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SpaceX Delays Polaris Dawn Mission for a Few Hours; Trump, Harris All Set for Tonight's ABC News Presidential Debate. House Republicans Released a Committee Report on the U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan, Democrats Blamed the Report as Politics; Veteran Voice Actor James Earl Jones Dies. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired September 10, 2024 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

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ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Anna Coren.

Well, just moments ago, SpaceX announced it is delaying the launch of its Polaris Dawn mission by about two hours this morning. The five-day Polaris Dawn mission will carry four astronauts and feature the first ever commercial spacewalk. We have extensive live coverage planned here on CNN over the next few hours.

We're also following another highly anticipated event, the U.S. presidential debate set to take place later today. Vice President Kamala Harris is preparing to meet for the first time with former President Donald Trump when the two take the stage in Philadelphia. Harris predicts Trump will lie and attack her personally.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS (D), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He played from this really old and tired playbook, right, where he -- there's no floor for him in terms of how low he will go and we should be prepared for that. We should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COREN: Well sources say Harris's campaign has been preparing for possible insults and name calling from Trump. Well Trump's team is previewing attack lines and even claiming that Harris, not President Biden, has really been the one in charge.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JAMES MILLER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: It's very clear that Kamala Harris is the one who's been running the country the entire time. And importantly to this point, you can't talk about turning the page when you're the one who created our current nightmare.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COREN: Both candidates are hoping to sway undecided voters as the race remains tight. The latest CNN poll of polls shows no clear leader. Harris has an average of 49 per cent, while Trump has 48. We'll have more on the debate just ahead.

Well back now to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where SpaceX is delaying the launch of its Polaris Dawn mission by about two hours. The five-day voyage will take the capsule to the highest altitude of any crewed spaceflight since the Apollo program ended more than 50 years ago. The mission features an all-civilian crew, two men and two women. They will attempt the first ever commercial spacewalk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED ISAACMAN, SPACEX ASTRONAUT: You know, we're the four lucky ones that get to go on this ride, but I can't tell you how many teams have been working nonstop for the last two and a half years, you know, building a new EVA suit to do a spacewalk and the operations associated with it and the vehicle changes, the Starlink lasers, a bunch of things we're going to talk to you about in order to make this possible, all supporting that kind of bigger dreams that maybe not in the not too distant future humans are going to finally reach another planet of their own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Live now to Washington and CNN's space and defense correspondent, Kristin Fischer. Kristin, good to see you. Why have they delayed the launch?

KRISTIN FISCHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: It all came down to the weather and you know, Anna, it was only 40 percent favorable weather conditions at the start of this countdown.

Now as we get really close to the first launch time, they were running into some issues with potential thunderstorms around the launch pad. So that's why they've had three launch time opportunities in this launch window. So 3:30, about 5:30 and then right around 7 a.m. So two more opportunities for them to launch today, Anna.

And you know this weather is just it's really tricky for this mission because not only does the weather have to be great at Florida on launch day but it also has to be really good five days from now for splashdown because this mission isn't going up to the international space station where it can we supply with oxygen and other consumables they have a very specific window in terms of when this spacecraft can splash down and land in the ocean. The weather has to be right. They just don't have any wiggle room here.

So not only does the weather have to be perfect on the front end, but it has to be good on the back end, too. And not just the weather, but the wave heights, the wave conditions, because this spacecraft splashes down into the water. So a lot of factors at play here, Anna, in terms of whether or not this mission is a go tonight.

[03:05:00]

But right now it really all comes down to the weather and we should get an update in just a few minutes, but as of now we're counting down to a 5:23 launch time, Anna.

COREN: Yes, so many variables when you put it like that. Tell us about the four crew members and why are they qualified to carry out this mission?

FISCHER: So the commander of the mission is an American businessman and philanthropist by the name of Jared Isaacman. This will be his second trip to space. He first flew to space in 2021 on Inspiration 4, which was the first all-civilian mission to orbit. He got back from that trip and said, look, I want to do more.

