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Filing: Routh Wrote Letter About "An Assassination Attempt on Trump"; Suspect in Trump Assassination Attempt to Remain Detained; Lebanese Health Minister: 350 Plus Killed in Israeli Strikes; Israeli Cabinet Declares "Special Situation" Nationwide; NYT Poll: Trump Ahead in AZ; No Clear Leader in NC & GA. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 23, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The man accused of trying to assassinate former President Trump was in federal court today as new details about his alleged plot emerged, such as a reward to anyone who could, quote, "complete the job."

And it's, quote, "raining bombs in Lebanon." A barrage of Israeli strikes killing nearly 300 people, forcing many to flee, as Israel's prime minister says his country's war is not with Lebanon, but with Hezbollah.

Plus, a show of strength in the Sun Belt for Donald Trump. New polls show a possible path to victory for the former president, as fundraising numbers show his opponent with a huge haul over the weekend, and there are just 43 days until Election Day.

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Minutes ago, we learned that the man suspected in the second assassination attempt of former President Trump is going to remain in jail. A federal detention hearing for Ryan Routh just wrapped up after three hours, which is a quite long detention hearing. The judge there saying that he found the evidence to keep the 58-year-old defendant behind bars as, quote, "strong."

The evidence includes a newly revealed letter. Prosecutors say that Routh wrote at least several months before September 15th, the day that he was arrested, after a witness allegedly spotted him running from the Trump Golf club.

Now, that letter, allegedly penned by Routh, starts with this, quote, "This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I am so sorry I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is now up to you - it is up to you now to finish the job and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job." CNN's Randi Kaye who attended the hearing.

Randi, get us up to speed on what happened here. RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, there was so much information coming out in this hearing, so I'm just going to boil down the most important and intriguing parts of the evidence that federal prosecutors presented. First of all, they described what they believe was Routh's position at the Trump Golf course as a sniper's nest. They said there was one reason and one reason only why he was here in Palm Beach County, Florida, and that was to assassinate the former president.

They also said in court that the agent, the Secret Service agent who observed - allegedly observed Routh at the golf course, said that he was in a position that provided a clear line of fire to the sixth hole putting green.

Now, remember, Donald Trump was on the fifth hole putting green at the time. That would have put him about 12 to 15 minutes from the sixth hole putting green, where that clear line of fire was. Also new information about the scene itself, there was a scope on the rifle that was found at the scene. That scope apparently was attached, according to prosecutors, by some electrical tape.

They say that a preliminary finding shows that a fingerprint found on that electrical tape does belong to Ryan Routh. They also said there were two bags that were found at the scene, and they had metal or steel plates inside them. They said they tested those plates, and federal prosecutors say that those could have stopped small arms fire, so that showed that Ryan Routh was prepared.

And just a couple of more bits of evidence, Brianna, that stood out, six cell phones were found in Ryan Routh's car. According to federal prosecutors, one had a Google search on how to get from Palm Beach County to Mexico. Also, the cell phone data shows, according to prosecutors, that Ryan Routh was here in Florida as of August 14th. He came here from Greensboro, North Carolina. That puts him in this area for about a month before this incident occurred, and there were pings on his - from his cell phone to the cell phone towers in the area, precise pings, putting him around Mar-a-Lago and around that golf course multiple times over that time.

And finally, there was a handwritten list of dates and venues where the former president was expected to appear leading up to Election Day. They believe that handwritten list belonged to Ryan Routh. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right, Randi. And prosecutors also revealed some new evidence that was found at the scene. Tell us what you learned.

KAYE: Yes, this was really interesting. This is the first time we're hearing of this. Apparently, one of the FBI agents who testified in court today, the only witness who did, said that there was a letter penned to The New York Times that was found at the scene, and that letter was tested for DNA, for fingerprints belonging to Ryan Routh.

[15:05:06]

They still aren't sure if his fingerprints are on there, but what's intriguing about that is that they found somebody else's fingerprints on that letter penned to The New York Times. They won't say what was in that letter, the contents of the letter, when it was written, but they - and - or who those other fingerprints belonged to, but that is certainly intriguing and something that the defense zeroed in on, Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Randi Kaye, thank you so much.

Joining us now is former FBI senior intelligence advisor, Phil Mudd.

