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Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Erie, Pennsylvania; Mar-A-Lago Indicted In Classified Documents Case; More Than 100 Million Americans Under Heat Alerts; Now: Trump Holds Campaign Rally in PA; "Stop": Black GOP Congressman Calls Out DeSantis Over New Florida History Standards on Slavery; Many Afghans Still Waiting for Visas Promised by U.S.; Tim McGraw Announces 2024 U.S. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired July 29, 2023 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:01:02]

PAULA REID, CNN HOST: Live from Washington, I'm Paula Reid in for Jim Acosta. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And we begin this hour on the campaign trail with former President Donald Trump where his deepening legal peril doesn't seem to be affecting his polling. Trump is still well ahead of all of his GOP challengers. He was the only one of 13 candidates to get a standing ovation last night at the Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa.

Today, he has moved on to Pennsylvania and is about to hold a rally in Erie.

That's where we join CNN's Alayna Treene.

Alayna, what kind of turnout are you seeing. It looks pretty packed from what I can see behind you.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: It is and also as you might -- I'm not sure if you can see from where you are Paula, but Donald Trump just took the stage and is about to speak any moment now.

And so the crowd, very energetic right now cheering for Donald Trump's arrival. But I will also point out that the venue is not completely full and that is not typical for these rallies. There are of course many people as you can see, but there's also many open seats.

But tonight, Donald Trump just began speaking, and I think you can expect for him to give his typical 2024 stump speech.

He is going to talk about his 2024 agenda items. He will criticize President Joe Biden and he will also discuss the charges that he is facing and his mounting legal troubles and directly criticize Special Counsel Jack Smith, and that's according to excerpts that I received from his campaign.

And I think just to point out, Paula, you made the point that his poll numbers are actually up right now in light of his legal troubles. I am talking about the messaging that he's going to be using tonight. My colleague, Kate Sullivan, and I caught up with some Trump

supporters who were in line as they were coming in to enter the rally tonight and they kind of use the same rhetoric that Donald Trump is going to be using, which is that they think that these charges are political, that he is a victim of an unfair justice system, and that more attention should be paid to what is happening with the Biden family.

And so, you're definitely going to hear some of that tonight in his speech -- Paula.

REID: And last night, Trump was in Iowa, how did that go?

TREENE: He was. So he actually spoke very briefly, only about 10 minutes, and surprisingly, during that speech, he did not talk about his legal troubles or the new charges that were filed against him on Thursday night.

And also notably, many of his Republican rivals who were also there at that Lincoln Dinner did not bring it up either apart from people like Will Hurd who brought up Donald Trump directly.

And I think it's really interesting to note that among the Republican field, very few people are willing to talk about the charges and go after him directly. They are afraid of antagonizing his base and alienating some of the voters that they will need themselves if they want to win in an election in 2024 -- Paula.

REID: Alayna Treene, thank you.

And meantime, after last night's Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, continues to stop in Iowa.

CNN's Kyung joins us from Des Moines.

Kyung, what kind of response is Pence getting from prospective Iowa voters?

KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, the events that he is going to generally and that he has organized here county to county tend to be a bit smaller, they're intimate. And so at all of these events that we see him at and we were just with him in Nevada, Iowa is they are very polite, they are interested in earnest in what the former vice president has to say.

And this is the Pence strategy, to go slow and steady, to win voters over, county but I county, one at a time it's also this slow pace what the former vice president says is leading to a slower pace of qualifying for the debate stage.

We asked him, how far away is he from meeting that 40,000 donor threshold? Take a listen.

[18:15:17]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MIKE PENCE (R), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think, you know, I

think we are maybe a couple of weeks away yet based on the pace of things coming in, because our focus is on the campaign to be honest with you.

You know, the criteria of 40,000 donors being added to the requirement of being at a certain place in the polls is somewhat new. We accept that criteria and confident that we'll get there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: The debate is three weeks away. So if he did indeed qualify on his timeline, that would be right before the debate.

Pence did hold back on directly going after Trump yet again. He was specifically asked about Will Hurd's claim that the president is running, that the former president is running to stay out of jail and he dismissed it. He said he is always intended on running for re- election, so he didn't buy into that.

