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Halloween Festival In South Korea Turned Deadly; House Speaker's Husband Remains Hospitalized After Hammer Attack; Attack On Nancy Pelosi's Husband Raises New Security Concerns; Obama Talks Danger Of Political Rhetoric In U.S.; Obama: Walker Is "A Celebrity That Wants To Be A Politician"; Schumer Caught On Hot Mic Admitting GA Senate Race "Going Downhill"; Democrats Blast GOP For "Dangerous" Silence Following Hammer Attack On Pelosi's Husband; Video, Eyewitness Accounts Cast Doubt On Iran's Story Of What Happened To 16-Year-Old Protester Who Died. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired October 29, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:23]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

We begin this hour with more breaking news out of South Korea. A horrific chain of events and a fast rising death toll in Seoul, the capital city. At least 120 people now confirmed dead by emergency officials in Seoul. It happened at a Halloween festival.

We want to show you some of the scenes but we have to warn you this video we're about to show you is very graphic.

You can see complete chaos and terror on the scene there. You can see people performing CPR on some of the injured and maybe the dead who are on the ground where they fell. Right now still not clear exactly what happened, what caused these folks to collapse. But let's get right to CNN's Will Ripley, he is on the scene.

Will, incredible work being there as all of this is unfolding. What can you tell us? What more do we know?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, as we were talking last hour, they were holding a briefing and that's when we learned that the death toll had more than doubled. And there's actually another briefing set to get under way any minute now. We're monitoring that and if we get any new numbers of casualties because we were told they are expected to go up considering that a lot of the people who were brought to area hospitals were in very bad shape when you talk about cardiac arrest, their heart stopped.

So we'll keep you posted on that. But I have been able to speak to some people who were out here. And they give us a much clearer picture of how this could have possibly happened. You can see the scene itself is kind of clearing out now. A lot of people have been going home. Police have been on loud speakers telling people to go home safely as soon as possible and clear the area. But you still have hundreds of police officers and firefighters out

here. And they are continuing to investigate. So we have now confirmed that this Halloween event was in fact outside. OK. So this hotel, the Hamilton Hotel, behind the hotel and along the side of the hotel, these very narrow streets. And I was given a couple of photos by a 22- year-old man Song Sehyun, OK, and he -- I talked to him.

He was actually at the Halloween event a couple of hours before this crush happened. And so the pictures that he took were maybe one or two hours before the actual deadly incident. And hopefully we're able to show them for you on the screen. The street where this actually happened. All the police back here they're still blocking it off so we can't actually take you there. But you can see how narrow the street was and how thousands of people were packed in so tightly that they could not move.

Let me play for you a portion of my conversation with him because he said that when he got stuck in this narrow street with all of those people jam-packed so tightly he said frankly it was terrifying. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SONG SEHYUN, WITNESS: I saw the people, like, going to the left side. And I actually saw the person actually get into the opposite side. So actually the person in the middle they got jammed and they have, like, you know, no way to communicate. And they're like, you know, they cannot breathe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: He couldn't breathe. He said he was so scared and rattled that when he got out of that narrow street he decided that was it for him, he was going to go home. He says that he was there with several friends, including Americans who he says were service members. There are more than 30,000 U.S. service members stationed here in South Korea. Halloween is a popular time to request leave, get off the base and come here to Itaewon, which is an iconic nightclub area.

People come, they drink, they celebrate. Halloween is one of the biggest nights here. He says that his American friends have been missing. Now, he hasn't been able to get a hold of them. Now communications out here have been really difficult because there were so many people on their phones. And so I asked him to please keep me updated to let me know if he hears from his friends.

But this is the situation that so many people that I have been talking with out here, Jim, are in. They're frantically trying to reach their friends on the phone, friends who were, you know, packed in these sides streets just around the corner here, and they have not been able to get a hold of them. And earlier, about an hour ago, we saw a lot of the stretchers, you know, with bodies as they were rolling out.

