(Monday) Morning Run: Pike Condition Unclear, American Idol Sentencing, 12yo Shot in Parking Dispute, Cornell Prez Speaks, Zach Bryan's T-Shirt, Kash Engaged, Disastrous "Digger", & MORE!

00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hey there, everybody, and welcome to Morning Run. It's Monday, October 4th. I'm Amy Robach.

00:00:16
Speaker 2: And I'm TJ Holmes. You're excited as I am, Robes, about Nobel Week.

00:00:22
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're talking about.

00:00:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's when they start handing out the Nobel Prizes. They start this week and it goes all week, okay? You didn't circle this on the calendar.

00:00:30
Speaker 1: Oh, so President Trump's gonna be making his case basically all week long, or is that ship sailed?

00:00:35
Speaker 2: Or is he going to be receiving it? Not making his case. He's going to receive at the end of this week. Are we finally going to see President Trump get his Nobel Peace Prize?

00:00:45
Speaker 1: He's certainly announced to the world multiple times that he's solved eight wars. So if anybody is deserving.

00:00:51
Speaker 2: Let's start at three of them. But you make a good point. You make a good point. Are we going to have to see this again? Go through another week-long campaign and pressure about him needing and deserving the Nobel Peace Prize?

00:01:05
Speaker 1: The answer for me, if I were a betting woman, would be yes.

00:01:10
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, they start with chemistry, medicine, literature, some other stuff, but they don't get to that one until Friday. So we shall see.

00:01:16
Speaker 1: We have all week to anticipate what he may or may not say on Truth Social.

00:01:20
Speaker 2: Woo-hoo.

00:01:21
Speaker 1: I was excited because have you felt it outside, especially here in the Northeast?

00:01:25
Speaker 2: Not a fan.

00:01:25
Speaker 1: We are in full fall mode, and it's awesome.

00:01:29
Speaker 2: Not a fan.

00:01:29
Speaker 1: It's beautiful. It's a fall, stellar weather. Top 10 day today here in New York City.

00:01:35
Speaker 2: Well, Auburn, that's a good start to a Monday then, everybody, no matter where you are. Hope you're getting a good start off to your week as well. We're going to be making several stops on this morning's run, including in Nashville. We'll make two stops, actually, at the box office. We'll explain that. Also a stop at Gillette Stadium. Capital One Arena in D.C. We'll make a stop in Okinawa, Japan, Baltimore, Ithaca, New York, as well as Ohio. But, Robes, let's start, yes, with this statement. She's still alive.

00:02:01
Speaker 1: Yet this is a remarkable story that folks have been following minute by minute. Truly, Krista Pike is still alive this morning, but her attorney says she may never recover. After last week's botched execution attempt, Pike remains in critical condition. She's on a ventilator. Her attorney saying we may not know her prognosis for several more days. And he called into question if she does survive her competency, what will that look like? Will she even be able to be put through any other proceedings, let alone an execution. There's so much that's in question.

00:02:38
Speaker 2: And it seems like the only official word we're getting about her condition is coming from her lawyers. The state hasn't made an announcement. Again, don't know, Robes, if that has to do with some HIPAA laws or whatnot they can't release. But we don't really know how she's doing. Her attorneys keep working on her behalf, filed a motion on Friday to ensure the Department of Corrections preserves any and all evidence from that execution attempt that left her still alive after two supposed to be lethal doses of pentobarbital. The court documents suggest the chemical went into her arm tissue rather than her bloodstream, leaving her unconscious but still breathing in robes. That would explain why she complained about burning herself. in her arm during the execution.

00:03:20
Speaker 1: It makes perfect sense. And right now, Tennessee's attorney general has given no indication whether or not the office will request another execution date. I think everyone is on a wait and see mode.

00:03:32
Speaker 2: A little early to be talking about that.

00:03:33
Speaker 1: It certainly is. But they said in any other case, if you had a botched execution, you would be hearing from the attorney general's office almost immediately saying, you know, we're going to be scheduling a new execution.

00:03:43
Speaker 2: But they did that with Carruthers in the state, but they gave him a year.

