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Four Israeli Hostages Rescued In Gaza Military Operation; U.S. Cell In Israel Aided In Hostage Rescue; President Biden Attends State Dinner With French President Macron; Global Rise In Authoritarianism Raises Concerns; Trump Campaigns In Las Vegas Amid Fundraising Swing Across The West; Supreme Court Justices Face New Criticisms; Video Shows Burbank Police Leave Homeless Man Out L.A. City Council; 3 Injured In Separate Shark Attacks In Neighboring Florida Beaches. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired June 08, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:01:02]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

New today, emotional moments in Israel as four hostages are rescued and reunited with their families after eight months of being held by Hamas. The Israeli military launching a dramatic raid into Gaza to return those hostages home. But that operation also left a trail of devastation for Central Gaza. There were reports of more than 200 killed in the assault and hundreds more wounded.

Also new today a potential shakeup in Israel's emergency government. Prime Minister Netanyahu now asking war cabinet member Benny Gantz to stay after reports that he and his National Unity Party would withdraw from the government. Gantz postponed the news conference set for today after the rescue of the four Israeli hostages.

CNN's Paula Hancocks and Priscilla Alvarez have been tracking all the latest developments.

Paula, let's go to you. You're in Tel Aviv where there also is some sort of demonstration or protests happening. Explain.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred. So this is the weekly protests that we have been seeing in recent weeks and months partly with the families of the hostages that are still being held, calling for their release, and also in great part, calling for the government to collapse, calling from Benjamin Netanyahu to step down.

Now there have been some family members of those still being held in Gaza who've made some speeches tonight and it is interesting because the overall theme has been obviously very welcoming that there are four hostages that have been rescued earlier this Saturday. But overwhelmingly that there needs to be a ceasefire deal in order to be able to release the final 120 who are still being held in Gaza.

There was the cousin of one hostage who is deceased, that their remains are being held by Hamas militants, saying not everybody is getting a Hollywood ending, pointing out that this worked for these four hostages. But there definitely now needs to be a concerted effort to get a ceasefire deal or hostage deal so that the rest of the hostages can be released -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: And then, Paula, are you hearing anything more about how this rescue operation unfolded?

HANCOCKS: So what we're hearing from the military at this point, it was a joint mission between the military, the security agency, the police. It was weeks in the making and it was just Thursday night where the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed and gave it the green light.

So we know that it happened in Nuseirat, Central Gaza. It was what is being described as a high risk complex mission. Two buildings in Gaza were targeted by the Israeli military and they went in and managed to retrieve the four hostages. We do know that there was devastation left in the wake of this rescue mission, though. We're hearing from the media office in Gaza that more than 210 were killed, more than 400 were injured.

A CNN producer on the ground saw a constant stream of dead and wounded coming into the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Hospital, men, women, and children. In fact, one man said this is hell on earth. So there has been a very heavy price to pay. We don't have clarity at this point of the breakdown of militant deaths compared to civilians. But certainly there are questions being asked. We did hear, though, from one mother of one of the hostages being released. So let's listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ONIT MOIR, MOTHER OF ALMOG MEIR: Yes. Still 120 hostages in Gaza. And we want a deal now. We want them to come back home as soon as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:05:10]

HANCOCKS: So it's interesting that at the same time as she was thanking the military for what they had done and was welcoming back her son, she was also saying the way to get the other hostages back is not through these kinds of missions. It is through a hostage deal and ceasefire deal -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Paula Hancocks, thank you.

Priscilla Alvarez is in Washington, and Priscilla, I understand you're learning more about the U.S. support in this rescue mission.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fred. The American cell that we have been talking about over the course of the afternoon that aided Israel in this effort is in reference to a team that has been on -- has been assisting Israel since October 7th in information gathering of hostages. That's what I'm told by a U.S. official. They worked closely with Israel as they were executing on this rescue mission.

