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Multiple Staffers Quit Mark Robinson's Campaign; House Speaker Releases New Spending Bill To Avoid Government Shutdown; Hezbollah Launches Series Of Rockets Deeper Inside Israel; Latest Polls Indicate Tight Race Between Trump and Harris; Harris To Lay Out Economic Vision In Speech This Week; Zelenskyy Arrives In US For Talks With Biden, US Officials; Interview With Rep. Jake Auchincloss, (D-MA); Police: 4 Dead, 17 Injured in Birmingham, Alabama Mass Shooting. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired September 22, 2024 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Multiple staffers have just quit the campaign for Mark Robinson. He's the embattled Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina. The campaign telling CNN tonight four of its top operatives have stepped down from their roles. This exit coming just days after a bombshell CNN report uncovered racist, sexually graphic, and lewd comments made by Robinson on a porn Web site years ago.

Robinson writing in a statement tonight, quote, "I appreciate the efforts of these team members who have made the difficult choice to step away from the campaign, and I wish them well in their future endeavors. I look forward to announcing new staff roles in the coming days."

CNN KFile senior editor Andrew Kaczynski, who broke this story, is joining us now with more details.

Andrew, what more are you learning?

ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Yes, that's right. Well, we are learning that the top campaign staff to Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson are resigning from his campaign in mass, including the campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, senior adviser, and top consultant to his campaign, finance director, deputy finance director, and his director of operations.

This is a stunning development after our bombshell story that we posted last Thursday, his staff are leaving the campaign now. It's unclear where this is going to leave Robinson. We're just a month away almost from the election and now he essentially has almost no senior campaign staff.

Now we did speak to Robinson ahead of our story on Thursday where he denied all of the allegations in them. Take a listen to a little bit of what he told CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LT. GOV. MARK ROBINSON (R), NORTH CAROLINA GUBERNATORIAL NOMINEE: This is not anything that is characteristic of me nor has it ever been. I'm not going to get into the minutiae of how someone might have manufactured these salacious tabloid lies but I can tell you this. There's been over $1 million spent on me through AI. The things that people can do with the internet now was incredible. It's just like Clarence Thomas said years ago, this is a high-tech lynching. And, you know, back long years ago, they used rope, now they're using tech.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KACZYNSKI: Now we are able to track Robinson to those comments that we found that he made on a pornographic forum where he called himself a, quote, "black Nazi." He said he would prefer Hitler to the leadership in Washington during the presidency of Barack Obama. In one disturbing comment, he said that he supported reinstating slavery along with a whole lot of other comments, some of which we cannot even say on air.

Now, when we confronted Robinson, as you heard, he vehemently denied it was him, but CNN was able to trace this to him because he used a common username across both the forum where he made that and all of his social media, including previously on Twitter. He left biographical details on that forum, showing it was him. We saw that he got the same e-mail that he used on that forum along with his real name, which he used, he used elsewhere.

So we were able to trace that digital trail of breadcrumbs to Mark Robinson and only Mark Robinson.

DEAN: All right. It is incredible reporting. Andrew Kaczynski, thank you so much for that.

I also want to bring in CNN's Dianne Gallagher, who's been following Mark Robinson's campaign this year at that gubernatorial race there in North Carolina. She joins us on the phone from North Carolina.

So, Dianne, what are you hearing from your sources tonight and what have the last few days like been inside the campaign? I know former president Donald Trump was also in North Carolina over the weekend.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): That's right. And they were definitely not together, but both campaigning on Saturday here in North Carolina. I will add that in addition to what Andy just reported about the top adviser, campaign manager, finance director, and deputy campaign manager stepping down from the Robinson campaign, I can now report that according to his top senior adviser Conrad Pogorzelski, he is telling CNN that, quote, "The reports are true that I along with others from the campaign had left on our own accord."

Now its top adviser said, "In addition to those that were announced by the campaign as leaving also two political directors and the director of operations have also resigned." So we're looking at really the senior brain trust of the Robinson gubernatorial campaign all leaving it appears sometime today or at least making those announcements sometime today, just a few days after reports that bombshell KFile investigation.

I have reached out to the campaign about the additional departures, but I have not heard back from them just yet on those.