00:03:46
Speaker 1: Yes, but they still made the announcement. We've heard nothing. All executions, however, are suspended for the rest of the year in the state of Tennessee while they investigate what went wrong. Meantime, the mother of Krista Pike's victim, Colleen Slemmer, says the state of Tennessee owes her an apology after returning to Florida. From the death chamber in Tennessee, she drove 11 hours each way. Mae Martinez says, yes, she broke down in tears.

00:04:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, still waiting on the phone to ring as well. Yeah, Slimmer's mom says, Pike has never apologized to her. Neither has anyone from the state of Tennessee after the botched execution. Martinez told a local affiliate that, quote, here we are 31 years later, and you're laughing in my face again. And that's what I feel like they did. All I wanted was justice. And Robes, as of this recording, I didn't see anything this morning. But that was a big thing over the week. She has not heard from the state of Tennessee.

00:04:42
Speaker 1: Isn't that just truly unthinkable at this point? That's just the first phone call I would think the governor would make. All right. Well, next up on the run, American Idol contestant turned convicted murderer Caleb Flynn is back in court this afternoon. Nearly two weeks ago, a jury took less than three hours to convict Flynn of murdering his wife, Ashley, while she was sleeping and while their two daughters were in the room next door.

00:05:07
Speaker 2: Now, Flynn's going to be sentenced this afternoon. The judge considering victim impact statements before making a decision. He's facing life in prison without the possibility of parole. He maintains his innocence still. Yes, Flynn's attorneys say they are appealing the verdict.

00:05:22
Speaker 1: All right, next up on the run, a 12-year-old girl was shot and killed in Baltimore. And police say she was hit in the crossfire after two men got into an argument over a parking space. And what makes this even worse, this happened at a park where a youth football game was taking place.

00:05:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, police say an argument happened. Yes, over a parking spot escalated into gunfire. Happened around 6 o'clock Saturday night. At least three other people were shot. They did not sustain life-threatening injuries. And, Rose, they are looking for suspects. They say at least two. So, look, the headline you hear, a 12-year-old girl shot and killed, that's tragic enough. When you hear how stupid and mindless and pointless the argument was.

00:06:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's disgusting. All right, next up on the run, we'll head overseas where a U.S. Marine stationed in Japan has been arrested for murder. 20-year-old Devin Jacob Ballard was taken into custody by Japanese authorities accused of killing a woman at a hotel in Okinawa and then taking her wallet and her backpack.

00:06:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Japanese prime minister chimed in calling this an extremely brutal and heinous incident, said the government there. has lodged a strong protest with the U.S. Ballard has denied the allegations, according to police.

00:06:39
Speaker 1: Next up on the run, the president of Cornell University released a statement this weekend. This is his first public comment since the allegations about a gang rape on campus have now gone viral. Michael Kotlikoff said in an eight-minute video statement that what happened to Jane Doe is deeply disturbing.

00:06:58
Speaker 2: In that statement, he did acknowledge the university's investigation maybe didn't go as far as it should have. And to the allegations of this young woman who says she was gang raped by a fraternity, several members of a fraternity in 2024. Now, the president of Cornell said, quote, it raises heartbreaking and troubling issues about sexual assault, dehumanization and aspects of party culture, alcohol and drug use. It also raises questions about the investigations conducted after the allegations were reported. Well, he got a lot in there, almost sounding as if there's enough blame to go around and responsibility, not saying he's blaming the victim, but just this idea of party culture. I thought it was interesting the way he put that.

00:07:38
Speaker 1: All right. The district attorney we now know refused to bring charges at the time. And so now we have a special prosecutor, Letitia James, in place. James Doe has filed a lawsuit against the school and seven members of the fraternity. It was the lawsuit that brought this whole issue back to light or certainly got the attention of social media users, which put pressure on. on state officials to do more, and that is what we are seeing right now.

