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5 Dead, 5 Injured after Amazon Cargo Plane Overruns Miami Runway; Armed Man Arrested after Push Through Crowd Near Ohio Candidate; FCC Could Warn Broadcasters Against 'Fake Polls'. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired September 07, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

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BRAD SMITH, CNN ANCHOR: When he found Miles, he didn't have food or water. But now the pup has a safe home with a friend of the trooper.

Well, that does it for CNN HEADLINE EXPRESS. I'm Brad Smith. CNN THIS MORNING with Audie Cornish starts right now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, federal officials are trying to figure out how an Amazon cargo plane barreled off the runway in Miami. Five people are dead. We're going to hear from an aviation safety expert about what investigators will be looking at first.

And the White House sounding more hopeful after meetings in Moscow and Kyiv. Could this four-year war end before winter?

And Senator Bernie Sanders turns 85 tomorrow. He spent years pulling the Democratic Party to the left. Who will pick up the mantle of the movement he's built?

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and here is where we begin.

The people confirmed dead, at least five. Another five are injured. And this happened after an Amazon cargo plane overran a landing in Miami.

So, I'm going to warn you, because the next video is a bit graphic -- graphic, difficult to watch. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) God! Oh! (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Oh, my (EXPLETIVE DELETED) God!

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CORNISH: All right. This is the moment that the flight actually lost control. You can see it crashing into the vehicles on the ground.

The plane was going nearly 130 miles per hour when it left the runway. This is according to the tracking data. Now, the National Transportation Safety Board and FAA are investigating.

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CHIEF RAY JADALLAH, MIAMI-DADE FIRE RESCUE: We had a very complex fire engine compartments that were on fire, including a search and rescue of the pilot and copilot that were trapped in this aircraft.

This incident will continue for the next several days as we play now, a supporting role with the sheriff's office as they determine the cause of the -- the deaths.

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CORNISH: Here to talk about what happened, Mary Schiavo, CNN transportation analyst and former inspector general at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

So, first, let's start with it blowing past the runway, because I've talked to you about a lot of crashes, but I actually haven't seen very many of these. How common are they?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Well, when you have an accident at the airport, a runway overrun is one of the most common. And so, we've seen it. In fact, there was another one in Europe yesterday.

And so, we see these fairly frequently and often. We have some of the same factors. We have weather. We have some, you know, excess speed on the piloting.

So, they're going to be looking at the same factors here that they've looked at in others. And this is a very useful video for the investigators, because they'll be looking at the piloting of this aircraft.

It appeared to be coming in fast. The landing speed on a 767 is somewhere around 135, 140 knots, 150 miles an hour. And as you mentioned, if they went off the runway on the other end at 130 miles an hour, they were traveling too fast. Come -- comes in rather flat, almost pancaking. You're supposed to put the back wheels down first and let the front nose settle to dissipate, obviously, the airspeed, the airflow over the wings, and the energy in that -- in that aircraft. It didn't appear to, you know, be doing that. And of course, they're going to look at the weather. It had come

through some pretty bad storms. It appears there was a tailwind, maybe as much as 26 knots, you know, 30 miles an hour, which could really affect a plane.

You know, everybody is looking closely at the runway to see if there was -- in any videos, you can see any water standing on the runway. I did not. I also didn't see any indication of any splash on the -- on the touchdown.

And they're going to look at the plane itself, where there are problems with the aircraft. None were reported before landing.

CORNISH: To that point. There was a review of air traffic control audio by us here at CNN. The pilots don't appear to have declared an emergency before the landing. What are people going to be listening for in that traffic?

SCHIAVO: Well, they're going to be listening for any indication they had any problem at all. It does appear from radar tracking, publicly available radar tracking, that it was, you know, dodging. It had come through some weather. There was weather on the radar that it had come through.

It seemed to be at a -- you know, pretty good speed at making a -- almost a dive towards the runway. And they seem to be intent on getting on that runway. Sometimes we call it "get-there-itis," when in fact, perhaps they should have gone around and done a more stabilized approach.

[06:05:08]

But that's what they're going to be listening for in the tower. If there's any indication that they -- they realize they should have done a go-around or, at this point, it appears they should have done a go- around and that there was no reported mechanical problem until at the very end of the crash sequence.

CORNISH: I was reading in your notes that there are some features that runways have around the country to prevent them from kind of skipping right into these pedestrian areas. Is that the case in Miami?

SCHIAVO: No. And, you know, that's a little less -- that's very alarming because many, many airports, hundreds of runways in this country have a system called EMAS, which is an emergency system where, at the end of the runways, if you have had a runway overrun -- and like I said, it's -- it's common. When you have a runway accident, this is the most frequent.

