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Trump Holds Dueling Swing-State Rallies; Polls Show Razor-Thin Race Between Harris And Trump; Israel Releases New Video Of Yahya Sinwar Hours Before October 7th Attacks; Leaked Documents Show U.S. Intel On Israel's Plans To Attack Iran; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Home Targeted By Drone; Why Christians Support Trump; Trump Is "Divine Intervention": Supporter Says Trump Will Restore America's Morals; New Evidence In Menendez Brothers Murder Case; FAA Investigating After Planes Come Within 400ft Of Colliding. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired October 19, 2024 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:24]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean in Washington.

And right now, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are holding dueling rallies as they focus on swing states that will likely decide the presidency. Harris is in Atlanta speaking to a crowd of supporters there and music superstar Usher is joining her on stage. Trump is with supporters outside Pittsburgh. Campaign adviser saying his rally marks the beginning of his closing campaign arguments with now just over two weeks until election day. Meantime, 11 million Americans have already cast their ballots in early voting across several states.

Our Steve Contorno is on the trail with Trump in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

Steve, update us on that rally, what he's been saying.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Trump's campaign telling us that tonight's appearance and this speech that he is giving is the beginning of his closing argument to voters that he is going to deliver over the next couple of weeks. And that closing argument began rather interestingly.

He started with a long-winded story about Latrobe, Pennsylvania, native Arnold Palmer, including, and I'm not making this up, a description of the Hall of Fame golfer in the men's room, in the locker room, and what he looked in the shower. He then went into more conversation about how his hair looked and his combing regiments.

And then he also accused Joe Biden, a Catholic, of targeting Catholic Americans. When he finally got on script for the night, he's put the rather stark terms of the election front and center for this audience. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With your support we'll bring back our nation's strength, dominance, prosperity, and pride. We're going to do it. This will be America's new golden age. 100 years from now, the presidential election of 2024 will be looked upon as America's greatest victory. I hope that's true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Trump also played a video of many times that Vice President Harris back in 2019 and 2020 voiced her support for a ban on fracking. Obviously, that is a big issue here in the state of Pennsylvania. She has since backtracked on that, but his campaign hoping that the message from those video clips of her from four years ago are going to resonate even into this election.

DEAN: And Steve, we're watching live video there of Trump with those workers around him. He has been angrily pushing back against these claims from Harris that he's exhausted. He's unfit to serve another term as president. That's clearly getting under his skin.

CONTORNO: It is. We saw him push back fiercely against that yesterday and claimed that he hasn't been doing anything differently, that he's been keeping up a robust schedule and he has made several increases appetite for events. He is holding multiple events in a day or during the summer it was one or two a week. However, he has canceled a number of events, excuse me, interviews lately and he has also had some strange incidents at his events where we had the audio go out and he was just dancing on stage for a little while.

All that is sort of feeding into this narrative that the Harris campaign has been pushing, that he is unhinged and that he is not stable, and obviously he is continuing to campaign vigorously and saying that by demonstrating that he's coming out here, like standing on the stage as he's speaking now for about an hour and he's probably will speak for another hour, demonstrating that he continues to have the stamina for this race -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Steve Contorno on the trail there in Latrobe, which is just outside of Pittsburgh. Thank you so much for that.

Meantime, Vice President Harris is speaking in Georgia and our Eva McKend is on the campaign trail in Atlanta with her, following along. As we've reported, Harris has been hammering Donald Trump in recent days on his fitness for a second term as president, and at a rally in Detroit earlier today, she said his behavior is a critical consideration for voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, CURRENT VICE PRESIDENT: He is becoming increasingly unstable and unhinged. And it requires that response. I think the American people are seeing it, witnessing it in real time, and we must take note of the fact that this is an individual who wants to be president of the United States. And I think the American people deserve better than someone who actually seems to be unstable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Now as we've said for a while now, polling showing a neck and neck historically close race between Harris and Trump. So let's take a look at those all-important swing states.

[19:05:03]

Harry Enten joining us now to break it all down.

