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Slain Conservative Activist Charlie Kirk Being Honored at Kennedy Center as Investigation Continues; Trump Says He'll Go to Kirk Memorial in Arizona Next Week; Israel's Military Ground Action to Start in Coming Days in Gaza City; The Influence of House Retirements as GOP Holds Slim Majority; L.A. Superintendent Working to Keep ICE Away from Schools; NASA Reveals New Crew for Year-Long Mars Simulation. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired September 14, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:32]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York.

And happening right now House Speaker Mike Johnson, conservative activists, members of the Trump administration and many others are among those at the Kennedy Center honoring slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

As mourners celebrate Kirk's life, investigators are gathering more information about the young father's grisly death. The 22-year-old Utah man arrested for Kirk's murder now under special extra watch at Utah County Jail pending his mental health evaluation.

There's also this new video that appears to show Tyler Robinson in a neighborhood near the shooting scene at Utah Valley University. The AP obtained that footage from a door surveillance camera, and you'll see it shows a man fitting the suspect's description, and his clothing, walking in that area hours before Kirk was gunned down.

We're going to get more now on this investigation, including a lot of new details about the suspect, among them who he was living with from CNN's Danny Freeman -- Danny.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Jessica. There are still many, many questions that we have about 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, the main suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk earlier this week. But we did get a lot more information as you noted from the governor of Utah this morning here on CNN.

Two main revelations, let's call them, from Governor Cox. First, concerning a potential note left behind by Robinson. And then about Robinson's roommate, who he was living with here in the St. George area. First to that roommate, per Governor Cox, Robinson was roommates with a, quote, "romantic partner who was a male transitioning to be a female."

I want you to take a listen to what the governor told CNN's Dana Bash earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, some outlets are reporting that the suspect lived with a transgender partner. Is that accurate? And are investigators looking at this part of his life as a possible motivation?

GOV. SPENCER COX (R), UTAH: Yes. Definitely. And yes, I can confirm that. I know that has been reported and that the FBI has confirmed that as well, that the roommate was a romantic partner, a male transitioning to female. I can say that he has been very cooperative. This partner has been incredibly cooperative, had no idea that this was happening and is working with investigators right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Now, Jessica, I'll note when CNN pressed the governor if this was directly connected to any sort of motive for the shooting of Kirk, the governor said it's easy to draw conclusions, but declined to speculate further. Also, the governor mentioned that Robinson was a part of a conservative family here in southwest Utah, though Robinson had been moving more to the left in recent years. That was according to the family.

And then the other thing I'll note, Jessica, was this concept of a potential note. The social and gaming platform Discord said that a roommate and a friend had actually mentioned, quote, "contents of a note the suspect had left elsewhere." Now, the governor on CNN appeared to confirm the existence of such note, but he did not provide any other details. Just saying that that is all part of this investigation.

Now, Jessica, the thing that we're all looking ahead to is this coming Tuesday. That's when we're going to hear from prosecutors and hear the formal charges announced. And that's also when we will expect to see Robinson make his first court appearance here in Utah -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Danny Freeman with the latest, thank you so much.

We also heard from President Trump just a short while ago. He spoke about a number of things, including Charlie Kirk and the people who are celebrating Kirk's death. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We don't like that. That's not right. We wouldn't celebrate if something happened on their side. And we don't. These are sick people. These are really deranged people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: CNN's senior White House reporter, Kevin Liptak, is joining us now from the White House. Kevin, the president also confirming that he will be going to Arizona

for that memorial service for Kirk next weekend. What more did he say this evening?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the president saying that that would take place next Sunday. So a week from today. But the president is also escalating his attacks on his political opponents here, really pinning the blame for political violence in the United States exclusively on the left and saying that it wasn't as much of a problem on the right.

This is really kind of an extension of what we heard from the president, really, in the hours after he announced that Charlie Kirk had died. He put out that video from the Oval Office pinning blame on the radical left even before a suspect was in custody.

[20:05:03]

Of course, we did hear from Spencer Cox, the Utah governor, saying that the suspect does have leftist ideologies. But as of now, a motive hasn't been determined. Nevertheless, President Trump very harshly going after the left as he was returning back here to the White House earlier.

Listen to what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, the problem is on the left. If you look at the problem, the problem is on the left. It's not on the right. Like some people like to say on the right. The problem we have is on the left. And when you look at the agitators, the -- you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag burnings all over the place, that's the left. That's not the right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: Now, in reality, both Republicans and Democrats have been targeted by political violence over the last several years. Whether it's Democrats in Minnesota, the governor of Pennsylvania, or Republicans like President Trump himself. This is a problem that has affected the entire spectrum of the American political spectrum. And so when the president says it's only a problem on the left, he isn't necessarily taking into account some of the targeting of Democrats that has also occurred.

