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Cornell President Breaks Silence On Handling Of Gang Rape Allegations; Hassett Defends Trump Administration's Handling Of Economy; KFF: U.S. Poised To Boot Legal Immigrants From Medicaid. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired October 04, 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]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again, everyone! Thank you so much for joining me. I am Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin this hour at Cornell University where the university's president has spoken out over Jane Doe's bombshell lawsuit against the Ivy League school and others.

Michael Kotlikoff responded to her 2024 sexual assault allegations which he called deeply disturbing.

This morning, Jane Doe's attorney appeared on CNN and commented on the initial investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS GIUFFRA, JANE DOE'S ATTORNEY: I am confident knowing this day and age and the group that we are dealing with that there were other photos, there were videos and you know where I think those photos and videos are now? I think they are in the bottom of Lake Cuyahoga because once they knew there was a problem, they cleared everything out and they got rid of it.

And the fact is, that the investigators let that happen. They let that happen. We would have a lot more evidence, and frankly I don't -- I am not even sure we have everybody who participated in this assault because my client was blacked out during periods of time, and that is reported in the statements. We don't even know the people we have and the people we definitely know.

If you ask me, I believe there were more!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN reporter, Mark Morales is back with us now from New York. Mark, you've been following these developments all along. What is the latest happening on campus?

MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER: Well, we are finally starting to see that anger that has been building finally spilling out of the campus. Demonstration happening about a mile away from campus and you're hearing from a lot of people that are out there that are doing two things, they are expressing a lot of anger and resentment for how this was handled by both the university and local law enforcement.

But they are also giving a lot of support to Jane Doe and any other victim who might find themselves in a very similar situation like this, not just at Cornell University, but anywhere else, really.

And this is all a precursor to what is about to happen. Tomorrow, there is going to be another demonstration involving a lot of students and that is supposed to be a big one.

And we piggyback off hearing what the attorney has said for Jane Doe and he has been very critical about this from the beginning. And if you remember, "The New York Times" had some reporting where, the campus police actually had more evidence that they wanted to give the district attorney that included interviews, even a deeper look at some of those chat messages.

But the District Attorney's Office did not want to look at that evidence. They refused, and one of the reasons they gave was that they had looked at her six page statement that was given, that was signed over by Jane Doe, and they said, because of that statement, they decided that they weren't going to go and pursue any charges.

Now, Jane Doe's attorney has a very big problem with this because he says that that statement was lacking a lot of real key details. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIUFFRA: It seems that if you have a complaining witness saying, I am a hundred percent certain I was raped, that should make it into a report. You had the group chat inviting people to participate in the rape.

You had a complaining witness. You had evidence of a crime, and they didn't follow up on it. They didn't include it and that is very concerning to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MORALES: So two things are going to happen now. The New York Attorney General, Letitia James, is now the special prosecutor. It is going to be her job to actually go through all the evidence using every piece of power that she has to try and figure out what happened and decide for herself and for that office if they need to actually bring in anybody and charge any of these students.

The attorney also said that he had spoken with the office so that investigation, there is no timetable on it, but it is expected to be very thorough.

Now, there is also going to be outside counsel that's going to be hired that's by the university to actually investigate just how this was handled, not just by campus police, but at the university level, by local law enforcement. There is this anger and this desire by New York Governor Kathy Hochul and by a lot of people to find out what happened. Who knew what? When did they know it? And if so, why did no one act -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, lots of questions.

All right, Mark Morales, thanks so much.

WHITFIELD: All right, now, it is just a month away before midterm elections and recent polling shows the majority of Americans are unhappy with the state of the U.S. economy.

A new AP survey finds only 26 percent of those questioned think President Trump is doing a good job on the economy. But still, the Trump administration insists the nation's finances and those of ordinary Americans are in a great place and only getting better.

Here is what National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNN this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR OF THE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: So what we see right now is, is that people are really, really optimistic about the future, about their future incomes because they are spending really, really at record levels.