Harry, this race continues to be just incredibly close. Walk us through what you're seeing in Pennsylvania, a very, very critical state. That's where Trump is tonight.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA CORRESPONDENT: I don't know how Steve got through that report so straight faced. I would have been laughing basically the entire time once the words Arnold Palmer came out of his mouth. I would have been down on the floor so bravo to you, Steve.

I mean, look, he's in Pennsylvania. This Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, right. I mean, how much closer can we get? We do this every week, Jessica, we can look back a month ago. It was tight then. Harris up by two. Look at where we are today.

I think last week it was like a point, now we're at Harris by less than a point in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. So I think Steve might have to get used to going back there and perhaps hear a few more interesting stories from Donald Trump about any athletes he might have seen anywhere.

DEAN: Yes. No, I think they're all going to be there a lot. Put this into historical context for us, though, when it comes to Pennsylvania because in '16 and '20, those were very, very close races, too.

ENTEN: Those were very close races. But the polling actually wasn't that close, right? Hillary Clinton had a clear lead in Pennsylvania, so did Joe Biden. So I decided to go back, look at the polling at the end of the campaign for every single cycle back the last 50 years to see if there was ever a race this close in the polling. There has never been. There has never been a race this close in the polling since 1972 in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Keep in mind right now, Kamala Harris has less than a one-point lead, it's actually less than half a point. I go through those spreadsheets every single day, Jessica, I have never seen Pennsylvania be this close in the polling as it is right now. It's something that honestly astounds me as somebody who looks in those spreadsheets. As a statistician, it actually kind of gets me excited, perhaps as excited as I don't know Donald Trump telling a story about Arnold Palmer.

DEAN: Well, and you're saying, it's worth reminding everyone it is very likely we may not know who won Pennsylvania on election night because it could be that close.

I want to ask you, too, how important Pennsylvania is to Trump and Harris' paths to victory.

ENTEN: Yes, there is a reason why Steve is in Pennsylvania, and look, here's the deal, chance they win the election, if they win Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania is just really, really important. So if Kamala Harris wins in Pennsylvania, she has an 87 percent chance of winning the election. If Donald Trump wins in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, he has a 92 percent chance of winning the election.

Now, the one -- there are two ways you can look at this, right? Number one, Pennsylvania is extremely important to both of their paths to 270 electoral votes, but it's actually a little bit more important to Kamala Harris' path, because if she does -- if she does not win the state of Pennsylvania, she only has about an 8 percent chance of winning the White House. Donald Trump has about a 13 percent chance.

Now those are still pretty small percentages, but the bottom line is this. Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania. It's extremely important to both of their chances to win the White House, but it's perhaps a little bit more important to kamala Harris than it is to Donald Trump's chances of winning the White House.

DEAN: And is it surprising that Pennsylvania is running this close when you look at the numbers?

ENTEN: It's not really surprising. It's not, it's not really surprising that Pennsylvania is so important. And as I mentioned, it's a little bit more important to Kamala Harris' path than it is to Donald Trump's path. And that is because historically speaking, it's been more important for Democrats' path than Republicans' path. So Democrats who won the presidency without Pennsylvania since 1924, it's only happened two times, Jessica, only two times.

And the last time it happened was all the way back in 1948. Jessica, I think if you put our two ages together, we would not be this old. So the bottom line is that Pennsylvania is extremely important for Kamala Harris. It's extremely difficult to chart a path to the White House without winning. For Donald Trump, it's also difficult.

But hey, at least there's some recent historical times where a Republican has won without Pennsylvania. George W. Bush actually did it twice in both 2000 and 2004. But for a Democrat like Kamala Harris, it's Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.

DEAN: And so we can expect that these candidates will be back to Pennsylvania a lot in the next 17 days. I covered Joe Biden's race in 2020 and we went to Pennsylvania a lot. Like a lot a lot.

ENTEN: Yes. I would think that Steve and of course our compadres both who are also covering Trump and those covering Kamala Harris like Eva will be visiting Pennsylvania a ton because campaign events in Pennsylvania since just September 1, there have been over 20 for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. There have been over 20 for Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. It is the most visited state by each side.