We are also told by a source that there were no U.S. boots on the ground in this mission. Now, over the course of the day, we have heard the U.S. tout this operation, casting it as successful, even hearing from the president himself, who was alongside the French president earlier today when he applauded this mission.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to echo President Macron's comments welcoming the safe rescue of four hostages that were returned to their families in Israel. We won't stop working until all the hostages come home and a ceasefire is reached. That is essential to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, you heard the president there referenced that agreement that has been worked on by all of the parties involved. This includes the exchange of hostages and also a ceasefire agreement. Now the U.S. has been pushing for this. The president himself coming out publicly and laying out the proposal phase by phase in a quite rare move a few weeks ago. And now the U.S. is still trying to see that through to the finish line.

The Middle East, the situation happening there was expected to come up between the two leaders over the course of the president's visit in France. We also know that some senior U.S. officials did go back to the Middle East to try to give momentum to some of these hostage talks. Again, because the U.S. wants to see the release of all hostages in exchange for end of fighting in Gaza. As to where there'll be -- where those talks are unclear, but they are calling the operation today successful.

WHITFIELD: All right. Priscilla Alvarez and Paula Hancocks, thanks to both of you.

All right. Let's talk more about all this, joining me right now is former NATO Supreme Allied commander, General Wesley Clark.

General, good to see you. So, you know, are you surprised on how the U.S., what we're learning now from our reporting, how the U.S. assisted in this operation in terms of information, providing information?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK(RET.), FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: No. We've been trying to help from the beginning, Fredricka, and we've been using our intelligence collection assets and we've had liaison teams in Israel trying to feed this information in and trying to end this terrible situation.

It's so tragic when you look at it and the angst of the parents, the mother of the rescued hostage, and the pressure on Israel, but we've got to remember this is all part of the Hamas plan. They wanted this. They launched the attack. They started the war. They cynically are using their civilian populace as hostages themselves and hoping that Israel will cause even more collateral damage and more injured and killed Palestinians because they consider that the only way they can win against Israel is the pressure of world opinion against Israel.

WHITFIELD: I wonder if you can help elaborate on this kind of simultaneous approach. While there have been ongoing hostage, you know, release negotiations, ceasefire negotiation kind of talks, at the same time, at least looking at the results from this raid, there are ongoing strategies about how to extract hostages when Israel has the intelligence to learn of where they might be. Help people understand while you may, you know, hope for diplomacy to work in these negotiations, there are still the operation and in this case, we're told it was a joint operation involving military, security agencies and police of hatching a plan how to extract, rescue people if the intelligence leads them that way.

CLARK: Well, you're listening to all sources of information. You're hoping to monitor cell phone. You've got overheard imagery. You probably have some informants who were still there. You have your troops on the ground. You're trying to locate the hostages, and then you have to make the assessment of whether you can extract them.

[15:10:03]

And if so how to do that and get them out alive. And so this, as we heard, has been watched and planned for several days. They've looked at them, they're watching them move, no doubt. And they're figuring, OK, how do we do this? Where do we put the fires on? What happens when we go in? What will Hamas do? How do we prevent Hamas from them killing the hostages or moving them while the operation is underway.

And so all of these calculations are part of the planning process and then ultimately the top political leaders have to make the decision, OK, it's worth the risk. And they did in this case.

WHITFIELD: What kind of information do you think is needed to share publicly in terms of you have four hostages who have been freed, there are 210 Palestinians who have been killed, 400 wounded? Is there information that the IDF should be conveying?

CLARK: Well it would be nice if we could understand that those Palestinians weren't killed or how they got killed and how that wasn't part of the plan and how it shouldn't have happened. But I'm not sure we're going to ever find that information, Fredricka, because Israel's first priority in this case is to keep secret the means by which they located and planned this operation. And so if they disclose the kinds of information that might be exculpatory in this case, it might also give away their sources of information, how they do their planning and make it impossible to really rescue other hostages.