And Jessica, at the end of this announcement of those departures officially, the campaign, Robinson noted that I'm confident that our campaign remains in a strong position to make our case to the voters and win on November 5th. I will tell you that Republicans here in North Carolina aren't so sure about that. The state party is standing behind him effectively issuing a statement saying that we believe his denials and we think this is the left trying to make this about personality.

[19:05:09]

But there are Republicans in the state who are concerned about the toxicity of Robinson's campaign potentially, not just down the ballot, but even maybe up the ballot, talking about former president Trump in a state that he is virtually tied with Vice President Kamala Harris right now in polling.

Now he is back on the campaign trail, Robinson is. He actually had an event, a meet and greet at a speedway in Fayetteville last night where he spoke briefly before the event and then shook hands with people. He didn't necessarily address the investigation directly, but he did sort of allude to it saying, quote, "We are going to focus on the issues that you're concerned with, while everybody else wants to focus on the garbage and the trash that tries to besmirch people, we're out here telling people about what we want to do, how we want to partner with you to make this state better and make your lives better."

Jessica, he has two meet and greet events scheduled for tomorrow where he is supposed to have sort of these small little events that he just started really having a few weeks ago. The campaign had not been super robust with these public events, but we've seen it sort of ramp up recently. So we're hoping to attend and to see how he interacts with these voters.

I can say that from local affiliate coverage, many of the voters who were at that speedway say that they either didn't care what was unearthed in that investigation or they did not believe it. But these are staunched Robinson supporters. Others in North Carolina, including elected Republican officials, have tried to sort of keep their distance a bit, either not commenting at all or just attempting to, again, keep that distance.

Democrats on the other hand, have been sort of searching for any kind of picture that they can find of their Republican opponent with Robinson, any sort of endorsement or even just nice comments they may have made about the lieutenant governor to try and tie them to Robinson and also again some of what was unearthed in this KFile investigation. There is, again, much concern about what this may do on a down-ballot race for Republicans in this state.

DEAN: Yes, that is the big question. Down-ballot Republicans and also to your point, also, what if anything it might do to the top of the ticket as well.

All right. Dianne Gallagher, Andrew Kaczynski, our thanks to both of you.

Let's go to more breaking news now, this from Capitol Hill where tonight House Speaker Mike Johnson has released a new short-term spending bill in the latest attempt to avoid a looming government shutdown. Johnson in a letter to his fellow House Republicans warning allowing the government to shut down close to an election would, quote, "be an act of political malpractice."

CNN's Julia Benbrook joins us now from the White House.

And Julia, this follows another proposal that he just couldn't get the votes for. What is he proposing in this new legislation?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This time around, this plan seems to have bipartisan support. In a letter that House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote to his colleagues, he outlined what they're looking at and that is extending the funding until December 20th with a limited continuing resolution. So likely setting up another fight right before the holidays, but after the presidential election.

In that letter, Johnson said, quote, "Our legislation will be very narrow, bare-bones CR including only the extensions that are absolutely necessary. While this is not the solution any of us prefer it is the most prudent path forward under the present circumstances."

Now, we know that it does include some funding for the Secret Service. That has been a big topic on Capitol Hill following those two apparent assassination attempts against former president Donald Trump. This bill comes after, like you said, some failed attempts and Democrats are accusing Johnson of wasting time by bringing a bill last week that was opposed by most Democrats and several Republicans. He leads with a very narrow majority.

But this time around they are praising bipartisan negotiations. In fact, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said that it is free of cuts and poison pills, and Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader in the House, he said that he thinks that there is a path forward. So a lot of hope as they go into Monday that they can at least kick the can down the road, but a few more hurdles until it arrives here on the president's desk -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Julia Benbrook at the White House for us, thank you so much.

There has been violence every day this week on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border. Where do things go from here, that is the question a lot of people are asking. We're going to talk about it next in the CNN NEWSROOM.

[19:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) DEAN: Exchanges of fire across the Israeli-Lebanese border are threatening to turn that conflict into a full-blown war, as one of Hezbollah's top commanders calls it, quote, "a battle without limits"

CNN's Ben Wedeman reports now from Beirut.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, it has been six days of skyrocketing tensions between Israel and Lebanon. And there aren't any signs either side, Israel or Hezbollah, is prepared to back down.

[19:14:04]

Early Sunday, Hezbollah launched the first of three volleys of rockets deeper inside Israel than any time since the beginning of hostilities last October. Hezbollah claimed that the targets included the Ramat David Airbase and a defense factory outside Haifa. But it appears those rockets that weren't intercepted hit other areas, causing a few injuries and some damage to property, while Israel continues to strike targets in southern Lebanon, more than 300 between Saturday and Sunday.

