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The Situation Room
Double Escort, Warplanes Protected the President and Decoy Plane; ICE Officer Points Gun at Woman Who Shouted at Them; After Catastrophic Flooding, More Storms Target Midwest Today. Aired 10- 10:30a ET
Aired August 13, 2026 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:00]
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, who was put at risk? New CNN reporting on the Air Force One switch as questions are growing over a decoy flight carrying cabinet members, military officials, and reporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop following us. Yes, you record us. You almost ran us over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't almost ran you over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You almost ran us over. Stop playing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're so full of (BLEEP).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop playing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are (BLEEP).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Stunning confrontation. An ICE agent points a gun at a woman, the tense encounter now sparking new questions.
And Midwest flooding disaster, several storms unleashing catastrophic flooding in Indiana. The new threat this morning.
Under pressure, Flock announcing new safety measures this morning after allegations its technology was used to track and stalk people. The CEO joins us live.
And concern on the carrier, families sounding the alarm about the mental health of sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln. I'm told by a U.S. official just before coming on air there was actually a man overboard incident. The sailor was quickly recovered from the waters. This happened last month. We're going to have new reporting all around this coming up in the show.
And sudden twist, a hearing hastily scheduled for Luigi Mangione, what we're learning about a possible plea deal.
Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Pamela Brown. Wolf Blitzer is off, and you're in The Situation Room.
And we begin this hour with that news CNN reporting. This morning, we're learning some new details about President Trump's secret flight out of Turkey last month. Fighter jets escorted the president's clandestine travels to England, and more jets escorted the Air Force One flight that he was not on.
We're also learning who joined the president inside that catering truck that secretly whisked them all to that military jet, and they include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and some of the president's closest aides, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, Oval Office Operations Director Walt Nauta, and Executive Assistant Natalie Harp. Notably, two members of the president's cabinet were left aboard Air Force One, the decoy plane.
CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House. Kevin, what more are you learning about this?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. And it's interesting when you look at these flight manifests about who was on the plane and who wasn't. I'm told that those two cabinet secretaries, who were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, who were left behind on that old Air Force One plane, essentially the decoy plane. They were aware of this plan. They knew that President Trump was not aboard. That wasn't true for others who were on the plane, including journalists and some White House staff.
When it comes to the threat that prompted this entire plan of deception, we are learning more about how exactly American officials were interpreting it. Remember, Pamela, you and I reported back in July that there was an Israeli tip, Israeli intelligence that suggested there was this plan to try and assassinate Trump. That was met with a degree of skepticism from American officials who thought that perhaps Israel was trying to influence President Trump's decision-making at what was a very sensitive moment in the Iran war.
Remember, this is when the ceasefire was collapsing. President Trump was trying to decide whether or not to go back to full-scale conflict. What American intelligence found at the time was some concerning information about just how detailed the Iranians had information about President Trump's arrangements on the ground there in Turkey. And there was also concern about an Iranian threat using a shoulder-fired missile to try and take down Air Force One. And in the very short amount of time that they had to come up with a plan, they eventually landed on this arrangement to have the president get on this alternate plane and fly out of the country.
Part of the steps that they took to protect the president were mustering these fighter jets to escort his plane out, but they also mustered them to escort the decoy plane out of the country. I think just underscoring the level of concern about what could happen to either of those planes as they were leaving Turkey. Pamela?
BROWN: All right, Kevin Liptak, thank you for bringing us the latest from the White House.
And happening now, growing backlash over an angry ICE agent pulling his firearm on a U.S. citizen and mother of two. It happened Monday in Virginia just outside of Washington. This right here is a still frame from the cellphone video shot by Carolina Molina.
We're going to show you the encounter, and we want to warn you of some profanity used by Molina toward the ICE agent.
[10:05:05]
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You almost ran us over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't almost run you over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You almost ran us over. Stop playing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're so full of (BLEEP).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop playing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are full of (BLEEP).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not funny.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're not funny.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will arrest you. Keep it up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a legal citizen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep it up. I don't care.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my goodness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go get the car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll lock you up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay. For what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because you're the one that tried to run us over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Run you over when?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You hit the curb.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got recording. I got dash cam. I got dash cam. That's a lie.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BROWN: And as you see here, Molina had two dash cams, one facing forward and one facing back. She tells CNN affiliate WUSA that she's a therapist who works with immigrants, and was on her way to meet immigration lawyers when she says she saw ICE officers handcuffing two Latino men.