[19:10:01] There is no state that has been anywhere close even I might go out on the campaign trail and visit Pennsylvania. You know, I hear Philadelphia is just absolutely lovely this time of year. Jessica. Won't you join me?

DEAN: Yes, I would be happy to. You know, I've lived in Philadelphia, worked there for five years. Go see some old friends. We could do a tour of the Collar counties.

Harry, it'd be nice.

ENTEN: I think it would be absolutely lovely. And you know there is one little part of Pennsylvania where you can hit New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey in the same day. I actually did it I believe two years ago when I was in a wedding in upstate New York so perhaps we can do all three states in one day. Just have a wonderful road adventure together.

DEAN: That's right. We look forward to that. All right. Harry Enten, as always, thanks so much.

ENTEN: See you.

DEAN: Still ahead. Secret U.S. documents leaked online appear to show American intelligence on Israel's plans to attack Iran. What we know about where those documents came from. Plus Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the drone attack on his home was a, quote, "bitter mistake." He vows the agents of Iran behind that attack but so far no one has claimed responsibility.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:15:47]

DEAN: Tonight, huge crowds of protesters are gathering across Israel demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make a deal to bring home hostages still being held in Gaza more than a year after October 7th. This as Israel releases new video it says shows Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar hours before the October 7th massacre. It's just one of a series of new videos being released after his death this week.

And CNN chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance has the latest now from Tel Aviv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Israel has released new footage it says shows the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar underground in Hamas tunnels just hours before the October 7th attacks last year, talking over the grainy black and white images of what the IDF says are Sinwar and his children.

The Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the Hamas leader was hiding alone with his family all night in tunnels below Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. Well, this was a luxury the people of Gaza did not have he said. Sinwar always prioritized himself, his money and Hamas terrorists over the people of Gaza, Hagari added.

Well, Sinwar, who's seen as the architect of the October 7th attacks on Israel, was killed by Israeli troops in Gaza on Wednesday after more than a year of devastating Israeli pounding of the territory. The final moments of the Hamas leader captured on a drone camera showed him sitting alone in a wrecked building before lashing out at the drone with a stick.

Hamas, which is reeling from the killing, has accused the Israeli military of blatant lies and a failed theatrical performance in its portrayal of Sinwar during that past 12 months. In a statement, the group said the Israeli army was humiliated by the man the statement calls Commander Sinwar and his brothers. The organization says Sinwar was killed while engaging in the battlefield, after having spent the past year moving across various combat fronts in Gaza, at the forefront of, quote, "our brave people's" resistance.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Matthew, thank you.

And we do want to note the IDF did not provide any evidence about Sinwar's whereabouts on October 7th or afterward.

Let's bring in CNN military analyst Colonel Cedric Leighton.

Colonel, great to have you here.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to be with you, Jessica.

DEAN: I want to ask you first about this breaking news story we're following tonight that the U.S. is investigating this leak of highly classified U.S. intelligence about Israel's plans for retaliation against Iran. They began circulating these documents Friday online being posted on a pro-Iranian Telegram account.

In your opinion, how damaging is that leak?

LEIGHTON: Well, could be quite damaging and it could be an indicator, Jessica, of several different things. One of them might be that the Iranians have somebody who is working for them within U.S. intelligence. That would be a very bad thing to put it mildly. The other thing could be that it's somebody who is trying to in essence take matters into their own hands and trying to prevent Israel from doing things by revealing what the Israeli plans are.

The documents themselves may not go into great detail about what the Israelis are doing. But of course there may be more documents where those came from and we could find out more perhaps in the next few days, but it's clearly a damaging situation and documents like that because they have not only high classification level, but they exposed sensitive collection method and sensitive collection targets. They should never be released like this at all.

DEAN: And what kind of effect if any can this have on the military and its preparations, both the Israeli military, but also the U.S.? We all remember has military assets in that region as well.

LEIGHTON: Yes, absolutely. 40,000 U.S. troops in and around the Middle East right now. And that includes from all the services. So it could have a significant impact.

[19:20:01]

Certainly, the Israelis could be forced to change their plans, could be forced to change the timing of their operations, could be forced to change the targeting, you know, what particular targets they're going after. All these things are possible. And it's not a, you know, foregone conclusion that they will do those kinds of things. But it is definitely possible.

