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Kushner, Witkoff Meet Putin In Russia For Ukraine Negotiations; Judge Declares Mistrial In Lindsay Clancy Case; Looking Into Damage On The China Border; Inside Occupied Southern Lebanon; Iranian Woman Faces Deportation To War-Torn African Country; LSU Excludes Former NFL Players From Roster Amid Litigation. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired September 05, 2026 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW LUNETTA, CNN HERO: This wouldn't exist without the tenants.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're a great leader, sir.

Peace is now what I have. It's like freedom to just exhale, like your nervous system is now able to rest.

LUNETTA: Let's go get this toilet fixed, shall we?

I still don't love being called a landlord, but it is true. That's what we are. And I think that what this population needs is landlords who care. And this is absolutely what we do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Bianna Golodryga.

Right now two top White House advisers are at the Kremlin presenting what President Trump calls a plan to end Russia's war with Ukraine. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff are meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin after spending time with one of Putin's key aides earlier today.

President Trump seemed to be somewhat optimistic ahead of the visit, but Russian officials have indicated that Moscow is not in the mood to compromise.

CNN's Julia Benbrook is in New Jersey, where President Trump is spending the weekend.

So, Julia, after this meeting, we know that Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are traveling to Kyiv. What is the administration realistically thinking could come out of this trip?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a lot to consider here. As you pointed out already we're hearing that not in the mood to compromise, so it's hard to understand exactly what might come out of this. But we do know that Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, they arrived at the Kremlin not too long ago, and these meetings are taking place. The meetings are focused on potential ways to bring the now years long conflict to an end.

And as the U.S. delegation makes this trip, both sides say that they have agreed to a three-day halt in attacks in the cities where these negotiations are taking place, and Moscow is expected to just be the first stop here. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that the two are going to travel to Kyiv sometime tomorrow, and that stop in the Ukrainian capital, this would be the envoy's first, as Ukraine has been seen a barrage of Russian missiles in recent weeks and as they've been pleading with the United States for more Patriot missiles to help intercept those attacks.

President Donald Trump, he's spending his weekend here in New Jersey at one of his properties nearby. But he did speak about this from the Oval Office just yesterday. He previewed this trip. He said that he was sending great negotiators to essentially see what they can get done here. He did acknowledge, though, the complicated nature of these discussions, and that's notable because as he started his second term, he said over and over again that he believed that this conflict would be easy to bring to an end and that it would happen very quickly after he took office again.

Now, he says that he and his team have some ideas for peace as these talks take place. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have an idea for peace. Look, I said late wars. Most of them were supposed to be, in my opinion, more difficult than Russia-Ukraine. There's a personality problem in Russia-Ukraine. You have President Zelenskyy and President Putin. They truly hate each other. Do you know what hate is? They have serious hate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: Now, previous attempts to come to an agreement for lasting peace, for an end to Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine, stalled last winter after multiple attempts of mediated talks by the United States and some of the key areas of disagreement were territory as well as security guarantees -- Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Julia Benbrook, thank you.

Well, earlier I spoke with Ivo Daalder. He is the former U.S. ambassador to NATO and senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center. He's also the co-author of the book "The Empty Throne," about the U.S. role in global diplomacy.

I asked him what it would take to turn a three-day ceasefire for Kyiv into a full-on ceasefire for all of Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVOL DAALDER, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Well, I think that's the really big question, and I'm afraid it's not going to be having Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner or, for that matter, the CIA director, John Ratcliffe visiting Moscow, which of course he did a little over a week ago. The fundamental reality means until the pressure is really felt in Moscow, not just from what the Ukrainians are doing, which is very significant, they're hitting the Russians very hard, particularly the energy infrastructure, but also bringing the war home to the Russians.

But until the pressure really comes from the United States, together with its allies around the world, I don't see Vladimir Putin doing anything other than entertaining meetings with people from the United States, and then basically sending them on their merry way to say, until you go convince the Ukrainians to stop, I'm not stopping.