And you could see people's Halloween costumes, even though they were covered with sheets, they were people out here celebrating and in a very, very tight, narrow street with just too many people. The reports that we're getting is that there were actually -- it was a pile of people. So there were people who were buried essentially underneath. And the police were trying to kind of -- somehow when they arrived to the scene, you know, to get people to basically crawl over others to get them safely out.

[15:05:07]

So you had people who fell, who were likely crushed. You had people who died of cardiac arrest. There were more than 80 calls to emergency responders from people who couldn't breathe. And the number of dead, at least now 120 people killed. Well over 100 in area hospitals and some of them at this hour, Jim, in very bad shape.

ACOSTA: Yes. Will, and what it sounds like is you had a very large number of people, you were saying maybe even thousands of people in that very tight area and I suppose something happened that caused many of these folks to start stampeding. And it was that crush of people that resulted in all of these injuries. Is that what it's looking like at this point or we don't have enough information to make that assessment just yet?

RIPLEY: If we can bring up those photos again that the young man who I interviewed took, you can just see it wasn't even necessarily that something happened other than so many people were packed into this area. And this was two hours before the incident. It just got more and more crowded. You know, this is the first Halloween post COVID restrictions here in South Korea, Jim. People were so excited to get out here and celebrate.

And they came in droves. Tens of thousands easily here to Itaewon, and thousands of them packed in that street right around the corner there. A lot of them, a lot of them, at least 120 of them never made it out alive.

ACOSTA: Wow. All right, Will Ripley, we know you're working some very early morning hours there trying to piece together what happened. We don't have all the details. But thank you so much for getting us what we do know at this point.

Will Ripley, thanks very much.

Our other top story this hour, doctors are expecting the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make a full recovery after an intruder attacked him with a hammer inside Pelosi's San Francisco home. Sources tell us the suspect David DePape shouted where is Nancy before trying to tie up Paul Pelosi.

CNN's Josh Campbell joins me now.

Josh, this is just a terrifying attack that occurred. And police are saying this was not random.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It wasn't random. The police chief here in San Francisco says that this was intentional. And just to set the stage on what actually happened here in the early morning hours yesterday, authorities today say this is 42-year-old man named David DePape came here to the Pelosi residence. Our sourcing at CNN tell us that the suspect went into the backside of the house and confronted Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

But as you mentioned, our colleague Jamie Gangel is reporting that the suspect was shouting where's Nancy, where's Nancy. She wasn't here at the time. But Mr. Police was violently assaulted. We're learning about how police were initially called to the scene. Mr. Pelosi was able to dial 911 during his confirmation and left the phone open. He was speaking in code. And it was an adept police dispatcher who realized that something was wrong. She sent police to this location. They arrived and were able to tackle that suspect but not before he severely wounded Mr. Pelosi. They were both taken to the hospital. Mr. Pelosi remains in the hospital at this hour.

We've been looking into this individual's social media history. It is littered with conspiracy theories, far-right conspiracies about election lies, about COVID vaccines, about the January 6th insurrection. And of course this comes as we've seen all of these threats to lawmakers seemingly continue to come in this wave. The police chief here actually spoke yesterday very forcefully about that very topic. Threats against elected officials. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF BILL SCOTT, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPARTMENT: Our elected officials are here to do the business of their cities, their cuts, their states and this nation. Their families don't sign up for this, to be harmed. And it is wrong. And everybody should be disgusted about what happened this morning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: And finally, Jim, that suspect now facing multiple charges. That includes attempted homicide, that includes threatening the family member of a public official, assault, as well as elder abuse -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Josh Campbell, thank you.

And joining us now is CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd.

Phil, we're still learning more about the suspect. His relatives have said that he was estranged from his family. An acquaintance said he seemed out of touch with reality. But it does appear he was posting these conspiracy theories online about the election and January 6th and everything else. But, you know, we were having this conversation with Michael Fanone in the last hour and talking about whether there is ample security, enough security, protecting members of Congress, leadership in Congress, their family members, people like Nancy Pelosi and her husband.