In Beirut, Hezbollah held a funeral for Ibrahim Aqil, one of the group's senior commanders killed along with more than a dozen other militants in an Israeli airstrike on southern Beirut Friday. The strike also killed more than 30 civilians including women and children. At the funeral, Hezbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem vowed that Hezbollah's strikes deep inside Israel are an installment in what he called a battle without limits, and said, despite the pager and walkie-talkie attacks and Friday's airstrike in Beirut, the group will continue to fire into Israel.

Israeli officials are making equally dire threats toward Hezbollah with Israeli army chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, saying, our strikes will intensify -- Jessica.

DEAN: Ben Wedeman, thank you for that latest reporting.

And let's talk further about it with CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Army commanding general, Mark Hertling, and former Middle East negotiator for the State Department, Aaron David Miller.

Good evening to both of you. Thanks for being here with us.

General Hertling, let's start first with you, just taking this week as a whole. I want to know your thoughts about Israel's approach to this conflict with Hezbollah.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, they've used electronic capabilities to set off the communication devices within the Hezbollah military wing of the terrorist organization. I talked to our colleague Jim Sciutto on Thursday about this, saying that that attack on first the beepers and then the walkie-talkies was likely meant to disrupt and cause churn within Hezbollah. And sure enough, it likely did because Israel was able to take some of the intelligence from that churn and target the following days and the missile strikes. So what you see now, in my view, and I'm sure Aaron has a view on

this, too, there's a lot of churn in that terrorist organization. Ben Wedeman's report was interesting, but I'd suggest that Hezbollah is not going to be able to conduct many operations. They did do a strike, as he said, this morning with several missiles, longer range missiles in Haifa, but I don't think they're going to be able to sustain a whole lot more the kinds of strikes Hezbollah has been conducting with 30 to 50 missiles a day coming across the border prior to this.

So I think we're going to see a slowing of Hezbollah's actions, but a continuation of Israel's actions.

DEAN: And Aaron, I do want to get your thoughts on that and also kind of underscoring this point that the president and the administration who said they are concerned about this escalating, and that they are trying to resolve this diplomatically. There's also this idea on Israel's part of escalating to de-escalate, if that is something you think is possible. That's certainly a hard thing to get exactly right.

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: I think it is. I think Mark Hertling got it right that in fact there's a lot of churn in Hezbollah. I mean, if you look at their response, it's been tension. You see once short range missiles further than any point since October 7th, but they avoided and I think will continue to avoid major Israeli infrastructure and population centers. None of the key cities, Haifa, Tiberias, Nahariya, were impacted over the last three or four days.

So I think that Hassan Nasrallah, now missing several of his core confidants and commanders, is in no way shape or form prepared to -- assuming the Israelis want this, and that's arguable, to play into Israel's hands by attacking population centers which is going to result in a massive Israeli retaliation. And remember, those high trajectory weapons that they have, 150,000 to 200,000, they're not there to fight Palestinians, or frankly to fudge Israelis in Israel.

They're there as a hedge should U.S. or Israel at some point strike Iran's conventional or unconventional nuclear facilities directly in Iran. So I suspect General Hertling I think is right. I think this is going to continue. Now you always run the risk of one side misreading or miscalculating. But I still believe that neither side wants the kind of -- is going to demonstrate the kind of risk readiness that could trip everyone into suddenly Middle East has never experienced before which is a major multi-front regional war.

[19:20:08]

DEAN: And Lieutenant General, so there's Hamas and then Hezbollah, obviously both backed and proxies of Iran but different in that fighting a war with Hamas is one thing, fighting with Hezbollah is different militarily. Can you help explain how and why that is?

HERTLING: Yes, it's a great question, Jessica, because this brings the scope out a little bit further. I think Israel wants to finish the fight against Hamas in Gaza. They have plans that are rumbling a little bit within the Israeli Defense Ministry as well as the government about what to do next. And there are some really -- well, let's just say bold plans being generated within the Israeli Defense Force.