[15:05:07]

GOLODRYGA: When you mentioned additional pressure from the United States, we know that Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff are set to present a new plan to Vladimir Putin. Do you think any of that pressure will be explicit in this new plan?

DAALDER: Well, I hope so. But the record doesn't give you a lot of confidence. Steve Witkoff in particular but Jared Kushner as well have been having discussions with the Russians now for a good 18 months or so. And the focus of those discussions have been in some ways less on how to end the war on Ukraine, and more on how we can reestablish economic relationships with Russia.

That has been the singular interest of Steve Witkoff. He sees in some ways the end of the war as the step towards an improved economic relationship. That's exactly, of course, what Vladimir Putin and people around him want. And so I think that rather than pressure, the focus is once again going to be incentives.

Incentives about normalization of economic relationships, incentives about trying to find ways to explore gas and oil exploration, particularly up in the high north, rather than the kind of pressure which we need, which is to have Vladimir Putin understand that if you invade a neighboring country and try to take its territory, there are consequences and prices to pay and not some economic incentive down the road if you say, well, I'll just stop and keep 20 percent of my neighboring country.

GOLODRYGA: So you think Russia -- the United States is still presenting more carrots as options here to end the war than sticks. It comes as Russia, meanwhile, still demands that Ukraine withdraw before any ceasefire. This is Putin negotiating terms of peace, perhaps, or the terms of Ukraine's capitulation is what it appears to look more like, Evo.

DAALDER: Yes. No, exactly. And I think, you know, this idea that somehow after four and a half years, the Ukrainians should give up territory that they have spent an extraordinary amount of casualties and worked so hard to defend, to give it up in the face of what? A promise of what? Even if there were a ceasefire today, the reality is that there will not be an end to this war. Vladimir Putin will not be satisfied until he controls the future of Ukraine.

And by that means no membership in NATO, no relationship with the Europeans, no relationship with the West. Moscow needs to control Kyiv's destiny. That's what this war has always been about. And until it is very clear to Vladimir Putin, he can't have what he wants, and the Ukrainians are demonstrating day in and day out that he can't have what he wants, until he accepts that we're going to be in a situation of some form of conflict.

So the idea that the Ukrainians should preemptively surrender, they didn't do it when the war started, they're certainly not going to do it after four and a half years of bitter, bitter fighting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: Our thanks to Ambassador Ivo Daalder.

And coming up for us, a dramatic ending to the Lindsay Clancy triple murder trial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE WILLIAM SULLIVAN, MASSACHUSETTS SUPERIOR COURT: Members of the jury at this point, I'm going to declare that the jury is deadlocked, and I'm going to declare a mistrial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: And with that announcement, we'll take a look at what happens next to the former nurse accused of murdering her three young children and the emotional impact the trial has had on everyone involved.

Plus, a young woman who fled Iran to the United States for safety now faces potential deportation to a country she has no ties to. Why her attorney says sending her to the Central African Republic could put her in danger.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:13:41]

GOLODRYGA: Prosecutors in Massachusetts will soon decide whether to retry Lindsay Clancy for triple murder. The judge declared a mistrial on Friday after the jury emerged from seven days of deliberations in a deadlock. Her lawyers do not deny that she killed her three young children, but argued that she should not be held criminally responsible because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.

For more insight, I'm joined by psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry, Dr. Gail Saltz.

Dr. Saltz, thanks for joining us. This has been such an emotionally painful and heavy ordeal for everyone in the nation who has been following this trial. There are no winners here. It is just complete heartbreak to hear day after day throughout this trial about what this mother was going through. And of course, most importantly, these poor young children who lost their lives. And here we are at the end. And you've said that the 11-1 jury mirrors a divide across the country, and it is people who see postpartum psychosis as a medical emergency, and those who've never heard of it and can't imagine someone would be committing this kind of act without knowing that it is wrong.

For that second group, what does a psychotic delusion actually do to a person's grip on reality?

