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Unsealed Inventory List Shows Top Secret Docs Mixed With Clothes And Other Items; Trump Vowed To Enforce Laws On Protecting Classified Documents During His Term; Fighting At The Zaporizhzhia Power Plant Raises Fears Of Nuclear Catastrophe; Amid GOP Uproar, Biden Clarifies Description Of MAGA Republicans; Memphis PD: Vehicle Of Interest Found In Missing Teacher's Disappearance; Math And Reading Scorers For Nine-Year-Old's See Worst Drop In Decades. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired September 03, 2022 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:39]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean in Washington. Pamela Brown has the night off. Let's take a look at your top stories.

Some scary hours in the sky. A stolen airplane, the pilot threatening to crash and burn. The joyride is now over and that plane thief in custody.

Plus, a CNN KFile investigation. Donald Trump as president wanted people locked up if they mishandled classified documents. We'll see if he's singing the same tune after what the FBI found at Mar-a-Lago.

And Russian shelling shutting down another reactor at the biggest nuclear plant in Europe. Is it safe and should the world be worried?

It is a big disappointment on the launch pad in Florida. NASA pulling the plug on today's scheduled launch of its unmanned Artemis I moon rocket. Engineers could not fix a liquid hydrogen leak in time for safe afternoon liftoff and that marks the second time this week technical issues have forced NASA to scrub the launch.

As for the next shot at blast off NASA officials a short time ago saying it will at least be several weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: We do not launch until we think it's right. And these teams have labored over that and that is the conclusion that they came to. So I look at this as a part of our space program of which safety is the top of the list.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: The goal of the Artemis program is return humans to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years and ultimately take them to mars.

Police in Tupelo, Mississippi, say they've arrested the man who stole a private airplane and threatened a kamikaze style attack. The man at the controls reportedly called 911 before sunrise this morning and threatened to crash the twin-engine plane into a local Walmart. Both the store and the immediate area had to be evacuated.

Take a look at this video. It's from FlightAware and you can see the erratic and unpredictable path that plane flew for the next five hours. Police talking to him throughout the ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF JOHN QUAKA, TUPELO, MS POLICE DEPARTMENT: Negotiators from Tupelo Police Department made contact with the pilot and were able to convince him to not carry out this deed. We have since learned he landed near the Gravestown Fire Department on Highway 4 West in between Ashville and Ripley. Soon thereafter the pilot was taken into custody and is in custody currently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And as you heard there, that plane crash landing in a field where the man was arrested. Police say he was a 10-year employee at the airport but does not appear to be a licensed pilot. It's also not clear why he threatened that particular Walmart.

We are still waiting to learn whether a Florida judge will agree to appoint a special master to review what was seized at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort last month. There's a lot to look at. Thousands of pages of documents, empty file folders marked classified, boxes of clippings, clothing and gifts to the former president.

CNN's Marshall Cohen has more on the trove of evidence -- Marshall.

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jessica. We've got new details in the Mar-a-Lago investigation. We're learning more about what the FBI recovered from former President Trump's south Florida resort during their unprecedented search last month. Federal agents found 103 classified documents. That's a startling number because one of Trump's lawyers told the DOJ in a sworn statement before the search that there wasn't anything left to be found and then they found 103 classified documents.

Investigators also seized more than 11,000 non-classified presidential records. Even though those records weren't classified prosecutors have said that those documents are still government property and should have not been taken to Trump's private resort.

We've also learned more about how these documents were discovered on the premises. According to court filings, the classified materials were found intermingled with news clippings, magazines, gifts and clothes.

[19:05:06]

And that confirmed investigators' suspicions the classified documents weren't being properly secured and siloed off at Trump's resort. Meanwhile, the former president is still fighting in federal court to get a so-called special master appointed to independently review the seized materials. Trump's lawyers faced off against the Justice Department on Thursday and the judge seems to be leaning in Trump's favor. She asked some tough questions of the DOJ and she has already signaled her preliminary intent to name a special master.

But outside of court, Justice Department got an unlikely ally in former attorney general Bill Barr. He was a true Trump loyalist during his time in office but he has since been more critical of Trump and in a FOX News interview yesterday, Barr backed up some of the DOJ's main arguments. Check this out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL BARR, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, I think that the whole idea of a special master is a red herring at this stage since they've already gone through the documents, I think it's a waste of time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: But of course it's not up to Barr. It's up to Federal Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee down in Florida, to issue a ruling and make a decision. She could hand down that decision at any time -- Jessica.