And part of this line that we're seeing the former vice president walk is that caucus goers, largely when you talk to them here in Iowa, at least to our cameras, they say that it doesn't matter how many charges Donald Trump faces, they're going to dismiss it all. I want you to take a listen to some of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL GUSTOFF (R), IOWA STATE HOUSE: People see through this as a political trial. It's just political by nature, so people see through that, and they're supporting him in the polling. It is just reinforcing the fact that they see this as a politically driven trial.

KELLEY KOCH, CHAIR, REPUBLICAN PARTY OF DALLAS COUNTY, IOWA: I don't think Trump is undermining. I think the acts that he has been accused of will play out in court. I think they are doing a level phishing expedition, looking at all sorts of avenues of his life, and they're digging for things that are going to stick and things that they're going to come up with.

I think the Republicans are starting to catch up and looking at the Biden family corruption.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: So Paula, therein lies the conundrum for a candidate like Mike Pence -- Paula.

REID: Kyung Lah, thank you.

And more now on Carlos De Oliveira, the so-called little known Mar-a- Lago employee named in the special counsel's superseding indictment.

According to the indictment, Trump requested that he delete security camera footage so that it couldn't be turned over to the Justice Department investigating the case. CNN's Randi Kaye is in West Palm Beach where she has done some great

reporting learning a lot more about who De Oliveira is.

It sounds Randi like he has been a faithful, longtime Mar-a-Lago employee who got caught up in something he may regret. What are you learning down there in Florida?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Certainly, Paula, and a longtime employee that a lot of people CNN spoke with have no idea who he was, until this indictment came down.

In fact, he was well below the radar for the people that CNN have spoken with and that includes at least eight current and former Trump aides and allies who spent quite a bit of time at Mar-a-Lago.

He is referred to as a property manager in the indictment in which he's named, but the picture of him that we're getting really from talking to people is that he was this low level maintenance worker who did odd jobs around the property of Mar-a-Lago.

He didn't interact with club members. He wasn't part of the former president's inner circle. He certainly didn't take part in high level conversations and discussions until the special counsel investigation is what we are being told.

He started out as a valet at Mar-a-Lago. He's been there about 20 years, we understand, worked his way up through the ranks and working in various jobs in maintenance and then became a property manager.

But it does seem that way, Paula, that he was just someone who was a low-level worker who got roped into this allegedly doing the dirty work for the former president to try and make these security camera tapes disappear.

REID: Have you been able to make contact with him at all in Florida?

KAYE: No, but it's not for lack of trying. We certainly tried to do that. We knocked on his front door. He lives in Palm Beach Gardens, not far, about 20 minutes north of Mar-a-Lago here in Florida and nobody answered the door.

But we did contact his landlord, and it turns out, they're friends. He's not just a landlord. They've known each other for about 30 years. He described him as a good guy and a good friend. He said he didn't think that he would do anything wrong. He didn't think he would break the law. He says that he hopes he does the right thing if he knows anything. This landlord friend of his said that he hopes that he comes clean.

We also talked to a neighbor who lives just across the way from him, has known him for a few years, says that he likes to golf, he helps people around the neighborhood. But then we asked him what does he think of his neighbor being indicted? And this is what he told us.

[18:10:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAYMOND BRION, NEIGHBOR: I think that it is anybody that gets involved with Donald Trump, he is a train wreck, and anybody that gets involved with Donald Trump ends up somewhere or in a bad place. I don't think that guy had any knowledge of what he was doing. None. And you know, he is cold in the neck and now he is going to walk himself out of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: And Paula, CNN also tracked down some family members of Carlos De Oliveira and they told us that they feel like he got trapped, that he doesn't have a lot of money and he probably didn't understand the consequences of what he has allegedly done here involving these security camera tapes -- Paula.

REID: Randi Kaye, thank you.

And turning now to the war in Ukraine and a new regional concern. Poland's prime minister says about a hundred fighters from the Wagner mercenary group in Belarus are headed towards the Polish border. He warns they could try to cross it pretending to be migrants.

The area is highly strategic. Poland's border with Lithuania is nearby dividing Belarus, Russia's ally of course, from Kaliningrad, a Russian territory.

On the battlefield, Ukraine's military forces are gaining ground in their counteroffensive. Those little specks of yellow you see, those represent the areas recaptured by Ukraine as it tries to break a land bridge that Moscow's forces have created near the Black Sea.

And Russia is vowing to retaliate and accusing Ukraine of terrorism after a missile attack on a Russian city about 25 miles from Ukraine's border. Authorities say at least 14 people were wounded.

And as the war grinds on and the losses mount on both sides, Ukraine turns to a new weapon, a drone that's remote controlled and unleashed at sea.

Ukraine gives its first public showing to our own Alex Marquardt.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At a secret makeshift Ukrainian military base, one of the newest pieces of Ukraine's arsenal is lowered into the water. It wars out into the open water under the control of this pilot, who asked we don't show his face, Callsign: Shark.

This is Ukraine's latest sea or surface drone designed to attack Russia in the Black Sea. They've never been shown to the public before.

This model is armed with 300 kilograms or almost 700 pounds of explosive and can hit a target 800 kilometers, 500 miles away. "They're very easy to control," Shark tells us, and they have severely limited the Russian Navy's movements.

Ukraine sends its sea drones out hunting, plowing through the waves. If spotted, the Russian ships frantically open fire.

Sometimes the Russians get lucky and manage to take them out. Other times, the drones break through the hail of bullets and reach their targets.

Last October, Ukrainian sea drones carried out a stunning attack on the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Russian0occupied Crimea targeting the flagship, the Admiral Makarov.

This drone can attack, carry out surveillance, and reconnaissance, among other operations. It is entirely Ukrainian designed and produced according to its developer, who also asked for anonymity for security reasons.

MARQUARDT (on camera): How effective are the Russian defenses against these drones?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Not effective. The equipment they have on their ships is designed to attack other ships. They can't hit such small drones. These are faster than anything else in the Black Sea.

MARQUARDT (voice over): A stunning pre-dawn attack last week on Russia's Kerch Bridge shows the havoc they can wreak. The bridge, which is a vital supply line from Russia to Crimea was hit by two drones and left heavily damaged.

In response, Russia said, they launched days of intense strikes on seaside Odesa alleging that the Ukrainian port city houses the sea drones.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): Russia's equipment is from the 20th century and ours is from the 21st. There are a hundred years between us.

MARQUARDT (voice over): Alex Marquardt, CNN, Kiev.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REID: The US made promises to a number of people in Afghanistan, but now, nearly two years after the US left the country, some of those promises have not been kept.

Ahead, hear from people living in limbo waiting for help.

Plus, former President Trump's legal troubles don't seem to be hurting his popularity with Republican voters. Our political panel joins me next to examine why.

And next, how dangerously high temperatures are affecting the ocean's fiercest predators, sharks.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:19:07]

REID: The hottest month ever recorded is bringing more sweltering heat to states all across the country this weekend. More than 100 million people in nearly two dozen states remain under heat advisories today.

In the Southwest, extreme triple-digit heat is smothering multiple states and Phoenix is now on a 30-day streak of temperatures topping 110 degrees.

This dangerous heat is not only affecting life on land, the oceans are also heating to record levels, and scientists say it's causing sharks to change their behaviors.

Now joining me now to discuss is Paul De Gelder, a shark attack survivor, former Australian Navy Diver and an expert for Discovery Channel's Shark Week.

Paul, that is quite a resume and I will note to our viewers, you are joining us from a dog park, so we may have some canine cameos.

But let's start with this: Researchers say that some of the odd shark behavior is affecting where they eat and where they live. So are we seeing sharks popping up in unusual places?

[18:20:15]

PAUL DE GELDER, SHARK ATTACK SURVIVOR: That could absolutely be a part of why the sharks are coming in close to shore, why they're being found in new areas that they haven't otherwise been a part of because the warmer weather actually designates where they go for birthing, for mating, for popping food.

You know, the warmer waters around Florida and up through North Carolina as well have always been a place where the sharks have traveled and migrated all the way up from north to south, and then south to north again, because of those beautiful tropical waters that bring in all of that life and obviously, they're going to find food there.

But as the waters get warmer and warmer, they might not travel all the way up north because it gets too hot. They might stay further down south, they might not reach the area where they're going to mate or the areas where traditionally they've known to get food, so this is going to change their behavior.

REID: Now, as we see the ocean temperatures rising, some species of fish are swimming too to cooler waters, that of course, leaves the sharks with fewer options. So are there any signs that they're hunting and eating new species in order to survive?

DE GELDER: We haven't seen any evidence for them eating new species. A lot of sharks, especially the tiger sharks, they're really not that picky. They have been found with full coats of armor and license plate and lawnmowers in their stomach. So, they are not really that picky.

But the problem is not so much the fish, but the coral reefs because the corals are really, really sensitive to climate temperature changes. And as they're found in parts of Florida, they have actually put together a whole new reef systems and coral systems by hand, by human hand, and all of them have been wiped out because of the heat temperature.

So if we don't have those coral reefs to provide a home for the fish and life, then we're not going to have any life at all in those areas and that means the collapse of the whole ecosystem and that is what is scary.

REID: Now, I know since we waited a little they always tell you, sharks aren't interested in you. The odds of being hurt are very low.

But in New York, there were five bites reported in just two days. So with these warming temperatures, are we going to continue to see more human-shark encounters.

DE GELDER: Look, that's what they always told me as well, especially when I was in the Australian Navy and look how that turned out.

So sometimes it is wrong place wrong time. The sharks are, you know, they're not as intelligent as we are and so we have to take the onus on this. We have the internet, we have Google, we have technology. We can look at what has been happening in the areas that we want to go swimming, we can look whether there's fishing boats out there, we can tell whether there's been shark bites. Maybe we just steer clear of those areas, and by being the most intelligent species, maybe we just need to act like it.

But that's a very bad situation. I understand, it is terrible to get attacked by a shark, even though you do get a pretty cool story out of it. But we need to be the wise intelligent species here.

The sharks, they are just going about their business doing sharky stuff, and sometimes, most of the time, it's going to be a case of mistaken identity.

REID: All right, Paul, thank you for joining us and for confirming my suspicion that sometimes sharks are interested in you.

And don't forget Shark Week runs through tonight on Discovery Channel, which is of course part of the same parent company as CNN.

You can also catch up on Paul's shows on Max.

And former President Trump is campaigning in Pennsylvania today, a state he lost in 2020. So what does he needs to do there now as he tries to win the Republican nomination? Our political panel weighs in next.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [18:28:11]

REID: Former President Trump face the music at a campaign rally in Iowa Friday amid growing legal woes. The former president took the stage just as the walkout song playing in the background blared lyrics that his opponents hope foreshadow his legal fate.

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]

REID: So he couldn't make that out or if you've been living under a rock and aren't familiar with that song, that is Brooks & Dunn "Only in America" and they are talking about all the things that can happen in this country, talking about someone who could go to prison, someone who could become president.

Joining us now to discuss, former Republican congressman, Charlie Dent, and CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist, Karen Finney.

Karen, as you know, as I know, that Brooks & Dunn song is played at every single political rally. Folks of both parties use that to pump up the crowd, and we just don't know at this point if those lyrics were intentionally played at that time, or if it was just a coincidence.

What do you make of that moment?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, if anything, certainly the person who was in charge of production, maybe should have paid a little closer attention to that. That's a little bit on the nose just given everything that's going on.

REID: It was on the nose. Yes.

FINNEY: I'm just saying, you know, they could have skipped it forward or gone to a different part of the song. I would imagine though, within the Trump campaign today, someone is getting their head bit off, no question.

REID: That's right, because his usual walk up song when he has control over the music is Lee Greenwood.

FINNEY: Yes.

REID: Yes.

FINNEY: Yes. Oh, well.

REID: Got to be careful. All right this hour, Charlie, Trump is holding a rally in your home state of Pennsylvania. He of course lost that state in 2020. In your eyes what are his prospects there?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, as long as he has these legal storm clouds over his head, I think he's got real problems.

[18:30:14] I get it in the primary among the base, this is motivating a certain

element of it and he's certainly doing well in the polls. But among the general electorate particularly swing state like Pennsylvania this would be devastating.

In fact, the fact that the - Trump is in Erie, Pennsylvania tonight is significant because Erie is one of two of six - is one of two counties in Pennsylvania, there's 67 counties. But Erie and Northampton counties are the two counties that went for Barack Obama, Donald Trump and then Joe Biden. These are truly swing counties. So he's there for a reason.

But again, Trump's legal problems and his never-ending looking backwards and grievance politics about what happened in 2020 election I think are not going to help in these swing states in marginal congressional districts. It's a real problem for the party. They all know it. They want him - they want Trump to go away, but these leading contenders against him are afraid to say anything to him because they're fearful of antagonizing his base other than maybe Chris Christie, Will Hurd, Tim Hutchinson and a couple of others.

REID: And Gov. Ron DeSantis is facing backlash from some of his black - well, from black lawmakers in his party over his support for a new education guideline in Florida specifically this requirement that students be taught that black people benefited from slavery. What do you make of this?

FINNEY: It was a real misstep on the part of Ron DeSantis to double and triple down and some in the Republican Party earlier in the week even, they were attacking Vice President Harris, even suggesting that she was lying about the standards.

Well, now as you see, I mean as African-Americans, I mean there is something about the experience of slavery and we don't need to rely on textbooks or experts. We have our own stories in our own families, so we know about the horrors of slavery and what the outcome was.

It does put the Republican Party though in a very complicated position, because you now have conservative black legislators in the crosshairs of Ron DeSantis at a moment when the Republican Party has been trying to make inroads with African-Americans. And so how they're going to try to have it both ways I think it's going to be interesting to watch and I think it's another sign that Ron DeSantis just cannot win in the general election with this kind of a message.

REID: And Charlie, one of the other black Republicans DeSantis has attacked is Sen. Tim Scott appears to be heating up in terms of the polls. I mean his Super PAC has brought in around $20 million and some states polls have him gaining on DeSantis or even overtaking him for second place. DeSantis was once, of course, thought to be the anecdote to Trump. Now, it looks like it could be Scott?

DENT: Well, yes. Well, Tim Scott has a very aspirational forward- looking message. He is kind of like the anti Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis in many ways and that Scott is not talking about grievance and victimization. He's talking about the future. He's talking about what can happen and he's got a - this wonderful optimistic message. He's a - he's got a great personal story. I think people are responding to that. It's as simple as that.

And, again, Ron DeSantis has made missteps as Karen (ph) just said with the slavery and personal benefit in their state education guidelines. It's ridiculous (inaudible) appoint of Robert Kennedy, Jr. as the FDA - leader of the FDA or the Centers for Disease Control. I mean, these are - these - that's just crazy.

I mean, so he's had these types of missteps in recent days and I think Tim Scott is benefiting, again, with his personal story and a very positive message.

REID: And Karen, President Biden Publicly acknowledged his four-year- old granddaughter, Navy, for the first time in a statement first reported by people magazine. He said, "Our son Hunter and Navy's mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interest of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward. This is not a political issue, it's a family matter."

If this isn't political, why has the White House been so reluctant to discuss this issue? This young lady is four years old.

FINNEY: Well, I think they did make clear in this statement, I mean, look a lot of us have a complicated family dynamics and I certainly don't know the machinations of their family. I was most importantly glad to see the president and first lady acknowledge this child, because she should be the most important thing in all of this.

What I hope is that going forward, our Republican colleagues will refrain from using her as a way to attack Biden.

[18:35:02]

There has to be, even in this day and age, when you can be facing multiple indictments and running for president, there still has to be something that is off-limits and I think four-year-old children - children in general Must be off-limits. There are plenty of other attacks. You can levy on President Biden.

REID: Yes, it doesn't seem though that it's the child herself, it's the four years it took them to acknowledge her.

But Charlie, obviously the President's son, Hunter Biden, is going to be a prime fodder for Republicans. Do you think that issue resonates with voters?

REID: I actually do, because look Hunter Biden is - he's a bit of a train wreck. I think we have to acknowledge that. And I'm not I'm not going to suggest that the President did anything criminal. But when most Americans see that Hunter Biden who acknowledged that he was on drugs, gets his board position that pays close to $80,000 a month for a Ukrainian gas company, they raise their eyebrows and they think it smells. It smells of insider trading. It doesn't seem right. Same with these Chinese business dealings. So the whole thing smells bad and of course what happened in court -

in the courtroom the other day where the prosecution and Hunter's lawyers couldn't come to an agreement - on the agreement I think is also a problem, because is Hunter Biden potentially culpable for some Foreign Agents Registration Act violations that he could be charged for.

I mean, so I think this story is not going away. It is a major problem for the president and, again, I think Republicans have to be careful not to overreach, because ...

FINNEY: But Charlie ...

DENT: ... if you look at the Biden family story in total, you look at the story in - the total, you'll see he lost his wife and daughter in a car accident decades ago, his son Beau to cancer. And so there's a lot of tragedy and so I think a lot of voters will look at the Biden family in total and not just at Hunter's many shortcomings.

FINNEY: I mean, I actually think people are looking at Hunter and recognizing again no one should be above the law, even the President's son and he hasn't been. I mean he has been going through a legal process. There has been four years of an investigation Which started under Trump. They've never been able to connect this to the president where he is going through the criminal process.

And the other thing I would say that I think in this story is so many of us know or have relatives who are dealing with addiction and there is no one who will do more harm to that person than that individual. And I'm not excusing any behavior that he may have engaged in while he was an addict, but I think a lot of people have empathy for the fact that this is about a president and as a man as a father standing by his child but having nothing to do with any of his business dealings.

REID: All right. We'll leave it there. Family, it's complicated.

Karen and Charlie, thank you very much.

DENT: It is.

FINNEY: Thanks.

REID: They helped the U.S. and were promised visas. But long after the Taliban took over, many of those visas have not arrived. Hear from Afghans holding out hope and living in limbo next on the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:42:08]

REID: As U.S. troops pulled out of Afghanistan, President Biden promised that Afghans who helped America would not be left behind. But for many, that was an empty promise and some have even been sent back to Afghanistan.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It was the end of America's longest war, the worst of days. As Kabul fell to the Taliban and its airport became the last chance for salvation. The United States pledged those who helped it would have a new life in America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Those who helped us are not going to be left behind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: But nearly two years later, not only are some Afghans who have been officially told they should get visas to America still waiting in neighboring Pakistan. Some have waited so long, CNN can reveal they've been deported back to Afghanistan, sent back by Pakistani police to the Taliban they fled.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They stopped and told us - so we give you 24 hours deadline. We should not see you in Pakistan land.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH (voice over): CNN spoke to two Afghans who are now back in hiding in Kabul, had paperwork confirming they were being processed for U.S. so called Afghan P2 visas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is very, very dangerous and it is very tough. You know that how many people have been killed. Have been tortured. Have been disappeared. They will punish me. They will put me in jail. Maybe they will kill me. I'm sure they will.

Still we believe that U.S.A. will help us. We believe. We didn't lose our hope still.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH (voice over): Another said, he hadn't even told close family of his return to Kabul or deportation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) \ UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They did not hand us over to the Afghan border forces. They just released us on the border and told us to go back to Afghanistan. Also they did not give us any deportation document. It was me, my four kids and my wife who got deported together.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WALSH (voice over): For some, desperation means it is already too

late. This is where one of two Afghan men waiting for U.S. visas took their own lives in the past two months, throwing himself from the sixth floor here, according to activists.

Hundreds of Afghans have been deported from Pakistan in recent months say human rights groups. No distinction apparently made for those with the promise of a U.S. visa.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: U.S.A. complete the visa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH (voice over): Last week Afghans in Pakistan waiting for U.S. visas staged a protest. CNN spoke to several who complained of police harassment and fear greatly deportation to Afghanistan.

[18:45:01]

One described how the Taliban had beaten him senseless in Kabul before he fled, but that he now fears the Pakistani police's harassment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were asking for visa. There were a lot of policemen. They came into the house without clear information and they took me out of home and they were just putting me in the van.

My kids, they were very harassed. They were crying and they were asking for help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH (voice over): He described how he once saved his American colleagues during a protest and had letters denoting his service.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course I am disappointed, because the way that I served the American in Afghanistan, and I was expecting them to welcome me there sooner. It seems like I have no future at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH (voice over): The U.S. State Department told CNN the Biden administration "continues to demonstrate its commitment to the brave Afghans who worked with the U.S." but added the "processing capacity in Pakistan remains limited, but they are actively working to expand it."

And they urged Afghanistan's neighbors to quote "keep their borders open and uphold their obligations when it comes to asylum seekers." Pakistan's foreign ministry declined to comment.

Another family were also harassed by Pakistani police, the father briefly jailed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a very bad situation for my - for me and for my family. I think it's a bad dream.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH (voice over): His wife broke down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Save us from Pakistan. I can't come back to Afghanistan. Come back to Afghanistan is a big risk. And here we are dying every moment. And staying in Pakistan is a gradual death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH (voice over): Nick Paton Walsh, CNN London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REID: There's much more ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, including country star, Tim McGraw, who is about to hit the road for a big tour next. Hear his message for fans who might be thinking of taking part in a growing trend, throwing things at performers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:51:39]

(Standing Room Only by Tim McGraw)

REID: Tim McGraw may be coming to a concert venue near you. The country superstar is hitting the road early next year for a 33-stop tour as he has a album. He talked about both with our Chloe Melas.

All right. Chloe, what did Mr. Faith Hill tell you about this tour?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: That is so funny that you say that because I told Tim that when I was a little girl I used to listen to Faith Hill's music as I was falling asleep at night and his too on my cassette player. But we were talking about his tour which the tickets go on sale for Standing Room Only in just a couple days.

And I said, there's this - I know you're excited to go back on tour, Tim, but there's this concerning trend of people throwing things during the concerts and we really didn't see that that much before the pandemic. You haven't toured since the pandemic, what are your thoughts on that, and this is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM MCGRAW, COUNTRY SINGER: I can't wait to get on that stage and start figuring out how to work all the bells and whistles and not get run over by something. This is the main thing, but we're going back - we're playing a lot. We're going to play a lot of the hits. We can't play everything, so - and unavoidably, we're going to not play somebody's favorite song because you just don't have time to play them all, but what we try to do is just create an experience and a roller coaster ride.

MELAS: Do you have any opinions on just this kind of growing trend, unfortunately, that people are throwing stuff at concerts?

MCGRAW: I think he's terrible. I think it - I mean, you could really injure somebody and you can miss and hit somebody in the audience and injure somebody. And what happens if somebody gets hurt, then it ruins the show for everybody. It's like can't continue performing. I mean, I'm used to soft goods being thrown at me and that's fine. But don't throw anything that's got any heft to it that's going to hurt somebody. I just think that it's just not - it's not appropriate to do and everybody's there to have fun and there's just no need in any of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MELAS: He definitely had me chuckle when he said he's had soft goods thrown at him during concerts. But we also talked about the fact that he's a busy guy, not just gearing up to go on tour He has an album coming out next month by the same name Standing Room Only and he talked to me a little bit about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELAS: Talk to me about what your fans can expect, first of all, on the album and the songs and why you wanted to put out more music.

MCGRAW: Absolutely. It's been three years since my last album. My last time came out - "Here on Earth" came out right in the middle of the pandemic. And I immediately - because like we all did have a lot of downtime during that that period of our lives.

And so I started collecting - so I started writing songs first. I always have these ideas of that sort of thematically of what I want to record. I wanted this music on this album sort of reflect life in general, be life-affirming and positive and there's some fun stuff on there and some up-tempo stuff on there.

[18:55:00]

But even, I think, the up-tempo things have a great message to them and a great positive message to them and that's really what I wanted this album to be about, just sort of living the good life and being the best person that you can be, and knowing we all make mistakes but you wake up the next day and try to be a better person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MELAS: I just loved my time with Tim McGraw and he also told me that every time he is working on new music before he puts it out there, he runs it by his wife, Faith Hill, who gives him some real honest opinions. But I know fans are excited about the tour and the album. REID: Chloe, I'm going to pitch to the bosses, your entertainment

reporting chops, my investigative reporting skills, we got to get to the bottom of why we haven't gotten a Faith Hill record in a really long time. I think this is a very important story we should both work on. Thank you so much for that great report on Tim McGraw.

MELAS: Send us to Tennessee. Send us to Tennessee, yes.

REID: And tomorrow night on CNN, See It Loud looks back on the rise of black unscripted television. The premieres tomorrow night at 9 Eastern here on CNN.

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