Show: On The Town Station: KNCO File: 10:27.mp3 Air date: 2026-10-27 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 26.4 MB to 5.3 MB --- transcript --- KNCO Insight is going to be brought to you by ABC News. They have their Start Here program. So many things going on as we're a week away from midterm elections. And elections are very big. There's a lot of stuff going on with our propositions here in California. A lot going on, obviously, throughout the nation. Just at the top of the hour, news, presidents, former presidents, everybody's on the campaign trail, it seems like right now. But even foreign elections are taking center stage in a lot of places. And that's where we start with ABC News. Term elections are a week from today, or perhaps I should say the midterm elections end a week from today. In Texas, for instance, one in five ballots have been cast already. These totals aren't just unusual for a midterm. They're unusual for any election. Bexar County, Texas, near San Antonio, says so many voters have lined up to vote early. They might shatter their 2024 presidential numbers. Now, that doesn't tell us everything. It does not necessarily favor Democrats or Republicans, but it does tell us some things, right? It tells us citizens are extremely engaged for midterms. It tells us states that are usually a sure thing in a presidential year might be totally up for grabs here. And similarly, when you look at elections around the world, they do not all translate to the American political scene. But they're also not taking place in a vacuum either. Well, today, a week out from Election Day in the U.S., another hugely important vote is taking place. Not here, not even in the Western Hemisphere. No, it's over in Israel. ABC's Matt Rivers is on the ground in Jerusalem. He starts us off today. And Matt, a few races I want to get to, but let's start where you are in Israel. What is happening in these elections? What's the breakdown? Well, you know, depending on who you ask, Brad, these are some of the most consequential elections in Israeli history. But at the bare minimum, these are the first national elections that Israel has held since the October 7th attacks and since the subsequent wars in Gaza and southern Lebanon and Iran. And ultimately, as we see any time an incumbent's party is on the ballot, it's going to be a referendum of sorts of the leadership that we've seen over the past few years. And that's, of course, leadership from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been obviously an inescapable part of Israeli politics for decades now. Going out and voting, uncle and aunt, the grandfather and the grandmother, the neighbors, because we have to win. For better or for worse, this is a referendum on his leadership over the past few years. I think when you're asking the Israeli public what this election is about, ultimately, security is always one of the top two biggest issues here. And I think for Israelis, you know, they're looking at it two ways. October 7th was an inflection point in this country. And if you are a critic of Benjamin Netanyahu, you say not only did Netanyahu fail to keep us safe on October 7th, but in the subsequent years, in addition to corruption scandals, in addition to unpopular judicial reforms nationally, he's also undertaken a series of conflicts that has dramatically reduced Israel's standing in the world, that it has made Israel a pariah of sorts on the world stage. After tens of thousands of civilians were killed in Gaza, after more civilians were killed in southern Lebanon, after civilians were killed in Iran, they point to him as the reason why Israel's standing has been upended on the global stage. The people of Israel can't take it anymore. We want a government that works for the people. We want a government that will bring peace and security to the region. If you are a Netanyahu supporter, though, you say, well, October 7th wasn't great, but he has more than made up for that in making Israel safer by taking the fight to Hamas, by taking the fight to Hezbollah in Lebanon, by taking the fight directly to Iran, the backer of all of those proxies in this part of the world. The IDF is ready to both defend and to strike. He has taken Israel's security on his back, and he has done something that no other Israeli prime minister has ever done. And therefore he is going to have my vote. And so, you know, the way all of this ends, Brad, is it's a referendum on Netanyahu, one of the most controversial, but certainly one of the most consequential leaders that we have in the world today. So if that's the Netanyahu side of the equation, he's not the only guy running. Right. So who is the opposition here? Because it doesn't sound like it's as simple as one guy. You know, Netanyahu is pro-Iran war and the other guy's anti-Iran war. That's not what's happening here, right? No, especially because, you know, this is a parliamentary system with lots of parties in play. It's not like the U.S. where you have it's the Democrat candidate versus the Republican candidate. And there's obvious differences between the liberal and the conservative here. You're talking about Netanyahu, who is leading the most far right government that Israel has ever seen. But the flip side, the person who is leading the party that is leading most of the polls here is a guy named Gadi Eisenkot. He's a former IDF chief of staff. He's center right. Remember, Netanyahu does not have majority. He prefers another election. He wants to trap Israel in a transitional government led by him. I will not let that happen. He says he wants to be different than Netanyahu in good governance inside of Israel. He says he wants to start an independent inquiry into the origins of October 7th. He wants to walk back some of the judicial reforms that Netanyahu has put forward. But that's domestic stuff. When it comes to national security policy, he's in favor of the war in Iran. He wants Israel to continue to have a presence in