So that's why I think, you know, the Israeli ministers have said we are looking to escalate in order to de-escalate. They needed to strike the second front, which is Hezbollah, to keep them at bay. And I agree completely with Aaron, the fact that Hezbollah will strike only if they know they can gain a victory and they can't right now. But at the same time, Israel has to be very careful about continuing to open both of those fronts, both in the north and in the south, and potentially even some other actors from Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and other places attacking into Israel.

So Israel obviously lives in a bad neighborhood. They want to tamp down things as best they can while continuing to defeat Hamas in Gaza, potentially getting the hostages back before anyone in Israel wants a second front war with Hezbollah. So that's why they're trying to tamp them down and from a military perspective.

DEAN: And so, Aaron, to that end, what are you looking for over the next few days and weeks? What are you looking out for? What do you think will be indicators of how this is going to progress?

DAVID MILLER: Well, again, I think Nasrallah basically has made it unmistakably clear despite his rhetoric that he's going to wait to see what the Israelis do next and they're going to keep -- as well as going to keep their minimum response within that escalatory ladder to avoid what they want to avoid. This is a massive Israeli counterresponse.

I do worry about one thing, though, Jessica, and that is Israelis have demonstrated incredible tactical brilliance and maybe tactics ultimately is in fact the road to a strategy. But if you take a look at this situation now, there is no prospects of a ceasefire in Gaza. Prime minister of Israel today informed the Knesset committee that he believes out of 101 hostages that Hamas holds half of them are dead. Hamas is going to continue to survive as an insurgency.

And in Lebanon, the Israelis face a strategic quandary. What to do about the 70,000 Israelis who are dislocated from their homes in northern Israel and Hezbollah has effectively created a security zone inside of Israel. A no-go zone where people cannot go and return to their homes. That's a real problem because those people cannot go back unless there is real assurance through Israeli military dominance that Hezbollah will not launch incursions as Hamas did on October 7th, with their elite Radwan Forces.

So that's a problem. Mirroring the tactics to the ultimate strategy, and again, it's hard to believe October 7th is the first -- first anniversary, the first marking of this war, extraordinary.

DEAN: Yes. All right. Lieutenant General Mark Hertling and Aaron David Miller, thanks to both of you. I appreciate it.

HERTLING: Thanks, Jessica.

DAVID MILLER: Thanks for having us.

DEAN: Just in, Vice President Harris saying she will deliver a speech this week laying out her vision for the economy. We're going to have more on that and the state of the race when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:28:28]

DEAN: Forty-four days until election day. A new polling out today showing Vice President Kamala Harris with a slight edge over former president Donald Trump in what is shaping up to be the closest presidential race in perhaps a century. Harris now leading Trump by five points in a new national poll from NBC News, 49 percent to Trump's 44 percent.

Now that is the lowest level of support seen in any poll for the former president since Harris entered the race in late July. And a new polling average conducted by CNN shows the same theme that we've been seeing. No clear leader, Harris and Trump deadlocked in this race well within the margin of error. And again, that's a national poll. Trump continuing to lead when it comes to issues like inflation and the economy.

And this just into CNN, Vice President Harris saying she will be laying out her economic vision during a speech this week.

So let's talk to some experts to break this all down. Democratic pollster and CEO of the TARA Group, Tom Bonier, and Republican pollster and CEO of Wallin Opinion Research, Justin Wallin.

So good to have both of you here.

There's a lot of numbers to chew on, but, Tom, I want to start first with the economy. What we were just talking about. The vice president going to do yet another big speech on the economy. I would guess based on what you're seeing from voters, that's no accident, that that's what she's talking about.

TOM BONIER, DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER: Yes. That's right. And it's nothing new. When we look at the relative importance of issues the economy is always going to be one of the top issues. You mentioned the polling there. We have seen in some of these latest polls that you mentioned that President Trump still has an advantage on that issue.

What's remarkable to me about the polling, though, is that generally Republicans have a much bigger lead on the economy. Generally, candidates who aren't the incumbents or the incumbent party have a bigger lead.

[19:30:19]

So, the fact that the vice president is bearing down on this issue, I think is a positive sign in terms of the traction they see her getting on the issue and the potential to really improve her numbers even more. DEAN: And Justin, there's been a major push for outreach to Independents, of course, but even some Republican voters who may not feel comfortable or want to vote for the former president or maybe are waffling there are concerned about these key issues like the economy.

Have you talked to some of those voters? What do they want to hear from Harris on the economy to convince them or also too, what do they want to hear from the former president?

