cnn this morning starts right now. well, good morning, everyone, i m poppy harlow with phil mattingly in new york. a lot to get to. specifically politics. pre-christmas campaign push lands in iowa today. donald trump, ron desantis and nikki haley all holding events there, sharpening their closing messages and attacks against one another this morning. a new signal the trump campaign is concerned about one candcand candidate s growing momentum. abbott signing a controversial bill making illegal immigration a state crime that will allow texas police to make mass arrests. the protests and threats of legal challenges already under way. and bursts of lava and smoke filling the sky in iceland today as a volcano dramatically erupted overnight after weeks of warnings. threatening a geothermal power plant. cnn this morning starts right now. new this morning, it looks like donald trump may be feeling some pressure in new hampshire as nikki haley chipped away at what was a huge
wrongs. president biden wipes out federal marijuana possession convictions. what that means for the effort to decriminalize marijuana nationwide. we have a series of serial murders occurring. people are scared to come out. police in california on the hunt for a killer. the one characteristic they are asking the community to zero in on as the search for the suspect continues. newsroom starts right now. good morning. it is saturday, october 8th. good morning. you are live in the cnn newsroom. we start this morning in eastern europe. at least three people have been reported dead in a huge explosion that crippled europe s largest bridge and pair lased a key supply route for russia s war in ukrainian. that blast crippled the only bridge linking russia to the annexed territory of crimea. the kerch bridge is a huge symbol for the kremlin and the attempt to reunify crimea with the russian mainland. let s get to fred pleitgen. russia blamed the explosion on ukraini
trying to expand their territory, but they ve got their own problems to deal with. starting with new allegations against herschel walker. we ll go to georgia live in just a minute where a walker event just wrapped up. plus, president biden trying to sell pessimistic americans on his economic message, pointing to new gdp numbers that are stronger than forecast, as proof of things getting better. with food and gas prices up 10% in a year, does anyone care about the gdp? i ll ask white house deputy chief of staff jen o malley dillon when she joins me later in the show. the mass exodus of health care workers just ahead of what s expected to be a brutal covid and flu season, the alarming statistics and what they mean for you coming up. we start with the midterms and a deep sense of late campaign uncertainty gripping some of the closest races in the country. in pennsylvania some top democrats are second-guessing john fetterman s decision to debate, appearing in pittsburgh yes
cnn s chief national affairs correspondent reports on the debate faceoff that s making supporters of john fetterman nervous. the spotlight on pennsylvania intensified. a day after a debate between john fetterman and mehmet oz sharpened the stakes in the battle for control of the senate. i had a stroke. he s never let me forget that. the question is not what oz thinks of his rival. obviously i wasn t clear enough for you to understand this. but whether voters believe fetterman has recovered from a stroke in may and should be elected to a six-year term in washington. i don t think he has recovered from the stroke. jan welsh was watching closely and said she found fetterman s performance embarrassing. i had questions about oz earlier, but after listening with him against fetterman, it s definitely oz. but craig said he was turned off by what he saw as oz picking on fetterman. do you think he s healthy enough to be a oh, my. he gets healthier every day.
secret service leadership scratching their heads. first, there is the issue of how did an agent trained to drive the most precious cargo in the country have a one car accident on a cleared roadway. the president and the vice president travels in a motorcade, the streets are empty. so that part is weird. and the other red flag is with the secret service agents did immediately afterwards. when they sent a message alerting senior leadership about what had happened, the agents reported that a mechanical failure forced agents to trance harris to another vehicle. the secret service director who is just one month into the job after being appoint bid president biden, secret service director had to learn from other agents that a mechanical failure is not what happened. the post reports the incident concerned both the secret service director and the vice president and revived worries about the agency s history of concealing its mistakes. the secret service is having a heck of a few mon