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Trump & Vance Cap Off Two-Day Republican Midterm Convention In Dallas; Nation Marks 25 Years Since September 11 Terror Attacks; Lawyer Overseeing Conspiracy Probe Into Trump's Foes Resigns; Primetime Emmy Awards Set to Take Place Monday in Los Angeles. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired September 11, 2026 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Really? I think giving a window into his view that unless he is at the center of all of this, unless his name is on the ballot, you know, theoretically, then a lot of his supporters just won't go out and vote in this election season. Now, that's not to say that the vice president didn't receive a fairly warm welcome. He was, by comparison, much more scripted.
He talked about the importance of the nuclear family. He didn't mention Iran specifically, which I thought was interesting. He said that instead, he sort of referred to it tacitly, saying that if conservatives have concerns about some of the administration's policies to, quote, "not throw out the baby with the bathwater."
But all in all, this was very much the Trump show.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": And you know, Kevin, one of the things that President Trump did, he's got this pledge to give American adults $5,000 if Republicans retain control on Capitol Hill. It's been met with a lot of skepticism, not just from the opposing party, we should note as well.
What is the president saying about that now?
LIPTAK: Yeah, well, what he's not saying is where this money is coming from. No one in the administration has really provided a detailed layout of where they think this $1.3 trillion, which is what it would cost to do this, is actually coming from. Now, the president was pressed a little bit on this idea last night as he was leaving Dallas.
Here's what he said.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If your economic policies are working, why do you need an incentive for people to turn out to vote?
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think what we're going to do -- I didn't do it for turning out to vote. I did it as a reward for people having to put up with five years and four years of horrible -- a horrible situation caused by Biden.
I mean, they had to put up with the four years, and that carried on for at least a half an additional year with horrible -- just a horrible thing that Biden did to our country. And it's not only just from an economic standpoint. You look at the border, you look at the crime, and now we've got it under control.
But what a period it's on. It's almost a reward for the people having to put up with Biden's policy.
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LIPTAK: Now, it was interesting watching the convention last night. This idea was not mentioned by virtually any of the speakers except for President Trump himself. The vice president didn't mention it. The House speaker didn't mention it. Even Trump's own son, Donald Trump Jr., did not mention this dividend in their own remarks.
So if the president thinks that sort of dangling this out to voters will be an incentive for them, it does seem as if he will have to do that himself. It's not really causing much of a ripple among the other Republicans who are at this event.
JIMENEZ: Kevin Liptak, appreciate the reporting, as always, for us from the White House. All right, coming up, breaking the news on 9/11. Former CNN Anchor, Carol Lin was on the air 25 years ago today. We'll tell you how she's reflecting on that moment.
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CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR ON SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: This just in, you are looking at obviously a very disturbing live shot there. That is the World Trade Center.
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[13:36:58]
JIMENEZ: Never forget, that message echoes across the country today as America marks 25 years since the September 11th terrorist attacks.
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JIMENEZ: 2,977 people were killed that day and countless others were forever changed. We remember the victims and we honor the first responders who ran toward the danger, risking their own lives to save others.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": The attacks and the weeks and months that followed were covered around the clock here on CNN. Here's how our coverage began.
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LIN: This just in, you are looking at obviously a very disturbing live shot there. That is the World Trade Center and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. CNN Center right now is just beginning to work on this story.
Obviously calling our sources and trying to figure out exactly what happened. But clearly, something relatively devastating happening this morning there on the south end of the island of Manhattan. That is once again a picture of one of the towers of the World Trade Center.
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KEILAR: That voice that you heard there on September 11th, 2001 was Carol Lin's and she's with us now. She was the first CNN anchor on the air that morning to report on the attacks and she's the author of "When News Breaks: A Memoir of Love and War." This was one of those moments that you cover in that book, no doubt.
Because it was so, I think it just changed everyone's lives. And you were on the air, if you could take us through that, Carol, just that moment you said there were unconfirmed reports. Take us back to what was happening as you came out of commercial break on that day.
LIN: Brianna, it doesn't even seem like 25 years ago. It seems like yesterday when my Executive Producer, Jodi Fleisig got in my ear and said we're going into rolling coverage. We have unconfirmed reports of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center.
I look in the preview monitor, that's the monitor in the anchor desk that the audience can't see, and you see the full screen of the burning tower. And you hear the breaking news animation and I'm thinking to myself, we have no information. So, number one, don't say anything stupid.
Number two, what can we report while the news gathering operation tries to get us phone interviews from eyewitnesses, that's usually how rolling coverage goes. And while the audience is looking at that full screen shot, I'm turned to my computer and I'm trying to search for any information about trains that feed South Manhattan, how many people work in the World Trade Center office building, what are the surrounding businesses, anything that we could factually report to breach that time.
[13:40:00]
JIMENEZ: And for the audience, in those moments when you're anchoring something like this, there are so few details and you don't know as it's happening, unfolding live, whether it's a fire or then as it later than develops, we knew what it fully was. And Carol, you know, you were just talking about the effort and trying to track down eyewitnesses, again, when the information is so little and we're just going off of the images in those initial moments. You've also talked about how there was no social media back then.
So what was it like when those first eyewitness accounts started coming in and people started getting a fuller picture of what actually happened here? LIN: You know, we start with this -- I'm just going to call it a presumption. My logic said it was a small plane. I think most of us thought it was a small plane. And, Omar, you're right, there was no social media. Frankly, CNN and other 24-hour cable networks, we were the social media. We were the instantaneous reporting. And we took it very seriously. And those eyewitnesses are absolutely critical.
So it was a Turner executive up in New York who was in a meeting and had a line of sight to the North Tower. And it was Sean Murtagh who reported to us live on air that it was a passenger jet. And when I heard that, I had to ask him twice because we had to be so sure that it was a commercial passenger jet.
And from there, we knew that we were facing a story unlike any other.
JIMENEZ: Wow.
KEILAR: Yeah, those are two very different paths. And then you're staring down one that you don't want to go down. But obviously, the facts are leading you down that. After 9/11, the path the country went down, that you went down as a reporter was to go to the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. You reported for two months.
You've called 9/11 the beginning of a whole other chapter of history. I wonder, as you were looking back on that day and the aftermath, the years that it wrought for America, how are you reflecting on it?
LIN: It's a big thought. And, you know, every anniversary, Brianna, I hear from my colleagues who were in the control room. They text me. And this morning, I got one. And she said, here we go. Because even though so much time has passed, for us, it really is like yesterday. And what the audience doesn't see are the continuous feeds of raw footage that come into the control room, that surround the newsroom. The journalists at CNN were living it 24/7 inside the CNN headquarters.
And for us out in the field, you know, in New York City, we had veteran correspondents weeping openly at what would be known as Ground Zero. And for us overseas, it was a different picture because we weren't as exposed to the deep daily grieving of everyday Americans. But we saw a different side to the story, how people were reacting to us, what access we would have to the information.
Who could we trust was really critical in the location that I was at, which was on the border of Afghanistan. Most people don't know that the Taliban actually had to approve press passes. You had to apply to the Taliban to enter Afghanistan. And as a female journalist, I was never going to be allowed in.
So we were as close as we could get. And our job on the ground was really to verify what it is that the Pakistani government and the U.S. government in forming this new post-9/11 alliance and the assurances that Pakistan was giving us about the border security, we were there to verify.
And I think eyewitness testimony is something that is -- we don't talk about the importance of it as much. We have a lot of expertise on panel discussions in the news these days, but it is boots on the ground and at that time, and I think it's still the case. CNN had more people boots on the ground around the world than any other network, perhaps, except for the BBC.
KEILAR: Carol, it's so great to have you to talk about this and reflect on this 25 years later. It's really meaningful and we thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today.
Carol Lin, thank you.
LIN: Thank you, Brianna.
KEILAR: So as we head to break, we do have a live look at 9/11 Memorial Plaza as America is honoring the lives that were lost on this day 25 years ago.
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[13:49:15]
JIMENEZ: One of the jurors who served in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial spoke with our affiliate, WCVB, about the sense of failure for some of them after a mistrial was declared.
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PAULA DEVLIN, JUROR IN THE LINDSAY CLANCY MURDER TRIAL: People were sad, people were in tears, more than one person felt like we failed. Knowing that there was doubt and seeing that there was doubt, we did the thing that we thought was right. Not just not guilty, but not guilty because she had a mental illness at that time that kept her from understanding what she was doing.
Lindsay asked for help every way that she could possibly think of, and she was failed on so many levels.
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JIMENEZ: Remember, Lindsay Clancy was charged with murder for the strangulation deaths of her three children.
[13:50:00]
Her defense argued she was suffering from extreme mental illness at the time. But after 38 hours of deliberations, a single holdout juror prevented the panel from reaching a unanimous decision. Clancy's defense has filed a motion asking the judge to enter a finding of not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. That motion, though, expected to be discussed during the next hearing scheduled for September 29th. Meanwhile, the prosecutor in charge of a conspiracy investigation into President Trump's political enemies has resigned from the Department of Justice.
KEILAR: Yes, sources telling CNN Joe diGenova's resignation followed clashes with top justice officials over the pace of the investigation aimed at looking into potential charges against the president's top foes. CNN Senior Justice Correspondent, Evan Perez is with us now.
What are you learning about this resignation?
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, there's been a lot of infighting between Joe diGenova's his team and his bosses here at Justice Department headquarters. And part of the issue is that the Justice Department, his bosses, Todd Blanche, the president of the United States, they want to see charges against some of these key figures who were part of these investigations in the past.
They want to see charges against those people, including John Brennan, who's the former CIA Director, possibly new charges against James Comey, the former FBI Director. There is a whole bunch of people that Joe diGenova was trying to dig into, and all of that was taking much more time than people here in Washington wanted.
They believe that, for instance, there could be charges more quickly brought against John Brennan because of allegations that he lied in previous testimony over some of the events that happened in 2016. The question is now whether the fact that Joe diGenova has made an exit, whether this means we will see some of those charges sooner.
It does seem like that is the case. We talked to, you know, I talked to Joe diGenova yesterday after this, after he put in his resignation. He gave me a statement. I'll read just a part of it.
He says, it was an honor and privilege to serve the president and the department. Later on, he texted to Kaitlan Collins, as an old prosecutor of more than 50 years, I make cases the old-fashioned way, witnesses, evidence, that takes time. So the question is, what really was at issue here? Does he really think he has a case against some of these other folks?
One of the things that Joe diGenova did when he first took this job back in April was he raised the prospect of bringing charges within 30 days and including trying to bring Barack Obama, the former President, to the grand jury over this case. We don't know where any of that has gone.
JIMENEZ: Yeah. Evan Perez, appreciate you breaking that down for us. Good to see you.
All right, coming up for us, who is set to dominate TV's biggest night? We got a preview of this year's Emmys next.
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[13:57:31] KEILAR: The countdown to the 2026 primetime Emmys is on. This year's ceremony will take place Monday night in Los Angeles, hosted by Mariska Hargitay and CNN is teaming up with Variety to bring you special live coverage from the red carpet. Several shows are leading the pack of contenders and we have CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister joining us now with a preview.
Elizabeth, let's start with the drama, the drama category, will "The Pitt" run away with this?
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: That is my prediction. There will be jaws on the floor, Brianna, if "The Pitt" does not win. Now "The Pitt" is the top nominated show this year with 25 nominations. "The Pitt" also won in the drama category last year. So it's the reigning champ. It is heavily favored to winning this category and we just saw Noah Wyle there who is the star. He is also favored to win in his category of best actor in a drama.
And Katherine LaNasa, who I just recently Interviewed, she plays Nurse Dana on the show. She is also expected to win in her category. So it should be a big night for "The Pitt."
KEILAR: OK. For comedy, "Hacks" has the most nominations, but I wonder if newcomer "Widow's Bay" might surprise us.
WAGMEISTER: I think that it might. But this one really is going to be head-to-head and the reason why is, because "Hacks" is a beloved show. It is its fifth and final season, so this is the last year that "Hacks" can be eligible at the Emmys. But "Widow's Bay" as you said, Brianna, this has really been a last-minute surprise hit, both with critics and with fans there. We see it. Matthew Rhys stars in it. It is a horror comedy series and this often happens at the Emmys or really any award show that late in the game, late in the voting period, you have a show that comes out and it just really hits a chord with critics.
And that is what has happened with "Widow's Bay." So I actually think that "Widow's Bay" is going to win in the comedy category and not "Hacks." But I wouldn't be surprised if "Hacks" could take it, but Jean Smart is expected to win for "Hacks," again it's fifth and final season. And get this, if Jean smarts wins, she will make Emmy history as the only woman to win every single year for the same show. That would be her fifth Emmy win for "Hacks." So that would be pretty incredible.
KEILAR: That would be incredible. All right, Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you so much for that. And again, be sure to join Elizabeth and Variety's Ramin Setoodeh for their live red carpet coverage of TV's biggest night. You can stream it on Monday starting at 5 p.m. with your CNN All Access subscription.