And as far as U.S. assets in the region are concerned they could become targets because of the fact that they are not only in the region, but also that they may be seen as aiding the Israeli effort. Whether or not they do that is of course a completely different issue, but to the perception might be that they are in fact aiding the Israeli efforts. So that would be a problem for the U.S. potentially in that regard.

DEAN: And also today in Israel, there was a drone attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home. No one was home, no one was injured. Iran has denied it was involved saying it was carried out by Hezbollah. Netanyahu said that agents of Iran were behind that attack. They would pay a heavy price. Hezbollah is not claiming responsibility. Now, let's remember that Hezbollah is sponsored by Iran. So what do you make of all of this?

LEIGHTON: Well, it seems as if either Hezbollah or Iran or both were trying to send a message to the Israelis that their leadership is also potentially vulnerable to attacks. I, and you know, it would be a logical choice of targets given the fact that the Hezbollah leader was killed by the Israelis, and of course the Hamas leader was killed by the Israelis, and actually several Hamas leaders in rapid succession.

So in essence what you had, the Israelis do is conduct basically a series of decapitation strikes against both Hezbollah and Hamas, and to some extent, too, Iran as well. And that of course then leads the other side in this case, the Iranians and their proxies, to potentially go after leaders like Netanyahu on the Israeli side. So in essence, they've upped the ante and of course, you know, it's pretty clear that Netanyahu wants to respond once again in kind to this. So we might be on a ladder of escalation as this goes forward.

DEAN: I also want to talk about Russia's war in Ukraine because we have some really incredible new information, which is that South Korea's spy agency says that North Korea has sent at least 1500 troops to aid Russia in its war in Ukraine. We have even video of North Korean soldiers receiving Russian uniforms and equipment at a Russian training base. It just reminds us, Colonel, how connected a lot of these countries

are that are adversaries of the U.S. and its allies. How alarming is this? How should the U.S. and its allies respond?

LEIGHTON: Well, this is alarming. It's not the first time something like this has happened. In fact, during the Korean War back in the early 1950s, the Russians would actually be the pilots of North Korean planes, North Korean fighter jets, and that's -- so I guess you could say that the North Koreans are paying the Russians back finally for those services. But the key thing is this. Now we have another power potentially getting involved in the war in Ukraine.

It shows that Russia has a manpower problem. They also face significant domestic resistance to actually being grafted into the war in Ukraine. So the way to solve that manpower shortage appears to be to hire foreign troops. In this case, those foreign troops are North Korean, and that of course means that North Korea is more directly involved than we previously thought. And that potentially widens the conflict beyond just Ukraine and Russia.

It could also impact the Korean Peninsula. And of course, the U.S. has vested interests both in Europe and on the Korean Peninsula.

DEAN: All right. Colonel Cedric Leighton, thanks so much. Good to see you.

LEIGHTON: Good to see you too, Jessica. Thank you.

DEAN: Still ahead, our Donie O'Sullivan talks to some Trump supporters who believe he was anointed by God to be president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:28:39]

DEAN: Former president Trump has drawn his strong support from evangelical voters, but tonight CNN's Donie O'Sullivan speaks with two pastors with very different views of Trump and some Trump supporters who see him as a divine messenger sent by God.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DOTTI DAVIDSON, TRUMP SUPPORTER: We have to take God and put him back into the very moral fabric of this country. Otherwise, we will continue to see that decay, just like Rome. Rome fell. And so will America.

(MUSIC)

SEAN FEUCHT, SINGER, SONGWRITER, AND ACTIVIST: I said, why are you going to all these battleground states, because I said it's not just a battleground politically, it's a battleground in the spirit.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Do you think Trump was sent from God?

DAVIDSON: I do. I do.

O'SULLIVAN: Tell me more about that.

DAVIDSON: It was divine intervention. God call people and they're not perfect people. So he has to call someone that's going to take a stand and that's what Trump is doing. He is fulfilling his calling.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): It's a few weeks before election day and Christian singer, preacher and Trump supporter, Sean Feucht, is here outside the North Carolina state capitol.

