New Details on Copilot Cockpit Attack 

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0:43Find furniture, hosting essentials, festive serveware, and more all in one place. So you can spend less time getting ready and more time enjoying the season with the people who make it special. Shop Wayfair.com today to make holiday magic at home. Wayfair, every style, every home. Happening now, breaking news, new details about the suspect in a cockpit attack. What the Israeli Prime Minister is now saying. Plus, a turning point for Jane Doe. We are learning new information about the days after the alleged rape at a Cornell fraternity house. Also, lethal injection botched. What witnesses now say about the ordeal in Tennessee.

1:24and a very close call caught on camera. The narrow miss on a very busy Nebraska road. 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.

1:46This is CNN Breaking News. And we begin with the breaking news. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now says the man accused of attacking his fellow pilot and trying to crash the fly dubai airliner could have extremist leanings listen to this the attacker the co-pilot who attacked the captain is now being interrogated but here's what we do know first we know that he underwent islamist radical indoctrination That appears to be something we're gathering from the information, his personal information. We want to warn our viewers, these next images you're about to see from the plane are graphic.

2:31Here we see the wounded captain wearing an oxygen mask and being cared for. And as the camera tilts up, we see the co-pilot already subdued. The captain is being hailed as a hero for somehow unlocking the cockpit door. It allowed brave passengers to rush in and regain control of the flight after it dropped, listen to this, 17 ,000 feet in less than two minutes.

2:59When I got inside, I saw the attacker on the instrument panel between the two seats. There were no pilots in the seats. One was on the floor, one was on the instruments. And someone else had come in with me. I grabbed the attacker, put him in a chokehold, and dragged him out first. It all happened in seconds, and the plane's nose was pitched like this. I called out to a bunch of Israelis on board, and two other guys came over. We pinned him down. I jumped back, grabbed the controls, and started pulling back the handles. We used the cord from the headphones, and later they brought us plastic zip ties, which we used as well.

3:39We were fully engaged in subduing and restraining him. At the same time, I was helping the pilot. Everyone there behaved heroically. The whole plane, including the children. Everyone. Absolutely everyone. You have such an amazing people in this country that were in an act of heroism. Saved us. They just saved us and saved our people. And everything happened so fast for them. Then I see the wing of the plane and the brakes, the brakes on the wing of the plane they come up and all of the plane tilts. I almost touched God. I started to speak with God. We just felt the plane drop completely and start spinning a little and everyone was screaming, there were children crying and it was just like a death in front of our eyes moment.

4:32like I was just sure I was going to die. We're following all the latest developments. CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nick Robertson is joining us now live from Jerusalem. Nick, what do you make of the Israeli Prime Minister claiming the suspect had undergone radical indoctrination? Yeah, the Israeli Prime Minister hasn't put forward any evidence yet, but he said they've gleaned this from going through his personal records, if you will. And I think whatever social media accounts he has, if they've been scrubbed or taken down, certainly the Israelis and other intelligence agencies will be able to get a look at them and they're going to learn things from there.

5:17So is this what the prime minister is alluding to? So, you know, I do think over coming days we may get to learn more about it. The prime minister also told us some pretty shocking details that the captain was attacked with an axe, that the other pilot, the attacking pilot, attacked him with an axe. We have also had good news today for the captain. He underwent surgery in Saudi Arabia. Now, according to Indian officials, he is now out of danger and is expected to reunite with his family. The United Arab Emirates have kicked off the beginning of their investigation. The attorney general opened inquiry to to look at the possibility of a terrorist act, also to look at how it was planned and how it was directed, meaning were there others involved sort of pushing the attacking pilot to do this, or was it just him?

6:12Clearly more things to be learned about him. We don't know his name yet. That's not public. We do know that he'd only been flying with this airline Fly Dubai for about eight months. We also know that he was an Omani national. And according to some security aviation experts here in Israel, that would have been unusual to have him flying that route. More clearly to get known, but very striking, Wolf, as you say, that the prime minister has spoken about this indoctrination, this radical Islamist indoctrination here. Amazing. All right, Nick Robertson in Jerusalem. Thank you very much. Also happening now, the investigation of a botched execution.

6:54Death row inmate Christy Pike is still alive this morning, despite being given two doses of a lethal drug. CNN senior national correspondent Ryan Young is covering this for us. So, Ryan, so what happened here? Well, still a lot of questions about this, an investigation ongoing at this point. Still little details about this. You may remember we were outside that prison yesterday when this was supposed to happen around 10 o 'clock. There was a stay granted. And then after that stay, the AG's office in Tennessee pushed forward and tried to get this execution to go through. The Supreme Court said yes.

7:26And then at 727, they opened up the sheets there so people could see the fact that she was strapped to a gurney and they started to administer this drug. And then all of a sudden things started to go wrong. Let's take a listen to two of the witnesses who were there. When they told us to leave at 8.53, Krista Pike was still breathing. They did two separate rounds of pentobarbital. She lifted her head up and was looking around at one point. She said that there was a spot that was burning and hurting and asked if that was normal. I covered all the executions last year and most of the ones this year.

8:06We haven't seen anything like it. It went really poorly. When the curtains were open, she was kind of inconsistently going in and out of snores and silence. When the curtains closed the final time at 8.05, we could consistently hear her snoring, and then it kind of developed into a snore squeak, and then a snore, and even at 8.53 when the microphone was cut off, we could still hear snoring. We have a lot of questions about what we saw and what we did not see. The Department of Correction has a lot of answers that it needs to provide to the public about what happened here. Yeah, Wolf, I think this is pretty important to listen to those witnesses who were there.

8:44This is part of the reason why witnesses are there to watch these executions, to come back and report exactly what happened here. Let's not forget this was supposed to be the first woman in 200 years executed in the state of Tennessee. There's so many questions about how this may move forward now, but there is a comprehensive investigation moving forward, and that's been started by the governor, Bill Lee. Wolf. All right, Ryan Young reporting. What a horrific story indeed. death penalty. Just awful happening now. We are getting some new details about the days just after an alleged rape at a Cornell University fraternity house.

9:19The attorney for Jane Doe, Thomas Jufra, is speaking out and he's corroborating details from more than 1 ,000 pages of documents The New York Times obtained that described the school's initial investigation in 2024. Jufra had made it clear he did not leak this document to the public or to the Times but said the report quote is an excellent interpretation of the processing of trauma by a sexual abuse survivor and he added miss doe's internal processing went from denial to shame and ultimately acceptance that she had been raped by people that she thought were her friends her reactions were a textbook reaction to trauma i am not a mental health professional but i have seen this many times in my practice he went on to say that jane doe went to the university's Health Center just days after the alleged incident, telling CNN quote, once she reached the point of acceptance, she took steps to protect herself and sought STD testing and UTI treatment at Cornell Health on October 22nd.