They are defaulting at their credit card debt at really, really low levels. We just had this week, the consumer information data came out or the price data came out that showed that consumption was up year- over-year at the highest rate in years. Weve got GDP now for the third quarter running four to five percent.

And so think about all of the things that are positive. People are acting like what the initial claims say. They are saying, oh, I am confident I am not going to lose my job. I am confident in my income growth because GDP growth is coming, too -- and the polls are different from that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: I want to bring in now Rana Foroohar, CNN global economic analyst and author of the new book "A Sea Change: America's New Great Game in the Arctic Circle." We will talk about that in a moment.

But, Rana, I mean, is the outlook that and the reality that rosy?

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: You know, I would say not and most Americans actually don't feel that way to the extent that they are spending more, it has a lot to do with inflation. We've seen gas prices up. We've seen food prices up.

You know, gas in the last week has had a little bit of a blip down, but if you look at it year-on-year, it is much higher than where it was a year before in the run up to the midterms. And again, gas, energy prices, that's the thing people think about every day. They do blame the President. I've been doing a lot of reporting in red states in advance of the midterms and even there, you're starting to see people say this Iran war, tariffs, the debt and deficit picture, all of which tends to push up bond yields, push up inflation and it is one of the reasons why the Fed Chair had to raise rates slightly recently, because we are having an inflation question.

Young people in particular are very concerned about the labor market. You're not seeing a lot of firing, but you're also not seeing a lot of hiring, particularly amongst young people who are seeing their jobs disrupted by A.I.

[15:05:10]

So I've got to say, I do not see the kind of rosy picture that Kevin Hassett is talking about.

WHITFIELD: And the latest Jobs Report shows the unemployment rate rose slightly, with a slower rate of job growth than predicted, but what does this say about the long term health of the economy?

FOROOHAR: Well, you know, I think and I have been saying this for years, decades even, that we have relied in the American economy for too long on the stock market rather than on the real economy, and the stock market is really just a story about A.I. and five companies right now and you are seeing worries about that.

So what happens if you get a big correction at a time when you don't have this real economy, Main Street boom going on? Eventually things like A.I. will funnel through and you may see a big productivity boom, but in the short term, in the next few years, I am worried about big disruption and what that can mean to people, particularly since more people are invested in the stock market than ever before now.

WHITFIELD: President Trump and his administration continue to blame President Biden for any difficulties with the nation's economy. I mean, we are 20 months into President Trump's second term. Is that how Americans feel? Do they buy that? Is that a relevant argument for The White House to still make?

FOROOHAR: Look, I think people are skeptical of both political parties, you do see that in polling. But the truth of the matter economically is that when Biden was in office, the U.S. had the most robust recovery, the fastest and best recovery post-COVID in the rich world.

So President Trump inherited a pretty strong economy. It has gotten weaker since he has been in office. And I do think that most voters look and see that. They are particularly looking at the Iran War and saying, was this really necessary? Do we have to pay higher gas prices? And when is this going to be over? And the answer is not soon.

WHITFIELD: All right, let's talk briefly about your book. Congratulations! "Sea Change: America's New Great Game in the Arctic Circle."

FOROOHAR: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: And you know, along with these findings and your research, you had a little journey to, you know, there in the Arctic, you know. Tell me about your observations and how the Arctic is symbolic of becoming kind of the world's next, you know, geopolitical center of gravity.

FOROOHAR: Yes. For sure, Fredricka. I mean, one of the reasons I was up there is that choke points like the Strait of Hormuz, like the Suez Canal, like the Panama Canal, where a lot of oil transport and commerce transport goes, those are becoming more difficult areas.

So people are looking at the Arctic, which is melting and opening up new commerce pathways. It is just going to become a big area for transport. You already see the Chinese that have declared themselves a near Arctic nation, with a lot of strategic interest in the area, teaming up with the Russians to do a weekly trans polar route for shipping so that they can avoid some of those global hot spots.

