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Inside Politics
Two People on Top of Empire State Building Flying Banner. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired July 01, 2026 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:33:12]
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': We're following Breaking News. What you're looking at are live pictures at the top, the tippity top of the Empire State Building, where two people have climbed all the way up there on the antenna spire, and you see them, and they're holding a banner. And what that banner says is "When the power of love beats the world of power, the world knows peace." Again, this is live pictures that we're looking at.
CNN, our teams are en route to try to get more information about, obviously, who they are and the efforts to get them down from this incredibly precarious position. And we're going to bring that to you as soon as we can. In the meantime, we are in New York. How many blocks, John Berman?
JOHN BERMAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR, CNN NEWS CENTRAL: It's really just a few avenue blocks over.
BASH: Yeah.
BERMAN: We're word Hudson Yards, which is 33rd and 10th. That's basically, you know, between 5th and 6th in the same area past Madison Square Garden.
BASH: Hopefully (ph), we can put the pictures back up as we talk about this.
BERMAN: By the way, a lot's going on in this area over the next few days. I mean, this is where we think Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are getting married at Madison Square Garden. I'm not trying to make a joke. I'm just trying to tell you, it's in the very same neighborhood that a ton is going on just a short distance from here.
The Empire State Building is 102 stories tall. I think with the spire, it's 103.
BASH: I'm trying to look to see if they even have any kind of harness or anything of the sort. It doesn't --
BERMAN: 1,400 feet -- 1,400 feet up in the sky. BASH: It does not look like it. As somebody who has severe anxiety about heights, it's honestly even hard for me to imagine this. And as you said, it's important not to make a joke. I mean, obviously, these air protesters, they're trying to make a point. They're trying to get seen. They are. This is quite a dramatic way to do it. But their safety is and should be paramount at this point.
[12:35:00]
And so I can't even imagine what is going on with first responders and law enforcement. All of the -- you know, homeland security, everything that goes along with trying to get them down safely. And then, you know, who knows what will happen from there?
MADISON FERNANDEZ, POLITICO REPORTER, CO-AUTHOR, "NEW YORK PLAYBOOK": I mean, there's been, like we said, a lot going on this weekend for the 4th of July celebrations and lots of preparation going into it and plenty of people in the area for the World Cup. So obviously, if their point is for people to see it, people are definitely seeing it. But as you said, there's just been a lot of law enforcement preparation ahead of this weekend.
BASH: Again, we're seeing (inaudible) in the city. Markwayne Mullins was actually on our block where I live, today having breakfast. We know the secretaries of the different branches are in town all for this big naval review coming up this weekend for the 4th of July.
It looks like, I mean, we don't know, but it looks like they appear to be making their way down.
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: It's been a few years since they've been up there, but to get to the area where you can even reach the spire, you have to take all kinds of elevators, go through lines. If they went there as tourists, I wonder if they bought tickets and got up to the observation deck --
BASH: I would imagine (ph).
BERMAN: -- which is in the 102nd floor as tourists. You've got to go through all kinds of security even to get there, so one wonders how they managed to get that far without being noticed or apprehended.
CHRISTINA RUFFINI, CO-HOST, "BLOOMBERG THIS WEEKEND": Generally, they are concerned with people going down. Maybe not going up is not what most of the protocols are there for.
BASH: Yeah, I mean, we'll see. It looks like they are trying to make their way down. I mean, just to watch this, again --
(LAUGH)
BASH: If you are watching at home and you're experiencing this with all of this, this is, oh, OK. They don't look very scared about the height as I would be. I mean, there's protests, and then there's this. This is obviously not just protest. It's exhibitionism. It's who knows what else they had in mind to do this, but I would imagine one of the main things they had in mind is what we're doing right now, watching it live and trying to figure out who they are and what their message is. And again, that banner that they put out there, "When the power of love beats the world of power, the world knows peace." Astead?
ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, I mean, I think more information will come out. I was just thinking about my anxiety shooting up, seeing them kind of make their way down here. But as you mentioned, the point of these is to agitate, is to be seen, and obviously, this achieved some of that goal, but I think the safety of both folks being paramount is the Catch 22 because you want that focus on the safety and at the same time, I think we got to wait for more information to come out to know exactly what to make of this message.
BASH: They're definitely coming down for now, and I would imagine that, hopefully, they come down safely, and I would imagine that they know full well what is going to be in store for them when they get down, which is, I mean - -
BERMAN: Still a ways to go.
HERNDON: Yeah.
BASH: Look at that.
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: It's hard to see with that, you know, the perspective with the ship behind.
BERMAN: That's the Hudson River there.