10:19Miss Doe disclosed to the treating healthcare professional that she contracted the UTI in a traumatic way. The visit to Cornell Health was the earliest opportunity to get herself outside help. Sadly, instead of getting help, there was yet another failure by Cornell. CNN's Britt Gingrass has been following all of this. So, Britt, have we heard anything from the university about this? Yeah, so this is really the first time we're hearing about the Cornell health incident, right, that she went to get this help from medical professionals, and she basically was told maybe therapy is good. She, according to her attorney, didn't even get the resources that were provided by Cornell University.

10:56They have resources that they could have given her, and he says that she didn't even get that. So we've reached out to Cornell University to sort of get a feel as to why that even happened. And yet we haven't heard back just yet on that specific question. But listen, Pam, this is a really big deal. Learning about this transcript, really this larger, you know, interview that Jane Doe had with police in the aftermath of this incident happening in 2024, because it provides so much context, so much more clarity. Right. And going to the health, the university health. Department isn't the only thing that she did to help herself.

11:35We also have learned from these documents that she was preserving evidence. She saved the dress that she was wearing. She had text messages going back with one of her alleged accusers basically saying, you know, what happened she doesn't feel was right. She was also taking photographs of the bruises that she says that she experienced. And so there's so much more information as part of this documentation. I do want to say also as part of the documentation, we're learning that university officials interviewed multiple people as part of its Title IX investigation, including some of her roommates, also six of the seven members of that fraternity that have been accused in that civil lawsuit.

12:16and some of these roommates have expressed in these interviews that the New York Times is reporting that she was going through this process, as you mentioned, Pam, of going from denial to finally acceptance, that she wasn't even using the word rape at that point because she couldn't quite understand it. The New York Times reporting essentially that she was seeing on message boards that she was being called a whore at first and then she saw one message board where basically someone was saying that the Chi Phi fraternity was terrible people because they gang raped someone. And that is what actually prompted her to go to police and report this as a sexual assault, Pam.

12:54And the D.A. said that he was not given that interview transcript. Could this case have had a different outcome? You have to ask that question. I mean, you have to ask that question and we are going to ask that question to the D.A., of course. You know, because this is so important to Pam, that that six page summary that you got. gratefully for us to understand sort of a little bit more picture of what allegedly happened that night is only a small part of the 120 page interview according to the New York Times that she gave to police. 120 page transcript. So you can imagine there's way more details that are in that interview that were not made available to the district attorney's office.

13:34Now we don't want to give the DA a pass either because he could have also been doing his own interviews after hearing about these allegations. He could have been doing his own sort of fact finding and we're not clear why that didn't happen either. So still so many questions at the root of it is really, should criminal charges have been filed to you and continues to be, why weren't there? All right, Bryn, Jen Grass, thank you so much. And coming up in about 30 minutes from now, we're going to ask two Cornell students what changes they want to see ahead of a public hearing this afternoon. And if you or anyone you know is struggling after a sexual assault, The National Sexual Assault Hotline is available 24-7 to help.

14:11The number is 800-656-HOPE. There are also resources at RAINN.org. Wolf? And still ahead, a Situation Room special report. We'll speak to the Chief Global Affairs Officer for OpenAI as concerns grow about the technology's potential impact on lives and livelihoods. Lots going on. You're in the Situation Room.

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15:09Observe. The North American dad. 50s. Great polo collection. He enters his vehicle information on Carvana. An offer appears in minutes. Remarkable. He squints, reads it again, smiles, and says, dang, that's a good offer. The highest form of approval. No haggling. No hassle. No one called him boss. He's still on the couch. Astonishing. Sell your car today on Carvana.com. Pickup fees may apply. All right, now for a Situation Room special report. The Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI companies over the potential dangers their products pose to people.

15:53This comes after President Trump and six top AI leaders signed a voluntary, non-binding pledge to implement more safety controls. Joining us now is the Chief Global Affairs Officer for OpenAI, Chris Lehane. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. We appreciate it. Thank you. So is OpenAI going to assist with the FTC's investigation? We'll certainly engage constructively in any type of review. Just for context purposes, I mean, what we know is basically what we've seen publicly reported. So they haven't reached out. We haven't heard specifically what the issue is. But also, as you alluded to or touched on, I mean, we were at the White House on Tuesday.

16:29The FTC was actually there when we announced those safety commitments. And those safety commitments are things that OpenAI has already been working on. But of course, look, I think there is a really important big issue here, which is how are you making sure you're giving the American public confidence that we're building these tools in safe and responsible ways. And, you know, we do believe we do that. You know, we have the most capable model in the world out right now. It also happens to be the safest model in the world. So just to follow up with you on the FTC investigation, some critics might say, you know, this is the administration's way to use this FTC investigation to justify that the laws on the books are enough, are sufficient to regulate AI.

17:11What do you say to that? I think there's two key points here. I think the first is it is certainly a responsibility of the companies, as with any company in the world putting a product out there, to make sure it's doing it in a safe way. I mean, if you're a car company and you're building cars, you need to put your cars out in the same way. I mean, it's even in our self-interest. People aren't going to buy and use this stuff if they don't have confidence in it. That's point one. Point two is I do think what took place at the White House on Tuesday was constructive. It was a real step forward to have the five or six biggest companies in the world building this.

17:41All lock arms on the importance of doing this in a responsible and safe way. That said, we, OpenAI, have been pushing for quite some time now to actually create mandatory required national safety standards for the frontier labs. I do think you look across both sides of the aisle. I think there is strong public support for it. Obviously, not a lot left in Congress before the midterms, but perhaps there's a policy window opening up where the politics and policy really come together and we can get those in place. I do think that would be important. I also think it's particularly important. This is a general purpose technology like electricity or the wheel or the combustion engine.

18:17And companies should be making them safe. But the American public needs to weigh in about what it wants through the small-D democratic process. So in addition to making sure it's safe by having required standards, actually getting democratic input is really important. And you talk about public trust. A new Quinnipiac poll finds a vast majority of Americans say they don't have trust in the leaders of AI companies. So how do you earn the public's trust? Yeah, I mean, you use the right word. You have to earn it, right? You have to show it, not tell it. But for us, we have 1.2 billion people who are using our tools on a regular basis.

18:52That's roughly one in six adults in the world. And it's very evenly distributed, rural, urban, gender, even economics. And what we find is that people who are using it, and the more they use it, the more they actually trust, because they're actually finding how it impacts them. Even just this week, we did two things. We, first of all, announced a new tool called DOTS. Think of it as an assistant in your pocket. It can save you a ton of time on your daily life, helping you with emails and managing daily life challenges. And then we announced an initiative that actually helped build AI into a thousand small businesses across the country to give those small businesses the ability to really punch up.

19:31So those are the types of things. There are AI agents that have been very helpful to people. But, you know, a lot of Americans are concerned that AI could take their job and not even it could be a risk to humanity. And, you know, we talked about earning trust. The Senate held a hearing on the risks of rogue AI agents yesterday, but Senator Josh Hawley said that your boss, Sam Altman, declined his invitation. Let's listen to this. Sure. We extended an invitation to him to be here, do his own panel if he wanted, and he turned us down. I think that's unfortunate because I think the American people deserve to know exactly what's going on at all of these companies.