And it's -- you think of these as -- think of them as empty boxes of cement casings, if you will. It's like a big empty cement box.

And when the airplane goes off the end of the runway, the wheels crunch into it, and the plane is stopped. We have them in New York, Boston, Chicago, any place where there's population, traffic, you know, a city around an airport. And these arrester beds stop the plane and stop accidents.

Miami does not have any on any runway, not just not on this one. And that is alarming. And I think the NTSB, which is always trying to make safety recommendations. That's their job.

I think this will be one of their major safety recommendations. An airport this surrounded by population. They need an arrest or bed system at the end of these runways to stop this from happening again.

CORNISH: OK. That's Mary Schiavo. Thank you so much.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

CORNISH: So, coming up on CNN, President Trump is calling the conflict with Iran "small potatoes." Eighteen service members have been killed and hundreds more injured. Does that sound small to you?

But first, two people are hurt after an incident with an armed man near Ohio's Democratic candidate for governor. We're going to look at the heated rhetoric around that race.

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CORNISH: An armed man pushes through a crowd during a campaign stop for the Democratic candidate for governor in Ohio. And two people were hurt.

That man was arrested and charged with assault and disorderly conduct.

A spokesperson for the candidate, Dr. Amy Acton, says that the man lunged towards her at a fair in Canfield. The suspect was later found to have two pistols and brass knuckles on him.

Acton is running against Vivek Ramaswamy, and his team calls the incident unacceptable.

This comes in an era of political violence, because obviously, we've seen multiple assassination attempts on the president. We're nearing the one-year anniversary of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

So, today in the group chat, we're talking to Sara Fischer, CNN senior media analyst and senior media reporter at Axios; Melik Abdul, Republican strategist; and Maria Cardona, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist.

Maria, I should check in with you real quick. I don't know. Are you familiar with Acton?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. And this was actually a conversation in a lot of my group chats yesterday. We were horrified that this was happening. It had just happened.

And so, it was sort of the first alert. We all chimed in, how can we be helpful? CORNISH: But it's funny. It's not a new concern, right? I mean, I feel

like most campaigns now are somewhat worried when they're out --

CARDONA: Sure.

CORNISH: -- on these public scenarios.

CARDONA: Absolutely. And sadly, there is a reason, right. When this happened, everyone was, like, this -- and you know, the reaction, I think, on both sides should be outrage; should be this is inappropriate; should be this is unacceptable.

And let's just remember that it is happening everywhere and everyone when they step into the public arena. You know, us included, frankly, there is a -- there is possibility that this can happen. And that is not just outrageous, but it's frightening. We just need to keep that in mind.

CORNISH: If you're -- if you're in Ohio, you've seen a lot of political ads, because this race has been very competitive and intense.

I'm going to show you two of them. You'll see. Here we go. Two in a row.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Drinking, drugs, insufficient medical knowledge. We wouldn't want Amy Acton as our doctor. Definitely not as governor. Paid for by VPAC, victors, not victims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Con man, huckster, swindler. They all describe Vivek Ramaswamy. In nearly every job he's ever had, he's ripped people off to make a buck.

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CORNISH: Is there a concern that, when you're bombarded with this kind of language, that's not policy critiques, but like, this is a bad person critiques; that that also contributes to a higher temperature.

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: Could be. But those are not nearly the worst of political ads that I have seen. In fact, a big trend on TikTok is people making fun of ads, particularly in the South, for political ads, for just going after people's characters in such unprecedented ways. So that advertising tactic is not new. Audie.

I think what's new is that, you know, political violence continues to be so prominent, get so much media attention that a lot of people, people with mental health issues, others are, you know, seeing more of it and they are getting inspired to take more action as it pertains to political events.

And what worries me, I moderated a debate for my congressional district back home. A lot of times these local events are not in places where you have the same type of security -- CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: -- and infrastructure as the big national events they are in local community colleges.

CORNISH: In this case, it's a tent at a local fair.

FISCHER: Yes.

CORNISH: I was thinking back to Gabby Giffords, right? That was a wide-open event.

FISCHER: So, that's part of the problem here, too, is that they don't have the money and the infrastructure to protect these candidates.

And to Maria's point, when you're going out and you're running for office, that is now an assumed risk that you're going to be taking in a way it wasn't before. And I don't think you can blame the ads for that.

CORNISH: Should the president speak out, regardless of what party the person is in? I think back when that lawmaker, I think it was in Minnesota, was shot, like at her house, a lot of people said, why isn't he at least really acknowledging that this has happened, especially the way it did? And should he be speaking up whenever there's an attack on a lawmaker? And do you think he does that?

MELIK ABDUL, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Should he? Of course, he's the president of the United State. Will he? Probably not.

