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Two Students, Two Teachers Killed in Georgia School Shooting, Teen in Custody; Harris, Trump Agree to September 10 Presidential Debate Rules; Harris, Trump Neck and Neck in Key Swing States; U.S. DOJ Accuses RT Employees of Election Influence Scheme. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired September 05, 2024 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pure evil did what happened today. That's all I can tell you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was scared I was going to die, to be honest. And when I heard hard lock down, I knew it wasn't a drill. When I heard gunshots, I was just -- I knew.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was such a peaceful town. I didn't think it would be here, where I live.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just scared out of my mind.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The Philadelphi Corridor cannot be perforated. Somebody has to be there. The real obstacle to making a deal is not Israel. And it's not me. It's Hamas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They start week one, they start Thursday night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're playing best of the best football team week one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody's just fired up to get out in front of Arrowhead and get this season started.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm Christina Macfarlane. It's Thursday, September 5th, 9 a.m. here in London, 4 a.m. in Winder, Georgia, when investigators are searching for the motive in a school shooting that killed four people and left nine others hospitalized.

The victims include two 14-year-old students and two math teachers. Investigators say there's no known connection between the suspect and his victims. Members of the community held a vigil Wednesday night.

Several students spoke with CNN about what they saw, including the girl who sat next to the suspect in algebra class.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He turns to the classroom to what would have been my right, and he just starts to shoot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard gunshots, sounded like someone was just banging on a door. And then there was a red alert that popped up on the screen, and then a light went off, and it sort of hit me what was happening.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Another teacher was watching us, and so she was like, oh, my God, oh, my God. She was like, go in the closet, everyone go in the closet. And we heard, like, really loud shots and stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a place where I'm supposed to feel safe. Like, this is honestly a place I did honestly feel safe. Every time I walked in this school, I never thought anything would happen to me.

Like, that's honestly a place I've honestly felt protected. Now I don't even want to be in the hallways alone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was scared I was going to die, to be honest. And when I heard hard lock down, I knew it wasn't a drill. I immediately texted my dad, and I was just like, I don't know if this is a drill, I'm really scared. And I just kept my feet up, and I prayed. And I closed my eyes, and I tried to stay calm. But I was shaking. I was worried that they would hear me. But when I heard gunshots, I was just, I knew.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well, law enforcement officials say the FBI interviewed the 14-year-old suspect last year about school shooting threats. But they found no probable cause to take action. They say he was armed with an AR-15-style rifle on Wednesday and immediately surrendered to school resource officers when they confronted him.

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SHERIFF JUD SMITH, BARROW COUNTY, GEORGIA: Hate is not going to prevail in our county, and hate is not going to prevail in our state. And pure evil did what happened today.

CHRIS HOSEY, DIRECTOR, GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: We have heroes in our midst. We've talked about our law enforcement personnel, our fire, our EMS. Those that are deceased are heroes in my book. Those that are in the hospital recovering right now are heroes in my book. But also the heroes that we need to remember is our faculty and staff here at this school. They acted admirably. They were heroes in the actions that they took.

The protocols of this school and this system activated today, prevented this from being a much larger tragedy than what we had here today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, here's more now from CNN's Isabel Rosales.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): High school students evacuating in Winder, Georgia, one by one, out to safety.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keep your head up. Keep your head up.

ROSALES (voice-over): Some joined a prayer circle after surviving the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. since March of last year. According to the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, two students and two teachers were killed at Apalachee High School. Nine others were injured and hospitalized, four with gunshot wounds.

The shooter who opened fire Wednesday morning shortly after 10 a.m. identified as 14-year-old student Colt Gray, who surrendered after being confronted by school resource officers.

HOSEY: Within minutes, law enforcement was on scene, as well as two school resource officers assigned here to the school who immediately encountered the subject within just minutes of this report going out. Once they encountered the subject, the subject immediately surrendered to these officers, and he was taken into custody.

ROSALES (voice-over): Multiple law enforcement officials tell CNN the school received a phone call this morning warning that there would be shootings at five schools, starting with theirs.

[04:05:02]

The call is now being investigated. The sheriff, meanwhile, says he wasn't aware of any calls.

A massive law enforcement response, including the FBI and ATF, were on the scene, working with state, local, and federal officers. Junior Laila Fohrman was in the bathroom when the school alarm went off.

LAILA FOHRMAN, WITNESS: I was scared I was going to die, to be honest. And when I heard hard lock down, I knew it wasn't a drill. I immediately texted my dad, and I was just like, I don't know if this is a drill. I'm really scared. And I just kept my feet up, and I prayed.