20:09and to give us the sort of transparency that I think is needed for not just comfort, but to have an understanding of what these companies that are the most powerful companies in the world are doing right now with the most powerful technology ever known to man. And we appreciate you coming on the show to talk about it. But, you know, Altman is asking the public to trust tech companies. So why not show up there and face? Yeah, it's a fair question. Sam himself has been incredibly accessible and has appeared before Congress before to testify. And I'm sure as we go forward and in the next Congress, you know, executives from the company will be certainly engaged.

20:44I mean, I spent all day yesterday up on the Hill meeting with various elected officials and their offices. And I do think part of the dynamic that we're in is you do really have to have those types of conversations as part of the democratic process. So that is certainly something that we will be doing. And we have been really accessible over time. Will he do more media interviews? We've been asking on this show. Will he come on? If he can make it onto your show, then we've definitely made it in America. Well, let's make it happen. By the way, with a Docs tool now, he will have more time to be able to spend with you.

21:18That's good. But it does raise the question because he's not an elected leader, right? We have politicians on the show all the time. He's not elected, but he has tremendous power. Yeah. And people want to hear what he has to say, what his game plan is. And there's a lot of questions about how these AI leaders can be trusted to regulate their companies when billions of dollars are at stake? I mean, I thought one of the points that the senator made, and it's a point that we have made, and it's a point that you are making, which is, in effect, this is the first technology, at least in our era, that is this capable, that has this power, that is really being made by the private sector and not the public sector.

21:54And I do think as we go forward, I think two of the concerns that Sam himself has raised, one is, are we building this in a safe way? Are we putting the right guardrails around it? But the other piece, and it really goes to this point, is we can't let power be concentrated in terms of a small handful of laboratories like ours making these decisions. It is why you do need to have the democratic process giving democratic inputs. I mean, this is— So you don't want to self-please. OpenAI does not want to self-please. No, no. We believe that we need to do our part, but we also believe— You want more.

22:26Yeah, 100%. I mean, to be really clear, if there's one message, like we do want to see national mandatory safety standards. OK, we want that to be passed in the law. We want legislation and we are advocating for it. I was actually in the Hill yesterday pushing that. Yeah. So I just want to make that point, because, as you know, President Trump has said he wants tech leaders to self-police instead of imposing regulations that might undermine the U.S. lead over China. Yesterday, as you will know, OpenAI flagged an alleged model copying campaign by Chinese startup Moonshot. How does the U.S. maintain its edge over China without losing control of AI models in the process?

23:02I think this is amongst the reasons why you do need national standards here. First of all, national standards, I think, will give the American people a lot of confidence that these are being built and deployed in a responsible way. In addition, having national standards would allow us, therefore, to lead on international standards. And I do think it is imperative and critical for U.S. global leadership on AI to be able to be advocating and pushing international standards. If we want this technology built on our values, on democratic values, you do need to build those into international standards.

23:34You think of something like how the U.S. used the dollar as the global currency, or even maybe perhaps another analogy, which is not quite as big as the dollar. But the U.S. created the airline industry. We put in place the FAA. The FAA became the global standard for air travel and safe air travel. So I think there's a lot of precedent to think about how we can use national standards to therefore then lead at the international stage, which is good for the U.S. leaning on innovation. And it's really good for the small de-democratizing of this technology here and around the world. As we wrap up, has it gotten to the point of superintelligence, as President Trump says?

24:10You know, I think that's very much somewhat of a subjective. I mean, look, first of all, I appreciate why people are talking about it in that way. I just think the simplest way to think about this is that we are in a new era. We are in a new chapter of this technology. It is really capable. Sam has talked about how it can actually unlock and unleash a renaissance because it really does give individuals the power to think, to create, to build, to produce. We're doing a bunch of stuff around small businesses, even this week, a thousand small businesses across the U.S. that they can really punch up in terms of how they compete.

24:44But because of the capabilities, right, as we've talked about, you want to make sure. And not being aligned with human values, necessarily. Yeah, and that's why it's like, I think the most important, this really comes back to our mission. Like our mission is to build AI that benefits all of humanity. The simplest way to think about this is you have to build AI that's going to be of, for, and by people. All right, Chris Lehane, thank you so much for your time. Thanks, ma 'am. And we look forward to seeing him coming on the show. I'll keep the seat warm. Okay, Wolf. I'm looking forward to it as well.

25:08And coming up, happening now, midterm push. Early voting is underway in Virginia. We're tracking just how many pre-election ballots have been cast so far.

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25:39This morning, we're learning new details about the harrowing attack aboard a fly Dubai airliner en route to Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now says the co-pilot, an Omani national, struck the captain with an axe. And Prime Minister Netanyahu also says the suspect, who was subdued by passengers, underwent, and I'm quoting now, radical Islamist indoctrination. Joining us now is Michael Allen. He served as special assistant to President George W. Bush for national security. He was also the senior director for counterproliferation strategy at the National Security Council. So, Michael, thanks very much for joining us.

26:18How significant is Prime Minister Netanyahu's claim? I think it's pretty significant. I mean, it shows, I think, a self-radicalized individual, probably upset about images that he's seen over the recent past about what's been going on in the Middle East, taking matters into his own hands, deciding that he wanted to engage in what in all likelihood is an act of terrorism. I think he probably was acting alone, or else we might have seen more evidence so far, but you can't rule it out. We need to figure out, is he from a decentralized network? Is he connected to a larger organization or network of individuals?

26:57But lots of answers need to be derived, but I think that's where we're headed. If it's true that this suspect underwent radical indoctrination, does it make it more likely that this was, in fact, an act of terrorism? I think so. I mean, I think that's one of the hallmarks that you look at when you see what might have motivated individuals to do such a thing. I know what they're doing right now. They're plumbing through his communications devices. They're seeing what his search and browser history was online, who he was in touch with. Was he in touch with anyone, an individual on, let's call it an international terrorism level?

27:33Or was it all just sort of self-generated because he's upset about different things? or did it have something to do with his background that was triggered because of recent events in the Middle East? So I think they're studying all of that now. We've got counterterrorism analysts from Tel Aviv to the United States working through this, and I think we're going to learn more soon. If it were terror, Michael, would you have expected a claim of responsibility by now? Not if he was self-radicalized. If he's by himself out there, I wouldn't expect anyone to just sort of adopt him. I think if it were something like al-Qaeda or ISIS or some sort of Iranian transnational terrorism threat, maybe.

28:14But the fact that no one's claimed credit or affiliation with him so far suggests that he was probably acting alone. Michael Allen, as usual, thank you very much for your expertise. Thank you. Appreciate it very much, Pamela. All right, coming up here in the Situation Room, Wolf, voicing outrage. Tonight, Cornell students will have a chance to speak out about the alleged rape at a campus fraternity house back in 2024. We'll ask two students what they want to see from the university.