[15:15:05]

DR. GAIL SALTZ, PSYCHIATRY PROFESSOR, NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL AND WEILL-CORNELL MEDICAL COLLEGE: The definition of psychosis, which is this break with reality, is this experience of a symptom called delusions, which means thoughts that are inconsistent with reality. They could be tremendously varied. They could be, you know, I am being possessed by the devil. Someone put a chip in my brain and is monitoring me.

I mean, they could be anything. They often do have kind of a paranoid flavor to them, but they don't have to. And then in addition part of psychosis is either auditory or visual or actually even both. Hallucinations, which means hearing voices that are not there. They can't -- they're in your head. They sound like they're in the room to you, so they feel very real. They can't be distinguished from real voices.

And often they're telling you to do something called commands. But sometimes they're just commenting, commenting on what you're doing. They could even seem like friendly voices, but they often turn dark for people who are having psychosis, and visual hallucinations as well. And you are thinking can become very confused. It can be hard to tell sleep from day. It can be hard to tell what's real and not real.

And unfortunately, what is hard for people to understand is you can have an idea. For example, when I have seen women with postpartum psychosis that the devil will take your children unless you kill them and send them to God, or you've got to -- you've got to end their life and thereby save them from something more heinous and more terrible. They're very varied, but unfortunately, it can take you over psychosis in such a way that you just don't know that what you're doing is essentially wrong, wrong by the law. You think what you're doing is right.

And an important point about this trial is that it's not that you're not guilty by reason of insanity, and it's not even just the, quote, "insanity." You have to prove that the psychosis at that time impaired that person's ability to understand that what they were doing was wrong. So someone could be psychotic and know -- and do something wrong and know what they were doing was wrong in that moment because their psychosis didn't affect that area and still be found guilty.

But in this case, it, you know, again, I haven't examined Lindsay Clancy. I wasn't -- I'm not in the courtroom. I haven't read the charts. But the implication was that she was so affected by her psychosis that she really didn't understand that what she did was wrong legally and that she was compelled by her psychotic thoughts to do this action and also to take her own life.

GOLODRYGA: You've written that calling her evil and denying the illness opens a Pandora's box for people with mental illness. But of course, there are three children who were murdered here. And, you know, this raises the question, how do you make the argument to people who feel that a not guilty verdict means no one answers for their heinous murder?

Are you surprised that it came to this conclusion, a mistrial? And what can we expect to see if, in fact, prosecutors decide to retry this case?

SALTZ: Well, I think it's important that people understand that whatever -- however you want to look at this case, there will be accountability. If she was found guilty by reason of insanity, she will be remanded to a mental institution that I could assure you is not a life far different from being in prison, except that there will be mental health care and she will not have freedom for whatever period of time.

You know, usually when Andrea Yates is still in prison many, many -- I mean, not in prison, in a psychiatric facility many, many years later. So, you know, being paralyzed from the waist down, having killed her children, you know, and being in a mental institution indefinitely is not having any accountability, I guess I would say. And I certainly am not implying that mental illness is across the board, some excuse for committing crime, because I don't believe that at all.

I just think it's really important that people be able to understand what psychosis is, how we can spot it, how we can intervene earlier, how we can improve our systems for intervention, how we can understand that it can drive someone to take their own life or harm someone else, which is why it's a psychiatric emergency and someone needs to be in the hospital or observed at all times, and maybe even have her children removed at times.

[15:20:16]

And I think that's what's important for people to understand that the what kind of accountability is, of course, a legal question. I understand people's feelings. I mean, what could be worse than the death of these three children? Nothing. Nothing could be worse. I'm really trying to shed a light on the fact that many women struggle with postpartum mental illness, and it can get very severe, and it is really important to recognize and treat early. And we have to do more in this country to do both of those things and to increase access for good care.

GOLODRYGA: We've learned a lot about this over the course of the last few weeks. It has been very heavy and emotionally scarring covering this trial. Also important as we learn so much about what women at times go through and of course, of course, thinking about those three young children whose lives were taken far too soon. Dr. Gail Saltz, thank you.

SALTZ: Thank you for having me today.