Phil, all right, what happens to Ryan Routh now? What do you expect his federal custody to look like?

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: First the federal prosecutors, as you talked about earlier, are going to lay out a lot of facts. Those facts include clear evidence that he can - he was conspiring to kill the president. There's also a second piece of this, and that is increasing evidence, mounting evidence about his mental state.

Anybody who wants to argue that this individual was in a mental state that didn't allow him to make clear decisions, I think, is going to have a tough argument. But the issue is going to be, given the charges that have been filed, how long can they keep him without allowing him bond. I think the big question is whether he gets out or not, and the prosecutors obviously are going to say, heck no, no way, not now, not ever. And I'm going to guess the judge will agree with them.

KEILAR: I also wonder, Phil, as you're looking at this letter that he allegedly penned, if there are concerns about other people who may not be in a stable state of mind and what they are seeing between that and the fact that there have been multiple attempts, what do you think?

MUDD: There's a couple things you'd be thinking about when you deal with a case like this. Think about sort of concentric circles. The first circle is imminent threat. Is there somebody else who is participating, who in the hours after the event when this individual was picked up would say, I've got to accelerate my planning because the feds are going to be on to this.

You're getting into the second phase now, which is really complicated because it'll go back months and years. It includes things like cell phone, email, travel, friends, family and that is - was anybody cognizant of what the plan was, might they pick up a piece of that plan in a month or a year.

For - the evidence today, for example, about a second set of fingerprints on the letter tells me that the feds have ways to go to say whose fingerprints are they and why were they on there? Was it accidental or did somebody participate?

I tell you, Brianna, the challenge here is to prove a no. That is, can you guarantee me that over the course of the last year or two that nobody knew and nobody was involved. Proving nos is really hard, Brianna. KEILAR: I wonder what you thought about some of the details that we learned today that he had this, you know, alleged would-be shooter, had a direct line on the sixth green, which would be the next hole that Trump was going to be on. Obviously, someone, when they're on the green, they're standing around, they're putting, they're relatively stationary.

And Trump wasn't that far behind, but we learned that a member of the Secret Service, as they were going ahead, a hole ahead of Trump, and they were scouting out the situation, they saw this gun barrel pointed directly at them, at this Secret Service agent, and that as the gun barrel moved, they actually took a shot, then retreated behind a tree, and then as they came back out of cover, that's when they saw that the gunman had left.

I wonder what this raises for you about the possibility of the danger there and just how close this came.

MUDD: I thought it was remarkably close, but I'll tell you I think I have the opposite of reaction of what you would expect, and that is concern about what the investigation is going to tell the American people about how the Secret Service can secure the president. Think about some scenarios.

Remember when President Obama spoke to that massive crowd in Chicago after he was elected years ago? What's the chance you could have secured that? Every time a president sit - throws out a first pitch at a baseball game, every time the president goes to a basketball game, when President Trump drives through Central Manhattan, I'm afraid that the pendulum is going to swing to the point where the American people are going to say, there is no way that anybody could ever have access to the president and no way that anybody could ever hurt the president.

That is not realistic. I think the shooter got close, but I'm afraid the conclusion that people will draw is that can never happen again, and that is not a realistic proposition, Brianna.

KEILAR: So I wonder, Phil, at this point in time, as you're saying, you know, this is revealing vulnerabilities. Other people might be looking at how, you know, other people who are nefarious actors may be looking at this and how it's revealing vulnerabilities. If this is - as you expect the Secret Service to be making big changes, a paradigm shift, as we heard the acting director say, in the interim, is this going to just be a very different scenario for how these protectees are conducting their lives? Is that what you would expect?

MUDD: Well, sort of, and I have a story to tell you about that, but sort of. I mean, part of the story is how President Trump - former President Trump deals with the Secret Service going forward.

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Is he going to give them more forward-leaning sort of warnings about what his schedules are going to be? Is he going to heed their warnings? You know, the protectees don't always have to do what the Secret Service says. One of the most interesting and, oddly enough, humorous moments I ever had at the FBI was with Director Mueller, who had a large detail when we went into Baghdad, Iraq.

