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Trump: We'll Be Announcing Another City Very Shortly; Fired FBI Officials Sue Director Kash Patel, Trump Administration; Repatriation Delayed for South Korean Workers Detained in Georgia; Conservative Activist Charlie Kirk Shot During Event in Utah. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired September 10, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ, (D) ALDERMAN, CHICAGO'S 22ND WARD: ... 26th Street create $900 million in economic activity here on 26th Street. There were 1,000 businesses doing business here on 26th Street. They're worried. They're very worried.

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SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: So, where I'm standing here, Boris, is the -- these are street vendors. They come here every year, three weeks before the parade on Sunday. And I was talking to the gentleman who owns this. And he said, this year, definitely, the numbers are down, like they've never seen. People are not buying anything. They're just not out.

One of the things that really struck me, he's been here in this country -- he's Mexican -- he's been in this country since he's seven years old. And he and his wife do not leave their home without their passport. They are citizens of this country. They have lived here for quite some time. But he said he's afraid that he's going to be targeted because of the way he looks. And as a result, he and his wife now, they don't leave their homes with passports. And others have reported the same.

And that is the kind of fear that you're seeing here. No one is saying that the administration shouldn't target violent criminals. That's not what this is about. What people are afraid of is that they themselves, because of what they look like, because of their questionable status, because they have not done anything wrong. They're not on anyone's radar. They've not committed any crimes. They have no records. But the fact of who they are and what they look like will make them targeted by ICE. And so they're not leaving their homes. People literally in this country walking the streets with their passports. And that's what we're seeing out here, Boris.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And John, I'm curious how you would compare what Trump has done in DC, versus what's being proposed in Chicago? And how feasible it is to replicate, given that he said DC was really going to be a testing ground for initiatives in other Democrat-led cities. But of course, DC is not a state. In other jurisdictions, it might be a little more complicated. JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, it might be. And, you know, DC, while it had its initial resistance, ultimately the mayor and the police administration got together with them and talked about the resources. You know, in Illinois, in Chicago, you've got a mayor who thinks this is a really bad idea, a governor who thinks it's a terrible idea.

But I mean, there is a place to sit down and say, all right, if we're getting these National Guard's people, this is where we think they should best be placed as a crime deterrent. And if we're getting these federal agents, we don't need them patrolling the streets and, you know, stopping people. What we need them doing is enhancing our gun arrests and taking those to federal court where we know people will get time. That's always a challenge in Chicago, getting people to actually go to jail for having a gun where in a city beset by shooting, a gun arrest is a misdemeanor in most cases.

Getting the FBI and DEA and other federal agencies to start doing smaller, faster cases targeting gangs and crews that are involved in the violence, that's the kind of thing that they could really use to their advantage. But to do that, they're going to really have to engage in a conversation with the administration, which to date, those conversations have been fairly hostile.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, John, Shimon, Gabe, appreciate the conversation very much. Thank you.

Still to come this afternoon, more than 300 South Korean workers detained in Georgia are supposed to be flying back home today. What we're learning about why they're now delayed. We'll be right back.

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SANCHEZ: The other headlines we're watching this hour. In Washington state, a 13-year-old boy arrested, accused of making threats online to kill people. A SWAT team alleges that it found inside the boy's home, quote, Everything ready to go to commit a mass shooting. 23 guns, several boxes of ammunition, and loaded gun magazines with school shooter writings on them, as well as what they describe as items revealing an obsession with past school shooters. Police say some of the guns appear to be 3D printed.

The Pierce County Sheriff's Department says it was tipped off by an internet watch group that looks for threatening online posts. The boy has pleaded not guilty and is being held in a juvenile detention center. His parents have called this all a misunderstanding.

Also, the company that makes the popular weight loss drugs, Wegovy and Ozempic, says it is laying off about 9,000 workers because of fierce competition. The Danish company, Novo Nordisk, was once king of the market with its revolutionary new medicines, but it's been fast losing market share to companies like Eli Lilly and compounding pharmacies that can make cheaper copycat versions. Novo Nordisk says that the layoffs could save about $1.25 billion by the end of next year.

And Elon Musk just lost his richest man in the world title to Oracle tycoon Larry Ellison. Musk's loss comes as Ellison's wealth has skyrocketed by a stunning $101 billion all yesterday due to surging demand from Oracle's artificial intelligence customers. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index says that Ellison's one-day leap in wealth is the biggest one-day increase ever recorded. The windfall lifts the 81- year-old Ellison's fortune to about $393 billion, beating out Musk by about 8 billion -- Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: This just in. CNN is learning three former senior FBI officials are now suing FBI Director Kash Patel and the Trump administration over their terminations. They say they were targets of a social media bullying campaign by some of President Trump's MAGA influencers.

