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Harris-Walz Campaign Kicks Off Reproductive Rights Bus Tour; Police: 4 Killed On Chicago Train Were Apparently Shot While Asleep; NY Governor's Ex-Aide Accused Of Acting As Agent For Chinese Government; Judge Orders Trump Campaign To Stop Using Song "Hold On, I'm Coming"; NASA Developing Underwater Robots To Show How Long Until Sea Level Rise Swallows Coastal Cities. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired September 03, 2024 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
ANA NAVARRO, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The women who had to carry their pregnancies that are result of incest or rape. The women who had to leave their states.
The women whose reproductive systems are threatened because they couldn't get the treatment. The women who had miscarriages and have been prosecuted.
The women who've almost had to die of sepsis in order to get treatment in places like Texas. If those women can come forward, I can come forward. Because it is a lot more common than people know.
I'm in the state of Florida where this issue is on the ballot. And there's only one candidate running who has been consistent in this because Donald -- and that's Kamala Harris.
Donald Trump has had more positions on reproductive rights than he has had once.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And I know it's -- as you said, it's a difficult story to share. But thank you for speaking with us about it.
Can you talk a little bit about the strategy of taking it to try -- this message to Trump's backyard in the campaign doing that?
What -- what is to be gained with that as the backdrop, as we see this very significant referendum vote happening here shortly in Florida on their six-week abortion ban?
NAVARRO: Well, I think there's credible reasons that make a logical to start it in Palm Beach. One is the fact that the issue is on the ballot in Florida.
But also that you can point down the road 10 miles away from where we were lives Donald Trump. You have got to tie Donald Trump to the consequences of Dobbs that have resulted in these horror stories women are having to endure.
Donald Trump wants to be a little bit pregnant on Dobbs, right? In front of some audiences, he takes pride and credit for having gotten Roe v. Wade overturned. In front of other audiences, he wants to keep a distance.
On the one hand, he tells you he wants more than six weeks. But then he tells you, within 24 hours, that he's going to vote no on Amendment 4. Well, he can't have it all ways.
We're not stupid. And we don't forget. And he is going to be pregnant with the consequences, the horrible consequences of Dobbs, and he's going to have to carry it to term because, come November, women will remember.
KEILAR: Ana Navarro, thank you so much for being with us. We do appreciate it.
NAVARRO: Thank you.
KEILAR: More questions than answers in the investigation into Monday's train shooting in Chicago. What we know about this suspect who opened fire on people who appeared to have been sleeping. We'll have that next.
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[14:37:09]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Chicago area police say they are reviewing surveillance footage that shows four people being gunned down on a transit train and officials say there appears to be a common thread among the victims.
They may have all been homeless and they were apparently shot while sleeping on the train.
CNN security correspondent, Josh Campbell, has the latest on this.
Josh, Chicago investigators think this was a random attack?
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, random, and still no motive at this hour. Authorities say that they continue to gather evidence, to go through evidence.
They're trying to determine this motive after four people were essentially executed on a Chicago area train on the morning of Labor Day. We're talking about Monday.
Police say that the victims, they believe, were asleep. Three people were on one train. There was one other person who was on another train. The suspect then opens fire, killing all four of them.
The victims have not yet been notified. Authorities say that they're still waiting to make notification to their next of kin.
Now, about 90 minutes after the shooting happened, authorities did, indeed, apprehend the suspect. They say that it was surveillance footage from inside the transit system that was key, allowing them to track this suspect, intercept him, and then take him into custody.
You can imagine that the Chicago area commuters, they're certainly shocked.
Police gave an update describing this as a tragedy striking yet another American community on a holiday.
Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTOPHER CHIN, DEPUTY CHIEF, FOREST PARK POLICE: It's a horrible situation. It's definitely something that you don't want to wake up to a Monday morning on a holiday.
Everyone's supposed to be enjoying their time off time with their family ways. It's Labor Day. So to actually have to be here to address a situation like this, it's, you know, horrible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMPBELL: Now authorities have not yet released any information on the suspect himself. They're keeping all of that information close to the vest as they comb through this evidence that they are gathering.