But I wonder, Phil, in the climate, this highly charged, highly volatile climate that we're in, I suppose you could also make the case that police, no matter how many resources you put at it, can't be everywhere in the environment that we're in right now.

[15:10:07] PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Boy, I'd deal with the latter, Jim. This is not about security. I'm sure there'll be a debate in the coming days. But start to multiply security by looking at what's happening in places like city councils and school boards that are discussing what's going on with children and some angry parents show up. You know, obviously there's hundreds of members of Congress, members of the Supreme Court. There's members of state legislatures. You cannot secure that many people especially when you start to throw in the question of families.

I think cutting to the chase, to your latter point, about environment, I would be looking at the question of members of Congress and others and how they validate people who want to believe that the government is their enemy, who want to believe that the opposing political party is an enemy, who want to believe that the government is authorizing fake elections. Even if someone has a mental disability, you can't validate that viewpoint. Otherwise, you get incidents like this, Jim.

ACOSTA: And of course there have been attacks on Republican politicians over the years. It's not just happening to Democrats. But President Biden has tied this attack on Paul Pelosi to growing right- wing extremism. What do you think of that assessment?

MUDD: To my mind, and I'm looking partly at what I get in terms of hate mail myself, that's a valid assessment. If you're going back, for example, to the attack on Steve Scalise years ago, almost lost his life, that was obviously an attack on Republican. With the validation of people who are believing that the government did the wrong thing on vaccines, that the government stole an election a few years ago, in the numbers game, if you're talking about 330 million, 340 million Americans and you put out information, invalid information that tells even one-tenth of 1 percent of those people that they're right to distrust the government and that they should go attack somebody, you can't control that, Jim.

You need politicians who say that information is not correct, those conspiracy theories are not correct, and violence is wrong.

ACOSTA: And federal officials warned yesterday that domestic violent extremists pose a heightened threat to the midterm elections. You know, we're less than two weeks until the midterms. Law enforcement is on alert. What do you see moving forward heading into these midterms, Phil? Should we be bracing ourselves for political violence in this country?

MUDD: You have to think about it if you're at the federal or local level. Think for example the question of how you secure polling stations that people think that election are being stolen from those polling stations. I tell you what I worry about. And that is if you look at ballots, the number of people who are on election platforms where there are election deniers, if they win elections going into 2024, that's potentially a lot of people who have the platform from Congress, from the House and from Senate who in 2024, depending on what happens in that national election, that presidential election, who we're going to say that election was stolen from me. And this cycle is going to get worse and worse. I would not like to be among the feds today, Jim.

ACOSTA: And what about protecting family members of elected officials? Does that need to change?

MUDD: I think, when you're looking at the numbers game, as I said, you're talking about 400 plus members of Congress. Add senators. Add people like judges who come under attack for decisions on what happens in elections. I think if you look at family members and you look at a lot of these people who have multiple homes and you start multiplying, you cannot protect that number of people.

Adam Kinzinger talked about one of his children being threatened. Are you going put security on every child of every person who's on the January 6th Commission, for example? Every person who is in a contested electoral district? I just don't think you can do it. The conversation has to be Kevin McCarthy and Nancy Pelosi bring members together and say there is a code of conduct. Stop with the conspiracy stuff online because people will believe it and they'll act. You cannot secure everybody, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Phil Mudd, it's going to take leadership. I mean, that's the bottom line. It's going to take leadership.

MUDD: Yes. That's right.

ACOSTA: And that is the only way this environment is going to change.

Phil Mudd, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

MUDD: Thank you.

ACOSTA: And much more on the brutal attack on Speaker Pelosi's house and the increase in threats against lawmakers. That is coming up next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:18:54]

ACOSTA: And we are back with the developing news. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul Pelosi still in the hospital after being attacked by an intruder with a hammer.