You're also seeing a big search for natural gas, rare earth minerals. You know, Trump's obsession with Greenland, even though I wouldn't agree with how he went about it, has its roots in a cold war geostrategic importance of this area, which is really on the front lines for security against Russia.

And so I see the Arctic, particularly as America starts to protect what is closer to home, becoming a real area where we are going to see more focus, maybe even, you know, Homeland Security focus. Definitely, the Chinese and Russians are there.

And I will tell you, Fredricka, I had a chance to go on the Coast Guards at that time, one icebreaker in the Arctic compared to about 50 that the Chinese and Russians have, and it was quite a journey, so I hope people will check out the book.

WHITFIELD: Certainly, indeed, it is a must read.

Rana Foroohar, thank you so much. Great to see you.

FOROOHAR: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, still to come, thousands of immigrants living legally in the United States are losing Medicaid coverage under President Trump's tax and spending law. The painful choices they now must face.

Plus, we are learning new details about the attack on board a FlyDubai flight that was headed to Israel. What authorities are now saying about the suspect.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:13:51]

WHITFIELD: All right, now to a developing story which may be disturbing to some of our viewers. CNN affiliate, WLS reports a seven- year-old girl was stabbed to death while walking down the street in a Chicago neighborhood.

The report is saying that bystanders say a woman approached the victim and displayed a sharp object before the attack. The child was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. WLS reporter Tre Ward walks us through what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The poor baby ain't had nothing to do what was going on?

TRE WARD, WLS REPORTER (voice over): Outrage and heartache among residents.

DENESTA FREEMAN, RESIDENT: I just don't know what this world is coming to, you know, for a seven-year-old like that to be getting stabbed.

WARD (voice over): As crime tape roped off the area where police say seven-year-old Edimari Hernandez Chacon, was stabbed multiple times in the back. The deadly attack happened just before noon Saturday near 87th and Cottage Grove in Chicago's Chatham neighborhood. One woman asking us not to show her face, but to share her concern.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a mom, I feel hurt because my daughter is the same age. I feel hurt. I feel like it was my child.

WARD (voice over): This security photo from a nearby business shows who witnesses say was the little girl holding the hand of a woman while walking on the sidewalk. That's when police say another woman carrying a sharp object approached the girl and attacked her.

More security video appears to show bystanders rushing in to detain the suspect out of this camera's view before officers arrived to take her into custody.

[15:15:20]

Family members later gathering with heavy hearts outside of Comer Children's Hospital, where the girl died.

FREEMAN: I never thought it would get to this point, you know, I never did. These kids nowadays is not coming -- not getting to live their life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: WLS reports. No word on a connection, if any, between the seven-year-old victim and the suspect. Police say the suspect was somehow injured while being detained by the bystanders and was taken to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Detectives continue to investigate a motive.

Joining me right now is Michelle Harris, the Alderman of District Eight, where this gruesome attack happened. Alderman Harris, glad you could be with us. Sadly, under these kinds of circumstances. But, you know, police say the girl was attacked just walking down the street. What are you hearing from people? Witnesses? What information are you gathering about how this happened? What the sequence of events was?

MICHELLE HARRIS, ALDERMAN OF DISTRICT EIGHT, CHICAGO: Thank you. Fredricka.

The sequence kind of happened that the children, two siblings and the offender were in a mobile store -- Boost Mobile store. They are leaving out and she comes behind them and attacks the baby and the community, and I want to say thank you to those bystanders that kind of stepped in to detain her for the Chicago Police Department.

WHITFIELD: So it sounds like you're describing something happened inside the store where the two kids and the woman left. Have you learned anything more about contact made inside that store or place of business between what is now the suspect and the two children and the woman?

HARRIS: At this time, I don't have enough information to kind of comment on what happened inside the store.

WHITFIELD: Okay, and what -- how is this impacting the community?

HARRIS: Well, the community feels a tremendous amount of loss. They are just simply horrified that a baby, a child could be -- an innocent baby or child that had nothing to do with adult actions could be killed on the middle of Cottage Road. And so people are expressing everything from grief to remorse to sympathy through pain. It is just the litany of emotions out there.