DEAN: Marshall Cohen, thanks so much.

The former president has been quick to dismiss the DOJ's investigation even calling the FBI partisan, quote, "mobsters." But as CNN's KFile reports it is a sharp contrast from what the former president used to think about those accused of mishandling classified materials.

CNN's Andrew Kaczynski joining me now. Andrew, walk us through what you found.

ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Yes, so our team reviewed statements from former President Trump dating back to his 2016 presidential campaign. Now obviously, a lot of people remember the lock her up chants. They remember Clinton getting told by Trump at that debate that he was going to put her in jail in his administration, but he also made some pretty specific claims during his -- during that campaign about how he himself and his administration would handle classified information. Let's just take a listen to one of those comments from a rally in 2016.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On political corruption, we are going to restore honor to our government. In my administration, I'm going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KACZYNSKI: Now, it wasn't just Clinton that Trump went after with those comments. You might remember in 2017 after those calls leaked between Trump and foreign leaders, and those stories about Michael Flynn talking to the Russian ambassador, those really got Trump fired up at the time and when he was talking about that classified information, he did an interview with "TIME" magazine where he said, you go to prison when you release stuff like that, talking about the classified material there.

There were other instances where Trump baselessly called for former FBI director James Comey to be prosecuted. He said that Comey had leaked classified information saying specifically, you know, in a couple of tweets he should be prosecuted for that. There was an investigation by the FBI, which found absolutely no evidence that Comey had leaked classified information.

Outside of Comey, too, he also very, very aggressively went after his former National Security adviser John Bolton. Bolton released that book, a memoir of his time in the Trump administration. He didn't leave over the best terms. He was a little bit critical of the former president. And Trump basically aggressively not just on Twitter, in interviews and comments, basically said or called for the prosecution of Bolton.

Let's take a listen to one of those interviews from 2020.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: John Bolton is incompetent, OK? But here's what he did. He released classified information, highly classified information and confidential information, all different categories. John Bolton should never have been allowed to do that. You know, the young sailor that gave a picture, sent a picture home to his mother and other people? They go to jail for a long period of time. You can't do that. And that was not nearly as vital, as important as John Bolton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KACZYNSKI: Now, with Bolton, there was an investigation into his book. That investigation was ended in 2021 and he told Wolf Blitzer from our network at the time that he had gone through a pretty complicated review process for his book and said there had been no classified information in that.

[19:10:12]

DEAN: Andrew Kaczynski, thanks so much. Right from his mouth, quote, "You can't do that." That's what he said about it himself. All right, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

There is a lot more ahead on NEWSROOM tonight including the United Nations' nuclear watchdog saying it will keep a long-term presence at Europe's biggest power plant but is that enough to protect the plant with so much fighting around it? We'll ask a nuclear expert.

Plus Republicans are hoping for a big win in the House come November but new data is suggesting that huge win might not happen. We'll run the numbers.

And we go inside the tent cities that thousands of migrants wait in, hoping for a shot at the American dream.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DEAN: New tonight the number five reactor at the massive Russian-held nuclear power plant in Ukraine was shut down today and emergency systems activated because of Russian shelling nearby.

[09:15:10]

As of right now, that means just one of the plant's six reactors is functioning. This just a day after a team of inspectors from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog arrived at the plant and a full report of their findings is expected soon but many aren't waiting for that.

CNN's Sam Kiley is there today and spoke to people who are getting out -- Sam.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, the International Atomic Energy Agency still has six people on the ground in Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station. Now that number is scheduled to go down to two but they could be permanently there introducing the difference between night and day in the words of Rafael Grossi who led the first mission by the U.N. inspectors to Zaporizhzhia power plant. And this is how things unfolded.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KILEY (voice-over): Newly arrived refugees from Russian-held territory, their IDs are carefully checked but it's contamination from the Russian side that's most feared, radioactive contamination.

They have come from around Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been on the front line of Russia's war in Ukraine. These retirees say they fled in a car with mortars flying over their heads, just as U.N. inspectors arrived after weeks of negotiation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Mortars flying right above us, above the car. Didn't know where to go. And right behind us, there was bang, bang. They let us through because IAEA was on its way and they let us through so there were no queues.

KILEY: Russia's Defense minister insisted that there are no heavy weapons near the plant.

