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Trump Heads to U.K. for Historic Second State Visit; FBI Director Faces Questions from Senate amid Turmoil; State Department Denied Visas to People "Celebrating" Charlie Kirk's Killing; Prior to Israeli Ground Offensive, Only 40 Percent of 1 Million Have Left Gaza City; Remembering Robert Redford. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired September 16, 2025 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00]
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Patriots that love our country, what she did to them by indicting them and destroying them, she should be put in jail.
She's a criminal. Fani Willis is a criminal judge.
QUESTION: Will you apply more pressure to E.U. and NATO countries not to purchase Russian oil?
TRUMP: I do but here's the problem. You know the problem. They're purchasing Russian oil. I don't want them purchasing Russian oil and
they've got to stop immediately. Not fair to us. They're purchasing. Russian oil and we have to, you know, do things.
Now the nice part, we don't, it doesn't cost us anything anymore. You know that. They are buying everything from us, unlike Biden who gave away $350
billion, we actually make money. But I don't want to make money. You know what I want?
I want that war to stopped, because, last week, 7,018 people got killed. Thank you.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE). You announced 70 Patriots in Ukraine two months ago.
TRUMP: Where are you from?
QUESTION: Ukraine.
TRUMP: Yes.
QUESTION: Will they come and do you know when there will come, the Patriots?
TRUMP: What will come?
QUESTION: The Patriots. You announced 70 Patriots to Ukraine two months ago.
TRUMP: Look, let me just tell you. I love Ukraine. I love the people of Ukraine. That's why I asked. I thought that was a little Ukrainian accent.
But the country's in serious trouble. It should have never happened. It's the war that should have never happened. The country's in very serious
trouble but I'm going to get it stopped.
I've done seven countries, have stopped seven wars in the last eight months. I'm going to -- I thought that would've been the easiest because I
know Putin. But it's not. There's this tremendous hatred between Zelenskyy and -- tremendous hatred between Zelenskyy and Putin. But we're going to
get it stopped.
(CROSSTALK)
(OFF MIKE COMMENTS)
QUESTION: How soon will you go to the Supreme Court to stop Lisa Cook?
(OFF MIKE COMMENTS)
TRUMP: Well, not really, no. It was just about getting (INAUDIBLE).
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Right. First lady Melania Trump and the president of the United States, Donald Trump, heading
on their state visit to the United Kingdom.
Welcome to the second hour of CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Eleni Giokos.
And president Trump there, speaking to reporters as he was leaving the White House to that trip to the U.K. He spoke on a plethora of issues and
importantly saying that his relationship in the United Kingdom is very good, that it's a great honor that he's going.
I'm going to go through some of the key issues that he spoke about.
He confirmed that they have a deal on TikTok and they'll be talking to president Xi on Friday.
Importantly as well, on the Supreme Court tariff case, he was saying that the Supreme Court could be ruling -- "Well, if they rule the way they think
they're going to, I think it will be very fair," he said. "We will win the Supreme Court case and will be by far the richest country in the world."
Some of what he said in terms of Kash Patel, which, of course, the FBI director is currently in a hearing and he says he has major confidence in
Kash Patel and that he's doing a great job.
On the federal charges on Charlie Kirk, he's saying that hopefully something will happen. They are looking into that.
A question that was posed to him, whether he believes social media is a cancer. And he says not all of it is a cancer. And, of course, referring to
the fact that he's very pro ensuring that the survival of TikTok.
A lot of issues discussed there; of course, Ukraine and Russia coming up. He's hoping there'll be some kind of resolution on the front. But he's
saying it's harder than he thought it was, that it's very complicated.
President Donald Trump there, heading out to the United Kingdom for a historic second state visit.
All right. We also -- he was also touching on two breaking news stories that we are following this hour. And importantly, the ground incursion into
Gaza. He was saying that, of course, importantly Israel is saying that it's become -- begun its ground invasion into Gaza City, even as hundreds of
thousands of civilians are there.
Mr. Trump, focusing on Hamas' use, what he says of human shields, as he discussed Israel's plans.
FBI director Kash Patel on Capitol Hill, defending his performance in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The president asserting
confidence in his entire team. We want to return now to that Senate testimony. Let's listen in.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Just because you're online doesn't give you a "Get out of Jail Free" card.
[10:05:00]
No, sir.
So if a parent is worried about a child being bullied on a website, what rights do they have under U.S. law?
KASH PATEL, DIRECTOR, U.S. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: We have to balance the rights, as you said, Senator, of free speech versus those that
encroach.
(CROSSTALK)
GRAHAM: Is there any law that can shut down one of these sites for bullying children or allowing sexual predators on the site?
PATEL: We are able to attack certain sites on the Dark Web when it comes to the open internet infrastructure system. We have to reach a threshold to
attack a company's position that only subscribes to violence.