And some people would say, although somebody like Jared Isaacman really bristles at the phrase space tourism, you might be able to concede that you know inspiration for was a space tourism mission, but what this is Polaris Dawn. This is not space tourism. This truly is a Testing and development program.

Jared Isaacman went to SpaceX and said look I see these areas in your testing and development that needs some work. You need some guinea pigs essentially to go out and test a brand new EVA suit and test flying humans in the spacecraft into the radiation belt. Let me do that for you. And so he essentially chartered this flight.

He got a very experienced Air Force pilot to be the pilot of Polaris Dawn and then he has two other SpaceX employees as the other two crew members, two women and one of them is an astronaut trainer. SpaceX's lead astronaut trainer, the woman who was responsible for training Jared on his first mission.

And so the whole idea here is Jared says, look, you know, we believe, I believe that the person in charge of training all, not just commercial astronauts that fly on SpaceX Dragon capsules, but also NASA astronauts that fly to space on Dragon to the International Space Station, Jared believes that the person that trains those astronauts should have the firsthand experience of flying to space themselves.

So that's why this crew was selected. They are incredibly experienced. They've been training for about two years. So it really does go beyond just a trip up and back from space. They are doing things that not even NASA astronauts have done. First time that a brand new EVA suit has ever been developed or worn in space since NASA's EVAs, or they're called EMUs, 40 years ago. And NASA's really struggled with developing and financing these new suits. So some really groundbreaking stuff here, Anna.

COREN: We know you're going to be closely watching over the next couple of hours to see if this launch actually does take place with Kristin Fisher, we certainly appreciate you breaking it all down for us. Thank you.

Well, CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins me live from the CNN Weather Center and Derek, we heard from Kristin, it's the thunderstorms that have delayed the launch. How's it looking?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, Anna. So, you know, it all comes down to the weather. Not only the launch conditions currently right now, but also in the future, the next five days, because of a few variables we'll talk about Kristin, kind of glazed over them just a few minutes ago. But in terms of the launch criteria, obviously one of these strict criteria has been broken. So they delayed the launch this morning.

These are very strict criteria because they need to fit within this window. We can't have winds exceeding 30 miles per hour. There can't be cloud cover that's greater than 4,500 feet thick and certainly no lightning. You don't want to have lightning within the vicinity of Cape Canaveral and no lightning within the past half hour as well. That's really an important factor.

So we're going to look at the radar because here's Cape Canaveral. The activity really that I'm noting, I thought we would get this launch off this morning, was well offshore. And then as we zoom into Cape Canaveral, here it is, this is where the launch pad is actually located. There have been, just on closer inspection, some showers in the vicinity within the past 30 minutes or so.

Whether or not that actually detected lightning that is, of course, up to their highly sensitive instruments that they have on site, on location, within Cape Canaveral. But you can see this launch forecast, a few showers in the forecast. Northeasterly winds, so we didn't break that 30 mile per hour wind criteria, so that wasn't the concern. Must have been the cloud cover or the ongoing or recent showers or thundershowers within the vicinity.

Now we know that there's already been several delays associated with weather and other factors as well. Today's delay so far this morning because of unfavorable weather conditions, but it's also about splashdown the wave conditions five days from now as they return into Earth's orbit.

[03:10:03]

And we certainly can't have bad weather in this forecast as well. And there's a stalled out frontal boundary that could bring more showers and thunderstorms as we look into the end of the weekend and into early parts of next week when they return home. Anna.

COREN: Derek Van Dam, we appreciate the update. We'll be checking in with you a little bit later.

Well, CNN aerospace analyst Miles O'Brien joins us now live from Falmouth, Massachusetts. Miles, tell me, how are you feeling about the launch knowing that it has been delayed by a few hours and whether or not it will actually take place today?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AEROSPACE ANALYST: Well, Anna, I'm not a weather person. You just had the expert on for that. But I will tell you this. One of the things that they think about is the possibility that the rocket itself flying through thick clouds can create its own lightning, triggered lightning is what it's called.

And it actually happened on one space mission years ago, Apollo 12, the second moon mission. They flew through a thick anvil cloud, they call it a cumulus cloud, and it created its own lightning event, kind of shorted things out, if you will.

