.

13:45A spokesperson sharing the news first with CNN says he'll campaign with gubernatorial candidates in those states. And some other breaking news. Democratic Virginia State Senator L. Louise Lucas has been indicted on drug and fraud charges. Several others have also been indicted, including members of her own family. Let's go live now to CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez. What are you learning, Evan? Well, this is an investigation, Pamela, that focuses on alleged acts by Louise Lucas to use her office,

14:24in the state of Virginia. What prosecutors and what the FBI is alleging here is that she and a number of others were part of a racketeering conspiracy which was aimed at not only distributing marijuana illegally in the state of Virginia before it became legal, but also that she was money laundering and that she was using her office to enrich herself, essentially bribery. And so the number of allegations here, that are a total of seven people that have been charged as part of this involve marijuana distribution, money laundering, honest services fraud. Now, these are extraordinarily difficult charges to bring in court and to sustain, as you know.

15:06Bribery cases are very, very tricky, so we'll have to see more about this. This is an investigation that began under the Biden administration and has now been concluded. Now, according to prosecutors, she took a$750 ,000 payment to try to essentially provide a license for one of these new marijuana businesses that are now going to be legal in the state of Virginia. They've now passed this. She was Senate, or she is the president of the pro tempore of the Senate. Difficult word to say, actually. Yeah, it is. and so they are alleging that she used her office, essentially, to try to build this business, and she didn't disclose any of those interests.

15:53As many as seven people have been charged. We know that Lucas has turned herself in this morning, and so we'll wait to hear from her when she's able to provide a comment. All right, Evan Perez, bringing us the latest. Thanks so much. Wolf? And still ahead, homecoming 74-year-old Stephen Hubbard is now back in the United States after more than four years in detention in Russia. President Trump is now linking his release to waiving sanctions against Russia. What? And later, data center outrage protest calls to police even a fistfight why this issue is prompting such strong backlash and how one lawmaker is pushing for more regulation.

16:36You're in the Situation Room, and we'll be right back.

16:43Hey,

16:51I'm Anderson Cooper. On my podcast, All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities. My guest is Lil Jon. He's a rapper, DJ, and producer known for hits like Get Low and Turn Down for What. In February 2026, his 27-year-old son Nathan went missing near Nathan's home in Georgia. Three days later, his body was found in a pond nearby. Lil Jon has a memoir that just came out called I Only Shout So You Can Hear Me. It takes time to heal. And I kept myself busy that I didn't let myself mourn. I needed to laugh again. I needed to be silly and interact with people and feel other people's energy and make people happy, too.

17:35We have to share so other people can see that they can get through it, too. Talking grief, building community. That's what the podcast is all about. This is all there is. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. You may have noticed gambling doesn't require a casino anymore. you can just open up your phone. It's designed to keep us coming back or maybe never even leaving in the first place. We're going to talk to Dr. Timothy Fong, co-director of UCLA's gambling studies program. You're going to learn what your brain is really chasing when you place a bet, and also importantly, how to keep the game from playing you.

18:17Gambling addiction, gambling disorder is the hidden addiction. You can't smell it, you can't taste it, you can't see it, you can't have a urine drug test. Who are we talking about here, Professor? Who's the most likely demographic to be affected by this? Literally any single human on Earth. Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now, wherever you get your podcasts. Happening now, 74-year-old Stephen Hubbard is back on U.S. soil this morning after being imprisoned in Russia for more than four years. President Trump posted this picture of Hubbard holding an American flag aboard his flight home. Moscow accused Hubbard of fighting for Ukraine when he was captured during Russia's invasion in 2022.

18:56The U.S. says that is false, and he was working as an English teacher. His release comes after face-to-face talks between U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin. President Trump has said Russia did not require anything in return for Hubbard's release, but then later tied the release to waiving sanctions on Russian fuel. CNN Chief National Security Analyst Jim Sciutto joins us here in the Situation Room, And you have some new reporting, Jim, on Ukraine's air defenses. What can you tell us? So last night was another night where Russian missiles fired at Ukraine. This, of course, happens every day.

19:29But where the Ukrainians were not able to intercept a single one of them. And this has been happening more and more because of a shortage of Patriot interceptors. So I reached out to Ukrainian officials. I said, why? Why were you not able to intercept them? And they said, because we don't have the interceptors to do so. But in addition to that, they said, because, precisely because there was another delay in delivery of those interceptors. And as you know, the administration, there's been a lot of reporting about the administration holding these back. Pete Hegseth said recently that, listen, in his words, our guys need them.

19:59And we know post-Iran war or in the midst of the Iran war, the U.S. has expended many of them there. So that's having a direct impact on Ukraine's ability to defend itself. And we should take that in tandem with the other developments of the last 10 days. The slowdown in Starlink, Star Shield speeds, that is a direct impact on interceptor drones, their ability to intercept incoming Russian jet-powered drones. And then the other piece is interruptions in U.S. intelligence sharing. Now, I know the U.S. has claimed that these are technical issues. They've even told Ukrainians it's weather issues.

20:32But Ukrainians, frankly, don't believe it. They believe that the combination of these things is part of a pressure campaign to get them to give in to administration demands, Russian demands, and to get them to the table. And, you know, from the Ukrainian perspective, each of these is impacting lives. and leading to a human cost on the ground there, because if they can't intercept a missile, it strikes its target and it kills people. Yeah, and they're saying this will happen at the same time. It's just too coincidental for it to just be. And following, you'll remember the story we had about 10 days ago, CNN reported and the FT that the administration had explicitly warned Ukraine that if it does not stop striking Russian energy infrastructure, diesel in particular, the president's very focused on diesel prices, If it did not stop striking those targets, that the U.S.

21:20would do two things. It would suspend intelligence sharing. What have we seen? And that it would also suspend weapons purchases via what's known as the Pearl Program. But anyway, those weapons purchases, which include interceptors. So they get a warning. These things happen. They pay for it. And Ukrainians connect the dots and say, the administration is applying pressure on us. And it's costing lives. And in the meantime, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkopf is calling Vladimir Putin a humanitarian. What reaction have you gotten about that? I mean, you saw Zelensky's tweet, too. Zelensky, I mean, I spoke to the Ukrainian Nobel laureate who won the Nobel in 2022 for documenting Russian war crimes.