GRAHAM: Can the parents sue that company?
PATEL: They can.
GRAHAM: They can?
PATEL: They can sue -- not the social media companies.
GRAHAM: That's what I'm talking about.
PATEL: They can sue the companies --
GRAHAM: No, I'm talking about the social media company that gives lives to this behavior.
PATEL: No, you're referring to Section 230, sir.
GRAHAM: Would you advocate a sunsetting of Section 230 to bring more liability to the companies who send this stuff out?
PATEL: I've advocated that -- for that for years.
GRAHAM: All right. We need to do this, folks. These companies are taking content that makes you sick, that could get you killed, get you poisoned
and there's nothing we can do about it under our law, a person can do about it because of Section 230.
So if your child is being sexually groomed online or bullied online and you go to the social media company and ask them to take it down, they refuse.
You have like zero rights.
How many images of sexually exploited children are purveyed every year on social media sites?
PATEL: The number is astronomical. And Senator, if I can just add one step to that analysis --
GRAHAM: Please.
PATEL: -- it's not just what's on social media that is quote-unquote "real." It's the introduction of artificial intelligence and generative AI
that is creating even more child sexual abuse material and even more sexually violent acts online and mimicking people.
GRAHAM: Would you say that the way social media is structured today, really no accountability -- 36 million images in 2023 of sexually exploited
children -- that this is a public health --
GIOKOS: All right. Kash Patel is answering questions there from senators and, of course, fielding questions from Lindsey Graham.
Joining us to discuss the FBI director's appearance on Capitol Hill today, we've got CNN's senior national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem.
And we've just heard from Lindsey Graham. They're really focusing in on social media and the influence. And also from what Lindsey Graham saying,
the inability -- and he called it, there's nothing we can do about it.
And it was really interesting. He was saying, you know, these are the platforms that can get you sick, they can get you killed. And basically
there's nothing we can do about it.
Give me a sense here of what Kash Patel is thinking with regards to social media, because it's come under the spotlight again, specifically with
Charlie Kirk and his assassination.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: That's exactly right. Just -- this hearing was prescheduled before all the events.
And it looks like Lindsey Graham is trying to focus on -- Senator Lindsey Graham is going to try to focus on one particular aspect of what happened
last week, which is, of course, the campaign against social media.
But interestingly enough, Lindsey Graham and director Patel are really focused on the sexual abuse, pornography, other things that are harm to
children and not the radicalization, which is the key problem at this stage in the United States.
If you look at Charlie Kirk's killer, I know everyone's trying to put him into different partisan pockets. But from what I can tell and my expertise,
he had no -- he had no driving political ideology. It was a mess of, you know, irony and hate and violence and dispatch and gaming.
And it's a world that exists out there and one that I fear that our senators don't quite get and certainly director Patel is not addressing
today.
GIOKOS: Yes, look -- and as you say, this hearing was scheduled before the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Charlie Kirk definitely going to be
under the spotlight in a very big way.
And the way the FBI handled it, the way that Kash Patel handled it, you know, what kind of questions are we waiting on this front?
And what are we hoping to learn from Kash Patel?
KAYYEM: Yes. So you know, a lot of people will say, well, they got the guy and the family turned him in.
And why is everyone focused on Patel?
Because you can't just put what happened last week with Patel.
[10:10:00]
The director of the FBI making false claims or erroneous claims on Twitter, having to retract them, giving a real-time update on the investigation, as
if, you know, as if he's a teenage boy who just wants to get online first and really losing control of the narrative.
So much so that it was governor Cox from Utah who ended up, honestly, basically silencing the FBI in terms of press conferences that he didn't
speak at or didn't contribute much to.
So you've got just a person unable to manage the moment. And there will be more moments for the FBI.
But I also need to put it in context of, you know, what were we expecting?
The White House nominated Kash Patel because he is an influencer, because he was a podcaster. He had no business running the FBI. They fire a whole
bunch of people. They fired the head of the Utah division. They put the FBI under pressure to follow immigration enforcement and not law enforcement.
And so we're seeing the consequences of what we could have predicted in the past. So look, the, you know, Patel had a really bad week. And I -- and
honestly, no one should have much sympathy about it. We knew exactly what was going to happen. And really, he undermined (AUDIO GAP).
GIOKOS: All right. I want us to listen back in, Juliette, to the hearing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't work there anymore.
SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-RI): Well, there was a list. You don't like it to be called an enemies list. And it had about 60 names and about 20 have
had an adverse action. So those are, I think, pretty clear facts.
Let me move on to your grand jury testimony, which we also talked about when you were here. I think you indicated that you understood that a
witness in the grand jury is free to discuss afterwards whatever they told the grand jury.
