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President Biden Orders Evacuation Of U.S. Staff In Sudan; Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) Is Interviewed About The Evacuation Of Americans In Sudan; Polling On Biden And Trump On 2024; Gov. Jay Inslee Is Interviewed On The Assault Weapons Ban In Washington State; Disney Show In California Catches On Fire; American Airlines Under Investigation By The FAA. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired April 23, 2023 - 17:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: The two professional athletes made a strong connection during the pandemic and announced their engagement last year. In a similar post, Jonathan Owens writing, "My person forever." Congratulations. All right, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Jim Acosta right now.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. We begin this hour with the escalating crisis in Sudan and the emergency evacuation of U.S government personnel and their families. About 100 U.S. Special Operations Forces carried out the overnight mission. Today, the U.S. embassy in Khartoum is closed.

The decision to evacuate personnel comes after a week of heavy fighting between Sudan's military and a rival paramilitary group. More than 400 people have been killed including one American. The State Department estimates there are about 16,000 Americans in Sudan, most are dual nationals. Our correspondents, our position here and around the world to bring you all the angles of this developing story.

Let's begin with CNN's Sam Kiley live from Djibouti. Sam, Djibouti's international airport is struggling to keep up with the sudden increase in flight volume due to this mass exodus from Sudan. What more can you tell us about that?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, it's not only the pressure, they say local officials are saying they've got them -- they're hosting militaries from 11 different countries. That's including the United States that, of course, has got a substantial military base here in Djibouti, but on top of the fact the airspace over Sudan is closed. They are saying that they are therefore having to cope with civilian traffic that has increased through Djiboutian airspace.

Now, that is all coming at a time when the United States has been in the vanguard, Jim, of this series now of evacuations, mostly, but not entirely of embassy personnel from different countries around the world. The United States led the field with this extraordinary operation involving 100 or so Special Forces troops, three chinook helicopters at least flying via Addis Ababa, where they refueled. And then very slow and low, critically into Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, where they rescued 70 plus diplomats and their families, plus a few foreigners who have been co-located with those diplomats, effectively mothballing the embassy in Khartoum. But as you point out there, Jim, in the introduction, some 16,000, possibly up to 19,000 Americans still in Sudan.

Of course, they are dual nationals, many of them, but that doesn't absolve necessarily the United States of responsibility for them. State Department saying that they do not imagine that the Department of Defense will be running any more of these mass evacuation, minor evacuations notwithstanding the large numbers of people who are being brought out of the country.

Now, Jim, I will continue talking now because I've lost communications link to you through my ear, but I will go and say that the evacuations of the Americans was followed pretty swiftly by British Special Forces, French Special Forces evacuating about 100 each. The British and the French, both conducting land moves in the case of the British's involved 30 kilometers, some 18-mile drive from Khartoum to an airfield outside of town that had been organized to evacuate Britain's to Cyprus, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Sam Kiley. We're also looking at some pictures right there from Emmanuel Macron, the president of France showing some of the evacuation efforts that they've been undertaking there in Sudan as well. This has been happening for lots of countries around the world. Sam Kiley in Djibouti. Thanks so much.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is over at the Pentagon for u. Oren, how complicated was this mission for the U.S.?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, even under the best of circumstances, this would have been a difficult mission for a number of different reasons. Firstly, the distances we're talking about here. Chinooks are large, heavy lift helicopters and they had to get from Djibouti some 750 or 800 miles to Khartoum in Sudan, make the pick-up in a conflicted environment. And then, of course, get home with that refueling stop in Ethiopia. You see it on the map right there. And then onwards to Djibouti.

So that was the first difficult factor. Of course, it's also the situation in which this is going on. Two warring factions in Sudan, the armed forces and the RSF. They both committed to a 72-hour ceasefire around the Eid al-Fitr holiday this weekend, but there have been violations of the ceasefire and it's unclear how much faith U.S. leaders, DOD, State Department, the White House, all watching this, believed in that ceasefire and whether it would hold.

