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PA Official: Officers Left Posts to Search for Suspicious Person; Trump Announces Meeting with Netanyahu at Mar-a-Largo; Biden, Harris Meeting with Netanyahu in DC this Week; Meltdown at Delta Airlines Could Last All Week. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 23, 2024 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: There are some new details about the assassination attempt against former President Trump, and they're pretty alarming. Today, during a hearing on Capitol Hill, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher Parrish revealed that two local law enforcement officers actually left a building that would have given them sight. They would have had a view of the roof where the would-be assassin ultimately fired from.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Parrish says those officers left their posts to join the search, following reports of a suspicious person at the rally. That person, of course, turned out to be the 20-year-old gunman. Let's bring in Secret Service agent and CNN law enforcement analyst Jonathan Wackrow.

Jonathan, thanks so much for being here with us. These are some wild new details that we're getting, which also included that local law enforcement, there were minutes from when they had spotted this suspect with a weapon and had communicated that. What do you make of all of these details we're getting?

Because the Secret Service, the former Secret Service director said yesterday that she believed it had been seconds.

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, well listen, I think this is the drip, drip, drip of information that we're getting, and we as the viewer and listening into these hearings are trying to piece together exactly what happened on that, you know, tragic evening, you know, rather than having the director come out yesterday and give us and provide us additional information, right? Yesterday's testimony was a disaster in terms of transparency and accountability. But now let me just get back to the point we were talking about the local law enforcement and the way that they reacted.

To me, this is very clear that roles and responsibilities of the local law enforcement at their specific posts to support the overall security plan were not clearly articulated, or that the governance and oversight of those officers wasn't there. So that's problem number one.

Problem number two is, as you said, communication. Once there was a potential threat identified by local law enforcement, the ability to communicate that to the broader law enforcement group, and specifically back to the Secret Service and the working detail that surrounded the former president, that was absent.

[15:35:00]

So we need to understand where was that breakdown in advance in the coordination with local law enforcement and in the communication structure.

KEILAR: Yes, because Jonathan, just to be clear, shortly after this happened, we were the under the impression that someone in local law enforcement, it kind of, you know, they popped their head up on the roof or sort of popped up on the roof a little bit, seen the would be shooter within view, and then actually had a weapon turned on them. So they, they got down because they were now at risk. And then very quickly, the shooter took aim and shot at former President Trump in the rally.

I just want to read what we've learned from what Paris said. He said that if the first shots rang out at 18:11, 6:11 p.m., the hoisting up of the officer occurred probably no more again. I'm not going to give you a time, but I want to just put in the context of a sequence of events. I would say at most 2.5 to 3 minutes before the first shot rang out.

Can you just explain to us the logistics of the officer sees the shooter gets a weapon pointed at him now realizes exactly what's going on. Is there one kind of I mean, on the radio, how are they communicating? Explain to us how this should have flowed.

WACKROW: Well, the way it should have flowed was that you know, upon the threat identification right now, we have a man with a gun on an elevated position identified by law enforcement on the radio. It should have gone out just that. Man with a gun at this location. That communication should have been understood by local law enforcement as well as all law enforcement stakeholders off of a unified network.

That didn't happen, or it didn't happen to any reporting that we have because that would have been critical. You're talking about, you know, 120 180 seconds going by from the moment that that threat was identified to the moments that shot started being launched towards the former president. You know, that is almost eternity when it comes into the protective realm.

There was enough time for that communication to go back and forth. And that's where we have to understand was where was that breakdown? Because if the president wasn't on stage or the president could have been removed quickly upon the initial identification of a threat, we could have avoided this tragic situation, but we didn't.

And we have to understand where was that communication breakdown.

KEILAR: Yes, at that point, he would have been on stage because he'd been on for several minutes and clearly should have been removed. Jonathan Wackrow, thank you so much for your insights. We do appreciate it. Still ahead. We're told that Vice President Kamala Harris will not

preside over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress tomorrow. She will meet separately with him this week. Her first meeting with a world leader since President Biden said he was stepping out of the race.

In the meantime, these are some live pictures of a protest happening now in the capital at the Cannon rotunda. Just actually, to be clear, this is an office building near the Capitol, the Cannon House office building.

There are 300 members of the group Jewish Voices for Peace protesting tomorrow's visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We'll be monitoring this. Stay with CNN.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: New today, former President Donald Trump now says he will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The former president says the two will speak at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday. The Prime Minister is set to address Congress in Washington tomorrow and also meet privately with President Biden and Vice President Harris.

Joining us now, CNN political commentator and former Defense Secretary under President Trump, Mark Esper. Secretary Esper, thanks so much for being here with us. Let's start first with this meeting between former President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Former President Trump reportedly very upset that Netanyahu had congratulated President Biden on his 2020 victory. What do you think of these two meeting and Trump agreeing to this meeting?

MARK ESPER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, good afternoon, Jessica. Look, I'm not surprised that they're meeting. Both have a political interest in meeting.

Bibi Netanyahu, of course, to rebuild a rapport with President Trump in case he gets elected in November. He would have to, of course, deal with President Trump and his and his administration when he comes into power. And he knows he needs to make amends over a number of slights that President Trump has taken or apparently had taken from him.

And I think President Trump, likewise, his political interest is to show support for the Israeli people and the country given, you know, the ongoing onslaught by Hamas, the challenges they have on the northern border with Hezbollah, and of course the big bad guy in the region, which is Iran. So, for these reasons, I think it's both in our mutual political interest to meet.

DEAN: And Vice President Harris is going to meet with Netanyahu. She will not, however, preside over his address to Congress. We're told she has a previous commitment.

Senator J.D. Vance is also skipping this address to campaign. What does this mean politically?

