Latest / The Kinzinger Report / Deny, Deny, Deny | Russia Hides a Deadly Outbreak While Trump Takes Putin's Word — October 6, 2026

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Deny, Deny, Deny | Russia Hides a Deadly Outbreak While Trump Takes Putin's Word — October 6, 2026 · The Kinzinger Report

• 0:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Adam Kinzinger, and you're listening to the Kinzinger Report, where I bring you top stories and analysis on current events and the growing threats to our democracy.
• 0:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: After serving over a decade in Congress, I hope you know what's true and what really matters so that we can all work to save this country that we love so much.
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, everybody, welcome back.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for being here.
• 0:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks to Conner yesterday for holding the fort down.
• 0:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: He did a great job.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was great having him.
• 0:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it was great working with him too when we did.
• 0:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So our top story today.
• 0:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: So there appears to be a plague outbreak in Russia.
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the Kremlin is clearly trying to cover it up.
• 0:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: One lab worker is dead.
• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Russian media say a second person has died and nearly 200 people have been quarantined.
• 0:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Russia is handling it the way that Russia handles things, deny, deny, deny, deny, and delete anything that says otherwise.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe anyone that says otherwise.
• 1:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: And here on the people in charge of keeping this away from us of spent years dismantling our public health system and installing unqualified loyalists to run what's left.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're also going to get into Trump backing down on the
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: The biggest regret of this career, the White House kicking Politico off Air Force 1 and the under the radar opening that Democrats have to flip state houses this November.
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: So do me a favor, like this video, share it with someone needs to see it, subscribe, because you don't want to mess an episode to be the most foreign person you know.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I am an L.A. today, by the way.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: There you go.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's get to it.
• 1:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we're starting Russia where there appears to be a deadly outbreak in the Kremlin
• 1:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Here's what we know.
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: A 28-year-old researcher at a plague research institute sounds ominous.
• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure they're only doing happy things.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, this person in Siberia died on October 2nd.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Local reports says she broke a test tube in the lab.
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Russian officials deny that.
• 2:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sounds weird.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: They say that she died of pneumonia of unknown origin and that no plague bacteria turned up under samples, but the hospital ward where she died was sealed off over a particularly dangerous infection.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Nearly 200 of her contacts are quarantined in the hospital.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Daycare workers are getting
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: protective gear, Russian news stories about it, have been disappearing from the internet and this morning, local Russian media are reporting that a second death at a district hospital in the region has happened with the same illness.
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Numonic plague is one form of plague that spreads person to person through the air.
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Untreated, it's almost always fatal.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Most people will survive with antibiotics, but it needs to be caught early.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Europe hasn't seen a case in more than 50 years, and the EU says it's watching this very closely.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: But because of the war in Ukraine, European health officials can't just pick up the phone and call Moscow, those channels are gone.
• 3:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: So like the rest of the world, they're leaning on the World Health Organization to find out what's actually happening.
• 3:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And as a reminder, Trump pulled the United States out of the WHO on his first day back in office.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Here's what he said when he was asked about the outbreak.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: What is the U.S. going to do about the risk of mnemonic plague coming from Russia?
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, we're looking at a very strong who's just heard about it, and they call it pneumonia.
• 3:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: And pneumonia, you know, years ago, you could feed pneumonia easier, the microbes and the germs have gotten stronger, this proportionally, but we'll help them.
• 3:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about you, but I didn't come away feeling very reassured.
• 3:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: So look, hopefully this turns out to be nothing, but we need to keep a close eye on it because this is Russia.
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: They lie about everything.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Covering up a leak like this is exactly what you'd expect them to do.
• 3:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: What makes this one worse is that they've got a friend in the White House now, a president, who seems to take Putin's word over just about anyone else's included is on CIA.
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you remember that one,
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you can hear it now he talks about it.
• 4:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: When it was COVID, there wasn't a day that Trump wasn't out there calling it the China virus.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: But now that it's Russia, it's, well, we're going to help them.
