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Biden Presents Final U.N. Address As President; IDF: New Round Of Stikes Against Hezbollah Underway; Apalachee Students Return To Class Weeks After Deadly Shooting; Judge Chutkan Allows Special Counsel To Provide Hundreds of Pages Of Evidence Against Donald Trump in January 6 Case. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired September 24, 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]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Any country, any country would have a right and responsibility to ensure that such an attack can never happen again.

I put forward, with Qatar and Egypt, a ceasefire and hostage deal. It's been endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.

Now is the time for the parties to finalize its terms, bring the hostages home and secure security for Israel and Gaza free of Hamas' grip, ease the suffering in Gaza and end this war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We do have some breaking news from the Middle East. The Israeli military says it has begun a new round of what it calls extensive strikes on Hezbollah targets, this time in the Bekaa Valley and several areas in southern Lebanon.

Right now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hosting a security briefing on those strikes.

And all of this has happened just hours after Israel launched an airstrike in the suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon's capital. The IDF claiming the strike killed a senior Hezbollah commander in charge of the group's missile unit.

Israel and Hezbollah are trading waves of strikes today, part of a for tat escalation since the war in Gaza began. Israeli attacks on Monday killed more than 500 people in Lebanon, according to the law Lebanese Health Ministry.

We have CNN military analyst, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, here with us now to talk more about this.

And if you could just talk a little bit about the toll that the Israeli military has extracted from Hezbollah so far as we are tracking this new round of strikes in the Bekaa Valley in southern Lebanon. COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes. That's

actually quite -- quite amazing. Brianna, because when you're looking at all the different things -- this is the Bekaa Valley right here, the Baalbek area. And we have Beirut in this area. And of course, the southern city of Tyre right here.

So what the Israelis are basically doing is they're going through a major air campaign. And if you look at this particular area right here, notice the concentration of bomb strikes right in this area.

They have about 1,600 -- done about 1,600 strikes in this area, far fewer in this area. But that doesn't mean this isn't important. This is basically the resupply area for the Israelis, right here in the Bekaa Valley.

This is the area where Hezbollah could launch things against Israel and every single dot that you see here is a dot that represents one of the targets. And in some cases, multiple targets.

Because what they've found is that the Israelis have gone in and they know that some houses are being used as launching sites.

I -- and they've warned the civilian population, if you've got a launcher in your -- in your living room, you better leave. If you've got a launcher in your garage, you better leave. If you've got a rocket there, you better evacuate this area.

So this is basically also the zone of evacuation as far as the Lebanese are concerned. And the Israelis have told them to leave most of this area.

KEILAR: Yes, what's normally a 90-minute trip has become a 12-hour trip on the road. There we're people fleeing trying to get away from it.

But one of the stated goals of Israel is that you have so many displaced Israelis in the north since October 8th, when Hezbollah has been firing rockets into northern Israel.

They want to get those Israelis back to their homes. And that's certainly one of the goals here. Israel, in its quest to make this happen, hasn't ruled out a ground invasion. But can they sustain that, the second front in this war?

LEIGHTON: So that's going to be very difficult thing for the Israelis to deal with. The northern area of Israel, basically from a line right this way, is going to be a critical area for -- for the Israelis to really repopulate.

So that is a major goal of Netanyahu's right here. Can they sustain a major operation with all of their forces? That is going to be really tough for them to do.

But they have moved the 98th Division from Gaza to this area right here, to the northern area. And if they start calling up the reserves -- so that's going to be a key indicator. If they start calling up more reserves on the Israeli side for the

IDF, then it will probably be an indicator that what we have seen here, with all of these strikes in this area, this is basically softening up the target area.

And this is where they would then move their forces into to if they did a ground incursion.

KEILAR: What are you watching for potentially from Iran? How far are they willing to go to backstop their most powerful proxy?

LEIGHTON: So this is going to be really interesting to see what they do. First of all, here in Tehran, you have a relatively moderate president of Iran. However there's somebody else who's in charge and that's the supreme leader. And that supreme leader is still calling the shots for most of this.

But what the Iranians are probably going to do is, with their proxies, in Lebanon, basically Hezbollah, by their proxy in Gaza, we're talking about Hamas there.

What they're trying to do is they're trying to calibrate their reaction to the Israelis. They're going to try to avoid a major regional war.

We have deployed -- we're deploying another aircraft carrier to the Middle East. And as a result of that, it's clear that the United States is going to maintain a presence here in the Mediterranean, in the Red Sea and, of course, in the Persian Gulf area right here.