And you then went on to suggest, saying, I can't go into court orders granted by the D.C. district chief judge. And you want me to violate a
court order.
In those remarks, you fairly plainly suggested that there was a court order of some kind that somehow restricted or limited your ability to discuss
your own testimony to that grand jury.
Since then, that chief judge that you mentioned, Judge Boasberg, has written -- and I'm quoting him here -- "Federal rule of Criminal Procedure
6 (e) allows witnesses like Patel to divulge the contents of their testimony, meaning that nothing was preventing him from doing so before the
committee."
Can we confirm here today that there is no court order of any kind that limits your ability as a witness before the grand jury, to discuss your own
testimony to that grand jury?
PATEL: We can confirm that, pursuant to my action, that that grand jury testimony has been released, the transcript.
WHITEHOUSE: Let's -- in what form was it released, may I ask?
PATEL: Publicly.
WHITEHOUSE: OK, we'll check on that.
The FBI does background investigations. In the case of a U.S. attorney, Jeanine Pirro, it has come to light that, in a civil proceeding, that FOX
News executives, prior to her confirmation, called her -- I'm quoting here -- "a reckless maniac," who makes, quote, "insane comments" and said "I
don't trust her to be responsible."
And noted her penchant for what they called "random conspiracy theories on weird internet sites."
My question to you is, did that turn up in her background investigation?
PATEL: For any background investigation, Senator, we do not discuss those publicly.
[10:15:04]
And for every background investigation, when there's an adjudication, it is not made by me. It is made by the career professionals who run the
inspection division and background check system.
WHITEHOUSE: Do you know if that information was found?
You see, we're an oversight body here. And there are really three possibilities here.
One is that the FBI background investigation didn't find that stuff. That's worth noting, because these investigations, full-field background
investigations, are supposed to find that stuff. That's possibility one.
Possibility two is that the FBI did, in fact, find that information and then did not report it to the administration or to the committee.
And the third is that you found it. You reported it to the administration and they went ahead with her nomination, knowing that she had been
described as a reckless maniac who made insane comments, who wasn't trusted by colleagues to be responsible and who had a penchant for random
conspiracy theories on weird internet sites.
Are you saying that this committee does not have any authority or reason to look into which of those things is true?
PATEL: This committee can look into anything it wishes. I'm telling you that the background investigations that are done by the HRD division are
done by career individuals. They do not report the details of those to me. They adjudicate those independently and individually. That's how it's
always been done.
WHITEHOUSE: What happened to -- during the pause of FBI background investigations, that was alleged in the complaint against you and the FBI
by the FBI agents, who were terminated?
On February 12th, Emil Bove directed the FBI, quote, "to pause any FBI background investigations of Trump nominees until Patel was confirmed,"
which happened on February 20th, is the general description of what they alleged.
Why do, you know -- were background investigations paused?
Was it so material like this could be scrubbed out of them?
And have they been resumed without that pause fully and normally after your arrival on February 20th?
PATEL: I can speak to the time period since I got there. Background investigations have been ongoing across the board at the FBI.
WHITEHOUSE: Why was the pause, do you know?
PATEL: I was not there.
WHITEHOUSE: It wasn't explained to you when you got there?
"Oh, by the way, boss, they've had a multi -- an eight-day pause on background investigations"?
Do you think that would be something that would be explained to you at some point?
PATEL: Again, I leave it to the men and women at HRD division to run background investigations. I do not interfere with them.
WHITEHOUSE: I get that. But what I don't get is whether you were told about that pause.
And why would you not be told about that pause?
PATEL: I don't recall that, sir.
WHITEHOUSE: All right.
The allegation also relates that part of the employee review of senior staff was whether or not they voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
Since when is who you voted for a proper question for agents to be asked?
PATEL: I don't know what allegation you're referring to, Senator. If it's from an ongoing matter in litigation, I can't discuss that.
But what I can discuss is I can only speak to the FBI's background investigations. There are other background investigations conducted across
the government. I can only speak to --
(CROSSTALK)
WHITEHOUSE: So just to clarify, I'm not talking about the FBI full-field background investigations. I'm talking about internal employee reviews for
promotion, for termination, for job actions, the various kinds.
And my question to you is, is it now the policy of the FBI to ask agents who they voted for?
And since when is who agents voted for a proper question for the FBI to ask?
PATEL: Taking those in reverse order, it's not a proper question and it's improper to allege that I'm doing that. And also at the FBI specifically,
under my leadership, we do not ask who you voted for.
And just one correction for the record, if I may, Senator, it's security division that runs background investigations, not HRD.
WHITEHOUSE: OK. I'll accept that correction.
[10:20:00]
And in the event that we cannot locate your grand jury transcript, just expect a question for the record.