We were on the rooftop of a building. It's the only time, the only time I ever saw the security detail tell the FBI director what to do, the FBI director, a decorated Vietnam veteran. There was a shooting going on. There were mortars going on in downtown Baghdad, and the director didn't want to leave the top of the building.

And finally, the security detail, I couldn't believe it - Director Mueller was not a shrinking violet, got in his face and said, sir, we are leaving the top of the building now.

My point is, some of this has to do with the willingness, again, of the person who's being protected to take guidance. And, you know, President Trump obviously is going to sit there and say, I want to play golf and you guys got to figure out what to do about it.

KEILAR: Yes, but certainly doesn't want to play golf under these conditions. I don't think anyone would.

MUDD: Yes.

KEILAR: Phil Mudd, thank you so much. We appreciate your insights.

MUDD: Yes.

KEILAR: We're also monitoring some new developments coming out of the Middle East, where Israel's defense minister says the IDF carried out an impressive operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Lebanese health officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 350 people so far, and that includes dozens of women and children. This is the single deadliest day of strikes from Israel on Lebanon since the 2006 war.

Now, this afternoon, the Israeli cabinet announced what it's calling a, quote, "special situation" across the country. As the U.S. says, it is sending additional troops to the region amid increased tensions.

We have CNN Chief International Editor Nic Robertson live for us in Jerusalem.

Nic, tell us what officials are saying and what this means, a special situation.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: A special situation means the Israeli government can declare at any moment in any part of the country security measures, the home front command measures, which say gatherings can be limited outside to only 10 people, no more than a hundred people at a venue indoors. If you hear the sirens go off, then go immediately to the shelter. Don't leave the shelter for 10 minutes until after the sirens are cleared.

So they can put that in place at any moment now, anywhere across the country. At the moment, it only exists north of Haifa in the north of Israel where there have been strikes today. So that's an important measure that the IDF has. And the warning coming from the defense minister today for the citizens of Israel is when the home front command tells you something, it is imperative that you follow those instructions.

The death toll in Lebanon today from the ministry of health, 356 people dead, 24 of them children, 42 women, 1,246 people wounded in those strikes, 210 Hezbollah missiles coming into Israel today, according to the IDF. The IDF say they hit 1,300 terror targets inside of Lebanon.

The Prime Minister today, Benjamin Netanyahu, told the people of Lebanon, we're not targeting you. You're not the enemy. Hezbollah is the enemy.

The army chief - the defense minister here, Yoav Gallant, said that what's been targeted today by the IDF is Hezbollah's infrastructure that they've been building for 20 years. The army chief of staff said this is preparing for the next phase. And when the IDF spokesman was asked, is this going to be a ground operation, he said, we will do whatever it takes to secure and allow our people to get home in the north.

KEILAR: All right. Nic Robertson, thank you for that report live for us from Jerusalem.

Let's talk now with the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, Dana Stroul. She is the Research Director for The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it.

DANA STROUL, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR THE MIDDLE EAST: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: So we're seeing this moment - sort of a new moment and a new strategy on the part of Israel unfold here. Netanyahu says, "We're not waiting for a threat. We are ahead of it." How do you see this escalate to de-escalate strategy of Israel's working out here?

STROUL: I think it's not clear at all that it de-escalates. We are in a new phase of this conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. And let's remember where this started. On October 8th, 24 hours after Hamas' attack on Israel, Hezbollah started its air campaign against Israel. More than 70,000 Israeli civilians have had to flee their communities in northern Israel and there has been a constant barrage of missiles, rockets and drones since October 8th.

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What's clear now is that as Israel winds down its military operations in Gaza, they are focused on getting those civilians back to their communities. What we've seen is incremental escalation by Israel and Hezbollah until this most recent phase, limited to southern Lebanon and northern Israel, limited to only military targets, limited to certain kinds of weapons. Now the rules of the game are changing.

KEILAR: But you worry it won't de-escalate, right? That's what you said.

STROUL: Absolutely. And we can see from what just happened with the largest Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon since the 2006 war, that they are no longer limiting themselves to purely military targets. With this number of civilian casualties, what they are doing is starting to go after Hezbollah's strategic weapons. And those are embedded in civilian areas like the Beqaa Valley in Beirut.