Remember, this is an ongoing problem. And the real problem here is Hamas doesn't want to surrender the hostages unless they can get guarantee a permanent cease fire, and Israel will take a temporary ceasefire but doesn't want to accept a permanent ceasefire and let Hamas survive this and claim a victory. So that's it. And I'm sure there are elements in Hamas who say let's get it over with, just as there are elements inside the coalition government in Israel who say, let's get it over with.

But this is a war and it's going to go on I think until one side wins and that's going to be Israel despite the cost.

WHITFIELD: General Wesley Clark, thank you so much.

CLARK: Thank you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, right now President Biden is at a state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron. What Biden toasted to next. And back-to-back shark attacks. Florida beaches on high alert after three people were attacked by sharks in less than two hours. What officials are saying about the incidents.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:17:24]

WHITFIELD: All right. Live pictures right now of Tel Aviv. Protesters there who have been rallying against the Netanyahu government demanding the release of all hostages at the same time celebrating news today of four Israeli hostages who were rescued in a mission, the rescue mission that played out earlier today in Gaza.

Also, we continue to follow breaking news out of France. Right now President Biden is at a state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron. This event is the grand finale to Biden's five-day trip to France as he looks to strengthen the relationship with this critical U.S. ally.

CNN's Melissa Bell is in Paris for us.

And Melissa, this has been quite the whirlwind visit for President Biden filled with lots of a pomp and of course lots of promise as well, and a lot of diplomacy. Set the scene for us.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An awful lot of history as well, Fredricka, that has been at the center of so much of what we heard from both presidents these last few days, the shared histories of the United States and France. And for President Biden, what we just heard at the start of what is a pretty glitzy affair going on at Elysee Palace was a toast, saying that this had been the most remarkable trip he'd ever made to France.

When you consider what the presidential couple have been able to do these last few days from the events in Normandy, with the veterans, through the (INAUDIBLE) Champs-Elysees today and to this state dinner of course you can understand better. And what we heard during the toasts was really another pledge from both presidents about their, as you say, promise for the future, standing firm with one another, essentially that the world is a safer place when France and the United States have been allies in the past and that this continues on with protecting European Western security in the shape of the fight that's going on in Ukraine. Also very central to messages we've heard over the course of the last week and again tonight at that state dinner. And as we were speaking about a moment ago, this has not always been a

smooth relationship, Fredricka. There were times back in 2021 when at the fraught relationship between Emmanuel Macron and President Biden had seem to sidetrack really what had been a long and harmonious alliance and yet so much progress has been made. There was the state dinner at the White House in 2022 that Emmanuel Macron had been to and now his turn to reciprocate.

And a state dinner really about ending on a very nice note there at the Elysee Palace tonight certainly with all the glitz that goes with it.

[15:20:08]

A state visit that has meant a lot politically I think given their domestic audiences and challenges to both presidents -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Indeed. All right. Melissa Bell in Paris. Thanks so much.

And as President Biden takes the world stage this week, he is making a renewed case for democracy as he honors the members of the greatest generation who helped end World War II. And in this election year, he is also reaching out to our allies and issuing stark warnings about the perils of isolationism and the rise in authoritarianism around the globe.

I'm joined now by Marc Favreau. He is the author of several books on U.S. history, and he's the editor of "A People's History of World War II: The World's Most Destructive Conflict as Told by the People who Lived Through It."

Marc, great to see you again.

MARC FAVREAU, EDITOR, "A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF WORLD WAR II": Thank you, Fredricka. Nice to see you.

WHITFIELD: So that the common theme, you know, of protecting democracy and facing tyranny with a collective resolve has been prominent during this five-day trip involving the president, former President Reagan's message of working against isolationism. That was 40 years ago and now President Bidens message is every generation must defend liberty.

Does the messaging sound more urgent however today 80 years after the fact?