FEUCHT: We're going to plead the blood over the capitol.

O'SULLIVAN: Fois didn't mention Trump's name at this event at all.

[19:30:01]

But the political undertones were very clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We plead the blood of Jesus. Your blood speaks a better word than whatever is happening inside that building.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): You're traveling to every state capital?

DOTTI DAVIDSON, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Yes.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): Just tell us the significance of that.

DAVIDSON: It feels like it's more acceptable a lot of times in Capitols to have a drag queen reading this to kids rather than Christians worshipping.

And so, my heart is like, hey, let's empower people in the church to understand the significance of what happens in that building, really, where in many ways, putting the politicians on notice in that building.

Hey, the church is alive, we're aware and there are things that we're going to stand for and things that we're going to stand against.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): There's no official religion of this country, you would agree?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The religion that this country was based on is Christianity. I mean, for anyone to go and dispute that they're completely ignorant and blind.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): But you believe in freedom of religion?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh yes.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): People can be --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People can be of different faiths and practice as they wish. But this is a Christian country and this is what it was founded on, and that is what makes America so phenomenally great. BENJAMIN MARSH, PASTOR OF FAMILY MINISTRIES: What does that mean though? Let's ask that question. What does it mean America is a Christian country.

We have a Constitution that is rooted in liberal democracy. You don't arrive at the American Constitution with just the Bible unless you're buying a Trump Bible which already has the American Constitution in it.

This was the flag that went into the Senate when the doors were broken.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): I first met pastor Ben Marsh, almost four years ago.

MARSH: The Christian flag --

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): After I saw this sermon that was posted online where he explains the role of Christianity in January 6.

MARSH: They thought they were doing the work of God because pastors and leaders have lied to them.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): Marsh says, equating Christianity and American patriotism the way some of the Trump movement do is dangerous.

MARSH: It can create a cult-like attitude towards the leaders that are there because they're no longer just oh, that's the right guy. I Like his policies, now it's oh, Jesus has chosen that person. So we have to follow that person to wherever they go.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): What Pastor Marsh is describing is Christian nationalism.

DAVIDSON: I believe that's a term that's been weaponized to cut it, try to put Christians into a corner, right, where we don't exercise our faith in the public square.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): But Pastor Marsh disagrees. He's worried that Christian nationalism could lead to more violence.

MARSH: We are in a time when political violence is just kind of the air that we're breathing and people are so afraid it comes back to fear. So, Trump supporters looking at Democrats, if they win, They're going to commit all these atrocities. You have Christian leaders are saying they're going to lock you up. They're going to take away your pulpits just rampant lives.

DONALD TRUMP (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Promoting the God Bless the USA Bible.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): Far from distancing himself from Christian nationalism, Trump has embraced it, even selling a $60.00 Bible complete with the founding documents.

MARSH: You brought me a Trump Bible, God Bless the USA.

And then we say the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, be with you all, Amen.

And then all of a sudden you have the Declaration of Independence. What's the implication there, Donie? That government has been set in place to enact the will of Christ somehow. Honestly, it breaks my heart.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): What about people who say, you're overreacting? I love my country. I am a Christian, I love the Bible. I love the founding documents. What's so bad about putting them together in one book?

MARSH: As a local pastor with my local church, I think what's so bad about this, not just this bible, but the whole movement is, it is enticing people to do things that really aren't Christian, that make them feel like they're doing something that's Christian.

And that's ultimately the problem. All this part is nonsense is that it's all designed to make people think that they're doing something for Jesus, when they're really not, they're doing something for Trump and look, they're going to do something for whoever replaces Trump.

[END VIDEOTAPE]

O'SULLIVAN: And, Jess, the big concern here, of course, as you heard, Pastor Ben Marsh say in that piece is that this belief that some people truly, really do have that Trump was sent from God, that he is God's chosen candidate with divine intervention but when those beliefs mix and merge with election conspiracy theories that if Trump loses that the election was automatically stolen.

Well, we saw what happened when that happened last time, right, on January 6, 2021, some of the people who broke into the Capitol who stormed the Capitol were doing so under the Christian flag.

