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Police: 4 Dead, 17 Injured In Birmingham, Alabama Mass Shooting; New Hezbollah Attacks Striking Deeper Inside Israel; America's Choice 2024; Feds Execute Search Warrant At NYPD Commissioner's Residences; Lebanon Officials: Death Toll Rises To $5 In Strike On Beirut; Parts Of U.S. Bracing For Fast-Changing Weather Conditions; Minnesota Power Plant Trading Coal For Renewable Energy. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired September 22, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:36]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Sunday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin with this breaking news.

A mass shooting in Birmingham, Alabama. Police say multiple shooters opened fire overnight on a group of people in one of the city's popular entertainment districts. Four people are dead and 17 others are injured.

So far, no one is in custody. One witness describes what he saw.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAJON SINGLETON, WITNESS: it was people everywhere, people crying, screaming. I've seen people were running, so it was very busy and it was a lot going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Police believe it was a targeted hit on one person, the other victims were caught in the crossfire.

CNN's Rafael Romo is in Birmingham. Rafael, police are asking for the public's help to find the shooters.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is correct, Fredricka. Somebody should have heard or seen something and police say that information may prove crucial to solve the crime.

Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurman says a group of individuals arrived here in the area known as Five Point South, just after 11 last night. they got out of their car and opened fire, then fled in the same vehicle.

Five Point South is a popular place known for its restaurants and nightclubs, pubs and live music venues located near the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus.

And downtown police say, three of the victims, two men and one woman were found unresponsive with gunshot wounds at the scene.

The fourth victim, a man, was pronounced dead at the University of Alabama Hospital. At least 17 other people were shot, including four who suffered life-threatening injuries. And police say 100 shell casings were found at the site of the shooting.

Chief Thurman is calling the shooting a targeted hit. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT THURMAN, BIRMINGHAM POLICE CHIEF: We believe the individual that was targeted is among the deceased. We believe that there was a hit, if you will, on that particular person, or as you know someone who's willing to pay money to have that person killed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And Fred, this has been a very violent year for the city of Birmingham. A shooting at a nightclub in July left four people dead and ten others injured. In February, 4 men were shot and killed outside a public library.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin reflected at the frustration and concern city -- the city feels after so many shootings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RANDALL WOODFIN, BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA: -- in 2024 where gun violence is at an epidemic level and an (INAUDIBLE) crisis in our country and unfortunately, city of Birmingham finds itself unfortunately at the tip of that spear.

Is it solvable. The answer is yes.

Does it require for everyone to come together. The answer is also yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And unfortunately, Fred, the gunfire extends the list of at least 403 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the gun Violence Archive. The archive like CNN defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter, Fred.

Back to you.

WHITFIELD: And Rafael, you mentioned 17 people were injured, many of them were sent to hospitals nearby. Any word on how they're doing?

ROMO: Yes. The police specifically mentioned four of those people who are in critical condition with life-threatening injuries we haven't been able to get information on the rest of them. And got to remember, Fred that the situation here was very chaotic.

Some of those people drove themselves to the hospitals. Some others were taken to area hospitals by ambulance.

So at this point, we're still trying to get that information. But as you can imagine, this community very shaken by what happened here across the street last night, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Yes, indeed.

All right. Rafael Romo, thank you so much.

All right. Here to discuss further is former Boston police commissioner Ed Davis. Good to see you, Commissioner.

[14:04:48]

WHITFIELD: So this mass shooting, I mean chaotic. Police say there were multiple shooters. 100 shell casings found, as you heard Rafael say. Several victims caught in the crossfire and four fatalities.

So what's the focus right now for this investigation?

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Thanks, Fredricka.

Well, you described it right. I've been to incidents, not with this many people injured, but certainly with this many people killed and it is chaos.

So the police have to spend a lot of time attending to the wounded, making sure that the crime scene is secure. And then collecting as much evidence as possible, especially video evidence, to find out who was in the area.

It's a wanton disregard for life, and (INAUDIBLE) bystanders when you have a situation like this. You have people that have some type of beef with each other and then they -- they -- they do something unconscionable like this.