FAVREAU: I think it does. Absolutely. I mean, a famous historian I know once said, you know, history isn't just what happened in the past. It's this conversation with the present. And I think there's a reason this year and it's not just partisanship, it's not just the election year that history is kind of flowing back to us so powerfully and that we're having this conversation with the past in 2024.

There's something about the commemoration these past few days about the impact of Biden's speeches, you know, taking place just as the living memory of the Normandy veterans are passing, you know, from the earth and the urgent need reappearing to know like why were they fighting? You know, what were they about? Why did this conflict take place in the first place? And I think particularly, particularly the re-emergence in the United States of something that some people call fascism which is of course what the allies organized together to defeat in 1944 and 1945.

The idea that history has come full circle to a very troubling place I think makes this a very different kind of moment than 40 years ago.

WHITFIELD: And, you know, Marc, I asked you this question on my show on CNN Max last first day, and you were so eloquent that I've got to ask it again to another audience here on CNN NEWSROOM weekends. I mean, these American veterans who are now 100 years old, some of them older, they were just 19, some even 16 years old when they embarked on D-Day. My dad was drafted right out of high school, becoming a Tuskegee airmen in World War II.

So why is it that so many of these men now, you know, 100 years old and plus, are able to, you know, reflect that, yes, they were scared, but they were completely aware of what this war and mission was all about, and that it was necessary.

FAVREAU: I think it's because there was no doubt by 1944 who the enemy was, and the enemy was totalitarianism. It was Adolf Hitler. It was the enemies of democracy. And it's difficult to underscore today or even to comprehend today with all the divisiveness in American politics a time when despite the fact of there being many, many divisions in American society and in some ways even deeper divisions than there are today, the coming together of so many tens of millions of people and particularly of so many millions of soldiers and draftees and sailors and other people.

I mean, I think one thing that Biden noted in one of his speeches that was so important, he noted the Tuskegee airmen. He noted the women who worked in the factories and as nurses in World War II. I think the sense of unity is very important to recall because it was real, it was tangible among the people who fought, and it speaks to what we're about today as we contemplate this same historical arc of democracy, and the challenges to democracy.

WHITFIELD: Again very eloquent, well said. Marc Favreau, thank you so much. Glad you could be with us.

FAVREAU: Thank you. Thanks.

WHITFIELD: When we come back former president Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail with a rally this weekend in Las Vegas.

[15:25:04]

Why his campaign is doubling the amount of emergency medical staff for the event, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: As triple-digit record-breaking temperatures hit Las Vegas, the Trump campaign plans an outdoor rally. The former president is back on the campaign trail a week after being found guilty in a Manhattan courtroom on 34 counts of falsifying business records. His West Coast fundraising swing has already taken him to Arizona and California.

CNN's Alayna Treene is in Las Vegas for us right now.

Alaina, so an outdoor rally at noon during, you know, a lot of heat. Are there any safety concerns? What are the precautions that are being taken?

[15:30:08]

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's definitely going to be a scorcher, Fred, and there are definitely safety concerns, especially because this, as you mentioned, is an outdoor rally. The temperatures right now or the forecast I should say showing temperatures reaching 104 degrees tomorrow, and so there's a lot of concerns about how this could go down tomorrow. And we were told that the Trump campaign is aware of them and they're trying to go to great lengths to keep people safe.

That includes doubling the emergency medical staff that they have on the ground. They're going to have more than 38,000 bottles of water for people who are attending. They're going to have 20 power breeze or misting fans is what they've told us. A series of tents that they're going to have to try and keep people cool and then they're also adding some more magazines to speed up the security process.

But look, these precautions come after 11 people were transported to the hospital on Thursday during his rally in Phoenix, Arizona, or the town hall in Phoenix, Arizona, for heat-related illness. That's according to the Phoenix Fire Department.