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CNN's Evan Perez is here with this new reporting. Evan, tell us about what's alleged in this lawsuit.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, this is significant because we have three former senior FBI agents, and at least two of them were people who were elevated to their jobs by Kash Patel, by this administration, and they were fired in the past month. And what they describe is really a political bent to what has happened to the FBI.

And one of the things that they allege is that Kash Patel, in a conversation with Brian Driscoll, who was the former acting director of the FBI before Kash Patel got confirmed, that he admitted that every FBI agent who touched an investigation involving President Trump essentially is being targeted to be fired. And that contradicts what Kash Patel himself has said in his confirmation. He said people would not be fired because of the jobs they did.

I'll describe you -- I'll quote you just a part of this lawsuit again. This was filed by Brian Driscoll, Steven Jensen, and Spencer Evans, filed here in federal court in Washington. And I'll read you just a part of it where he says, according to this lawsuit, Patel tells Driscoll there is nothing that he or Driscoll could do to stop these or any of these other firings because the FBI tried to put the president in jail, and he has not forgotten it.

KEILAR: Wow, Evan Perez, thank you for that. And we will be right back.

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KEILAR: A chartered plane from South Korea just arrived in Atlanta today as hundreds of Korean workers swept up in an immigration raid wait to learn when they'll be released. The workers were detained last week as ICE agents targeted a Hyundai plant under construction in southeast Georgia.

CNN's Gustavo Valdes is following the latest from Atlanta. Gustavo, what can you tell us? GUSTAVO VALDES, CNN REPORTER: Well, we're waiting for word as to when these 300 or so workers will be released from the Folkston Detention Center in South Georgia. Negotiations are ongoing as to how they're going to be released. For one, the Korean government would like this to be a voluntary return, not a deportation, that would allow these workers to come back in the future without any penalties.

And the other one is the manner of transportation, whether they'll be shackled like any other migrant that has been deported by the U.S. -- and we have seen the pictures of how they board the planes and even when they are returned to their country. These are part of the negotiations going on in Washington today.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio had meetings with South Korean officials. They haven't given any word today as to what specifically is being negotiated. Meanwhile, these workers are still waiting at the Folkston Detention Center. They have been -- they have been visited by the consular authorities in Atlanta. And all of this is part of this international situation in which now Korean businesses seem to be trying to tune their practices to labor rules in the United States, many of them asking that there are more work visas allotted to Korean workers that are building these megaprojects in the south of the United States.

KEILAR: Yes, a lot of investment there by South Korea. Gustavo Valdes, thank you so much for the report.

And ahead, the story of one woman helping thousands of students' dreams come true with jazz.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

SANCHEZ: We have breaking news to CNN. A source tells CNN that Trump ally and the founder of Turning Points USA, Charlie Kirk, was shot at an event on a college campus in Utah.

KEILAR: And the extent of Kirk's injuries at this point are not immediately clear. Let's talk now with CNN's Kristen Holmes. We have CNN political director David Chalian with us as well. Kristen, what can you tell us?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Brianna and Boris, I want to be very clear. I cannot tell you that much right now because this is a very fluid situation. People are still trying to figure out the details, the extent of the injury, and what exactly unfolded on that Utah campus.

As we have reported, Charlie Kirk is a close ally of President Trump's. Not only that, he is somebody who helped him get elected this cycle, he is often seen here at the White House. He runs Turning Point USA, which is a youth organization where he's tried to galvanize thousands of voters, Republican voters. He's also a controversial figure at times. He goes into these various

college campuses, pushes conservative issues, gets into back -- and heated back and forth often with these students on these college campuses. But, of course, none of that is violent. This is the first time we've seen this kind of reaction, obviously.

So what we know right now, everyone is monitoring the situation. He was shot during this event on this Utah campus, and they are still unclear what exactly the extent of those injuries is. There are a lot of videos circulating right now on social media that are showing the crowds running away after gunshots went off. But again, we are still going through all of this and talking to sources to figure out what exactly happened and how Kirk is doing at this time.

SANCHEZ: Kristen, please stand by. David, as we work to confirm some of these videos that are circulating online, and we try to get an awareness of the status of Kirk's health, it's important to step back and point out the impact that he's had in recent years on politics, and certainly conservative politics. He's turned this sort of grassroots organization, Turning Points USA, into a juggernaut when it comes to connecting youth conservatives and the conservative agenda on college campuses.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Without a doubt. I mean, first, let me say my prayers are with Charlie Kirk right now, and I'm sure everybody watching feels the same. This is horrific to see what we're seeing here.

You couldn't be more spot on, Boris. I can't sort of understate what Charlie Kirk has done inside the Republican Party as a force, especially around mobilizing younger voters. That's sort of how TPUSA first got its movement. But he is a talk radio host on conservative radio. He's the organizer -- does a ton of speaking publicly around the country. You can't go to any kind of sort of convening -- big convening of Republicans, and he is not a force there with an enormous following.