Now, the video does not show that handcuffing, nor does it show her doing what the ICE officers accused her of, trying to run them over. Molina has released a little more than two minutes of dash cam footage, of which 37 seconds there are of that gunpoint encounter you just saw there, but from a different angle.
So, we're going to play you a little more than a minute. Again, we do want -- not know what, if anything, was not caught on camera. But what you will see begins with her shouting at the officers, then turning her car around because she said she did not want to call their attention to the office she was visiting.
We bleeped out the F words that she hurled at the officers, and here you see the officer from before getting out of his car with his gun already drawn.
This is the moment in question, so you can get a closer look. Again, there is profanity. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (BLEEP).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (BLEEP).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you really --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you following us?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I'm not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you following us?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm actually leaving cars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is your warning, ma'am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm leaving cars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just so you know, you need to stop following us, all right? This is your warning. Stop following us. Yes, you recorded us. You almost ran us over. I didn't almost run you over. You almost ran us over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're so full of (BLEEP).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop playing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (BLEEP).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop playing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are full of (BLEEP).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not funny.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're not funny.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will arrest you. Keep it up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm a legal citizen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep it up. I don't care.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't make me come out there and mess with you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my goodness. I'll come out there and I will get the car and lock you up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Okay. For what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For being the one that tried to run us over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Run you over when? I got recording. I got dash cam. I got dash cam.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: CNN's Jason Carroll is following the very latest on this case. Jason, what is the Department of Homeland Security saying about this confrontation here?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, two very different accounts of what happened out there. According to the Department of Homeland Security, they're referring to Carolina Molina as a, quote, anti-ICE agitator. They say that she attempted to harm officers by driving her car around circles around these officers, and that these officers feared for their safety.
So, once again, what we have here are two very different accounts of what happened out here. Carolina Molina, for her part, you've heard part of it, she says she was out there on Monday and saw that there were these ICE officers who had handcuffed two people and were putting them into an unmarked car. Then she says she admitted that she was shouting profanities at these ICE officers, and then that she attempted to get away, and that it was the ICE officers who actually boxed her in. And then she says one of them, as you've seen there from the dash cam video, got out and pulled his gun.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROLINA MOLINA, RECORDED ENCOUNTER WITH ICE AGENTS: I think my life was in danger at that point. I don't think I processed that in that moment. It wasn't until after I was like this was a whole Renee Good situation again.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CARROLL: Yes. Of course, Pamela, she's referring to Renee Good, that mother of three who was tragically killed in Minnesota earlier this year, killed by ICE officers out there. Her death, as you know, sparked national outrage across the country about ICE tactics and what they're doing there on the ground.
So, once again, in this case, Molina says it's very clear what happened from her perspective, and she says the dash cam proves it. Pamela?
BROWN: All right, Jason Carroll, thank you so much.
And still ahead here in The Situation Room, flooding emergency, relentless storms racing across the Midwest with more on the way. The mayor of Columbus, Ohio, joins us right after the break.
And race to reach quake survivors, the search intensifying this morning. We are live on the ground with one of the aid agencies.
You're in The Situation Room, and we'll be right back.
[10:10:00]
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BROWN: Turning now to a CNN exclusive. A former Southern Poverty Law Center employee has been arrested on charges tied to secret payments to informants who were part of white supremacist groups. The Justice Department filed fraud and money laundering charges against Heidi Beirich, according to a new grand jury indictment. The SPLC denies the charges, saying they're politically motivated, or denies what she's being charged with.
CNN Reporter Holmes Lybrand is joining me here in the situation room. So, what more are you learning here, Holmes?
HOLMES LYBRAND, CNN REPORTER: That's right. So this charge is actually a part of the larger case that the, the Justice Department has against the Southern Poverty Law Center.
[10:15:01]
The Justice Department says that they created shell companies to pay informants that then went inside of hate groups and white supremacy groups, and that they had been running this for several years, for decades, in fact.
Now, where does Heidi Beirich come into play? She oversaw the SPLC's project to investigate and track hate groups, and oversaw some of these donor funded payments to these informants.
Now, she also allegedly, according to the Justice Department, had a relationship with one of these informants and had a joint bank account where $140,000 of these payments that was put into this joint bank account, and then used to pay for the couple's living expenses. So, again, there's a lot of moving parts here. This will be a part of that larger case in the Middle District of Alabama.