JUSTIN WALLIN, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER: That's a great question. I mean, the reality is those voters who do remain undecided, it's not a massive group, but it's a very, very important group because of course this is very, very close, as you noted earlier.

Those folks have not yet heard from either candidate a credible path towards resolving those issues that are most important to them. And as Tom mentioned, and as you mentioned, first and foremost, it's the economy.

And I think that both of them, if there to really prosecute their case, they need to establish a gap here and neither of them really have.

I mean, I think Harris has done an incredible job curating her brand up until now, and if she wishes to create a sort of a gap to be honest, a numerical gap, that's actually a statistical gap, she's going to really need to elucidate some of these items and Trump hasn't done a better job either.

They're both in this kind of stasis where one needs to break away and make that point or make that case that neither has really made it a meaningful way.

DEAN: I also want to ask about at Tom, this favorability swing that we saw in NBC News poll, Harris with this 16-point jump in favorability, which they say is the biggest jump of any politician in their polling since President George W. Bush after 9/11.

What does that tell you? And what are the real-world impacts of that?

BONIER: Well, it shows us what we've been seeing also in a lot of the other data beyond the polling is just the amazing excitement and enthusiasm that Vice President Harris and her campaign have been inspiring since July 21st, when President Biden withdrew from the race and endorsed her.

Since that moment we've seen massive increases in registration from younger voters, women, women of color, part of that is just benefiting from prior to that point most Americans didn't want to see a rematch of the 2020 race.

And so, seeing Vice President Harris entering as a new candidate, as a young and energetic candidate, then also seeing the contrast that we saw a couple of weeks ago in the debate, I think is driving those favorabilities, in terms of what it means for the race. While those new voter registrations are probably the most impactful part of this because we know that people who registered to vote for the first time, they voted a much higher rate in the subsequent election. Our numbers show over 83 percent turnout from new registrants in 2020.

That excitement and enthusiasm, and those favorable numbers that you're seeing are likely to be adding just more turnout for her base, which this close of an election can make the difference.

DEAN: All right, Tom Bonier and Justin Wallin, I'm sorry we ran out of time. I'd love to talk so many more numbers with both of you, you'll have to come back. Thank you so much.

WALLIN: Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: Still to come, Israel and Hezbollah are trading hundreds of attacks prompting fears of an all-out conflict. And, Ukraine's president arriving in the US to push Western leaders for more help against Russia.

Up next, were going to talk with Congressman Jake Auchincloss about these conflicts and America's potential role in bringing them to an end.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:38:43]

DEAN: As Israel and Hezbollah edge closer to what may be a full-blown war, the US is trying to ease the tensions in the region, but at the same time, the US State Department is telling Americans to leave Lebanon while commercial flights are still available, issuing a level four, Do Not Travel Alert.

Joining us now is Congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts.

Congressman, thanks so much for being here. I first just want to ask you what you think the US role is here as we see this conflict between Israel and Hezbollah intensifying.

REP. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS, (D-MA): Good evening, thanks for having me on again.

The US role here can be summed up in one word, which is Iran.

Israel is surrounded by a Ring of Fire. It's got Hamas to its south, it has Hezbollah to its north, it's got proxy terror forces in Iraq and Syria, it's got cyber attacks against its civil infrastructure. I know that right now, the story is Hezbollah, but Israel is going to be fighting this Ring of Fire until its flame is extinguished, and ultimately, it is all fueled by Iran.

Since Trump revoked the JCPOA, the United States has not had a coherent strategy against Iran, that revocation was disastrous. And now I think we really need a bipartisan commitment to engage Iran so that it stops attacking Israel from all fronts.

And that strategy needs to do a few things: One it's got to wedge Iran from China. China is sustaining Iran's finances through oil imports. It has to isolate the hard line regime going into the impending death of the Ayatollah and a new succession and it has to uplift Iranian middle class and civil society which is actually pretty tolerant and does not want the regime to be isolated.

[19:40:32]

DEAN: And we're pretty close to election day and when it gets to be that close to elections, especially in the House, I know it gets harder and harder to act on anything. But do you think that there is an appetite for something like what you're talking about?

AUCHINCLOSS: There needs to be, and it may need to come from Congress for exactly that point because of the ferocity of presidential politics right now. But we need bipartisan committee.

I'm on the Select Committee on China. That's been a bipartisan oasis in this last Congress, which has been largely marked by partisan dysfunction, thanks to Speaker Mike Johnson, but it sends a strong message to China.

The Chinese Communist Party is they aware that Washington is actually oriented and largely unified in regards to the threat that China poses, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. We need similar strength and clarity regarding Iran because we cannot keep allowing Israel to have to fight one tentacle of the octopus after the other without ever hitting it squarely in the head.

DEAN: And I'm going to connect the dot here with what you're talking about with China, Iran, and then the third part of that, Russia. And of course, Ukraine in the fight for its life against Russia right now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the US this week.

He's been touring an ammunition factory in Pennsylvania. He's going to meet with President Biden later this week. And we know that he's pushing for fewer limits on using these long-range missiles, being able to go further into Russia. Do you support that for Ukraine?

AUCHINCLOSS: Stridently and vocally, we need to unleash Ukraine to win this war. If United States had labored under these kinds of restrictions in World War II, we would not have been able to defeat Germany and Japan.

In particular, we have got to authorize Ukraine to use us made F-16s and ATACMS to strike Russian troops staging sites and their oil refining sites. There's four sites outside of Moscow in particular that account for 20 to 30 percent of Russian oil refining capacity. They're all within ATACMS range.

Ukraine should be allowed to strike those four sites repeatedly and at scale so that Vladimir Putin is not able to turn all of his crude oil into petroleum to fuel his war economy.

DEAN: Why do you think there's been such a hang up on this?

AUCHINCLOSS: Misplaced fear of escalation. I think the administration regrettably is indexing to a concern that if we unleash Ukraine to strike Russian energy infrastructure, Putin will escalate with more ferocity of attacks.

He's already brutally and unprovoked launched an assault against a sovereign state. The truth threat of escalation is that he wins. Then he takes Kyiv and he starts to look at Poland, a true Russia on NATO conflict.

I think that we have seen over this last two decades that Russia understands one language only that is strength and we need to equip Ukraine to win this war.

DEAN: All right, Congressman Jake Auchincloss, thank you so much for your time tonight. We appreciate it.

AUCHINCLOSS: Good to be with you.

DEAN: The mayor of Birmingham, Alabama says gun violence there is at, "an epidemic level". This after gunmen killed four people overnight, wounded 17 others, we're going to have the latest on that investigation next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:48:19]

DEAN: Police in Birmingham, Alabama, are asking for the public's help in finding multiple gunmen who opened fire at a popular entertainment area late last night. At least four people were killed and 17 others injured in what police believe was a targeted hit. In the past hour, we've learned the White House is now coordinating with state and local officials there in Alabama.

CNN's Rafael Romo joins us now live from Birmingham. Rafael, the gunmen remain at large, the manhunt is underway. What more are you learning?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, and as far as what authorities have publicly disclosed, Jessica, there's very little that they know about the suspects.

And that's probably why Birmingham police are not only asking the public to share any information about the shooting, they're also asking area businesses here where we are for surveillance video that might have caught images of the suspects.

There are several key details that officials have revealed so far. First, Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurmond says several individuals showed up in a car shortly after 11 last night, got out of the car and opened fire, leaving three people dead here at the scene.

Those victims were two men and a woman. A fourth victim was pronounced dead later at the University of Alabama Hospital. Another key detail is that police believe this was a targeted hit on one person and the other victims were caught in the cross-fire.

Birmingham Police Chief Scott Thurman said his officers found around, imagine this, 100 shell casings here at the site of the shooting.

And this has been a very violent year for the city of Birmingham. In February, four men were shot and killed outside a public library. And then in July, a shooting at a nightclub left four people dead and ten others injured.

We spoke with a resident of this area, downtown Birmingham, who was part of a group of people who stopped by to lay flowers at the site of this shooting to honor the memory of the victims. Let's take a listen.

[19:50:17]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNY WALTMAN, BIRMINGHAM RESIDENT: This is really personal to me. I care about Birmingham. Jesus called us to love each other and to love our city and we want to be known as a city for love around the world. Not for hate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[19:50:30]

ROMO: And of last count, this was the 404th mass shooting in the United States. Jessica, back to you.

DEAN: All right, Rafael Romo for us in Birmingham, Alabama. Thank you so much.

Up next, we have a sneak peek into tonight's all new episode of "The Whole Story" with the Anderson Cooper.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:55:31]

DEAN: Misinformation and conspiracy theories have flourished with the alt-right in recent years but left-wing progressives be susceptible and tonight, "The Whole Story" with Anderson Cooper, CNN's senior correspondent Donie O'Sullivan looks into a true believer in a so called MAGA communism and seize the moment he's confronted by another provocateur.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's one thing when you talk about -- I just want to make sure you understand. When you go into things about China, Russia, Iran and especially China, you omit so much about them.

JACKSON HINKLE, AMERICAN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Where are you from?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from Texas and the things that go in --

HINKLE: Have you lived in China?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have lived in China. I want to Tsinghua University? You don't say that a hundred or six hundred million people in the country are still logged on less than $1.40 a day, why don't you say those things?

HINKLE: Okay, you're very, very emotional.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am, yes because --

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Jackson quickly realized that he wasn't talking just another fan.

HINKLE: All right, CNN propaganda. CNN propaganda, this guy is a CNN agent, a hundred percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think CNN is the worst outlet in the country.

HINKLE: Time to get out buddy. Danny, Danny, get this guy out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- imagine the questions, didn't think so. Put that on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And Donie joins us now. I love how in the end, they all just were yelling about CNN. What else did you learn in putting this episode together, Donie?

O'SULLIVAN: It's the friends you make along the way, Jess.

DEAN: That's right.

O'SULLIVAN: Well, thankfully, the show is coming up right next, right after this, so I don't have to try to explain to you in the course of two minutes what MAGA communism is but you are going to hear an explanation to that oxymoronic term coming up.

But look, we're looking here at really disillusioned aggrieved men who feel that American politics have left them behind. A lot of these guys that we meet this episode were Bernie Bros, Bernie Sanders' supporters just up until a few years ago and have made this very hard pivots to the far right.

DEAN: It is, it's very fascinating to see kind of the swing on that spectrum. One young man tried to explain his worldview to you. Tell us more about -- I know you've talked to a lot of people but this person in particular, what do you think?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. So Jackson Hinkle, he's 24-years-old. A few years ago he's a surfer kid in California. Now, he is a so-called MAGA communist. He has a huge following on X and on other social media platforms where he is pushing a really pro-Russia, pro-China -- it's a pretty wild propaganda.

I asked him to explain to me a bit why he has such an embrace of these countries and what is MAGA communism?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN (on camera):You can't genuinely say that people in Russia and people in China have more liberties than people in the United States?

HINKLE: Well, there's no free speech.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): You have a lot of free speech.

HINKLE: Really, you think I have free speech?

O'SULLIVAN: You don't think you have free speech?

HINKLE: No, I mean what's the public square today? It's obviously social media.

O'SULLIVAN: You have three million followers on X. You could post whatever you want. You're hosting events here. How do you not have free speech? What part of your speech is being heard?

HINKLE: It's very simple. It's very simple. Yes, I have three million followers on X, but what about Instagram, I've been banned. YouTube, I've been banned. I was banned from Raya, a dating site.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): Jackson's bans might have something to do with his repeated sharings of hateful posts and his celebrations of violence.

HINKLE: You look like you're in pain.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): I've been left frustrated and confused by Jackson. Did he really believe all the stuff he was saying or is he just doing it all for social media clout or for money?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN: Yes, as you heard there, Jackson's free speech has been attacked. He says because he's been banned from a dating site.

But look, Jess, what we're really getting into with this is, people might find it difficult to figure out how can somebody go from the very far left to seemingly the very far-right in such a small period of time.

And look, it is a phenomenon that's really happening there online. You actually see a lot of former Fox News and other very hard right influencers and presenters who now have their shows, own shows on social media platforms, teaming up with people who but traditionally be seen as being on the very far left.

So, this is actually a pretty deliberate strategy that is happening on the part that we actually know it's also being pushed specifically by countries like Russia where it is trying to tap into the feelings, that the disillusionment that a lot of young Americans, especially young American men have with the political process here and really kind of pulling them into this world of propaganda and conspiracy theories.

DEAN: It is fascinating stuff. Donie O'Sullivan is going to take us there next.

Thanks so much for joining us to talk about it and just a reminder to be sure to tune in an all new episode of "The Whole Story" with Anderson Cooper is next here on CNN.

Thanks so much for joining me tonight. I'm Jessica Dean. We're going to see you again next weekend. Have a great night.

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