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Video Shows ICE Officers Pull Teen From Car, One Officer Punches Him; U.N. Report: Deadly U.S. Strike On Iran School May Have Been A War Crime; Paul Whelan Bill Would Compensate Americans Imprisoned Abroad. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired September 18, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: -- has more than four. The Bills win big 41 to 31 to open Highmark Stadium.

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JOSH ALLEN, BUFFALO BILLS QUARTERBACK: Yes, it was awesome. Got really loud. You kind of black out in that moment and you don't really know what's going on. But it was a cool night game. Obviously you see the flashing lights everywhere. Pretty special moment.

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SCHOLES: All right, elsewhere in New York, the Mets were hosting the Phillies. We did have a terrifying moment in the sixth inning of this game. On this slow grounder, first baseman Jared Young's going to try to go make a play, but he gets kicked in the head by pitcher Nolan McLean's knee. Young was knocked out. He just face planted right into the dirt. He was down for quite a while.

Young was loaded onto a stretcher and carted off the field. He did give a thumbs up on the way out. Mets manager Andy Green said a CT scan at the hospital was negative. Young had concussion symptoms, guys, but he did have full use of his extremities. So certainly it was a terrible, scary moment there at Citi Field. But we're hoping for a quick and speedy recovery there for Young.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: It's hard to watch.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely, indeed. Yes.

BROWN: Wow. All right.

BLITZER: Andy Scholes, thanks very much for the update. Appreciate it. Let's hope for the best.

And the next hour of The Situation Room starts right now.

BROWN: Happening now, alarming altercation. New video of ICE agents detaining two teenagers. One of those teens appears to be repeatedly punched in the middle of the road. Federal officials are calling them anti-ICE agitators. Their mother says they were headed to enlist in the Marines.

BLITZER: And major delays. Half of all children here in the United States can't get their COVID shots right now. New details on what is holding things up and what it means for your family.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown. And you're in The Situation Room.

New this morning, the Department of Homeland Security is facing serious questions over a violent altercation between ICE agents and two 17-year-olds in South Texas. The boys are U.S. citizens and were on their way to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps last Friday on 9/11, according to their mother.

BROWN: So this is a video that is going viral on social media and stirring anger. Here we see the ICE agents pinning down one of the teenagers as one of the officers punches him repeatedly. And Homeland officials -- Homeland Security officials are calling the teenagers, "anti-ICE instigators."

CNN's Ryan Young is gathering all the latest details here. Ryan, walk us through what happened here.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot of questions about this so far and how it played out. You saw the other teen who jumped out of the car, the driver who seemed to be under some duress as well. That was because pepper spray agent was used inside that car to separate both of them. And, of course, when you watch this video, you wonder whether or not the blows were being applied because maybe the teen was not giving up his hands as the officers were trying to put him into custody.

Now, this all happened September 11th in Alamo, Texas. The driver there, Luis Ochoa, was driving his red Honda. And what we believe has happened so far is they saw ICE trying to detain someone. And there's a question about whether or not they tried to start following the ICE agents and using their phone to actually film video of the detainment.

And at one point, it's been admitted that the passenger who was in that car got out while it was filming and then walked over to one of the ICE agent's cars and took his Social Security card and slapped it on the side of the window. And so from that moment on, it sort of escalated the situation.

But let's take a listen to 30 seconds of what happened here after that initial stop and then this detainment right here.

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LUIS OCHOA, DRIVER OF CAR: We saw an ICE raid on a red Ram truck. We stopped to record, right? And when we were recording, my friend J.C. gets smacked by one of the agents. The woman hits him with the door, and that's when everything starts, all those little starts, where the woman chases him back to my car. Once inside my car, she put his elbow on his neck, and I was like, Miss, please stop. He's a minor. Don't treat him like that.

TERESA OCHOA, MOTHER OF LUIS: Something like this to happen to him is really tough. It was eight hours without hearing from him. They wouldn't give me any information. They behaved very badly.

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YOUNG: You hear from the mother there that the two teens were held for eight hours after this incident. They were not charged at this point. The DHS has also released a statement, and I'll read part of this right now. What it basically says is the two agitators proceeded to follow the officers. Once they returned to their vehicle and one of the individuals approached the government vehicle and repeatedly banged on the officer's window, officers verbally commanded the agitators to stop his actions, but he refused when the officers exited the vehicle and attempted to detain him.

[11:05:15]

So, look, this goes on to talk about that interaction between the two. We don't have the video from where it starts, so we're not sure exactly how that played out. A few things to remember here. This happened on September 11th. There were guidelines sent out to all law enforcement across the country to be on the lookout for strange things. The teens then admitted to the fact that they slapped that Social Security card on the side of the window and then it escalated from there.

No word yet whether or not those officers were wearing body cameras, so we can see their perspective of what happened. It'd be interesting to see how this plays out, but this is going viral on social media, like you said before.

BROWN: All right, Ryan Young, keep us posted. Thank you so much.