But they've been monitoring the situation very carefully, and eventually, the decision and the authorization coming from President Joe Biden that it was time to carry out this operation to get the diplomatic staff out of Khartoum as well as their family members.

[17:05:06] And as Sam mentioned, some staff, some members of other nationalities to get them out. So, all of that makes it very difficult. Again, these helicopters would have been in Sudanese airspace for a long time. And in that time the situation itself can change. Now, we did hear from U.S. officials who say the helicopters didn't come under fire on their way in or on their way out. But that certainly wasn't a guarantee and that adds to the complication of the scenario.

Let me also pick up what Sam was talking about with some 16,000 or more U.S. citizens, many of them dual nationals, Sudanese-Americans in Sudan. What happens to them? As Sam pointed out, there is no airlift or effort to get them out, but DOD is considering a number of steps that would monitor their options out, which is overhead surveillance, maybe even setting up a deconfliction line with the factions there to try to get some sort of monitoring, some sort of coverage in case the American citizens in Sudan do decide to try to make their way out of the country.

ACOSTA: All right. CNN's Oren Liebermann over at the Pentagon for us. Thanks so much. Let's go to the White House. CNN's Kevin Liptak. Kevin, President Biden made this decision to evacuate U.S. personnel. What's the White House saying about the operation?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. The president has been monitoring this from up at Camp David. That's where he's been spending the weekend and he has really, over the last week or so, have been trying to build the steps that were leading up to this eventuality to this evacuation, including prepositioning some military resources in Djibouti, but also critically consolidating the diplomatic corps that was in Khartoum at the diplomatic compound there at the embassy.

That in itself was quite an undertaking. You know, the streets in Khartoum, very unsafe at the moment. It wasn't really a matter of just hopping in a taxi and driving to the embassy. There were a number of steps that needed to happen before this evacuation could take place.

And then, when it had occurred last night, the president announced in a statement saying, in part, "I am grateful for the unmatched skill of our service members who successfully brought these diplomats to safety, and I thank Djibouti, Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia, which were critical to the success of our operation." The president went on to say, "We are temporarily suspending operations at the U.S. embassy in Sudan, but our commitment to the Sudanese people and the future they want for themselves is unending."

But very critically in that statement, Jim, the president also saying that he is receiving regular updates on these steps that Oren was describing that could be potentially used to get private citizens out of Sudan. The White House has been very clear for the last week that there is no grand scale military operation that would be used to evacuate private citizens from the country.

But certainly, these steps of the U.S. want to do what it can to help about potentially get them out. As this situation evolves, as the violence worsens, President Biden will certainly want to keep a very close eye on that as this week proceeds, Jim. ACOSTA: All right. Kevin Liptak, very important operation over at the White House. Thank you very much. With me now to discuss this and more is Joaquin Castro, Democratic congressman from Texas. He serves on the House Intelligence Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Congressman, thanks for sharing your Sunday with us. Let's jump right into this.

The White House says it has no plans to evacuate these other private U.S. citizens from Sudan. The State Department says it's been in contact with several hundred of them. What are your thoughts on not evacuating them given that the situation seems to be getting worse?

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): Well, Jim, it is a very both sad and tragic and dangerous situation. And so, I'm glad that the official diplomatic personnel and their families were evacuated by the Biden administration. And I believe that the United States government will, in the end be helpful to any individuals or family members that need to get out of Sudan.

We've seen that in other countries. And, you know, because there is a recommendation that Americans get out, anybody that's got family member, any Americans that are here that have family members there that are trying to get out should contact the State Department and seek assistance on that.

ACOSTA: And that leads me to this question. The State Department estimates that there are roughly 16,000 U.S. citizens in Sudan. Our Sam Kiley was saying it could be higher than that. It could be 19,000. Does the U.S. need to keep some options on the table for assisting those Americans just in case things really spiral out of control?

CASTRO: Oh, no, we absolutely should. I think when Americans are in danger somewhere around the world because something like a civil war or a coup or a situation like this, the United States government should do everything that it can to help evacuate people.