[14:35:10]

And all of those elements of the U.S. forces, the additional forces that are coming in are going to be critical to basically trying to put a lid on all of this.

KEILAR: Colonel, thank you so much for taking us through that such a critical time. We appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Brianna.

KEILAR: Georgia high schoolers met with signs and letters of support as they're returning to school for the first time since a deadly mass shooting a few weeks ago. These are live pictures coming to us.

Next, we're going to speak with a principal who knows all too well what students at Apalachee High School are going through.

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[14:40:16]

KEILAR: School ended just a short time ago at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. It was their first time back in class since a schoolmate open fire almost three weeks ago, killing two students and two teachers and injuring nine others. Officials plan for a phased reopening with half days and shortened classes for the next two weeks to help ease them back in.

Some students also received cards with messages of support from their community.

Here is one from a child that reads, "From Lucy to survivor, we had a small lockdown in my elementary school and I was so scared. I can't imagine how it was for you. You're so tough. Love you, love your friends, love your family, love your school love your teacher, love Apalachee."

CNN's Ryan Young is outside of the high school there in Winder, Georgia.

Ryan, sweet sentiments there from a member of the community for these students who are going through so much. What are they telling you.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You've got to think, "out of the mouth of children," words of such -- of wisdom that we're experiencing here.

And we saw that over and over again today as we talked to some of these kids. They really seemed beyond their years when it comes to what they're experiencing.

Just over my shoulder, you can see a car sitting there. We've seen people stop as much as they came to either pay their respect at the memorial, and they'll just kind of take a pause and stand there and look at the flags.

It was around the same time early this morning, around 8:30 when we heard that administrator come across the loudspeaker here at the school and do the Pledge Allegiance, and then welcome the kids back.

And also say they're heroes amongst you. And they also said there was counselors here ready to serve. We saw those therapy dogs coming in mass also to help the kids, talking to some of the students. They said those really did help today.

Listen to this one student talk about just how tough today was, but at the same time, why he welcomed coming back to school.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TADEO GRESS, APALACHEE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: Emotions were definitely like different. It was kind of hard because like some of the halls have been blocked off. And it just feels different. The atmosphere feels different. Lots of stuff like that.

We've -- everyone's just like talking together and just being with each other and just to like get our minds off of it, you know?

YOUNG: Good counselors for you guys? What's that -- what's that like?

GRESS: Yes. They have really good counselors for us here and just really good people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Brianna, I want to stress this over and over. Every kid that we talked to said that was the one that they were appreciative of, the fact that there was someone there for them to talk to.

We also learned about the fact that that hallway was shut down. So where that shooting happened, that has been blocked off. They're actually taking some kids from this campus to another campus. So they don't have to walk through that hallway.

And we also know there was increased security at the school today. We saw state troopers and police officers and sheriff deputies all over the place. Still a tough day for these kids as they return to school -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, certainly is.

Ryan Young, thank you for the report from Winder, Georgia.

Jim?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Joining us now is someone who's school faced its own horrific deadly shooting. Michelle Kefford is the principal of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where, you may remember, 14 students and three adults were shot and killed back in 2018.

She's also the founding member of the NASSP, Principal Recovery Network, which is designed to help other school leaders who experienced gun violence on their campuses.

Michelle, it's so good to have you. We appreciate the work you're doing. Thanks for joining.

MICHELLE KEFFORD, PRINCIPAL, MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL: Thank you for having me.

SCIUTTO: First. I want to begin with the most basic question because I don't know how parents certainly, as a parent myself, but teachers, school administrators, fellow students just recover from this.

So as we see yet one more school returned to class following a deadly shooting at Apalachee, help us understand what that experience of coming back is like.

KEFFORD: You know, the journey to recovery is long. We are almost at the seven-year mark since our tragedy, and I can tell you the recovery efforts are still underway.

Every student, every parent, every community member who experiences this this horrific tragedy, every staff member, goes through their own journey of recovery.

And even though they experience the same tragic event, everybody's everybody's road and healing is very, very different.

So everybody has different needs. Everyone processes it differently. So it's important for school administrators, for school staff for community members to know that everybody is going to go through this process individually, even though they experienced the same situation.

[14:45:04]

SCIUTTO: To your credit, you try to help, right? You try to join hands on this to reach out to schools who have been through it, offer your experience.

And I should note that the NASSP also has a legislative agenda that includes things like mental health and educators, Tactical Response Improvement Act, and other security measures here.

It just strikes me that we so often shift the burden of responding to tragedies like this to schools, of addressing gun violence to schools that have so much to think about every day separate from this threat.

