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The Situation Room

First Amendment Lawsuit; President Trump Addresses United Nations; Anti-ICE Protests Erupt in Texas. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired September 22, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Such a talented young boy. Very, very nice.

Coy Wire, thank you very, very much.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: You got it.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Thanks, Coy.

BLITZER: And the next hour THE SITUATION ROOM starts right now.

BROWN: And happening now: a violent encounter with ICE. Protests erupt in Austin, Texas, overnight after a man is shot. And his lawyer tells CNN he was moved to a detention facility with -- quote -- "a bullet in his back."

BLITZER: Plus: Department of Justice deadline. The Justice Department has just hours to respond to a lawsuit filed by CNN and other media outlets over the White House plan.

BROWN: And, later, GLP-1 game plan. What people who use the drugs for weight loss need to know to avoid potential complications.

BLITZER: 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.

We begin this hour with breaking news and President Trump addressing world leaders at the United Nations. His speech before the General Assembly comes amid a spreading conflict in the Middle East and a war of attrition in Ukraine.

BROWN: And CNN has a brand-new poll out showing more Americans, including Republicans, are souring on the war with Iran. Almost two- thirds of respondents now say the U.S. is not winning, and even more say Trump isn't doing enough to end it. And nearly seven months into the conflict, a majority says the conflict has not been worth the costs.

The poll also shows just 29 percent of Americans approve of how the president is handling foreign affairs overall. That is a new low in CNN polling across both of Trump's terms as president.

BLITZER: CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier is joining us here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Kim, bad news for the president and the war in Iran. What -- when would you say things took a turn, a dramatic turn like this, for the White House in regards to the war? It's so opposed right now.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think the longer it has dragged on and the more that these polls keep coming in and signaling to the president that he's losing his domestic audience, that what he was doing today with his remarks at the U.N. is saying he could still go back to war with Iran.

That's his threat to Tehran, that you better negotiate, or, and then back to yet also saying, I don't think there's going to be a resolution to this until after the midterms. So he's basically signaling his base you have got to turn out and vote for Republicans even though you're not going to see an end to the war and lower prices probably at the pump until after these votes.

BROWN: So Trump just addressed the war at the UNGA. He's trying to frame it as the U.S. is winning -- winning.

But you have this poll out from CNN showing a vast majority of Americans, almost two-thirds, saying the U.S. is not winning this conflict. Is this an opinion that's also prevailing worldwide?

DOZIER: When you look at the fact that, while Iran has lost so much of its military capability, it is still able to partially close the Strait of Hormuz, harass ships that go through there, and fire ballistic missiles and drones at Gulf allies and Middle East allies all the way to Jordan, that signals to the American public and the rest of the world that the U.S. isn't winning this war.

Also because we have got a free and open media, you have the world aware of the fact that the U.S. is running out of interceptor-type missiles and that it is wearing out its military with this very short war. You have got countries like China watching this and saying, hmm, the U.S. can't stick it out in a long fight, and it also can't defeat a militarily inferior nation.

And those are dangerous messages for the world writ large and also back here at home in terms of Trump's party's election chances.

BLITZER: And all this, Kim, is coming at a time when there are new flash points emerging, especially the Iran-backed Houthis renewing their fighting against Saudi Arabia right now. Is the U.S. doing enough right now to protect its close allies in the Persian Gulf?

DOZIER: Well, Trump knows that, if the U.S. gets in on this fight on the side of Saudi Arabia against the Houthis, the Houthis will likely widen their targeting.

Right now, they're only targeting Saudi ships that go through the Bab al-Mandab and up to the crucial Suez Canal passageway. If they widen it to U.S. traffic as well, Western traffic, we could see a rise in prices not just of fuel, but also anything that goes through that canal, such as toys at Walmart, food supplies, et cetera. And then it won't just be the U.S. feeling it at the pump. Globally,

people will be feeling it where -- wherever they buy anything. Trump is aware of that. He's also aware that the U.S. doesn't have the kind of defense. At the pump globally, people will be feeling it where and wherever they buy anything. Trump is aware of that.

[11:05:07]

He's also aware that the U.S. doesn't have the kind of defensive weapons in the large numbers that they need to open a new front.

BROWN: I want to turn to Ukraine, because President Trump is due to meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the UNGA.

There is a new CNN poll as part of this we have been talking about that shows the share who view Ukraine as an ally or friendly has actually dipped from 76 percent in January to 70 percent now. How is the meeting between the two leaders expected to play out?

DOZIER: Basically, Trump has to put a marker down to say that he is committed to this peace deal, because he still wants the peace awards. He still wants to be known in his legacy as the guy who ended these conflicts.

And from his latest social media posts, it does seem like he's coming around to the idea that Russia is losing, rather than Ukraine losing, and that Russia is the aggressor, though we haven't seen him double down on that yet.

