CNN.com - Transcripts (2024)

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[06:00:33]

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning everyone. Welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Saturday, August 10. I'm Amara Walker.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Thank you for joining us. Here's what we're working on for you this morning. Vice President Harris and Donald Trump, former president, were on the campaign trail Friday, pushing two very different messages to supporters. Harris is addressing questions about how she'd handle the border and why Trump spent his time rallying in the state that he's almost guaranteed to win.

WALKER: We're also following breaking news out of the Middle East, where Gaza Civil Defense says at least 90 people are dead following a strike on a school. The reason Israel says it targeted that location.

BLACKWELL: There are new details this morning about a deadly plane crash in Brazil. What we know about the moments leading up to that crash and what we're hearing from witnesses who saw it all happen.

WALKER: And new video obtained by CNN shows the moment a police officer saw former President Trump's would be assassin on the roof of that building before the shooting began, we will show it to you coming up.

Swing state blitz week is wrapping up vice president Kamala Harris and her newly minted running mate, Tim Walz doubled down on border security in Arizona while Donald Trump and J.D. Vance stumped for Senate races in Montana.

Now Trump's rally was his first since Harris officially secured the Democratic ticket and picked up her running mate, and he wasted no time attacking them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Tim Walz is the man who's very freakish. He's very freakish. If comrade Walz and comrade Harris win this November, the people cheering will be the pink haired Marxist, the looters, the perverts, the flag burners, Hamas supporters, drug dealers, gun grabbers and human traffickers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Trump also doubled down on criticism of Harris' border policies and attack the Harris campaign was prepared for. The campaign released a border focused ad, they focused in on her commitment to border security, something she stressed during her visit to Glendale, Arizona last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: We know our immigration system is broken, and we know what it takes to fix it, comprehensive reform that includes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship.

But Donald Trump does not want to fix this problem. Be clear about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Harris also reiterated her pledge to sign the bipartisan border security bill that failed to pass Congress earlier this year. Harris and her running mate are riding some momentum. It's fueling their first swing of rallies across the country.

WALKER: Walz wasted no time attacking the former president by making fun of Trump's obsession with crowd size.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM WALZ, U.S. DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On Wednesday, the largest crowd of the campaign showed up in Detroit, Michigan. But Arizona just couldn't leave it alone, could you? It's not as if anybody cares about crowd sizes or anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: CNN's Eva McKend is in Glendale, Arizona with more.

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EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: The Harris campaign continuing to enjoy a surge of momentum. This arena packed to the rafters. The Vice President addressing ceasefire protesters directly, saying that she too wants a ceasefire and the hostages to be returned home, and that she's working in concert with President Biden towards that effort.

HARRIS: So let me say I have been clear now is the time to get a ceasefire deal and get the hostage deal done. Now is the time, and the President and I are working around the clock every day to get that ceasefire deal done and bring the hostages home.

[06:05:00]

MCKEND: She also addressed immigration in this border state, saying that if elected president, she would be tough on the border, but she also wants comprehensive immigration reform and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Eva McKend, CNN, Glendale, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALKER: In Montana, Donald Trump started back on the campaign trail for the first time since Harris announced Tim Walz as her running mate.

BLACKWELL: Trump wasted no time going after walls as well as Harris and Montana, Senator Jon Tester. CNN's Alayna Treene is in Bozeman, Montana with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, Victor and Amara, Donald Trump traveled to Bozeman, Montana on Friday, and it's interesting, it was actually his first rally since the weekend, and the first since vice president Kamala Harris had finalized the Democratic ticket.

And Montana, of course, is a reliably red state. When I talk to Donald Trump senior advisers, they tell me there are no concerns about his chances of winning it come November, but he instead chose to come here instead of a battleground because he was stomping for Tim Sheehy, the Republican Senate candidate.

Now he is locked in a tight Senate race with the longtime Democrat Jon Tester, and it's really considered one of the hardest fought battles for control of the Senate majority come the fall.

Now Senator Steve Dans of -- Steve Daines of Montana, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee was also at that rally on Friday, and I caught up with him beforehand, off stage, and he told me that he was the one who privately encouraged Trump to come and support Sheehy so publicly, he said really that he reminded Donald Trump of the importance of having Republicans control the Senate, particularly when it would come to potentially confirming his nominees.