00:08:03
Speaker 2: And that's a damn shame that that's what it took. Continuing on the run here now, President Trump threw some major shade over the Sunshine Protection Act, and that shade was directed at Republican Senator from Arkansas, Tom Cotton. Trump published the senator's personal cell phone number on his Truth Social post. Rose, just to get back at the guy, you know not to do this. Why would you do this, baby? How off. The president gave out.

00:08:34
Speaker 1: This is an.

00:08:34
Speaker 2: Important guy who has protections, quite frankly, because of the position he has, babe. Gave out his cell number. Yep.

00:08:42
Speaker 1: And put this. So everyone in Arkansas, a state I love, and won three times, the last by 34 points, tell Tom to get it done. It will be appreciated by all. Yeah, so... Obviously, he says he's doing this and he put out his number as if it's justified to apply pressure on the senator to support this bill to make daylight saving time permanent. And literally, Trump is running out of time, at least if he wants to get it done by November 1. But Cotton did respond with a social media post of his own saying no one likes changing the clock, me included. But Congress has enacted permanent daylight saving time multiple times before. and repealed it each time once Americans experienced absurdly late sunrises in the winter. Arkansas, Arkansas, wait, Arkansans. I knew I could get that right if I just thought about it.

00:09:31
Speaker 2: Wow, that's tough for this guy over here.

00:09:33
Speaker 1: Arkansans don't want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I'll always put Arkansas first.

00:09:38
Speaker 2: He made a good point. The point is, if we want to make one of them permanent, we need to make regular time permanent, not the saving time.

00:09:45
Speaker 1: Standard saving.

00:09:47
Speaker 2: Standard time. Standard time is the one that needs to be permanent. Folks don't get this until, yes, Rose, 8.30 in the morning, dropping your kids off, pitch black.

00:09:55
Speaker 1: Pitch black. Yes.

00:09:56
Speaker 2: Going to school in the morning.

00:09:58
Speaker 1: In some Midwestern states, it would be till 9 a.m. before the sun rose. So the Southern states, you can see the states who want it to be permanent. And then the Midwestern states, a lot of those states are the ones that would suffer the most with kids going to school. I did love what Senator John Kennedy said about Trump. And these are all, you know, folks who typically or can be friends of Trump, right? Said that Trump can go from zero to a-hole in about three seconds. That was his response to Trump doxing cotton.

00:10:26
Speaker 2: But that's so give out his office number, right? Give out the number to his office. That's fine. That's out there. He just threw it. This guy's gonna have to change his number.

00:10:36
Speaker 1: Oh, of course he is.

00:10:38
Speaker 2: That stuff, that petty stuff, you can't believe someone would do that. Give out his address. Give out his home address. Give out his wife's number. Where does kids go to school? Where's the limit if you want to put pressure?

00:10:51
Speaker 1: Oh, I thought you were saying that could be a good alternative. I'm like, those are horrible things.

00:10:55
Speaker 2: But where is the limit? Where is the limit? You should never do that.

00:11:00
Speaker 1: Never in a million years should you ever do that. We're going to have more on this story because Trump did not let it go unnoticed. All weekend long, the reaction is significant. And we'll get into, yes, all of the back and forth over Daylight Saving Time. It is well documented.

00:11:15
Speaker 2: All right. Well, stay with us here on this very busy Monday morning run. We have a couple of stops to make at the box office. Folks, there is a new number one movie of all time. But it just switched spots with the previous one. Number one movie of all time. We'll explain the back and forth at the top. Also at the bottom, a movie so bad, so badly reviewed, we had to go see it. Poor Tom Cruise. Also coming up here, the Kennedy Center Honors will move forward despite the controversy, but it's happening at a different spot. And you are not going to believe the scene at Robert Kraft's Gillette Stadium this weekend.

00:12:03
Speaker 1: Welcome back to your Monday morning run. And congratulations are in order for Kash Patel. The FBI director is officially engaged. He and his now fiance, Alexis Wilkins, announced the engagement this weekend on social media. They've been dating since 2023. So congratulations to those two.

00:12:26
Speaker 2: Really, congrats. Anytime somebody wants to take that step, this is an exciting time, no matter what anybody thinks about Him, he has been controversial. She has been controversial because of him. Well, he gave her SWAT protection or something crazy.

