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Shooting at Dallas ICE Facility; Chuck Nice is Interviewed about Kimmel's Return; Signal from Arizona's Special Election; Trump Signals Support for Ukraine. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 24, 2025 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

KATIE PHANG, CO-COUNSEL FOR FIRED "WASHINGTON POST" OPINIONS COLUMNIST KAREN ATTIAH: Karen was the last black female full time opinion writer at "The Washington Post." When we see the president of the United States, in his campaign of intimidation, silence opposition, and we see "The Washington Post" do the same thing with its last black female opinion writer, then that is truly when democracy will die in darkness.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We have to leave it there. We will leave it with those last words.

Katie Phang, Karen Attiah, thank you both for coming on and discussing this important thing. And we should mention that when it comes to Kimmel, which we're going to talk much more about, the president is already threatening to sue ABC. So, we will see what happens going forward and on this fight over free speech. Appreciate you both coming on.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And on just that, Jimmy Kimmel back on air. And now his network is facing a new threat from President Trump. What Kimmel's message is and where the controversy goes now.

And we have much more ahead on the breaking news that's coming in just this hour. Three people shot, including two detainees, at an ICE facility in Dallas, Texas.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:35:33]

BOLDUAN: Let's get back to the breaking news this morning, just happening at the top of this hour really, a shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas, Texas.

Priscilla Alvarez getting new reporting on this as we speak.

Priscilla, what is the very latest? PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, we're now hearing

from Dallas Police. They just put out a post on X moments ago, which gives us a little more detail as to what exactly unfolded this morning. So let me read that to you.

They said that on -- or today, on Wednesday, "at about 6:40 a.m., Dallas Police responded to an assist officer call in the 8100 block of north Stemmons Freeway." They go on to say that "the preliminary investigation determined that a suspect opened fire at a government building from an adjacent building. Two people were transported to the hospital with gunshot wounds. One victim died at the scene. The suspect is deceased."

So, interesting here that they note that the person fired from an adjacent building. That is similar to what we heard from other Department of Homeland Security officials earlier this morning.

What we've also learned from DHS is that the shooter died from a self- inflicted wound.

Now, our sources also tell us that at least two of those who were shot were detainees. Now, at an ICE facility you would have ICE employees. You may also have civilians who are visiting detainees at the site. And then, of course, detainees who are brought in there after they are arrested and processed before they may be eventually moved to another detention center or are removed.

So, that is the population of people who would have been at this facility. But what we've learned from our sources is that at least two of those shots were detainees. We're still trying to gather more information as to who else may have been injured because, according to the Department of Homeland Security, there were multiple injuries.

Those officials similarly say that no ICE agents were shot or hurt. Again, among the population of people at that facility, those ICE agents not shot or hurt.

We do not know, however, the motive of the shooter. That still remains an open question and will be under investigation and will be continuing to ask our sources more about that. But at the Department of Homeland Security has pointed out is that this same facility, back in late August, also had to contend with a bomb threat at that facility. So, certainly ICE has been contending with additional assaults, attacks and threats to their facilities. But we still do not know what the motive was of this particular shooter.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I mean, look, all of this important as it's coming in and developing, but critically important is the news that you just brought because we did not know the status of any of those who were shot prior to this. And now Dallas Police confirming at least one victim died at the scene. And we know that, of those three shot, at least two people -- two of them shot were detainees. The gunman dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Priscilla, thank you so much. Clearly, many more details coming in through her sources and Dallas Police this morning. John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, and breaking overnight, Jimmy Kimmel is back on the air nearly a week after ABC suspended him following threats from the Trump administration. It was an emotional return.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": The truth is, I don't think what I have to say is going to make much of a difference. If you like me, you like me. If you don't, you don't. I have no illusions about changing anyone's mind. But I do want to make something clear because it's important to me as a human. And that is, you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don't --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, in the monologue, Kimmel also stood up for free speech, bringing on Robert de Niro to compare FCC chair Brandon Carr to a mob boss. He also said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": Brendan Carr is the most embarrassing car Republicans have embraced since this one. And that's saying something.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And Kimmel also joked about the company's conditions for his return to TV.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": Disney has asked me to read the following statement. And I -- I've agreed to do it. Here we go.