That will give you the chance to either provide that transcript again, if it had been previously provided, or to make the statement that Grand Jury
Rule 6 (e) allows you, to the best of your recollection, truthfully, about what it is that you told that grand jury.
Do you understand that?
PATEL: That's why I wanted the transcript released and we'll get it to you, sir.
WHITEHOUSE: Thank you very much.
Thank you, Chairman.
SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA): I think I want to take an opportunity --
GIOKOS: All right. Sheldon Whitehouse there, asking questions to Kash Patel, the FBI director, in the hearing. These are live images coming
through right now. We've still got Juliette Kayyem joining us today.
And I, Juliette, I really want to go through what we've just heard on the pausing of the background checks. And that was really telling because, very
pointed in his questions, the U.S. Senate Democrat, Sheldon Whitehouse, with regards to this -- and also asking the question when it came to
performance reviews or whether to hire or fire.
Employees who they voted for. Tell me what kind of sense you got from his answers and really fascinating questions on these background pauses.
KAYYEM: Yes. So there's two different pieces here. I mean, definitely Kash Patel, the director, Patel, was brought in to create an FBI that had its
ideological support for the president of the United States.
Which is a historical and dangerous -- you simply don't want a national law enforcement agency to only go after people who don't support the president.
And I think what Sheldon Whitehouse was trying to do in those -- in those questions is to focus director Patel on how much does he know about these
background reviews, these allegations that are coming out of the FBI by people that have been fired by the FBI, FBI agents, whistleblowers?
That is a just a mounting pile of evidence that director Patel is having an ideological test for who gets to join the FBI. In fact, there was an
interesting point there.
We're talking about the pauses. Patel just clearly doesn't even know how that process works. And he had to correct himself. He said, oh, it goes to
the professionals at the FBI, suggesting that he doesn't actually follow the formal process.
But that something is going on in the director's office that is that is a bit of an ideological purge. That's what's going on here. And there's a
number of FBI agents now suing the FBI and director Patel, based on those allegations.
GIOKOS: Juliette, another piece of news that has just come through is that Marco Rubio has -- is saying the State Department has denied visas to
people that are celebrating Kirk's murder. We have a sound bite. I haven't heard it but let's listen in together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: You're a partner (ph) and you're out there celebrating the assassination of someone who is speaking somewhere?
We don't want you in the country.
Why would we want to give a visa to someone who thinks it's good that someone was murdered in the public square?
It's just common sense to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: All right, Juliette, secretary of state there, saying we're going to be denying visas to anyone celebrating Kirk's assassination.
And, you know, frankly, we've been seeing a big crackdown on anyone that has been mocking, celebrating or condoning the assassination within the
United States. Now this obviously extends out of the U.S. borders, anyone wanting to come and visit.
KAYYEM: Right. And the thing that the administration is doing is they're conflating this hypothetical group of people that are celebrating a
political assassination -- I have to be honest with you, I live online. I live in this world. I'm not seeing it.
Every Democratic leader has condemned it. No one is supporting political assassination. But the White House is creating this mythology that there's
a group of people, who are applauding it.
And what was interesting about secretary Rubio's statement is he didn't say anyone is. He said, if they are, because it's, you know, they're trying to
create a narrative about what's going on in the United States.
What's scarier is simply that the, you know, the focus on, oh, people are celebrating the assassination again, not -- no evidence points to that --
to people who are legitimately criticizing Charlie Kirk, the kind of political apparatus he built.
[10:25:00]
The things that he said about women or Arab Americans or African Americans. That is where really the focus of this White House is, that people who are
criticizing Charlie Kirk and his opinions are somehow viewed as supporting the political assassination.
It is quite consistent for someone to say political assassination is bad, period. But in a separate conversation, say, look, you know, Charlie Kirk
has some very conservative ideas. And that's basically what JD Vance has. The vice president has said they know what his opinions were.
So it's a slippery slope that Marco Rubio is now using the State Department to amplify the politicization of this assassination that's coming out of
the White House. Rubio has done this before. I will tell you, they will not find anyone who they deny a visa to who is celebrating Charlie Kirk's
assassination. This is a red herring, a straw man.
(CROSSTALK)
KAYYEM: I mean, he couldn't --
GIOKOS: Yes, he -- I mean, he couldn't confirm if any visas had been revoked as yet. But said he expects that some would be. And he's saying, if
you're a foreigner and you're out there celebrating the assassination, we don't want you in our country. That's what he said.
So you know, enforcing this. All right, Juliette, we're going back to the hearing. Let's listen in.
REP. JOHN CORNYN, (R-TX): -- criminal organizations that are importing poison into the United States and responsible for killing tens of thousands
of Americans, maybe hundreds of thousands of Americans over time.