Gaza. He's not going to be retreating from that. The Americans should not expect to emerge from this contest. Somebody that's like, let's let's withdraw. What are we doing? Absolutely not. When it comes to the issues that Americans care about the most, which is Gaza, which is Iran, which is a potential two state solution for Palestinians to have a state of their own. Eisenkot is right in line with Netanyahu. Zero chance of a two state solution. Palestinians would not get their own state or anything close to it. If Eisenkot led the government here, he would make sure the Israeli army stays inside of Gaza. And he would very likely want to rejoin with the U.S. in striking Iran once again if he were to take the reins of power. So would he be a different leader? Yes. One thing that there would be a big difference in, I think, is he would try and rein in some of the Israeli settler violence that we've seen in the West Bank against Palestinians there. But overall, on the issues that Americans are most in tune with, Eisenkot is much more in line with Netanyahu than he is against him. Really interesting. The other reason I want to talk to you today, Matt, is not just to look ahead to the Israeli election, but we've also now seen a couple of international elections in recent days, including your stomping grounds of South America. You've been a foreign correspondent for us in Latin America before. What are we seeing in some of these elections? And I guess, do they tell us anything about kind of international sentiment? And is any of that applicable to the U.S. political landscape? Yeah, it's a good question. You know, I was actually in Brazil for the last time they had presidential elections and it was Lula on the ballot, the left leaning candidate. And it was a Bolsonaro on the candidate as well, except at that time it was Jair Bolsonaro and now it's his son, Flavio. What we've seen in that election was in the first round and it was very, very, very close. But Lula managed to eke out a victory. I want to thank God and thank you, the men and women of this country for the strength you showed. What you take from that is a couple of things. One, I think it really slows the march of what had been a conservative movement really across Latin America. You saw conservative leaders elected in El Salvador, in Colombia, in Chile and Argentina. And there was the expectation, I think, that that could happen in Brazil, which would be the biggest domino of them all. Bolsonaro was called like a Brazilian Trump. And leaned into that very much so. Jair Bolsonaro and his son both are acolytes of Donald Trump. And I think that that's what they campaigned on. So what does that election result tell us? Well, that just enough of Brazilians don't want that, that they want a more left leaning government and they don't want to be Trump of the tropics, as Bolsonaro's nickname once was. But I think it also shows you just how split these societies are, just like the U.S., where we're going to see. Sure, we might see some sort of a blue wave during the midterms, but I think overall America is quite polarized. And it's the same thing in the second largest economy in the Western Hemisphere. And that would be Brazil. Is there also a potential parallel with with disputing election results? Because we're also seeing that now Bolsonaro is actually refusing to concede that he lost to Lula here. Exactly. And what we're seeing is because of some irregularities that the Brazilian Supreme Court said they saw with people being blocked from getting to the polls by using public transportation, they actually left the polls open for two additional hours there. I will not accept the rules of the game being changed mid game once again by Lula's allies on the Supreme Court. What we've seen since then is the Bolsonaro campaign say, hold on, that wasn't OK. We're going to dispute these election results. Stop me if you've heard this before, a very close election. There's a presidential candidate who says, hold on, I don't agree with these results. And let's see what happens. These extremely polarized split societies, there's very little margin of error for anything to go wrong. Then everything becomes suspicious and everything's a conspiracy as opposed to just election results being what they are. Also, Serbia just had elections in there. You know, you hear about student protest movements, a student protest movement there in Serbia just managed to topple a long time, what someone call a strongman ruler. He has conceded defeat, unlike Bolsonaro. But similar themes there with opponents talking about corruption, about being sort of more pragmatic, less isolationist. So perhaps more parallels here. We'll see. Matt Rivers on a busy, busy day in Jerusalem right now. Thank you so much. Thanks, Brad. Hi, I'm Steve Nally, manager of the Les Schwab Tire Center here in Grass Valley. Before you head out for winter travel or a holiday visit, I'd like to invite you in for a free pre-chip safety inspection. We'll check your tire pressure and visually inspect your wheels, alignment, shocks and struts, front end components, brakes and battery. Investing a little time now will help you feel more confident down the road. And if we spot a concern, we'll explain it and answer your questions. 