Let's go to our Washington correspondent Sunlen Serfaty. She joins us now.

Sunlen, we know the speaker raced to California to be at her husband's side. What kind of reactions are you hearing from other lawmakers this weekend? I know it's coming in from both parties.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is, Jim. We are hearing from Democrats and Republicans certainly expressing outrage after this violent attack but certainly also passing on their thoughts and prayers to the Pelosi family here. And today, while on the campaign trail, a lot of elected officials are, you know, speaking about writ large what this means essentially for American politics, what this means for this moment in America. And we heard from former President Barack Obama campaigning in Detroit in just the last hour.

Basically warned that this sort of dangerous incident could become more of a reality if he says elected officials don't speak up more about this. We also heard from House majority leader Steny Hoyer while he was campaigning earlier this afternoon in Maryland.

[15:20:05]

And he said point blank this is a dangerous time in America. And he said it's time to make sure that America survives this hate and division. And he really extrapolated that comment with saying this is why people need to get out and vote next week in the midterm elections. Of course that is top on people's mind, this dangerous rhetoric, this dangerous reality now taking place in the shadow of the midterm elections.

ACOSTA: And Sunlen, this comes amid a growing threat to lawmakers. Growing number of threats to lawmakers. What are we learning about that?

SERFATY: Yes. You know, that lawmakers certainly have been faced with somewhat of this reality before. A long line of incidents, not the least of which January 6th recently. And it's something that has been a growing concern. So this is essentially the culmination of a lot of fears of lawmakers coming true.

ACOSTA: All right. Sunlen Serfaty, thank you very much.

Let's bring in former Republican Congressman Denver Riggleman. He was a senior technical adviser to the January 6th Committee. He's also the author of the "Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigation into January 6th." A very important book from Denver Riggleman.

And Denver, what is your reaction to all of this? You were a member of the House on the Republican side. If you've spoken to any of your former colleagues to get their reaction to what happened to the husband of the speaker of the House?

DENVER RIGGLEMAN (R), FORMER CONGRESSMAN FROM VIRGINIA: Yes. First of all, thanks for having me, Jim. I did. And it's horror. It's tragic. And you know, this happened to my family a little over two years ago. You know, when somebody thought it would be appropriate to mess up my vehicle in a very dangerous way. And my daughter ended up driving it and we had an investigation into that.

So when I saw what happened to Paul, I can't imagine what Nancy must have been feeling when she was on that airplane because there's not just fear, you know, for family members but there's this fury, this anger of how dare somebody, you know, do this when you're a public official and you're trying to serve your constituents. So for me it hit me pretty hard to see that happen. But, you know, Jim, you and me have talked before. This was not a surprise. Not at all.

ACOSTA: Right. And that leads me to my next question. We're not even two years out from January 6th and we see this kind of an attack. The intruder saying things like where is Nancy, where is Nancy, almost echoing what was being said in the halls of Congress on January 6th. And as you know, Congressman Adam Kinzinger told CNN that when he asked for more security for his family, he was told essentially get in line.

You looked at a lot of the data that was coming in as part of that January 6th investigation. What does the threat matrix look like for members of Congress? You know, here we are almost two years out from what happened on January 6th.

RIGGLEMAN: Yes. I mean, I'm always worried through November 8th. I mean, we have about 10 days until election. And I would say, you know, for me at this point I would have my head on a swivel. You know, I looked at the blog post from the individual who attacked Paul Pelosi. You talk about data, Jim. And me and you again have had these discussions about data. But what he put on his blog post weren't much different than the Meadows text messages. Hell, they weren't much different than Ginni Thomas's text messages, and that's what we talked about online radicalization or the radicalization pipeline.

That's something I think we need to look at much more deeply. We need to look at the data and what's happening. I mean, just with Twitter, we have seen a rise in sort of hate, you know, really hateful speech, violent language. I think you're seeing that carry over. And I just think that this is -- sadly, this isn't a culmination of anything, Jim. This is a tragic data point in the violence that we've seen even before January 6th.