22:00All of them are exasperated by that description of a man who launched a war that has killed so many Ukrainians and every day is killing Ukrainians. But they also don't see it as an isolated comment, because you'll remember just a few days before that, the president himself said Russia has been fine on Ukraine in the midst of one of the deadliest weeks for civilians in Ukraine as Russia strikes civilian targets. And even before that, as we've seen the president apply more pressure on Ukraine than on Putin, describe Putin as a friend, describe him as a great and a strong leader. they see that humanitarian comment as the administration position here, that in effect, they're giving Russia a pass while Ukraine is suffering, and at the same time applying enormous pressure on Ukraine.

22:42It's just, you know, you would understand if you or I were under these daily missile and drone attacks, we might think similarly. Jim Sciutto, thank you so much for bringing us your new reporting. In the next hour, we want to note we're going to be joined by CNN chief international anchor Christian Aminpour to bring us her new interview with Ukrainian President Zelensky. And coming up, new body cam footage. What happened in the moments before police officers opened fire on a car, killing a one-year-old boy?

23:20Happening now, newly released body cam footage shows how the deadly shooting of a toddler outside of Mississippi Walmart in June unfolded. A warning, the following video may be disturbing to some viewers.

23:49Cohen Wiley was the one-year-old toddler killed inside the car. His mother and her friend, who were suspected of shoplifting but were never charged, were also in the vehicle. The officer who opened fire has been accused of inappropriate use of deadly force, but the Mississippi Attorney General said his actions were justified. Let's go live right now to see that senior national correspondent Ryan Young. What more, Ryan, did you learn about this body camera footage? And where does this case go after the state attorney general's decision? Well, that's a big question. Now, well, for the next hour and a half or so, the family and their attorneys are going to have a news conference, and they're going to discuss how they're going to move forward.

24:29But there were a lot of people hoping that this would at least go to a grand jury. That will not happen. And, of course, we will show you the video, and I will warn some of our viewers that this could be tough to watch. We'll show you it in its entirety. But what we know so far back in June, these women went to Walmart. At some point, someone indicated someone may have shoplifted. There were some extra officers on site and they ran out to that parking lot. And then you can see them sort of surround that car. And only one of the five officers fired. It was from that side on the passenger side, as you can see in some of the video that we've already shown you.

25:02But let's take a listen to that 42 seconds that play this out so faithfully.

25:27Stop! Stop the car! Stop the car right now!

25:40Stop the car right now. Stop the car.

25:47Get the car, get the car, get the car, get the car.

25:55So CNN was able to get this video from Dark Horse Press. And we know the family today will get a chance to look at all the videos. So this is not an official release from the state just yet. So there is a good chance that the family will see video that we haven't seen yet and see how this plays out. Now, of course, the attorney general making this decision means there'll be no prosecution toward that officer. We've reached out to the officer's attorney. And basically in the statement, they said that they felt like that officer was in danger and they were trying to save the lives of other officers.

26:25To also bring up the point here, when that car accelerates backwards, it does hit another car before lurching forward. So there was some thought there that a lot of times officers say a car can be used as a weapon. So obviously, something we'll have to pay attention today as this news conference happens. But a tough situation as you see that face next to me, a life loss, Wolf. Such a sweet little boy indeed. So sad. Ryan Young, thank you very much for that report. Pamela. All right, Wolf, coming up here in the Situation Room, quote, Stop defending the ad. Republicans in Ohio are speaking out and criticizing GOP gubernatorial candidate Vibakramaswamy after his campaign released a controversial ad against his opponent, Amy Acton.

27:14Welcome back to the Situation Room, and let's get back to our top story right now. A very controversial attack ad is shining a national spotlight this morning on Ohio's governor's race. one of the most competitive gubernatorial contests in the country. The ad from Republican nominee Vivek Ramaswamy features Democrat Amy Acton's estranged mother, who calls her daughter a liar and urges voters not to support Acton. Acton says she has not seen her mother since she was about 12 years old, when she says the man her mother married sexually abused her and faced criminal charges. The ad has sparked bipartisan backlash, but not necessarily from everyone.

27:58I've known Vivek for a long time. He's a very good friend of mine. Where I've watched the Democrats lie about his family, where I've watched the Democrats call him a murderer, where I've watched the Democrats throw every dirty trick in the political book. Now the media and the Democrats in the state of Ohio are obsessed because guess what? Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar. And joining us now here in the Situation Room is Republican strategist Mark Williams and CNN political commentator and former director of public affairs for the U.S.

28:39Justice Department, Sochi Hinojosa. Mark, let me start with you. Even after Vance defended Ramaswamy, Ohio Republican Senator John Husted, who was at the rally with Vance, distanced himself from the ad, telling the Associated Press that he would not have run it. Husted is also in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country. Is this what Republicans should be talking about less than two weeks before Election Day? No, and Ramaswamy has put Republicans in this situation. You know, it's a huge unforced error in Ohio, and you only hope that it doesn't trickle down to the hugely competitive Senate race.

29:17You know, it reeks of desperation from the Ramaswamy campaign. And quite frankly, it brings Amy Acton into the forefront. And we're discussing her when, you know, guys, I hadn't even really heard of Amy Acton until this controversy. And so now you've made her a hugely sympathetic figure and you're talking about something and talking about how, you know, her failures as the COVIDs are in Ohio. Instead, we're talking about this this ad. So it's it's an unforced error of just massive proportions. Sochi, CNN's Eric Bradner spoke with voters in Ohio yesterday who said they've been turned off by advertising from both sides of the race.