00:12:40
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, and then she got to sing the national anthem at some event. Yes, but good luck to both of them.

00:12:45
Speaker 2: Good for them. Congratulations to them both. All right, continuing on the run here now, country superstar Zach Bryant sported a Free Palestine T-shirt during his concert. at Robert Kraft's Gillette Stadium this weekend. You know, the same Robert Kraft-owned Gillette Stadium that Robert Kraft said he wouldn't allow Ed Sheeran to perform early this month if Macklemore was the opening act because Macklemore had made pro-Palestinian comments at a previous concert. You cannot make this up.

00:13:18
Speaker 1: I do appreciate musicians supporting other musicians' right to free speech, and this was kind of a brilliant way to do it because what was kind of cool about this was Zach Bryan and his bandmates wore the shirts on Saturday night, and they just happened to set an all-time attendance record at the stadium. So it's hard to argue against someone with that much capital in the music business.

00:13:42
Speaker 2: This dude, I don't follow him that much. I don't know his music. He is... Beyond a superstar. They say he could pull crowds all over the world like you don't believe.

00:13:53
Speaker 1: Like Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney kind of stuff.

00:13:56
Speaker 2: He is other level. Who's the guy? Oh, my God. The big superstar had the. Oh, my God. He was a GMA all the time. Had the dual personalities once with the albums he put out. Garth Brooks. Goddamn. He's Garth Brooks-esque in how he can just sell out a place like this. So he made that statement good for him.

00:14:15
Speaker 1: All right, next up on the run, despite all the debates, court battles, name changes, and name calling, it's nice to hear the Kennedy Center Honors are going to move forward this year. However, they are not going to be taking place at the Kennedy Center. Instead, the annual event will take place at the Capital One Arena, Wizards, Hoyas, Capitals Home. This is the place where you see all the big sporting events in D.C.

00:14:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, basketball games and hockey matches, but Fine. Kennedy Center honors. It could go all right, right? It could be fine. December 7th. They haven't announced the honorees. What was the group last year? It was all Trump-supported, right?

00:14:52
Speaker 1: They were curated.

00:14:54
Speaker 2: Yes, the Kennedy Center, as you may know, is currently closed for renovations and a court battle continues over Trump. wanting to add his name to the front of the building.

00:15:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, it might be an interesting moment for you to go through his Truth Social page because he basically puts picture after picture after picture of the Kennedy Center up that make it look like it is literally a haunted horror psychiatric ward.

00:15:17
Speaker 2: Okay, we just recently watched a movie like that this weekend. That's why it was fresh on our mind, everybody. But, Robes, good call. Everybody do this today. Go to Trump's Truth Social page. and go through what he's been putting up over the past 24 hours. You just need to see it. It's hard to explain it. You need to see it, and you won't believe it.

00:15:39
Speaker 1: Yes, it's always, especially on the weekends. My God. All right, next up on the run.

00:15:43
Speaker 2: Trump keeps getting younger.

00:15:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, he shows that one. Yes, with him looking younger, standing next to President Xi.

00:15:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, but he looks.

00:15:50
Speaker 1: He looks the same. It's just airbrushed.

00:15:52
Speaker 2: He puts a picture up of himself, which just bold letters that say, Trump keeps getting younger. Not from some headline. It's what he wrote and puts up about himself.

00:16:05
Speaker 1: It's inexplicable. Alright, next up on the run, a disastrous debut for Digger. The Tom Cruise film described as a satire black comedy opened with an estimated $ 8 million.

00:16:20
Speaker 2: Okay, no matter what, Rose, before you hear about the budget or who was in the movie, no movie wants to open to $ 8 million. You throw in Tom Cruise and a $ 160 to $ 180 million budget, and you pull in $ 8 million in your opening weekend. It's being called embarrassing, and it could be historic robes. This could be one of the biggest flops, busts in history in Hollywood.