They were praying, they had prayer circles, concern, as you've heard from one pastor there, that something like that could happen again -- Jess.

DEAN: All right, Donie O'Sullivan, really important reporting there. Thank you so much.

Still ahead, the Menendez murder case captivated America 30 years ago. And now, a movement is growing to set the brothers who were convicted of killing their parents free.

The disturbing new revelations in the case, that's next. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:39:55]

DEAN: It has been 35 years since Kitty and Jose Menendez were shot to death in their Beverly Hills mansion. Their sons, Lyle and Erik confessed to arguing they acted in self-defense after years of physical and sexual abuse from their father.

When evidence that was presented at trial, both their separate juries failed to reach a verdict, but at their second trial, when that evidence was largely withheld and disputed by prosecutors, Erik and Lyle were sentenced to two life terms each without parole.

[19:40:24]

This week, more than two dozen members of their family asked that the brothers be freed, citing new evidence.

And joining us now with more Nery Ynclan Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and executive producer of the documentary "Menendez and Menudo: Boys Betrayed."

Nery, thank you so much for being here with us.

NERY YNCLAN, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "MENENDEZ AND MENUDO: BOYS BETRAYED": Thank you, Jessica, it's a pleasure to be here.

DEAN: Walk us through first how your documentary helped get this case reopened.

YNCLAN: Well, let me get you -- or let me start with a little background. In 2018, I met Marta Kano. She's Jose Menendez's sister. And that night I learned that Jose may have made some sexual advances to one or more Menudo members.

Now, there had been rumors floating around for decades that there was this Menudo-Menendez connection, but when I found out that there were more than 20 former Menudo members, I just knew that I could get some of them to talk to me because so much of my career I had spent talking to people who had gone through tremendous trauma or suffering from PTSD, and by the time that I got to Roy Rossello I knew that this documentary was going to reopen the case for the brothers.

DEAN: It's incredible. And it's been many years since the Menendez brothers ask the court to vacate that 1996 convictions citing Rossello's account.

The LA district attorney is now reviewing their claim. Why do you think it did take so long to get action on this?

YNCLAN: Well, when you talk about the Menendez case, there were three trials, as you said. Two at the beginning, they had separate juries and then the third trial.

So, this case fills rooms of the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office and there were three prosecutors who were assigned to look into this case.

So, they were doing their work. There was a lot of work to do and they kept asking for postponements. But things are looking positive now and as you saw that very emotional day when all of the family came to plead for their life.

They have spent almost all of -- they spent all of their adult life behind bars and what is in question now is whether or not the justice system can show them mercy and whether or not they deserve it, whether or not they have been rehabilitated or would be any kind of threat to society.

And what we've been seeing from our documentary that came out 18 months ago is an outpouring of support for the brothers and the DA's office diligently doing their work and deciding whether or not to recommend to the judge that they deserve a re-sentencing and ultimately, it is in the hands of the judge.

DEAN: And you have spoken recently with Lyle, what did he tell you?

YNCLAN: Yes, I spent several hours with Lyle a few days ago at the prison. It's a -- as you can imagine, it's a very tense, sensitive time. And while I can't go much everything we talked about, I can tell you that he and Erik are extremely grateful for the outpouring of support. They've been overwhelmed by it.

And Lyle did tell me that for the first time in decades, he actually has a little glimmer of hope that he might be with his family again.

DEAN: And during the trial, the brothers said that their murders were self-defense and prosecutors claimed that they just wanted their parents' money. Why do you think these abuse claims were brushed aside? And in that third trial, I guess we would call it not really used as much?

YNCLAN: A very complicated set of circumstances and politics went into everything that happened 35 years ago. Thirty years ago, they had multiple trials, but none of that is relevant to the decision that is before the DA's office and the judge now.

They have to decide whether or not after 35 years, they deserve an opportunity for re-sentencing and whether or not they deserve it.

What interested me in doing this documentary were two things. Roy and all the work he had done over the years counseling other victims of sexual abuse. He's been to some 50 churches across Brazil helping others and the brothers have also dedicated their lives and found meaning in their lives by dedicating themselves to helping other prisoners, starting programs, hospice programs, meditation programs, counseling programs, green space programs And that is why we've arrived at this juncture.