ACOSTA: And let me ask you about the Wagner group because sources tell CNN that Russia's Vagner group has been supplying missiles to RSF. That's one of the two factions fighting in Sudan to aid in this fight against Sudan's army.

[17:10:00]

The RSF has denied this. The head of the Wagner group said this is an attempt at provocation, that's according to the Wagner group. But isn't this in Russia's playbook to insert itself in conflicts like this all around the world? And it sounds like it's happening in Sudan as well. Is that something that the administration needs to keep its eye on?

CASTRO: Yeah, they should. And I suspect that they very much are. Russia and Wagner group are essentially engaged in destabilizing activity in different parts of the world, whether it's cyber intrusions on election systems, as we saw in our own democracy in 2016, or supplying weapons and other things. You know, that -- it could be that that's what's happening here. And so, it's important that the United States and our allies do

everything that we can to help the Sudanese, the different sides reach a peace agreement, move back towards the path of a democracy so that the people have ultimate power in deciding who their elected leaders are. Remember, this all came about four years ago because the civilians, the people, came together to overthrow Omar Bashir who had been a brutal dictator for about 30 years.

And now you've got those military groups that were working together, the official military and the paramilitary groups that are now split. But thousands and thousands of people are going to die in this conflict potentially and it could include more Americans. So, we don't need any more destabilizing forces to come in there and make the situation worse.

ACOSTA: Let me jump to the investigation into those leaked classified documents, that leaked intel that's allegedly tied to Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Air National Guardsman. He's been accused of sharing classified documents to a small group of young men. "The New York Times" says it's reviewing and it has reviewed some of these online persons and found that information was first posted months earlier than previously known into a chat group of about 600 members.

You know, if "The New York Times" was able to track this down, are your confident federal investigators were already aware of this? I mean, there's some reporting that some of this leaking was going on, I mean, just -- almost right after the war in Ukraine was getting started, and so the potential there is that these documents were out for a very long time before the U.S. government was aware of this.

CASTRO: That's something that the United States Congress, I serve on the Intelligence Committee and have since 2016, is investigating and we're trying to figure out why that information was on for so long and whether it was missed or whether our intelligence agencies were on top of that.

This also begs the question about how easy it is for folks who don't need particular classified information to get that information. We've seen this challenge before with Edward Snowden and others, sometimes who are contractors that took classified documents home with them when they shouldn't have. And so, we're going to review again all of the protocols, all of the controls that allow something like this to happen.

CASTRO: And what is your sense of it? Is it you're thinking that there's just too many people, contractors and so on inside the U.S. intelligence community, inside the defense community that have access to too much material? Is that -- is that your sense of -- would you like to see some changes in that area?

CASTRO: Well, you can fix this in two basic ways. First, you can limit access to who can see the information. That seems to be a little bit tough with this airman because he had an I.T. job where he may have needed to get into this or he looks like he did need to get into the systems, have access to the systems to be able to fix any problems that were going on. So, you can control who has access, but it looks like maybe he was

supposed to have access. The second thing is that in the past, we have made this point again and again when we've got the agencies in front of us and the intelligence committee that there has been lax oversight. I would describe it as in terms of the controls of who can take information when they go home for the day.

This is somebody who had these documents, took them home, photographed them, uploaded them. And then this also introduces a different element here, which is you had somebody that put it up on Discord, on a platform. Well, who's monitoring these individuals that have this very sensitive access to figure out whether they're posting information or sharing information once they've already taken it. So, those are some of the things that we're going through now.

ACOSTA: And I have to ask you about this. As you know, President Biden, he is due to announce that he's running for re-election in just a couple of days from now. I'm sure you've probably heard something about this, congressman. But, you know, recent polls show that some Democrats don't want Biden to run again.

I seem to recall there was a Castro brother running against Joe Biden back in back in 2020. Is the Castro family of the Castro?

CASTRO: That is (inaudible) any three other people.

[17:14:58]

ACOSTA: That's right. Are the Castro brothers on board with Joe Biden running for a second term?