In fact, I was looking on social media, on Twitter at 2:24, so not even 30 minutes ago, 29 minutes ago, he had posted images of himself before this huge crowd at Utah Valley University there outside of Provo. And he said, we're so back. You could see there was enthusiasm. He was passing hats around. You can watch them on video. This is just -- this was posted half an hour ago of him doing that and greeting this crowd.

He is somebody that the Trump campaign, as Kristen was noting, utilized very effectively to harness his leadership in this conservative activist movement, again, with young people, young men specifically. We've talked about this a lot when we look back. Charlie Clark is the heart of that effort. They relied on him and his organization a lot for their ground game in a lot of the states around the country.

And so this is somebody who obviously has a huge voice inside conservative American politics, a big Trump supporter.

[14:55:00]

But obviously now, in this really unfortunate, horrific experience, is going to be at the center of a conversation about political violence, I would imagine, that we're going to be having in the aftermath of this horrific event.

KEILAR: Certainly, and there's a lot of reason to be concerned right now, as we do not know. his status. We don't know how he's doing, and we're awaiting word, certainly, of that. As you mentioned, it says a lot about where we are as a nation when it comes to violence and politics. Can you talk a little bit about what he was doing in Utah? He was going to universities to speak to young people.

CHALIAN: Yes and organizing them. And again, that's why I was literally, you can just bring it up from his Twitter page a little while ago, you can see it's not just like sometimes you might go to an event at a college campus and it's a smattering of people in it. That is not what Charlie Kirk brings. He has a following and an energy around him with young people.

And so, yes, he is on college campuses quite often all around the country doing this kind of political organizing. In addition to his sort of speaking at places like CPAC or other big events. He is big on college campuses and as I was saying, the Trump campaign has harnessed him into his network of followers in terms of their ground game operation in this last campaign. It was fundamental to their success.

SANCHEZ: And to that point, he spoke at the RNC in 2024, and we just saw a tweet put out by J.D. Vance, the Vice President, saying, quote, Say a prayer for Charlie Kirk, a genuinely good guy and a young father.

I believe that we're joined now by CNN senior law enforcement analyst Charles Ramsey. And actually, before we get to Chief Ramsey, here's a post from FBI director Kash Patel.

We're closely monitoring reports of the tragic shooting involving Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University. Our thoughts are with Charlie, his loved ones, and everyone affected. Agents will be on the scene quickly, and the FBI stands in full support of the ongoing response and investigation.

Chief Ramsey, I wonder if you can paint for us a picture of what an investigation like this, one, as you just saw there from the FBI director, to which agents are just responding on a college campus at an event where it appears that Kirk was surrounded by a multitude of attendance.

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, obviously, there's a lot we don't know yet. This just occurred. But they would do everything they can to contain the scene. The shooter may very well be someone who is being held by other members in the crowd. We don't know that. Hopefully, his injuries are not too severe. So I'm certainly hoping that that's the case.

But right now, it's a case where they're going to bring in resources to do what they can. It was a large gathering on a college campuses -- on a college campus. So no doubt you have a lot of witnesses that need to be interviewed, but you have a crime scene now and that crime scene has to be protected. That crime scene has to be processed. So all the things that you would typically do in any shooting incident you would be doing right now. He's a very high profile individual, so it's certainly going to draw a lot of attention.

KEILAR: And chief, can you talk a little bit about what security would be like at an event like this on a college campus? I mean, he is, you know, he's not a politician, right? But he's someone who is so adjacent to some of the biggest names here in Washington. And we have seen this uptick in political violence. What would security be like, would you expect?

RAMSEY: Well, he's not an elected official, and unless there were direct threats made to him, you know, security would be there, but on a college campus with a large crowd, very difficult and people would not be screened before they went to the event. So I'm sure there was not only university police, but probably from their county sheriff or local police that were present on the scene.

But when you have a large gathering like that, and again, he's a controversial and high profile individual, but he would not get the same kind of screening that a president would get, a vice president would get, or some other elected official. So again, I haven't seen the scene, so it's very difficult to kind of assess, but I would imagine and obviously someone was able to get close enough with a gun and whether it was a rifle, was it a handgun, plus the distance? I mean, they're just a lot of unanswered questions right now.

SANCHEZ: It's also notable that he hosts, as part of many of the events that he has, these debates with folks that come, college students and others who come as part of a crowd, and he hosts debates with them at close proximity. We don't know that that's exactly what happened here, but it is notable, given what you were just describing, Chief Ramsey, as the setting for these events.

We also have a statement put out by California Governor Gavin Newsom now, who interviewed Kirk on his podcast back in March of this year. He says the attack on Charlie Kirk Is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible ...

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