28:47Happening now, a national reckoning after details surfaced about an alleged gang rape in 2024 at Cornell University. Some women have taken to social media to share their own experiences with sexual assault. Listen here. If it weren't for my faith in the Lord, I don't know how I would even be able to get up and walk and go about my life each day. Healing is not linear and I'm, you know, still healing every single day and making sense of what happened. I provided his confession to both incidents and they did nothing. Despite him confessing, the prosecutor declined to prosecute. Now to Ms. Shane Doe, other survivors out there, anyone who's currently going through it, please reach out to somebody.

29:37I still have people that don't believe me and my abuser's in prison. Joining us now are two current Cornell students, Elliot Scheuer and Hayden Watkins. Hayden is the executive vice president of the Student Assembly. Thank you so much for coming on to discuss this really difficult topic. Cornell's Board of Trustees released a statement this week pointing to the Cornell Presidential Task Force on Campus Sexual Assault established early last year. And it also wrote in response to all of this, we will continue to examine and strengthen our policies to ensure we are doing all we can to foster a culture where sexual misconduct is never tolerated.

30:15Those who come forward are supported and individuals found responsible through our process are held accountable. Elliot, first off, how do you think the university has been in responding to all of this? And what do you say to that statement?

30:31I've been displeased with the way the university is responding to this. I think that they have not taken full accountability for the ways that the case was initially handled and sort of how what's continuing to go on. And so a task force doesn't mean anything if there isn't actionable outcomes that come from it. What do you think, Hayden? Yeah, I mean, I think that the main problem I see in the university's response to is the lack of ownership. In a statement that the university recently published, they mentioned that the essays that some of the students were allegedly forced to write were not the only form of punishment.

31:14But I think if writing essays is a form of punishment at all, that's a major problem. Also pointing to the presidential task force, there's been very little student voice throughout this entire process. That task force included roughly 20 individuals, but only two people were undergraduate students. And you point out the essays. Cornell said the essays weren't the sole consequence for their involvements. and pointing to the range of sanctions, which included expulsion and suspensions from Cornell and the Chi-Fi chapter at Cornell being closed and borrowed from campus since November 2024. Elliot, what would you have liked to see the university do?

31:58Yeah, I think in regards to this case or in any cases going forward, I'd like sort of transparent and better standards around how suspensions are handled. I think there's a lot of lack of trust in the school's disciplinary policies as they currently stand. And so strengthening those with sort of understanding students' perspectives on them and then looking into the presence of the Interfraternity Council related organizations on campus as a whole and understanding sort of what they what harms they're causing to Kansas campus as a whole. and yeah. What about were either of you on campus when this initially was filed in 2024?

32:42Yes I was on campus when this was initially filed. Okay so so bring us into that and tell us about the atmosphere now. We'll start with you Hayden. Yeah when the news first broke on campus I think a lot of students were upset but I think the reason the outrage is much more pronounced now is the last that we had heard when I was a student here in 2024 was that the assault like it had allegedly taken place and we didn't hear much about the process after that now there's been a lot more news because of the lawsuit filed about how these allegations were handled and I think a lot of that has to do with once again a lack of student input in our code of conduct student control in the code of conduct was ripped away in 2020.

33:33And there's really been a culture that our administration has created where our code of conduct is not open to students. Even just last year, there was a referendum passed where roughly 90 % of students argued that our code of conduct was not fair. And our administration essentially shrugged that referendum off. Just to follow up with you, tell us more about what changes you want to see to the code of conduct. I think it needs a complete overhaul, and I think undergraduate students need to be the individuals involved in that overhaul. I also think it needs to be more targeted what we're actually punishing students under in the code of conduct.

34:13Disproportionately on campus, our code of conduct has been used to punish student protesters, and Cornell calls ourselves the American University, and I think these allegations are a very American problem, And a large part of that is because of the severe lack of punishment that many of these students have received for events like the Chi-Fi House. So, Elliot, what about you? You were on campus as well when this initially got out, right? That the police were investigating, Cornell investigated. Tell us about what it was like then and how it is now since the civil suit has really brought the campus into a put it into a national spotlight.

34:55Yeah, I would second everything that Hayden said. I remember receiving the initial email. I remember there being horror and sadness around campus. And then as the semester continued, there were not updates around it. And it kind of fizzled away into the way the semester goes. Now I think there's a lot more national attention and a lot more student solidarity in keeping the task at hand of figuring out how we can better strengthen campus culture and policy to make sure that something like this will never happen again. I want to mention Cornell reported in 2025 that 35 % of undergraduate women on campus reported, quote, non-consensual sexual contact.

35:45With this in mind, Elliot, what do you want to see from the university as more details emerge about the initial investigation in a specific case, and now you have this civil suit. It has a different standard than a criminal investigation. But I'm just wondering, based on those numbers, what you think? Yeah, I mean, they're terrible numbers to hear, and they're also not all that different from national numbers around sexual assault and harassment, is something that I would point out. And I would like to see very similar to what Hayden said, a student representation in developing codes of conduct and standards around discipline.

36:32And I think that would create far more trust in a process so that if terrible things happen again, then students have a say in forming the policies around that. Elliot and Hayden, thank you so much. We really appreciate you coming on the show. And we just want to note that if you or anyone you know is struggling after a sexual assault, there is help. The National Sexual Assault Hotline is available 24-7. The number is 800-656-HOPE. And there are also resources available at rain.org. We'll be right back. When you're building a company, you learn that trust is what closes deals. You may have the best product, but buyers won't sign without proof that your product is secure, especially if it has AI.

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37:58With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer. Happening now, with 33 days until the midterm elections, hundreds of thousands of Americans already have cast their ballot. And so far, signs are beginning to emerge of a potential Democratic advantage. advantage. Seeing as Tom Foreman is outside a polling place in Fairfax, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. Tom, what do we know so far about who is voting? Well, we know this morning, Wolf, that the number of early votes crossed the 700 ,000 threshold in more than 29 states or 29 states that offer early voting.

38:42And there is a clear trend out there, just as the polls indicated there might be. In some key states where they have both the governor and senator on the ticket. That would be critical races out there. The people who tend to vote Democratic are showing up in greater numbers than those who tend to vote Republican. That's true also here in Virginia, where I am right now in Fairfax. Several places in this state where Kamala Harris led the local race by 20 points when she ran against Donald Trump, those people are turning out in significantly greater numbers than in the places where Donald Trump led in Virginia by 20 points.

39:19That's the enthusiasm gap we've been talking about for months and months here, growing among Democrats, receding among Republicans. Now, it's important to remember this doesn't necessarily mean this is how the election will go. Wolf, you're a basketball fan, it's like a basketball game where the team that's favored scored the first two goals. Well, there's a lot ahead here that can still change things. We don't know if this is just a general voter trend or exactly what it looks like right now, but you can follow it all on our CNN.com early voting tracking. Really worth checking out, Wolf. Certainly is.