Now, Beirich was arrested in California yesterday. She was released, and she'll have to appear in the Middle District of Alabama next week for her arraignment.
BROWN: All right, Holmes Lybrand, thanks for bringing that reporting to us.
Coming up, Lindsay Clancy is back in court this morning after an emotional outburst forced a brief break in testimony. Our Jean Casarez is watching it all for us.
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BROWN: Happening now, the Midwest is facing another round of severe storms after relentless rain unleashed catastrophic flooding across parts of the Midwest and Ohio Valley. Parts of Indiana saw a 1 in 1,000-year flood yesterday. Dozens of homes were flooded, forcing evacuations and leaving roads impassable. And in Ohio, tens of thousands remain without power this morning as residents prepare for another punishing round of flooding rain.
With us now is Mayor Andrew Ginther of Columbus, Ohio. Mayor, thank you so much for coming on.
You declared a mayor's emergency yesterday. What is the state of your city right now?
MAYOR ANDREW GINTHER (D-COLUMBUS, OH): Recovery. These storms have really hurt the people of Columbus and Central Ohio. I'm here on Columbus's South side, where some of the damage was the most devastating. And I was visiting with Mr. and Mrs. Carter just two doors down here yesterday. Both retired on fixed incomes and wondering how this city and this community could help them and so many residents that have been negatively impacted by these storms.
But we're coming together, the Red Cross, the Mid-Ohio Food Collective, the city, many other non-profit partners, to help our families get back on their feet and our city moving forward together.
BROWN: Do you have any numbers right now as far as a death toll or injuries?
GINTHER: The miraculous blessing out of all of this is there have been no fatalities. No one that we're aware of was transported to any of our health systems with injuries from the storm, nothing short of a miracle, but there are many folks, tens of thousands of people still without power. And we've opened up a shelter at one of our recreation centers in partnership with the Red Cross for folks that aren't able to stay in their homes.
But really important now for us to step up with making sure that folks have the food, shelter, and obviously clean up and restoration in communities across the city. BROWN: I know it's so tough following a weather event like this because comms are impacted and people are just not sure where to turn. Where should residents who have been impacted look for aid?
GINTHER: You know, we're continuing to provide daily updates. We'll be doing another one with folks here at the neighborhood library to share information about resources, making sure folks know where they can turn to for shelter, for food for healthcare, and then obviously cleanup we'll be doing as a community as well, encouraging people to check in on their neighbors.
As you talked about, we're looking for additional rain this week. There may be more flooding coming our way in other parts of the Midwest, and so we got to be vigilant. We got to take care of each other, and we got to make sure that we're doing everything we can to bring our families, our neighborhoods, and our city back.
BROWN: You know, these pictures coming out of Ohio really tell the story of what's been going on there. You see cars flipped over on the highway from these storms, just this rain and the flooding up so high. What's your message to residents as these threats continue?
GINTHER: Be vigilant. Look out for each other. Stay informed. And let's check in on your neighbors. So, we have seniors, we have folks with limited abilities, you know, make sure we're doing our part to check in on them and make sure we're sharing good information with them. It's really about looking out for each other. It's about taking care of each other, and it's about bringing our city back.
We know that we saw winds anywhere from 80 to 85 miles per hour at our airport, and I'm on the scene right here at Parsons and Hinman that absolutely devastated this part of the city. And so we just have to make sure we're sharing good information, and make sure we're taking care of each other as we weather these storms.
BROWN: All right. Mayor Andrew Ginther, best of luck to you and your community right now as you recover. Thank you for coming on.
GINTHER: Thank you.
BROWN: Well, coming up, new CNN reporting, a U.S. official says a sailor onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln went overboard into the water, and was rescued quickly after and medically evaluated. I'm going to have more from my time on that very aircraft carrier, and what sailors told me about the mental toll of deployment.
[10:25:00]
Also ahead, a possible plea deal, the new CNN reporting as Luigi Mangione gets ready to head back to court tomorrow.
And then later, a Situation Room special report, I'll speak to a woman who alleges her ex misused Flock camera technology to stalk her. Plus, I'll go one-on-one with the founder and CEO of Flock.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: We have some breaking news coming into the Situation Room. A U.S. official tells me that last month, a sailor on board the USS Abraham Lincoln went overboard into the water. The official says the sailor was quickly rescued and was medically evaluated.
[10:30:01]
That official goes on to say that the circumstances under which the sailor went overboard were not immediately clear, nor whether the sailor returned to duty or was evacuated.