SERGEI SHOIGU, RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): I responsibly say that we don't have heavy weapons on the territory of the nuclear power plant and in the surrounding areas. I hope that IAEA commission will be able to see that.

KILEY: On day one, the U.N. inspectors encountered Russian troops and Russian trucks inside nuclear facilities. Ukrainian officials say that they are a fire hazard and may even carry explosives. Armored personnel carriers armed with cannon marked with a Russian invader Z also visible. During the visit, Russian officials are keen to reinforce their claims of Ukrainian attacks on the plant, pointing out spent rockets.

A local woman shows the chief nuclear inspector a dossier on alleged Ukrainian attacks. Refugees who arrived in Zaporizhzhia from the town next to the plant tell of Russian helicopter gunships and worse.

(On-camera): These are the latest refugees to have arrived from Enerhodar. Now that's the dormitory town for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station. We've spoken to a large number of them. None of them want to risk being identified because many of them still have families in the town. But they all tell us, to a man and a woman, that they have seen the evidence of Russians shelling their own positions.

They say that they hear the flash to bang, the outgoing mortar, then the incoming bomb landing within one or two seconds of each other.

RAFAEL GROSSI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, IAEA: And I was able to see, myself and my team, impact holes, markings on buildings of shelling.

KILEY (voice-over): His pledge to keep inspections going is falling short of Ukraine's demands that Russian troops leave the power plant.

PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE (through translator): Unfortunately, we haven't heard the main thing from the IAEA ,which is the call for Russia to demilitarize the station. What can we do without it?

KILEY: Ukraine has launched a counteroffensive against Russia this week. So in the long term, Ukraine may not be able to keep its promise not to fire on targets close to Europe's biggest nuclear plant.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KILEY: Now, Jessica, whether or not it will be possible for those two full-time observers to remain there given that the Russians recently increased their military presence at the power station and there is this ongoing counteroffensive coming from the Ukrainian side, with recent admissions that the Ukrainians have indeed struck with precision weapons targets in the dormitory town nearby remains to be seen -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Sam Kiley, for us. Thanks so much for that reporting.

And joining me is Joseph Cirincione. He's the former president of the Ploughshares Fund, which is a foundation focusing on reducing the threat of nuclear weapons. He's also the author of "Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It's Too Late."

It's great to see you, Joseph. Thanks for being here with us.

JOSEPH CIRINCIONE, NUCLEAR POLICY EXPERT: My pleasure.

DEAN: We just heard from Sam. Another one of that plant's reactors was shut down amid the shelling today. That means that five or six have shut down.

CIRINCIONE: Right.

DEAN: How concerning of a development is that?

CIRINCIONE: This is terrifying. The reason the reaction was shut down is because Russian shelling has knocked out the last power line going into the plant.

[19:20:01]

There were four of them. Steadily the Russian shelling has knocked one, two, three, now the fourth one out. So this is now cut off from the Ukrainian power grid. The electricity to the plant is now being supplied by a backup line going to a local thermal reactor, but in any normal situation, this would require all the reactors to shut down.

For example, this happened in the United States. The United States requires that a reactor be shut down 24 hours after you lose external power. So this is getting worse and worse, even though we have the IAEA inspectors there.

DEAN: Right. And one of the officials who was on the ground said that after a few hours of arriving they had a lot of information. They saw some key things.

CIRINCIONE: Yes.

DEAN: What can the inspection tell us do you think and what should we expect? Are they really going to be able to see what they need to see?

CIRINCIONE: It looks that way. It's great that they're there. For the first time we now have independent objective assessment of what is going on. For example, the IAEA reported the shutoff of the power supply earlier today and they'll be able to give us an assessment of what needs to be done to restore this plant to safe operations and maybe that will have some impact on Putin.

However, as Sam was pointing out, it's not enough to know what's going on wrong at the plant. You're going to have to get the Russian troops out of that plant and have a ceasefire in the area before this power plant is truly secure and we're out of danger.

DEAN: Right. And that's what I wanted to ask you about because how much power does a watchdog group like that actually have to do what you just said? Can they effectively negotiate a ceasefire or a demilitarization of this area?

CIRINCIONE: No.

DEAN: Right. That's very direct, though. That's good. Yes.

CIRINCIONE: Yes. They are regulatory agency. I mean, they have as much power as the countries on their governing board give them. Russia is one of those countries. So you can already just by saying now you understand how restricted they are, they can report, they can make recommendations but they can't enforce those. They can't make Russia do anything.