39:52All right, Tom Foreman reporting for us. Thank you very, very much. And to our viewers, take a look at the bottom of your screen right now. You'll start seeing real-time early voting numbers along with business data as we get closer and closer to November 3rd, Election Day. All right, here's what's coming up all new at the top of the hour. The family of the Minnesota woman shot and killed by an ICE agent earlier this year has now sued the federal government and Trump administration officials. The breaking details next hour.

40:25And we just wanted to take a moment to share a special honor my wonderful co-anchor Wolf Blitzer received this week. Wolf was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame. Here's part of Wolf's speech and the call to protect the free press.

40:44Undermining a free press in the United States of America is something I never thought would happen. And all of us, all of us must do everything we can to protect our constitutional right to a free press.

41:08It is vital to our democracy. As the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says, and I'm quoting now, Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, end quote. There was a lot of applause to your speech. Well, really important message there. And as you see, along with Anderson Cooper, who introduced Wolf, I was there with our very own Caitlin Collins to share in this really special moment. And it was such a huge honor. Wolf, tell us what it meant to you. You know, I've been a journalist for a long time. I never thought I was going to be inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame.

41:47It was really a wonderful evening. So many great people were there to see Anderson there. He introduced me to the audience as if they didn't know who I was. Everyone knew who you were. It was really nice. It was a special moment. Anderson's intro to you was really nice, too, and he talked about what just a kind, good person you are, too, and I think that that was really important. And I thought it was important to talk about a free press. Of course. I don't know how you feel about it, but I believe in a free press. I would say, especially these last couple weeks, it's pretty important to point out.

42:14So, well, congratulations. It was great you were there, and a lot of my other colleagues and friends, family. It was just a special night. Very special, and I was honored to be there, Wolf. Congratulations. And the next hour of the Situation Room starts right now. Happening now, possible terror by air and by land. Two investigations in different parts of the world. We'll take closer look at growing threats with former CIA Director Leon Panetta. Plus, and I'm quoting you now, she was in shock. New details revealing what Jane Doe's roommates told investigators one day after the alleged gang rape incident at a Cornell University fraternity house.

42:57Her attorney is now speaking out this morning. 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.

43:15This is CNN Breaking News. And we begin with the breaking news. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now says the man accused of attacking his fellow pilot and trying to crash the fly Dubai airliner could have extremist leanings. Listen to this. The attacker, the co-pilot who attacked the captain is now being interrogated. But here's what we do know. First, we know that he underwent Islamist radical indoctrination. That appears to be something we're gathering from the information, his personal information. We want to warn our viewers right now that these next images from the plane are graphic.

44:00They sure are. Let's take a look here. We see the wounded captain wearing an oxygen mask and being cared for. Here it is right here. And you're going to see in just a moment the camera tilt up. And that's where we see the co-pilot already subdued. The captain is being hailed as a hero for somehow unlocking the cockpit door during the attack, and that allowed passengers to storm in, subdue the attacker, and regain control of the airplane. We're following all of the latest developments here. CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is here in the Situation Room. Pete, we're also learning more about the weapon used in the attack.

44:37What more can you tell us? A lot of new information here, including this new detail about the weapon allegedly used inside the cockpit. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now says the co-pilot may have attacked the captain with an axe. There have been questions about whether it was the airplane's own crash axe, that is emergency equipment stowed in the cockpit of a Boeing 737, two and a half pounds, more than a foot long, designed to cut through panels or other parts of the airplane in an emergency. The flight data tells just how close all of this came to disaster. There's Boeing 737 Max cruising normally at 34 ,000 feet when it suddenly plunged.

45:15And our analysis of the granular Flight Radar 24 data shows the jet lost more than 16 ,000 feet in 35 seconds. Flight Radar 24 then shows a sharp climb followed by another dive. Eventually, the pilot's able to stabilize the airplane around 15 ,000 feet of altitude. And when the airplane landed, you could see there was another serious problem here. A significant portion of the rudder is missing. You can see in that photo there, that's the movable surface on the vertical tail of the plane that controls its movement side to side called YAH. Investigators have not yet said how that damage occurred, but it was likely the result of the dive when the speed increased to near the speed of sound, 700 miles per hour.

45:56The co-pilot, the alleged attacker, has yet to be publicly identified. We do know he was an Omani national who was working for the airline for about eight months. Israel has characterized this as an act of terror, but investigators have not publicly established a motive just yet. Other big developments here. Fly Dubai has suspended all of its flights to and from Israel. The captain who is attacked, Smeet Machar from India, he is being treated in Saudi Arabia. The dentist who treated him on board during this terrifying scene said he suffered massive blood loss. Captain Machar has undergone surgery reportedly in stable condition.

46:32so much developing with this story all the time right now. And we're hearing so much from Israeli officials still need to establish the motive here. Although you clearly heard the Israeli prime minister say he believes this was an act of terror. Yeah, just miraculous. It landed and all the passengers are OK. No doubt that the captain of the plane is OK. Wow. Pete Muntean, thank you. Well, I want to continue this conversation right now. Joining us, Leon Panetta, who served as defense secretary under President Obama. He is also a former director of the CIA. Secretary Panetta, thanks so much for joining us.

47:04Let's begin with Prime Minister Netanyahu's claim that the co-pilot, the suspected attacker, had undergone what Netanyahu calls radical indoctrination. How significant is that new information? If that information is verified, then obviously somebody who's been indoctrinated, as a terrorist, it would indicate that the person who went on board as a co-pilot was intent on bringing that plane down. There's a lot to be investigated here, as you know, Wolf, and a lot to be determined. And I'm always cautious about jumping to conclusions because it really does depend on the ability to investigate and find substantive intelligence that proves who this individual was.

48:09But when you look, when you stand back and realize that another 9-11 could have happened here with a plane going down and all of the passengers killed, there's no question that terrorism seems to be involved. Yeah, most of those passengers were Israelis on their way back to Israel when that incident aboard the plane occurred. Tensions right now, as you know, Secretary Panetta, are very high across the Middle East. And Prime Minister Netanyahu says investigators will soon know if Iran, he used the word Iran, was somehow involved in the attack. What could those findings mean to the region?

48:50Well, there's no question in a volatile region where a war is taking place that any finding that Iran could have been involved in a terrorist act like this would, I think, light an additional firestorm of action and reaction throughout that region. So this is this is a serious matter. This involved a lot of innocent people on an airliner who would have, who were diving at one point 17 ,000 feet in a matter of seconds. It is a miracle, very frankly, that somebody was able to gain control of that plane and bring it safely down for landing. So So recognizing all of the facts involved here, recognizing where this plane was headed, recognizing the region that we know is at war with Iran, this is one of those additional events that could feed the flames of war.

50:04The British prime minister now says there are, in his words, strong indications Iran was in fact involved in this alleged plot to target a U.K. air base. This is a separate incident that is used by the United States. Iran is denying that. But you're a former defense secretary. Should the U.S. take action if Iran's involvement in this other case proves to be true?