Now, Donald Trump did give Sheehy and other Montana lawmakers a shout out while on stage, but really his speech is very similar to what we heard at that press conference he held in Florida on Thursday. He ran through a laundry list of familiar attacks against Harris. He attacked her intelligence. He attacked her positions on the border, on the economy. He also described her running mate, Tim Walz as someone who was radically liberal.

But one thing that was new that we saw on Friday was that he actually stopped at two separate points to show videos going after Harris. I want you to take a look at what he did.

TRUMP: So don't take my word for it. Listen, Kamala Harris is agenda straight from her own mouth. Would anybody like to see her? Let's do it for a couple of seconds. Go ahead.

HARRIS: Yes, radical about what we're doing and take it seriously.

TRUMP: So, you know, we have this great system. I want to show you just one other thing, please. Do you mind putting it up? Please. Thank you.

HARRIS: We've been to the border.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've been to the border.

HARRIS: And I haven't been to Europe. I don't understand the point that you're making.

TREENE: Now, Victor and Amara, I think it's very clear that we have entered a new phase of this election campaign, the attacks from Donald Trump, but also from the Harris campaign, have become increasingly nasty and ugly, and we saw that on display in Bozeman Donald Trump repeatedly trying to undermine both Harris and her running mate's credibility, mock her intelligence, call her dumber than Joe Biden. That is where the campaign is right now.

And I think part of it, I can tell you from my conversations with Trump's team, is that he has been increasingly frustrated with the Democratic enthusiasm surrounding Harris, and that she's been able to sustain it for several weeks now, and so that's where some of this was coming from. Victor, Amara.

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WALKER: All right, Alayna, thank you so much. Joining us now for analysis, CNN political commentator and host of the Big Deal with Errol Louis on Spectrum News. Errol Lewis, good to see you. Let's start with what Alayna Treene just touched on, and that continued enthusiasm over Harris that Trump is obviously frustrated over, including the crowd sizes that she and Walz are garnering.

Why hasn't then Trump been campaigning as frequently as the Democratic ticket to try to blunt that momentum, and instead sending out J.D. Vance to the same battleground states that the Democratic ticket have been on?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Amara, there is a real frustration, because they're not clear on where the enthusiasm is coming from, or how to break it, how to stop it. Donald Trump's instinct as a former game show host is to do whatever he can to get back into the news cycle. You cannot win any given news cycle if you're not in it. And so he's trying to sort of jump in with increasingly wild statements in the hope that you and I and other broadcasters will pick up on it and at least mention his name.

Strategically, look, there is a there's a question out there. He's been getting some criticism. You can see some of it on social media, from conservatives and from some of his supporters, saying, why aren't you out there more? What he said at his press conference, I think, is sound strategy on one level, to say, look, wait until the Democratic Convention is over, because they're going to get a bump.

[06:10:03]

And rather than go out and raise a lot of enthusiasm for his own cause, only to see the Democrats seize the spotlight again for a whole week later this month, he says he's going to wait until that's over. It's a very risky proposition, because, you know, day after day, we're counting down under 90 days, and even less than that, if you factor in early voting, Donald Trump is really kind of falling behind, and the polls are reflecting that as well.

WALKER: Yes, he's up against a shortened timeline now, right? And as we've been saying, Harris and Walz have been on this blitz across battleground states the last five, six days. They were in Glendale, Arizona last night, and once again, Harris was interrupted by pro- Palestinian protesters. This time, her response sounded a little different. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: We are all in here together, I'm told, an extraordinary number of folks who are here together because we love our country. We're here to fight for our democracy, which includes respecting the voices that I think that we are hearing from. And let me say, I have been clear. Now is the time to get a ceasefire deal and get the hostage deal done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: I mean, what did you think? Because Harris was criticized for her dismissive tone when she was interrupted in Detroit Wednesday, did she strike the right balance this time?