They do have until tomorrow morning to formally charge the suspect. So we expect that that will be happening.
And we just got word, guys, just a short time ago, police will be holding a press conference here in a short amount of time. Maybe we'll learn more about this ongoing investigation.
Truly, a tragedy striking the Chicago area on Labor Day.
SANCHEZ: Josh Campbell, thanks so much for the update. We look forward to learning more details soon.
We have some breaking information right now in a criminal case that's linked to the office of New York Governor Kathy Hochul. One of her former top aides has been arrested on charges of acting as an agent for the Chinese government.
KEILAR: The former aide's husband is also in custody. And the two are due in court at some point this afternoon.
CNN's Gloria Pazmino is here with the details.
Gloria, what do we know here?
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, Brianna, this basically amounts to the successful infiltration by a Chinese government agent into the New York State government for at least a decade.
And we are learning the details. They were -- are outlined right here in this indictment, which we got our hands on earlier today. [14:40:02]
And federal prosecutors are accusing Linda Sun and her husband, Chris Hu, of acting as agents for the Chinese government, enriching themselves, taking millions of dollars in kickbacks, helping their family members and their friends.
And all of this while she was working as an aide to both Governor Kathy Hochul, most recently, but also during the administration of former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Part of what's alleged here is that Linda Sun was using her position of influence to help the interests of the Chinese government.
Now you might be wondering, what does the Chinese government have to do with New York? But as you know, here in New York City, nearly every community is represented and they often look to their state officials for support and recognition.
And that's exactly what the Chinese Communist Party appears to be doing here. And Linda Sun is accused of helping to make that happen.
At one point, prosecutors say that she used her position even to block Taiwanese officials from having access to government officials who we're looking for connections around cultural events, cultural activity, which is so much of what a state government does.
Now we do have a response from the governor's office, who responded earlier today to the news that Linda Sun and her husband had been arrested this morning.
They said, in part, "We terminated her employment in March of 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct, immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and have assisted law enforcement throughout this process."
Now, I do have to say, Boris and Brianna, this does raise serious questions just about how Hochul and Cuomo were vetting their employees, considering that Linda Sun worked in the office for several years and in other government agencies.
That raises some questions about that as well, just how much access she had. And the fact that she was able to provide that access and information to the Chinese government.
KEILAR: Really interesting.
Gloria Pazmino, thank you for that.
The family of the late musician, Isaac Hayes, telling former President Trump "Hold On, I'm Coming" to federal court, that is. The latest on their legal fight with the former president over his use of Hayes' songs at his rallies.
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[14:46:53]
KEILAR: Former President Trump suffered a setback in court today, and this time, it's over a song included on the music playlist that he uses at his campaign events.
SANCHEZ: Today, a federal judge in Atlanta ruled the Trump campaign must pause using the song, "Hold On, I'm Coming."
The song was co-written by the late R&B artist and songwriter, Isaac Hayes. And the Hayes family went the court to try to force the Trump campaign to stop using the song.
CNN's Ryan Young was in court today for that hearing.
Ryan, what is the Hayes family saying about this? What is the Trump campaign saying about the ruling?
RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, both sides feel like they got somewhat of a split decision here. The Hayes family definitely feel like they've got a victory.
But you guys know how this works. When you go to these campaigns, to get the crowd involved and get them happy about what they're hearing, they play music in the background.
We'll show you Donald Trump dancing to the song, "Hold On." He's done it several times. He's played it over 100 times at campaign events across this country.
Isaac Hayes Jr --- or the III, basically wanted them to stop playing the music. He said it was copywrite infringement.
For the last year and-a-half, maybe even two years, they've been asking the Donald Trump campaign to stop playing the music.
And of course, you have licensing agreements. So you have to pay to use some of these songs if you don't have an agreement from the artist.