And again, the fact that someone we can only assume or guess that someone has mental health challenges to do this to an innocent child.

WHITFIELD: Is it your plan to be in contact with the operators of that store to kind of get an idea of what happened or, you know, what businesses or people who shop in that area have been experiencing leading up to this stabbing?

HARRIS: I would really like for the Chicago Police Department to finish their investigation before I go in and start to talk with people in the business community that were a part of this or that were a part of this incident -- this horrific incident that happened.

So, the police department is asking me to allow them to do their investigation.

WHITFIELD: Understood. This did happen in broad daylight, you know, presumably a lot of people were, you know, doing business, going into stores, restaurants, you know, going about their daily kind of thing when this transpired.

Is there anything that you know about the community, the area? What people have encountered even prior to something like this happening?

HARRIS: This is a four-lane, what we call a semi expressway, like thousands of cars down there, lots of foot traffic on a daily basis and it tends to be a mecca and a draw for sometimes mental issues and mental cases for people to be able to come down and get resources from walkers by, passersby to ask for money from people that are shopping in the district.

So, it becomes, again, my office is in this corridor just right up the street. So, a very busy section of the ward on the west side of my ward that I represent. And so it is a mecca for good, bad and sometimes horrific things happening in these kind of districts.

WHITFIELD: Terribly sad.

Well, it is early in the investigation, as you say, and I am sure there will be great opportunity since you said it is a very busy area to hear lots of points of view about what transpired before, during and after.

Michelle Harris, I thank you so much. So sorry that your community is going through this. It is just terribly tragic and so sad and especially for the family as well.

[15:20:36]

HARRIS: Thank you. We are praying for the family at this time who is now planning a funeral for their loved one. So, I would like to say to them how we are praying with them and for them.

WHITFIELD: Yes. So sad, funeral for a little seven-year-old. All right, thank you so much, Miss Harris.

WHITFIELD: All right, hundreds of thousands of eligible immigrants living legally in the U.S. are set to lose their Medicaid coverage under President Trump's spending bill. That's according to KFF Health News, even though they are in country with federal permission, the new provisions that went into effect Thursday have strict new eligibility requirements.

The latest estimates from KFF suggest more than 281,000 people will lose these benefits.

CNN national correspondent Rafael Romo joining me now with more details on this. Tell us more about why this is happening.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot of people remember President Trump signing the Big Beautiful Bill into law a year ago, more than a year ago and now some of its effects are kicking in and this is what it is all about.

Well, among the people who have already been impacted by changes to Medicaid eligibility under President Trump's Big Beautiful Bill signed into law last year, are refugees, asylees who fled persecution and some victims of sex trafficking. This is according to an analysis by KFF Health News, an independent health policy publication that also says interpreters who risked their lives assisting U.S. service members in Afghanistan, all of whom are in the country with the federal government's permission, have also lost benefits. Trump administration officials say they are reserving taxpayer funded programs for American citizens. The laws changes to key safety net programs such as Medicaid and food stamps, are also a hard blow to some immigrants who have legal status, but are not yet permanent residents.

The immigrants affected are people living legally in the country, but not yet eligible for a green card. That's the case of a Romanian immigrant in Chicago who depended on Medicaid to pay for nursing home care after suffering a stroke, and who, according to his partner, was notified by the state of Illinois, the federal government will no longer pay for it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERESITA MORALES, PARTNER LOSING MEDICAID BENEFITS: And suddenly they decided to cut him off. I am not having it. I am going to fight for him and everyone else that needs it.

And this is, to me, insane!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Another group that is deeply affected by the Medicaid cuts under President Trump's law are refugees, including Ukrainians who fled their native country after Russia invaded it in 2022.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLENA LEVKO-SENDEHA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SELF-RELIANCE ASSOCIATION: People are disappointed. People are discouraged. They really don't know what to do because, unfortunately, they cannot go back yet.