29:53One voter who said they're voting for Acton said that I'm quoting now, they're both slandering each other horribly, end quote. What are your thoughts? Well, there's one thing to run a political ad on record or just on, you know, the positions that candidates have taken. This is a new low. This is about a very personal story where Amy Acton was sexually abused by her stepfather and her mother, who is now estranged. Amy Acton was actually taken from her parents for that reason. And that is off limits. And Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign should be over at this point. There is no room for this in politics.

30:37And what I will say is what we're seeing from Amy Acton is that this ad backfired on Vivek Ramaswamy. If you look at the top three candidates that are receiving low-dollar donations from all across the country, you have now seen Amy Acton surge as one of those top three candidates on ActBlue. She has seen a surge of resources. we saw that J.B. Pritzker, Chuck Governor J.B. Pritzker's wife, M.K. Pritzker, donated$500 ,000 because the Vakramaswamy is too dangerous to serve in any political office now. And I am hearing similar things from women across the country. One of the things I also want to point out that I don't think J.D.

31:19Vance realizes is that if Republicans would like to win this year, they need women. This does not help them. And it is pretty low for J.D. Vance to take a position of defending Vivek Ramaswamy if he would like to be the next president of the United States. And if that is the case, then women will send a clear message that he should not be elected in 2028. And I think this was a very bad political move and just a move from a human level on J.D. Vance's part. Mark, a new poll from The New York Times shows young voters have trended in favor of Democrats. The poll shows 70 percent of young voters now say they identify or lean Democratic.

32:02And that's 15 points higher than before the 2024 election. During the last presidential election, as you know, President Trump made notable gains with young men. What does this new polling tell you about that voting bloc? It tells me that there are headwinds against Republicans in this election that we knew about. The political climate does not favor Republicans right now. and it's going to come down to kind of a case-by-case basis on who the candidate is and what their message is. And if you're trying to appeal to those young voters, you better come up with a message that gets them to the polls.

32:35And right now, you know, it seems like Democrats are trending in that direction. But look, we could spend 30 minutes on polling and whether we think it's accurate, whether we don't think it's accurate. And I don't think we have that kind of time. So we'll see. We're 13 days out. And I assume that young people will come out for Democrats. they historically have. But is it enough to really overcome some of these bad Democratic candidates? Sochi, what do Democrats need to do right now to keep up this momentum with young people? Well, I think, well, that's a very good question. What we're seeing right now is that there is a surge of young people voting in this election.

33:16But a lot of it has to do not with the Democratic Party brand, which has been at an all-time low for quite some time. This is because the individual Democratic candidates have established a brand and trust with voters. And so as putting the Democratic brand aside and assuming that it does not get any better leading into 2028, this should send a clear message to anyone who's running for president in 2028 on the Democratic side that they have to establish their own brand, continue to talk about the economy, make sure that they are authentic, they are authentic, and have those real conversations with voters about the issues they care about and speak at them.

33:52None of this culture war, distraction, all of the other things, which we have seen in places like my home state of Texas, are currently not working. All right, Xochitl Inajosa and Mark Williams, to both of you, thank you very much. Good discussion. Pamela. All right, coming up here in the Situation Room, data center dispute. It has become a flashpoint across the country, leading to protests and even a fistfight at City Hall. Up next, we'll be joined by a lawmaker working to regulate these data centers.

34:30happening now city leaders in memphis tennessee have rejected a plan to pause development on data centers the directive would have halted construction of new data centers and the expansion of existing ones for 18 months residents there they have been fired up a meeting on this issue even led to a fist fight at City Hall. Pause the data centers so we can get this right. Lies are at stake and blood is on your hand. So you need to make decisions to do what's right by the people that elected you in office. And this comes as a recent CNN poll found that 87 percent of Americans say they're concerned about the growing number of data centers.

35:11And when asked which party would do a better job of dealing with data centers and AI. 29 % say the Democratic Party, while 49 % say neither. Here with us in the Situation Room is Virginia Democrat Congressman Suha Subramaniam. He sits on the House Oversight, House Ethics, and House Science, Space, and Technology Committees. Thanks for coming on. I know you're very passionate about this issue. We're going to get to that in just a moment. But first, I want to ask you about what came out of DOJ today. Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas was indicted on drug and money laundering charges. You knew her, you served with her.

35:46What is your reaction? I mean, these are really serious charges and they must have had a lot of evidence to bring them. I do have to question the timing. We're two weeks before an election and so you're going to be arresting the president of the state Senate two weeks before the election. I believe her daughter is on the ballot too. And so this is an administration that has pardoned very corrupt people, pardoned fraudulent people. And so it seems like there's a pattern of going after political enemies. But certainly, you know, these are very serious charges. Apparently, this started, the investigation started in the Biden administration, too.

36:21So I want to make sure there's accountability where it needs to be had. I just, I don't trust this administration. They have not earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to politicizing these types of investigations. I wish you know we have reached out, and at last check, we have not heard back. All right, let's turn to data centers. You've recently introduced the National Data Center Plan, which is four bills aimed at regulating data centers. Explain what these bills would do. Yeah, right now we've got one side, mostly the president, saying we don't need to do anything when it comes to reining in data centers or any guardrails.

36:52And then we have another side that says we should never build them anywhere in our country. And I think there needs to be a common sense ground here that puts forward a plan when it comes to siting them, like where to put them. Let's not put them next to homes and schools. Let's make sure that they're paying for their own powers. Because a lot of us, like in my community, we have a lot of data centers. We see our power bills spiking right now. It doubled this year. I mean, that's incredible to think about how expensive it already was. And we want to make sure that communities around them are safe.

37:20They're taken care of. And we're taking care of things like the environment and noise, too. This is all common sense. This is all stuff that people agree on. And if you look at those pictures from Memphis, that was people across the political spectrum, too. And so this is a time where we need to unite as a Congress around putting reasonable guardrails around data centers. Do you have bipartisan support for this? We do, yeah. And it's interesting. At the beginning of Congress, a lot of my colleagues didn't know anything about data centers. They barely knew what a data center was. I told them about how I have the most in the country and that we need to have some guardrails around the build out of data centers.