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if that's not enough reason to be concerned, think about who'd be protecting us if this spiral's out of control, RFK Jr. is running the health department.
• 4:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the CDC has been gutted, and it's top people pushed out.
• 4:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: During COVID, Trump at least had some serious people around him.
• 4:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Career scientists who spent their whole lives preparing for exactly that moment.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: and look out that one.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now imagine how it goes with unserious clowns that he's put in charge this time.
• 4:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's also worth noting that Russia has used the plague in part of its biological weapons programs and and actually has done a lot to uh potentially modify it.
• 4:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: So let's keep an eye on it.
• 4:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Next, Trump is back and down on his taxpayer funded ad, so tries to twice last week we covered Trump's shameless use of taxpayer money for a flood of political ads.
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: There was the creepy love me ad.
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: There was even a spot recycled from Trump's own 20-24 campaign, almost all of them focused exactly on Trump in just Trump.
• 5:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: and Trump personally directed his budget directed around him.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: The administration tried to defend the clearly partisan ads by comparing them to PSA's other president to use to communicate policy changes or rally the country in wartime.
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: The argument was so pathetic that even Republicans cried foul for once.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: This was enough.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Here's Trump waving the white flag on truth social.
• 5:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: The radical left is upset with the fact that I am taking ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our great USA and paying them with USA money.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he's decided in his words to do the patriotic ads and pay for them myself and with money I raised for my gig.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: patriotic ads.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: By the way, first of all, this is basically an admission of guilt.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: The White House is stubborn.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: If they really thought they were right, they would not back down.
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: More to the point, if a super back is paying for the ads, it's not really Trump's money.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's money people donated for political purposes.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: If the ads weren't political, political, maga ink wouldn't spend donor money on them in the first place.
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: In any case, Trump's retreat comes too late.
• 6:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: The HS signed a $20 million contract for the campaign, and it's already burned through millions.
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's been no word of a refund.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ironically, this was money allocated to customs and border protection.
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Border security may be Trump's bread and butter, but nothing comes before his own image.
• 6:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Remember that the next time he calls Democrats soft on the border.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: So long story short, the president got caught using border security money to put himself on TV, then he called in a super PAC to take over, that's a start, I guess, but a better idea would just be giving the American people their money back, maybe Democrats can fight for this.
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now to Tom Tillis, who has some regrets.
• 7:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Retire and Republican Senator from North Carolina has his book out this week, how to lose friends and antagonize presidents.
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: In the book, Tillis walks a fine line.
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: He shares some concerns about Trump's rhetoric without denouncing him, talking about things like checks and balances and executive meddling in primaries, but when it comes to the cabinet members that he helped to confirm he's pretty blunt, here's Tillis on 60 minutes.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think there are some people that are in the cabinet because to use the president's term the right out of central casting.
• 7:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: I think Norman Hexeth are probably the poster children for men and women who should never have the authority they've been granted.
• 7:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Till us especially regrets is deciding vote to confirm PXF's defense secretary.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: troubled by reports about access, drinking and treatment of women.
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: He, apparently, agonized over the vote and spent hours on the phone with the White House and Hague Sathamself.
• 7:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: He calls the eventual vote the biggest regret of his career.
• 7:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Blam's Hague Satham ignoring military advice to quit while he was ahead in a ran and he calls for his resignation.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: He also claims to regret voting for RFK Jr. citing the outbreaks and vaccine nonsense that we've been covering here for months.
• 8:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: The red flags were obvious to everyone when TELUS cast these votes.
• 8:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I don't think he gets any real credit here.
• 8:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: No one expected a Fox News host and a health conspiracy theorist to make a good cabinet members.
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure TELUS didn't.
• 8:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: But he all does know his estate loyal.
• 8:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Trump ran him out of the Senate five months later anyway.
• 8:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not the thing to keep in mind.
• 8:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, Tell Us was supposedly really concerned about Todd Blanch and voted for him anyway.
• 8:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Wow, Todd Blanch, while this book that Tell Us wrote was in print.