BASH: Yeah.
BERMAN: That is where cruise ships dock. They come up the Hudson, they dock there, so you can just see how far that giant cruise ship is beneath them.
BASH: Right, you can see it, and I mean, it's hard to see the perspective of just how tall the Empire State Building is from this angle, but it's the Empire State Building, folks.
I mean, we know it is iconically, incredibly, incredibly tall, and the fact that they are not only at the top of the Empire State Building, where you go on the observation deck, but so far up that antenna spire.
Juliette Kayyem, I have you, I know you're on the phone as somebody who -- you've dealt with a lot of homeland security issues. I would imagine something like -- oh, now they're going back up. Doesn't look like they're going back down. Well, maybe we'll see, but in any event, Juliette, as somebody who is a specialist in homeland security, what are those of us who are not certainly in this time, this type of security, thinking of? JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I'll be honest with you. I mean, and you can hear my anger, is they have chosen to do this. It is a risk, so I'm going to assume that they know it's a risk. If one of them were to fall, if one of them were to drop something, if the flag were to drop, that is a public safety issue for the people on the ground who have not decided not to do something like this. So that's my first thought, is I don't mean to be rude about them.
They need to be safe. They look like they're climbers. Look at them. They know what they're doing. So that's the first thing, is I'm worried about what's below. The second is, of course, whatever breach of security happened between them.
[12:40:00]
I'm getting texts from people who work for the building, security below in terms of their access to this part of the building, which is not accessible to the public for obvious reasons. So there's already a trespass breach, there's going to be other legal claims against them.
The final though, as you all were saying before, is we're just in this world of like performative, everyone pay attention to me.
BASH: Yep.
KAYYEM: And that is what they're doing. That is how we respond. Whether it's terrorists who, you know, have manuscripts and manifestos, or it is people who know that this is the most media- centric city in all of the country.
BASH: Yeah. And Juliette, I'm sorry to interrupt you. I just want to say one thing that Brian Stelter is texting me as we're watching this, which is important that we kept saying it's an antenna. It's a TV transmission tower.
KAYYEM: Yeah.
BASH: So all of New York's local TV stations are broadcast via that tower on top of the Empire State Building. So we're talking about exhibitionism, we're talking about protests, all of those things. But one of the questions that I have given that information is whether it's more than that, whether it's trying to mess with that or to disrupt that.
(CROSSTALK)
KAYYEM: That's exactly right. So I mean, we're watching, I have no idea what they're doing, right? I mean, there's reporting about some Instagram posts that, you know, about Earth and protecting Earth. But as you said, look, our buildings are -- and skyscrapers like this are also -- they're not just real estate, they are holders or possessors through leases of critical infrastructure capacity, right? So whether it's being able to land a helicopter or in something like this, satellite displays.
And so the city will have, or the city certainly knows what could be impacted by them. But they're, you know, I don't know, they are doing stuff that is making us watch right now. But that's exactly right.
This is not just a building. I'm putting them aside, I hope that they're safe, they look like they're fit, that they can handle this. I'm worried about them making mistakes and impacting the city or some sort of sabotage against the satellites.
BASH: And --
(CROSSTALK)
KAYYEM: He looks like he's proposing now.
BASH: Well, you can see that there was -- it looks like a selfie stick up there.
KAYYEM: Yeah, yeah.
BASH: OK. It looked like there was just a proposal.
KAYYEM: Yeah, that's exactly right. This is the generation that cannot do anything without everyone watching.
BASH: Can we just stop for a second? Hold on one second, Juliette. So we saw a selfie stick, clearly looks like a selfie stick, go up.
KAYYEM: Yeah.
BASH: He goes on, or somebody went on one knee. And we don't know what the gender of these individuals.
KAYYEM: Yeah.
BASH: Went on one knee, looked like a proposal, they hug, and it looks like it's just being captured by somebody's cell phone. They're getting it.
KAYYEM: Yeah. It's probably streaming somewhere. Yeah, it's probably streaming somewhere live right now. I'm not able to access it. I've been given some links about who they are, but we'll let the reporters figure out who they are. But yeah, I mean, this is performative.
I am all for love. I am all for romance. This is egregious for about 10,000 people who will end up in jail for their wedding, as they should.
BASH: Shimon Prokupecz, you've covered -- you're a native New Yorker, you've covered incidents in New York more times than we can count.
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah.
BASH: Also, are they wearing costumes?
PROKUPECZ: Yeah, well, it looks like they did at one point have both of their faces covered, but the woman there now clearly is showing her face now. So there was something on her head when we saw her earlier at the top of the building, at the top of this antenna, this transmitter, and it looks like now she's showing her face.