But is complicated by these things called Glock switches. They're technically auto sphere device switch about an inch long that you can attach to the rear of a Glock firearm that will turn it into a full automatic.

And if you combine that with an extended magazine they're finding 75 to 100 shell casings at the scenes now, which is indicative of a full automatic handgun.

WHITFIELD: How might tracing those casings or any other forensic evidence to even that, you know, the Glock switches? Is there a way in which to trace them that helps lead to a suspect or suspects?

DAVIS: Yes. The ATF has a computer system called Niven, and shell casings can be entered into that computer and it's very helpful because it can tell you what other incidents that happened prior involved the same ejecta marks. And so if you see a gun that's being -- that's being used at three

separate shootings that were usually similar situations. They're probably the same shooter.

And it's important to understand the bigger picture, not just the incident that happened, but what led up to it.

WHITFIELD: Birmingham police, in addition to looking at any kind of forensic evidence, they're also asking for the public's assistance in any way.

What does this indicate to you in terms of a starting point or at what juncture are they in trying to locate these shooters?

DAVIS: Well, it's still very early in the investigation and it is hard to put things together immediately. But they're clearly reaching out for help. They want to have people who saw this, so people who might have video of it help them in identifying who was responsible.

The problem with a case like this is there are usually a lot of people involved, it's not just one shooter coming up. It's been described as multiple shooters.

And so you need to get an I.D. on each one of those individuals and you'll have different pieces of evidence. So public cooperation is vital.

WHITFIELD: Birmingham's mayor said gun violence is at an epidemic level in his city. He also had some choice words about automatic weapons on the streets. Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOODFIN: There's a certain element in this city.

There's a certain element in this community who are still comfortable around with semiautomatic weapons, automatic weapons, convergence, which is in everything else whose only intent, hell-bent and intent is to harm people, shoot people, kill people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: How do you interpret those words and how it can be used to take action to help lead to suspects or even quiet or calm what is epidemic levels?

DAVIS: Well, the mayor's frustration, I can -- I can identify with because I faced that exact problem when I first took over the Boston Police Department.

And we put together a strategy that targeted individuals. We got information from the street is to who was responsible. And we made a list of those people who are involved of mostly in the shootings. And then we contacted them and told them we were coming for them.

And then we used our federal partners, DEA and FBI, to go after those individuals. Not necessarily for the shooting, sometimes for drug trafficking, sometimes for human trafficking.

These people are multi offenders and you can -- you can get focused on who's doing it. You can get focused on them and get them out of the picture.

WHITFIELD: Ed Davis, thank you so much for joining us from Boston.

DAVIS: Thank you Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. I'm quoting now, "watching with concern", words from the White House as it monitors escalating attacks between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah. Hezbollah's second in command saying, I'm quoting now, "a battle without limits" is now underway.

[14:09:45]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Happening today, Israel and Hezbollah exchanging increasingly intense strikes. Hezbollah rockets hitting even deeper into Israel today, while Israel says it hit hundreds of targets across southern Lebanon in the last day.

And in Beirut, a funeral was held for Ibrahim Aqil, one of Hezbollah's most senior military figures. He was killed in an Israeli missile strike on Friday that also killed several other Hezbollah commanders and fighters.

[14:14:54]

WHITFIELD: CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman is in Beirut for us. Take us through today's events, Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly what we -- this is just the latest day of escalation between Hezbollah and Israel.

What we saw in just the hours after midnight was the first of three Hezbollah salvos of rockets going deep inside Israel, deeper than we have seen yet since the beginning of hostilities last October.

Now, Hezbollah claimed that they were targeting the Ramat David Israeli air base as well as the but Rafael advanced defense weapons systems factory in Haifa. However, what they struck apart from, of course, those missiles that were intercepted, seemed to be areas away from there, perhaps purposely designed to avoid hitting any targets that might precipitate a serious is Israeli response.

Now, according to the Israeli medical service, several people were hospitalized as a result of these strikes. And we did see damage to homes and cars and other civilian infrastructure.

What we also saw in the 24-hour period were as many as 300 Israeli airstrikes not just on southern Lebanon, but on the eastern part of the country as well. Now, we were at that funeral for Ibrahim Aqil, who was killed last

Friday along with 15 other members of Hezbollah. But also about three times as many civilians were also killed in that strike on southern Beirut.

Now at the funeral, we saw Naim Qassem who's the number two on the political side of Hezbollah, who came out and said that what happened last night, referring to Hezbollah's airstrikes on Israel is the first blow in a battle without limits. A battle without limits are the words he used.

For their part. The Israelis are also talking escalation. Herzi Halevi, who is the Israeli army's chief of staff, came out and said that "our strikes will intensify". Now, all of this and all of this talk is certainly raising serious concerns.

We heard U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria saying that he's very worried that Lebanon could be turned into another Gaza, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ben Wedeman, thank you so much. We'll check back with you.

All right. New polling data in to CNN showing no clear leader in the U.S. presidential race. Will Donald Trump's latest pitch to women voters help him in the polls?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Women will be happy, healthy, confident, and free.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:17:55]

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WHITFIELD: All right.

With 44 days until the U.S. presidential election, former President Donald Trump says, it's too late to have another debate with Vice President Kamala Harris since early voting is already underway in some states.

Harris accepted CNN's invitation yesterday for an October 23rd debate, but Trump rejected did the planned rematch during a rally in North Carolina yesterday.

And this comes has CNN's new poll of polls shows Harris with 50 percent support to former President Trump's 47 percent. The difference falls just inside the typical margin of error for a national poll, meaning there is no clear leader at the moment.

I'm joined now by Seema Mehta, a political reporter for "The Los Angeles Times. Seema, great to see you.

SEEMA MEHTA, POLITICAL REPORTER, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Thank you for having me on.

WHITFIELD: All right. Trump says it's too late for another debate, although when he was running against Hillary Clinton, they had an October debate. So what do you think Trump believes he risks by saying yes to another debate against Harris?

META: I mean what he's saying is in part true. I mean, if for example, in California, I'll get my ballot in this week. So there are a lot of people who will have received their ballots already. But that said there are a lot of people who do wait until election day, particularly people who are undecided. That's depending on who you talk to.

Some criticize his performance in his first debate with Kamala Harris. They believe that she really made her case against him, that she was sort of the prosecutor she was trained as.

So there's the risk of him erring -- making a mistake and then -- or just somehow there's also the risk of him -- it was sort of surprised by how much restraint he showed in his debate with Harris.

You know, thinking back to his debate with Hillary Clinton, or his debate, I'm sorry, with Hillary Clinton where he was attempting to (INAUDIBLE) behind her. There is a risk to him that if he does something similar to that, that it just it won't look good.

WHITFIELD: CNN's Brian Stelter made an interesting point on our show yesterday, asking the question, you know, does Trump really want his running mate, J.D. Vance, to have the last word from the debate stage since that debate -- vice presidential nominee debate is October 1?

How would that look for the presidential candidates?

MEHTA: I mean, I feel like with former President Trump, we all know that he likes to have the last word everywhere.

That said people don't pay as much attention to the vice presidents -- you know, vice presidential candidates as they do to the presidential candidates. Very few people actually make their decision based on who a vice-presidential candidate is.

[14:24:51]

MEHTA: So I think by the time election day goes around, like no one's going to be talking about the vice-presidential debate, unless something incredibly dramatic happens.

WHITFIELD: Trump generally loves being in the spotlight, that we all know.

You know, do you think he'll change his mind knowing that another debate would certainly be a hugely-watched debate?

MEHTA: It's certainly possible and I covered his press conference when he was in southern California maybe week-and-a-half ago.

And he said, basically at the time he said he wasn't going to do another debate. He's like, oh, let me see how I'm feeling. And he is mercurial. So I mean, I think anything is possible.

WHITFIELD: Polls continue to show a huge gender gap with Trump struggling with female voters. A new NBC News poll out today shows Harris with 58 percent of support from women compared to 37 percent for Trump.

Yesterday at his rally in North Carolina, Trump appeared to reach out to women in this way, vowing to fix their problems if elected. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Let's talk about our great women, all right. Women have gone through a lot. They've gone through a lot.

Women are poorer than they were four years ago. Are less healthy than they were four years ago. I will fix all of that. Women -- I will fix all of that. Women will be happy, healthy, confident and free. You will no longer be thinking about abortion because it is now where it always had to be with the states.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Will that inspire women?

MEHTA: It will inspire a certain segment of women. Historically, I believe there has been a gender gap between the two parties, and I think it's exacerbated the situation because of Roe v Wade being overturned and the concern about abortion rights.

I mean, we just had a story come out last week from ProPublica about two women in Georgia who literally died because they couldn't access medical care.

So, you know, reproductive rights, and just medical care for women are just so front of mind, front and center that that's even though women tended to support Democrats more than men have it just seems more so this year -- actually the last couple of years since most of the 2022 when Roe was overturned, that there's just -- there's a real feeling that I think for a long time there was a segment of women who did not believe that abortion rights would ever go away.

And when it actually happened, it really, I think just really reframed the priorities in their voting patterns.

WHITFIELD: All right, Seema Mehta of "The Los Angeles Times". Great to have you. Thank you.

MEHTA: Thank you for having me (ph).

WHITFIELD: All right. it's been just over one week since the NYPD's interim commissioner took on the position and federal agents have executed a search warrant of his home. Our team is in New York with the latest.

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[14:32:28]

WHITFIELD: Federal authorities have searched the homes of New York City Police Department's Interim Commissioner Thomas Donlon more than a week after he was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams.

Donlon himself, a former FBI agent, says investigators on Friday took documents that he has held for about 20 years, and were unrelated to his work with the NYPD. The search warrant is not believed to be related to the four federal investigations surrounding Mayor Eric Adams' office.

Joining me right now is CNN correspondent Gloria Pazmino.

So, Gloria, what do we believe is the center of this warrant?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Fred, to be completely honest with you, it really remains a little bit unclear why federal investigators took the remarkable step of searching the homes of the commissioner on Friday. But our law enforcement sources tell us that this is related to documents that commissioner may have been holding onto from his -- his previous positions in law enforcement. As you said, he was in the FBI for many years.

They also told us that this search warrant that was executed at the homes of Commissioner Donlon is not related to the four other federal investigations that are currently really ensnaring city hall.

Now, the commissioner put out a statement confirming much of this information late last night, and I want to just read a portion of it. He said that federal authorities took materials that came into my possession approximately 20 years ago and are unrelated to my work with the New York City police department. This is not a department matter. And the department will not be commenting.

So there's a real effort in that statement from the commissioner to separate whatever this search is about from the NYPD, and that is significant because one of the four investigations that's currently unfolding involves the NYPD.

Now, as we mentioned, Tom Donlon spent -- had a long career in the FBI. He was a special agent with the FBI and he was also director of the New York Office of Homeland Security. And he also worked with the NYPD joint terrorism task force. So the question is whether he came across some sort of classified documents or some other kind of documents that for whatever reason now as he enters his role, as police commissioner, this has come up to the surface again.

So, while law enforcement sources tell us this is not related to the city hall investigations, it is certainly a headache for city hall and for Mayor Eric Adams, who for weeks now has been having to answer about these investigations and is waiting for a resolution on all of these investigations which involve top members of his administration, the NYPD, as well as some other top-level people in city hall.

[14:35:20]

WHITFIELD: Yeah, and as for Donlon, he's only been on the job for less than two weeks now. So how might this impact his job?

PAZMINO: So Fred, that's really a critical and important question. And the reason I say that is because so much of what the commissioner does at the NYPD is about the rank and file, right? This is the largest police force in the country. And Donlon is currently the head of it, even if its on an interim basis. And he needs to rank and file to be able to trust them, to be able to follow him because he has to lead this department.

So it raises some questions about whether or not this search warrant and this investigation is going to affect that as he just is beginning to take the helm of the department.

Now, it's not clear to us just yet if he is going to remain interim, if the mayor is going to appoint another commissioner, or if Tom Donlon is going to go from interim to permanent, and that's going to play out over the next several weeks. But it does not help that he's only been there just a handful of days and is already having to face these questions.

WHITFIELD: Yeah. All right. Gloria Pazmino. Thank you so much.

All right. Straight ahead, Lebanon is reeling after a deadly week of Israeli attacks, and small blasts hitting Hezbollah operatives, pagers and walkie-talkies. They killed dozens of people and injured hundreds. So how did Israel turn wireless devices into deadly explosives? We'll investigate next.

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[14:41:28]

WHITFIELD: Officials in Lebanon say the death toll from an Israeli strike in southern Beirut on Friday has now risen to 45. That's in addition to the dozens killed when rigged pagers and walkie-talkies exploded across Lebanon this past week. Those attacks severely impacting Hezbollah's ability to communicate.

CNN's Brian Todd has been talking to a demolition expert about how those devices were turned into weapons.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just a tiny amount of plastic explosives packed into a pager can have a detonation this big.

If this was a person, what happens to the person?

RYAN MORRIS, PRESIDENT, TRIPWIRE SOUTH: It's going to be catastrophic what just took place here to the human body.

TODD: The impact shown on a mannequin it was clipped to.

MORRIS: It can be fatal over time, bleeding out things of that nature.

TODD: And, apparently, there were some people who have serious facial and eye injuries. Could this blind you? It was forever.

MORRIS: Yeah, absolutely.

TODD: Walkie-talkie is a larger device with more room to hold explosives inside and more material to be sent flying. And it's often held close to the face.

This one caused even more damage, debris strewn widely, pieces of twisted metal launched as far as 100 yards and severe injury to the mannequin.

MORRIS: It would be devastating if it were in your hand or close to your head.

TODD: These two tests were done at CNN's request in the wake of the explosions recently of pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon, said to target Hezbollah members and causing thousands of injuries and dozens of deaths. Based on photos of the debris of devices in Lebanon, these tests use PET and explosive on a pager of the same branding and a walkie-talkie similar in size to the ones targeted in Lebanon.

CNN is not showing how the explosives might be placed or how they might be detonated.

MORRIS: Three, two, one.

TODD: The tests were conducted by Ryan Morris, a former explosive specialist with the Department of Homeland Security, who runs a firm which trains government and military personnel.

MORRIS: Whoever did it, they were pretty skilled.

TODD: Another explosives expert who examined a walkie-talkie similar to the model targeted in Lebanon said making thousands of bombs was a big and risky undertaking.

MAJ. GEN. MANIK SABHARWAL (RET.), EXPLOSIVES ANALYST: It will take a lot of time for the explosive to be put in, for it to be connected to the initiating mechanism, to be connected to the detonator. Chances of it exploding while they are doing, all this is also there.

TODD: And the devices are so small.

SABHARWAL: I don't find any empty space in this. It's difficult.

TODD: How hard is it to, I guess, pack and explosive into something this small?

MORRIS: Someone has any knowledge of this tradecraft can do it very easily. It's -- you can secrete explosives in anything. TODD: And triggering thousands of them all at once?

MORRIS: If they have all the numbers for the -- for the pagers, they just send a massive texts to all of them, all those numbers, and they go off the same time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): How vulnerable is the traveling public to explosions like this? Ryan Morris says, airport technology is really good now at detecting tiny, tiny amounts of explosive material in devices like this, and he says, it stays with you if you handle it. I got a tiny amount of that material on my hands. And Morris says it'll stay with me for a awhile no matter how many times I wash my hands.

Brian Todd, CNN, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

WHITFIELD: I want to bring in now former CIA officer Bob Baer.

Good to see you, Bob.

So how extensive of an operation would you believe this is?

BOB BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Fred, I would speculate it's been going on for decades. Hezbollah has been using ICOM radios, the kinds of went off push to talk radio since the '80s. They're all over Lebanon and it was just a matter of setting up networks in Europe or the Far East to insert themselves into the acquisition network, and the fact that Hezbollah was not checking these devices for nitrate residue, for instance, tells me they've gotten pretty sloppy.

So but at the end of the day, its Israeli determination to decapitate the military leadership of Hezbollah and this was their opening shot.

WHITFIELD: So CNN has also learned that the explosions were the result of a joint operation between Israel's intelligence service, Mossad, and the Israeli military.

At the same time, Israel has not claimed direct responsibility here. So if Israel is responsible for this kind of operation, what has this done now to tensions in that region?

BAER: Well, what it's done was taken Hezbollah and put it in a corner where the Israelis are challenging Hezbollah to react. They can either surrender, withdraw from the southern Lebanon or they can hit back at Israel, which they did is we know this morning and yesterday.

So the best guess is that Hezbollah will continue to retaliate for this, was a huge defeat for Hezbollah -- an embarrassment, by the way, and they'll continue to retaliate. And I'm sure that Israel was anticipating this and whether it's looking for a justification to go into southern Lebanon or I don't know.

But Israel certainly prepared having moving divisions moved to division up north to go after Hezbollah. And if Israel played a role here, is it your belief that Israel also had help from some other entity here?

BAER: Well, IDF explosives experts know this stuff. I've been in their facilities before. They really know what they're doing. These remote controlled detonators, like pagers and walkie-talkies.

Outside help, they don't need it. They don't need the help of the United States and they would have been foolish to, you know, advertise this operation with any other country. I'm sure they did it on its own. Its -- Israeli fingerprints all over. They've been using these techniques going back to the '90s or earlier.

WHITFIELD: Israel says both the pager attack and, you know, the walkie-talkie attack, and the attack that killed several commanders on Friday seriously degraded some of Hezbollah's capabilities is that your assessment as well?

BAER: Oh, I think for sure. I mean, we don't how far the Israelis have gone. All those missile sites which are in caves in the south, do the Israelis have transmitters in him I you know, it wouldn't surprise me if they did.

I mean, this is a huge, huge defeat for Hezbollah. It looked, you know, for decades, it was invulnerable, that it was a real well military and could -- could fight the Israelis to a standstill as it did in 2000. But since then, it's -- like I've said, it's just gotten sloppy and it -- since 2008, Israel has been successfully decapitating its military in Syria and in Lebanon.

WHITFIELD: The U.S. is warning Israel to deescalate with Hezbollah right now. What kind of shuttle diplomacy do you believe might be happening?

BAER: Well, the message is going to Hezbollah indirectly because we have no direct relations with Hezbollah saying, look, if you continue to bomb Haifa or you fire rockets at Tel Aviv, Netanyahu is going to come after you and you're going to have a replay of the 2006 war during which the southern suburbs of Beirut were flattened. And it was that was a defeat for Hezbollah as well, and it's something that Nasrallah doesn't want.

So some honest broker needs to get in between these two sides and figure out what a truce would look like. I'm not sure what Netanyahu would accept at this point. He says he's going to take out Hezbollah and remove it as a threat. And I tend to believe he will.

WHITFIELD: What kind of role, if any, do you think the U.S. is playing here in this equation?

BAER: Well, we've got aircraft carriers in the area and a wider war broke out, let's see if they pulled in Iran, then we would have a lot of influence because we're not going to - we're not going to let Netanyahu -- Netanyahu call the shots in this in a wider war. So that's what were really scared about, is Iran and its threat to the Gulf.

WHITFIELD: All right. Bob Baer, we'll leave it there for now. Thanks so much. Good to see you.

BAER: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, we're right in the middle of hurricane season and were watching a tropical system brewing right now.

[14:50:01]

The forecast, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, today marks the first day of fall. However, for many Americans, it still feels a lot like summer, thanks to unseasonably warm temperatures across the country. And that's likely to change this week as a potential tropical system bears down on the Gulf of Mexico.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar has the latest on some fast changing weather conditions.

[14:55:02]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is the first official day of fall and for some areas, it has been quite a quick transition from those summer-like temperatures back into what this season would normally feel like.

And it's all because of this cold front right through here. So, all of the areas behind it have starting to see the temperatures drop dramatically.

Take a look at this. Oklahoma City topping out at 97 degrees yesterday, today, likely only to make it into the low to mid 80s. Chicago topped out at 92 yesterday, today, only going to see those temperatures into the 70s. And is that cold front continues to slide south and east more and more cities are going to see that drop in temperatures.

Now another thing that were keeping a close eye on the tropics, especially this area right here in the western Caribbean, because it has the potential to develop into a tropical system as it moves into the Gulf of Mexico, as we go through the next several days. Now, one thing to keep an eye on is a lot of the models aren't really in great agreement in terms its of where this storm ends up going, or the intensity of the storm. Both of them, however, do anticipate having this system become more of a tropical development as we get into the middle portion of the upcoming week before finally continuing on.

One of the things to note is regardless of what type of system this becomes, whether its a tropical system, tropical storm, or even a hurricane, it is likely to bring an influx of moisture to a lot of areas along the Gulf Coast specifically. So areas of Florida all the way back through Louisiana will have to keep a close eye on this potential system.

One other thing that bodes well for development of this particular system is how warm the waters are in the Gulf of Mexico as it moves from the Western Caribbean up into the Gulf of Mexico. Its going to be going through temperatures that are in the mid to even some spots, upper 80s which will really help make this system develop rather quickly as it moves through that area.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much, Allison.

All right. It's a move that could change how the U.S. approaches clean energy projects. A coal-fired power plant in Minnesota will soon shut down and reopen using solar and wind energy. Experts say the plan to repurpose the plants existing infrastructure could supercharge the push for renewable energy.

CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behold a fire breathing dinosaur named Sherco.

For decades, it has been devouring mountains of coal in Minnesota and belching out gigatons of planet cooking gases, making this power plant the state's biggest climate polluter. But in a vivid example of energy transition, Sherco's owners are changing its diet, swapping out coal for renewables, until the last fire goes out in 2030.

And after that, 125,000 homes will be powered by sun, wind and iron batteries with four days backup.

WEIR: Is Xcel decarbonizing as a strategy?

RYAN LONG, PRESIDENT, XCEL ENERGY MINNESOTA: Yes, so we are decarbonizing as a strategy. We have had a goal to get to 100 percent carbon free energy by 2050 for a number of years now.

Two years ago, the Minnesota legislature passed a law that said they want to get to 100 percent carbon free energy by 2040. So that's now our target and we're on track to meet that.

WEIR: That pile of coal weighs around 1.7 million tons and in about six years, it'll be all gone. The smokestacks will be obsolete. But this fossil of a different age will remain a valuable part of the community, pushing out clean energy from wind farms and solar fields all around the state.

But this is also a model for the rest of the country. A study out of Cal Berkeley found that the U.S. could double its power capacity by building new energy next to old infrastructure.

PETE WYCKOFF, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF ENERGY RESOURCES, MINNESOTA COMMERCE DEPT.: Minnesota, for economic reasons, was already moving to phase out coal.

But what the Inflation Reduction Act did, through its tax credits, is give extra incentives for when you phase out a plant, a fossil fuel plant, to build something new right there.

WEIR: And use the bones in the connection.

WYCKOFF: Use -- you use the -- the site is actually being used.

WEIR: Yes.

WYCKOFF: But the more important thing is you're using an existing way to connect to the electric grid.

WEIR: Minnesota recently completed a transmission upgrade but the lines are already strained by all the new supply and demand. So like a fast pass at Disneyland, this method allows clean energy projects to skip the years-long wait for grid connection while making the shift a lot less jarring for local communities.

What does that mean for workers? Can the same people who are now working in coal come over and work in sunlight?

LONG: Well, some of them can. So we've got about 240 workers at the plant. And what we have told them is, if you want a job with Xcel Energy after that plant retires, you'll have a job with Xcel Energy.

WEIR: Would this have happened without the Tim Walz administration and their targets?

Would it have happened without the Inflation Reduction Act that Joe Biden --

LONG: Yes. So the Walz administration has been really great to work with and the IRA benefits have been really significant for our customers. That helps us move through this transition while bringing customer bills down compared to what they otherwise would be.

We're extracting about $300 million of IRA benefits for our customers with this project alone.