[19:45:22]

Nobody needs to re-litigate these cases. It's whether or not, is 35 years enough for these brothers. When you look at other cases of parricide, when someone kills their parents, they don't go to trial anymore because judges and prosecutors today understand that there's only two reasons why someone would kill a parent -- severe mental illness, or profound unspeakable abuse in the home. And those are mitigating circumstances. So, a plea deal is cut and someone gets ten years, 15 years. For the brothers, it's been 34 years and six months.

DEAN: All right, Nery Ynclan, thank you so much. The documentary is "Menendez and Menudo: Boys Betrayed." Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

YNCLAN: Thank you. Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: Still ahead, a new federal investigation into the scary close calls at some of the nation's busiest airports.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:51:01]

DEAN: New tonight, some Boeing union workers may be off the picket lines and back to work soon after the company and some machinists came to a new contract proposal, that is, if the rank and file workers approve the deal which would give them a 35 percent pay raise over the next four years.

Boeing has already said it will have to cut 17,000 jobs to make up for losses from the five-week long strike, which has grounded production.

The FAA is investigating a previously unreported in flight close call near Austin, Texas. This is just the latest in a series of near misses that took place near the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and CNN's Pete Muntean has more on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Near collisions involving commercial flights have been making headlines since the start of last year and have had regulators and investigators on high alert, but most have involved flights on or near the runways of a major airport. Rarely are these close calls in midair.

This incident was on Wednesday, but it's just now coming to light after new data from flight tracking site FlightRadar24, it shows an American Airlines flight lining up to land at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas, when a private Cessna 182 started to turn toward the commercial flight putting the planes nose-to-nose.

FlightRadar24 says the American flight passed over the Cessna separated by only 400 feet. We're talking a little more than the length of a football field. The air traffic control recording from liveatc.net, details that the American pilots received an in-cockpit alert of an impending collision called a resolution advisory, which requires immediate action by the pilots.

Now, this investigation is just beginning, but the FAA says the Cessna was operating under visual flight rules that does not require constant communication with air traffic control. You may remember that Austin was the site of another near collision. In February of last year, a FedEx flight nearly landed on top of a departing southwest flight that was obscured by dense fog.

Investigators said the quick reaction of the FedEx crew saved the day and the lone air traffic controller in the tower simply could not see the problem playing out in front of them.

Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.

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DEAN: All right, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM and we'll be right back.

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DEAN: American foreign policy could go and starkly different directions depending on how the presidential race goes. Will the US keep its longtime friends and allies or turn away from them to focus inward?

CNN's Fareed Zakaria explores these questions and the history that brought us to this moment in his latest in-depth special America First. Here's a preview.

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FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS" (voice over): Tens of millions dead. Cities reduced to rubble, an entire continent in ruins.

Europe after world War II was a hellscape, decimated by yet another great power conflict that has spiraled out of control. The United States had been drawn into it at a cost of nearly half a million American lives.

Yet, even after the Second World War, there were many Republicans who still believed in America First and that the nation's wisest course was to turn inward.

It took a World War II hero to inspire an about-face in the party.

General Dwight David Eisenhower, he believed that America's enormous sacrifices could not be allowed to have been made in vain. So he campaigned for a fledgling alliance called NATO and led Republicans away from isolationism for the rest of the 20th century.

This is the little told story of how a general became a reluctant politician when the world and America needed him most.

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DEAN: "America First: A Fareed Zakaria Special" airs tomorrow at 8:00 PM Eastern and Pacific here on CNN. And we have some breaking news just into CNN, at least seven people are dead after a ferry dock collapsed in Coastal Georgia, this is according to the Associated Press.

Several people were taken to hospitals that happened on Sapelo Island, about 70 miles South of Savannah. Crowds were gathered there for a celebration of the island's Gullah community of Black slave descendants.

Thanks so much for joining me this evening. I'm Jessica Dean. I'm going to see you again tomorrow night starting at five Eastern, an encore presentation of HBO's "Real Time" with Bill Maher starts right now, have a great night.

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