So that's why Rafael Grossi is in this very delicate position of not blaming Russia for the shelling, not blaming Ukraine, trying to convince people to pull back and at least not have this terrible situation turn into a nuclear catastrophe.

DEAN: And just for people watching at home, Rafael Grossi, he's heading up this watchdog group, right?

CIRINCIONE: Yes. Yes, very courageous. He made the trip himself. He said he wouldn't send his team any place that he wasn't willing to go himself. This is an extremely dangerous mission. We've never had a situation like this. This is by far the most dangerous mission the IAEA has ever conducted.

DEAN: What makes it -- I mean, I think I know but what makes it so dangerous?

CIRINCIONE: Yes. Because we're hanging by a thread here. I mean, anything can go wrong. Operating error. You know, is this tricky business in the best of times? And now you have operators operating at gunpoint. The Russians are occupying the plant making the Ukrainians operate.

The cutoff of electric supply. If that stays cut off, then you're just hanging by this electric thread of the (INAUDIBLE) to the local supply, if that were to fail, then the coolant stops, the rods heat up and you go into the China syndrome. You have a meltdown where the molten core of the reactor just drops down through the reactor into the earth, and you have a nuclear catastrophe.

Some of the shelling could hit some of the containment vessels releasing radioactivity or the spent fuel. Should I go on?

DEAN: No, I mean -- no, it's incredibly serious.

CIRINCIONE: You see?

DEAN: Right.

CIRINCIONE: We have never been in a situation like this. That's why it's so good that the IAEA is there but it's only a first step. It's got to be followed up by the Russians leaving the area. Unfortunately, I think Putin's game here in part is to make a show of this. You saw it. Sam was reporting on it.

Make a propaganda show and blame it all on the Ukrainians and what I suspect he's setting the stage for is to shift the power plant over to the Russian power grid in the name of safety, the big lie, and so now all that electricity will have to go to Russia instead of Ukraine. That's critical before the Ukrainian winter. This plant used to supply 20 percent of Ukraine's electricity.

DEAN: So critical. All right. Thank you so much.

CIRINCIONE: Thank you.

DEAN: We appreciate it. Great to see you, as always.

And also don't miss the unbelievable true story of the man who took on Vladimir Putin and lived to expose the truth. The Sundance Award- winning CNN Film "NAVALNY" airs tomorrow night at 8:00 right here on CNN. President Biden's warning about MAGA extremism has ruffled a lot of

feathers but he's not the first American president to use the term fascist when referring to political opponents.

We're going to have a closer look next with CNN political analyst Laura Barron-Lopez and CNN political commentator David Swerdlick.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:29:05]

DEAN: Hours after a fiery speech that called out MAGA Republican, President Biden clarified what he means by that term.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't consider any Trump supporter to be a threat to the country. I do think anyone who calls for the use of violence, fails to condemn violence when it's used, refuses to acknowledge when an election has been won, insists upon changing the way in which the rules you count votes. That is a threat to democracy.

When people voted for Donald Trump, and support him now, they weren't voting for attacking the Capitol. They weren't voting for overruling an election. They were voting for a philosophy he put forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Still conservatives and right-wing media have seized on Biden's use of the word fascism as he described some of the president's most loyal supporters.

[19:30:10]

But listen to this clip from 2020 of then President Trump on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going left- wing all the way, fascists, they are fascists -- some of them, not all of them, but some of them, but they're getting closer and closer, we have to win this election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Joining me with more now CNN political analyst, Laura Barron- Lopez; and CNN political commentator, David Swerdlick. It's great to see both of you on a Saturday night. Thanks so much for being with us.

Laura, let's start with you. Was there this kind of reaction from Democrats about President Trump, then President Trump's repeated use of "fascist" and we just heard that clip? Because now that's just like, back and forth, back and forth? You'd have to apologize, and you have to apologize. LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. No, there wasn't and

there certainly wasn't this much airtime devoted to the then President using that as he was also flanked by members of the military and had the backdrop of Air Force One, which, during the campaign season was definitely a norm shattering that he used to fly in with Air Force One and have it displayed as a prop behind him.