Heck, we go back to the national bomber who thought there were reptilian humanoids. You know, controlling the government. So I think we have a real problem, you know, right now, and I think a lot of that is in the data. And I think if we don't understand the radicalization pipeline, we're in for more of it.

ACOSTA: Right. There are all these insane conspiracy theories out there. Apparently the assailant in the Paul Pelosi case was blogging about January 6th, you know, election conspiracies and that sort of thing. I was talking with Michael Fanone and Phil Mudd about this issue over the last couple of hours. We were talking with Fanone about whether or not security needs to be stepped up for members of Congress and their families.

I talked to Phil Mudd about this, just overall climate, that the climate is so volatile, it is so hyperbolic that you could put members of Congress under detail everywhere they go and their families, and it still doesn't deal with the climate that we're in. What do you think about that?

RIGGLEMAN: Phil is right. I was listening to him. You know, there's 435 members of Congress, there's 100 members of Senate. What about local officials? I think the threat might be just as high with people that are on school boards right now. I think they're just as high with local officials who are being called groomers and the type of, you know, sort of the metastasization of crazy that has happened, you know, even before January 6th.

And I think we need to look at elected officials as being culpable who are pushing this kind of nonsense. Because, again, Jim, I guess I'm not -- maybe I'm not asserting this strongly enough, maybe not emphasizing this enough.

[15:25:06]

The language used by DePape when he attacked Paul Pelosi, or the blogs that he had, not only mimicked January 6th but sound like a lot of our elected officials today. And that is what I have been trying to warn about for probably over two years now. Especially with QAnon. And, you know, when you look at terror organizations, when you look at radicalization, when you look at hate, when you look at anti-Semitism and racism, when you look at, you know, people going after, you know, transgender individuals.

All of this has to do with the specific sort of targeted speech that is even coming from some elected officials. And we have to get that under control. Because, again, you know, I just -- this is not an isolated incident.

ACOSTA: And I know you're a former Republican congressman. You were a proud member of the Republican Party. I believe now you say that you're not really a member of any party. Where does the responsibility lie in all of this? I mean, we could dance around the issue and tip- toe through the tulips, but where does the responsibility lie ultimately in trying to bring down the level of rhetoric, dangerous rhetoric, that we have in our society right now?

Denver? Denver, are you still with me? Let me try one more time. The picture might have froze there.

RIGGLEMAN: The responsibility are those that are -- you know, let's take away the responsibility of the individual who could miss a crime. We're not saying that they are responsible. But -- you got me, Jim?

ACOSTA: I got you. Yes. Please continue your point. I think we just had a little freeze there in the system. Go right ahead.

RIGGLEMAN: Jim, can you hear me?

ACOSTA: Yes. Denver, go right ahead. All right. We'll get Denver's thoughts on that in the future. We'll have him back. I looks like the Zoom signal there with Denver failed on us. We'll get Denver back on and we'll pick that conversation up at another time.

Denver Riggleman, thanks so much for that time. We appreciate it.

Coming up, with the midterms just 10 days away, the big names from both parties are out on the trail and force. Will it be enough? We'll discuss next.

You've live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:31:32] ACOSTA: We're just 10 days from the midterms and the big names from both parties on the campaign trail in force, including former President Barack Obama.

Obama remembers his own midterm "shellacking" when the Democrats lost 63 in the House in the middle of his first term.

Let's start there with Molly Jong-Fast, host of "Fast Politics" podcast, and CNN political commentator, S.E. Cupp.

Great to see both of you. Appreciate it so much.

Molly, we had a clip of Barack Obama on at the top of our 2:00 hour. He was talking about this dangerous political rhetoric we have in this country right now.

And how it is really something that is a major factor in all of our lives now and is contributing to situations like we saw out in San Francisco, the attack on Paul Pelosi.

How critical a comment do you think that was for the former president to make in this moment?

MOLLY JONG-FAST, PODCAST HOST, "FAST POLITICS WITH MOLLY JONG-FAST" & CONTRIBUTING WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": I think the more that any of us can talk about how important it is to take down the temperature and how important it is for people not to be violent.

You this, this is a hot time in American politics. And everyone is really nervous. And what we need is normal political discourse. No drama. No incitement.

I think what's good is we are seeing a lot of people from both parties trying to take down the tone and to say, this is not OK. And this is not what should be happening. And I think the more that we can do that the better.

And Obama is a really gifted orator. I think sometimes we forget how gifted he is.

And when he gets up there, he's able to really say something the way that people connect with. That is really, really important. I'm grateful that he did that.

ACOSTA: S.E., Obama has been campaigning for Democratic candidates, Raphael Warnock, Stacey Abrams in Georgia. He was in Detroit in just the last couple of hours.

Here he is ripping into Senate candidate, Herschel Walker, for his lack of experience, calling him a celebrity that wants to be a politician.

Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let's say you're at the airport and you see Mr. Walker. You say, hey, there's Herschel Walker, Heisman winner. Let's have him fly the plane.

(LAUGHTER)

(SHOUTING)

OBAMA: You probably wouldn't say that.

(SHOUTING)

OBAMA: You would want to know, does he know how to fly an airplane?

It seems to me he is a celebrity who wants to be a politician.

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: And we've seen how that goes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I think he's making a reference to the former president there.

But S.E., what is also remarkable about all this is they're bringing in Barack Obama into Georgia to try to keep Herschel Walker out of the Senate.

How surprised are you that Herschel Walker could still win this race and that the Democrats are worried enough to bring in somebody like Barack Obama at this point, given everything that we have learned about Herschel Walker the last several weeks?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think Democrats should be very worried that Herschel Walker could win this. And unfortunately, Barack Obama, to Molly's point, is a very gifted speaker.

But I don't think -- you know, if you're at a Raphael Warnock rally listening to Barack Obama, you're probably not the audience that is going to be turned around, you know, to not vote for Herschel Walker.

[15:35:07]

The people who need to hear these messages about dangers of political extremism and violence and ignorance and incompetence are probably at the Herschel Walker rally.

Or, you know, sitting at home and going online and reading stuff about QAnon. So these things happen in echo chambers.

And I don't really know how effective any of the folks are, whether it's Obama or name your right-leaning surrogate, at convincing people or changing people's minds.

I think it's pretty baked in the cake now. And I think Herschel Walker is poised to probably win that race. It's alarming. But he's got a lot of support.

ACOSTA: Molly, the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, reminded us every mic could be hot. It might be live. Here he is giving President Biden a warning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): The state where we've going downhill is Georgia. It's hard to believe that they will go for Hershel Walker.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Saying there that the state could go for Herschel Walker if things are going downhill.

What do you think, Molly?

JONG-FAST: I hesitate to prognosticate, especially right now. We have had three election cycles where polls have been wildly wrong.

So just because we, in the pundit class, feel it's now more favorable for Republicans because of, you know, these polls that we have seen are not accurate. I mean, I don't know.

I think that what I do know is that people should try. They should try to take down the temperature of Republicans and Democrats. People should vote for who they want. They should be allowed to vote.

I don't think anything else matters at this point. We are in the last week a little bit.

And the truth is, you know, if people come out and they vote for who they want, then democracy will continue. And that's all we can hang our hats on. And that's what we hope for.

ACOSTA: And, S.E., let's switch gears here. New Jersey Congressman Donald Payne Jr called out Republicans in the wake of the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband at their home in San Francisco Friday.

Here's what he tweeted:

"They were shouting, 'Where's Nancy,' when they stormed the capitol. GOP leader, you and every House GOP member must publicly condemn this violent attack. A horrific crime has taken place. Your silence sends the message these attacks are acceptable."

ACOSTA: S.E., do you think that Republican leaders have come out forcefully enough in the House to denounce what occurred?

CUPP: Of course not.

ACOSTA: And why is that?

CUPP: When it comes to political rhetoric and political extremism, we know how corrupting politics has been in our culture and communities. But when you look at conspiracy theories specifically, they're a drug,

and we are in the midst of an epidemic. They are a mind-altering substance.

When you look at the trajectory of someone like Lara Logan and the absolute bile coming out of her mouth, you can almost chart the rabbit hole she fell into.

And she's not alone. I mean, this is metastasized in our electorate.

When you and I talk about QAnon and pedophile rings and JFK Jr coming back from the dead, they sound crazy and absurd to us. But to others they are real.

And when they believe them so deeply, some go ahead and act out on them violently in some cases. And that's -- that's some of the damage.

The other damage is in families. I mean, some people have been completely cut off from families and friends because of their irrational thinking.

And I wish that voting were the simple solution to this. Our voting does not make this go away. This is an absolute cancer.

And I'm worried that we're going to get a lot more of it because political leaders are not taking this on.

Republicans have decided to court QAnon because they said they liked Donald Trump. Republicans have decided to give comfort to these kinds of conspiracy theories that can manifest as anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry.

No, I don't think they have come out strong enough. And that project has been going on for quite some time.

ACOSTA: Yes. This country has gone from hating each other to hurting each other. Hopefully, this Paul Pelosi situation will give everybody pause and folks can spend a little time thinking about the direction we're headed. It's not a good place.

[15:40:06]

Molly Jong-Fast, S.E. Cupp, thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it. Very thoughtful comments. Appreciate it.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Today, a stark warning from an Iranian official as protests against the government continue. The head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is telling protesters, quote, "Today is the last day of the riots. Do not come to the streets again."

Anti-regime protests have swept the country following the death of 22- year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody for allegedly not following Iran's strict dress code.

One of those protesters was just 16 years old when she went missing. More than a week later, Nika Shahkarami's family learned she was dead.

[15:45:02]

Iranians authorities originally said she was thrown from a rooftop in an unconnected incident. Then they said she died by suicide.

Now using video and eyewitness accounts, CNN tracked the final minutes of her life to try and find out what really happened.

And here's CNN's Katie Polglase with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATIE POLGLASE, CNN INVESTIGATIVE PRODUCER (voice-over): Nika Shahkarami, the 16-year-old has become one of the most known faces in Iran.

(CHANTING)

POLGLASE: On September 20th, Nika was a high-profile figure at the protests, a known personality on social media. She stood on bins chanting for the crowds. Officials say, within 24 hours, she would be dead.

Nika joined a growing list of young women who have lost their lives in recent weeks as protests have swept Iran and authorities have waged a violent crackdown in response.

The Iranian government has made a series of shifting claims. First saying her death had, quote, ""no connection to the protests," but that she was thrown from a roof."

Then on Wednesday, a new claim from the judiciary that it was suicide.

On the basis of our investigation using over 50 videos from that night and speaking to those with her that evening, CNN can reveal some of her final hours were spent at the protests.

Including evidence that suggests she was chased and detained by security just a few hours before the state says she died.

(CHANTING)

POLGLASE: The first videos we found of Nika on the 20th are here at 7:00 p.m.

(SHOUTING)

POLGLASE: As protests heat up, Nika can be seen right at the front, throwing rocks at a formation of uniformed officers.

Easily recognized, she was brave, not even frightened, eyewitnesses said. At this stage in the evening, Nika is here by the park. Then, as more

officers arrived, witnesses say Nika starts to move away from them, first along this boulevard and then down a street where she is seen making a phone call just before 8:00 p.m.

(SHOUTING)

POLGLASE: As it gets dark, the police crackdown intensifies, moving into the new location. Evidence of injuries start emerging. And protesters are seen detained apparently by plain clothes officers.

One person told CNN they saw security forces hitting women and putting them in police vans.

In the midst of this heightened violence, CNN found a video of Nika still at the center of the protest. It's 8:37 p.m. and the last known video of her.

(SHOUTING)

POLGLASE: "Don't move, don't move," she shouts, as she crouches to hide from authorities.

The person filming from the car told CNN that shortly afterwards, Nika was taken by several large-bodied security forces and bundled into a van.

(on camera): By this point in the evening, police were everywhere. Videos at the scene show police to the south and also to the north of Nika. It means, when she was crouching in traffic, she was completely surrounded.

(voice-over): By the next morning, she would be dead, according to this death certificate, first obtained by BBC Persian and verified by CNN, which shows she died from multiple injuries caused by being hit with a hard object and is dated September 21st.

(SHOUTING)

POLGLASE: But Nika's family would not learn of her death for another 10 days. Meanwhile, both Nika's mother and aunt have said in interviews that credible sources told them that the days during that window, Nika was in state custody.

The Iranian authorities released this CCTV footage claiming Nika died after being thrown from this building later the same night in an incident they say was unconnected to the protests.

They made no claim about who allegedly threw her. And CNN cannot verify the person is Nika, nor the day it was filmed.

UNIDENTIFIED MOTHER OF NIKA: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

POLGLASE: Nika's mother has publicly disputed this footage, saying it's not her daughter.

And it's hard to square this calm with the evidence we have of Nika being chased by police and detained just a few hours earlier.

Iranian officials have not responded to CNN's inquiry as to whether she was ever in custody in the hours leading up to her death.

(CHANTING)

(SHOUTING)

POLGLASE: What is certain, though, is Nika was a prominent activist at the center of a police crackdown on the protests that night.

(CHANTING)

POLGLASE: Katie Polglase, CNN, London.

(CHANTING)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And a quick programming note. A new morning show is coming to CNN. Starting Tuesday, join Don Lemon, Poppy Harlow, and Kaitlan Collins every weekday on "CNN THIS MORNING." It starts at 6:00 a.m. Eastern.

[15:49:30]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Days out from Halloween, most kids are focusing on costume and candy. But 8-year-old Sam Baker and his dad spent this week climbing their way to new record.

Sam became the youngest person to summit El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. That peak is 3,000 feet from the valley floor.

And it's no easy feat for grownups, let alone a little kid. But Sam has been rock climbing since he was two years old and training for El Cap since he was six.

Unbelievable stuff there. Look at the video. Just amazing. Good for him.

Next week, the 2022 top-10 "CNN Heroes" will be named. In honor of that, we want to check in on our last year's CNN Hero of the Year, who fiercely protects and serves people living with homelessness on L.A.'s Skid Row.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:

(CHEERING)

SHIRLEY RAINES, 2022 CNN HERO OF THE YEAR: As much as you want to live in the moment and say it doesn't really matter, let's be real. I wanted to bring that prize money, win and recognition to the community. I really wanted them to have that platform.

(CROSSTALK)

[15:55:01]

RAINES: Good morning, you guys.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Congratulations, Shirley.

RAINES: Congratulations to you all.

The world had the opportunity to vote for 10 amazing organizations. They chose one that dealt with homelessness, which I think to them might say, oh, my god, people really are paying attention. People really are looking. People really do care.

I'm hoping that this win will bring more eyes down here. There's a massive need for blankets. There's massive need for tents.

I've always said this from the beginning. I don't do hero stuff. You know what I mean? I do human stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know something about you.

RAINES: I know something about you, too.

Honestly, all of the stuff I been through in my personal life, I think it's amazing to have gotten this far. Because I came from, oh, my god, the bottom.

I was on the "CNN Heroes" page, child. It definitely should give hope to other people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And to learn more about Shirley, go to CNNheroes.com.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)