GOLODRYGA: And coming up, we'll take you inside southern Lebanon where families are trying to build a life amid the rubble, even as Israeli strikes continue. For some of the youngest children there, the sounds of war have become part of everyday life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YORGOS MITRI, LIVING IN ISRAELI-OCCUPIED LEBANON (through text translation): What's in the sky? Jets.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Planes, jets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:07]

GOLODRYGA: There are major developments to tell you about in Nepal, where two more people have been rescued. Disaster workers pulled a woman alive from a flood damaged building 10 days after devastating flooding swept through the region.

Video shows the 60-year-old woman being lifted from the upper floor of a four-story building. Nepali army officials say she sustained a deep injury to her right leg and a relative now tells CNN that she will undergo a leg operation.

There was another remarkable rescue. A joint team of Nepali and international rescuers pulled a Chinese national alive from a tunnel. Officials say he was found about 245 yards inside the tunnel. The flooding killed more than 1300 people, according to a CNN tally of official reports from both countries.

And we want to take a look at the damage on the China side of the border. While it was not as widespread as in Nepal, it was still devastating. At last check, 31 people were reported dead. Earlier, CNN went on a rare government organized reporting trip, and our crew was accompanied by Chinese officials. However, we maintain full editorial control of the coverage.

Here's CNN's Simone McCarthy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMONE MCCARTHY, CNN SENIOR CHINA CORRESPONDENT: We're on the road to the China-Nepal border on the Tibet side. CNN is part of a handful of foreign media that are on a government organized trip to the disaster zone in Tibet after a major natural disaster struck the China-Nepal border late last month.

Now we're driving hours to the border area, and that really speaks to just how remote this region is. We're going through tunnel after tunnel through the Himalayas, on this plateau. The altitude here is around 3500 meters.

Now disaster effort -- the response efforts have been incredibly difficult in this remote part of Tibet. Roads were completely blocked. Information has also been moving slowly out of this area, and that's been devastating for families who are desperate for news about loved ones that they believe were at a hard hit land border crossing on the China-Nepal border into Tibet side. We'll be traveling to that border crossing and speaking with local officials there, trying to understand more about what happened and how those rescue efforts are progressing.

Access for foreign reporters into Tibet is extraordinary. Now, this is the only part of China that requires foreigners to get registration authorization in order to enter. And that's especially for journalists. Information is difficult to get from this part of China.

Now we're seeing that our itinerary is being closely controlled by the government officials. But at the same time, we can certainly see that they're interested in showing what those rescue efforts have been on the ground. The challenges that the rescuers have been facing, and we're going to put questions to local officials about those efforts and when we're going to get more information about the people who may have been lost at that border crossing.

Simone McCarthy, CNN, Tibet, China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: Thanks to Simone.

And six months into the war with Iran, there is no official ceasefire in place. However, a ceasefire with an Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, is technically in effect in Lebanon. The U.S. brokered agreement between Israel and Lebanon was signed in June. It says Israel is supposed to hand over small pockets of occupied territory to the Lebanese army. But Israeli forces have reduced Muslim towns to rubble, while a few Christian villages have been spared but cut off from the rest of the country.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond got exclusive access to the hard to reach area.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (voice-over): From this coastal road to the rubble-strewn countryside, you'd be forgiven for thinking this is Israeli territory.

[15:30:07]

But it's not. This is a rare firsthand look at occupied Lebanon.

We just passed an Israeli military checkpoint. We're in a convoy of vehicles, dozens of families reaching their homes inside the Israeli zone of control. Three Christian villages where many people are still living, the only way in or out of this area for these families. (Voice-over): Israel invaded this area nearly six months ago after

Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that is based here, fired rockets at Israel for the first time since 2024, retaliating for Israeli strikes on Iran.

We're really close to the Israeli border now and this is all we're seeing. Piles of rubble, one home after the other completely destroyed.

(Voice-over): A ceasefire is technically in effect here, yet Israel carries out near daily strikes. Most of this rubble was caused by bulldozers and controlled demolitions, part of Israel's plan to raise every town and village in this area, with only a few exceptions. A trio of Christian villages have been spared the fate of their Shia Muslim neighbors.