ROSALES (voice-over): Many parents rushed to the school, like Erin Clark, after receiving these text messages from her 17-year-old son, Ethan.

School shooting. I'm scared. Please, I'm not joking.

I'm leaving work, says the mom.

I love you. Love you too, baby.

Others in disbelief.

MATTHEW STRICKLAND, PARENT: I tried to get here as soon as possible. I mean, it's just crazy something like this happens in such a small town, such a small county. You just never know what's going to happen. I was just grateful that she was still good.

ROSALES (voice-over): Sheriff Judd Smith vowed to stay strong for his community.

SHERIFF JUD SMITH, BARROW COUNTY, GEORGIA: I went to school in this school system. My kids go to this school system. I'm proud of this school system.

My heart hurts for these kids. My heart hurts for our community. But I want to make it very clear that hate will not prevail in this county.

ROSALES: And the American flag here at Apalachee High School has been lowered to half-staff, a reminder that something terrible has happened here at the school and a mark of respect for those that have been killed and those students that have been injured as well. We know from the superintendent that they have closed down the schools through the remainder of the week. Meanwhile, officials vowing to charge this alleged shooter with murder and also to try him as an adult.

Isabel Rosales in Winder, Georgia, CNN.

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MACFARLANE: Now, two months to go before the U.S. presidential election in November and less than a week before the first and possibly only debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. ABC News has officially announced the rules of the September 10th face-off in Philadelphia and both presidential candidates will have agreed to have that format. The 90-minute debate will have two moderators and no audience.

The former U.S. president won the virtual coin toss and chose to offer the last closing statement. The Harris campaign has agreed to a key sticking point, muted microphones while the other candidate is speaking, but it again laid out its objections to the condition, insisting the vice president will be, quote, fundamentally disadvantaged by this format.

Well former U.S. House Republican Liz Cheney says she'll vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November. The lifelong Republican has been a fierce critic of Donald Trump ever since the January 6th insurrection. She noted the importance of voting for Harris in states like North Carolina, which are key electoral battlegrounds. Cheney told an audience at Duke University she did not make the decision lightly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LIZ CHENEY, FORMER U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: And as a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris in November.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, Kamala Harris says she's proud to have earned Cheney's vote according to her campaign.

And at a Fox News town hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday night, Donald Trump cast doubt on the fairness of the debate. He claimed Kamala Harris wanted notes and a desk, something the debate rules don't allow, and made a baseless allegation that Harris would get the questions in advance. He also spent the day insulting her.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This is a woman who is dangerous. I don't think too smart, but let's see. But she loses her train of thought a lot.

TRUMP: But they were politically correct. They wanted to be politically correct, as so many people do nowadays.

She can't do an interview. She's either not smart enough, and I think that's actually the case, but she's either not smart enough to do them. Something's wrong. There's something wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, sources tell CNN Kamala Harris will head to Pittsburgh in the coming hours to prepare for Tuesday's debate. She'll also hold campaign events while she's there. In New Hampshire Wednesday, Harris said, so far, so good when asked about her debate preparations.

She also unveiled plans to support small businesses and address the school shooting in Georgia. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has the details.

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PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Kamala Harris traveling to New Hampshire on Wednesday where she unveiled a new slate of economic proposals, but before doing so, addressing that tragedy at a high school in Georgia, saying that it was tragic and that it should not happen.

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KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Our kids are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential, and some part of their big, beautiful brain is concerned about a shooter busting through the door of the classroom. It does not have to be this way. (APPLAUSE)

HARRIS: It does not have to be this way. And, you know, this is one of the many issues that's at stake in this election.

ALVAREZ: Now, the vice president has been the lead of the White House Office of Gun Violence, an office that has been focused on identifying any executive actions or measures that can be taken by the administration outside of Congress.

But the vice president clearly keeping the focus and the pressure on lawmakers, also noting over the course of her remarks that while she is in favor of the Second Amendment, she is also in favor of gun safety laws.

Now, again, the purpose of the visit here in New Hampshire was on the economy. On that front, she introduced multiple proposals that she argued would help entrepreneurs and small businesses, including, for example, removing the tax deduction or, excuse me, expanding tax deduction, removing regulatory hurdles, and increasing community-based lending, all of that with the goal of increasing, exponentially increasing, the number of small businesses if she were to win a term in the White House.

Now, again, the vice president has been focused on the economy over the course of the week, looking ahead to that presidential debate, framing her proposals as helping the middle class, a critical constituency heading into November.