And I can't really make out the man's face. But yeah, this is one of these things for the NYPD. Look, they train for this kind of stuff in many different ways. This is also a situation where the police are not going to want to put themselves in any kind of danger and hope that somehow they could communicate with these individuals and negotiate with them and get them to come down.
At some point, they will hopefully come down and come down safely. But I wouldn't expect anything aggressive at this point from the police department.
[12:45:00]
There's really no point in being too aggressive here. They clearly get why they're doing this. And, you know, this sort of reminds me of another incident that happened many, many years ago, Dana.
It was a climber at the New York Times building that basically climbed up. You could climb up the building at that time because of the way it was set up, and eventually, the NYPD was able to get that individual down.
But this is the Empire State Building. I mean, this is the center of Manhattan, of New York City. This sits on 34th Street, just off of 6th Avenue. It is the center. It is a building that when you come into New York City, when you fly over New York City, on your way to the airport here, you see it and know that this is a landmark, and it will be a security risk because there's going to be a lot of questions about how these individuals were able to do this. And clearly, they probably studied this, these two individuals. They figured out a way how to do this.
They probably learned. They've been to that building, and they were able to do some reconnaissance and figure out how to get up there. But there are layers of security in the Empire State Building, from the ground floor into the elevators, up to the observation desk, up to the observation deck. There's security layers there.
There are supposed to be gates and other layers and layers of security to try to prevent this kind of stuff. But that's a whole separate issue here, obviously. But this is something that is going to get a lot of attention and is getting a lot of attention just because of the brazenness of this and where they're doing this.
KAYYEM: Yeah.
PROKUPECZ: There's so many tourists in this city right now. You walk the streets, it's also almost 100 degrees today. So much attention.
BASH: Yeah. Can I just add one thing as we're watching this? And John Berman here with me, again, our fantastic colleague, Brian Stelter is texting me something else that it's kind of a little bit hard to see, but if you look, you see the red sort of balls on either side? Those are the lights that when a plane is flying in, the red lights to make sure that they know that this is an incredibly tall structure and stay away. That's how high they are.
BERMAN: It was famously the tallest building when it was first built.
BASH: Right.
BERMAN: It isn't any longer. But as Shimon correctly points out, it is one, I think, of the most visited tourist attractions here in New York City. Everyone wants to go to the top of the Empire State Building to check out the view, which by the way, isn't as good from the observation deck as it probably is from where they are.
(LAUGH)
BERMAN: But it's just remarkable to sort of see this and see them interacting like that.
BASH: Yeah. And --
KAYYEM: Yeah.
BASH: I don't know, anybody who's got a little vertigo might want to just close your eyes for a second.
Juliette, you have some intel?
KAYYEM: Yeah, I have a -- a friend of mine had worked at the building. I said, just describe the area. You can only get there by accessing the 103rd floor, which is secured, in quotes, "secured a million times over."
But I also want to just put, look, you can tell my anger about this because this is dangerous for a million reasons and performative and stupid. And -- but I will say this is July 4th weekend, World Cup weekend in New York. And lest we forget, likely Taylor Swift is getting married there.
This is a -- this is a city that has better things to do than follow two people who want to get married.
BASH: And now you can see the perspective, not that anybody who is watching who has any understanding of like modern civilization does not know of this iconic building and how high it is and where it is vis-a-vis the rest of Manhattan.
Christina, I want to ask you, I know you're getting some more information from your sources.
RUFFINI: Well, I was just -- I was just reaching out to some friends and they were saying, you know, the good thing for law enforcement is they do have to come down. And your colleagues are correct in that it is -- we're watching them. You've got eyes on them and they're not actively doing it looks like any damage to this.
So the smart move is not to put law enforcement in harm's way. Just let them come down where I'm sure multiple agencies will be waiting for them. BASH: I think -- I think those are -- it's a little bit hard to see. And I'm sure our viewers understand that we are literally going with this service. Go ahead, Shimon.
(CROSSTALK)
PROKUPECZ: I'm waiting to see if we see any of the, like, specialized units from the NYPD, like the emergency services officers, those are the guys that you would see climbing up that transmitter, if needed, or they'd be in all kinds of safety harnesses. It looks to me like that was just a patrol officer. But you can -- look, the thing is that the NYPD has already figured out who these individuals are.
I'm sure they've looked at all the surveillance cameras that are in that building to try and figure out how they got in, how they got up. So all of that is probably already figured out. The big question is, how long is this going to go on? What's the next step? I mean, I'm not really seeing them at the moment.