CASTRO: Yeah. I said for a long time that I think Joe Biden will run for re-election and will win re-election in 2024. I think he's got a strong record to run on. He rescued us from a global pandemic. He's created millions of jobs. He's brought American standing back into the limelight around the world, really made us a north star again.

And so, look, you know, the president and his team may look at those numbers and, yeah, they're unflattering numbers and I wish they were better and wish that it was higher. But at the end of the day, I don't believe that the American people are going to choose Donald Trump over Joe Biden. I don't believe that they would choose Ron DeSantis, who's fighting Mickey Mouse over Joe Biden. I think the president's going to run for re-election. And I think he'll win in 2024.

ACOSTA: Do you think he needs a serious challenger in the primary process, you know, not an RFK, Jr. type or anything like that, but perhaps a member of Congress, a governor, somebody else out there to put the president through his paces, or do you think he should run unopposed and -- largely unopposed and have the support of the entire Democratic Party?

CASTRO: No, I mean, I get the question, but I just -- it's not something you can prescribe, you know. It's one of those things where, you know, I think President Biden's going to win both the primary and then the general. But look, you know, if people want to run, they should run. That said I don't -- I don't -- I don't see a serious threat right now in terms of political threat in the primary to Joe Biden.

ACOSTA: All right, Congressman Joaquin Castro, thanks so much for your time this evening. We appreciate it.

CASTRO: Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right. And what would a 2024 run look like for President Joe Biden. We'll run the numbers in just a few moments. Plus, the governor of Washington State, Jay Inslee, he will join me in just a few moments. On his desk right now is a major bill that would ban the sale of assault weapons. We'll talk to him about that in just a few moments.

And later, flames coming from the wing of a plane about to take off. It's all caught on camera. I will discuss that. It's coming up live in the "CNN Newsroom."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:20:00]

ACOSTA: President Biden is expected to announce his re-election bid this week. New polling on 2024 that came out today suggests a good number of Americans don't want either him or his 2020 rival, former President Donald Trump to run again, and yet both men may be on a collision course for a rematch.

CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten joins us now to run the numbers. Harry, the they say the sequel is never as good as the original, but we may be getting that sequel in terms of these numbers right now. Let's start with the numbers on President Biden. Where does that stand right now in the Democratic Party?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yeah. I mean, barring some miracle for someone not named Joe Biden, Joe Biden will be the democratic nominee if the field stays the way it is right now. Look, at this particular point my estimate is that he's pulling in more than 70 percent of the vote nationally, right, among Democrats.

The announced candidates against Joe Biden at this particular point are just simply put not anywhere close. This is not a big surprise, right, because Joe Biden's approval rating among Democrats is north of 80 percent. So, the fact that he's pulling in about three quarters in a potential Democratic primary pretty much lines up with it and pretty much lines up with everything that we know about history, Jim.

ACOSTA: And there's been a lot of speculation over when President Biden would announce a bid. If he does announce this Tuesday, April 25th, is that late, early by modern standards, for an incumbent? I mean, sometimes they wait a little longer, they say, because they could just run a Rose Garden style campaign as it's called. What do you see?

ENTEN: Yeah. I would say he's about right on time, Jim, right on time with what history would tell us. You know, if you look -- if you look back at incumbents since 1976, what was the median date that they announced reelection? It's April 30th of the year before the general election, and we're within a week of that. So, this is about right on time, right?

You know, Donald Trump actually pretty much announced re-election or filed with the FEC in 2017. Someone like Ronald Reagan waited until October of '83. But Joe Biden being at the point that he is right now, if he does in fact announced this week, that is right on time, right on schedule. Not too early, not too late. Someone argued just about right.

ACOSTA: See, that's why we have you on here because that is the kind of number that just sort of blows me away that anybody would even contemplate running that number and calculating that out, but it makes a lot of sense. You also have some fresh data on where the Republican primary process stands, which, you know it's going to be a little bit more complicated on the Republican side.