Next hour on Inside Politics, CNN's Dana Bash will interview Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. That's at noon Eastern. Wolf?

BLITZER: Right at the top of the hour. Also happening now, did the U.S. commit war crimes? A United Nations investigation concluded in a new report that two deadly U.S. strikes on Iran at the beginning of the war, including one that hit an elementary school, may, repeat, may, constitute war crimes. We want to warn our viewers the video you're about to see may be disturbing. Iranian officials say at least 120 children and 26 teachers were killed when a school in the southern city of Minab was struck on February 28th. Here's part of a CNN report from earlier this year.

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ISOBEL YEUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A new satellite image shows an Iranian Revolutionary Guards base and an elementary school in southern Iran. Here you see craters in several of the buildings, including the school. They were hit in their exact centers, suggesting precision strikes, experts say. A wall separates the school and the base. Satellite images from December show dozens of people in what appears to be a handball court at the school.

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BLITZER: Here's what the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said about the strike back in March. Listen.

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PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: There's only one entity in this conflict between us and Iran that never targets civilians. Literally never targets civilians. We don't target. Iran does. We will investigate. We'll get to the truth.

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BLITZER: U.N. investigators also say that at least 22 civilians were killed after a second U.S. strike hit a sports center and residential area on that very same day. Let's go live right now to CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes. Kristen, what more do these reports suggest?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And I do want to remind our viewers that both of these strikes happened on the same day, Wolf. So this is a report that was put together by the independent fact-finding mission of the United Nations. They are going to then present this to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

And what they found was that these two strikes, as we noted, the elementary school as well as the sports complex, may constitute war crimes. And they specifically say investigators, "Found reasonable grounds that the U.S. launched indiscriminate attacks that unlawfully killed and injured civilians."

And we have asked not only the White House but the President directly about this. He has repeatedly said that they were doing their own investigation, that they were going to put out their reports and their findings. We have not seen that. And I actually asked the President about preliminary reports back in March.

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HOLMES: For the strike on the school in Iran? A new report says the military investigation has found it was the United States that struck the school.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know about it.

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HOLMES: And he still has not followed up. We have not seen any kind of report. Now, I do want to note that the White House has now given an official response to this United Nations report saying that the U.N. Human Rights Council has accomplished nothing for human rights. They also say the only party in this conflict that has committed war crimes is the Iranian regime, which has murdered thousands of its own people, killed Americans overseas, executed acts of terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz and launched indiscriminate attacks against neighbors in the region.

And I will note that in this report, they also found that Iran may have committed crimes against humanity when they were doing their crackdown of the government against those protesters. So right now, it seems as though the next steps are that this would be presented to the Human Rights Council. And after that, these findings could be used in an international court.

BLITZER: Kristen Holmes at the White House for us. Kristen, thank you very, very much.

And still ahead, he survived more than five years in a Russian prison. Now, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan is on a new mission to make sure Americans who endure that same unimaginable nightmare are taken care of when they finally come home. He joins us live right here in The Situation Room.

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BROWN: And at a Situation Room special report, we're taking you inside a shocking online ecosystem built to turn the exploitation of young women into a form of entertainment. We'll speak to a reporter who has been unearthing how this anonymous network targets college students and why our current laws are struggling to stop them. Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: Happening now, TWO years after Marine veteran Paul Whelan was released after being wrongfully detained in Russia for more than five years. Whelan and Michigan Congresswoman Haley Stevens have just announced a new bill that would help compensate detained Americans when they return to the U.S.

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Joining us now is the former U.S. Marine, Paul Whelan. So good to have you back at home, Paul. Thanks very much for joining us. This effort has been years in the making. So what's your reaction to the bill that's now named in your honor?

PAUL WHELAN, U.S. MARINES CORPS (RET.): Well, it's quite an honor and it's also quite humbling. We're ecstatic that we've gotten to this point. There's a lot of bipartisan support in the House and Senate to get this done. So we're hoping that the bill will move forward and it'll be approved quickly.

BLITZER: You were arrested in Moscow while simply visiting a friend's wedding there. Remind our viewers what it was like to be detained on false espionage charges and what it's been like since you've returned home.

WHELAN: Well, you know, I was there with a group of Americans and it was odd that they chose me instead of someone else. But it was surreal. You know, I thought it was a prank at first. You know, the FSB comes into the room. They're speaking English. They arrest me. They take me to one of their substations.

And they quickly advised me that, you know, my release would be negotiated as part of a diplomatic solution. But, you know, I couldn't believe that it was happening. And I thought, well, maybe this will be resolved quickly. I know Edmond Pope was only there for, you know, a few months. And then in 1986, you know, the -- I'm sorry, I forgot his name already. The journalist that was recorded or that was taken was held for three weeks.

And, you know, I'm sitting in Lefortovo hoping that they'd resolve the issue quite quickly. And it turned into, you know, five and a half years of sitting around waiting.

BLITZER: Awful situation. Here's what Congresswoman Haley Stevens told CNN last night about the bill. Listen to this.