37:51And now many of them are coming to me now and saying, how can I be part of this plan and how can we push this forward? So I think it's a good development. So you introduced this package about two months out from Election Day. You say that your region is home to the fourth largest concentration of data centers. But you've served Virginia for several years. Why now? Why are you proposing this now? I introduced a couple of these bills actually in the state Senate when I served there. And it went nowhere because, again, a lot of my colleagues didn't understand what was going on. They just got lobbyists telling them to kill these bills, like trying to underground the power lines and make the data centers pay for them, for instance.

38:27And so I didn't have any success at the state level. Now we're starting to see some momentum at the state and local level. At the federal level, I want to see us pass this. One of the bills has already passed through a committee. I want to see them pass all four, even by the end of the year, because this doesn't have to be partisan. We noted the polls, and 87 % of Americans say they're concerned about the growing number of data centers. But then you have 13 % who say they're excited about the growing number of data centers. What is your message to them? I don't know exactly why they're excited, but I think it's probably because they're excited about the technology.

38:57that's going to help develop, like AI, for instance. Also, it does bring revenue to a community. But we need to make sure that people understand the impact of them. So yes, it might bring some revenue to your local county, but then you'll also see your bills go up if you don't have the data stores paying for their own power. You will see more impact on the environment there if you don't cite them in the right way or put standards around them in the right way. So we can build data centers in a certain way, but it has to put the community first. So if Democrats gain control of Congress with the midterms, what do you see in terms of regulation, not just on these data centers, but also AI in general?

39:33Yeah, we've already talked to leadership about this. I think it's going to be a priority in the Democratic majority that we're going to have in Congress next year. We're going to also need to make sure we regulate AI. Even the companies are telling us to regulate AI, especially these frontier models, too. And so we need to address all of this. We should have addressed it a long time ago, though. And the fact that we're seeing a crisis develop now needs to show us that Congress needs to act soon. Do you sense that there is urgency around the AI issue? Or, you know, there was, of course, Jacob Coxon who came out, who was the former Anthropic employee raising the alarm, and there was a lot of talk about it.

40:07But is there still that sense of urgency since then, or has it sort of died down? There's not enough urgency. I mean, I was a White House technology advisor under Obama. And 10 years ago, we were saying we needed to do this 10 years ago. And so now we're at a point where even the AI companies don't know what they're building. They don't know what their models are capable of. And then they are escaping their sandboxes and doing damage like in the hugging face incident. So even the people who are building these things say there needs to be guardrails. So let's put them and Congress needs to act.

40:35All right, Congressman Suha Supermanium, thank you so much. Great to have you on. Thank you. Wolf. And here's what's coming up right at the top of the hour. CNN's Christiana Montpour's special interview with Ukrainian President Zelensky. She'll join us. That's coming up. Plus, website bugs. What we're learning right now about a cybersecurity flaw affecting 70 percent of the Internet and mutated flu strain. What you need to know right now to stay healthy. That's all new in the next hour.

41:10Happening now, breaking news. Overnight Russian strikes once again slam Ukraine just hours after the Kremlin agreed. to resume peace talks. How Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is responding to fractured U.S. ties in a brand new one-on-one interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Plus, campaigns and crime. Millions of dollars spent on ads using the victims of violent crime and their families are not happy. And website warning what we now know about an issue affecting 70 % of the entire Internet. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in the Situation Room.

42:00We begin this hour with Russia's war on Ukraine, growing frustration as the U.S. ally is shaken by yet another deadly night of Russian attacks, just hours after Vladimir Putin agreed to resume peace talks next month with the U.S. mediating. And just a short time ago, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky wrapped his one-on-one interview with CNN chief international anchor Kristian Aminpour. Their discussion included Ukraine's vital relationship with the United States and the recent strains on that partnership. Kristian Aminpour is live with us in London. We so appreciate you being here with us, Kristian.

42:36after this big interview. What stood out from you after talking with Zelensky? Well, what stood out is yet again, Zelensky says yes. When the president of the United States says we need to do this or that, he always says yes, but it's always Putin who says no. So you've just said and you've just reported accurately what Putin did to Ukraine overnight. Zelensky told me today that they want to talk about a ceasefire, a stop of the killings, a freeze of the current front lines. But that isn't the big peace picture. That's just to stop the war while you then go into proper talks. So that's his position on that.

43:12It's not a new position, by the way. The other thing he said, of course, I asked him about relationship with the United States, a very, very valuable and vital ally in this existential fight. Here's the Q &A.

43:29Mr. President, obviously, there's been a lot of spotlight on the latest eruption in your relationship with President Trump. He's blaming you. You're saying that he's on the wrong side of history with that diesel deal for Russia. Are you stepping back from that personal criticism? Have you been, you know, advised that this might not be the best way to be public about it since you need American help? We have our partners, and it's the United States. And we need to have strong relations with the American administration, with Congress. And we need bipartisan support. And this all is very important because it's not about days, it's not about personalities.

44:17My attitude to Putin is very clear. I think that if we will live sanctions, we will make him stronger. And that's why I'm like a president. It's not something personal between me and President Trump. And of course, I'm against any lifting of sanctions. I always said it to European partners, and I said it directly to American administration. Of course, I know what I do. I have to strengthen me, my country, my people, my army, but not my enemy. That this is, I think, very clear and fair between us. That's why I know that if you give something to Putin, he will need everything. He will want everything.

45:06Pamela, he also said, look, no matter who pushes us to try to give up sovereign territory, even territory that the Russians haven't yet occupied, we're not going to do it. We will freeze in place. We'll have a ceasefire and then we'll talk about the rest of it. and we need absolute strong security guarantees so that Putin or whoever comes after him can never do this again. He also talked about the intelligence and the Starlink rupture, saying intelligence is back, but the Starlink ability to move their drones fast in order to defend against incoming Russian ballistic missiles is still slow, much slower than it used to be.