ENTEN: Yeah. It's going to be a little bit more complicated, but at this particular point, look, if you are looking at the national polling, it's one of two guys right. It's either the former President Donald Trump, or it's the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Nobody else is breaking into double digits at this point, not someone like Nikki Haley. Not someone like Mike Pence, not someone like Tim Scott.

But at this particular point, look, the former President Donald Trump has a clear advantage over Ron DeSantis. You can see we had two polls that came out this week, two high quality polls. One from "The Wall Street Journal," one from NBC News. We see, you know, Donald Trump hovering in the high 40s, right, 48 percent in "The Wall Street Journal" poll, 46 percent in the NBC News poll.

Ron DeSantis close, but not really all that close, right, down 24 points in one survey, down 15 points in the other. So, you average them together, what, that's about 20 points down on average. Someone like Donald Trump at this particular point polling where he is, wins the nomination about three-quarters to four-fifths of the time.

Someone like Ron DeSantis wins at about a quarter of the time. So, the fact of the matter is when you look at those numbers, Donald Trump is a clear favorite, but Ron DeSantis still has a real shot, Jim.

ACOSTA: But Harry, the problem for Trump is the general election, right? I mean, that is --- that is where he's always had a problem.

[17:24:58]

You know, 2020, lost by seven million votes. These midterms, never really works out for him. Are we looking at the same picture again?

ENTEN: Yeah. This to me is the fascinating number, right? If, in fact, you know, Joe Biden is on a collision course with Donald Trump in the general election. Take a look here. Trump underperforms in the general election. So, if you take Biden against the generic Republican candidate, the generic Republican beats Joe Biden by six points. If you take Biden against Ron DeSantis, DeSantis beats Trump -- beats Biden, excuse me, by three points.

But if you take Biden and you face him up against Trump, Biden leads that match up by three points. So, Joe Biden is very clearly beatable, but as Billy Preston once said, you know, nothing from nothing leaves nothing. You got to have something. The fact is, Donald Trump at this particular point, trails Joe Biden and that maybe the matchup we're looking and it's the one I think Joe Biden wants.

ACOSTA: Yeah. I mean, I've said it before and I'll say it again, Donald Trump has been Joe Biden's superpower and it looks like we're heading into that same kind of scenario looking at this 2024 matchup. Harry Enten, great stuff. As always, thank you very much. And be sure to check out Harry's podcast "Margins of Error." It's up for a Webby award. You can find it on your favorite podcast app or at CNN.com/audio.

Still ahead, a ban on assault weapons in Washington State is set to become law. Governor Jay Inslee joins us live next on this big step he's taking to tackle the issue of gun violence in his state. There he is right there. Will it work? He'll make the case next. You're live in the "CNN Newsroom."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:35:00]

ACOSTA: An American rite of passage prom night scarred by gun violence. At least nine teens were injured at an after-prom party overnight in Jasper, Texas. Fortunately, none of the injuries were life threatening. The victim's range in age from 15 to 19 years old. In a Facebook post, the Jasper County sheriff's office says an investigation is underway and people of interest are being questioned.

In the meantime, Washington State has taken a step toward addressing gun violence there in Washington State. The state legislature has passed a ban banning or bill banning the sale, manufacture and import of assault weapons. It's headed to the desk of Governor Jay Inslee who has already said he will sign it.

And Democratic Governor Inslee of Washington State joins us now with more on this. Welcome, Governor. Appreciate the time so much. Washington will become the 10th state to ban these kinds of assault weapons. I guess just to start us off, why did you think this step was necessary? Where you responding to things that were happening in other parts of the country, something that had happened close to home? What can you tell us about that?

JAY INSLEE, GOVERNOR OF WASHINGTON: Well, I've been working on this for nearly 30 years. I provided a pivotal vote to pass the assault weapon ban back in 1994. It was effective in reducing mass shootings for 10 years. Then the Republicans let it expire and they have increased. We know this policy works. I'm super glad that we've been able to pass it.