Why? It's because of this -- our political discourse is toxic as such, is that --

CORNISH: He's gone through it himself, right?

ABDUL: Yes. And even when he's gone through it, the immediate conversation was, what did Donald Trump do to actually encourage that?

The conversation was about Donald Trump. It wasn't about him as a victim. It was about him almost as if the perpetrator.

So, I don't expect now Republicans -- I would expect you would see Republicans maybe outside of Donald Trump speaking out against this, but you probably won't hear much from Donald Trump.

CORNISH: Here's an example of what you're talking about, maybe. Charlamagne tha God in April. This was after the attempted attack at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. And this is what he said a few days later.

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CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD, RADIO HOST: Whenever there is some type of political violence that happens at, you know, one of these events, people always say, So, are we going to tone down the violent rhetoric towards Trump? Stop it. Like, I'm sick of that narrative. I need every single media

personality to direct that energy and that question towards one person and one person only. And that person is President Donald J. Trump.

At what point do people simply say, Hey, Trump, it's clear that you're the drama?

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ABDUL: That's my point. That's -- that's literally my point. Instead of this was something that Donald Trump was victimized to an extent. And he said, we should make this about Donald Trump.

Don't start. Don't stop going in after Donald Trump. Don't start adding fuel to the fire at a time where Donald Trump was almost assassinated.

So, again, so this is consistent with what Democrats have done over the years when it comes to Donald Trump.

But yes, absolutely. Without any sort of equivocation, Donald Trump should condemn it. All Republicans should condemn these sort of attacks. Donald Trump --.

CARDONA: But Charlamagne is not wrong. That's the whole point. Donald Trump has been one of the biggest perpetrators of the kind of talk and the kind of language that actually inspires some of these people to commit those kinds of violence.

ABDUL: To inspire the attack against --

CORNISH: Well, listen, you guys.

CARDONA: From the very beginning.

CORNISH: What you're saying is his career very relevant to what were going to talk about today, which is the president's actually going to go on the road. He's going to go on the road to help Republicans. He's going to go on the road in competitive states where tensions are quite high.

And will he help or hurt them? Right.

So, stay with us. We're also going to be talking about this two months until the midterms. There are some Republicans who want a little bit of distance. What does that mean with MAGA voters?

And the president's FCC chairman is saying that the agency is going to take action against, quote, "fake polls." Who even decides the definition of that?

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CORNISH: So, the president's putting more pressure on journalists ahead of the midterms. This time, he's using the FCC to do so.

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BRENDAN CARR, FCC CHAIRMAN: President Trump is over the target, and we're looking at a lot of actions. For instance, there's a lot of interest right now in fake polls that are out there. And so, the FCC may put guidance out soon to remind broadcasters about their obligations with respect to not airing fake polls, particularly if they're done to suppress people heading into the fall.

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CORNISH: So, Trump's war on fake polling has been going on for years. During this primary season, he's gone all in. Most of these, quote, "fake polls" have one thing in common: his low approval ratings.

But is the polling only fake because Trump doesn't like what it says. And then who even decides that?

So, the group chat is back. I had a lot of questions here. First, I was like a sternly worded letter. I don't care about that. You know what I mean? Like, what is he trying to say? What's the threat here? And pollsters work on their own too, and put out their polls. You know what I mean? I don't understand what jurisdiction he has over random pollsters.

FISCHER: OK, so the FCC has this provision. It's called the public interest standard. And that seems to be what the chairman goes and uses whenever there's something that he doesn't like that a broadcaster does, he can cite that standard for prompting an investigation. He can cite that standard for putting more pressure on broadcasters.

You know, right now, ABC, they're being -- the FCC is asking them to renew their broadcast licenses early. Right. So, that's an example of something that they can do citing these standards.

The irony, though, Audie, about polls, is that I've done analysis before on who President Trump cites on truth social. And a lot of times he cites mainstream news outlets when there are polling, that's good for him.

So, if you're going to go after polls for being fake polls, the -- the downside to that is you can't then cite them when they're the ones that you like.

CORNISH: I also thought polling -- like a bad -- first of all, they haven't defined this. OK? If the definition is really just I'm not faring well in that poll. I don't see where that goes or how a judge is like, Oh, OK.

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FISCHER: It has to be that has a poor sample size or something along those lines. And I'm curious to see what these sort of guidelines do.

But I also want to note, like, polling is something that they -- that the president in particular has taken some action on. You'll recall --

CORNISH: I have one right here. He's suing "The Des Moines Register."

FISCHER: Yes.

CORNISH: That's still going.

FISCHER: Yes. And also that pollster.

So, he has long gone after the polling thing. I just think that from a first amendment perspective, it's going to be really hard for him to win that case and others.