And keep in mind, Fred, that rally was actually indoors. The people who were sent to the hospital had heat-related illness because they were outside trying to get in. So there's definitely very valid concerns about how the heat could be affecting the rally tomorrow.

WHITFIELD: And Alayna, I mean, this week Donald Trump making no bones about his plans to, you know, seek revenge on his political enemies if he is reelected. What's he been saying?

TREENE: Well, he's definitely been escalating that language trying to have retribution on his political opponents. But what I found really interesting, Fred, is he's in a series of interviews for the past several days and many of these hosts, I'd argue that they're friendly hosts to the former president, have tried to get him to step away from some of that revenge rhetoric that he's been using. But instead, hes doubled down. Take a listen to what he told Dr. Phil in an interview on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Retribution is going to be through success. We're going to make it very successful. We have to bring the country together. The word revenge is a very strong word, but maybe we have revenge

through success. Well, revenge does take time, I will say that.

DR. PHIL MCGRAW, HOST, "DR. PHIL PRIMETIME": It does.

TRUMP: And sometimes revenge can be justified, though I have to be honest.

MCGRAW: No --

TRUMP: You know, sometimes they can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Sometimes revenge can be justified. Pretty strong language from the former president there and Fred, look, I mean, we've heard this type of language from Donald Trump ever since he was indicted last year. He has vowed to potentially seek retribution on his political enemies and so this language isn't entirely new. We're just hearing more of it, particularly in the aftermath of his conviction last week -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Alayna Treene in Las Vegas, thanks so much.

All right. The U.S. Supreme Court is now facing a wave of new criticisms. On Friday Justice Clarence Thomas formally disclosed that a 2019 trip to Bali was paid for by billionaire Republican mega donor Harlan Crow. The annual disclosures which are required by law have drawn considerable attention in recent years amid a series of ethics scandals involving private jet travel and luxury vacations accepted by some of the justices, as well as lucrative book deals.

Well, new questions also being raised about the timeline of Justice Samuel Alito's upside down flag controversy on his properties. It was spotted at his Virginia home back in 2021. This right here, it's a display that has become synonymous with those who believed the 2020 election was stolen. Alito claimed in a letter to Congress that his wife raise the flag over a feud with a neighbor. But that neighbor now tell CNN that timeline does not add up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EMILY BADEN, A FORMER NEIGHBOR OF SUPREME COURT JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO: At best he's mistaken, but at worst he's just outright lying. The interaction that happened on February 15th is the one that they're using as an excuse for why they flew the flag. And I really want to hammer home the fact that that happened on February 15th and they're flag went up two or three weeks before that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Joining me right now, Jeff Swartz, he's a former judge for a Miami-Dade County and now a professor at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School's Tampa Bay campus.

Great to see you. JEFF SWARTZ, PROFESSOR, THOMAS M. COOLEY LAW SCHOOL: Nice to see you,

Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. So these competing narratives about flags flown on Justice Alito's homes, I mean, does the argument over Alito recusing himself from any insurrection related cases grow even stronger?

SWARTZ: It does grow stronger because it's not just the fact that it happened, and it doesn't matter that it was his wife who put the flag up. The people who are involved in its set up a timeline where Alito was present during the argument that took place.

[15:35:02]

And it's hard to imagine that for three or four weeks, Alito came home from work, parked his car where you can see its parked and didn't see a flag flying upside down, and he said that he didn't notice those flags. So it's hard to imagine that he is literally telling the whole truth. And that's really bad for anybody, let alone a judge of the Supreme Court.

WHITFIELD: A judge.

SWARTZ: I have some real problems with this. Yes.

WHITFIELD: So --

SWARTZ: He has serious ethical issues going on.

WHITFIELD: So then what kind of power, you know, do his eight fellow justices have to have him removed from any involvement in, you know, hearing arguments or rendering decisions on these kinds of cases?

SWARTZ: There's a great op-ed that was done by Congressman Raskin who said that there is a statute that can be used.

WHITFIELD: Jamie Raskin.