And it caused a huge electrical failure on the capsule and they very nearly had to abort that mission. So it's not just the presence of nature's lightning, it's the fact that the rocket itself, while flying through these thick clouds, can create its own lightning.

So with that in mind, and look, and when I look at the weather radar for Florida right now, I think the chances of things improving over the course of this window this morning are not great, but you never know. And that's why they decided at the last minute not to put fuel in the rocket, because once you do that, it's pretty much that's going to be your attempt.

And so they're trying to sort of use their crystal ball to see when they feel the best shot will be. They have three windows will open up over a four hour period. They'll look for that best window and try to fuel up just in advance of that because that's going to be their best or their only attempt.

COREN: Alright Miles O'Brien, we'll be watching closely to see what happens in the coming hours, but we certainly thank you for your analysis.

Well, we could be in store for an election defining moment as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump gear up to debate in Philadelphia. More on this high stakes showdown ahead.

Plus dozens killed after an Israeli strike on a humanitarian zone in Gaza. What we know about the rescue efforts, that's ahead.

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[03:15:00]

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COREN: All eyes will be on Philadelphia in the hours ahead as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump face off in their first presidential debate. In an interview released on Monday, Harris said she predicts Trump is going to lie and use his old and tired playbook to attack her personally.

Meantime, the Trump campaign spokesperson says Trump is quote, "going to be himself," while previewing some likely lines of attack including that Harris quote, "owns everything from this administration."

Michael Genovese is a political analyst, president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University, and author of the "Modern Presidency, Six Debates that Define the Institution." Well he joins me now from Los Angeles. Michael, wonderful to have you with us as always. There is so much at stake in this debate. Let's break it down, I guess, for both candidates. What does Harris and Trump need to do to win the debate?

MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST, AUTHOR, AND PRESIDENT, LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY-GLOBAL POLICY CENTER: They need to do almost exactly the opposite of one another. You know, the first debate was so consequential, so meaningful, and in that debate, Joe Biden delivered a knockout punch, but he did it to himself.

The two candidates have to really be concerned about that. You don't want to get too far ahead of your skis. You don't want to get too far out front. And so for Trump, the key is to tone it down, and for Harris, it's to lift it up.

Trump has to tone down the crazy that he sometimes gets involved in on his campaign addresses where he goes really overboard. He's got to avoid doing that because it's going to be a huge audience and they're going to be judging him. Harris, on the other hand, has to lift up her game, has to prove that she's presidential, that she belongs there. She's known to the American public but not well known. So this is going to be her chance to define who she really is.

COREN: Yeah, let's talk about that because recent polling shows that many in the electorate still feel that they don't know enough about Kamala Harris and her policies and there is concern certainly among young black and Latino voters. Will this be her opportunity to address those concerns?

GENOVESE: It will be her best opportunity because it'll have the greatest audience of anything that happens between now and November and so what she has to do is basically up her game and define herself, just to define herself because this is a change election.

Both Democrats and Republicans are saying we want a change agenda. Donald Trump, she has to present him as the candidate of the past. She has to present herself as the candidate of the future. And yet she's also being pulled back and pulled down by being part of the Biden administration, which a lot of voters think hasn't been very effective. So she's going to have to really play a very sort of balance game. It's going to be tough for her.

COREN: I think it's fair to say that Harris' honeymoon that we have witnessed is over, that the surge in support that she had has plateaued. The fact that she is not Trump, I guess, is no longer enough.

GENOVESE: I think you're right. And I think what's happened is now we've sort of gotten to the point where this has become a normal election. And in a normal election, the two sides are incredibly close. And so anything that happens at that debate, good or bad, can have really consequences that are beyond just that evening. It's a razor-close race.

[03:20:00]

And the candidates are as close as two coats of paint in terms of the popular vote. So what you're going to see is that both sides are going to be after the debates spinning it to their advantage. The American public's going to have to judge and this is going to be their big chance to judge because more people will see this debate than any other event in all the campaign.