Because, as you know, the war is still going on.

ROMO: Now, just to be clear, Olena, these are people who are here in the country legally, right? These are not undocumented immigrants.

LEVKO-SENDEHA: Yes. These people are here legally. They are here on the program of U4U, which is United for Ukraine, and they are also called parolees, which is different than refugees and asylum seekers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And just to clarify, asylum seekers are immigrants who fled persecution in their home country and have requested U.S. protection while parolees are those allowed into the country by the U.S. government for humanitarian reasons.

According to the Self-Reliance Association, a Chicago based organization that offers support services for immigrants, as many as 9,400 Ukrainians are affected by the cuts just in the state of Illinois. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that 100,000 people would become uninsured over a decade as a result of Medicaid cuts under President Trump's law. But the KFF Health News analysis of state level data says that more than 281,000 immigrants from nine states and the District of Columbia who are expected to lose Medicaid starting in October.

So again, those numbers coming in, Fred, at 281,000, according to that analysis, remains to be seen what the impact is going to be in the rest of the states.

WHITFIELD: All right, those are significant numbers.

ROMO: Right.

WHITFIELD: All right, Rafael Romo, thank you so much. Keep us posted.

All right, still to come, a tsunami of church closings in this country could transform communities across America. What is driving the crisis and what is the impact on these communities?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:04:30]

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. The calendar says summer is over, but the thermometer says otherwise in the Western U.S. where some areas are reporting record heat.

Allison Chinchar has that and a look at the potential for some major flooding in the Southeast.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: There is a lot of available moisture coming up from the Gulf into areas of the Southeast, and that is really what is going to fuel the potential for flooding, not just for the remainder of the day today, but even as we head into Monday, by about 10:00 to 11:00 tonight, you can see a lot of rain showers, some heavy at times across Georgia, South Carolina, especially around Florida.

[15:30:10]

But even as we progress into early Monday morning, a lot of those same spots still dealing with some heavy showers, so it could in turn be a very soggy commute Monday morning.

Now, overall rainfall totals through at least the next 48 hours are really going to be highest right there along the Gulf Coast. Some of those locations widespread two to four inches, but a few spots not out of the question to pick up five or even six inches of rain.

Keeping in mind, this is on top of what these places already picked up on Saturday, and in some cases, even Friday as well.

The other big story is out to the West. We have a lot of heat alerts in place. We've got heat advisories, extreme heat warnings for much of California, but they're not the only location that is looking at those temperatures well above average. Every single one of these dots represents a potential record high at some point over the next several days, and a few of those locations could end up breaking records multiple days in a row. So we are not just talking, you know, temperatures three, four or five degrees above average; in some of these cases, you're talking 10 to 15 degrees above where they normally would be this time of year.

Take Sacramento, for example, 84 is the average this time of year, 96 for the high today, triple digits Monday and Tuesday. Similar scenario in Los Angeles, three days' worth of triple digits. And even though the temperature may drop back slightly as we head into Wednesday and Thursday, it is still expected to be well above average. Many of these areas are looking at that prolonged heat event to stick around until at least Thursday of this week.

WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness! All right, Allison Chinchar, thank you so much.

All right, now to a shifting landscape in America. Experts warn that thousands of churches across the country could close in coming years. Church leaders point to dwindling congregations and shrinking collection plates as some of the main reasons behind it.

But there is more to it.

John Blake is a senior writer for CNN Digital, and he has been reporting on this, and he is with me now.

So what is behind a good reason why so many churches are closing?

JOHN BLAKE, CNN DIGITAL, SENIOR WRITER AND PRODUCER: Well, a lot of it is just that the membership is getting older. I attended church where I am seeing this happening in real time. So you have an aging membership, you have younger people who do not want to go to church for different reasons. You have buildings that are just harder to upkeep and to maintain.

And people have been talking about churches closing for like years, but now it has suddenly become tangible and real. So I don't know if you've driven around Atlanta. I have, and you'll see these grand church buildings with 12 people in the parking lot, or they're closed down.