50:31Well, again, I'm a believer that you've got to determine the facts. You have to determine what the truth is. And at this point of the game, there's always a great deal of speculation on all sides as to what took place, particularly when the world is confronting terrorism in the Middle East and the United States and Israel are at war with Iran. A lot of conclusions can be jumped to. But prior to any kind of military action, I think it is incredibly important that intelligence, particularly from the CIA and Mossad and the other intelligence agencies that are involved, be able to substantiate the facts as to who was involved, what was the intent, and whether or not this is a terrorist act, whether or not the events that took place in Britain were in fact a terrorist act.

51:34For Britain to indicate that there's some intelligence to that effect, that's important. But again, I would want the CIA to take a very close look at that intelligence before justifying any kind of military action. You speak as a former CIA director. Another sensitive topic I want to get to. I want to ask you about this current Defense Secretary, Pete Hexeth. He is confirming that the Pentagon is now terminating 20 percent of its generals and admirals by the end of this year. Does that surprise you, given that we are still at war, the U.S. is still at war with Iran?

52:15Wolf, I have a tough time understanding why the Secretary of Defense, in the middle of a war with Iran, a war that isn't going that well, A war in which we've deployed almost 50 ,000 troops, plus a good chunk of our Navy and Air Force, with very little direction in terms of objective and strategy, where we've depleted our weapons so that we can't even come to the defense of Saudi Arabia and our others that are under attack. for the secretary to then go after the chain of command and eliminate 20 percent of our commanders, people who are experienced, who've been in battle, who have earned their promotion and their status.

53:12That's a tremendous amount of experience that's involved here and suddenly eliminate them. There's absolutely no reason for that to take place while we're still in a period of war. In his State of the Force address to troops at Quantico yesterday, Hegseth also underscored his campaign against what he called woke culture. Listen to this. We are no longer the woke department or the weak department. Simple translation of that. No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors. What's your reaction to that?

54:00My reaction is that this secretary ought to be looking at a war that's going badly and determining what is going to be needed in order to bring that war to an end. and have the United States obtain the objectives that were intended. That's what the secretary ought to be focused on. Instead, he's focused on culture issues, on woke issues that basically can eat up the morale of the people that are working at the Pentagon and are out there on the front lines for the United States of America. Look, we have the strongest military in the world. The reason we're the strongest military in the world is because we have people from every area of the country, every creed, every color, women, all are part of our military because we are a diverse country.

55:04And that is our strength. And to suddenly undermine the sense that somehow there are those that are woke or what have you, I just think hurts our readiness, undermines morale, and frankly is the wrong focus for the Secretary who should be focusing on what we do to bring this war to an end. That's what he should be focusing on, not culture issues. Yeah. And not if troops have beards, for example. Today, a U.S. cybersecurity firm announced that suspected Chinese hackers impersonated an anthropic employee and ex-U.S. officials in an espionage campaign. It was apparently aimed at gaining critical insights into American AI developments.

55:55Is this race for AI dominance between the U.S. and China just now beginning to heat up?

56:05This has been going on, Wolf, for a long time. You know, the bottom line is that China is an adversary. I know they're a competitor in many ways, but they are essentially an adversary. And their effort at intelligence is aimed at undermining the United States. I know the president met with Xi, but the bottom line is that China remains an adversary that will try to do everything it can to weaken America. And so I'm not surprised that they would be engaged in intelligence that involves AI. I think that's probably been going on for quite a while. I think we have to be very vigilant, not just with China, but with Russia and with other terrorists, with Iran.

56:57We have to be very vigilant right now that in a very dangerous world, if we aren't prepared to deal with these kinds of threats, it could very well undermine our ability to be able to move forward with the kind of technology that we are going to need in order to have a strong defense and protect our national security. The former Defense Secretary, former CIA Director Leon Panetta, excellent points. Thanks so much for joining us. Good to be with you, Wolf. Pamela. All right, Wolf, breaking news. A new round of astronauts are now on their way to the International Space Station. You see the liftoff right there.

57:40They blasted off from Cape Canaveral riding on top of a SpaceX rocket. During their time on the orbiting lab, the astronauts from NASA, Russia, and Canada that will work on experiments meant to lay the groundwork for future missions to the moon and Mars. And still ahead here in the Situation Room, what we're learning from a pair of new lawsuits filed against the federal government over the deadly shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis. And next, new reporting just into the Situation Room, new guidance about which ICE officers can conduct vehicle stops. The CNN exclusive is next. You're in the Situation Room.

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59:07Let's go live now to CNN correspondent Priscilla Alvarez. Priscilla, what more are you learning? Well, I have reviewed internal guidance that really sets out new instructions for ICE officers and how they are to perform vehicle stops, as well as who is allowed to perform them. Of course, this coming on the heels of fatal and non-fatal shootings that have occurred in recent months when these vehicle stops are conducted. Now, let me lay out some of what we are learning from this guidance. The first is that the officers have to have training in one of six ICE training courses to conduct the stops.

59:44Anyone who is with them that has not completed the training can only be there in a supporting capacity. It also says that officers must have an agency issued an activated body-worn camera when they are conducting these stops and that under no circumstances are they authorized to engage in vehicle pursuits, but instead if someone fails to stop their vehicle to take down their information for further investigation. It also talks about pinning vehicles. That's another maneuver that we have seen by ICE officers, including in Austin last month when there was also that non fatal shooting of an immigrant that they were pursuing.

1:00:21And it says that they are permitted to do so, but it lays out that that is for the safety of the vehicle and its occupants and the ICE officers that are engaged in this. Now, vehicle stops have been a source of tension within the administration over recent months. recall that after there were two shootings almost back-to-back this summer, the Department of Homeland Security had briefly put a pause on most vehicle stops. And that was very quickly overturned by President Trump when he was getting blowback from his political base on that front. And so vehicle stops have been a key tool for the Trump administration as they ramp up their immigration arrests.

1:00:59But it's also been at the center of many of these controversial clashes and these shootings. So it is notable that now ICE is releasing guidance to its officers that explicitly states how they are to go about these stops, how they are to think about pursuits, and who is allowed to be performing them. Again, those who have specific training in vehicle stops. Now, we have reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We have not received comment from them yet, but this is a significant development at a time when the agency is relying on these vehicle stops to arrest undocumented immigrants in the United States and as against the backdrop of the shootings that have happened and that we have covered here.

1:01:48Now, ICE is being very clear as to how these officers are to move forward when they are doing these stops. Priscilla Alvarez, excellent reporting as usual. Thank you very, very much, Pamela. Wolf, new this morning, the Department of Veterans Affairs is struggling to find doctors and nurses to staff a number of new health care facilities across the nation. And this comes amid these growing concerns about the health care workforce. In December, the Department of Health and Human Services warned that the U.S. would experience a shortage of more than 141 ,000 physicians by 2038. CNN correspondent Brian Todd is here with us in the Situation Room.