And I wonder, do you have -- do schools, are they getting more of the resources they need to respond?

KEFFORD: So resources after a tragedy like this are imperative and often schools don't know what they need. They've ever been through this before. There is no formal education in how to deal with the traumatic events, specifically a school shooting.

So you go into it and you're reliant on others who have experienced it before you, which is why the Principal Recovery Network that I'm proud to be a part of is so beneficial.

Because we've all sat in that seat, whether some -- some members have been shot in their tragedies, some members, like myself, have led the arduous recovery process. Others were leaders during the actual tragedy.

So we rely on each other for that -- that expertise, that -- that learned experience, that lived experience.

But as far as financial resources, those are needed as well. Mental health professionals, as was mentioned previously in the segment, mental health professionals are there helping those students and staff right now.

But it's critical that all of those folks helping have that trauma training because mental health professionals are wonderful, but there really needs to be that experience and expertise and how to deal with the traumatic event to effectively help everybody through this journey.

And also, it's important to know and understand that there are things that are going to activate or reactivate this trauma response in people as they continue to heal and especially those who are going back to the school.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I'm sure there's so many things that might set off those horrible memories.

How about on the front end? Because in Apalachee and so many other cases we cover on this network, there are some warning signs, right, red flags, but oftentimes so much is laid on the school community to raise those red flags and to remedy.

Is that process improving, right? Because listen, you got teenagers who are going through things and imagine it must be hard to distinguish what are the red flags and what are the yellow flags in the midst of this -- this national phenomenon.

KEFFORD: Yes, I will tell you, I can speak for our school district in our state, the great state of Florida, that we have an incredibly robust behavioral threat assessment program.

Suicide risk assessment, a program as well where we are constantly talking to students. There are -- there are all kinds of human resources here to assist our kids.

And there is a very, very well-known "see something, say something" philosophy here. And kids, parents, community members are not afraid to say something when they see something, which really helps us get ahead of -- of anything.

And also identify those red flags as opposed to the yellow flags as you mentioned

SCIUTTO: Well, Michelle Kefford, thanks so much for the work you're doing. Our heart goes out to you for what Marjorie Stoneman Douglas went through. And we wish the best all the kids involved as well.

KEFFORD: Thank you so much.

SCIUTTO: We'll be right back.

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[14:53:13]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KEILAR: Breaking news into CNN. The judge in former President Trump's federal election subversion case has just granted Special Counsel Jack Smith's proposal to submit hundreds of pages of information related to the case in Washington.

SCIUTTO: This brief will contain extensive evidence -- that's key. And it may be released before the election. That's also key.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz joins us now with more.

So tell us, when we talk about evidence, what specific evidence would be likely to be in this filing?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME & JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, this would be evidence that the Justice Department has collected against Donald Trump in this 2020 election case.

A case that they're saying they have evidence that is known publicly, but they also have things that nobody has heard before and they want to put this all in a very large filing.

There's been a fight over whether that filing can be submitted to the court. And Judge Tanya Chutkan, the trial judge, overseeing this case against Trump, she says, yes, go ahead.

So, Jim and Brianna, there's not going to be a trial before the election against Donald Trump in this case. There's not going to be a final report from the special counsel's office on their findings.

But they do have this filing coming that they say is going to contain a lot of meat, 180 pages of legal arguments, or thereabouts, plus exhibits on top of that, evidence that they want to submit to the court.

As you said, it will be sent to the court under seal. But they're also going to give Judge Chutkan a redacted version that she can release very quickly. All of this is going to the court on Thursday, so a lot to watch here, especially with so many weeks left until the election.

KEILAR: And Trump's team had argued, Katelyn, that this is unfair because this is something that would backup toward -- backup against the election, against Election Day. Chutkan seems un-swayed by that, previously,

[14:55:07]

POLANTZ: Very un-swayed. That's right.

She even wrote an opinion on this, a couple of pages long, where she walks through all of his arguments and says this just isn't my problem, essentially.

She says that Donald Trump's arguing that the Justice Department's own policies prevent them from putting out information into the public in an ongoing investigation about two months before an election.

That's not a hard and fast rule at the DOJ. And Judge Chutkan today says he's not explaining why that would hurt him as a criminal defendant in any way.

And also, the court isn't bound. Like she can't tell the Justice Department what to do here.

And so the judge just is not buying these arguments from Donald Trump as much as his team has tried to push this off as far as they can following this Supreme Court decision around presidential immunity.

We are likely to hear things here in this case about what he was doing in the White House.

KEILAR: All right. Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much.

We'll have much more on our breaking news just after a quick break.

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