Do you think a law enforcement model for dealing with these narco traffickers is adequate to deal with the threat?
Or do you think we need to start thinking about this in maybe new and different ways?
Obviously, we're not engaged in a in a war per se, although it is a war metaphorically. And the law enforcement model seems to be not working from
the standpoint of dealing with the volume of the threat and the magnitude of the threat.
Do you think we need to start thinking about how do we deal within constitutional/legal parameters to deal with this problem in a different
way, to be more effective in protecting the American people?
PATEL: Absolutely. And the way to analogize this and why I've advocated for the designation -- and I'm thankful that the Trump administration has
designated these cartels and narco traffickers as foreign terrorist organizations -- is because we must treat them like the foreign terrorist
organizations post 9/11.
We must treat them like the Al Qaedas of the world, because that's how we're operating. And just treating them with law enforcement capabilities
alone was wholly insufficient to wipe out the targets in their entirety. They always had the next man up philosophy. If you take out the leader,
they got 10 guys behind him.
But in order to eliminate -- and that's the key -- eliminate the drug trade and eliminate the pouring into this country of narcotics, we have to use
authorities at the Department of War and the intelligence community to go after the threat, like we did terrorists when we were manhunting them.
And now we have that ability and we're seeing that in live time, whether it's on the strike on the boat or going down into Mexico and working with
our Mexican authorities with these intelligence assets, to say we've located not just the person in charge of -- the cadre in charge but the
entire network.
And we are now able to dismantle that entire network. It's going to take time. The manhunt after 9/11 took some years and this is going to be a
years-long mission.
CORNYN: Well, I'm glad you mentioned the counterterrorism mission, because we've had a lot of experience, the U.S. government writ large, with dealing
with terrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere.
And, obviously, some of our friends and allies, like Mexico, for example, are very sensitive about sovereignty and being able to control what happens
on their territory. But yet we're beginning to see more and more cooperation, as you point out, in that regard.
And so, in your opinion, has the counterterrorism model, have the lessons learned by the U.S. government writ large, are they being aggressively
applied?
Or are there other things we need to do to make sure that those skills, those lessons learned, are applied more broadly to the threat of
narcotrafficking?
PATEL: I can only speak to the FBI. We are applying all of them to our counter -- the CT mission set to the CM mission set. And we're using all
the new authorities given to our intelligence community partners and the Department of War to combine these collective efforts.
And in a new way, meeting together and creating an interagency process that gets after the threat dynamic -- and whether that's a kill operation, a
capture operation, a surrender operation or a host nation takedown, like we did with the counterterrorism mission sets in Afghanistan and Iraq and
Pakistan and elsewhere.
We are applying that to the drug traffickers in Mexico and Venezuela and Colombia.
[10:30:00]
CORNYN: Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Klobuchar.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We have seen too much political violence in this country. We all know that. Just last week, Director, your friend, Charlie Kirk, was gunned down on a
college campus. I'm sorry for your loss.
In Minnesota only two months ago, a madman took the life of my friends, Melissa and Mark Hortman; shot senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, a
combined 17 times. And evidence indicates that he would have killed a lot more if law enforcement hadn't intervened.
Just last month in my state, we were again shook to the core when little kids were shot down through stained glass windows in Annunciation Catholic
Church in Minneapolis. And while the victims weren't politicians in this case, they were 6-year olds and 8-year olds. The manifesto that the shooter
left behind was political.
But in the words of your own federal law enforcement, this person was an all-purpose hater; went after Blacks, Hispanics, the president, Muslims,
Jews, nearly everyone. And this happened during the first mass of the year for these kids.
They were excited to see their friends, meet their new teachers. And two children, 8-year old Fletcher Merkel, 10-year old Harper Moyski were
murdered; 21 other people injured; some of the kids, 18 kids, severely.
Fletcher was just starting 3rd grade. He loved his family, his friends. He loved fishing and cooking, in his dad's words, any sport he was allowed to
play.
Harper, the other child, we celebrated her life this Sunday, thousands of people. Her parents described her as bright, joyful and a deeply-loved 10-
year old, whose laughter, kindness and spirit touched everyone that she knew.
We've heard the words of young children who were saved, because 12-year olds laid on top of them, or a kid with disabilities who was paralyzed,
whose teacher pulled him out of the wheelchair, threw him under the pew and laid on top of him.
We do thank the local FBI director and the local U.S. attorney's office for their work in both of these cases, the Hortman case and this. But I did
want to focus on one local law enforcement moment that I'm not sure has made with all the news going on in Minnesota.
When the first 9-1-1 call -- and you've heard about other places where this waited and waited -- the first 9-1-1 call was made at 8:27 am. The first
officer was on the scene just four minutes later, local Minneapolis police, at 8:31 am.
The chief, Chief O'Hara, shared with me the actual numbers. Listen to this. Over 20 people were in ambulances -- just 14 minutes, all of them -- after
the police got on the scene, 14 minutes after the first call.
Tourniquets, stretchers and they got them all to Hennepin County Medical Center or Minneapolis Children's Hospital.
And I think it is worth looking at what happened there, because one of the dads, whose daughter was severely injured, still in the hospital, that I
met on Sunday, told me that there is absolutely no way her, his beautiful daughter, would have survived if police hadn't been there.
So it is worth looking at for all of us. So my focus on behalf of these parents, because I promised I would do this on Sunday, was just to figure
out how we can do anything to stop this from happening again. So expanded background checks, ghost gun bans.
Every shooting is different. Raising the minimum age to purchase assault weapon, even if we're not going to ban them, I favor banning them. But
that's one idea that's out there.
When so many of these shootings are people who are 18, 19, 20, 21, the one at Annunciation Church was 23. Both shooters in Uvalde and Buffalo had just
turned 18 when they purchased the assault weapon.
Bans -- I'm not saying any one of these things would prevent every single shooting. But I really ask everyone to look at these. We also need to
tackle social media and I really did appreciate senator Graham's questions. I think we have to protect free speech and not engage in censorship.
But for years, I have supported repealing Section 230, which was made when these companies were little companies starting up in garages. And I think
it is one way to get at making this better environment online and preventing violence.
So my first question is on the assault weapon ban.
Do you think that would be helpful in reducing gun deaths, Director?
[10:35:00]
PATEL: Senator, if I may, I want to answer the question.
But thank you for your remarks, especially relates to my friend, Charlie. And I share and relay my remarks, my sentiments to you. Minnesota has
suffered untold tragedy in these last few months. And whatever creativity we can use to eliminate even just one shooting, one horrific death, I am in
favor of engaging with Congress fully to do.
I don't have the answers. I don't know what will eliminate it in its entirety. But I'm willing to engage and explore new ways with you, Senator.
KLOBUCHAR: Thank you.
And so assaults weapon ban, what do you think?
PATEL: Senator, I think there are instances on this legislation that could prevent future attacks. But I'm not going to weigh into the creation of
legislation.
KLOBUCHAR: Could you also look at -- and I've -- I favor just assault weapon ban, not getting the hands in the -- these guns in the hands of
people that shouldn't have them.
But could you look at the numbers on the ages?
PATEL: Yes.
KLOBUCHAR: Because, from 18, even going from 18 to 21, which would have prevented the shooter in Annunciation Church from purchasing that gun, he
purchased several the same day. Over 100 rounds were fired from the assault weapon through the stained glass windows.
So if you went up to 25, it would have stopped that immediate purchase and probably saved the lives of these kids. But if you go to 21, that is the
same age that already applies to purchasing handguns from federally licensed dealers. So I prefer another approach.
But I was hoping that our Republican colleagues would at least look at that, given Uvalde, Buffalo and some of these other mass shootings. Trying
to be practical but thinking that it could make a major difference, strengthening background checks.
Could you also look at that?
And then banning ghost guns and bump stocks, what do you think of that?
PATEL: So Senator, you're talking to my heart here on one of the core missions that the FBI, which is our CGIS facility in Winchester, Virginia,
which is our hub for our NICS checks, our NCICs, our capabilities on when we have -- I think it's 19,000 state and local community law enforcement --
come to us for these background checks.
We're trying to make that processing as fast as we can so we can get them real-time information. I think we have a 93 percent clearance rate in 15
minutes as it relates to ghost guns. But we can do better.
KLOBUCHAR: All right, well, just if you could get back to me on all those and talk to the White House.
Threats against elected officials have increased exponentially. Members of Congress received more than 9,000 threats last year, up from 1,600 in 2016.
There's been a lot of talk about the rhetoric and the like.
And if we want to move forward on things like Section 230 or even -- look, if we can do anything on guns, I do think we're going to have to be honest
about this all-purpose hater issue.
PATEL: And that --
KLOBUCHAR: And it has bothered me, this thing, you know, we're going to go after this group. We're going to have to go after this group.
I just want to, for the record, show that the murderer of Speaker Hortman and her husband, you know, he had who was Democratic lawmakers on his list.
He went to the ones whose addresses he had.
By the way, Planned Parenthood was on the list, as were businesses and law firms, doctors. I already mentioned the ones with the Catholic Church
shooting. So it is not just as the radicals on the Left, what's a quote from the president, are the problems or destructive movement of left-wing
extremism that vice president Vance said.
According to the Anti-Defamation League last year, all the murders were committed -- and I'm not actually going to say this because I don't even
want to go Left or Right with this. But you can imagine it wasn't from the Left.
Cato Institute, conservative think tank, published a study just last week that found from terrorists from the Right were responsible for six times
more deaths than people from the Left.
I actually don't want to go tit-for-tat on this but what I am asking for is that this rhetoric of blaming one side or the other stop, if you could
convey that to the president, and that we actually work on things that are solutions.
So could you commit to me, Mr. Patel, Director Patel, that you will do that?
PATEL: Absolutely, Senator.
KLOBUCHAR: OK. Thank you.
Last, you were asked about social media and I will put some more questions on the record about that. I think we could make major movement on that.
[10:40:00]
The local FBI helped when the City of St. Paul was a victim of a cyber attack. And I'm concerned about some of the cyberattack cuts. I'll ask you
that on the record.
GIOKOS: All right. You're listening there to Amy Klobuchar. She is a Senate Democrat and posing tough questions to FBI director Kash Patel,
highlighting gun violence in the United States.
Not only the political violence that we've seen but also reminding us about the Annunciation Church incident, where children were killed. It was the
first day of school. And she really spoke with a lot of emotion.
We've got Evan Perez, who's on Capitol Hill, following this hearing for us.
And I have to say, Evan, I -- you know, listening to her emotion and, again, she said this and it really struck me, you know, these kids that
were victims were not politicians but they had aspirations. And that was destroyed.
She then asked the question very pointedly, ban on assault weapons, what do you think?
And he said, I cannot comment on legislation.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SR. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is obviously one of the issues that comes up after every one of these hearings. And -- I'm
sorry, every one of these incidents, one of these shootings, mass shootings.
And in the case of the Charlie Kirk murder, the concern about the ready availability of guns in this country. Of course, conservatives -- and Kash
Patel is part of the president's party here, they do not believe that any kind of restrictions on guns really will solve the problem. And so they are
looking for other issues to focus on.
And I think you know, that that exchange with Klobuchar was also interesting because, you know what she was simply asking Patel to do is to
talk to the president of the United States, who has been out there claiming that all of the problems stem from left-wing extremism.
Patel himself has voiced some of that in talking about the evidence so far in this case. The shooter, he says, was -- belonged to left-wing ideology.
We don't know specifics about exactly what are is in that evidence.
But that is -- those are the words from Patel. And so, what you heard a little bit earlier, though, in this exchange, we expect -- we're expecting
some more exchanges like this in this hearing over the next few hours.
But you heard certainly Dick Durbin, who is the top Democrat on there, tell Patel, "Shut up and let the professionals do their job."
That was certainly pushing back on Patel and his very, very, ever-present media presence, on social media, posting on Twitter, on X, the platform.
And also in some of his interviews, where he's revealing interesting, very new details about this investigation, which is very unusual to do while an
investigation is ongoing and especially because they expect that they're going to try to bring federal charges against this alleged shooter.
So those are part of the discussion that we expect to continue over the next few hours. He's already been asked about the Epstein files. He says
there's -- going to release as many documents as he's legally allowed to do.
And, of course, his management of the Bureau, the FBI, with the purges of people who essentially had nothing, the only problem or the only fault that
they could find was that they were involved in some of the investigations involving Donald Trump.
And so Patel pushed back on those allegations, saying that people who've been fired essentially just did not serve the needs of the FBI at this
point. So we expect a few more hours of tough questioning for the FBI director, Eleni.
GIOKOS: Yes.
All right, Evan Perez, great to have you with us. Thank you so much.
We're going to a very short break. We'll be back after this. Stick with CNN.
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[10:45:00]
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GIOKOS: Welcome back. You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD.
Nearly two years into its war with Hamas, Israel has launched what may be its biggest ground operation in Gaza so far. Military officials say the
incursion into Gaza City started early Tuesday and will proceed gradually, with troops expected to fight up to 3,000 Hamas militants still believed to
be there.
But those militants account for just a tiny fraction of the estimated 1 million Palestinians, who are being told by Israel to evacuate Gaza City.
Now the IDF says only about 40 percent of them have left. And those staying behind are enduring increased aerial bombardments.
This is all happening as the United Nations commission concludes that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Israel refutes the accusation, which
it says is based on Hamas lies. Jeremy Diamond has more on the leadup to today's incursion -- and a warning that some of these images that you're
about to see are disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gaza City trembles with each new blast. Lately, its residents have faced one strike
after another.
The reality on the ground is even more terrifying. Bloodied and shaken, the injured are rushed out amid swirls of smoke and ash.
Wounded children carried once again into hospitals ill-equipped to handle the rising tide of casualties that accompanies Israel's intensifying
bombardment of Gaza City. More than 140 were killed here over the weekend according to local hospitals.
A wave of attacks that shook many here into fleeing the city. Sleepy children bundled into their parents' arms. Essential belongings lugged by
those forced to move once again.