1:02:25Brian, the VA has built or updated, what, about 40 health care facilities in recent years. What more are you learning about their staffing issues? They're really struggling with staffing, Wolf. Pamela, we have new information now on this clinic in Fredericksburg, Virginia, a brand-new clinic that the VA just opened. It was supposed to be a real crown jewel. It cost more than$350 million to build. The VA touted it as the largest VA health care clinic in the U.S., spanning more than 470 ,000 square feet, completely state-of-the-art. But now, 19 months after the ribbon-cutting, the VA is struggling to staff that facility, according to our sources, and some veterans are telling us their care has suffered as a result.

1:03:03According to VA data obtained by CNN, that Fredericksburg clinic has a staffing vacancy rate of nearly 40 percent, which means more than 350 positions there have not been filled. The VA says it's opened 41 new clinics across the U.S. in recent months. That same data that we obtained shows that roughly half of those new facilities had double-digit vacancy rates as of July. Now, at Fredericksburg, that has translated into hardship for some veterans. I spoke with one Marine veteran who sought treatment there. His name is Michael Dunlap. He told me he's gone through four primary care doctors in the span of a year and a half at the Fredericksburg Clinic.

1:03:40They've all quit, he says, just sending him a form letter saying they wouldn't be there anymore. You have to start over every time. You know, they can look at your records, but until they talk to you and know you, it slows everything down, you know. And you build up a rapport with a doctor, and now you lose a little bit of confidence, because now you've got to explain everything all over again. Now, other veterans told us they had problems getting in for initial appointments at Fredericksburg, and one was turned down for urgent care visits, all because of staffing shortages. Those veterans described going to a gleaming, clean facility without many people in it, and with a huge parking lot, much of it very empty, as these recent pictures that we took show you.

1:04:23One health care provider at Fredericksburg, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, told us doctors and other providers at Fredericksburg are burned out, exhausted, and that's why they're leaving. This provider likened the work atmosphere there to, quote, a car production line. That was reiterated to us by Democratic Congressman Eugene Vindman, a veteran himself who represents that district where the Fredericksburg VA clinic is located. it. It is the fact that they can't keep staff, that they can't hire staff, that it's taking too long, that's making wait times too long, that's making it impossible for veterans to actually get in the door, and that's what needs to get fixed.

1:05:00Now the VA is staunchly defending its operations at Fredericksburg. VA Press Secretary Quinn Slavin in a statement to CNN said this, quote, the Fredericksburg VA clinic is opening in phases. It met its hiring goals in the first three phases and is now in phase four. In less than two years since opening, he said the clinic has already completed more than 245 ,000 appointments and is ahead of schedule for enrolling new patients. Outside analysts tell us some of this is not the VA's fault. They say the VA opened all of these clinics as the entire country is experiencing a shortage of doctors, nurses, and other providers, and with even greater shortages projected in the next decade.

1:05:37And they say the VA has to deal with an unwieldy bureaucracy and often cannot pay doctors the same salaries that they would make in the private sector. Pamela Wolf. So on that note, tell us more about the VA and the salary cap they have for the doctors. It's interesting. It's like these sports leagues with the salary cap. Under the salary cap, a doctor at the VA cannot make more than$400 ,000 a year. That's the salary of the president of the United States. Now, the VA has been issued waivers for 300 doctor positions where they can pay above that amount. But the VA has not used all of those waivers.

1:06:09They've used most of them. But VA officials and other outside analysts tell us 300 waivers for 300 doctors to pay above that amount, not nearly enough for an agency as massive as the VA. They need more waivers. They need to be able to compete with the private sector, and right now they can't do it. Yeah, very worrisome. All right, thanks very much, Brian Todd, reporting. Thank you. All right, plus the new information we're learning about Jane Doe and the days after an alleged rape at a Cornell fraternity house. You're watching The Situation Room, and we'll be right back.

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1:07:40Visit simplisafe.com slash licenses for alarm license information. Happening now, new details are coming out about the initial investigation into the alleged gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity house. The New York Times is now reporting on more than 1 ,000 pages of documents detailing the university's review. And it includes conversations Jane Doe reportedly had right after the alleged incident. One of Jane Doe's roommates reportedly told investigators she did not use the words rape or assault when describing what happened that night. Another roommate said, quote, I don't really remember her ever kind of citing that she had said yes to anything that occurred.

1:08:18Here to discuss this and more is CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams. Elliot, full disclosure, you know, we are still learning more about how all of this played out, right? So we're just able to piece this together from what has been released or reported on so far. But from your experience as a prosecutor, what stands out to you about how this initial investigation was carried out? Well, number one, the absence of the words rape or assault coming from a victim are not relevant legally. And so, yes, it's a fair point to raise that this individual did not use those words at the time.

1:08:52But that's not the whole inquiry there based on everything else that's in the record. Now, obviously, there are a lot of competing narratives that came up two or three years ago when the story arose, and it's starting to trickle out now. More than anything else, I think Cornell University has questions to answer here about what they knew at the time, what was available to them at the time, and what they provided to law enforcement. And that's starting to come out. And based on how the attorney has corroborated part of what the New York Times is reporting from the Title IX investigation, saying that basically she finally reached the point involved to reach the understanding that what happened to her, she believed, was rape.

1:09:29I know you say using that word isn't relevant, but tell us more about from just a criminal standpoint, how the evolution of what you experienced might be relevant. Sure, absolutely. It's an individual saying, and this is a hard word for many people to hear, and I'm sorry, but I was raped. That is a legal determination, and that's not really for that person to make. What matters is what happened there and what can be established, and was there either a forcible or non-consensual or drugged act or whatever else that happened at the time. Now, an individual's perception of that is relevant, of course, but really what matters is what they can establish and prove.

1:10:05And based on what we see here, those text messages, those Snapchat messages, conduct afterward and the fact that Cornell felt the need to discipline people afterward and set up a task force all seem to suggest that at a minimum something really horrible happened that day. Now whether it can be legally actionable remains to be seen. And I know there are some questions, you and I talked about this just yesterday, there are some questions about voluntary drug use versus coerced drug use and some voluntary acts versus other ones. And so a lot of that's just being sorted out. I just want to follow up on this because it is so relevant to this case and it's worth revisiting that the mental incapacitation definition under New York law.

1:10:45And, you know, she admits and what we have seen in the statement she gave to police, she had been drinking even before she stepped foot in that fraternity house. So even having been drinking before, having stepped foot and all this happening, how could that even be relevant? It's relevant depending on if rape is to be charged, which degree of rape is charged. Mental incapacitation would be relevant for second degree rape in New York. Because the person voluntarily took the alcohol, that mental incapacitation just can't be proven. That's just the way New York law works. Now, first-degree rape, even someone who voluntarily drank or took drugs and did not have their faculties about them could absolutely be the victim of a sexual assault.

1:11:33It's just a different definition. They call that their, it's not mentally incapacitated, I don't remember, off the top of my head, but it's got a different name for it. There's a distinction there. Yes, if you are passed out and cannot consent to the acts you're doing, that is absolutely first-degree rape in the state of New York. And so it's a lot of hair-splitting over the definitions of New York. Well, I think it's relevant, though. And the DA claims that he did not get this other transcript that WCBS is reporting on where she allegedly says she was 100 percent raped. He says he didn't get that.