I think what is really important here, though, as we talk about President Biden's decision to use the term "semi-fascist," and then in his primetime speech, use the term "authoritarian" to say that the former President, as well as some of his allies are promoting authoritarian leaders is that historians and scholars, people who have studied and I've spoken to have studied authoritarian and fascist movements say that that that exists within factions of the GOP in this country today.

And they point to the encouragement of political violence. They point to the fact that Trump and some 60 percent of the GOP nominees that won their primaries over the summer are election deniers. They point to the fact that Trump himself is implying that he is condoning violence by saying he would pardon January 6th insurrectionists, as well as the fact that even to this day, the former President just this week, said that the election results should be overturned, that he should be declared the legitimate winner.

So, there was a lot of historical lineage there and scholars have been waiting for the current President Biden to actually use those terms to diagnose it as that.

DEAN: And, David, let's talk about the upcoming midterms, because this was kind of the scene setter earlier this week when we heard the speech from President Biden, and of course, the GOP having that rebuttal as well.

Let's walk through some new polling from "The Wall Street Journal," it is indicating that the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the Dobbs case, may indeed be firing up Democrats and Independents as the Democratic Party had hoped.

The poll finding 83 percent of Democrats, 53 percent of Independents say the ruling is motivating them to get out and vote in the midterms, as opposed to you see there, 31 percent of Republicans.

And then overall, 60 percent of voters think abortion should be legal, most are all of the time, that is up from 55 percent in March, while just six percent want a complete ban without exceptions. That's down from 11 percent.

So, there is a lot of numbers there. But David, what do you take away from that? What are those numbers telling you?

DAVID SWERDLICK, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Jessica, what they tell me is that when Roe v. Wade was overturned, the slippery slope argument changed hands from Republicans to Democrats; when Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, Republicans could say, "Well, wait, what do Democrats want? Do they want the right to abortion after 20 weeks? Twenty five weeks? Thirty weeks?" It's a slippery slope. What about late-term abortions?

Now that Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Dobbs decision, Democrats are the ones that have the slippery slope argument and they can go out on the campaign trail and say, "Wait a second. Why are all these States now having laws on the books that say there's either only an exception for abortion for rape or incest for abortions or even no exception for rape or incest in a number of States," and then they can go out and say there's been a Republican overreach and if you want that overreach to be rolled back, you've got to go out there and vote for Democratic candidates.

What do doctors do about ectopic pregnancies? What do you do about miscarriage care? And that's the kind of thing that they're taking into the General Election season that Republicans now are having to sort of calibrate where they fit given those poll numbers you showed with the mood of the country and what they've campaigned on in the past when they had Roe v. Wade as sort of a guardrail for some of their more, I guess, extreme views on abortion.

DEAN: And Laura with President Biden's speech in Philadelphia, that rebuttal we saw from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, also in the State of Pennsylvania, which is proving to be once again kind of the center of the political universe right now.

We saw those opening arguments really, and they were setting the table for what's going to come in the midterms What did you make of their messages to voters and what you were hearing from them?

[19:35:09]

BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, I think that, look, there are a number of issues that are clearly the midterms are going to come down to, which is President Biden is trying to say that democracy is a big issue that Democrats are going to be pushing from here on out. It's something that he ran on initially in 2020, as well as abortion rights.

And so, I think that Republicans are trying to again find more of their footing, even though they are favored to get the House, but in Senate races in Pennsylvania, it isn't looking good for them and in other Senate races across the country, it's starting to look as though they may not be able to win back the Senate because their candidates are underperforming and because they initially wanted to run on the economy and wanted to run on inflation.

And we've seen in recent weeks, and in recent months, as gas prices have gone down, certain jobs reports have come out and it looks favorable, that they're having trouble communicating that to voters particularly in these statewide races.

DEAN: And David quickly before we go, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania. We're talking about it a lot these days. The former President Donald Trump is there tonight. President Biden was there earlier this week. He is going back. There is that key open Senate race or open seat Senate race there. Why is this kind of the epicenter of political activity right now? And what does it say to you that former President Trump is there trying to bolster Dr. Mehmet Oz and Doug Mastriano, the gubernatorial candidate, kind of as we kick off the midterm season?

SWERDLICK: Three reasons: One, because in 2024, Republicans would love to have more control over the State government so that they aren't stymied if they want to challenge election results the way they were stymied in 2020. Number two is, is that you have a situation where the Democratic Senate candidate, Lieutenant Governor Fetterman is not the kind of Democrat that can be painted, as, you know, a northeastern elite or you know, a flaming socialist.