COREN: And you talk about this need for change in the candidate. And I know that the recent polling has shown that despite Donald Trump being in office for those four years, he goes into this election being perceived as this candidate for change. Why does the electorate see him this way?

GENOVESE: I think they see him this way because number one, the incumbent president, Joe Biden, is there and Harris is the vice president. She is linked to him. It's almost like an albatross around her neck and she needs to liberate herself from that because if she doesn't she won't be seen as the change candidate.

Trump is seems to change candidate because if you listen to his rhetoric he is complaining about everything, everything's bad, inflation, immigration, crime, and so he is basically making the case of things are so bad we need change, and the American public has responded to that, you know that our public that is it doesn't feel good about the future is worried about the future and so for them Trump becomes the change candidate. Harris has to replace him when that.

COREN: And then let's talk about the economy, which of course is the number one issue. Polling shows that in most states, Trump is way ahead of Harris on the economy. Will this be her downfall?

GENOVESE: You know, Donald Trump needs to focus on the issues. He's got to tone down the crazy and be more subdued, more mature. Talk about the issues. When he talks about the issues, he does well.

The problem is Donald Trump tends to get a little bit of praise. He comes out, he starts to say things that are off target. His folks are telling him, stick to the issues. You win on the issues. You get away from the issues. You give Harris the advantage.

And so he's got to be more mature and almost untrump-like. She has to be more aggressive and she's got to sort of grab the attention and grab the change agenda.

COREN: It's certainly going to be fascinating to watch. Michael Genovese, great to get your perspective as always. Thank you for joining us.

GENOVESE: Thank you, Anna.

COREN: Officials say at least 40 people are dead after an Israeli airstrike on an area in Gaza which was supposed to be a safe zone for displaced Palestinians. A desperate search for survivors is underway, but Gaza Civil Defense says crews are facing great difficulty in retrieving victims due to the lack of resources.

Israel says it was striking Hamas terrorists operating a command center embedded in the humanitarian zone and it took steps to prevent harm to civilians. But a Gaza civil defense spokesperson says there was no advance warning of the strike. Hamas denies its fighters were present in the area.

For more, let's go to CNN's Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi. And Paula, you are following the latest developments. What is happening?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Anna, this happened in the early hours of today, the early hours of Tuesday, and it was in the Al Mawassi area which has been designated by the Israeli military as a humanitarian zone. Thousands of Palestinians over the months have moved to this area or been evacuated by the military to this area because they were operating elsewhere.

They live in tents, there is scant food or water, very little humanitarian aid. But this is considered a safer area than most in Gaza. But what has happened in the early hours, according to the Gaza Civil Defense, they say that eyewitnesses tell them there were five strikes that they heard, and it has left three very large craters.

We see from images that those civil defense officials, also volunteers, are using their bare hands to try and get to people beneath the sands; the civil defense say they believe that entire families have been buried. They say at this point at least 40 have been killed because they have retrieved at least 40 bodies and at least 60 have been injured, saying that there were more than 200 tents in this area, at least 20 have been destroyed.

Now what we hear from Israel is the Israeli military say that they were targeting significant Hamas terrorists in the area, saying Hamas terrorists were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the humanitarian area. Israel also says that it took steps to mitigate civilian harm, including precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional measures. Anna.

[03:25:02]

COREN: Paula, as you say, the Israeli military said that it tried to mitigate the risk to civilians but the death toll tells another story. It would seem that there is no place safe in Gaza for these civilians.

HANCOCKS: Well Anna, it's exactly what humanitarian aid groups and NGOs have been telling us for months that no place is safe in Gaza. It is an area designated by the Israeli military itself as a humanitarian zone and it's not the first time that these areas have been targeted by the military.

Back in July, in mid-July, the Israeli military went after the Hamas military chief, Mohammed Deif who they claimed later they believed have been killed in that air strike in that targeting, but more than 90 Palestinians were also killed in the area. So it is an issue that this humanitarian area that many Palestinians have been moved to is not as humanitarian or as safe as it is publicized to be.