When you talk to Ukrainian officials, they're just hanging on to get whatever they can from him to convince him to help them stay in the fight. But when you talk to them privately, they fear that they're just going to have to stick it out for two years without any resolution, that Putin will keep stringing Trump along and not agree to give up fighting.

Putin is also looking ahead to this winter and trying to make progress on the battlefield, such that he can possibly take more of the Donbass territory and he can declare victory and go home.

BLITZER: In our new CNN poll, Kim, when it comes to Israel, Israel, the share of Americans calling Israel an ally or friendly has dropped to 61 percent, while 15 percent are actually calling Israel an enemy. How are you interpreting these new numbers?

DOZIER: The shocking thing about these numbers is that -- how many people on the Republican side of the house are joining in antipathy towards Israel. The Israelis could always count on the GOP in the past.

But when you have got the left side plus part of the right now joining up, that spells difficulty for Netanyahu after the Trump administration in trying to enact their policies. That is possibly why you're seeing them expand right now, trying to seize more territory in the West Bank. And Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, is allowing the furthest right parts of his coalition to do some of their most extreme measures without checking them because he thinks that Trump at this point has too much going on to crack down on Bibi.

BLITZER: Yes, I suspect -- I don't know if you agree -- that this deterioration in the U.S.-Israeli relationship, the weakening of support for Israel is going to hurt Netanyahu in the end-of-October elections coming up in Israel...

DOZIER: Yes.

BLITZER: ... that a lot of Israelis are going to blame Netanyahu for this bad U.S.-Israeli relationship now.

DOZIER: Absolutely.

Netanyahu is in a really tough situation, in that he's got to keep this coalition together, so he's got to keep the extremists in his coalition happy, but the rank-and-file in Israel are watching their greatest ally slowly turn away from, not against them.

But the antisemitism is on the rise and anti-Israeli sentiment is on the rise. Neither of those things are good for Israel's future.

BLITZER: Yes, and a lot of Israelis will blame Netanyahu for a lot of that.

All right, Kim Dozier, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: Thank you so much, Kim.

And let's go live now to CNN national security correspondent Kylie Atwood at the United Nations.

Kylie, what are the headlines from President Trump's address?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, President Trump spent a tremendous time of his speech focused on the Iran war, saying that he has a decision to make whether to annihilate Iran or to make a deal with Iran.

We have heard this language from President Trump time and time again over the last six months, threaten U.S. strikes against Iran, sometimes following through on those threats and sometimes not. He also recounted what has happened over the last six-plus months, the United States trying to broker deals to end this conflict, turning to the Iranians for being the ones to violate that MOU that they struck earlier this year.

But what we also heard from President Trump was that he does believe there will be an actual deal to end this conflict. And listen to what he said about the potential timing of that deal, from his perspective.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But I have a big decision to make. Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world, or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic, and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again?

[11:10:16]

Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations? But I believe we will make a deal right after the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: Now, we have heard some of this commentary from the president before.

What is different now is that he is here in New York at the United Nations, and so is an Iranian delegation. We heard from Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this morning saying that the president would be open to meeting with the Iranians.

A U.S. official told our colleague Alayna Treene that Trump has been interested in setting up a meeting if the conditions were right for that meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials. Obviously, it could be President Trump, but it also could be members of his delegation here, Steve Witkoff, who has engaged with the Iranians multiple times in recent months.

We will watch and see if that comes to fruition. Of course, this is as the world is watching to see what the United States is going to do, because there really doesn't appear to be a breakthrough on the horizon for ending this Iran war any time soon.

BROWN: All right.

BLITZER: All right, Kylie Atwood, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: And still ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM: on the clock. The DOJ has just hours to respond to a new lawsuit as President Trump takes another swing at the press.

BLITZER: And understanding AI. Congressman Don Beyer actually went back to school to learn more about it. We will ask him what lawmakers are missing when it comes to the evolving technology.

Lots going on. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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[11:16:13]

BLITZER: Happening now: A federal judge has given the U.S. Justice Department until today to respond after three national news outlets, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, filed a joint First Amendment lawsuit against the Trump administration.

It's a response to President Trump's decision to ban them from covering the White House.

Let's go live right now to CNN's chief media analyst, Brian Stelter.

Brian, so where do we all expect -- what do we expect to hear? And where does this go from here?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Right.

The government is supposed to file a response today, and then there will be a hearing, a tele-hearing, on Wednesday afternoon in front of a Trump-appointed judge, Tim Kelly, who is the same judge that handled the Jim Acosta case in 2018 and ruled in favor of CNN and that press pass back in 2018.

Notably, President Trump lashed out at his Trump-appointed judge, lashed out of Kelly in a TRUTH Social post yesterday, maybe perceiving that the court will likely rule against the president because that's what all the case law would indicate is going to happen.

So we will see what the government's able to come up with in this filing later today ahead of Wednesday's hearing. But, as you can tell, this is going to move pretty quickly, a case like this, certainly a situation where there is clear harm being done on a daily basis, not just to CNN, but also to those other publications. And so we will likely hear from the court later this week.