45:41And when I asked him, who did it, Pamela? He said, well, there's only one company, use the word company, i.e. SpaceX, that can do that. So that's still not back up to speed. And it's a vital defense mechanism. Just taking a step back, I mean, at this point, how damaged would you say the relationship is between Ukraine and the U.S.? And what would it take to repair it, Christiane? You know, Pamela, it's really, really bad. This was the biggest eruption since the famous Oval Office dressing down that Trump gave, Zelensky in his first three months of his 2.0 administration. The thing is that they both have this relationship.

46:22Trump, I think, just doesn't like Zelensky and acts out when Zelensky is not actually doing what the United States thinks it needs to do to end the war. But the problem is that the president and his administration is trying to sort of give Putin incentives to come back to the table. But the problem with that is they're lifting the disincentives. So the usual diplomacy is carrot and stick. You put down the stick and you say, here's the carrot if you play ball. This is the opposite. And some analysts have said it's absolutely unprecedented to see the United States turn from its ally, Ukraine, i.e.

47:00the victim in this case, towards the aggressor. It's a completely unprecedented American move in any kind of recorded memory. So these are the sort of tactics. But you heard Zelensky. We need the United States. We will have a very difficult time surviving if we don't have American help. We need our European friends. We pay for all this weaponry, he says right now. And we just need the help. And we're not going to surrender. But we will and we want to stop the killing if Putin agrees to. As they've said all along, Pamela, every time the president has asked Ukraine for a ceasefire or a stop, even on energy facilities, they've done it.

47:38but the Russians have not met them in kind. In fact, they've done the opposite. Kristiana Manpour, thank you so much. You can see her full interview with President Zelensky on CNN International and CNN All Access at 1 p.m. Eastern. And Kristiana, I know we announced on this show earlier this week that you were leaving us at CNN next year. And I just want to note while we have you that it is such a loss for us. You are truly a legend and icon. You have been with CNN for 43 years. I have looked up to you since I was a little girl watching you with my mom I'm thinking, wow, that is such inspiring journalism.

48:09I'm going to do that one day. And I just want to note while you're here that we'll miss you a lot. But I hope you'll still keep coming on the show. Yes, and it's so kind of you. And I appreciate you and Wolf's video mashup the other day. I really do. It's very kind. And this is my home and has always been my home. And CNN and me, we're symbiotic. So, you know, there's other adventures down the road. For sure. All right, Christiane, thank you so much. and we'll look forward to checking out your full interview with Zelensky. Wolf? And I'm going to say exactly the same thing, Christiane. We're going to miss you big time.

48:44You and I have worked together on so many great international stories, and you've always been amazing and so impressive. I wasn't a little boy when I started. I was already a big boy, but we have worked together. You're a bigger boy. Yeah. I am grateful, grateful to you. Thank you so, so much. Now, I'll keep bringing these important stories and important interviews because this is what matters and this is what makes CNN stand out. And we'll keep doing it for the next several months. No one gives global perspective like you. Thank you, Christiane. All right. We're going to miss Christiane for sure.

49:18All right. I want to continue our conversation right now with Michael Fuchs. He was deputy assistant secretary of state during the Obama administration. Michael, thanks for joining us. First of all, what struck out to you about Christiane's interview with President Zelensky? We just heard a little chunk of it. Well, I mean, Christiane, I think, really put her finger on it there, which is that Zelensky is trying to communicate to, I think, President Trump and to the world, right, that for years now, in the United States, when President Trump in particular has asked President Zelensky to do something, even if it is difficult for President Zelensky to do, he makes it clear that he's willing to do it, right?

49:58He's not wanting to give up sovereignty, right? He does not want to stop attacks on Russia, right? He is defending the sovereignty and the people, right, of his country. And yet he makes it clear again and again that he is willing and he is open, right, to do what he thinks and what others think may be necessary to open a path, right, for a ceasefire, for peace talks. And yet it is very clear again and again and again, and we are reminded by those images that you are showing right now on the screen in Putin's ceaseless attacks, that President Putin is the one who is not interested and not willing to stop the attacks and not willing to stop the aggression.

50:39And so, again, at the end of the day here, the question is, what can the United States and President Trump be doing, again, to support our partners in Ukraine in defending themselves, which is one of the best ways, again, to open up that path for a ceasefire for peace. Do you view, Michael, these proposed trilateral peace talks as a genuine effort to end the war? Or are Russia and Ukraine just giving President Trump the optics that he wants?

51:11Well, look, any conversations, obviously, between the parties here is useful, is potentially productive, right? That being said, my understanding is that these talks, at least the way that they're slated at the moment, are lower level conversations. We've seen, again, President Putin not be interested in genuine, substantive, real, higher level conversations with the Ukrainians about stopping the war, right, and what the future might be, a peaceful future. And so, again, I think that you are right. It's very possible that this is a fig leaf to show that the sides are interested in doing something to answer President Trump's call here.

51:53But again, the proof is in the pudding here. And again, as those images really just bring home to you, President Putin seems uninterested in stopping the ceaseless attacks on Ukrainians each day. In their face to face meeting yesterday, the U.S. special envoy, Steve Witkoff, told Vladimir Putin that he is, quote, a humanitarian, his word, a humanitarian. That's getting a lot of bipartisan blowback today. Here in Washington drew a lot of sharp response from Ukraine's president as well. On social media, Volodymyr Zelensky posted it, I'm quoting him now, three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian so-called humanitarians since yesterday evening.

52:38How do you explain this administration's approach to Putin, who launched this illegal war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people? Well, I think the only way to really explain it is actually to go back a decade and you see President Trump's relationship and, frankly, affinity for President Putin dating back again to the 2016 campaign, where we recall President Trump speaking positively about President Putin and asking for his help in the 2016 election. And you've seen him do that regularly over the last decade. President Trump, as we know, likes to be seen as a powerful player on the world stage.

53:19He has an odd affinity for strongmen like President Putin, President Xi of China. And at the same time, unfortunately, on the other side, we see going back many years to actually 2019 and President Trump's first impeachment trial, his disdain, unfortunately, for President Zelensky. Right. And so if you combine those two together, President Trump obviously runs a very personal personality driven foreign policy. He has an affinity for President Putin over the period of at least a decade. And again, he is not a big fan over many years of President Zelensky. And the unfortunate reality is that that we see driving a lot of the decisions that President Trump is making right now.