00:16:50
Speaker 1: And yet, so we went to go see it because we wanted to go see what everybody was talking about. Had no intentions of going. But because it got so poorly reviewed and they were harsh. Oh, my goodness. The reviews were harsh. I have to say sometimes going in with low expectations is brilliant. You laughed out loud more than I've heard you laugh at any film recently. And I fully enjoyed myself. I thought it was a good film and I would have given it pretty high marks.

00:17:19
Speaker 2: I could not believe. We were having fun. It was hilarious.

00:17:21
Speaker 1: I thought it was a hilarious film. It was a little weird, but I liked it.

00:17:25
Speaker 2: Got annoying at parts. I can see what people, you know, it seemed like people were turned off by the director thinking he was smarter than the reviewer. It seemed like they took it personally, like this was so high-minded that you just think you're better. It was some of that tone to it.

00:17:39
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was, though.

00:17:41
Speaker 2: But it was what he was going for and trying to make sense of it. If you just go in there and sit down and watch an entertaining movie and one of the biggest movie stars we ever had, doing something different. It was cool to me.

00:17:50
Speaker 1: I thought it was well-written. I thought it was, obviously it was brilliantly acted. I just, I don't understand why everyone's so upset about it. And the Rotten Tomatoes scores are interesting. 51% from the critics.

00:18:01
Speaker 2: Okay.

00:18:01
Speaker 1: That's not, that's obviously not good, but it's not like awful. We've seen worse. 71% audience score. That is actually decent. And so that's why I'm confused why it's just, It's every single headline just getting eviscerated. Now, Verity, number one, Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson. And look, Ava is funny. My oldest went to go see it last night. She sent me a video. She said she thought it was so good. It ended leaving her wanting more, but she said she thought we'd like it. It was like a horror thriller. Anyway, it didn't get that well reviewed, but it still came in at number one.

00:18:41
Speaker 2: Isn't that crazy? It has a lower Rotten Tomatoes score, 33% from the critics. That one does.

00:18:47
Speaker 1: And yet made $ 32. 6 million.

00:18:49
Speaker 2: And 70% from the audience. Isn't that crazy?

00:18:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's based on a Colleen Hoover book, and obviously most women listening know exactly who that is.

00:18:57
Speaker 2: Finally here, our last leg of the run, still at the box office, where Avatar has been replaced at the top. There is a new number one movie of all time. The first thing you might think is Spider-Man. It was doing gangbusters lately. It was moving up the charts. It was the summer. It was doing great. But that's not the one we're talking about. Avengers Endgame, released in 2019, has now become the highest grossing movie in history. Again, it just had a theatrical re-release. What do you think about this, Robes? re-released them, like the 10-year anniversary or all these kinds of things.

00:19:29
Speaker 1: It seems kind of sneaky that you do that to then get your numbers up.

00:19:32
Speaker 2: A little bit, but hey, whatever. The movie just had a theatrical re-release, helped it to the top spot again over Avatar. Now, this is actually a retaking of the top spot. Avatar was a top-grossing movie for 10 years. Avengers, released in 2019, put it at number one. Then Avatar was re-released in 2021, which put it back at number one. And now here we go.

00:19:55
Speaker 1: Oh, so they're just evening the plane.

00:19:56
Speaker 2: They're going back and forth.

00:19:57
Speaker 1: They just keep re-releasing and then... than leapfrogging each other.

00:20:01
Speaker 2: So Avatar is going to be re-released probably in a few years and it'll be number one again.

00:20:04
Speaker 1: Okay. All right. For your quote of the day on this Monday, when something goes wrong, don't make it worse. The next decision matters more than the last event.

00:20:17
Speaker 2: Ain't that the truth.

00:20:18
Speaker 1: I love this. It's just a moment to pause. You know what you can do or say that's going to make it worse. It might feel good in the moment, but you're going to pay for it later. I just think it's so good to take a beat. When something goes wrong, don't make it worse. The next decision matters more than the last event. So good. All right. Get your Monday started off right, everybody. I'm Amy Robach. Thank you for running with us.

00:20:45
Speaker 2: And I'm TJ Holmes. We'll run soon.