So that's the situation on the legal side. Meanwhile, I continue to be struck by the amount of solidarity we are seeing from other news outlets that are standing with those banned outlets and saying, hey, this could happen to anybody. It's almost like a ban of one is being treated like a ban of everyone.

BLITZER: That's a good point.

The emergency request is set to go before a federal judge in the D.C. District Court tomorrow.

STELTER: Right.

BLITZER: Walk us through what will happen in that hearing.

STELTER: Right.

So, in that hearing, we're going to hear arguments from the CNN counsel, Ted Boutrous, who's been retained by CNN, MS NOW and Politico, and we will also hear from the government side. We have had some previews of the arguments from figures like Mike Waltz, J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio.

I noticed that, when Rubio was talking about this ban on NBC earlier today, he was careful just to say this is what the president wants. Rubio did not say that he's going to ban any of the pool journalists who travel with him. Rubio, after all, he has pool journalists who are with him at all times and showing him on television.

So does the vice president. So this is very much the president on his own. Other administration officials might be trying to explain what the president's thinking by doing this, but they're not trying to turn off the cameras that follow them around, so one of those other interesting wrinkles about this, the president pretty alone on this one.

And even rival networks like FOX News continue to show solidarity in various ways with the affected outlets.

BLITZER: Yes, very impressive.

Brian, I spent seven years as CNN's White House correspondent during the Bill Clinton administration, and a lot of times they were not very happy with our reporting. But it never dawned on me at all that I would be barred from coming into the White House or other reporters would be barred from coming into the White House, despite their anger at some of our reporting.

This is really the first time this has ever happened, right?

STELTER: And even President Trump once told me back in 2016, before he was elected -- there was a kerfuffle about Trump stripping the press passes from a couple of reporters on the campaign trail.

And I got him on the phone, and he promised he would not do this if he were elected president. He said: No, I would not kick reporters out. I would not take away their credentials if I'm elected.

So, here we are, 10 years later. It's another promise that he has broken. And, as you said, Wolf, it is something that was unfathomable with any previous American president.

BLITZER: Yes, no matter how angry they were at our reporting.

[11:20:00]

Brian Stelter, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Wolf, and up next: what the lawyer for the man shot by an ICE agent in Texas is telling CNN.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROTESTER: Help us build the movement that will drive ICE out of Austin and out of Texas.

(CHEERING)

PROTESTER: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(END VIDEO CLIP) BROWN: Protests overnight in Texas after an ICE agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan DoorDash driver in Austin. CNN has brand-new video, and it shows the moment Sunday when Wilber Rafael Garces Perez was pulled out of his car in handcuffs.

[11:25:03]

Also new this morning, a lawyer for Garces Perez tells CNN that his client was moved out of the hospital to a detention center with a bullet still in his back and without pain medication. We are now learning that he has been moved back to a hospital.

CNN senior national correspondent Ed Lavandera in Austin.

So what more are you learning about Perez's condition, Ed?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are waiting to hear from his lawyer who last we heard was trying to connect with him at that hospital, this new hospital that he has been moved to.

We are not told where that might be, but he was taken south of San Antonio after he was taken from the hospital here in Austin on Sunday to the immigration detention facility, which is several hours away south of Austin. So, presumably, maybe the hospital is in that region and not necessarily back here in the Austin area, but we're still trying to figure all of that out.

But the great concern right now, according to the attorney and Wilber Garces Perez's family is that they are concerned about his condition and that they fear that it's deteriorating for the worse, in the sense that he was sent away and turned over to ICE agents on Sunday with the bullet still lodged in his back.

When they spoke to him yesterday afternoon, he said he started feeling that he was losing feeling on the left side of his body. The lawyer told us, as you can hear here, that they were concerned that there is paralysis setting in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATE LINCOLN-GOLDFINCH, ATTORNEY FOR WILBER RAFAEL GARCES PEREZ: He has lost movement on the entire left side of his body, which means that he is facing paralysis. So we have to consider this is a man who was shot in the back, four hours later was moved, was transferred, as you said, 100 miles away, and is now facing transfer again to a hospital because he is being paralyzed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And we are still trying to piece together exactly why this escalated to the level that shots needed to be fired.

The Department of Homeland Security has not put out any more information, other than that initial statement that they put out on Sunday saying that they were going after Wilber Garces Perez because he had a deportation order that was outstanding. His lawyer pushes back on that and says that he was -- had entered the

country legally through the CBP-1 app two years ago, had a work permit, but that the immigration court paperwork was sent to a wrong address, he missed a court date, and that's why he was ordered to be deported.

So we're still trying to weed through all of that as well. But still many questions remain as to how and why this escalated the way it did.

BROWN: Hopefully, we get some answers soon.

Ed Lavandera, thank you so much -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And just ahead: the Republican senator now joining Democrats to demand answers about who helped pay for Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding celebration.

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