So all that is starting to hit.

WHITFIELD: Right. So when you talk about, you know, what it takes to maintain some of these, you know, magnificent sanctuaries, you know, folks are not able to commit, they can't keep up with the tithing. I mean, the economy is also a reflection of that. Is that also in large part why it is impacting the churches at all?

BLAKE: Yes, the economy, too, but also there is something about human nature. Even if people have the money or church to adapt, they don't want to adapt because they are emotionally attached to the building.

I mean, if you're going to the church for 50 years, you've seen people married, you buried your mother or people you know, it is hard to adapt to leave the building. But if you don't adapt, these churches don't adapt, they will really literally die. And now you're starting to see it and you're going to see it accelerate in the next five or 10 years.

WHITFIELD: And then what about this connection in some circles, in certain parts of the country, politics and the church?

BLAKE: Yes. That's a huge reason, particularly younger people are not attending church because they feel like it has become too partisan. So that's one reason. And there are other reasons young people don't go to church.

There are young people who don't believe in any institutions. It is not just church, it is the media, it is politicians. So churches are dealing with issues they can't deal with, but there are also larger issues outside of the church that they are also dealing with that's causing all of these church closings.

WHITFIELD: So overall, I mean, the commitment to religion, to spirituality, it is not really just the commitment to the building that may be representative of a church, but then what about the fact to try to appeal to so many young potential churchgoers? Youve seen some denominations who have decided to erect a place of worship in a shopping center.

BLAKE: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Does that count in this equation as an answer to it?

BLAKE: It is.

WHITFIELD: Trying to appeal to an audience that doesn't want to go into a traditional structure of a church?

BLAKE: That helps, and the churches that tend to do that tend to be megachurches, and they tend to be a lot more adaptable because they don't belong to denominations. They don't have to observe certain rules. So they have that flexibility.

But a lot of traditional churches don't have that flexibility, and they're attached to the model of churches that they have.

I think it is important to also emphasize that there are other churches that have adapted and are doing well, and there are a lot of people who believe that in the future, people will say the church is not really a building, it is people. And people may start worshiping in each other's homes in unusual, nontraditional places.

WHITFIELD: Right, oh, and sometimes -- right, a lot of people are attending church online, too. They started doing that in big numbers during the pandemic.

[15:35:10]

And some churches maintain that because for a variety of reasons, to address the needs of worshipers.

BLAKE: That helps but there is a limit to it. You know, before I came on, I saw that tragic news about that young girl. Well, if you go into an online church, you can't send a text to a member to somebody who knew that girl and say, hey, I am sorry, physical presence means a lot. And there is a limit to what online churches can do, but it also helps still, so that's a good way to reach people, but there are limits.

WHITFIELD: It is fascinating, a changing landscape in so many ways.

John Blake, always great to see you.

BLAKE: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much.

All right, still ahead, alarming new details about the FlyDubai co- pilot accused of attacking the captain in the cockpit mid-flight. What officials are learning about his past that's raising major red flags.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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WHITFIELD: Happening now, the U.S. Coast Guard is searching for a missing medical transport jet, and the six people on board after it disappeared early Saturday morning while flying from Bermuda to Boston.

Officials say the aircraft was carrying four Canadian crew members, a patient and a family member. Search teams have found a debris field off the coast of Nantucket and confirmed it is linked to the missing gulfstream G-100.

Earlier today, Coast Guard officials described the size of the search area.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADMIRAL MATT LAKE, NORTHERN DISTRICT COMMANDER, U.S. COAST GUARD: The area around the debris field is approximately 80 to 90 feet.

REPORTER: And will you take sonar and others to see if you can locate that?

LAKE: We are in the process of working with Massachusetts authorities to get some craft out there that are equipped with sonar to be able to do some detection on the seabed floor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The Coast Guard says the search for the aircraft will continue until crews are confident there are no survivors.