[12:50:00]
So I don't know if they're kind of somewhere out of our vision here within that transmitter. But they look like they were coming down. But I don't -- I can't see them now. But no doubt, the minute that the NYPD police officers and Empire State Building security staff can get their hands on these individuals safely, they're going to do it and they're going to do it aggressively once they can do it.
But there's no way at this point that any police officer would climb that and put themselves in harm's way for no reason. Right? Like --
BASH: Yeah.
PROKUPECZ: -- other than being on that building, these two individuals, it does not appear are causing any kind of a security concern.
And so you sort of kind of got to wait this out and see when they get tired. Their message is very clear, whatever it is, they've made their point. Everyone's watching this and people are watching this because of just how wild and crazy this is, that this happened in the middle of Manhattan at one of the most recognizable landmarks in the world -- in the world.
This is not just New York City. This is the Empire State Building. Everybody knows the Empire State Building -- to do this 12:50 in the afternoon in this scorching heat is just wild and crazy. And that is why it's getting all this attention. And there's going to be a lot of questions and we'll get to that.
But now, it's just the point of getting them down. And, you know, for the tourists who are visiting the Empire State Building today and wanted to visit the Empire State Building today, they may not be able to now because of this. So let's just hope these two can get down safely.
And I see there's some movement there. I don't know if that's the NYPD or what's going on.
BASH: Yeah.
PROKUPECZ: But let's hope this ends safely here (inaudible).
BASH: Yeah.
PROKUPECZ: My God, they're so high up.
BASH: Yeah. King Kong, they are not. That is (inaudible).
(LAUGH)
RUFFINI: I mean, the other issue is here just because these two people, I'm going to stick with some neutral terms, you know, essentially in love --
BASH: I'm sorry to interrupt you. It looks like somebody is climbing up.
PROKUPECZ: Yeah. Yeah.
BASH: Perhaps it's law enforcement.
PROKUPECZ: Yeah. And it looks like they --
KAYYEM: Two people.
PROKUPECZ: I kind of think I saw some safety harness around some of them. So this would ,be if it is, it would be the emergency services officers. And look, they also do need to get someone up there, if they're not able to communicate with them, they may want to try to get someone as high up as they possibly can.
Look, you're putting officers at risk here unnecessarily, but they're going to do it if they have to do it. And they will get as high as they can safely to start talking to them. But I don't know what you say to these individuals. I mean, they're going to do what they want to do.
BASH: I would think you're under arrest might be part of the (inaudible).
(LAUGH)
PROKUPECZ: Yeah, I mean --
(LAUGH)
PROKUPECZ: I mean, I'm sure they expect that. But how do you convince them to --
BASH: Yeah. And, you know, now that we saw what clearly was a proposal, the banner that they had up there "When the power of love beats the world of power, the world knows peace" makes a little bit more sense, although saying that something that we're watching makes sense is a stretch.
FERNANDEZ: They've also pointed out a huge security flaw here. And, you know, even though they may not intend ill harm, this is pointing out to someone else that this is possible with seemingly relative little ease. We don't know what kind of planning went into this, but you always want to be aware, you know, those of us who've responded to or reported on a lot of terrorist events or things like this.
This is making people who try to protect and prevent those events from happening very nervous. The fact that they were able to get out there and get all the way up there without anyone stopping them, that's a problem.
BERMAN: And just to be clear, they're inside now, not the building, but they're inside. They're inside the scaffolding, as it were. They're no longer just completely exposed to the elements. It's unclear if that's them, that person you're seeing right there, or it's someone climbing up to meet them. But whatever is happening is happening inside the confines now of the steel beams.
BASH: Inside as much as inside --
BERMAN: Everything's relative, right?
(LAUGH)
BASH: (Inaudible).
RUFFINI: Not my kind of. But, yeah.
KAYYEM: Yeah.
BERMAN: I'm just not sure this engagement is going to turn out the way that they planned.
(LAUGH)
PROKUPECZ: Also, the charges here right now, I mean, would be trespassing charges. I don't know. You know, maybe --
KAYYEM: Yeah.
PROKUPECZ: -- some endangerment charges. These are not hefty kind of penalties, especially here in New York City. And so they know this and they will probably be released once they're arrested and charged, and they'll go through arraignment. And I don't even know, legally, if they can even be held. And if there's any kind of bail, I'm sure they'll get bail posted. But those consequences don't matter in this situation.
The whole point of this is to do whatever message this is, they're making their message. You know, I think we should all be worried for the safety of these officers and other individuals (inaudible).
BASH: That's right. I mean, that's such an important point, Shimon. You're putting the lives and the safety at risk of people who have better things to do, more important things to do than this.