So this back-and-forth has really played out not only on social media, but between the lawyers. I can tell you today, in that court, the judge basically told the Trump campaign they had to stop playing this song.
The one victory for the Trump campaign was the idea that did not have to bring the videos down from online that have the song playing in the background as Trump dances along.
But take a listen to Isaac Hayes III talk about this victory for his family today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ISAAC HAYES III, SON OF MUSICIAN ISAAC HAYES: I always want to make sure that we are able to protect my father's legacy. My father lost the rights to his music a year before I was born. That
music started to come back. So after 56 years, here's the last thing that we want to do is sell our copyright.
He wrote songs that were the soundtrack of the '60s and the civil rights movement. "Hold On, I'm Coming," "Soul Man," those records we're part of that and that's extremely important.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: Yes. Brianna, Boris, we know this life from the world that we live in these days is all about branding. They believe they're going to lose value based upon this song being attached to the campaign.
Other artists have asked Donald Trump to stop playing their songs as well, from Beyonce to Bruce Springsteen.
So you understand why people are trying to separate themselves. At the same time, they're probably more court ahead because the Isaac Hayes family says they're not done just yet -- Guys?
KEILAR: All right. Very interesting. Now, we'll see where this goes.
Ryan Young, thank you.
And when we come back, how NASA rocket scientists are using underwater robots to figure out how long coastal areas have been -- have before rising sea levels takeover.
[14:49:39]
Stay with us.
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SANCHEZ: Meet NASA's newest tool in the fight against climate change and rising oceans, a fleet of autonomous robots that would dive deep under polar ice.
KEILAR: Their mission is to determine how fast Antarctica's giant ice shelves are melting and how long we have until rising sea levels swallow coastal cities. This project is called Ice Node.
CNN chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir, is here with the details on this.
Tell us about this, Bill.
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna and Boris, NASA known for their suite of cool tools. This one really focused on life here on earth, especially at the poles.
Trying to answer the question, what happens on a planet overheated by fossil fuel pollution, when land ice in Antarctica melts faster than anyone even predicted a decade ago? Well, measuring how fast it's going away has been a real problem. You
can imagine some of the most inhospitable places on the planet, especially considering that the grounding line of these big glaciers around Antarctica are the key places to study.
That's where the ice meets the under seabed there. And there are new fears.
New science has shown, when they sent down a controlled sort of attached robot called Ice Fin, that warm water is getting under big glaciers down south like the Thwaites, a glacier the size of Florida, that's acting as sort of a cork holding back all the land ice on Antarctica.
[14:55:10]
They have 10 new sort of robots. These are these Ice Nodes. They want to deploy around Antarctica. They're autonomous. They're not connected to a chord the way that Ice Fin was.
They let them float and are sort of directed by the computers on board to ocean currents so then attach to that grounding line under water. And that is frozen and then stay there for up to a year when they are eventually released.
There'll be able to send all the data of what's exactly happening into satellites and get a much more accurate long-term data sets of what is going on, on the bottom of the ocean.
It's important to remember the North Pole is basically a frozen ocean surrounded by land. The South Poles is the opposite, a big chunk of frozen land surrounded by ocean.
And if that goes away, just the weight could raise sea level rise by two feet. The whole of Antarctica, it could be 20 feet. That's a really apocalyptic scenario that scientists are talking about.
But even a few inches, six inches a foot could be devastating in places like Miami, Charleston, Boston, Shanghai, around the world coastal cities that are right on the edge.
And were built for a different age, different earth that is sort of steadily going away.
So knowledge is power and understanding really what's happening with these glaciers that took millions of years to form.
SANCHEZ: Now, we're all getting a preview in some parts of what this may look like in a few decades. And it doesn't look good. Looking forward to that science coming forward.
Bill Weir, appreciate it. Thanks so much.
A day after seizing his official airplane, the U.S. now says it's weighing a range of options with Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro, as he tightens his crackdown on political opponents. Another hour of NEWS CENTRAL up after a short break.
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Gloria Pazmino, Ryan Young, Bill Weir