1:12:00But he also is saying from what he saw from the initial six page statement that we've obtained, that there was nothing he could do legally. What do you what do you say to that? I don't know if there's nothing he could do legally. I think perhaps the definition is there is nothing that he felt he could get win in front of a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. That's very different than there's nothing I could do legally. The standard in criminal cases is actually quite high. And when there is a dispute as to what happened in any kind of criminal event, whether it's a sexual assault or something else, prosecutors have to be able to establish, can we win this at court?

1:12:37Maybe at the time, based on what was available to the prosecutors at that time, they felt they could not go forward with the criminal investigation. But as you're teasing out here, there just seem to be so many gaps in what they were provided and when and sort of the level of diligence or aggressiveness that either they carried out in the prosecutor's office or Cornell University did that I think it's important to at least ask the questions now and revisit some of these factual questions that just seem a little murky and quite frankly, sloppy in many circumstances. All right. Elliot Williams, thank you as always for helping us better understand the issue at hand.

1:13:10Wolf. And just ahead, the family of Renee Good, the woman shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis this winter, is now suing over her death. They're speaking from Minneapolis right now. What their two civil complaints allege, that's coming up.

1:13:33Well, new this morning, the family of Renee Good just filed two civil lawsuits in a Minnesota federal court. Good was the mother of three who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis in January. Her death sparked nationwide outrage and protests. A lot of protests indeed. And take a look at this live pictures coming in from a news conference that's now underway. This is Antonio Ramanucci, an attorney for Renee Good's family. CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elliot Williams is still with us right now. So what stands out to you about these two civil complaints? Nothing is surprising about these two civil complaints.

1:14:08We could have anticipated, Wolf, that there would have been a wrongful death suit filed by the family or the survivors at some point. That is, you know, when someone based on the intentional acts of a government actor dies, they can file under what's called the Federal Tort Claims Act. That's the vehicle that allows it. And she alleges a number of things. It's battery, assault, through the act of the firearm. False imprisonment actually is one of the claims that they're alleging here. Intentional infliction of emotional distress, which was an interesting one, based on her partner having to witness it there, adding that in as a claim as well.

1:14:48And then just negligence on the part of the officers. So there's a few things here. And then there's some separate constitutional claims in an individual suit against the officers. And, Elliot, one of the lawsuits that was filed, it was filed against the United States of America. Yeah. And the second lawsuit was filed against a host of Trump officials, including the ICE officer who shot Renee Good. The administration has suggested federal agents possess absolute immunity from state-led prosecutions. Does that apply here? Well, that's wrong. They do not possess absolute immunity. Now, that said, it is exceptionally hard to sue federal officers.

1:15:25Federal officers. Now, there's a weird quirk in the law, Wolf, that if they were state officers, they actually could be sued quite easily under federal civil rights law. We all remember Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. That was the big claims there were under state law. It's different here. So this is a much more complicated suit. And I would assume that certainly the government is going to move to dismiss some of these claims and might even succeed on some of them just because the law is, for lack of a better term, hostile to individual suits against federal officers in their personal capacities.

1:15:57Just a disconnect between state and federal law. And lawyers for the family say they're seeking to recover for Renee's estate, for the immense suffering she endured and for the profound and permanent loss her death inflicted on her family. The complaint also seeks emotional distress damages for Becca Good, who was standing near the couple's vehicle when the ICE agent fired into it. How will the court determine those things? That is really hard. Of all the claims here, because you can, when we talk about assault or battery, they have very clear definitions. It's the unwanted touching of an individual or putting someone in fear of something, assault versus battery versus assault.

1:16:33Intentional infliction of emotional distress is when an individual has engaged in an extreme and reckless way and causes someone harm emotionally from something that they witnessed or perceived. Now, here, merely watching a violent act carried out by an officer, I think winning an intentional infliction of emotional distress claim is going to be quite difficult, just based on the kinds of things that people tend to win these for. I mean, you're talking about, not to be crass, but, you know, mishandling a corpse in front of someone is the emblematic example you get in law school for that particular claim.

1:17:11Now, I don't want to diminish how horrific it must have been to witness such a thing here, but just what matters is what does Minnesota state law say and what do cases that have come up in the past in Minnesota state, in Minnesota establish. So that's going to be the hard one. Some of the other ones are just far more straightforward under the federal tort claims like assault and battery. And so we'll see probably those prevail or at least settle. All right, Alet Williams, thank you. Very busy day for you on the legal front. And we'll have more news right after this. A new survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Associated Press found that rural voters are increasingly concerned right now about the rising cost of living and health care costs just ahead of the November midterm elections.

1:17:55This Sunday, the whole story with Anderson Cooper returns with a month-long embed inside a rural hospital in North Dakota, examining the workforce challenges facing the facility and the community it serves. Here's a preview. Good catch. We have had a job opening in the lab since we posted it in late August of 2025. I did a deep dive into how many applications that I've gotten. We received 31 applications directly online from the Philippines. All of them were very well qualified. We had 11 applicants from Nigeria. We had three applicants that were direct from Ghana. We had two very viable candidates.

1:18:39They were both American. We offered job offers to both of them. They both declined the job offers. essentially it was due to the fact that we're very rural

1:18:56all right let's go live now to cnn senior national correspondent ed lavandera and you got rare access to this hospital what more did you learn well this uh 30 month uh 30 month 30 day that we spent inside the west river health services hospital in the small town of headinger North Dakota was really fascinating because this hospital and this place, as unlikely as it might seem to many viewers, I think, across the country, kind of sits at this incredible crossroads of where we are in America in 2026, a rural hospital struggling and fighting to stay alive, immigration debate swirling intensely all across the country as well.

1:19:35And all of this kind of plays out here in this small community, which is kind of representative of communities all over the country. So really grateful to the CNN documentary team that I got to work with on this project. We spent 30 days inside the hospital. The staff there and many members of the community that we've gotten to know so well have been incredibly gracious. They opened the doors. We really got to see what they experienced in providing rural health care to a community here in southwest North Dakota, in parts of South Dakota, as well as Montana, this massive area that they serve in this community.

1:20:12And what we heard over and over again, guys, is that if it wasn't for this hospital and many of the immigrant workers that are brought in to work there, that this hospital wouldn't be able to provide the services that it does, that many people would have to be traveling hours and hours to get adequate health care. And they say without this hospital, if it were to wither away and not be able to do what it does, that the town would simply die. So this is a fascinating hour and I hope you tune in Sunday night. We certainly will. Ed Levandera reporting for us. Thank you very much. And to our viewers, you can watch more of Ed's reporting on the whole story with Anderson Cooper this Sunday, 8 p.m.

1:20:49Eastern and Pacific, right here on CNN and the next day on the CNN app with an all-access subscription. And to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning at 10 Eastern. Inside politics with our friend and colleague, Dana Bash, starts after a quick break.

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