So I expect the civilian casualties to climb, which is going to put Hezbollah in a situation where it might feel that it needs to escalate as well.

KEILAR: So how - I mean, if Israel is trying to get people in the north and they have been displaced now for almost a year, how do they do that? What do they do, whether it is militarily and diplomatically, to try to get people back to their homes in the north and to keep them safe? Does this work towards that?

STROUL: The challenge here is that the Israeli governing coalition added a new objective for how to end the war, which is returning civilians to their communities in northern Israel. But that's not a military objective. And the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces, have not articulated exactly what they need to achieve in Lebanon in order to de-escalate.

This is the challenge going forward, is how do you de-escalate. The U.S. administration has been working on a framework in which Hezbollah's elite forces move away from the Israel border, allowing Israeli civilians to return. That no longer appears to be acceptable for the Israeli government.

KEILAR: And as we see this unfold, Iran, which backs Hezbollah, is warning of "dangerous consequences," that's a quote, what are your concerns? What are you looking for there?

STROUL: Hezbollah is Iran's partner, and it's Iran's insurance policy. Iran wants Hezbollah to remain intact and operationally coherent so that it can launch attacks against Israel if Israel launches attacks against Iran. So if Iran perceives that Hezbollah is at a point of operational collapse, which is pretty arguable at this point in time, given how many senior leaders and how much devastation Israel's done to their weapons arsenal and to their leadership and their command and control, Iran may feel compelled to step in to save their insurance policy and that's when we're off to the races.

KEILAR: It's incredibly alarming. Dana Stroul, thank you so much. We really appreciate your analysis.

And we are following an urgent manhunt in Alabama, where police and federal authorities are looking for suspects in a deadly mass shooting over the weekend. We are live from Birmingham just ahead.

Plus, new battleground polls out today focusing on some of the Sun Belt states where former President Trump appears to be building momentum. We will look at those just ahead. And then later, California is saying goodbye to paper or plastic. The Governor just signed a law banning plastic shopping bags at grocery stores. We'll have those stories and many more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[15:22:51]

KEILAR: Forty-three days until the election, but who's counting? New polling giving us a snapshot of where the race stands in some critical battleground states. This is a new poll from The New York Times and Siena College showing that Trump has a five-point lead in Arizona, and then in Georgia and North Carolina, you see a lead there, but that is within the margin of error, so it is neck and neck there.

The poll of these three Sun Belt states, it also shows a big gender gap between the two candidates, which has been persistent. Trump leading Harris among men, 55- to 39 percent. Harris leading Trump among women, 51 percent to 45.

Let's talk more about this now with Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist who served a senior advisor to Bernie Sanders' campaigns both in 2016 and 2020. And we have Erin Perrine as well. She is a Republican strategist for Axiom Strategies.

All right, I wonder what you - you know, this is getting a lot of attention because this shows some movement, Chuck. What do you see in this - the polls of these Sun Belt states?

CHUCK ROCHA, SENIOR ADVISER, BERNIE SANDERS 2016 AND 2020 CAMPAIGNS: Well, for all of my friends who have been texting me nonstop with the pollapalooza (ph) that's been happening over the last 48 hours, I need everybody to step back away from the polling for just a minute.

This is what happens in an election. We're all excited. There's lots of movement. There's lots of things going on, but you're going to see, like, when you used to see a hurricane coming towards Puerto Rico and it would goggle one way or the other, that's what you're seeing. It's going to continue to move in a direction.

But when it moves a little bit to the right or moves a little bit to the left, that's what you're seeing now. Because every time these posters go on and talk to likely voters, there's a smaller group of those. So you're going to see a little movement back and forth. Looking at it over time is what I mainly concentrate on.

KEILAR: That puts us to borrow a weather term, in the cone of uncertainty.

ROCHA: I like that, yes. I'm going to steal it.

KEILAR: Right? Okay, so there we are, that's some - okay, so what are you looking at as you see this, especially Arizona, where actually the Democratic Senate candidate right now is besting the Republican Senate candidate, so you see a little bit of a countervailing situation there?

ERIN PERRINE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yes, we've only seen once in modern history where you've kind of seen that Senate break and it was Susan Collins up in Maine. So that's something to watch.

What I'm looking at right now is the softening of white male voters toward Kamala Harris.