And so they're having to sort of give Dr. Oz as much of a push as they possibly can. And finally, it's a state with a lot of electoral votes and this is going to be sort of seen as a bellwether for what happens down the road. And then of course, the obvious if you're talking about the Senate race, every Senate seat is going to count in terms of who has the majority going into the next Congress.

DEAN: That's right. And as I mentioned, it will be an open seat so Democrats could pick one up there, Republicans on defense.

Laura Barron-Lopez and David Swerdlick, thank you both. We appreciate it.

SWERDLICK: Thanks.

DEAN: And there is new information about just how much the pandemic may have affected children in school. New test results showing a historic drop in Math and Reading among some age groups. We're going to show you just how much they went down. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:41:59]

DEAN: We are following a new development in the search for a missing school teacher in Memphis, Tennessee. Police there are saying they found a vehicle of interest they've been looking for since Eliza Fletcher's disappearance and they've detained the man inside that car. They did not say whether he is connected to Fletcher's apparent kidnapping.

The 34-year-old mother of two was reportedly forced inside into an SUV while jogging early Friday morning and her uncle just spoke out on behalf of her family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE KEENEY, MISSING WOMAN'S UNCLE: Eliza has touched the hearts of many people and it shows.

We want to thank the Memphis Police Department, Shelby County Sheriff's Department, TBI, FBI, and all of the other law enforcement agencies who are working tirelessly to find Eliza.

The family has met with police and we have shared with them all the information we know. More than anything we want to see Eliza returned home safely. (END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Fletcher's family is now offering a $50,000.00 reward through Crimestoppers for any information that leads to an arrest.

New information about how the pandemic may have impacted some children's education, Math and Reading scores for nine-year-olds in the US had one of their largest declines ever.

CNN's Gabe Cohen taking a look at how far this age group is falling behind.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): New test results from the National Assessment of Education Progress show Math and Reading scores for nine-year-olds in the US falling sharply between 2020 and 2022. The worst drop off for Reading since 1990, and the first ever declined for Math.

MIGUEL CARDONA, US SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: That is very alarming. It's disturbing, but it's not surprising keeping in mind a year-and-a-half ago, over half of our schools were not open for full time learning.

COHEN (voice over): Students who are already struggling in school showed the most dramatic drop off.

MARTIN WEST, HARVARD EDUCATION PROFESSOR: Some colleagues of mine estimate that amounts to about nine months' worth of instruction.

COHEN (voice over): Martin West is a member of the Board that oversees this test.

COHEN (on camera): How long could it take these students to catch up?

WEST: In my view, it is going to take a number of years before students are able to make up this lost ground in full.

NICHOLE, TEXAS TEACHER: I have students that are coming into fourth grade that are performing two and three grade levels below where they should be.

COHEN (voice over): Nichole is a fourth and fifth grade teacher in Texas who asked us not to show her face fearing retaliation.

NICHOLE: I don't know that I can make up two years of growth in one year.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think it's over yet. We will have to do better than what we were doing before the pandemic.

COHEN (voice over): Schools nationwide have been trying to hire more staff, including tutors and psychologists.

WEST: I think the first step is simply to make up some of the lost instructional time that can come through extended school days, it could come through after school programming and tutoring or it could come through summer school programs.

COHEN (voice over): But with teacher burnout and a shrinking pipeline, many schools face a teacher shortage especially in rural areas and those with more low-income families and students of color.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[19:45:05]

DEAN: And that was CNN's Gabe Cohen reporting for us. The Federal government is now pumping more than $100 billion in relief funds into schools and it is requiring them to spend at least 20 percent of that on learning loss.

Just a few weeks ago, Republicans were a shoo-in to take control of the House and the Senate. But since then, it looks like things may have changed.

Harry Enten joins me next to run the numbers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: Earlier this year, conventional wisdom had that the Democrats would probably lose control of the House and Senate in the midterms, but now with the election just 66 days away, things are a little different.

[19:50:07]

DEAN: CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten joins us to run the numbers and Harry, Democrats won a special House election this week in Alaska. In 2020, Donald Trump won there by 10 points. Do you see this as part of a trend? And what else is leaning that way?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, it is part of a trend. Look at the special elections that have happened since Roe v. Wade was overturned and look at -- compare that to the 2020 baseline.