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, traveling with the Harris-Walz campaign.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well, a new CNN poll to bring you now shows Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are locked in close races in key swing states, with no clear leader in the battleground states of Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.

Harris holds an advantage over Trump among likely voters in Wisconsin and Michigan, and Trump has the edge in Arizona, while Georgia and Pennsylvania are the key toss-up states.

Well CNN's John King dives into the poll numbers and looks at how either candidate can secure enough electoral votes to win.

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JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is where we are right now. The yellow states are our toss-up states. They include North Carolina. We did not poll in North Carolina this time. I'm going to lean it red. Democrats will get mad at me, but I'm going to lean that one red until I see data that proves otherwise, because it has gotten red in every election since 2008. When Obama won it, it was Republican before that.

Here's our new polling. Harris ahead in Wisconsin, outside the margin. Harris ahead in Michigan, just outside the margin. That gets her to 250. Donald Trump ahead in Arizona, outside the margin. Let me make that red. That would move him up to 246. Pretty close, right?

And then you mentioned these other states are too close to call. Pennsylvania, a genuine tie. Let's just say Harris is really plus one in Georgia and plus one in Nevada.

This is just one poll. This is a hypothetical here. That alone, though, if she could hold that, would get her to 272, and she could win the presidency without Pennsylvania.

But, again, she's plus one in the polling. It's just as plausible, and we've seen other data, that Donald Trump could win Georgia and Donald Trump could win Nevada as well. That would get him to 268.

So what happens then? You're looking at Pennsylvania, right? Let's assume Harris ekes it out. It's a tie right now. If Trump won it, he'd be president of the United States. If Harris won it under this scenario, and again, it's a scenario, that gets you to 269, 268, and it all comes down to Nebraska's second congressional district. Either a tie or it puts Harris over the top at 270.

I'm not saying that's going to happen. What I'm saying is if you look at this data, here's where we start today. Those polls tell us it's competitive.

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MACFARLANE: Now, decades of failure are being blamed for the fire that roared through a high-rise residential building in 2017 in London, killing 72 people. That's according to a long-awaited report into the disaster at London's Grenfell Tower. The report says flames erupted in the early morning hours when an electrical fault occurred in the refrigerator on the fourth floor.

Many residents were asleep as the fire spread quickly, tearing through the 24-storey apartment building due to the building's highly flammable exterior cladding. The 1,700-page report lays out a litany of malpractice and negligence, accusing government regulators and the construction industry of incompetence, dishonesty and greed.

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SIR MARTIN MOORE-BICK, GRENFELL TOWER INQUIRY CHAIRMAN: The simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were all avoidable, and those who lived in the tower were badly failed over a number of years and in a number of different ways by those who were responsible for ensuring the safety of the building and its occupants.

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MACFARLANE: Grenfell United, which represents the survivors and their families, said the report marked a significant chapter in the journey to truth, but that, quote, justice has not been delivered. Now super typhoon, Yagi, is moving through the South China Sea and

getting stronger by the second. The storm experienced rapid intensification at a rate rarely seen thanks to abnormally warm waters. Now it's on a direct course for China and is expected to make landfall by Friday.

Yagi has left destruction in its wake, killing at least 13 people whilst passing through the Philippines. Some areas received more than 16 inches of rain, around 400 millimeters.

Today is the day NFL fans have been waiting for since February. The new season begins today with a marquee match-up as the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Baltimore Ravens. With this new season, the Chiefs are looking to become the first team in history to win three Super Bowls in a row. And, yes, fans will be watching to see if Taylor Swift attends the game to cheer on her boyfriend, tight end Travis Kelce.

The Ravens are out to redeem themselves in a rematch of last year's AFC title game. Kelce says the Chiefs are ready to go.

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TRAVIS KELCE, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: It's exciting. It's the first game of the season. Everybody wants to come out and, you know, show how explosive they are, show how much better they got from last year. And it's just a great opportunity to be going up against such a great team.

PATRICK MAHOMES, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: They're a team that's going to play hard, they're going to play physical, and you have to accept that challenge. If you don't, they're going to dominate the football game.

LAMAR JACKSON, BALTIMORE RAVENS: Any game I play in, I feel like it's a revenge game, so I'm not just going to look at this game like a revenge game. Anybody we play, no matter if we beat them or lost to them in previous years, I just want to win.

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MACFARLANE: It's interesting. On Friday, Brazil will play host to the NFL's first ever game in South America. The Philadelphia Eagles will face the Green Bay Packers in Sao Paulo.