• 8:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he had already written how his greatest regrets were taking these two votes and then he voted for Todd Blanch.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Spare Me Tom.
• 8:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Next, the White House kicked Politico off Air Force One.
• 8:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: So three weeks ago Trump tried to ban three news outlets from the White House, the outlet sued, it didn't take long for the judge to order that the White House restore their access.
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: All the while, the press pool boy caught it as coverage, leaving Trump soundlessly,
• 9:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: mining words over the word of helicopter blades.
• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now Trump is taking that measure a step further.
• 9:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Outlets have historically taken terms of traveling with the president, sharing updates with other news organizations.
• 9:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yesterday it was political stern but the White House blocked it from traveling aboard Air Force 1 for the president's trip to Nebraska.
• 9:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Their excuse is that the judge is ruling only applies to the White House, not to Air Force 1.
• 9:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Good one.
• 9:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if this sounds familiar, it should.
• 9:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Two days after the judge is ruling the White House pulled the same move on CNN.
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: But here's the kicker.
• 9:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: The White House offered Politico's seat to other outlets.
• 9:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: They said no.
• 9:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: One after another, they refused to take a colleague's spot.
• 9:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: So Trump flew to Nebraska without a print reporter on Air Force One.
• 9:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: For Man, it desperately needs attention.
• 9:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: This has yet another painful blow to his little ego.
• 10:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: and remember what Trump promised at his inauguration.
• 10:04
  [SPEAKER_04]: After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.
• 10:21
  [SPEAKER_04]: Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents.
• 10:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: but Trump promised to end a government censorship and persecution of political opponents.
• 10:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Instead, his second term has delivered both.
• 10:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Time and again, this president has abused the first amendment with no objective in mind to silence the voices of his critics and emboldened those of his delusional supporters.
• 10:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Politico isn't the first victim of his repressive campaign and it won't be the last.
• 10:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And finally, the Democratic wave might not stop at Congress.
• 10:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've spent weeks covering races from the House in the Senate.
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Democratic candidates are running competitive campaigns in deeply red territory and how Republicans are stumbling in the defensive.
• 11:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: But these high-profile races aren't the only ones on the ballot in this matters.
• 11:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Washington Post analyzed every state with a simple question.
• 11:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: which party could win the governor's ship in both Senate chambers?
• 11:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: That would amount to a unified control.
• 11:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's called a trifecta.
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: The post-found a lot cited political map.
• 11:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Democrats could break up Republican trifectas and in many as six states, and the party could win four controls in as many as seven.
• 11:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Republicans, on the other hand, could only break Democratic control in two states, and win control in five.
• 11:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: At the state level, the Democratic Party is on the offensive almost everywhere.
• 11:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee knows it.
• 11:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Its president said in a statement that, quote, 2026 is proving to be a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Democrat to shift the balance of power away from Republicans.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: And even their GOP counterparts are admitting it.
• 12:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Republican State Leadership Committee referred to this year's election as a political environment that is likely to be one of the most challenging for state Republicans in recent years, adding that their strategy involved a defensive first posture.
• 12:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: While these races rarely make headlines, they sometimes matter more than the battle for Congress.
• 12:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: When one party holds a trifecta, it's able to set priorities affecting large aspects of life and business without check, without check from the opposition.
• 12:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: That includes redistricting education in taxes and with Congress stuck in gridlock, more of those decisions are actually landing on the states.
• 12:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Republicans have had their upper hand here for years.
• 12:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: They won't stay out in 2010 and never really gave them back.
• 12:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: But this is the first year in a long time where Democrats have a shot to take some of it back.
• 12:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Alright, that's it.
• 12:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's show for October 6th.
• 12:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is worth your time.
• 12:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was like it.
• 12:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Share it with someone who needs to see it and subscribe.
• 12:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: You never want to miss an episode and we will see you back here tomorrow.
• 13:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I may have a backup.
• 13:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Might be Terry.
• 13:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Take care.