LOUIS: It's closer to where she needs to be for sure. Look, the Democratic Party at its base is a collection or a coalition, a constellation of movements. There's an environmental movement and civil rights movement. In this case, there is this movement that wants to see a different approach to the Middle East, and so you've got to treat each of your constituent movements. If you're a Democrat trying to win office in less than 90 days, you've got to talk to them in the way that they'll actually hear you, and you've got to make promises that you can really keep.

So in this case, I think what she's saying is pretty much what the administration has been saying all along, which is that they want a ceasefire. They want the hostages home. They want the restart of something resembling a peace process that can lead to a two-state solution. Those are very difficult positions for some of the protesters to hear, but that's where she's been all along.

WALKER: As they head to Nevada today, Harris and Walz, , I mean, obviously Harris's campaign is trying to create new paths to the Sun Belt states to victory, I should say. What will be key in Nevada? Will the Latino vote getting appealing to them be key?

LOUIS: Oh, yes, absolutely. And the endorsem*nt, which they've never done before, by LULAC, the oldest Latino civil rights organization in the country, they actually broke with their own tradition and are endorsing the Harris-Walz ticket. That is -- that's key.

You know, it starts to really put a lot of pressure on their Republican adversaries. You know, the latest Times, Siena college poll shows that the blue wall is pretty much intact in the Midwest, where Harris seems to be or about four points ahead in Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. And if she starts to expand the democratic map to include Georgia and to include Nevada and to include Arizona, it's going to be very, very hard to stop them. That's where I think you see the frustration and the name calling on the Republican side.

They don't know what to do, because they've got multiple paths to victory on the Democratic side, and the Republicans have got to pull sort of an inside straight. They've got to have everything go their way, which is what they were hoping to do if they were facing Joe Biden.

WALKER: They don't know what to do. They've got to figure that out quickly. Errol Louis, good to have you this morning. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: We are calling breaking news out of Gaza. At least 90 people have been killed in an Israeli strike on a school in Gaza, that's according to Gaza civil defense. Now, some of the images you're about to see are disturbing.

Right now without access to Gaza, CNN cannot independently confirm the number of those killed. The Israeli military says their intelligence services found the school served as a Hamas command and control center with 20 Hamas Islamic Jihad militants who are operating inside it. But they did not provide any evidence to support that claim.

CNN international correspondent Jomana Karadsheh joins us now. So what have you learned about this strike?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, the images that we're getting out of Gaza are too graphic to show local residents as well as authorities there are describing this as a massacre happening in the early hours on Saturday strike by the Israeli military on a compound in the northern part of Gaza.

[06:15:04]

And inside this compound, there was a school and there was a mosque that was serving as shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians, and according to local authorities there and eyewitness as they say that this strike happened as people gathered for dawn prayers, striking where they were praying.

And as you mentioned, we can't independently verify the number of casualties, but officials in Gaza are saying at least 93 people were killed, and a lot of these bodies are in an unidentifiable state, but they say among them were 11 children and six women. The numbers are expected to rise. They say many are in serious condition, and they were transferred to one of the last barely functioning hospitals nearby.

Now, the Israeli military has released a couple of statements in the past few hours confirming carried out the strike, acknowledging that this was a compound where civilians were sheltering, but they claim that they were targeting a Hamas command and control center in there. They say that there were 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members, including senior commanders. They say operating out of there.

We asked them to provide us with evidence to support that claim. We have not seen that yet. They have not given us that evidence, and they also dispute the figures, Victor, saying that they does not align with their assessment, but they are continuing to assess this, and they say that they've taken numerous steps to mitigate the risk to harming civilians, including precise munitions, aerial surveillance and intelligence, but no mention of any warning to civilians to get out of harm's way.

And we have heard from people on the ground saying that there was no warning before the bombs were dropped. And this is not an isolated incident. We have to mention. Over the past week, several schools, housing, internally displaced Gazans have been hit in strikes in different parts of Gaza.

And of course, this is coming at a critical time, just as the mediators the U.S., Qatar and Egypt are hoping to restart the negotiations for a hostage and ceasefire deal. This last ditch attempt at reaching a deal, talks are supposed to happen next week, on Thursday, Israel said it's sending a delegation. We hadn't yet heard confirmation from Hamas.

And then this happened, and a very strongly worded statement coming from the Egyptian foreign ministry saying, quote, deliberately killing this big number of unarmed civilians whenever the efforts intensify to reach a ceasefire is clear evidence of the lack of Israeli political will to end this ferocious war.

And as you know very well, it's not just the Egyptians here accusing the Israeli government or the prime minister of sabotaging or obstructing a deal. We have heard this in the past weeks and months for many, including the families of Israeli hostages, who have accused the prime minister of obstructing a deal, sabotaging negotiations for his own political gains.

BLACKWELL: Jomana Karadsheh with comprehensive reporting around this strike. Thanks so much.

Investigators have recovered now the black boxes from that deadly plane crash in Brazil, what they're looking into to determine the cause of the crash, and what we're hearing from witnesses.

WALKER: Also, the judge in Trump's election subversion case is delaying her next hearing by three weeks, how the Supreme Court's presidential immunity ruling is up ending that case.

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WALKER: This morning, investigators are working to determine the cause of a plane crash in Brazil that killed all 61 people on board. Investigators say the flight did not report an emergency before plunging 17,000 feet in just one minute. We want to warn you. The video we're about to show you may be disturbing to some viewers.

BLACKWELL: The video posted on social media. Look at this. It shows the plane's final moment, spiraling out of the sky, crashing to the ground. More video shows the wreckage of the plane -- in this is in a residential area. City officials say that no one on the ground was hurt. CNN Stefano Pozzebon joins us live now. Stefano, what's the latest on this investigation?

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN JOURNALIST: Yes. Victor, well, the latest is that the Brazilian authority in charge of investigation of these sort of this type of plane crash has recovered not one, but two different black boxes, that is the co*ckpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.

They've been recovered yesterday at the -- from the scene that is just about 200 feet behind my back, and they hope that they will know very soon what really happened up there in the air. Because right now, both the airline Voepass and Brazilian authorities are saying that they don't know what happened and what caused this crash.

Here where I am, which is where the plane crashed around midday on Friday. There are still recovering some of the bodies. We have been here since early, very early this morning, and we have seen several cars coming out and taking some of the corpses to Sao Paulo, where they will be taken for identification.

And in the mean time for those who have been here watching the plane from crashing down and falling from the sky will be a memory that will always stay with them. Take a listen the.

[06:25:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SONIA, WITNESS (through translator): I heard a very strange noise from a plane. Then I went outside and saw the plane crash into an apartment very close to my home. Black smoke appeared soon after the crash. I was scared because the crash site was so close to my home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POZZEBON: And you can see that these the plane crashed in a residential area where just outside these closed down complex with where the plane crashed in the garden of a house. It's remarkable that nobody from the people on the ground got affected.

However, of course, 61 people died. 57 passengers, four crew member, Brazil has declared, Victor, Amara, a three-day national mourning period to honor the victim. And that we can expect that in the upcoming hours, some of the relatives will come to -- will try to come here to seek answers.

However, most of them have been advised to go to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Sao Paulo, which is the capital of the state, which is about 100 kilometers from where we are, to help with the identification process. Amara.

BLACKWELL: Stefano Pozzebon for us there near the scene. Thanks so much.

Let's bring it now. Transportation analyst Mary Schiavo, former Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation, good to see you this morning. Let me start here with these two black boxes. The CEO of Voepass says that there is a chance that they might have been damaged so badly that maybe they won't be able to recover information.

I mean, these black boxes are most valuable when there is a crash. Is that common to retrieve the boxes but be unable to get the data to analyze?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: No, usually no matter what the condition of the crash, fiery. You know, tremendous falls from great heights, those black boxes usually do make it. And there have been accidents in the past where they've been underwater for a year, where they've been through intense fire, et cetera, and they've been able to get data off those boxes. I do anticipate that they will be able to get both the co*ckpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder to give up its data.

WALKER: What are your thoughts, Mary, when you see the video of this plane just dropping out of the sky and just in this, you know, endless spin, what can cause that to happen?

SCHIAVO: Well, it's hard to watch, but that video actually provides a tremendous number of clues. First of all, that kind of a spin, a flat spin, literally, it's your -- spins like that are and falling like that has been compared to a leaf that is classic of a stall at altitude, and then the plane just literally falls. Because what an aerodynamic stall is, is that the air flow across your wings is not sufficient to keep the plane in the air, and that interruption of the air flow can be due to a lot of things.

For example, you know, lack of engine -- lack of engine thrust, or in the case of this aircraft, in prior accidents, icing. A lot of the criticisms of this plane and prior crash isn't there about 17 major investigation reports out there, a lot of times, the criticism was weather and of a major report in the United States when I was Inspector General, it was icing, and the plane, they concluded, was not tough enough to take bad icing conditions.

They wanted the deicing systems, what they're called boots on this plane, it's a pneumatic device on the wings that bust the ice off. They wanted those enhanced, strengthened, made larger.

So there's lots of clues in this. There was a warning on weather. And eyewitnesses do report hearing the engines running. Ear witnesses say so. So many clues, including a clue that doesn't that isn't there. There were no mayday calls. The pilots, whatever happened, did not have time to call air traffic control and call mayday. BLACKWELL: Yes, that's an important element, because there is the

investigation that surrounds the hardware and the plane. But what's the investigation into and around the pilots? What's that look like?

SCHIAVO: Well, first of all, they're going to look at their training. Because while most of the criticism this plane also has, you know, relations to weather and icing, et cetera, there was an accident just about a year and a half ago in January 2023, in Nepal Yeti airlines, where the pilot hit -- the co-pilot hit the wrong switch. He was supposed to put on the flaps which assist in landing about the same point in the landing sequences here, and instead did what was called feathering the prop.

In other words, he turned the blades of the prop such that they were not getting any more thrust and they thought they had an engine -- were losing their engines, but in fact, they just hit the wrong switch, and that plane fell from the sky very much like this one. So they'll be looking at the pilot training, did they know about this, and the call accident?

Were they warned about these switches? And did they have good training on how to recover from an aerodynamic stall, especially an icing. But you know, all the training in the world, if you get stuck in icing and you're playing can't-handle-it, then you don't have much choice, except to climb out or dive out of the ice.

WALKER: It's terrifying looking at that video. Mary Schiavo, thank you very much.

BLACKWELL: Still to come, new body-cam video shows the moment a police officer saw former President Trump's would-be assassin. What we've learned from this new video.

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[06:35:00]

BLACKWELL: There's a delay in Donald Trump's federal election subversion case. U.S. district Judge Tanya Chutkan agrees now to a request by special counsel Jack Smith to push the case back by three weeks.

WALKER: Now, Smith has always argued that the case requires urgency, but now he needs more time to determine how to move forward after the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity. Here's more now from CNN's Paula Reid.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Amara and Victor. Well, Friday, that was a deadline for both sides of this case, prosecutors and Trump defense attorneys to present Judge Tanya Chutkan with a plan for how they want to proceed with this case after the Supreme Court's historic ruling, granting former President Trump some immunity from prosecution.

Now, learned from my sources, there were a series of calls between defense attorneys and prosecutors over the past week. Now, I will tell you, there's no love lost between these two teams. So, it's not surprising that they weren't able to find really any areas of common ground to present to the judge.

For what was surprising, even shocking, is that prosecutors informed the defense attorneys they were going to ask for an extension. They needed more time to figure out how to proceed in this case. And that's really surprising because prosecutors have been the ones who have been pushing to try to get this case to trial before the election.

Of course, now that's impossible after the Supreme Court took out many months to contemplate and decide this case. But now, the judge has granted that extension. She's given them until the end of the month to present their plan, and then said they'll all be back in court on September 5th to talk about the status of this case.

So, they are expected to use those few weeks to consult with other experts inside the Justice Department, the Office of Legal Counsel, others who might be able to help them interpret the Supreme Court decision and figure out exactly how this will apply to the case that they've brought, and what will remain after they take out any official acts over where the Supreme Court said Trump cannot be charged for official acts.

But they also said you can't charge him for unofficial activity and use any official acts as evidence. So, this is really going to require some sophisticated analysis, and this will ultimately really determine what will remain of this case. Now, if Trump is re-elected, he will likely have this case and the other federal case dismissed.

But if he's not re-elected, we'll wait and see what they do with this case. But it's going to take a few more weeks it appears before they figure that out. Amara, Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, thank you so much, Paula. Joining us now, CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney, Joey Jackson. Joey, good morning to you. Let me start here with this request from the special prosecutor because oral arguments for this were in April, the decision came out maybe a month or so ago.

Would you have expected a charting of potential paths, so there would not be a request for a delay considering that, you know, they knew this could have been an option. Why now are they asking for more time? Shouldn't they have anticipated this in some way?

JOEY JACKSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: So, the answer is yes and no, Victor. Yes, certainly, they could have, and should have anticipated this. And -- but in terms of no, there's no imperative. Remember the rules of engagement have changed. Previously, the special counsel's office was looking to have the matter move forward prior to the election.

That's not going to happen. Why? Because no matter what the determination that's made by Judge Chutkan, it can be appealed again to the circuit and to the Supreme Court. So, what's the rush? There's a lot of complications to sort through, including what's official, what's unofficial, what can we use as evidence? What can't we use as evidence?

And so, sorting that out and then going on the record and having a new theory of the case with the readjustment of the case based on the gutting of the case from the Supreme Court. That's heavy lifting. And so, I think it's appropriate that they take their time, they being the special counsel, and get it right and have their arguments in order and go before the judge what those arguments are and what evidence they're going to use.

BLACKWELL: The judge was ready with dates though, after the ruling, she said one of the deadlines was for yesterday, another one on the 16th, now we've seen this push. Did it appear that Judge Chutkan was ready to answer these questions based on scheduling?

JACKSON: So, you know what, Victor? She's not prepared to answer them. I'm certain that she has a view with respect to what the answer should be. But remember, the answers to questions with regard to what's official and unofficial are going to really be predicated upon evidence or the lack thereof.

So, she needs to know what the prosecutors intend to use his evidence and what they can't use. Remember, you can't use the motives as the President, how can you prove a case without making an assessment as to what the motivations are of the person who actually is a defendant in the case?

[06:40:00]

How do you prove a case where you can't use specific conversations regarding the members of the Justice Department, potentially other officials, you can't do it. And so, I think she has a world view with regard to how it could proceed, but she can of course, right? There's a briefing schedule where the parties are going to put their positions in writing.

She could request oral argument, Victor, there, after she could request an evidentiary hearing. So, yes, the judge sets deadlines, but the attorneys are the ones who make the arguments, so the Justice Department has to have those arguments in order.

BLACKWELL: Let's turn to Georgia now and the election subversion case there. Fulton County DA Fani Willis, she filed a response or argued with the Georgia Court of Appeals that she should be allowed to continue to prosecute this case against Trump and his other fellow defendants, saying that the defendants here have not demonstrated that a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired negatively affected their case.

The hearing back in the Spring focused on when it started, when the relationship ended, who paid for what? Did you pay in cash? Did they ever get to the point of the defendants were disadvantaged because of the relationship, and do you think should be allowed to stay on?

JACKSON: You know, Victor, that's the core point here. And so, we can argue and go down rabbit holes and look at red herrings and other matters that are not outcome determinative. And what you noted is outcome determinative. And any prosecution and assessment has to be made to how it impaired the prosecution.

To what extent, if any, did it affect the indictment? Was there evidence that was proffered before the grand jury? That should not have. Was there any other misconduct with regard to any other evidence or information that was considered by a grand jury that they shouldn't have.

And so, yes, we're going on trips, and not going on trips, and when a relationship started and ended and where you went, and you know, who paid for what? You know, those are all things that she gave, that is the District Attorney Fani Willis to the defense as issues, but I don't think there are really core issues as to the ultimate issue of whether she should stay on.

Last point, Victor, and that's this. Ultimately, remember that McAfee, the trial judge, made a determination, and that's what the appeal is about. And what he found is that, there is no actual conflict of interest. However, there is an appearance of a conflict of interest.

And with that appearance, that could be solved by letting the special counsel, right? Mr. Wade remove himself. That happened. And so, now, it will be up to the actual appellate court to decide whether they agree with McAfee in letting her continue, which I think is a substantial likelihood that they will, or whether or not she's disqualified because of all of this err of the appearance, appearance of impropriety.

BLACKWELL: Joey Jackson, thank you as always. Quick break, we'll be back.

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[06:45:00]

WALKER: We are getting a new look at the moment. A Pennsylvania police officer spotted Donald Trump's would-be assassin on a rooftop overlooking the former President's rally. You can see the police officer being lifted up onto the roof of the building.

BLACKWELL: The officer then drops back down, runs to his vehicle, 40 seconds later, the shooting starts. CNN's Danny Freeman has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's the moment we've heard so much about, seeing now for the first time on police body camera. A Butler township police officer asking for a boost to check the roof of the AGR building outside former President Trump's rally.

There's no audio in this video obtained by CNN. You can see on the timestamp, this is less than one minute before Crooks started shooting. The officer climbs up to the roof and almost immediately drops down, and the tone changes. You don't see it on the video, but police have said Crooks aimed his rifle right at the officer. He runs to the other side of the building to look at the roof, and on

this officer's dash cam, which was recording audio, you can hear those first three gunshots from Thomas Matthew Crooks at 6:11 p.m.

(GUNFIRE)

FREEMAN: The officer rushes back to his car to get his rifle, you hear him shout to other law enforcement officers on the dash-cam.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't pull-up your head, he's right there!

FREEMAN: Back to the officer's body cam --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This close bro, then he turned around on me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did he go? Where is he at?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's straight up! Who's going to ask? Who wants him?

FREEMAN: Chaos ensues, by this point, the gunman Crooks has already been killed by Secret Service. But it doesn't appear local law enforcement is aware.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You bunch of whole puppies laying down is not -- next building, over! Right up to the gable! He's got glasses, long hair.

FREEMAN: These videos provide new insight into local law enforcement's movements moments before the shooting and the frantic aftermath. Since that day, there's been finger pointing between U.S. Secret Service and western Pennsylvania law enforcement, including testimony from the acting director of the Secret Service, asserting local snipers hidden in a building could have spotted crooks.

RONALD ROWE, ACTING DIRECTOR, SECRET SERVICE: I'm not saying that they should have neutralized him, but if they had just held their post and looked left, maybe, and there's a lot of maybes there, senator, a lot of maybes, but --

FREEMAN: But this new body camera footage also suggests local law enforcement had warned Secret Service they needed to protect the building Crooks used to fire the shots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I -- told them they need to post the guys -- over here. I told them that they're -- the Secret Service, I told them that -- Tuesday.

[06:50:00]

I told them to post the -- guys over here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want that to be f*cked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought you guys were on the roof.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we were inside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, I'll call one, but the one, taking --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told them to post the -- guys over here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wasn't even concerned about it because I thought someone was on the roof.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought that's how we -- they come out and we lose the guy walking back there --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who is on the roof.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were inside.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN: Victor and Amara, that frustration that you saw at the end of that piece right there, notably, just 10 minutes after the shooting took place. Now, we did reach out to Secret Service and received a statement about this story. They said they're reviewing the body camera footage that was released by local law enforcement.

And furthermore, they added that they appreciate local law enforcement partners who acted courageously as they worked to locate the shooter that day. Victor, Amara?

BLACKWELL: All right, Danny Freeman, thanks so much. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:55:00]

BLACKWELL: Those conspiracy theories about the 2020 election led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol. Well, now, four years later, CNN's Donie O'Sullivan looks at how chaos agents are looking to undermine American democracy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The election was stolen in six battleground states. Those six states were decided by the votes of illegal aliens who came in through our open border.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These false beliefs about the last election are being used as a pretext to cause chaos and confusion about the next election, and they've spread far beyond this room in Vegas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Freedom!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not a fight between Democrats versus Republicans.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on, come on!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a fight against good and evil.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): Do you think it's going to be a fair election?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they're going to try and cheat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm voting a system, it was only a supersonic --

O'SULLIVAN: Are you concerned if Trump loses --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes --

O'SULLIVAN: That there'll be another January 6th?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I think there will be a civil war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: A new episode of "THE WHOLE STORY" with Anderson Cooper airs tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on CNN.

WALKER: All right, Donald Trump returned to the campaign trail as Kamala Harris and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz ripped across the western U.S. The next hour of CNN THIS MORNING WEEKEND starts after the break.

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