The contrast really is quite striking. We're now inside one of those Christian villages. And as you can see, there is life here.

(Voice-over): But below the surface, life is far from normal. The residents here are surrounded by the ruins of neighboring villages.

So where's Bint Jbeil?

(Voice-over): Even 2-year-old Joe recognizes the sounds of jets overhead.

MITRI (through text translation): What's in the sky? Jets.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Like many in this Christian village, Yorgos blames Hezbollah, which embedded in the surrounding Shia villages for bringing war to his doorstep.

MITRI: We're living in peace. Nothing happening here. Why we did all of this? And you can see the results.

DIAMOND: Do you feel like they deserve this? Do you feel like --

MITRI: No, no. Nobody deserve like this. Nobody. We need our government to be here and to take responsibilities.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The Lebanese government says it's now trying to do just that, deploying the army to reclaim sovereignty over southern Lebanon from both Israel and Hezbollah. A task it's trying to accomplish without coming into conflict with either one.

COL. RAJA AMER, SOUTH LITANI SECTOR, LEBANESE ARMED FORCES: We need the world to see that we are working in a very dangerous situation and a very harsh situation.

DIAMOND (voice-over): That danger comes into focus as soon as this soldier begins telling the story of the Israeli strike that killed his comrade.

When you were first deployed to the south -- and that was some kind of Israeli strike close by. This is at least the fourth Israeli artillery strike that we have heard in this area since we've been here. And we've only been here for about 20 minutes.

AMER: It's continuous in all the area of operation. As I told you, since the 27th of June framework agreement, we had to know more than 5,000 attacks. This is the ceasefire from their side.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The Lebanese Army says 34 of its soldiers have been killed so far this year. Some died in Israeli strikes. Others were killed by unexploded ordnance. As part of the ceasefire agreement with Israel, Lebanon is working to clear the south of weapons held by non-state actors like Hezbollah. This fiber optic drone is just one example.

MAJ. ALI FERRAN, ENGINEERING REGIMENT, LEBANESE ARMED FORCES: We are finding munitions deployed by the Israeli enemy forces, and we are finding munitions dropped by armed groups from Lebanon.

DIAMOND (voice-over): The scale of the challenge comes into view as we drive through the south, a bastion of Hezbollah support where the group's flags and martyrs' posters line the roads, before arriving in the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyah. This is a pilot zone where the U.S.- backed framework agreement between Lebanon and Israel. Soldiers now patrol the town, manned checkpoints at its entrances, and monitor military activity from observation posts like this one.

This is really quite striking. You have a Lebanese army observation post right here. And just a few hundred meters away on the opposite hilltop, an Israeli military position.

(Voice-over): The pilot zone means some families have been able to return to their homes or whatever is left of them.

MAHMOUD DARWISH, ZAWTAR AL-GHARBIYAH RESIDENT: This is from Israel, America.

DIAMOND (voice-over): And peace is impossible to imagine.

DARWISH (through text translation): They killed us. They killed our people. They killed our loved ones. They killed our friends. They destroyed our homes. How do they think they'll ever make peace with us? We fled. We left the village. I wished during that period, just for 10, 15 minutes, to return to my home, to smell the land, because this is my land. My land loves me and I love her. I won't leave her and she won't allow me to leave her.

[15:35:00]

DIAMOND (voice-over): Darwish barely flinches at the sound of a nearby airstrike.

DARWISH (through text translation): We are here and we will remain here.

DIAMOND (voice-over): It is here, amid displays of defiance, that Lebanon is probing one potential path forward.

AMER: The final objective is clear. It's the Lebanese state authority inside the pilot zone strictly.

DIAMOND: But why is the Lebanese army not going and kicking indoors and confiscating weapons?

AMER: Doing things in violence against our own people, it will be also with other sequences.

DIAMOND: Lebanon is a country with a history of civil war. Is that one of the reasons why, you know, the Lebanese army is not being aggressive against Hezbollah?

AMER: I'm saying that we will do this slowly. We will do this in a reasonable way. Who will fight the children of this country? But in the same time, we are not going to accept something illegal.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Jeremy Diamond, CNN, southern Lebanon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:40:35]

GOLODRYGA: An Iranian woman who fled to the U.S. for religious reasons is now facing deportation to the Central African Republic. It's a war torn country she's never been to, but one that has an agreement with the U.S. to accept deportees. Her case comes as the Trump administration continues its mass deportation campaign.

CNN's Rafael Romo joins me now for more.

And Rafael, she entered the country undocumented in 2024 and is currently being detained in Georgia. What more can you tell us about her?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Bianna. Well, first, let me tell you that the detained Iranian woman asked CNN not to reveal her name out of fear that her family and her home country may face persecution, and also because she's afraid that she may face retribution from immigration authorities here in the U.S..

According to her attorney, the 21-year-old woman has been held for 14 months by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, located south of Atlanta. Last month, she received a document stating that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security intends to deport her to the Central African Republic. As you mentioned, a war torn country she has absolutely no ties to.

"I don't know from where the order came that they needed to send me to the Central African Republic, and I had to sign a paper," the Iranian woman told me over the phone. "And I was so shocked, so shocked, I was scared and I kept telling them that I wouldn't know what to do in that country. This is making me crazy," she said.

Her attorney, Martin Rosenbluth, told me his client entered the country illegally through the Mexican border in 2024, but won what is known as a withholding of removal case, which used to mean she could stay in the country. Rosenbluth also told me her arrest at her apartment here in Atlanta in June of last year was completely unnecessary because she had been fully compliant with immigration authorities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN ROSENBLUTH, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: They handcuffed her, they shackled her, and they took her to the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. And there was no need for it. She was fully cooperating. And she's 20 years old. I mean, she's a child. She's a kid. And they arrested her in this brutal manner and took her to the Stewart Detention Center.

ROMO: Did she have a criminal background?

ROSENBLUTH: No, sir. Nothing at all. And again, I know, I know I've said this, but I mean, she was fully cooperating with ICE. She was doing everything she was supposed to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: During our telephone interview, I asked the Iranian woman why she fled Iran in the first place, and she told me the following, quote, "I left Iran because I converted to Christianity. I was born a Muslim and I converted to Christianity, and we had some problems with the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. So I had to leave the country."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSENBLUTH: She converted to Christianity from Islam, and in Iran, that is a death sentence. So, I mean, she came here because she didn't have any choice. I mean, she came here because she was in fear of her life, that she would be killed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Rosenbluth said they are trying to block ICE from sending her to the Central African Republic, even though she won her asylum case and proved it was unsafe for her to go back to Iran. In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security told CNN the following, "If an illegal alien chooses to file a claim in court, refusing to go to their home country, we are required by law to find a safe and secure nation for them to go to. To be clear, a pending application does not confer legal status in the United States."

And Bianna, according to Rosenbluth, an immigration judge has granted a stay of removal and a motion to reconsider, which means his client cannot be deported before September 17th when she is scheduled to have a hearing.

Now, back to you.

GOLODRYGA: Rafael Romo, thank you for that report. And coming up for us, one of college football's biggest fights this

season may not be on the field, but in court. The push to let former NFL players suit up for college games.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:49:18]

GOLODRYGA: Well, with just hours before kickoff in tonight's highly anticipated game between LSU and Clemson, CNN sports correspondent Carolyn Manno is here to explain all the legal drama playing out off- field surrounding LSU's decision to keep two former NFL players off tonight's roster.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Bianna, today is the first full Saturday of this year's college football season, with games actually spanning all across the holiday weekend. But the matchup that everybody continues to talk about is LSU and Lane Kiffin versus the SEC and NCAA.

Before the season began, Kiffin and LSU made the decision to recruit players with NFL training camp and roster experience, which quickly triggered a legal battle over whether professional players should be included in collegiate athletics, a very polarizing topic.

[15:50:06]

LSU did make the decision to leave former NFL players Dae'Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris off of its final 103-man roster for tonight's season opener against Clemson. That was the big question. Will these players play or won't they? Or will they even have the option to play?