If you look in Alaska, the Democratic candidate did 13 points better on the margin than Joe Biden did, but we've had four other special elections since Roe v. Wade was overturned and in every single one of them, the Democratic candidate did better than Joe Biden did. And on the average, the Democrats did six points better than Joe Biden did.

This looks a lot more like what we saw heading into the 2018 midterm than I think a lot of us were expecting. And it's very clear from these numbers that Roe v. Wade seems to have made a large difference in how people are deciding to at least vote in these special elections.

DEAN: And can you show us how different things were before that Supreme Court decision?

ENTEN: Considerably different. You know, this is one of my favorite slides insofar as it really just drives home what has happened. So you know, before Roe v. Wade was overturned before the Dobbs

decision, the Democrats in the special elections on the march were doing six points worse than Joe Biden. Someone like myself saw that and said, "You know what? this is going to be a bad year for Democrats." And it seemed that way.

You know, you looked at the polling, you looked at the special elections, everything seemed to be pointing in that direction, but if you look in the special elections since the decision, you see that the Democrats are doing six points better on average than Joe Biden.

So, there's been a real turnaround here, where before Roe was overturned, it seemed very clear that things were going in the Republicans' direction, but it seems since Roe was overturned, the entire script has flipped; and now, Democrats are in fact doing better than Joe Biden.

Whether or not that translates to them doing better in the fall, we'll have to wait and see, but it is a pretty good sign given that special elections are usually a pretty good indication in which way the country is at least thinking.

DEAN: Yes, it is really interesting, and it's not just in the special elections, though, right, where Democrats are doing better?

ENTEN: It's not. Look, look at Joe Biden's approval rating. Look, 42 percent is not great, but it is certainly better than 37 percent where Joe Biden was 40 days ago and you just see it over the long term trend, like you go 30 days ago, Joe Biden was up to 39 percent, 20 days ago, up to 40 percent, 10 days ago, up to 41. And now 42 percent.

Now 42 percent again, isn't great, but it actually puts him in the company of other Presidents at this point in their presidency. If you look back 40 days ago, he was the worst of any President at this point in their presidencies.

And more than that, the question I have, Jessica, is if this trend continues, and we don't know if it will, where will Joe Biden end up say, 10 days from now? Twenty days from now? Sixty days from now when we actually head into the midterm elections?

And so if the trendline continues, that's where I think Democrats are really looking forward to if in fact, Joe Biden, let's say can go up to forty five, forty six percent. That's a much better picture for them than say 37 percent where they were 40 days ago.

DEAN: Right. And on to like really serious things now, but this week is also the beginning of September, and I hear you're especially excited about that.

ENTEN: I love September. I love, love, love September. I love the leaves that's right there. Look over 160 television season premieres, school starts for the remaining 25 percent of the country that's not back yet. I think those kids should be in school, get them off the streets, in those classrooms learning. The Starbucks lines will be considerably shorter. The Jewish New Year is later this month. And I, of course, being of

that persuasion, I'm looking forward to that. And of course, as a huge Buffalo Bills football fan, the NFL, it starts in September, my Buffalo Bills start this Thursday night against the Los Angeles Rams and this year, I really do think we can finally go all the way.

DEAN: There is a lot for Harry Enten to like in September. I see it now. I see why you're so excited. It also brings the beginning of fall. But there's some disagreement, apparently on when fall actually starts.

ENTEN: Yes, you would think we could all agree on when fall begins, but just like anything else in this country, there has to be disagreement.

DEAN: Sure.

ENTEN: So, I ask you this question. Is it meteorological fall that actually began on September 1? Is it post-Labor Day this Tuesday on September 6th? Is it in fact the equinox, you know, astronomical fall on September 22nd?

If you ask Americans, 67 percent say Labor Day when asked to choose between equinox and Labor Day, when in fact fall begins, but I of course like to be difficult and I also went to weather camp when I was younger, so I am going to go with meteorological fall on September 1, which means we've already begun and I can already feel the cooler weather and the sun going down a little bit later, which is good, because I don't like getting sunburned and I just --

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ENTEN: You know, I like the dark, it makes me feel a little bit more cozy inside.

DEAN: It does. It is a cozier time and no sunburns, no high risk of sunburn.

Harry Enten, it is always great to see you. Thanks so much.

ENTEN: Nice to see you.

DEAN: And be sure to check out Harry's podcast, "Margins of Error." You can find it on your favorite podcast app or at cnn.com/audio.

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