54:02Unfortunate indeed. Michael Fuchs, thanks very much for joining us. We appreciate it. My pleasure. And still ahead, how a mutation is now making this year's dominant flu strain even harder to detect. And websites shut down after AI found flaws that affect 70 % of the Internet. What you need to know about this critical issue, stay with us. You're in the Situation Room.

54:34She never had a chance to protect the children. That's how the teacher who survived last week's deadly shooting at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Oregon, described the horrific scene. Through a family statement, Becky Drury said that she was not able to get up, defend herself, or protect her students after she was wounded by the gunman. Three children, 5, 8, and 11 years old and a teacher, were killed when a 16-year-old attacked their school. CNN's Lee Waldman joins us now. So tell us, Lee, what more did this teacher say and how is her recovery going? Well, Pamela, Becky Druey is coming out and saying this hero narrative that has been forced upon her, thrust upon her, simply is not true.

55:16We know that this teacher, she's currently recovering from her injuries that she sustained in this shooting. Her left hand was nearly severed. She was shot in her right arm as well. She's saying she didn't even have a moment to try to protect her children in her classroom. Let's take a look at part of this statement that we've received from a family representative now for Becky Drury. In the statement, she wrote, I turned to shut the door behind me, but the shooter was already there. Before I could do anything more, he shot me at close range and I fell to the ground. I did the only thing I could do, which was to pretend to be dead in the hope that he would not shoot me again.

55:57So she reacted quickly trying to shut that door, but unfortunately was not able to. Now, in the early days after this shooting at this elementary school happened there in Bend, Oregon, we heard from authorities a tale about a hero teacher who threw her phone at this 16-year-old gunman, tried to tackle this gunman, tried to protect the students in her classroom. There's been other media reporting that Drury herself threw herself onto students to try and protect him. Now she is saying that simply is not true. She is emphasizing the importance of accurate reporting during this time period because that will aid in her healing and the healing this entire community is going through.

56:40It's been one week since this horrific shooting at this elementary school. And so now we're hearing from her and wishing her well in this long road to recovery. that she's sure to be on. Her and the entire community, they're all just healing after that horrific shooting. Lee Waldman, thank you. Wolf. And up next, websites around the world are scrambling right now to update their systems thanks to a widespread security flaw. The bugs that one CEO warns could reach almost everywhere. People spend money online. We'll be right back.

57:21Happening now, some websites are starting to come back online this morning after they shut down to address some major security issues. Yesterday, the NSA and Europe's cybersecurity agency warned companies to take immediate action after artificial intelligence helped find critical flaws that affect 70 percent of the Internet. CNN Business Tech Editor Lisa Adichico is joining us right now. Lisa, what more can you tell us about this cybersecurity flaw? Yeah, Wolf, I think what makes this cybersecurity incident different than a lot of other ones we've seen is that this is really kind of highlighting an architecture issue that has been dormant on the web.

58:04So these flaws have existed for more than a decade, but researchers were only able to spot them now because they were using AI to do work that would have taken a team of researchers months to do in a matter of weeks. So I think that's really one of the big takeaways here is, you know, for months and months, there have been a lot of concerns around the potential implications of AI in cybersecurity now that these more powerful models and agents exist. And this is one example of how researchers, I think, are using the technology to help find these kinds of exploits. And what's interesting here is that even though this existed for years, why this was discoverable now is because the amount of work it would have taken, which involves chaining multiple bugs together and things like that, would have taken just so much work that it would have taken months and it wasn't practical to do just with human research alone.

58:59So I think that is one key takeaway here as well is that this is really kind of illustrating how with both researchers and bad actors can do a lot more with AI now that they have these more sophisticated tools at their disposal. Is there anything that regular Internet users like us, for example, need to do here? So that's the challenging question here, because unlike other cybersecurity incidents, this is not a data breach. This is not a new type of malware that's spreading. This is something that is impacting the architecture and infrastructure of the web. This is a coding language that's used across many, many websites, nearly 70 percent of the web.

59:40So there isn't too much that the regular consumer can do. But I would say just keep in mind some of the best practices that you usually would when a cybersecurity incident happens. So, for example, keeping an eye on all of your accounts and making sure that there isn't any unauthorized activity, things like that, because what hackers can do because of this vulnerability is remotely execute code and things like that. So you want to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity for sure. All right, Lisa Adachiko, thanks so much for your expertise. Appreciate it very, very much. And just ahead, more than 18 million ballots already have been cast in the midterm elections here in the United States.

1:00:19Up next, we'll explore what the numbers could tell us about critical races and the potential control of Washington.

1:00:37Welcome back. Here's a look at some of the top stories we're watching here in the Situation Room. a judge has denied a request from Lindsay Clancy's lawyers to question the lone holdout juror and her triple murder case. The trial ended with a hung jury. Clancy's lawyers wanted to get his phone records, jury questionnaire and some background information. And prosecutors have not said if they plan to retry Clancy. And construction on President Trump's controversial arch in the nation's capital could start just after Election Day. Trump says the 250-foot structure is needed for national security, which is why it includes drones and sniper nests.

1:01:12But the actual plans describe the project as a ceremonial gateway to Washington, D.C. A mega fine for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, a New Mexico judge says it must pay$25 billion for lying to users about privacy. In 2018, the company admitted that a political research firm obtained private info for up to 87 million users. New Mexico sued over the scandal. Mehta says it plans to appeal. Wolf? All right, Pamela, the final debate in Michigan's very tight and very tense Senate race happened last month. Last night, I should say. And candidates Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers got very personal.

1:01:56If you are going to go to the United States Senate, we need to know, are you for America or are you for these terrorist groups overseas? You can grin and you can smile and you can talk real pretty, but I'm going to tell you what, that is a risk to our national security. To bring into question my commitment to the Constitution is really beneath you. I am proud of America. I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray. And the question that you would ask that I think is actually really quite shameful. Meanwhile, El-Sayed tried to weaponize President Trump against Rogers.

1:02:35Listen. You're going to hear the MAGA vision, where you stand hip to hip with Donald Trump on all of his worst policies, the policies that are raising the price of your gas, making it impossible to afford your groceries. And you're going to hear a form of MAGA bingo, because the thing about MAGA is whenever they're talking, they are trying to distract you. He wants to make this about Donald Trump. I mean, the bingo game ought to be how many times can he put the word Trump in any answer? The latest CNN poll of polls shows no clear leader in this race that's key to controlling Congress. Joining us now is Beth LeBlanc.

1:03:12She's the political reporter over at the Detroit News. Beth, thanks so much for joining us. What stood out to you at last night's debate? Well, you know, surprisingly, there were a lot of personal attacks. There was mention of a MAGA bingo and barbs traded on that front. But this, the second and last debate of the U.S. Senate race in Michigan, this actually got into more policy details than we've seen in the past. The first debate between these two was an all out brawl. It was a lot of personal attacks. It was difficult to get into policy and see where they stood. But on this one, they definitely had differences on a variety of issues from education to, you know, border policies to Iran and to tariffs as well.

1:03:58And so we kind of got a better taste or, you know, voters in Michigan, I think, got a better taste for where these candidates stand on those issues. Do you think these personal attacks are resonating with the voters in Michigan right now? You know, it's hard to say. Right now, voters...

1:04:25I think we just lost Beth's audio. We'll try to reconnect with her. Sorry about that. Pamela, over to you. Fortunately, we have our David Challey and Sandy By here, Wolf, because we want to talk more about the midterms. Across the country, more than 18 million voters have already cast their ballots. So what can we learn from the early voting data? Let's bring in our CNN political director and Washington Bureau chief, David Chalian. What stands out to you, David, from this data? Well, Pamela, as you noted, the first thing that stands out is that overall number. More than 18 million people have already cast ballots in this election.

1:05:02So when we talk about Election Day is 12 days away, remember, Election Day has happened and is happening for a lot of Americans. More than 18 million have cast their vote. And the other thing I want to point out here is that we're seeing the Democratic enthusiasm that we read about in polls show up in the early vote. So what you're looking at here is across some of the key states where we have information about party registration of the ballots that were cast. Of course, we don't know how they actually cast their ballot. They haven't been tabulated and counted. But just in terms of registered party registration, what you see here is Democrats are making up a higher share of the early vote in these states compared to this point two years ago in 2024 at the presidential election.

1:05:50you see that Republican voters registered with the Republican Party casting early ballots are actually a lower share of the overall early vote in the state to date, again, at this point, compared to 2024. So later today, David, President Trump heads to Iowa for a rally. Are there any indications from data that you're receiving about early voting there? There are. I first want to just show you we split up by method. When we talk about early vote, there's early in-person voting and there's vote by mail. This is all the pre-election vote here. At this point in the state of Iowa, the early in-person vote is 73 percent of what it was in 2024 as an overall picture.

1:06:35Now, that was a presidential campaign. This is a midterm year. I don't expect this to get maybe to 100 percent of what it was in 2024. But 73 % in person shows there is a big sort of surge in people participating in early vote by showing up and doing it in person. Whereas by mail is only at 42 % right now in terms of a run rate, a total here of people participating of where it was in 2024. And when you look at those methods by party, I think this is going to be something that we're going to be talking about. You're going to be talking about, Pam, on election night. Look at Democrats among in-person ballots.

1:07:1490 % of where the 2024 Democratic in-person early votes were. Democrats are making far more use of early in-person voting in Iowa than they were at this point two years ago. And they're dramatically doing more so than in mail ballots. And you see similar with Republicans, but not as broad of a disparity, whether that has to do with Democrats being concerned in everything they've heard about mail balloting or President Trump saying that he doesn't trust in mail balloting or thinking that maybe somebody will interfere with mail balloting. But Democrats are showing up in greater numbers now in Iowa, at least, in in-person early vote, Pam.

1:07:55That's really interesting. All right, David Chalian, thank you. Wolf? All right, coming up, a mutated virus means an early flu season. And there are serious concerns right now that the current vaccine may not necessarily offer enough protection. We have information you need to know. That's coming up.

1:08:17As happening now, as the midterms zoom ever closer, one issue taking hold is data centers. CNN's Dona O'Sullivan asked some voters in Kentucky why they are breaking with the president on this sensitive issue. Here's his Situation Room special report. We are responding to this huge data center overreach, what looks like an invasion across our country. This explosion. Here in Maysville, Kentucky, a Trump stronghold, activists and locals have gathered to protest the building of a massive AI data center by Mark Zuckerberg's Meta. Not all progress is good, all right? President Trump recently, I think he said, you know, communities that don't want AI centers want to stay backward or something like that.

1:09:07I did hear that. When you hear that, how do you feel? I said, well, I guess I'm going to be backwards and poor. But I also want to reiterate that not everything the president does do I agree with, but not everything my husband does do I agree with. I'm a Republican, but due to his stance, I feel he's going to cost the Republicans the House and the Senate. Maybe not big margins, it might be very slim margins, but he needs to reverse his stance. Max Moran is among the locals who have organized to oppose the data center. So that is Delcia there. She's actually nearly blind in her eyes. She's one of the landowners we've been helping since last year.

1:09:46They felt coerced into signing these contracts to sell their land. Zuckerberg and Metta should have never walked out of that courtroom with a dime left in their damn pockets.

1:10:03Delsia and her mother Ida live on a 1 ,200 acre farm a few miles outside of town. The pair made headlines around the world when it was reported they turned down$26 million to sell their land. They come through the door around May 2, 2025. I said, we want to buy your land for$35 ,000 an acre. Technically, on the contract, you don't know who's trying to buy your land. Nope, it's a non-disclosure agreement. But people here believe it's Mark Zuckerberg. It's Meta. Mom goes through the contracts, really, with fine-tooth comb. She says, I don't care what you do, but get out of this. What does the land mean to both of you?

1:10:53Freedom. Yeah, life and freedom. Should I choose to live totally off of this land that we've got, I could. I wouldn't have to be beholden to anything out there. Did they tell you what they wanted to do with the land? No, they did not tell us what they wanted to do with the land. They were just in a very big hurry to get it off you as fast as possible. Trump won this Kentucky county in the last election by a 44-point margin. I voted for Trump. I have every time he's run. I'd go questioning it now. Trump said if you're against data centers, you're going to end up backward and poor. And that sort of pisses you off when you're from Appalachia anyway.

1:11:41You've always been backward and poor. Do you think this issue is going to hurt Republicans in the midterms? I hope it hurts them. I need to be voted out.

1:11:55In this Bible Belt household, this fight is spiritual. For you, it's about Mordenland. It's about humanity. If we don't stop this, there's not going to be a future for humanity. That's anti-human. That's what AI is. let's let it make the decision but it doesn't have any morals and it can't be held to God's standards is there any amount of money Zuckerberg can give you to get the hell out of here nope no really her last words to him was you may get it but you have brought me out of your feet first you can bring the bulldozers if you want to You'll have to bulldoze it down around my head. You're really going up against...

1:12:48It's David and Goliath here. But I'll remind you, it only took one stone to bring down a Philistine. One itty bitty little stone in the right place. Can bring down any giant that there is on this planet. Tony O'Sullivan, CNN, Kentucky. And our thanks to Tony for that report. happening now. Experts say that a mutated virus is driving the country into an early flu season. It's coming more than two months earlier than usual and hitting states on the West Coast first, which is unusual. So what does all of this tell us? We're going to go to Dr. Peter Hotez from the Baylor College of Medicine to better understand what's happening.

1:13:27He's also the co-director of Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. Good morning to you. So So, exports say this virus has picked up a gene mutation that helps it evade immunity. What does this mean for people who have already received their flu shot this year? Well, the flu shot is still working, Pamela. So, the story is this. This is, you know, the vaccine, the flu vaccine, has three virus components, one of them being what's called H1N1. And it looks like the virus that's arising a little bit early, but not that unusual in October. And the West Coast is H1N1. And it's a subvariant known as D3.1.1.

1:14:15And we know from the CDC studies and others that the vaccine should protect fairly well against D3.1.1. But within that group of 3.1.1, there is a subset that has a mutation to make it somewhat more resistant to the vaccine. But we don't know how widespread that particular mutation is going to be and if it's even going to be a major factor in this epidemic. So that's a long way of saying get your vaccine and get it now because flu seems to be rising a little bit earlier than we would have expected. What does that tell you about what we could see in January and February, given the fact they are already hearing from doctors that they're seeing January levels of flu now?

1:15:03Well, I think that it's still fairly localized in those areas. So it's hard to really predict whether this is going to be a bad flu season. What do I mean by a bad flu season? Influenza virus kills on the average between 12 ,000 and 53 ,000 Americans every year. So that's a big span. So is it going to be more like 12 ,000 or more like 50 ,000? Last year, the last flu season split the difference. It was 24 ,000 deaths. So it's a pretty bad flu season. We'll see what this was like. But the other really important component, Pam, is we've had about 200 kids die each of the last two flu seasons. And we're not getting the word out about the importance of vaccinating our children as well.

1:15:45So for me, the two most important messages are get your kids vaccinated if they're over six months of age, number one. Number two, people often forget that in adults, influenza causes heart attacks. There's been a number of studies now showing a link between heart attacks in the first few weeks after your flu infection. And people have not heard that message. And that's really important to get out. So what is your advice to people then as we enter flu season? What should we be doing and how should parents be thinking about this for their kids? The single most important thing to do right now is if you've been holding off on getting your flu vaccine, don't hold off.

1:16:26Now's the time to get it if you haven't already gotten it. There's several choices out there for adults, including the traditional inactivated virus vaccines. That's what I happened to get. But there's also a brand new mRNA influenza vaccine from Moderna, which I don't know how widely available it is yet. So we're still waiting to learn more about that. And vaccinate your kids as well. And unfortunately, the Health and Human Services made the tragic decision, or they attempted last year to take influenza vaccine for kids off the recommendation list. But now it's still back on. And so it's really important that you do that.

1:17:05All right, Dr. Peter Hotez, thank you so much. Wolf? And before we go, Pamela, we want to share that former longtime CNN correspondent Bob Franken has died. Bob started his career at CNN back in 1986 as a general assignment correspondent and then as a congressional correspondent. He also spent several weeks on the ground covering the Persian Gulf War. Bob's daughter posted on social media that he passed away peacefully after a battle with dementia and aphasia. We want to send our deepest, deepest condolences to his family. He was a good friend, an outstanding journalist. May he rest in peace and may his memory be a blessing.

1:17:49And 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. And we'll see you back here tomorrow morning and every weekday morning at 10 Eastern for two hours inside politics with our friend and colleague Dana Bash starts after a quick break.

1:18:17I'm Adi Cornish. I'm Ari Shapiro, and it's Engagement Party. It is Engagement Party. And we get to talk about what we're obsessed with, what we're engaged with, what we need to process with a friend. Her name is Amy O'Dell. She is a fashion writer, blogger. But the thing is, she's a journalist who's written about the sacred cows of fashion. And yes, I mean, Gwyneth Paltrow and Anna Wintour. She has done biographies of both. And she is also the sort of rare fashion writer who, at this point, kind of outside the system. And so the question that we're going to try to tackle is... Is fashion terrible now?

1:18:47Well, no, I mean, I would phrase it as how do you develop a personal style in the age of AI slop? You know, on social media, like, creators have to try a whole bunch of different things and see what catches. And then they make it over and over and over again. The same thing happens with clothing. So they're sort of seeding the market, seeding the internet with all of these different ideas. And then they can see what sells and then they can just make them really fast. Follow Engagement Party. Wherever you get your podcasts.