COREN: Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi, we appreciate you keeping it close the story for us. Thank you.

Well House Republicans are out with a scathing report on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. While the White House is pointing the finger at the Trump administration, it's just ahead.

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[03:30:00]

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ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR: The Biden administration is blasting a House committee report on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Republicans insist it's not political, despite adding Vice President Kamala Harris' name more than 200 times since their initial report. CNN's Manu Raju has the details.

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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: House Republicans releasing a scathing report about the withdrawal from Afghanistan, placing the blame directly on the Biden administration, or they say Biden-Harris administration, about everything that went wrong in that chaotic withdrawal from America's longest-running war.

In fact, saying in this report, quote, "the Biden-Harris administration prioritized optics over the withdrawal of the security of U.S. personnel," and also saying it, quote, "misled, and in some cases directly lied to the American public about the withdrawal."

Democrats dismissing this report, saying it is all politics, aimed at undercutting Vice President Harris in the eve of the presidential debate. In fact, this report mentions Kamala Harris' name a total of 251 times. That is much different than the interim report that Michael McCaul, the chairman of the committee, put out before Harris was the nominee.

In that report, her name was just mentioned just twice. But McCaul contending that this has nothing to do with politics, saying that the next time there's such a withdrawal, there may be much changes to American policy and criticizing the Biden administration in the process.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX), U.S. HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: It's a historic document. It's not a political document. It was a document designed to get to the truth. This was a catastrophic failure of epic proportions. Some say Saigon was the worst. I say this was for many reasons.

RAJU: Now the White House pushing back on this report and also noting that contending that it was Biden whose hands were tied over this issue because of the agreement that the Trump administration had inked with the Taliban to get out of Afghanistan saying that Joe Biden had a decision to make, essentially follow through with that plan or essentially keep that war running and say they had to do this because of that agreement.

JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: The Trump administration cut a deal called the Doha agreement that mandated a complete U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. And yes, that included Bagram Air Base. President Biden for his part, faced a stark choice when he came to office: abide by the flawed agreement and end America's longest war, or blow up the deal, extend the war.

RAJU: Republicans say this investigation is not over yet. There are plans to be more potential hearings, potential subpoenas for some of those decision makers who they say did not cooperate with this committee's investigation.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling is a CNN military analyst and former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army. He joins us now from Florida. Lieutenant General, wonderful to see you. Obviously a lot to unpack, but firstly, what do you make of this highly politicized Republican report on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and do we learn anything new?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST AND FORMER COMMANDING GENERAL, U.S. ARMY EUROPE AND SEVENTH ARMY: Well, I think you put it right in the right condition, Anna, when you said highly politicized. It is a highly politicized report. Many people knew it was going to come out from primarily those in the Republican Party, the members of that committee. It's been answered by the Democrats.

And, unfortunately, because there has been so many other investigations into the actions of both the Afghan war but also the final days of the evacuation operation and the chaos it pursued, that there's not going to be much additive, in my view, to this.

Having skimmed through both the reports, both the Republican report and the Democratic rebuttal to it, I didn't learn anything new, truthfully. There has been several after actions conducted by both the Department of Defense, the military and the State Department, as well as Central Command. And they're covering all the things. They know what they have to learn from what occurred during this chaotic couple of days.

But there's also the issue of the entire war. You know, how many mistakes were made what we learned in terms of lessons, how do we try and polish those things so we don't repeat those kind of tragedies in the future?

[03:34:55]

COREN: I want to talk about the lessons, but firstly I'd really like your opinion on the fact that perhaps this was always going to happen. You know, I was in Afghanistan for the U.S. withdrawal of Bagram, which happened the month before the ultimate pullout. I don't think anyone fully understood how quickly everything was unraveling.

You know, worst case scenario from intelligence at the time was that the Afghan government would fall in six months. It happened within weeks. And some would argue that as soon as the U.S. said it was pulling out that this was always going to happen, no matter whether it was Democrats or Republicans that were in power. Would you agree with that?

HERTLING: Oh, I most certainly would. And when we say when the announcement was made that we were pulling out and it looked serious, remember the first announcement by the members of the Trump administration was that it would take place by the 1st of May.

The new president, President Biden, delayed that several months, primarily because, as he knows, the military has to take action. You have to not only get equipment out but you have to get people out. And I think when we're talking about coming on the cusp of the two administrations and the transfer of power from one to the other, there seemed to be a lot of confusion and I think the Biden administration made it perfectly known that they weren't getting the kind of information that they needed from both the Trump State Department and Department of Defense. And that caused problems in terms of the final withdrawal in the end state.

So yeah, it's difficult. It -- you know, having done or prepared for not having to execute a noncombatant evacuation operation, what's called a NEO, I know how difficult those missions are. And when the government falls apart and when the local security forces turn, pale, and run, which is what happened with the Afghan army and all the security forces, and the Taliban was gaining ground over the several weeks preceding the evacuation. All of those led to the kind of chaos that you're showing on the screen right now.

COREN: Well, as you're saying, I mean, this was a government that was the Afghan government, was a house of cards and it did not have the backing of its military. Was there an intelligence failure here, you know, that the U.S. government's that's plural, Obama, Trump and Biden, you know, were propping up a charade?

HERTLING: Well, you know, it's a combination of a couple things. I think partly intelligence, although having talked to some of the people in the intelligence community, there was a back and forth within the communities, the different agencies talking about what actually was happening inside of Afghanistan.

I think some of the generals were at fault as well. You know, when you're a general and you're in charge of a mission in a different country, you want that mission to succeed. So sometimes common cultural bias overtakes you. But there was also a strategic political failure from early on in the war after things changed.

And there was a competing demand in terms of what exactly the strategy was, what was the desired end state. Once the culture became known inside of Afghanistan, knowing that President Ghani could not pull this nation together, no matter how much training his security forces got. It became very problematic.

COREN: Lieutenant General, obviously the timing of the release of this report, you know, less than two months before the election, this is designed to hurt Harris, even though it was President Trump that did the deal with the Taliban. Will this hurt her? Will this stick?

HERTLING: Yeah, I think it may with Trump supporters. And there certainly has been a drumbeat by the Republican Party. I've been watching on Twitter or X over the last several days. They were prepared for this rollout. They wanted to use it to hurt the Biden campaign and, excuse me, the Harris campaign and the Biden-Harris administration.

But again, it's not being very truthful in terms of how it's portraying it. If you do a complete military analysis and a political analysis, you can find fault with many of the things that occurred during the history of the war in Afghanistan. But just rolling it out at this time and sticking one party with the blame, I think is contrary to what we attempt to do as a nation when we see our mistakes, the things that we made, and we try and get better.

COREN: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, great to get your analysis. Thanks for joining us.

HERTLING: Pleasure to be with you.

COREN: In a controversial move, Germany will start imposing stricter controls at all nine of its land borders, while giving officials more power to reject migrants at border crossings. It's an attempt to address concerns over immigration and to confront public anger and fear following recent fatal knife attacks where the suspects were asylum seekers.

[03:40:00]

A Syrian man with alleged links to ISIS confessed to an attack at a street festival last month that killed three people. The tighter measures will begin in a week and last for six months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY FAESER, GERMAN INTERIOR MINISTER (through translator): This will serve to further limit irregular migration and protect against the acute dangers posed by Islamist terror and serious crime. We are doing everything we can to better protect the people in our country against this. This includes the far-reaching measures I am taking now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Germany's center-left ruling party is hoping the new measures will curb rising support for the far right which is campaigning heavily on the immigration issue.

Ahead, police release more than an hour of body cam footage showing the traffic stop of Miami Dolphins player Tyreek Hill. We'll have the video and Hill's reaction. That's ahead.