At daybreak, their numbers multiply. A mass exodus on a scale not seen in Gaza in many months. More than 100,000 people were displaced this weekend
alone, according to Israeli military estimates.
"I'm coming from death, indiscriminate bombardments, martyrs in the streets," Mohammed says. "It is a miracle we survived."
Old and young pressed south toward an uncertain future. Those who can afford it pay to ride on top of trucks and trailers. For many here, this is
not a first. They have been forced to pile their entire lives on top of cars and makeshift carts before. They have already lost so much and they
are exhausted.
This man says 25 of his relatives have already been killed.
"I left only for these children but I wish a rocket would hit me and I die and find comfort because this is not life," he says, his frustration
rising.
The hundreds of thousands who still remain in Gaza City will face much more destruction and loss as Israel prepares to send ground forces into the city
in the coming days.
Ahmed is inconsolable as he walks amid the rubble of another Israeli strike. A military evacuation order allowed him to escape with his life but
little else.
"The house is gone. Where will we stay?" he cries.
But he won't find any answers here. And so many others are asking themselves the same question -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Thank you so much to Jeremy Diamond for that report.
And, of course, we now know that the ground operation to occupy Gaza City has begun.
[10:50:00]
We're going to a very short break. We'll be back after this.
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GIOKOS: Finally, tonight, we look back at Robert Redford's extraordinary career as an actor, director and environmentalist. His publicist says the
89-year old died today at his home in Utah. Here's CNN's Sara Sidner.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hollywood legend and leading man, Robert Redford, had many roles in front of the camera as well as behind it.
He was a true filmmaker and will always be remembered for many iconic films.
(VIDEO CLIP, "ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN")
SIDNER (voice-over): "All the President's Men" --
(VIDEO CLIP, "THE WAY WE WERE")
SIDNER (voice-over): -- and "The Way We Were;" 1969's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was his first blockbuster film, starring alongside Paul
Newman.
(VIDEO CLIP, "BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID")
SIDNER (voice-over): They also co-starred in "The Sting," for which he was nominated for Best Actor in 1974.
Redford was cast as the romantic leading man in films like "The Great Gatsby" and "Out of Africa," a label that followed him throughout his life,
even as he became older.
ROBERT REDFORD, ACTOR, DIRECTOR AND ENVIRONMENTALIST: Yes, I didn't see myself the way others saw me. So I was kind of feeling trapped because I
couldn't go outside the box of leading man or good-looking leading man. It was very flattering. But it was feeling restrictive. So it took many years
to break loose of that.
SIDNER (voice-over): Redford won a Best Director Oscar in 1981 for "Ordinary People." He directed "A River Runs through It," "Quiz Show" and
many other films.
A native Californian, he was born in Santa Monica in 1936. As Los Angeles grew, so did Redford's love for protecting the environment.
REDFORD: I grew up respecting nature because what happened to Los Angeles. It was a city as a child during the end of the Second World War that I
loved and it was a beautiful city and the air was clean.
And then what happened after the war was suddenly there were skyscrapers and there was pollution. It felt like the city that I loved as a child was
taken away from me. So I moved away from that in sadness.
SIDNER (voice-over): Redford moved to New York City to pursue an acting career on Broadway in the late 1950s. His big breakout role there was in
Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park," a role he would later reprise on the big screen with co-star Jane Fonda.
But after several years on Broadway, Redford left the glitz and glamor behind and, in 1961, moved to Utah, where he bought two acres of land for
just $500 and built a cabin for his family.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I discovered how important nature was in my life and I wanted to be where nature was extreme and where I thought it could be maybe
everlasting.
SIDNER (voice-over): An avid environmentalist, he bought more land over the years in Park City, Utah, and turned it into the Sundance Institute in
1981, a nonprofit dedicated to independent filmmakers, and four years later started the Sundance Film Festival to showcase their work.
REDFORD: Once the press came, then fashion came. And when fashion came, the paparazzi came. So these are kind of like tears that formed outside of
what we were doing. And that's fine. That's their business. But it's not who we are.
SIDNER (voice-over): And his love for the environment continued.
REDFORD: As years went on, I became more and more convinced that nature played a great role in our lives but wasn't being treated fairly.
[10:55:04]
And so I got committed to preserving that.
SIDNER (voice-over): But he didn't stop acting and directing and was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2002 for his contributions to filmmaking.
REDFORD: But I want to make the most of what I've been given. And you keep pushing yourself forward. You try new things and that's invigorating. I
guess I've found out that, rather than retiring, that just feels better. Just keep moving as long as you can keep moving.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: A beautiful legacy there.
Well, that's it for CONNECT THE WORLD. Stay with CNN. "ONE WORLD" is up next.
END