But I do want to point out. It's not the only thing we're doing. We know that inaction is unacceptable in the face of this scourge. So, we have banned assault weapons, but we also have another important bill, which is to require safety training for anyone to purchase a firearm and have a 10-day waiting period.

Both of these things in combination in states that have done this have had significant reductions in gun violence. And a third bill that will hold manufacturers liable if they don't comply with their legal obligations. So, we're taking three, I think, significant steps forward. None of these singularly are going to eliminate gun violence. We know that. But there's still significant steps.

Look, these weapons of war have no place in our schools, on our streets. They have muzzle velocities twice the power and twice of the capacity to damage human flesh. The only purpose they were designed was mass murder and therefore we're taking this step.

ACOSTA: And gun rights advocates are vowing to challenge the bill that would ban assault weapons in court. They're arguing that this ban violates the Second Amendment. Do you think this legislation you're about to site can survive this kind of a challenge? What if it goes all the way to the Supreme Court? As you know, as it stands now, there's a very substantial conservative majority on the high court?

INSLEE: It can and it should. Ben Franklin was not toting an AR-15 back in the day. It was not designed to turn our streets and our schools in the kind of thing you're seeing in Ukraine right now, which is warfare. And I cannot believe that Franklin and his friends intended to have weapons of war somehow to dominate our lives. We should be free. This is a freedom issue. Free to send your kids and freedom to be able to send your children and have them come home safely. That's a freedom issue that we'd like to have.

And so, I think this is a rational, common-sense policy. We're not eliminating gun ownership and we're essentially only limiting those things that are not necessary to protect your home. You don't need an AR-15 to protect your home. It's only intent to spray high velocity, extremely destructive slugs in mass numbers. Who needs that to protect your home for goodness sakes?

ACOSTA: So, let me ask you --

INSLEE: This is a reasonable approach.

ACOSTA: Yeah. Let me ask you this. I mean, we've seen gun safety measures suddenly become a big issue for Democrats. We saw this down in Tennessee with the expulsion of those state lawmakers down there. They were trying to lead the charge for new gun safety legislation in that state.

[17:35:01]

As you know, governor, some in your party have been hesitant to take on this issue. They've been afraid to take on this issue in the past. Are time's changing for Democrats on the gun issue. Is that what you're seeing at the state level? Are you trying to -- are you at the state level and other governors and the state lawmakers trying to do what essentially can't get done in Washington or seemingly can't get done in Washington?

INSLEE: Well, as Bob Dylan saying the times, they are a changing and they are because Americans have had a belly fold to being subjected to this constant gun violence. There has been a dramatic shift in the public in this regard. This is a winning issue for Democrats. I know this. I got elected in 1998, beat an incumbent Republican part because he was protecting AR-15.

And the moms and dads and grandparents of my district wanted their kids protected instead of the guns. And that is a rapidly changing perception in the United States. And I would suggest to Democrats it's a winning issue, particularly in the suburbs, and it has changed dramatically this issue in the last 20 years. This is something now that we rightfully can hold Republicans account -- to account for their protecting the NRA instead of our children.

And that is a clear decision we're calling upon all elected officials to make. So, I think it's -- this isn't the reason to do it, but it's something that ought to be part of every campaign in my view.

ACOSTA: Let me ask you about what's happening with the death penalty. Washington State also voted to eliminate the death penalty. You issued a moratorium against this penalty back in 2014. Why was it important to you to strike it from state law altogether?

INSLEE: Well, yeah, we had effectively ended it with my moratorium. There was a decision by our Supreme Court involving an unconstitutional provision of the law. It's time for us as a nation to understand this is not necessary. It is not a deterrent to violent crime. It was just more state sponsored violence.

And it has been historically, unfortunately, there has been racial insensitivity in its application. We know a number of people who have been on death row for years and found out they were innocent. The system of justice is not perfect enough to be taking the lives of its citizens by the government.

And I think it was the right decision several years ago when I put in the moratorium in place. And so, we didn't need the statute and we've eliminated that from further consideration. It's time to move past that debate and move forward on things we need to do.

ACOSTA: And I know that you are probably aware that President Joe Biden is going to be announcing on Tuesday that -- we expect him to announce that he's running for re-election. What do you think? I know you took a stab at this yourself.

Do you support a second term for the president? Do you think that there should be somebody out there to mount a serious challenge, a credible challenge against Joe Biden or should he be running on the Democratic side unopposed? What's your sense of it?

INSLEE: I'm fully supportive of him because of what he's done and what he's going to do. He has had a remarkable series of successes. I know there's a lot he's done. I want to focus on what he's done in helping create clean energy jobs with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. He is creating jobs by the millions including in my state.

I can't turn over a rock without meeting a young person who is going to have a career, servicing and building electric cars, solar panels, heat pumps, pump storage facilities, wind turbines. We are seeing an explosion of economic opportunity and job creation because of what he's done. I have played a part in our state as well. Our states are actually can do more in the federal government.

But what he's done in this regard gives us a chance for our kids. I was on Mount Rainier, a beautiful mountain yesterday with the Secretary of Interior. We have lost one half of all of the glacier ice just during my lifetime because of climate change, and we have a president who understands not only do we need to step up to the plate to give our kids a shot at a decent life, protected from the ravages of climate change, but giving them careers that they can be involved in frequently about this and the necessity of a college education.

So, the J in Joe stands for jobs. I think of his presidency and I know he's going to keep doing it. And he is sharp by the way. We went to White House about a month or so ago. He is -- he's on the top of his game right now. He's ready for the next four years.

ACOSTA: So, you're not concerned at all about his age that being an issue? He's even said to himself, he understands it might be an issue for folks.

INSLEE: Well, it's not for him, you know, maybe for a bunch of other folks, but not for him. Look, I've been in meetings with him.

[17:40:00]

And I can tell you we have a president that is so much sharper, so much more truth teller, and so much more integrity than what it looks like. It might be plan B, which is the losing president, who did so much destruction in this country. I have no qualms about supporting him a hundred percent. I'll be there.

ACOSTA: All right, Governor Jay Inslee, thanks very much for your time. We appreciate it. You got all right now, this is not what you want to see just before takeoff, but it's what passengers on a flight in Charlotte saw flames and smoke coming from a wing. And this wasn't the only incident like it this past week. What the airline is saying next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

A light show at Disneyland this weekend may have been a little too realistic during the final showing of "Fantasmic." A dragon prop used in the production's big finale, look at this, caught fire, causing some confusion, probably little more than confusion for the crowd on hand.

[17:45:05]

It was quickly put out and everyone in the area got out of the way safely. Word has it the dragon used in the sequence has a reputation for malfunctioning or not working at all. Not surprisingly, all shows have been canceled until further notice. The folks there got a show on their hands there. No question about it.

All right, in the meantime, the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating two separate fires on American Airlines flights. On Thursday, a plane about to take off from Charlotte had smoke and flames coming from inside one of its wings. And today, an American Airlines flight already in the air after taking off from Columbus, Ohio had fire shooting out of its right engine.

CNN's Polo Sandoval joins us now. Polo, I don't like to hear either one of these things happening. It just scares, you know, what out of you when you're a passenger thinking about this kind of stuff, but this is something that Americans got to deal with. What can you tell us?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jim, and we should mention fortunately nobody was hurt in either one of these incidents, the first of which, Ben Nines, a Columbus, Ohio residents, Jim -- resident telling CNN that this morning he went out for a jog, he heard a pulsing noise. He looked up and this is what he saw.

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He described it as almost like hearing a jet ski on the water, and you could see that's actually American Airlines Flight 1958 as it makes a safe return to the Columbus airport not long after takeoff. The airline confirming that their Boeing 737 experienced a bird strike causing the mechanical issue.

You see that, again, there's sort of flames or at least a sign of it backfiring from down below. The flight landed normally, taxied safely to the gate under its own power so, that's good. The FAA investigating this one.