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COREN: Welcome back. Well, police have released body cam video of officers detaining NFL star Tyreek Hill during a traffic stop on Sunday. He was pulled over near Hard Rock Stadium on his way to the Miami Dolphins game, where he argued with the officers about rolling down his window and stepping out of the car. Well, officers dragged Hill from the vehicle and handcuffed him face down on the pavement. He got two citations and was allowed to go minutes later. Hill claims he was slow to step out of the car and sit on the curb because of recent knee surgery. Yet he was able to play in the game, celebrating an 80-yard touchdown catch with this apparent handcuff reenactment.

New bodycam video has been released showing an exchange from last year between sheriff's deputies in Georgia and the teenager accused of the deadly mass shooting at Apalachee High School last week. It comes as new details have emerged about warning signs, which potentially could have prevented Wednesday's attack. CNN's Isabel Rosales has more.

[03:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We've heard the audio, but now for the first time, we're seeing this May 2023 exchange between law enforcement and the suspected shooter.

DEPUTY: So did your dad kind of explain everything to you?

COLT GRAY, GUNMAN AT THE APALACHEE HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTING: He said something about shooting up a school.

DEPUTY: Did he say something about school shooting?

GRAY: Never, I just told him, I don't know what -- maybe they misheard somebody else. I don't remember saying that.

ROSALES (voice-over): The then 13 year old and his father questioned after anonymous tips to the FBI regarding online threats to commit a school shooting.

DEPUTY: Yeah, I want you to talk to him and just tell it like I don't know. I don't know anything about him saying (expletive) like that and I'm going to be mad as hell if he did. And then all the guns will go away and they won't be accessible. You know, I'm trying to be honest with you. I'm trying to teach him about firearms and safety and how to do it all and get him in and arrest me outdoors.

ROSALES (voice-over): At the time, there was no probable cause for arrest. CNN also obtained text messages Colt Gray's mother, Marcy Gray, wrote to family members after the shooting.

I was the one who notified the school counselor, she wrote. I told them it was an extreme emergency and for them to go and immediately find Colt to check on him.

According to a phone log also obtained by CNN. Marcy Gray urgently reached out to Apalachee High multiple times the morning of the shooting. One call lasted 10 minutes and came in a full half hour before the shooting.

I don't understand what took them so long, because the first shots weren't fired until 10:30, Marcy Gray texted. Gray told the "Washington Post" and a family member confirmed to CNN that her son sent her an alarming text the morning of the shooting.

It read only, I'm sorry, Mom.

Students inside the alleged shooter's classroom, confirmed to CNN that an administrator came looking for the 14 year old, but mistook him for another student with a similar name.

LYELA SAYARATH, APALACHEE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: An administrator comes looking for that kid and my friend with like almost the same name as in the bathroom at the time as well. Eventually they realized like they take my friend's bag and soon he comes back in with his bag and he was like, I don't know why they had me like, I don't know what's happening.

ROSALES (voice-over): 30 minutes later at 10:20 a.m. Law enforcement received reports of shots fired. In a panic, Rebecca Sayareth raced to the school after her daughter Lila called.

REBECCA SAYARETH, MOTHER OF STUDENT WHO WAS IN ALLEGED GUNMAN'S CLASS: I'm serious. I believe it all could have been prevented.

ROSALES (voice-over): Now knowing that the suspect's mother had called the school that morning, Sayareth is even more angry.

R. SAYARETH: Knowing now that it was her that had called and the fact that they had been telling the school for an entire week at least beforehand that he was homicidal and suicidal and had access to guns just should have been in place of hand from the moment they got that call that morning.

ROSALES (voice-over): The older sister of Christian Angulo, one of the four victims, tells CNN their family believes this was 100 percent preventable, saying in part, they knew of the situation beforehand and didn't take the proper action to prevent this tragedy from happening.

Isabel Rosales, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Harvey Weinstein was rushed from prison to a hospital in New York late Sunday. His spokesperson says the 72-year-old had heart surgery. The former movie producer was convicted in 2020 of sex crimes and sentenced to 23 years in prison.

His conviction was overturned in April, but he may face retrial. He remains in prison while he appeals another sex crimes conviction out of Los Angeles, where he was given a 16-year sentence. A source says Weinstein's court appearance on Thursday will go ahead unless there is a medical issue.