[12:55:00]
PROKUPECZ: Yeah. And to the point of someone, you know, I think Juliette was saying this, look, you know, we are in the midst of a very busy week here in New York City with World Cup, other events, 4th of July, 250 events. I mean, the NYPD is stretched and there are a lot of security concerns here with just the threat environment that we're under in this city.
And the NYPD Commissioner, Jessica Tisch, has spoken about that. You know, the Knicks parade that I covered was under the most intense security of any parade ever in New York City. And there's a reason for that.
And then yet something like this happens, and then now you have to take all these officers, these are specialized officers, they respond to the most serious emergencies in this city, and there are probably at least a dozen of them there, which would be, you know, quite a large number of them that are now having to deal with this to try and figure out how to get these individuals down.
You know, it is embarrassing, too, for the city, no doubt. I'm going to tell you, I'm sure the NYPD is probably sitting there like, how the heck did this happen? And for the Empire State Building, which is a threat, which is under, you know, threat security there.
BASH: Of course.
PROKUPECZ: And there's going to be a lot of questions here. But --
BASH: Yeah. I mean, let's just hope that this is just a proposal, exhibitionist, all of these, all of those things. I mean, you know, and I think that's your point, Shimon --
PROKUPECZ: Yes.
BASH: -- that that is the sort of the potentially best motive and outcome, because it could be something totally and completely different --
PROKUPECZ: Yeah.
BASH: -- that this security breach led to. Juliette?
KAYYEM: Yeah. No, I think, look, what -- it's an -- this is really on the building management because the access to this area, it has stairs, gates, cameras to protect what is essentially, you know, which is -- which is critical infrastructure, communication critical infrastructure in terms of transmission of television feeds.
So the building is going to have to figure out, the building management are going to have to figure out what the heck happened. And then, of course, tighten it. I think that they could be charged with something greater. This is the kind of stuff that puts me over the edge because, you know, as I was saying, it's a busy weekend in New York and we're going to waste our time on this.
So -- but there is an endangerment to the public in this. This isn't what -- this isn't just a mere trespass. If anything had happened, if they had dropped something, we know at this elevation, it could flatten a car, let alone a human being.
PROKUPECZ: And Dana?
BASH: Yes, go ahead.
PROKUPECZ: Those are those officers. That's the emergency services officers. Those are those special -- that's what it looks like.
BASH: Yeah.
PROKUPECZ: And you could see there's -- they're doing something with what looks like a harness, right? So to protect themselves from falling.
BASH: Yeah.
PROKUPECZ: I mean, they are literally risking their lives for these people. And I was just talking to someone at the NYPD. Look, they know who these individuals are. They're following them on their social media. They are streaming some of this. They're also telling people that these two individuals just to watch them off of some streaming camera.
So the NYPD obviously is very aware of who they are. They've done all the work now. And now, you know, they're just trying to protect themselves --
BASH: Shimon, I'm sorry to interrupt. I want to go to our colleague, Jason Carroll, who is at the Empire State Building at the base. Jason?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just want to let you know that we are here surrounded by tourists, everyone looking up, as you can imagine, everyone surrounding me just trying to sort out exactly what happened here and how it all unfolded. I'm sure you've heard some of the details, but just to fill in a little bit more.
You know, NYPD, New York police got the call around noon that two people, if you can believe it, were atop the Empire State Building on top of the antenna. And you know, I'm sure you've heard some of the statistics before, but, you know, still one of the tallest buildings in the world. It's 100 stories tall. And when you add the antenna there in terms of height, in terms of feet, 1,454 feet.
And you've got two people on top of it wearing black masks, hugging at one point, kissing each other at another point, unfurling at one point when they are on the very top of the antenna, that flag, which had the saying, "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."
Of course, that's a quote attributed to Jimi Hendrix. And so at this point, you've got a lot of questions. How in the world two people were able to get up there? As you know, they give tours every single day on a daily basis up to the observation deck, which is up on the 86th floor.
[13:00:00]
That observation deck actually wraps, it's open air, it is wraps around the entire building. And so perhaps one could imagine that they were able to sort of fold themselves in with the rest of, you know, the people there going for a tour, and then got up to the observation deck on the 86th floor and then made their ascent to the top of the antenna.
At this point, it appears from the ground, we don't see the flag up there anymore, we can no longer see the two individuals like we could in the beginning, but still a lot of questions as to exactly what they were doing up there.
BASH: Jason, thank you so much. Thank you to everybody else. Do not go away. "Inside Politics" is over, but "CNN News Central" is going to pick it up right now.