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REP. HALEY STEVENS (D-MI): Five and a half years without income, losing his home, losing his beloved dog. Our obligation, not just to Paul, but the others who were wrongfully detained and then came home. And it just felt like the reintegration stopped at the airport. And that's not right.

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BLITZER: So what does the government right now not understand about the challenges wrong -- wrongly detained Americans face when they return home?

WHELAN: Well, you know, it's a learning process, kind of continual improvement, as I always say. We just -- we don't have enough hostages coming home and speaking up. The, you know, Congress passed an act to provide medical, dental care, psychological care. That was, you know, that was in the works before I got home. And when I got home, I found that Congress had passed the act, but they didn't appropriate any money for it. So the State Department wasn't providing the support they were supposed to be providing.

So we bridged that gap and that took a little while. But, you know, the State Department's now providing that sort of medical and psychological assistance for former hostages. Everyone in Congress understands the need for the compensation. It's just one of those things that no one's done yet. So now we're doing it.

BLITZER: The bill, we're told, would not apply to places the U.S. State Department tells Americans they can travel to. Why add to that exception?

WHELAN: Well, there has to be a little bit of common sense with what our citizens are doing, and they need to take responsibility for their personal travel. So if the State Department is saying it's a level four country, do not go there. You shouldn't go.

And if you do go and you do get arrested and, you know, by chance the U.S. government does bring you back, you won't get the compensation. So we'd rather people just stay home. You know, you can go to Canada. It's a lot safer up there.

BLITZER: When you went for that wedding in Russia, was the State Department suggesting that Americans should avoid any travel to Russia?

WHELAN: No, not at all. The guidance they had was St. Petersburg, Moscow, those major tourist areas were safe. You know, you shouldn't go to the outback in Siberia, you know, small towns, things like that where they don't have foreigners on a regular basis. But, you know, Moscow was considered safe. St. Petersburg considered safe.

You know, you could use the rail, the metros, all of that sort of thing. So, yes, there were no concerns. We checked. You know, we did our due diligence and we checked before we went.

BLITZER: And after five and a half years, we're so happy you're back home. Paul Whelan, thanks very much for joining us.

WHELAN: Thank you. Much appreciated.

BLITZER: Pamela?

BROWN: Really good interview, Wolf.

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Up next, a shocking admission from tech giant Anthropic. Its chatbot, Claude, is taking over the job of building the next more intelligent version of itself. And it's doing it without help from humans. Could this make the technology even harder to control? That's the question we're asking up next. Stay with us.

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BROWN: Well, new this morning, about half of the children who get COVID vaccines through a key federal program are having trouble getting this year's updated dose. This delay comes weeks after the FDA approved shots for this virus season. Well, the CDC has not begun the ordering and procurement process for the vaccines for children program.

And with COVID cases on the rise, eligible families are left without the protection they're seeking through this program. So let's go live now to CNN's medical correspondent, Meg Tirrell, for the details. What's behind this delay, Meg?

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MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, as you mentioned, this program is called vaccines for children and it covers about half of U.S. kids. And it's an incredibly important way for children to get access to vaccines. It's a federal program that provides them at no cost, routine vaccinations to kids whose families might not be able to afford them. And so, as you noted, typically after the FDA approves updated seasonal vaccines, then the process can begin for States to begin ordering through this vaccines for children's program. And as you noted, it's been about three weeks since the FDA approved the updated COVID-19 shots. And still this hasn't begun.

Now experts in the field tell us that it's not necessarily unusual for there to be a bit of a delay between commercial availability of vaccines and availability through these federal programs. But there is a lot of anxiety right now, of course, because of the HHS stance and the Trump administration stance toward vaccines and COVID-19 vaccines in particular.

So we did reach out to HHS about this. And they noted that COVID doesn't follow the sort of typical seasonal patterns that we've seen with other viruses such as flu and other respiratory diseases. And so they called September a kind of arbitrary date for vaccine procurement.

They did note that the CDC is finalizing decisions regarding that procurement through these programs and that more information will be available. But as you also noted, COVID right now is starting to rise. If we look at E.R. visit data, for example, this is data from PopHIVE, a program out of Yale and other places.

It shows that COVID-related emergency department visits have been rising, particularly across the South, but you're seeing it up the East Coast and the West Coast as well. And if you look at wastewater data from the same source, that can be more of a leading indicator of viral activity. You are seeing that that has been rising into September as well, getting close to levels we saw back in January.

Now we hope those aren't going to rise as high as previous waves, but we just don't know at this point. And Pam, the current recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics is that children under the age of two should get their COVID vaccine, particularly a primary series, and then kids over two. That's a decision based on their individual health and their family's preferences. Pam?

BROWN: All right, Meg Tirrell, thanks for breaking it down for us. We appreciate it. Wolf?

BLITZER: And just ahead, opening statements underway in the trial of a former American Idol contestant accused of murdering his wife. What prosecutors are revealing about their case. That's next.

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