His voice and screen presence dazzled audiences for decades. We'll remember the late actor James Earl Jones just ahead in "CNN Newsroom."

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COREN: Right now, Pope Francis is celebrating Mass in East Timor with a massive crowd in attendance. More than half the population of East Timor is believed to be present at the open air mass in the capital of Dili. There we are looking at live pictures. It's the Pontiff's second day in the country after arriving to much fanfare.

The Pontiff spent the morning in meetings with church officials but made time to visit a school for children with disabilities. But so far the highlight of his visit was a call to action for government leaders to protect children from abuse.

A legendary voice of stage and screen has fallen silent. Actor James Earl Jones died Monday at age 93, according to his agent. Jones is known as the booming voice of Darth Vader in the "Star Wars" films and Mufasa in "The Lion King," as well as so many other on-screen roles.

CNN's Richard Roff remembers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): James Earl Jones was a physically imposing actor.

JAMES EARL JONES, VETERAN VOICE ACTOR: I take it back, you're not in trouble. You're dead where you stand.

Join me.

ROTH (voice-over): But it will be Jones' voice that audiences will long remember. Luke Skywalker learned that in the Star Wars series.

JONES: No. I am your father.

It became a big mystery, who is that? Who is that inside the mask?

ROTH (voice-over): A different actor played Vader, but director George Lucas realized he needed a villain with a more sinister voice.

JONES: Call me and say you want to do a day's work. And I said yeah.

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": A day's work?

JONES: Two and a half hours, yeah.

KING: That's all the Darth Vader language is in two and a half hours?

JONES: Yeah, a few thousand dollars. I went home.

A city destroyed.

The key to Darth Vader is a narrow band of expression. No inflections. He's not human. Father and son.

ROTH (voice-over): Jones returned to the role of the Imperial villain throughout his career, even at age 91 in the Disney Plus series "Obi- Wan Kenobi."

JONES: You will suffer.

ROTH (voice-over): In another memorable voice only role, Jones said just three words.

JONES (voice-over): This is CNN.

What happened was that I did the Goodwill Games, they said, well now can we do a CNN logo? And I came back from a separate session. It was so short, I mean, it took five minutes, right? And I forgot it.

[03:55:00]

ROTH (voice-over): What is unforgettable is that this powerful actor with the deep, authoritative voice had a speaking disability.

JONES: Stuttering was so embarrassing and really painful. I went mute from the age of eight to 14.

ROTH (voice-over): Jones said a great teacher in high school who loved poetry helped him.

JONES: He discovered I wrote poetry and he got me to read my poetry in front of the class. When I did, it didn't stutter.

ROTH (voice-over): As a teenager, Jones wanted to be a military officer. He eventually ended up in an American nuclear bomber in his first movie role. The instructions? Attack the Soviet Union in "Dr. Strangelove."

JONES: Bomb door circuits. Negative function.

ROTH (voice-over): A long list of screen roles would follow, including "Roots."

JONES: I've found you, Kunta Kinte!

The guests are waiting, Your Majesty.

Let them wait!

ROTH (voice-over): "Coming to America."

JONES: It'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters.

ROTH (voice-over): "Field of Dreams," "The Hunt for Red October."

JONES: Mother of God.

We know he's escaped. ROTH (voice-over): "Patriot Games."

JONES: The sun will set on my time here.

ROTH (voice-over): And "The Lion King."

The stage, though, was his first love. Jones won a Tony Award in 1969 for "The Great White Hope,"

JONES: This is your wish coming true, huh?

UNKNOWN: Never this, never this, Jones!

ROTH (voice-over): Nominated too for an Oscar in the movie version.

Jones was part of an elite acting group. He won an Oscar, a Grammy, three Emmys, and three Tonys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. Had he done it all in life?

JONES: I'm not sure if I want to do it all, because, you know, death is okay. It is something that happens to all of us. And that's kind of glorious, isn't it?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: What an unforgettable voice. Well, thank you so much for your company. I'm Anna Coren. Newsroom continues with my colleague, Christina Macfarlane, right after the break. Stay with us.

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