[15:25:03]

And for that, you're seeing her kind of make these overtures to try and bring them in.

I actually believe in her Oprah interview when she said, I own a firearm and I would shoot you if you broke into my home. I think that was actually more strategic than it was, whoops, my staff is going to clean that up. Because this has been a very careful campaign by Kamala Harris.

She has chosen her words carefully and her venues carefully. That is an overture to try and say, hey, disaffected white male voters, there's an opportunity for you to see me as a way to change the direction of this country, come look at this campaign. So she's being very concerted in that.

KEILAR: You think that actually ...

PERRINE: I do.

KEILAR: ... switch people ...

ROCHA: So ...

PERRINE: I don't think to switch people, but I think it was a concerted effort to try and say, look, I'm not a regular Democrat. I don't believe in the buybacks I believed in before.

KEILAR: I'm not taking your guns.

PERRINE: Yes, I'm not going to take your guns even though she has before openly discussed that. And as a AG on camera said that when you own a firearm in California, we should be able to go into your home and make sure that you've got that firearm.

That is not how the government should work. So she's got a big history of very anti-Second Amendment rhetoric that she's now trying to reverse to try and bring some of these white male voters.

ROCHA: And as a Democrat, I'll promise you that's what she was planning to say and that there was a staffer there. And going back to your Arizona clip about why the Arizona Senate race is doing so much better than the presidential, I'm just going to say, cause he's got really good consultants, but I'll leave that there as a personal for me.

KEILAR: Okay. So when you're looking at this gender gap - and look, Trump needs to make up with some women too. I wonder Chuck, as you're looking at that - if you see movement from either one of them or you think that they could be doing more on this.

ROCHA: I think it goes back to what Erin just said. Like every time she speaks about something, she knows she's got a problem with men and you're going to see her being very - intentional is the word I would say - about going out and saying, I'm not like every other, quote unquote, "Democrats you may hear about on some other news station that's a lot more conservative."

She knows she's doing really well with women. All Democrats know they're doing really well with the Dobbs. The reason why you're seeing nonstop immigration ads run in the suburbs of Philadelphia, ain't because of immigration, is that they're trying to win white women back and try to do something with their men problem.

KEILAR: Okay, the debate, it's looking right now like it's not going to happen, another one. Harris would really like it. Trump has not committed to it. And it seems - I mean, if you had to guess, where do you think this goes, Erin?

PERRINE: Yes, if I'm going to look in my very murky crystal ball, that is the 2024 election cycle, because everything has been upended, I don't see another debate happening. Donald Trump's made very clear he's not interested in another debate. This polling today, I could make a case where if his polling was going south and it appeared he was not making ground in some of these states, because some of those polls do sit outside the margin of error in some of these Sunbelt states for him, which are going to be key to his victory, where he would say, you know what, Kamala, game on, let's go, let's do it. Because he would need another big moment in the campaign to try not only bring in dollars, but bring in voters.

He doesn't think he needs that right now as the strategy, so I do not see it happening.

ROCHA: I agree. I could not agree more.

PERRINE: Look at us.

ROCHA: Somebody - as somebody who's put together ...

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KEILAR: You guys need more attention.

ROCHA: It's because it's politics 101, it's common sense. This is what you do. Unless you're losing, you don't take that kind of chance.

KEILAR: But what if he toggles back in our cone of uncertainty? Can we see that?

ROCHA: I don't think he could go back enough. I just don't - I mean, if you saw something dramatic happen, you've seen a man literally get shot at while he's on stage and the polls didn't move that much. We are locked into where we're at and just a small group of voters are going to make that decision.

PERRINE: And the toggle back portion, if he does that, if some - in some world Donald Trump decides he wants another debate, what he will say is, well, yeah, Kamala's losing. That's why she's asking me to do this debate because losers ask for debates because he's already said that before. So he has a way to get to yes on this. I just don't think it's likely.

KEILAR: All right. We'll be looking. Erin, Chuck, thank you so much to both of you. We really appreciate the discussion.

PERRINE: Thanks.

KEILAR: And still to come, a manhunt still underway for the people - multiple - responsible for the mass shooting in Birmingham, Alabama. We'll have the latest on what officials say was a targeted attack.

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