Also new today, Israeli sources are saying the co-pilot accused of attacking his colleague on a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv, likely acted alone and there was no indication of a link to any group or government. The co-pilot is accused of attacking the pilot with an ax in an attempt to take control of the plane.

And video posted on the LinkedIn page of that co-pilot includes a photo of a former top al-Qaeda leader. CNN analyzed two videos, along with thousands of tweets from a deleted Twitter account believed to belong to the alleged attacker.

CNN senior investigative reporter, Tamara Qiblawi has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAMARA QIBLAWI, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER AND WRITER (voice over): This is the bloody aftermath of the FlyDubai cockpit attack that nearly downed a plane en route to Israel.

CNN can reveal the identity of the co-pilot, the alleged attacker, Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani national whose views were so extreme, our source says, that he was removed from a position with Oman Air before joining FlyDubai.

Hammami appeared to have posted two social media videos. The first post is a compilation of videos showing multiple planes belonging to El Al, Israel's national carrier, both on the tarmac and in the sky. We geo-located one of these videos to Dubai. It was filmed in 2023 from inside the cockpit of an Oman Air flight from Dubai to Muscat.

You can see here that date and flight number tracks with Hammami's time at Oman Air. The video ends with a tribute to al-Qaeda's former leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's successor, as well as the suicide bomber who killed nine people at a CIA outpost in Afghanistan in 2009.

The second video he posted is A.I. generated. It shows Islam's three holiest sites from the sky. The videos appeared on LinkedIn and Instagram nine hours after the incident, well after Hammami was detained. We don't know if the posts were scheduled in advance or if they were published by someone else. CNN has reached out to LinkedIn and Meta for comment.

We looked at earlier posts, more than 3,000 tweets from a deleted account bearing his name. They were published between 2021 and 2022.

These portray a murkier mindset, one obsessed with women. Nearly half the posts reference women, including this one. The post brags about putting women through, "slut tests." In other posts, he refers to them as, "banging machines."

QIBLAWI (on camera): Now, it's still too early to tell what the possible motives were, but the findings raise many questions. Namely, how did Hamam al-Hammami pass his security checks, and how did he end up flying a plane on one of the world's most sensitive routes?

QIBLAWI (voice over): These are questions security officials in the region will be asking as they try to understand what happened.

Tamara Qiblawi, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Still to come in the CNN NEWSROOM, an unlikely hub of America's missile production, is struggling to meet surging demand after years of war depleted U.S. stockpiles. Why the defense buildup is testing the limits of one small Arkansas town, ahead in the next hour.

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WHITFIELD: For parents of young athletes, the thrill of victory is a point of pride worth celebrating.

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WHITFIELD: Okay that is happy! I can't say that I ever was quite that ecstatic when a kid was having a little victory lap. But that is Steve Martin from the 1989 movie, "Parenthood," showing how intensely connected parents can be with their kid's success on the field.

[15:50:10]

But those feelings can also be more difficult to deal with after our children perhaps don't do as well.

Here to discuss his personal experience and the lessons that his children have actually taught him is our own Don Riddell.

Don, I mean, you wrote this really great article. I think it put us all there, all of us who are parents, who have kids playing sports, you can envision all of this. So you really want your kids to do well, but it is that drive home that is so indelible for some of the kid athletes.

Tell me what the premise of this was? What provoked this article and you're so on point in so many points.

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT HOST: Well, thank you. Yes. So one of our editors pitched the story to me because, Connor Bedard, who is the captain of the Chicago Blackhawks, his mom, Melanie, a couple of years ago, had basically talked about how her son had observed some of the other kids in practice coming off the ice crying and it is because they were dreading the drive home with their parents.

WHITFIELD: Not necessarily because they, you know, lost the game or something terrible happened.

RIDDELL: It just was a practice where they hadn't even done that well or maybe they weren't trying hard enough, but they were just anticipating this nightmare drive home with their parents.

And so I had some memories of when my kids were playing tennis, and I drove home with them. And, you know, we would talk about the performance and sometimes that was a difficult conversation. And so I started looking into it and I realized it is kind of a thing.