ESPER: Yes, look, I think for Kamala Harris, it's a ceremonial duty, a constitutional duty, but one that is ceremonial.

[15:45:00]

But she has more important things right now to do, and that is to pull the team together, think through her policy positions, prepare for the convention and really run a race against President Trump.

And you see she's in Milwaukee today. She was speaking yesterday. So she's got a campaign to run.

I think the other thing, too, is I think the I assume her campaign wants to put her in situations that make her look presidential and kind of elevate her from her current role to what they hope will be her future one.

And so I think skipping the ceremonial role where she presides over the Bibi Netanyahu's remarks and having a separate meeting with him where she's side by side and who knows, maybe take questions with him would be what they would want to do to elevate her appearance, her perception with the American people.

DEAN: And what about for the vice presidential candidate, J. D. Vance? Do you think that makes any sort of difference?

ESPER: I don't. I don't think for either of them again for him. He's on the road as well. He had his first appearance the other day with President Trump. He's going to get out there. He's playing the traditional attack dog role of going out there, and they're obviously going after her right now. But I think again for both of them, I think we're in a different situation.

Many have been reporting the importance of this visit by Bibi Netanyahu was much more -- was much greater it was a few months ago when it was planned than what it is now. And in fact, the reporting is that many people in Israel think that just now is the time for him to leave the country that he should be back in Israel.

So I think this meeting will come and happen. The address to Congress will come and happen. It will be curious, frankly, to see what he says.

More importantly, I think politically, Jessica, is what will Kamala Harris say about Israel and its actions in Gaza? And will she strike a different tone or take a different approach than President Biden?

She can't go too far. I think she has to, in my view, move more to the center away from the progressive left that wants to see them take a more detached position from Israel. But this is what I will be watching for closely in the coming days is how does she approach a U.S. policy toward Israel now that she's campaigning?

DEAN: Yes, I think a lot of people will be watching that as well. Secretary Mark Esper, as always, thanks so much. We appreciate it. ESPER: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: Up next, five days after Friday's tech outage, Delta is still in meltdown. That is a live look at an airport with all of that baggage in Atlanta just stacking up. Still, the airline has already canceled close to 500 flights today. We're told the problems could extend through the week. Why the airline is struggling so much to recover?

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The meltdown that Delta Airlines is facing after that global tech outage could last all week. The airline canceling more than 400 flights today. That is on top of the thousands that have been scrubbed since Friday, and that has left scores of travelers stranded.

Some of those passengers now desperate to be reunited as well with their missing luggage. CNN's Isabel Rosales is at Atlanta's airport where the bags are piling up. We see them behind you, Isabel. Tell us about that and what you're hearing from folks.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, passengers are understandably frustrated. We are on day five of this thing, and right now it really appears to be a Delta problem. This all the other airlines have pretty much returned back to normal operations, but Delta is leading the pack in the number of cancellations across the U.S. Over 400 cancellations so far, and this is what you're looking at. Just take a look at this. Passengers having to go through this maze of luggage, almost as though they're looking for a lost pair of keys here trying to get reunited with their belongings. It is a frustrating mess.

And at the crux of the problem here, Brianna, is Delta is saying that they were very reliant on Microsoft and some of the most delicate systems that they have, including systems for tracking crews where their pilots are, where their flight attendants are deeply intertwined with Microsoft to the point where they're having to repair and rebuild and reboot those systems by hand.

And you were just seeing there in the second floor, where my photographer is at, even more luggage just keeps going and going and going.

Listen to what passengers are saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They would cancel, delay, bump, and then it would start all over again. So we've actually been canceled three times today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My belongings are on the tarmac or being loaded onto a plane somewhere. I'm no longer going to D. C. My flight's been canceled, and I'm likely just going to go back home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I fly Delta 95 percent of the time, so that really sucks. They do a fabulous job most of the time, all the time normally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: Right. And Delta saying this could take several more days, possibly until the end of the week. We now know that Secretary Pete Buttigieg of the Department of Transportation, they have opened up an investigation into Delta, making sure that passenger rights are upheld throughout this entire process.

Meanwhile, the CEO of Delta Ed Bastian is saying that they're going to make it right, that they're working around the clock on this and also offering passengers sky miles and vouchers and refunds as well -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Isabel, and I bet some folks are looking at your live shot here saying, that's my bag. There it is. We've spotted it for you here.

ROSALES: Step out of the way.

KEILAR: Have no fear. All right, Isabel, what a nightmare. All right, thanks for that report.

From gin and juice to wine and baguettes. The one and only Snoop Dogg has earned the honor of being an Olympic torchbearer ahead of the Paris Games. More details next.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: The opening ceremony of the Paris Summer Olympics now just days away, and it's not just the world's best athletes arriving in Paris for the big competition. We just learned Snoop Dogg will be one of the final torchbearers of the Olympic flame. The rapper posting a photo of himself with the caption, you ready?

Paris 2024 Olympics, you dig.

KEILAR: I dig. Full on. Snoop Dogg says that he grew up watching the Olympics. He is thrilled to see the incredible athletes bring their A- game to Paris.

[16:00:00]

So Snoop will actually be carrying the torch through the neighborhood of Saint-Denis, which is the flame's final stop before it reaches the Eiffel Tower.

And then, I don't know, what is he going to do? Like, fo shizzle my nizzle, drop it like it's hot, maybe? Nate, what if he did do that?

DEAN: What if he did do that? It would really add a little flair to the opening ceremonies, but it is going to be so cool to see that smacked up in the middle of Paris with the Eiffel Tower. It's going to be great. KEILAR: I love it. All right. Can't wait to see Snoop Dogg and all the other folks.

"THE LEAD" --

DEAN: Oh, look at that.

KEILAR: Oh, live pictures of Paris. So beautiful at this late evening there.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.