To re-activate your Disney+ and Hulu account --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:40:06]

BERMAN: All right, with us now is Chuck Nice.

Chuck, we got a flash frame of you. It was like, who framed Roger Rabbit? We got a quick preview of you before you came on air. Chuck is a comedian and the host of the "Not So Nice Advice" podcast.

It's great to see you again. It's been a while.

CHUCK NICE, HOST, "NOT SO NICE ADVICE" PODCAST: It's been a while. Yes.

BERMAN: What did you think of Kimmel last night? What do you think of what he did?

NICE: It's pitch perfect, man. I mean he -- he hit all the notes. He hit them right as -- as he should. The jokes were funny. And what he said was poignant. I am proud to call him a friend that he doesn't know that he has. So, I thought he was amazing.

BERMAN: Yes, Colby Hall at Mediaite said that he really had to thread a needle, and he managed to pull it off.

NICE: He did.

BERMAN: And threading that needle, the reason it was so small, is because he had pressures from all sides, didn't he? What's it like to perform under pressure like that?

NICE: Well, you know, it's -- I don't think that you look at it as pressure. What you have to do is figure out what you want to say in the most clever way that you can say it so that it is funny. And if you're trying to deliver a message, you don't want the message to be lost in what you're saying in the joke. So -- and he did that. So, the pressure is, how do I bring everything, every ingredient to the cake so that the cake is perfectly balanced? That's the pressure.

I don't think he was sitting there like, well, I can't say this because I might get in more trouble. I -- he's -- I mean, let's be honest, the -- it doesn't make a difference what he says or how he says it. You know, the -- certain -- certain parties in power are not going to be happy.

As a matter of fact, he was attacked on Truth Social last night. And -- and -- and the president said, we'll see what happens. If he's -- you understand, he hasn't backed down from the bullying, from the extortion. As a matter of fact, he's doubled down on it, saying, let's see how much money I get from them this time. He is openly admitting to extortion. And by the way, Robert de Niro was playing a mob boss, but Carr is not a mob boss. Trump is the mob boss. He's a Capo who is carrying out orders.

BERMAN: Chuck, you know, and you're saying this freely on TV. Do you have concerns about the administration cracking down on you? Which is another way of asking, what's the atmosphere right now in the comedy world?

NICE: So, here's the thing. There is -- everybody is -- as a comedian, you always know that what you say can get you in trouble. Even me being here right now, who knows. I don't know. But what I can't do is allow the actions of an authoritarian to chill my speech and what I do because when we start to fall as comedians, and I'm not even trying to be self-important here, I'm not being hyperbolic. When we start to fall, the country will fall into authoritarianism. Look at every authoritarian that has taken power anywhere. The first thing they do is shut down comedy, because comedy is a very powerful means of political dissent.

BERMAN: Do you think anyone's winning here, Chuck? NICE: I think we're all losing here, to be honest. And we're all losing because the only way we can win is defiance. We have to band together, stand up, say, this is America. We have a First Amendment right to say what we want to say, as long as it is not something that incites violence, as long as it is not something that causes an insurrection. Hmm, that sounds familiar. And as long as it's not seditious. It -- other than that, it's -- even hate speech is protected speech.

And by the way, in defense of Jimmy Kimmel, he never said anything about Charlie Kirk. His joke was about the -- the tone deafness of the president in the face of people who were grieving. Charlie Kirk. That's what got him in trouble. So, the way that we win is we resist. And the way that we resist is we defy authoritarian tendencies to stop us from exercising our First Amendment right. And, you know, I'm going to do that.

BERMAN: Chuck Nice, it's good to see you this morning. Thanks so much for coming on.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, new this morning --

NICE: Always a pleasure.

SIDNER: Oh, chuck Nice being nice, saying always a pleasure to John Berman.

[09:45:03]

He's the only one.

New this morning, CNN projects Democrat Adelita Grijalva.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Grijalva.

SIDNER: Grijalva.

ENTEN: Grijalva.

SIDNER: I will get this right.

ENTEN: There you go.

SIDNER: Grijalva will win the U.S. House special election in Arizona to fill her late father, Congressman Raul Grijalva's seat.

Here with me now, CNN chief data analyst and pronunciator (ph) extraordinaire, Harry Enten here.

Harry, just how much of an overperformance is this when you look at what happened in Arizona?

ENTEN: Yes, what a massive move to the left, to the Democratic side we're talking about here. My goodness gracious. All right, if we look at the seventh district, Kamala Harris won it by 22 points. Look at Grijalva's margin at this particular point with 87 percent of the estimated vote in. Look at that, 39 points. That is a 17-point overperformance. And, of course, this goes to what we were talking about last week, which is, Democrats doing much better than they were doing in Latino districts. A lot of Latinos live in Arizona's seventh district. And not surprisingly, Grijalva doing 17 points better than Kamala Harris did back just a little less than a year ago.

SIDNER: Does this fit a pattern of what you have been seeing this year?

ENTEN: Yes. OK. So, you see this. You see 39, 22, 17-point overperformance. It ain't alone, baby. It ain't alone. Look at the average 2025 special House election so far. Democrats are doing, on average, get this, 18 points better than Kamala Harris did back in 2024. So, the 17-point overperformance last night matches the average that we see. The 18 -point overperformance that Democrats have had in U.S. House elections. Again, this is one of the best signs that Democrats have had so far. When people vote, Democrats are doing significantly better than they did just a little bit less than a year ago.

SIDNER: Can you look at this and sort of extrapolate what might happen in 2026? I mean, vaguely.

ENTEN: Yes. OK. There's a reason why we're doing this segment. It's not just because I'm interested in numbers and like elections. It's because this could potentially really matter.

What are we talking about here? OK, special elections and midterm results. Look, there's a lot of font on your screen here, but what it says is, if a party outperforms in special elections going all the way back since the '05, '06 cycle, they go on to win the U.S. House of Representatives five out of five times. We'll see if it becomes six out of six. But the bottom line is, history says that the Democrats are outperforming, just like they did last night in Arizona's seventh district. The presidential baseline is a very, very good sign as these districts move very much to the left.

SIDNER: All right, Harry Enten, thank you so much. Appreciate you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

SIDNER: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has just wrapped up speaking at the United Nations just now after President Trump's abrupt 180 on his thinking on the war against Russia with some big new support for Ukraine. What is President Zelenskyy's message now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:51:29] SIDNER: Moments ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrapped up his speech at the U.N. General Assembly. This as President Trump signaled support for Ukraine like we've really never seen it before. A real about face, posting online that Ukraine is capable of winning back all its land from Russia, and calling Moscow a paper tiger. A Kremlin spokesperson responding to that overnight, saying "Russia is associated with a bear; there are no paper bears." A bit of a joke there.

Joining us now is former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bill Taylor, and Evelyn Farkas, secretary -- former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia.

So, Zelenskyy speaking. Let's just get to a little bit of what we heard him say right at the onset of his speech.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Dear leaders, we are now living through the most destructive arms race in human history because this time includes -- it includes artificial intelligence. And if there are no real security guarantees except friends (ph) and weapons, and if the world can't respond even to old (ph) threats, and if there is no strong platform for international security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right, first to you, Ambassador Taylor. You know, listening to what you're hearing Zelenskyy say, certainly something I'm sure he was speaking to Donald Trump about, and seeing what has been put out on Trump's social media about Ukraine being able to regain all of its territory from Russia, which is something that he has said the complete opposite of when talking about trying to negotiate a ceasefire and the end to the war, what is your take on what you think might actually happen? Is this going to turn into, for example, a policy change after what you've seen?

WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Sure. I think it could. I think it very well could. President Trump now indicates that he understands that Ukraine has great potential. It needs support. It needs weapons. It needs the economic support. It needs sanctions on Russia. But President Trump realizes, recognizes that Ukraine has the potential to take back land. And for that to happen, we will need to provide weapons and -- and other forms of support for Ukraine, coming through the Europeans. That's all fine. But there's a lot of resources available to do this. And if President Trump is ready to do that, provide the weapons through the Europeans, then, yes, this could be a real policy change.

SIDNER: Evelyn, when you -- when you look at this, what do you think it was, from an educated guess, and from knowing sort of how he operates and the space of what is happening in this region, what is it that you think is prompting this potential about-face?

EVELYN FARKAS, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR RUSSIA, Ukraine, EURASIA, BALKANS, CAUCASUS: Yes, I think, Sara, the biggest tip off for me was the Truth Social posting that the president put up where he referred to lines for gasoline in Russia. So, the Ukrainians have been very strategic. They are now targeting two kinds of oil facilities inside Russia, the ones that are exporting oil to other countries. This is where Russia's money comes from. And then the other depots where they hold the oil for domestic consumption. And, obviously, you could have lines in Russia if those are targeted. That's political pressure. So, financial pressure plus political pressure. Somebody obviously briefed the president on this. That somebody could have been Mike Waltz, who's now in place and understands these issues.

[09:55:02]

Of course, intelligence officials understand this very well. And the -- President Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine.

And at the same time, you know, as -- as the good ambassador just hinted, Ukraine is capable of taking back land. Why? Because there's also information on that. The -- the Ukrainians have taken back a little bit of land in Sumy, which is on, on the border with Russia. They also have managed to hold the Russians back. The Russian offensive is more or less over now.

SIDNER: What do you expect, Ambassador, as far as the scene that is happening there now in Ukraine? What is your sense of what will happen if the United States does not follow through with what you're seeing -- and Europe, follow through with what you're seeing from Donald Trump in this new post?

TAYLOR: Well, Sara, the Ukrainians, as well as the Europeans, are pursuing kind of a dual track. On the one hand, they very much want the Americans to be engaged and provide support. And they want President Trump to be there in strong support of the Ukrainians, both with weapons and with economic sanctions on the Russians. So, they're pursuing that track.

But they understand that they can't count on that forever. And the Ukrainians and the Europeans are putting together their own capabilities, are developing their own defense industrial base, or developing their own military capabilities that will allow them to push the Russians back and defend themselves, defend both Ukraine and defend Europe from an aggressive Russia. So, I expect both of these tracks to be pursued.

SIDNER: All right, Ambassador Taylor, thank you for that.

Let me -- let me ask you really quickly, Evelyn. You have sort of looked at Russia's capabilities here.

FARKAS: Right.

SIDNER: And there is a real change. Something that we were expecting to happen, has not happened. Explain.

FARKAS: Well, we're -- we're expecting, of course, the Russians to continue to ramp up their offensive. They're not ramping it up. They're not able to do it. The Ukrainians, they do need more weapons. So, I -- I think the one thing I would point out that hasn't really been highlighted with -- underlined is that President Trump did not say that we're going to provide more military assistance, or that we're going to sanction. He threw the ball back in the European court, understandably, but it's tricky for them.

So, I think we need to see what Russia has planned next. But I don't think they have a lot of great options if the Ukrainians continue. But they need long range ammunition to do an even better job.

SIDNER: To be able to potentially get some of that territory back that Donald Trump was talking about.

FARKAS: Yes. Yes.

SIDNER: Evelyn Farkas, Ambassador Taylor, thank you both so much for being here. We appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: Thank you all so much for joining us today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: "THE SITUATION ROOM," up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news. A gunman opens fire at an ICE facility in Dallas. At least one person is dead according to police. And we are live with the very latest.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world.

[10:00:01]

I'm Pamela Brown. Wolf Blitzer has the morning off. And you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.