The city is already tightening security after some of the players voiced concerns about crime in Latin America's largest country. The state government says specialized civil and military police battalions will provide security at the game, and extra police officers will be patrolling the streets, trains, subways, hotels and tourist sites.

OK, still to come. Pope Francis meets with Indonesia's Grand Imam in a show of interfaith partnership. We'll have the latest on his tour to Southeast Asia.

Plus, new allegations of a Russian scheme to meddle in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. We'll have a live report on this developing story. And later, how a hit song from Charlie XCX could actually help save a

life.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: The U.S. Justice Department is accusing the Russian state media company RT of funding a Tennessee company to push Russian propaganda. It was meant to influence the U.S. presidential election and help put Donald Trump back in the White House. Prosecutors say another goal was to weaken opposition to Russian interests, especially its ongoing war in Ukraine.

Here's U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

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MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: As RT itself has boasted, the government of Russia continue to use RT to direct disinformation and propaganda. In the wake of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, RT's editor-in-chief said the company had built, quote, an entire empire of covert projects designed to shape public opinion in Western audiences.

We allege that as part of that effort, RT and its employees, including the defendants, implemented a nearly $10 million scheme to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: CNN has confirmed that the company referenced in the indictment is Tenet Media. Officials say it's linked to right-wing commentators with millions of subscribers on YouTube and other social media platforms. CNN's Clare Sebastian has been following these developments for us.

Clare, this announcement comes actually as part of a broader effort from the U.S. Justice Department to tackle Russian interference ahead of the elections. What more do we know about this case and others they're looking at?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so we've seen this is an effort that's encompassing the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Treasury, with new sanctions on executives of RT and other people allegedly involved. Also, even the State Department, which is now offering a reward of up to $10 million for people who can come forward with more information on Russian disinformation. So a broad effort, but it's pretty clear they don't think that this is going to solve the problem completely and that exposure is not enough.

So what we have, of course, with these criminal indictments is they're accusing two RT employees of having run this alleged scheme to set up this company in Tennessee. They apparently funded almost -- they've funneled almost $10 million into this company. Now, it's not a news company as such, Tenet Media. It's more a sort of collection of influencers that they brought together. And in terms of the metrics, the Justice Department says that they had put up some 2,000 videos since the company officially sort of went public last November, with 16 million views at least.

So we don't know if that changed any minds, of course, but it seems that they were successful in getting quite a lot of eyes on these videos. And, of course, the content seems to be sort of promoting pro- Russian sort of narratives and trying to weaken support for Ukraine, which I think is critical.

Like, this fits a pattern, obviously, of Russian efforts that we've seen, hybrid efforts, everything from sort of more crude arson attacks, jamming GPS signals now into these sort of disinformation campaigns that really have stepped up as Russia tries to weaken support for Ukraine. But obviously still clearly, if these allegations are true, have a significant interest in influencing the result of the election.

MACFARLANE: I mean, we know that the U.S. were really caught on the back foot with this ahead of the 2016 elections, but, you know, in the time that's elapsed since, have officials found it easier or more difficult to kind of track down and keep tabs on Russian interference?

SEBASTIAN: Yes, I think it's a moving target, right? It's just like we see with militarily in Ukraine. Russia is evolving in terms of its hybrid efforts as well.

Obviously, in 2016, we saw this was spearheaded by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, his Internet research agency, the sort of troll factory that was operating out of St. Petersburg. That is, of course, now defunct.

[04:25:00]

But it does seem that RT, this Russian state, it was a TV network, sort of a broader news organization now, is gaining more ground.

Have a listen to the White House national security spokesman, John Kirby, on RT and its evolution.

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JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: They have become much more clever and sophisticated, but, as I said, they've also become much more organized. I mean, what RT is now used to be just a propaganda outlet for the Kremlin. They have really transformed and morphed into a completely different organization, now focused on covert influence activities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So, they are still, obviously, investigating this. RT, we did contact for a response and they just emailed somewhat scathing comments back, saying, 2016 called, and it wants its cliches back. MACFARLANE: Interesting. All right, well, they're obviously continuing to follow this in the lead-up to the election. Clare, thank you.

Now, two students and two teachers killed in a U.S. school shooting. We'll hear from the girl who sat next to the suspect in class and witnessed the tragedy just ahead.

Plus, under pressure and doubling down, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to make concessions for his ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas, amid reports he torpedoed a potential deal in July.

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MACFARLANE: Hi, welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Christina Macfarlane. Here's some of the top stories we're following today.

Investigators are not yet discussing.