SWARTZ: Yes. From New York. And he said very simply that there is a statute that applies to all judges, it does not exclude the Supreme Court, where they can file a motion for recusal or really disqualification and the other eight justices have to make a decision on it. And it has to be by an order to determine whether a justice is disqualified from a case. Other than that, there really is no way to get Justice Alito out of all of these cases.

The public pressure has to do it. And I think that Justice Roberts, Chief Justice Roberts has to step up and do something Sitting back, you just let it all happen.

WHITFIELD: What are the options? What are his options?

SWARTZ: Well, I think he's supposed to carry the authority of the court. He's supposed to have the ability to call Justice Alito in and say you are doing damage to this court. You are doing damage to our reputation. This is one of those times where you're just going to have to do what the public expects of you. And I think what most judges expect of you. And that's the best he can do, but he should at least make it public that he does have a problem with what's going on.

WHITFIELD: And meantime, the justices have revealed, you know, in these financial disclosures for 2026, things including a book advances for Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, and Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas also, you know, now disclose a trip -- and Amy Coney Barrett, too, and you know, and now Thomas, you know, disclosed this trip to Valley paid for by GOP mega donor Harlan Crow.

So how might these disclosures impact what kind of cases they consider? And I guess if those things are taken into account, why wouldn't the flag issue also be taken into account?

SWARTZ: OK. Those books, if they talk about cases, talk about the justices' feeling about certain matters which can come before the court, that would be a basis to ask for disqualification. I don't have a problem with a justice writing what amounts to be an autobiography or review of case law and what it means. That's fine. In writing those books, they earn that money and people do listen to what they had to say.

However, you know, million-dollar trips to Bali, those type of things, those are those are a real problematical. I mean, Justice Scalia took a lot of trips, but they weren't that expensive, but he never declared them. And I think that at that point now it's become important that they do. Justice Thomas' declarations now leave him at the $2.5 million to $4 million range since he took the bench with a majority of that money being in the last five or six years. So it seems getting worse for him.

Justice Barrett I believe declared $1 million worth of either book deals or outside income that was brought in. This idea of seven-figure salaries can easily be resolved. Just give the justices a raise, put them in a pay, you know, that allows them to live the kind of life in Washington that they probably deserve, and that they have given up by going out of private practice. I think that that's the way to get those things done and then bring in an ethical code that's passed by Congress. One that's enforceable as a high crime or misdemeanor and leaves them susceptible to being impeached.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jeff Swartz, Judge, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

SWARTZ: Nice seeing you again, Fred.

WHITFIELD: OK. Good to see you, too.

And just quick little correction, Jamie Raskin, not New York, but Maryland.

All right, now, straight ahead, police are investigating after some of its officers are accused of leaving a distressed homeless man outside the L.A. City Council. That's next.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. We're getting new details on the story that is putting the Burbank Police Department under a scrutiny after surveillance video captured two of its officers dumping a clearly distressed homeless man outside the Los Angeles City Council's office and driving away.

Joining me right now is CNN's Camila Bernal.

Camila, what more are we learning about this?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey Fred, so the president of the council, we now know, is calling for a state investigation.

[15:45:02]

And the Burbank Police Department also saying that they're looking into all of this specifically the actions of the officers, the bodycam video, the camera inside of that patrol car, and witnesses who may have seen this. And this is all after the council member released this video. And in that video you can see that patrol car pulling up to the street here behind me, and they get out of the car. You see that man with what appears to be handcuffs.