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Call Craig Johnson Plumbing today. In the lead-up to the midterms, legal analysts have had their radars up for several key rulings. We've provided a list of non-citizens who we believe are non-citizens to the state of California. One is in California, where federal appeals judges have rejected a claim from the Trump administration that California needs to set aside 20,000 potential voters over claims that there are lots of non-citizens on their rolls. California officials say they looked at a small sample of these names, just to see if the suit had merit, and found the vast majority of that sample aren't just citizens, they're citizens who were born here. Respectfully, we think that the court will find that unimpressive. Later today in Washington, D.C., another judge will weigh the case of two FBI agents charged with lying to Congress about Hunter Biden's laptop several years ago. Again, that judge has already cast doubt on the Trump administration's case. And if you're keeping score, yesterday you could chalk one of these firmly in the loss column for the Trump DOJ. As yet another judge recounted the case of a federal prosecutor fired just a few months into Trump's second term. That prosecutor's name is Maureen Comey. If that sounds familiar, it's because she is related to Trump's nemesis, former FBI Director James Comey. That judge has ruled she should never have lost her job in the first place. Let's talk to ABC's chief investigative correspondent, Aaron Katursky. Aaron, remind us, who is Maureen Comey, and why was she fired? Maureen Comey was an assistant United States Attorney General for the Trump administration. She was an assistant United States Attorney, a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office, probably the most preeminent federal prosecutor's office in the country. And she is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, and that's why she says she was abruptly fired. Well, we can avail ourselves of the last healthy part of the American government, which is the federal judiciary. So my daughter is suing them to establish that you cannot fire a career person without cause. Even though, by all accounts, she had been a rather stellar federal prosecutor on some of the most high-profile cases that we've covered in that district. The prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's former paramour, the prosecution of Sean Combs. She says that she was fired for no other reason than her last name. She challenged it, and a federal judge has just ruled that her termination was unlawful. Yes, so what was the judge's rationale in this ruling, in reinstating her? The judge agreed with the Attorney General of the United States. He is authorized by law to remove an assistant U.S. Attorney. But the Attorney General and anyone to whom the Attorney General delegates that authority, the judge said, is also limited by the law, namely the law that involves civil service employees. And only can fire someone covered by civil service rules, like an assistant U.S. Attorney, in a particular manner, and only for certain reasons. And the judge said those reasons, in this particular case involving Maureen Comey, just weren't there. Practically, Aaron, does she go back to work now? I don't know what she's been doing in the interceding time here, but is she ready to throw everything aside and be like, I'm back, Southern Districts, because I know it's a prestigious job, but people also have lives when they get fired, whether they think it's fair or not. In a manner of speaking, she has been reinstated to a point because she formally resigned her position shortly after it was made clear by the Trump administration that she was going to be fired. So she was ordered by the judge to be reinstated with back pay up until the point she resigned her position. She's now in private practice as an attorney in New York City. We have not heard from her, although we did reach out. I think she'd be hard-pressed to return to the Southern District of New York under the current Justice Department and the Trump administration. And then, this is not the first time we've seen the Trump administration fire somebody and for them to say this is a political firing, that this is because of a case you didn't like or a relation that I have that you don't like that person. Could this open the door for other lawsuits, I guess, by former federal employees? Depends on how they're fired, because in some cases, the president does have latitude, Brad, to hire and fire as he sees fit. But here, the judge rejected what he described as the Trump administration's sweeping and unprecedented theory of executive authority. The president had argued that Maureen Comey's firing was lawful and the laws protecting civil servants were unconstitutional. And the judge said that's just not the case here. Although the Justice Department is now promising an appeal, you could see a world in which this, like many other things that the Trump administration has challenged, gets all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And I don't know if the timing is coincidental or not, but yesterday also, newly unsealed court documents showed the DOJ is seeking to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey for a third time, accusing him of disclosing national security information in 2016. Comey himself put out a statement in part, saying, Well, they're back again. It would almost be funny if it weren't such an appalling abuse of the Department of Justice, one that we cannot become numb to, end quote. Aaron Koturski, thank you. Thank you, Brad. Hi there. This is Mimi Simmons, your hometown realtor, along with my wonderful team. We are so excited to welcome Johnny Houlihan back to Nevada County. Johnny, your music beautifully captures the spirit of our community, weaving your childhood memories and the places we love into your songs. Thank you for sharing your incredible talent, your music and your heart with the world. From one local to another, welcome home, Johnny. I know you'll be embraced by the warmth and spirit that makes our community so special. Living and dying River country You can catch Johnny's performance on November 11th at the Miners' Foundry in Nevada City. But hurry, as tickets are almost sold out. Go to knco.com for your tickets. From all of us at Team Simmons, thank you, Johnny, for coming home to perform for us. If you judge the economy based on how much money you make from work and how much of that money it costs to buy things, which seems like a pretty fair criteria to me, you'd probably think the economy is not doing so great. If you judge the economy on the stock market, though, or if you have a lot of money tied up in it, you might think, it can't be that bad. Like, stocks are still up on the year. And yet we know the reason for that. It's not because every business is doing well. It's certainly not because businesses that rely on oil or shipping are doing well. No, stocks are mainly doing okay because of one industry. AI. AI. It's been officially changed to superintelligence or SI. Whether you've heard of it or not, the most valuable publicly traded company on Earth right now is NVIDIA, whose chips and architecture have fomented the AI revolution. We are going to have to create new technologies to advance the capabilities of AI, but we're also creating new technologies to advance the safety of AI. Well, soon, an AI company you probably have heard of is set to join them. Yesterday, Anthropic, the makers of the chatbot, Claude, filed some of the paperwork that will allow them to go public. And this provided an eye-opening glimpse at how much these companies are making or not making. Let's bring in ABC's Elizabeth Schoelze, who covers technology and economics. Elizabeth, how valuable is Anthropic going to be here? It sounds like a huge potential opening. Incredibly valuable, Brad. We are talking about an historic IPO for a company that didn't even exist five years ago. This is Anthropic, the company that makes Claude. Today, we are launching Claude. Launching Claude for teachers. Basically laying the groundwork for what could be the biggest initial public offering on record. Up until now, that would happen just a few months ago, the SpaceX IPO put the valuation of that company at about $1.8 trillion. The paperwork that Anthropic filed does not disclose the official valuation, but the expectation is that it will be around that range or even higher. So we are talking about a huge, huge company overnight the moment this starts trading publicly, which we learned it will trade under the ticker ANT on the NASDAQ exchange, Brad. But you're right, this really starts to pull back the curtain on the finances of this company for the first time. And what we saw were some pretty staggering numbers. I mean, Anthropic had $16 billion in revenue in the first six months of this year. That's up from $1.2 billion last year. So it's a huge increase in revenue. On the other hand, they did have some pretty big losses. This is not a company that's making money right now. $81 billion in losses in the first six months of this year, though some of that was an accounting kind of issue. $81 billion in losses? I'm not trying to be a jerk, but what do you do that would lose you that much money? No, you heard it right. And some of this is kind of an accounting issue. We don't need to get into kind of the nitty-gritty of how this isn't all money that's like cash burning. But they acknowledge in this filing that it could be a while till they're on a path of profitability, that they are spending more money than they are bringing in right now, even though they have some pretty big investors, including Amazon and Google. They are saying that they are going to continue to spend a lot to keep developing AI. And that means that this is a huge company worth a lot of money, but it might not necessarily be making money for some time. But this is what I'm trying to figure out. So my parents yesterday showed me an AI-generated photo of what me and my wife's future baby might look like. And so, right, this is what AI is used for by a lot of people, right? It was generic and terrifying at the same time. And I'm like, how many gallons of water had to be used to cool down the data center that produced this monstrosity? Like, is Anthropic going to be used for more than this by the whole world? Or is this like a huge bubble? If I had the answer to on if this is a bubble, I think I would be very rich, because that is exactly what Wall Street analysts are trying to figure out right now. What is very notable about this in these hundreds of pages of documents that were released by Anthropic is that more than 90 pages of this, Brad, is devoted to the risk factors in this business. I think the technology has very real risks. And, you know, the mechanism, how we address those risks is still under discussion. Typically, when a company files to go public, they're talking about risk factors. Think of things like demand slowdown or trouble hiring talent or intense competition from rivals or external factors like the weather. Anthropic has taken a very different tack where we've been transparent about the risks and we've proposed regulation of the technology. Anthropic does not mince words when it says exactly what the risk factors are. And they're pretty intense. They're saying some of the factors that put its company at risk are basically the end of humanity. I mean, they say there is the risk of a... The end of all this. All this goes away. This is in the filing itself, you know, a catastrophic event. I mean, this is really doubling down on these, you know, dire warnings we've been talking about now for weeks from people within the company and outside of the company. Mr. President, tell us why the world should not be concerned about AI, why there shouldn't be guardrails. Because we have people that love our country and love the world a lot. But it requires more than love, doesn't it, sir? No, it requires this, and they're the smartest people in the world. But in this kind of formal notice to investors that it wants to become a publicly traded company, Anthropic is saying, we know that there are a lot of factors that could basically mean we are not making money, that not only mean we're not making money, that could ban our business, put us out of business if the government decides to put in a ban, if we see that there is this risk of models creating biological weapons. I mean, this is just a whole new level of kind of risk when you're talking about a business and its outlook. And what does it mean, Brad? --- end of transcript ---