Research has been done into the drive home in Canada, actually 10 years ago, "True Sport" made basically a public service commercial, kind of speaking to parents about the impact that these drive homes can have.

WHITFIELD: Like what you're saying --

RIDDELL: What you're saying --

WHITFIELD: A very tender moment.

RIDDELL: Yes, and just, you know --

WHITFIELD: Vulnerable moments.

RIDDELL: The kids -- the kids are so raw. Oftentimes, they haven't even processed what happened. And then you get into the car where you're kind of trapped for however long it takes to get home.

And the parents often are well-intentioned, but can actually be quite cutting and quite mean. And --

WHITFIELD: Because they're asking them to kind of dissect what happened, you know?

RIDDELL: Yes, well, you know, and its almost accusatory. And I think some parents feel as though they're more invested than the kids. And so the parents are like, I am making all this effort. Why aren't you making this effort? And then the kids just feel lousy about it.

WHITFIELD: So were there moments where you were thinking, oh, I can't imagine doing that. But then one of your kids decided to share a video of you and him on that drive home. This was a point of realization.

RIDDELL: This happened quite recently. So I've got twin boys and they play tennis and I guess on one of the drive homes a few years ago, I was talking to one of my sons in the passenger seat, and I didn't know that the other one in the back seat was filming it. And this didn't come out until years later.

And I must admit, when I saw the video, I just cringed. And I wouldn't say I was being mean and I wasn't even angry, but it was just a talk that years later seemed so irrelevant. It was just like, what was it all for? And the reason this commercial was made in Canada is this kind of oft quoted line that 70 percent of kids give up sport by the time they're 13, and the main reason they give it up is just because they're not having fun anymore.

And one of the reasons they're not having --

WHITFIELD: Yes, the parents not making it fun!

RIDDELL: -- fun is because of all the pressure from the parents.

WHITFIELD: Oh, that's so sad. So I love your article. I really did. And so one thing I really loved in there are -- many things -- but there was advice on, okay, parents, this is how you need to better handle that. You know, you need to find a way to just simply say, I love watching you play.

RIDDELL: Right.

WHITFIELD: Whether the outcome is good or bad in terms of, I shouldn't even say bad, whether it was, you know, victorious or the opposite of that.

RIDDELL: Well, you know, and the other thing you have to remember is if you're all excited and happy and celebrating when the kids have done well, what message does that send to them? Oh, you're only happy with me and excited to be with me when I am doing well.

WHITFIELD: Yes, when we win!

RIDDELL: What about the other times?

WHITFIELD: I like that.

All right, Don Riddell, thank you so much. Really wonderful read. Recommendation to all you parents out there who have kids who play sports, but, you know, be kind.

All right, we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:58:52]

WHITFIELD: This past week, Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg was among the tech leaders who met with President Trump at The White House. He played a central role in shaping the President's pact with the A.I. industry.

Well, tonight on CNN, an all-new CNN Flash Doc examines the complicated legacy of the Facebook co-founder and his connection with the world -- has he better connected with the world or help divide the world.

Here is a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARTURO BEJAR, FORMER META SAFETY ENGINEER,: Man, when the Facebook Files broke, it was crazy. There was a great disturbance in the force. You could feel it all over the company.

KATIE HARBATH, FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, ANCHOR CHANGE: We had no idea who had leaked these documents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our witness this morning is Frances Haugen.

FRANCES HAUGEN, FORMER FACEBOOK EMPLOYEE: I am here today because I believe Facebook's products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.

The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people.

I wanted people to understand Facebook knew they were hurting kids. Fundamentally, how Facebook operated was the problem.

If I didn't act, and I knew that I was one of the few people who could, I would always feel that I was responsible in some way for what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Very revealing. Be sure to tune in to the all-new CNN Flash Doc, "Zuckerberg: Facebook and the Cost of Connection" premieres tonight at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific on CNN and the next day, with an all-access subscription.

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