Then there's video of a separate incident from a few days ago specifically on Thursday evening when a passenger aboard her American Airlines flight that was leaving from Charlotte looked out her window and saw this --

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Some pretty scary moments there aboard American Airlines Flight 2288 with service from Charlotte to Dallas. This one never even got off the ground. Passenger Frankie Leggington capturing the smoke and flames spewing from the wing of the aircraft, again, take off canceled. The flight returned to the gate.

This incident, again, not related to the first one, still under investigation. But back to that bird strike, Jim, you know, we all remember what happened back in 2009 and the miracle that happened on the (inaudible) actually, you can see behind me.

Those bird strikes, if you look through the FAA records as I did earlier today, they happen almost on an everyday basis. But it's a very small percentage of those that actually lead to damage of the aircraft and scary moments like what we witnessed this morning in Ohio. ACOSTA: Yeah. We had Sully on the show not too long ago. It still

amazes me to this day that he was able to pull that amazing feat off despite everything that happened. All right, Polo Sandoval, very important that we stay on top of this aviation safety issue. Thanks so much. We appreciate it.

All right, still ahead, the story of two men and what happened after they got into a patrol car driven by the same white deputy sheriff months apart. Both were said to have been dropped off at a convenience store, but both were never seen alive again. It's a very strange mystery. A CNN reporter who looked into this connection joins us next with what he found

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ACOSTA: A special CNN investigation tries to unravel the disappearance of two men in Florida nearly two decades ago. It's one of the most unsettling mysteries and the recent history of American law enforcement. A Latino man and a black man went missing three months apart, both vanished after getting in a patrol car driven by the same white deputy sheriff.

CNN senior digital writer Thomas Lake joins us now. Thomas, what a strange mystery this is and it's been one for quite some time it sounds like. Your team unraveled a lot in this case. Set the scene for us. Update us on what's new?

THOMAS LAKE, CNN SENIOR DIGITAL WRITER: Yeah, I first came across this story in 2019 and have been sort of haunted by it ever since. I started looking into the story. We obtained about more than 10,000 pages of documents, many hours of audio and found out some things that have not been reported before.

One example is that this deputy, Corporal Steven Calkins, prior to, well, in about the last three years of his career, he had stopped making arrests. His last arrest was in 2001 and he simply didn't have any after that, according to the records I obtained. And one possible reason this could be relevant to these two men's disappearances is that, a colleague who I spoke with about Calkins said he'd lost trust in the justice system.

And in both these cases, these men could have been arrested. Calkins chose not to arrest them in both cases. He said I dropped Santos off at the Circle K and then later I dropped Terrance Williams off at the Circle K. Well, investigators could find no evidence that either man ever turned up at these convenience stores and they have not been seen since by their families.

ACOSTA: That's very strange. And what did you learn regarding the traffic stops from the day Terrance Williams disappeared?

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LAKE: Sure. So, I made some pretty detailed minute by minute timelines both -- the days of both disappearances. So, first of all for Santos, this was October 2003. I found that there's a window of almost two hours where it cannot be proven where Deputy Calkins was, Corporal Calkins, after he picked up Santos. There's almost two hours that we just don't know for sure what he was doing.

And so, to then go forward about three months to the disappearance of Terrance Williams, there's a similar thing going on. He claimed -- Calkins claims to have written two traffic tickets that day. But as I looked into this deeper and deeper, I discovered that there's no proof. There's no proof that either of these traffic stops was real. And the second one was happening early in the afternoon.

Once again, it sets up this time period of almost two hours in which Calkins may have encountered Williams and in which his whereabouts and activities were unknown.

ACOSTA: All right. Very strange stuff. Thomas Lake, thanks very much for your reporting this -- reporting on this. Keep us posted on how this investigation develops. It's fascinating. Of course, you can check out the full story, "The Deputy and the Disappeared." It's on CNN.com right now. Go check it out.

Still ahead, as fighting rages in Sudan, the U.S. embassy is closed after diplomats and staff were airlifted out in the middle of the night. More on that next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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