And that's why he'd rather use a regulatory lever to try to threaten broadcasters, because I think the legal lever is a weak one.

CORNISH: It also seems weird. We're in the age of prediction markets. We're in the age of the Internet. I just -- how are you --

FISCHER: Which by the way, his son Donald Trump Jr. is a partner in 1789 Capital, and they have an investment in Polymarket. So, like, clearly they're not shy around prediction markets.

CORNISH: But also aren't always right.

CARDONA: But I think what's so strange about the threat that Brendan Carr did is it was specifically because of what happened with Welker. Right? And broadcast.

CORNISH: Just referred.

CARDONA: Which she just referred to.

CORNISH: To the general concept of him having low approval ratings.

CARDONA: Correct.

CORNISH: Which is an actual fact.

CARDONA: But I think it was also very specifically when she said that when his endorsements were mixed. That's what really pissed him off in terms of people having won and people having not won.

That kind of has nothing to do with the poll, No. 1.

And No. 2, a lot of times broadcasters are very strict in terms of what polls they actually use on the air. And most of the time, 100 percent of the time, because I've tried to pitch broadcasters to use polls.

CORNISH: I was about to say Democrats and Republicans love to show you a poll.

CARDONA: Absolutely. And sometimes they're very strict, including CNN, where they only use polls that they put out along with their partners. CORNISH: But it's also taking advantage of a belief that people have,

which is they don't feel like polls are accurate. And over the last couple of years, pollsters have struggled in the cell phone age, trying to get people to do this stuff.

And is it, I guess, an area that's vulnerable to critique, right? Because the public has already got one eyebrow up on polls?

ABDUL: I don't even think it's vulnerable. And I think, as a practical matter, no campaign, whether it's on the left or the right, no campaign or White House pushes polls that doesn't paint them in a positive light. So -

CORNISH: He's accused the media of pushing polls that depress him.

ABDUL: And I'm going there. Right. So, all of those -- all of these things that Donald Trump is pushing back in, we've seen that other campaigns, other brethrens (ph), Democrats or not, they'll say, well, you know what? We don't believe those polls.

In this case, though, what Donald Trump is doing here is just utterly ridiculous because, as I said, you don't like the polls. So, therefore, you want to take action, even threatening to take some type of government action because of a poll, or even in the case of Kristen Welker, what she said was actually factually true.

CARDONA: That's right.

ABDUL: That that was a mixed record.

CARDONA: Exactly.

ABDUL: Donald Trump responded, talking about his Senate endorsements, which have been solid. I think probably 99 percent or 100 of them -- 100 percent of them.

But what she was referring to is what's happening at the state level.

CORNISH: Yes.

ABDUL: Which is a mixed result for Donald Trump. This is a ridiculous thing. And I'm saying this. This is one of those instances where the Obama turned Trump voter that I am. This is one of the things that he just needs to just let go. But he's not going to do that.

CORNISH: I forgot that about you. Yes.

ABDUL: And he's not going to do it.

CARDONA: And I think this will go to voters seeing that this is not something that they care about, not something that is going to help them make ends meet.

CORNISH: But it's supposed to be part of the overall picture. The media is bad. You cannot trust them. They're going after me. They have an array of tools to do them. FISCHER: Sure.

CORNISH: And my friend Brendan Carr is going to come out and tell them what-for every two months or so?

FISCHER: Yes, every two months or so. So, remember, first it was DEI.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: And there was all those investigations around DEI. And then it was equal airtime. And going after the late-night hosts. And then it was going after the daytime house. Right? "The View" and --

CORNISH: And they've taken some scalps along the way, right?

FISCHER: Yes.

CORNISH: Whether its Colbert or these settling lawsuits, it's just you see media companies now pushing back.

FISCHER: Yes, they are pushing back. I mean, a lot of them pushed back on the naming of different things. So, people are not calling it Gulf of America. Like, they're still calling it Gulf of Mexico and those types of things.

ABC has now sued the FCC. There are a lot of outside groups that are putting legal pressure on the FCC. So, there is some pushback.

But I also think media organizations are trying to be a little careful, because you don't want to respond to every single tit-for- tat. You want to lay low in the fray, because you know that, to your point, every two months, there's going to be a new yardstick that's being moved here. You've got to --

ABDUL: Nothing about this will bring Republican voters to the polls.

FISCHER: Exactly. It's exactly right.

ABDUL: That's the problem that Donald Trump is creating.

CORNISH: Well, we won't know if we think those polls are fake.

CARDONA: And electorally, it's not going to help him.

CORNISH: All right. Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, after nearly five years of war, the White House sending their special envoys who say they're seeing progress.