They help him out of those and you see in the video as he sort of waving his arms, maybe he loses his balance and he falls on all fours. Those officers then are seeing getting back in the car and leaving. And so then in that video, you see this man laying flat on his stomach. It's unclear exactly how long he was in this position, how long really he was in this entire area overall. And it's part of the reason why the council member says he's extremely disappointed about all of this. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL KREKORIAN (D), LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT: I was outraged by it and continue to be, and I just -- it's almost impossible to fathom, you know, professionals who are trained and paid to protect and serve the public to take somebody at this moment of maximum vulnerability, somebody seeking medical care, and dumping, literally dumping him on a sidewalk to fend for himself. It's a disgrace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: Yes, the Burbank Police Department released a statement sort of explaining things, maybe a little bit differently. They say they received a call about a naked man and these officers responded. They spoke to him, got him to put some clothes on, and essentially agreed on taking him to a metro stop. So here's part of that statement. I'm going to read it to you. They say, "He voluntarily got into the patrol vehicle and was driven towards the Metro Red Line station.

"Along the way, the individual asked to be let out of the vehicle to get coffee. The officers complied immediately with the request, pulled over, and the individual got out of the patrol vehicle." So again, the big picture here is homelessness here in Los Angeles and California, it remains an issue that really politicians struggle with here in California -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Camila Bernal, keep us posted on that.

All right, coming up two popular Florida panhandle beaches are warning of dangerous waters after three people were attacked by sharks just hours apart. All the details straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:52:13]

WHITFIELD: -- come back three victims injured in separate shark attacks at neighboring beaches, less than two hours apart. All the attacks happened on popular beaches along Florida's panhandle.

Let's bring in now CNN's Rafael Romo with more on this. I mean, pretty terrifying.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very terrifying. It's something that rarely ever happens, Fred. The beaches have reopened in Walton County, Florida, today. The South Walton Fire District is flying red and purple flags which indicate dangerous marine life is in the area. Officials are trying to determine the cause of two separate shark attacks Friday afternoon, that happened in the span of less than two hours and only about four miles apart.

According to authorities a 45-year-old woman who was attacked just after 1:15 p.m. suffered significant trauma to her midsection and pelvic area, as well as the amputation of her left lower arm. And then at 2:56 p.m. two girls between the ages of 15 and 17 were also attacked. The first victim suffered what officials described as significant injuries to one upper and one lower extremity, both requiring the application of tourniquets and was transported to the hospital in critical condition.

The second victim has minor wounds to her right foot and we just learned from authorities that the 45-year-old woman and the teenage girl who suffered the more serious injuries are in stable condition at the hospital. And the other teenage girl has been released.

Walden County officials said what happened is both tragic and terrifying, but historically shark attacks are exceedingly rare.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF RYAN CRAWFORD, SOUTH WALTON FIRE DISTRICT: They're highly unusual. And it's extremely unusual for two to happen in the same afternoon within four miles of one another. As the sheriff mentioned we're reaching out to speak to subject matter experts as to what may, you know, what may be causing that, what the golf temperatures, the steering current, whatever that is.

SHERIFF MIKE ADKINSON, WALTON COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: It is rare, exceedingly rare to have three victims in one day. We understand that, but we need to make sure that we're also using good judgment, very pertinent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And today, the Walton County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit has been monitoring the shoreline. A deputy spotted a 14-foot hammer head in Santa Rosa Beach this morning from their boats. But they say this is not uncommon.

Officials also said that, Fred, before those two attacks on Friday in Walton County, the last one in the area we have occurred in 2021 when a 14-year-old boy was swimming near the fishing line, 40 yards from the shore, and he survived. And then you would have to go back to 2005 when a 14-year-old girl was attacked on a boogie board 250 yards from the shore and died after being pulled under by the shark.

While the risk of being bitten by a shark is extremely low, Florida tops global charts for the number of shark bites according to the Florida Museum of Natural History's annual shark attack report.

[15:55:06]

But again, even if it's rare, a lot of people who visit that area very, very worried today.

WHITFIELD: Sure. Absolutely. Still very important to be aware. All right. Rafael Romo, thank you so much.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, today, drag shows are more popular than ever. But how did they become such a target for the political right? CNN's Randy Kaye investigates on a new episode of "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER."