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Funerals Today For Student Mason Schermerhorn, Teacher Cristina Irimie; Police Release Dispatch & 911 Calls From Winder, GA School Shooting; Biden May Be Open To Ukraine Using Western Missiles In Russia; Harris Touts Economic Plans During Pennsylvania Stops; Trump Claims Without Some Undocumented Migrants Are "Taking Over Our Country From Within"; Funeral Held For American-Turkish Activist Killed In West Bank. Funeral Held For American-Turkish Activist Killed In West Bank; Tagovailoa's Football Future Uncertain After 3rd Concussion; Caitlan Clark Breaks WNBA's Single-Season Assist Mark; Aaron Judge Ends Home Run Drought With Grand Slam; Millions Of Gen Z Voters Set To Shape Presidential Election: Taylor Swift Encourages People To Register To Vote In MTV Video Music Awards Acceptance Speech; J.D. Vance Dismisses Taylor Swift's Harris Endorsement; SpaceX Polaris Dawn Crew Preparing To Return To Earth; Starliner Astronauts Talk About Months-Long Delay To Return Home. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired September 14, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:00:51]

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

All right, we begin with new details on the investigation and the impact of that horrific school shooting in Winder, Georgia. Today, the Winder community is gathering to remember two of the four people killed in last week's rampage at Apalachee High School. The families of 14-year-old student Mason Schermerhorn and math teacher Cristina Irimie are holding separate funeral services this afternoon.

Yesterday, Barrow County officials released the police 911 calls and more than 500 radio messages between emergency personnel. One of those 911 calls released is from a father who called authorities for his trapped daughter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm calling about the shooting at the high school. You know, I wanted to pass on a message. My daughter called. She's in a trailer next to where the shooting was happening, but she can't get the door locked. Just wanted to pass along that she's in a trailer.

I don't know what your manpower is --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- and what they can do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trying to hide behind a desk with a kid that she has in there with her. They're in a trailer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she's a school psychologist and she was working with this kid. But she's upset because she can't get the door locked, you know? So, I don't know what the situation looks like. If there's one trailer or a bunch of trailers, you know, that helps. But --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Boy, these calls are really revealing of how many tried to do something or stop what was happening. CNN's Rafael Romo is here right now. So the sheriff of Barrow County is also speaking out.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. Then there was a lot of speculation at the beginning as to how the 14-year-old was able to bring that gun to school. Now we know what they're telling us, and it is that officials say Colt Gray, the 14-year-old student accused of the shooting, carried, imagine this, Fred, in his school backpack, the weapon he used September 4th. That's what Barrow County Sheriff Judge Smith said in an interview with CNN affiliate WXIA.

As we have previously reported, authorities say Gray brought an AR-15 style rifle to the school that day, a weapon he used to shoot and kill two fellow students and two teachers. Nine others were injured. Sheriff Smith says it appears that very gun was hidden in grace backpack when he left home for school that morning, as well as the bullets he was going to use. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF JUD SMITH, BARROW COUNTY, GA: He got on the bus with a backpack when we believe he had concealed the firearm and the backpack. We know that he concealed it with some sort of something that he had wrapped around it as if it was a project, a school project, if you will. He had obviously stored magazines and rounds in that backpack with it as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: How do authorities say the 14-year-old managed to get the gun in the first place? The suspect's father told investigators this week he had purchased the gun used in the killings as a holiday present for his son in December 2023, according to two law enforcement sources with direct knowledge of the investigation.

Another source described it as a Christmas present. Sheriff Smith said he agrees with the decision to prosecute the father in connection with the tragic shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SMITH: Colin Gray purchased the firearm in a legal manner. And, you know, he just -- he had it, he didn't have it secured. And if you're going to have a firearm, you need to have it secured. I think his actions of leaving that firearm available to Colt Gray is why we're here today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And Fred, as we have previously reported, 54-year-old Colin Gray was arrested and has been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children. An attorney for Colt Gray declined to comment and CNN has reached out to Colin Gray's attorneys.

The deadly attack on September 4 marked at least the 45th school shooting in 2024 and the deadliest U.S. school shooting since the March 2023 rampage at the covenant school in Nashville that left six people dead.

But it's just amazing the way it happened. And to think that this was a Christmas present that would end up in such a tragic, tragic shooting.

[13:05:07]

WHITFIELD: Absolutely horrible. And still so many unanswered questions.

All right. Thank you so much, Rafael Romo. Appreciate it.

All right, joining us now is former Aurora Colorado Police Chief Daniel Oates. He was in charge during the Aurora theater shooting back in 2012. Chief Oates, I'm glad to see you. But, of course, it's sad under any of these circumstances where we're now trying to reflect what went wrong. So what's your reaction to the 911 and the radio calls?

DANIEL OATES, FMR. POLICE CHIEF OF AURORA, CO: Well, I've looked over what's available and I will tell you this. It appears that from the notice that the shooting started to that -- the subject was in custody was about six minutes. So that's a tribute to the officers, the deputies who responded. They certainly probably acted as quickly as possible. This -- the narrative around how this 14-year-old took a weapon of that size into school and wasn't discovered is very, very chilling.

Now, and as is sort of the missed opportunities, it seems in every one of these kinds of events, there are signals beforehand. In this case, there was the call by the mother, you know, half an hour before the shooting started, the efforts by the deputies to focus on another child with a similar name. Just sadly, all these missed opportunities.

But --

WHITFIELD: Yes.

OATES: -- in terms of professionalism of the response, I think that was there.

WHITFIELD: Yes. I wonder if we can zero in on something you just said. Yes, absolutely chilling, you know, that this child was able to bring in an AR, you know, 15. And we heard from the police chief from that Barrow County community who said that it was his belief that this child concealed the weapon in his backpack and perhaps wrapped around it, made it look like it was part of a school project.

I mean, this then speaks to the forethought, the planning but extraordinary too because even though you had phone calls being made, you know, authorities were trying to figure out which kid, interviewing, trying to intervene because of family members who were alarmed. He did a really good job of being able to be below radar with this AR-15 in school.

OATES: He did. And, you know, the planning on his part speaks to an issue around the defense. He's going to be tried as an adult. And the evidence against him is overwhelming. So the only possible defense is going to be some sort of insanity defense. And the deliberateness of his planning speaks to him knowing very much what's going to happen, the consequences of his actions, understanding right from wrong. And all of those are issues before the jury to defeat the insanity defense.

WHITFIELD: Right.

OATES: And one other thing I wanted to point out about the calls into 911. Having been through this, the chaos that dispatchers and call takers are receiving over that, you know, five, 10, 15-minute, 20- minute span, hundreds of calls and cyphering through them and determining what information to act on and what the forward to the police in that chaotic moment is really, really difficult and also really, really traumatized for those call takers and dispatchers.

WHITFIELD: Right. Yes. And when I say good job, I really am speaking to the intent and how this is going to then play out with the trial of premeditation, planning, all that. So, Chief Oates, you know, as I said you led the police department in Aurora, Colorado during the movie theater mass shooting more than a decade ago. You know, what advice do you have on how officers, the community, you know, even family members are to deal with the aftermath of such a devastating event, which leaves this kind of impact?

OATES: Well, on the law enforcement, the first thing to recognize is everybody's a victim. All those first responders are victims. Everyone in that school is a victim. Everyone in that community is a victim. An event like this traumatizes the community.

And there are all kinds of efforts that can be made by the community as a whole to deal. Services that can be provided, psychological services, memorials, all of those things. And the other way to cope with this is to get to the bottom of what occurred, to learn every possible lesson that you can from it.

It's clear these deputies were well trained. It's very clear the school was well trained on their lockdown procedures. You know, it looks like things went in terms of the response, what's the shooting started, things went about as well as they could. But it's still a fact of life that it takes five, six, seven, eight, 10 minutes for police officers to intervene in one of these events.

And that's where, you know, when these events occur, the most damage is done. And it looks like that was the case here. And it's terribly sad and catastrophic for that community.

[13:10:08]

WHITFIELD: Yes. What are your thoughts too on the alleged shooter's father? He has already charged. It's already been established. He gifted his son this weapon at Christmas, even after a wellness check where authorities came to the family's home expressing concern about previous reports. It had been said that there might be more charges forthcoming. What are you seeing the road ahead for this father?

OATES: I have two thoughts. One is as a father, you know, it's -- the morality of his behavior, you know, is for all of us to judge. I'm horrified by it. I think there's a different question with regard to his legal culpability.

If the gun was purchased legally and if he can gift it to his son legally, then we're down to under Georgia law, which, you know, I don't know the details of, the people having to prove involuntary manslaughter, which is probably the statute reads, you know, a gross, reckless disregard for the danger of leaving that weapon available to that child and proving that beyond a reasonable doubt in front of a jury.

So that's going to be, I think, a challenge for the prosecution. I, you know, I applaud the courage of the prosecutor to bring the case, but I think that's a tougher case to prove, obviously, then the actions of the son.

WHITFIELD: All right. Fascinating.

Chief Daniel Oates, pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much.

OATES: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, still to come, a crucial meeting at the White House. President Joe Biden and the United Kingdom's prime minister discussing allowing Ukraine to fire missiles provided by the West on targets deep inside Russia. We'll tell you what came out of that meeting.

Plus, former President Donald Trump doubling down on claims with zero evidence that some undocumented migrants are taking over the country from within. What he said in his latest rally next.

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[13:16:45]

WHITFIELD: The White House says no decision is imminent on letting Ukraine use longer range missiles inside Russia. Those are missiles primarily supplied by the U.S. and the U.K. This follows a critical meeting between President Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House Friday, where Ukraine was high on the agenda.

The two leaders did reassert their strong support and defense of Ukraine, especially in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent threats, warning the move could put the Kremlin at war with NATO.

CNN's Kevin Liptak joins us now from the White House. Kevin, what more do we know about these missile discussions?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Fredricka, the fact that these conversations are taking place at all gives you a sense of the enormous amount of pressure President Biden is facing to ease some of these restrictions, not only on American weapons, but what weapons provided by Britain and France to fire them deep into Russia. And certainly the president talked about that very intensively with his British counterpart yesterday.

At the top of his list of concerns is escalation with Russia. Certainly, he very much wants to avoid setting off a wider conflict, but when you talk to American officials, they also have some concerns about the effectiveness of such a move.

Certainly, some American officials say that Russia has already positioned some of its highest value assets outside of the range of these missiles, and they question whether this could really change the trajectory on the battlefield. Now, yesterday, neither leader came out to indicate that an announcement was imminent that a decision has been made, although we did hear from the prime minister that a decision could be coming within the next couple of weeks.

And he pointed specifically to the United Nations General Assembly talks at the end of this month, where this discussion will continue. Now, looming in the backdrop of all of these discussions is the American election. And certainly we heard at the debate this week President Trump giving several opportunities, declined to say that he was committed to Ukraine's victory.

And I think that there is a sense among the Western alliance that they need to do everything they possibly can now to help Ukraine win before the uncertainty of November's election.

WHITFIELD: And pivoting now to the race for the White House. Vice President Kamala Harris has been out on the campaign trail campaigning in Battleground, Pennsylvania. And she's also rolling out a new mobilization effort to attract Latino voters. Can you tell us more about that?

LIPTAK: Yes, this is actually the biggest investment that the Harris campaign has made so far in trying to attract Latino voters. $3 million in Spanish language radio alone. They also say they're sending surrogates to key events. It really does give you a sense that they are looking for votes everywhere they possibly can in this final sprint toward November. And we also saw that playing out yesterday in Pennsylvania. Kamala Harris visiting two counties in the conservative interior of the state places that Donald Trump won back in 2020, looking to cut in his margins with blue collar workers, with rural voters, really trying to speak to those voters directly with the recognition in a razor thin race, which is what this is. She will need to win votes in those places as well as the Democratic strongholds.

[13:20:02]

Pennsylvania, of course, is critical to any electoral battleground strategy. You only have to look at her calendar to get a sense of that over the last eight days or so she has spent all or part of seven of them. In Pennsylvania, she will return to that state next week, along with Michigan and Wisconsin, really focusing on the so-called Blue Wall as she heads towards November in this final sprint towards Election Day.

WHITFIELD: All right, Kevin Liptak, thank you so much.

All right, meantime, former President Donald Trump is campaigning out west in battleground Nevada, where he has been turning up his rhetoric. In the last 24 hours, Trump has spent his time lashing out at the Nasdaq, promoting a baseless claim that Vice President Harris had an earpiece in at their debate, and continuing to claim with zero evidence that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating people's pets and that migrants are taking over the country from within.

CNN's Alayna Treene joining us now from Las Vegas where she's covering the Trump campaign. Alayna, what can you tell us about Trump doubling down on falsehoods?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, Fred, this West Coast swing that Donald Trump has been doing has really been about trying to focus on issues about the economy and immigration. But yesterday, he was at a press conference. He gave a press conference, I should say, in Los Angeles last night.

He spoke in Las Vegas, and he really veered off script out multiple times during that L.A. appearance. He talked at length about Harris and her record as a prosecutor trying to tie certain issues in the state to Harris. He also, as you mentioned at that Vegas rally, went off script and really rehashed the debate sharing conspiracy theories about Kamala Harris and whether she was wearing an earpiece, things that we know were not true.

But I do want to focus on one moment that happened at that press conference yesterday. During it, he gave remarks. He was doubling down on these rumors about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio. And at one point, a reporter asked him about how that rhetoric has led to a recent uptick and bomb threats at schools in that area and how many students have had to be evacuated. Donald Trump dismissed that and started saying that the real problem is immigration.

I want you to take a listen to that exchange. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, the police chief, the Republican governor of Ohio all debunked this story about people eating pets, and now there are bomb threats at schools and kids being evacuated. Why do you still spread this false story?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, no, no. The real threat is what's happening in our border. Because you have thousands of people being killed by illegal migrants coming in. They're all now in the United States and they're now taking over cities. It's like an invasion from within and we're going to have the largest deportation in the history of our country and we're going to start with Springfield and Aurora.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Fred, a couple of things I want to point out here. First of all, about these rumors in Springfield. We have contacted the mayor of Springfield, local law enforcement. They all say that there is no evidence about what he is claiming to be true. So that's the first part.

The second part of this, though, where he talks about wanting to start some sort of mass deportation effort in Springfield, that is problematic because a lot of the migrants in Springfield, Ohio are here legally. They have temporary protective status, also known more commonly as TPP. So some questions there about what he is actually calling for.

But I think to keep in mind, the bottom line here, the big picture of why Donald Trump is talking about this is because it plays into his larger message about crime. He's largely for many months now been claiming that migrants who are here, whether they're here legally or illegally are the ones who are engaging in these allegations of violent crimes.

And when I talk to advisers about this, particularly those rumors in Springfield, Ohio, they say even if they end up being proven false. Even if they are debunked they are being talked about, and that is the goal here. And it's very similar to what we saw in the lead up to the 2016 election.

A lot of this rhetoric is fearmongering. He's spreading fear in the ideas of these voters trying to, you know, make them believe that this is a major problem. And so you're going to hear Donald Trump continuing to talk about this. You're seeing people like J.D. Vance continue to spread some of these rumors on social media today. So I think keep looking out for that, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Yes, and even though debunked, it continues to stir up a lot of angst and anxiety.

Alayna Treene, thank you so much.

All right, coming up next, the American-Turkish activist killed in the Israeli occupied West Bank was buried in her family's hometown in Turkey in a ceremony usually reserved for fallen troops. Details straight ahead.

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[13:29:02]

WHITFIELD: New today, a funeral was held for the American-Turkish activist who was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank last week. Her body arrived in Turkey yesterday and was placed outside a mosque today where hundreds of mourners gathered.

CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson is joining me right now. Nic, I mean, this was a ceremony not usually held for civilians.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, the style of ceremony, her coffin was wrapped in a Turkish flag and it was carried by Turkish troops. This is something that's normally reserved for fallen soldiers in Turkey. And I think we can understand this because when she was killed, the Turkish president said they, meaning Israel, heinously murdered our young child.

This is something the president of Turkey, the country of Turkey is taking to heart. The foreign ministry has said that they will bring and hold those responsible for her death and bring them to justice. It's not really clear if the Turkish authorities are really going to have the power to intervene with the Israeli forces. The IDF are actually investigating are actually investigating her killing.

But of course, this has caused a lot of interest in the United States. She was -- she was a dual U.S.-Turkish citizen. President Biden has called for there to be an absolutely thorough investigation.

He has said very clearly that this was a tragic accident, but from unnecessary escalation of the use of force.

And President Biden has said the investigation can only be viewed as transparent and proper by the United States. If Israel continues to share information about the investigation and continues it in a transparent manner.

Otherwise, the United States will not be able to have confidence in the outcome. So there's a lot of attention being focused on this.

She was 26-years-old. Some of the protesters who we're with her when she was shot say that she was directly targeted, shot in the head by an Israeli sniper from the IDF.

The IDF has said that they we're shooting, not directed at her, per say, but they we're shooting at someone who was instigating violence, throwing rocks at them.

And they said they run the threat, albeit, they we're 200 meters -- by eyewitness accounts, the IDF were 200 meters up the Hill from where she was shot. But this was a very strong signal from Turkey today that they feel

deeply about her killing, deeply about getting justice, and essentially giving her, as you mentioned, this same sendoff that a soldier, that a fallen hero from Turkey would get.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right, Nic Robertson, in Tel Aviv, thank you so much for that report.

Right after a daring excursion into earth's orbit that included the first commercial spacewalk, the Polaris Dawn crew is set to return to earth this weekend. I'll discuss it with a former NASA astronaut after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:50]

WHITFIELD: Miami Dolphins' head coach on Friday said he is more focused on Tua Tagovailoa's well-being than the team's future after the star quarterback suffered another scary head injury in Thursday night's game.

CNN sports anchor, Andy Scholes, has more on that.

What's the latest, Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Fredricka, Tuo is in the league's concussion protocol, but when or if we ever see him play in the NFL again is up in the air.

The 26-year-old suffering yet another concussion Thursday night against the Bills. This is another scary instance where he went into a a fencing response with his arms and hands after taking the hit.

And Tua has been diagnosed with three concussions in his NFL career and many including Raiders Head Coach Antonio Pierce Tua should walk away from the game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONIO PIERCE, HEAD COACH, LOS VEGAS RAIDERS: I'll be honest, Tua should retire. It's not worth it. It's not worth playing the game.

I had witnessed anything -- like I've seen this happened to him three times. Scary. You can see right away the players' faces on the field. You can sense urgency from everybody to get to help.

I just think, at some point, you know, he's not going to live long enough to play football. Take care of your family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Elsewhere, Caitlin Clark making more WNBA history last night. The rookie sensation recording her 317th assist in the second quarter, breaking the WNBA's single-season assist record. And his game with the Aces was close. Clark, that driving layup here cuts Vegas is leading to two with under two to go. Park would finish the game with 18 points and nine assists.

But Kelsey Plum, the Dagger, three with under a minute to go. The Aces end up beating the Fever, 78 to 74.

Right to baseball, where Aaron Judge was in the longest homerun drought of his career going into last night. It had been 16 games since he hit a dinger.

But he ended the dry spell in a big way. Yankees down three, bottom of the seventh to the Red Sox, bases loaded, and Judge crushes a grand slam.

It was his 52nd home run of the season. Yankee Stadium just going bonkers there. They would end up holding on to win this one, 5 to 4. Yankees now have a two-game lead over the Orioles in the all ALC.

All right, and finally, in baseball, it's tradition that if you catch an opposing player's home run, you've got to throw it back on the field.

Well, this Phillies fan caught Brandon Marsh's homerun last night, and the fan behind him was like, throw it back. But there was also a kid, who was a Mets fan two rows behind him, begging for the ball. And he ends up giving it to them.

So, Fredricka, the question is, what would you do here? Do you give it to the young fan, give him a nice souvenir to go home with, or do you follow baseball tradition and throw it back on the field? What would you have done?

WHITFIELD: I love tradition, but I'm sorry, I'm -- I'd have to give it to the kid. That'd be a sore spot for me. That's all I got to say.

Andy Scholes, thank you so much.

[13:39:37]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, some names you might know, L.L. Cool J, Lenny Kravitz, Madonna, just a few of the dozens of musicians and athletes who have partnered with Rock the Vote over the last 30 years.

And this election year, Rock the Vote is continuing its mission, encouraging youth voter turnout in all 50 states. And this November, around eight million young people will be eligible to vote for the very first time.

Let me bring in now Carolyn DeWitt, president and executive director of Rock the Vote.

Great to see you, Carolyn.

CAROLYN DEWITT, PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ROCK THE VOTE: So good to see you, Fredricka. Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: This is an exciting time, right? That, plus the fact that you've got social media, you've got influencers, the platforms of entertainers. The young people can be reached in so many ways to get excited about what it is, you know, to vote.

[13:45:06]

But they also have to be willing to go the next step, right, and register to vote. So how are you doing that?

DEWITT: Yes. So it's less about the willing and more about the know- how. So for, over 30 years, right, Rock the Vote has been working to build the political power of young people.

And we know that younger voters turn out at rates lower, 20 to 30 points, in presidential elections than their older counterparts. And this is primarily because there are new voters. They're new to the process that's very archaic, that looks very different than their day- to-day lives.

And many states are trying to prevent them from voting and making it harder. So we don't Rock the Vote do everything we can to walk them step by step through the process, providing information and tools at RocktheVote.org.

WHITFIELD: OK. And then how are you that? If they don't go to RocktheVote.org, how are you finding them?

DEWITT: So we work with, in the beginning -- as you mentioned, we've been working with artists, actors and athletes and cultural figures. So we meet young people where they are. We do not expect them to always come to us.

We meet them where they are on social media, with cultural figures, with trusted messengers. And welcome them into the political space. So it's all about, you know, finding those niches, finding those trusted messengers that young people are listening to.

WHITFIELD: This week, after the presidential debate, Taylor Swift announced that she is supporting Vice President Kamala Harris. She also said this at the MTV Video Music Awards Wednesday night.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR SWIFT, SINGER: This is a fan-voted award and you voted for this. I appreciate it so much.

And if you are over 18, please register to vote for something else -

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, I don't know if Rock the Vote helped influence her, but that was certainly helpful, right, to come -- coming directly from an artist.

We also know that more than 400,000 people were redirected to a RocktheVote.gov right -- Rock.gov Web site from Swift's original Instagram post.

So how do you think this encouragement will help?

DEWITT: Yes, it's very exciting. Listen, it's great to see a musical icon like Taylor Swift, who's a role model for so many young people, and she's genuine. She cares about the issues that young people care about, being vocal.

She's being vocal and encouraging new voters to get to the polls. I think the hidden power of her message comes from what's maybe lost, but comes to those in the new space is she's providing an encouraging basic voter education.

Again, as I mentioned, young voters are new voters. And both in her call to action to register to vote and the link to vote.gov, which saw a huge surge in traffic.

And then also researching the candidates and the issues. Because, again, this is -- these are the steps to voting that new voters are not used to.

WHITFIELD: Does the interest of young voters change in the last month and a half what the Democratic ticket changing? Are you seeing more young voters who want to be engaged because so much has changed in such a short amount of time?

DEWITT: Absolutely. We've seen a huge shift in enthusiasm. I mean, the reality is candidates cannot win without organizing young people. They decided the 2018 election, 2020 election, and '22.

So, and they broke turnout records and all of those elections. So there is this huge shift.

But we have to keep up momentum because that -- that motivation to register all those steps starts very early in the process. And so we're certainly seeing that surge, but we need to make sure to keep up momentum.

WHITFIELD: So not everyone believes in the influence, you know, from big stars.

Senator J.D. Vance was asked about Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We admire Taylor Swift's music, but I don't think most Americans, whether they like her music, are fans of hers or not, are going to be influenced by a billionaire celebrity who I think is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and the problems of most Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Your thoughts?

DEWITT: You know, I think J.D. Vance isn't paying attention to history, frankly. And in this case, he should really look at the numbers of what's being reported out of vote.gov.

I think the reality that we've seen throughout all of history, from Harry Belafonte to Taylor Swift now, is that celebrities are increasingly role models.

And so we know that they have the power to raise awareness and to help those who are not necessarily steeped in this work and steeped in the day-to-day of it, understand what's at stake.

[13:50:03]

WHITFIELD: All right, Carolyn DeWitt, of Rock the Vote, thank you so much. Good to see you.

DEWITT: Thank you. Me, too.

WHITFIELD: All right, up next, astronauts making history this week with the first commercial spacewalk. The Polaris Dawn crew is set to return to earth this weekend. We'll discuss with a former NASA astronaut right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:55:00]

WHITFIELD: All right, the crew of this SpaceX Polaris Dawn are preparing for their return to earth after a historic mission. The spacecraft is expected to return very soon in the early hours tomorrow.

The four civilian astronauts made history on Thursday after completing the first ever commercial spacewalk, proving spacewalks can be done by the private sector, not just NASA.

Joining us right now, former NASA astronaut and retired Air Force colonel, Cady Coleman. Her new book, "Sharing Space, An Astronauts Guide to Mission Wonder and Making Change" is available at bookstores now.

Colonel Coleman, great to see you.

COL. CADY COLEMAN, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT & U.S. AIR FORCE, RETIRED: Nice to see you. WHITFIELD: So we've seen NASA conduct these kinds of missions for

nearly 60 years now. The commercial sector is now involved. How important was this Polaris Dawn spacewalk for the future of space industry?

COLEMAN: We'll have to see, but I think it's going to end up being quite important in, if we're going back to the moon and on to Mars, we need space suits that fit everyone and work a lot of different environments. And that is a really hard problem.

And I like their approach to have tackled, you know, some of the parts of it that are especially important, which is how do we end up in the future making a lot of space suits for all sorts of different-sized folks.

And one of the ways to do that is to understand, what does it take to be mobile and actually work in a suit? And that's one of the things they really addressed was by actually forming the suits in a certain way, fabric folding and building the mobility into the actual constructive suit.

I think they're hoping to show that there's different ways to attack spacesuit design.

WHITFIELD: Right. So this was innovative, not just because of the spacewalk by the private industry, but this was an unveiling of a new suit. And the NASA suit is, what, something like 40-years-old in terms of for spacewalks.

So you see some real improvements here, something that the entire industry can learn from.

COLEMAN: It certainly - people -- I think everybody can learn because they're looking at different aspects. And I think what's novel is that they didn't try to just invent a whole new suit with the breathing and keeping us alive and cooling and everything.

They picked some aspects that are tough to tackle and they tackled those specifically.

And what I especially like is that they did it with a crew of two women and two men. And the two women happen to be astronaut trainers and not one person.

And by doing that, you're actually training folks back on earth to be the folks that really know about how suits fit, how they work. And we're making sure that our space workforce is made up of, you know, kind of all of us.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And as someone who has spent a significant time in space yourself, how risky was this mission for the crew involved, in your view?

COLEMAN: I think they did a lot of really good and thorough testing ahead of the mission. It's never safe, so to speak, in space. And yet they had tested out a number of these things. That doesn't mean that when you actually open up that hatch and everyone is exposed to the vacuum of space that that was not.

I'll be interested to know what it felt like to them because it's definitely a big, big step to do.

WHITFIELD: OK.

So on the other side of the commercial space travel, we also have the Boeing Starliner. The crew has been stuck on the International Space Station since June but won't be able to return until February at the earliest.

The two-person crew spoke about what it's been like for them, how important all of this is.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUTCH WILMORE, NASA ASTRONAUT, STARLINER CREW: When you have an issue like we've had, there's some changes that need to be made. Boeing's on board with that. We're all on board with that.

And I can tell you, when you push the edge of the envelope, again, and you do things with spacecraft that have never been done before, just like Starliner, you're going to find some things.

And in this case, we found some things that we just could not get comfortable with putting us back in the Starliner when we had other options.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: I mean, they remain optimistic. Are you?

COLEMAN: Absolutely. I think it was the right decision. It wasn't just the option of coming back with Boeing was not safe. It was just certainly not as safe as other options. And there's no need for unnecessary risk.

So I've -- I was with them. And I'm really excited about having Butch and Suni onboard for longer, in that they are trained astronauts. They have paid a lot of dues by being the shepherds at this new capsule.

And as Suni said, with a very short mission, that eight-day mission that was projected, there wasn't going to be a lot of time to do some of that other work that we do up in space, which is to share that experience and help inspire the next generation about the things that we're doing up there.

So I'm -- I'm actually really, I'm thrilled. And I would say that myself and other colleagues are probably quite a bit jealous.

(LAUGHTER)

[13:59:57]

WHITFIELD: That they got to stay extra, extra time.

COLEMAN: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: Yes, that is.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: And that's dream. I keep hearing that from all the astronauts that you're looking at it as, wait a minute, this is totally half-glass-full from their perspective.