This decision came despite an injunction from a Louisiana court that legally cleared them to play today. Both are former undrafted NFL signees who played under Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss last season and are looking to return to college under a legal challenge regarding the NCAA's new five-year eligibility rules. It is worth noting that LSU did leave two spots open on its 105-player limit, signaling that while they're making the decision to avoid legal chaos for the opener, the players could be added later on in the season.

For now, LSU and Clemson are going to proceed with their season opener, which LSU won last year 17 to 10. But we will be hearing more about this topic as the college football season officially rolls on.

Back to you, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: All right. And joining me now is a nationally recognized legal advocate in collegiate sports and trial lawyer, Tom Mars.

Tom, thanks for taking the time today. So I want you to take a listen to LSU's head coach who said this to ESPN just hours ago about his decision not to put these former NFL players on tonight's roster, despite a judge ruling Thursday that he could. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LANE KIFFIN, LSU HEAD COACH: As much as I feel for the players, I had to make a decision that is for the big picture of LSU and the LSU football program with the uncertainties of what potentially could have come by adding them to the roster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: In your view, did he make the right call?

TOM MARS, NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED LEGAL ADVOCATE IN COLLEGIATE SPORTS: Absolutely. He made the only logical, rational call. He would have been crazy to roster those guys under the circumstances.

GOLODRYGA: So why is there so much backlash from college football fans over LSU recruiting players who signed NFL contracts?

MARS: Well, it's because there are really two cardinal sins in college sports. One is a player and a coach cannot gamble on college sports. And we saw that play out in the Brandon Sorsby case earlier this year, where Texas Tech was trying to play Brandon Sorsby after he had admitted to extensive gambling on college sports. The big 12 then filed a federal court lawsuit, and Texas Tech then decided to part ways with Brandon Sorsby, and it did not commit that cardinal sin.

The other cardinal sin of college sports is don't bring professional athletes into college sports. That's crossing the Rubicon. That's a bright line that people will not tolerate and never have tolerated. And that's why this legal battle, is actually a legal war, is really not just LSU versus the SEC and the NCAA. It is LSU versus everybody else in college sports.

All the attorneys general in the Southeast Conference and everybody else, apparently everybody else on the planet except for the fan base of LSU, of course. That's why this has become such an emotion charged, high stakes dramatic legal battle.

GOLODRYGA: Well, yesterday, LSU's president posted a statement that says, in part, quote, "We will continue to work constructively with the SEC and the NCAA as this matter moves forward. College football does not deserve this kind of ambiguity in eligibility standards."

How do you ultimately see this fight playing out?

MARS: Well, I've been pretty vocal, Bianna, about how this is going to turn out in the end. And as they say, at the end of the day, the SEC is going to prevail and LSU is going to walk away and end this drama. The only question is, which day is that going to be?

GOLODRYGA: Is it unfair to these two players? What happens to them?

MARS: I don't think it's unfair to these players. What happens to them? Well, first of all, they can't practice while they're on the -- well, they're not on the roster. So they'll be -- they'll just be at LSU, I guess, biding their time. But I'm confident they can go back and give it another try at the NFL next year. But that doesn't make them any different than every other college football player, you know. GOLODRYGA: Yes.

MARS: There are breaks and they're sometimes not in your best interest. Sometimes things don't work out the way you hope.

GOLODRYGA: Tom Mars, appreciate the time. Thank you so much.

MARS: Glad to do it.

GOLODRYGA: And coming up for us, Dolly Parton's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame restored to its original beauty.

[15:55:02]

The effort to get it restored in the days after her death.

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GOLODRYGA: A tribute to the late Dolly Parton has gotten a makeover. On Friday, crews replaced her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a brand new one. Dolly first received the star in 1985 in a dual ceremony with Sylvester Stallone. However, it was vandalized after her August 25th death from cancer at the age of 80. It has also become overrun with tributes.

The world is not the same without her.

All right. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Bianna Golodryga in New York. "THE ARENA SATURDAY" starts right now.