What we also haven't necessarily heard from the president is a specific plan to try and curb some political violence in the United States. You know, we heard last week from the chief of staff, Susie Wiles. She said that even predating Charlie Kirk's assassination that the White House was working on a plan to combat violence and radicalization. But we haven't necessarily heard some of the finer details on that plan.

And as of now, it does seem as if President Trump is much more intent on really going after his political rivals, going after Democrats, and potentially laying the groundwork for further prosecutions rather than necessarily trying to bring the temperatures down at all -- Jessica.

DEAN: Kevin Liptak from the White House, thank you very much for that.

I want to bring in CNN contributor and former Nixon White House counsel, John Dean, and political science professor at Brown University, Corey Brettschneider. He also wrote "The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It."

I'm so happy to have both of you here. At the end of a week that's been a lot for America and Americans, as they kind of sort through what exactly happened.

Corey, we seem to be in this moment of reckoning. TBD on where we go from here. But this is just the latest in a string of political violence just within the last year. Really you could -- you could tick off a number of things. Help put this into context for people, where we are in the wheel of history when it comes to the United States?

COREY BRETTSCHNEIDER, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, BROWN UNIVERSITY: Well, it certainly is an important historical moment, and I should say from the beginning, of course, that the killing and murder of Charlie Kirk was horrific. I didn't agree with what he said, but he had a right to free speech, and he certainly had a right not to be murdered.

We've faced political violence in the past, and the question and test is whether or not we've come through it has largely been about the reaction of a president. So think, for instance, about the killing of Martin Luther King, Jr. What Lyndon Johnson said after was he appealed to the ideals of democracy, to our common understanding, and talked about the threat of violence, or Lincoln in the first inaugural, the last sentence appealing to the better angels of our nature and worrying about the possibility of violence. And even though we went through the worst period of violence at that moment, that language was a guiding light of where we wanted to be in America.

Now we've had other moments. Andrew Johnson, for instance, had a moment in which he threatened himself violence against a sitting congressman. Now the question is, where will we go? What this president has done so far is really the opposite of what we expect from a president. The president takes an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, to celebrate our common values, and what we've seen instead from this president is blaming one individual, blaming an entire group, the left, as you just heard.

And that is not presidential. That's not consistent with the duties of the office. And it's really letting us down in a moment where we need somebody to bring us together rather than to divide us. And my worry is that what this president is doing is appealing to our worst demons rather than our better angels, and that's dangerous for the country.

DEAN: John, you have witnessed some of our nation's most tumultuous moments in recent history firsthand. How are you feeling about all of this and how does it compare for you?

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it's not new to me. Obviously, I am an observer up close for at least 60 years. And I've seen violence run throughout the system and throughout decades, throughout years.

[20:10:02]

It's been protracted and it ebbs and flows a bit. But, Jessica, it's there. It's part of the fabric of democracy, sadly. And I don't know that there is a quick solution. Certainly fanning the fires does not, encouraging more of it does not solve anything. But I -- I'm saddened to say it is inherent in democracy. And I know firsthand, I have been in the witness protection program, so I appreciate it with a little sympathy.

DEAN: And listen, we also are living in this moment, Kevin, where, unlike the examples you were listing, Americans can live in very different realities, even though they're living in the same country. They can see different versions of videos. They can see different things that are fed to them on their algorithms, depending on which way they lean or what they feed to the algorithm.

What does that mean for a democracy like ours when we aren't living in a shared reality?

BRETTSCHNEIDER: Well, I think certainly we've had moments where we did have a shared reality. And as John Dean well knows, the moment in which the Watergate hearings were watched by most Americans was a profound moment where we together saw the crimes of a president and responded. But we've had many other moments where we have not had a shared reality.

I mentioned the civil war and other moments that I talk about in "The Presidents and the People," in 1798, when John Adams signed the Sedition Act and went forward with the prosecution of more than 125 political opponents. It was an attempt to shut down the opposition party. Just to show you how partisan it was, the legislation was written to make it a crime to criticize the president of the United States. But it left it not a crime to criticize the vice president, Thomas Jefferson, a member of the opposition party to Adams.

So we've had that partisanship. And in that moment, the only reason we were able to fight back is while there was a federalist reality that was John Adams' party, there was a Democratic-Republican reality. The journalists who fought back against the Sedition Act using their own trials to put Adams on trial. And we recovered then and throughout American history, I mentioned the civil war, we recovered then. We have recovered. We recovered from Watergate, and I believe we'll recover again.

DEAN: Yes. John, what do you think?

JOHN DEAN: Well, I'm certainly hopeful. Moments like this make people reflect on this issue. Anyone who looks closely at violence in politics realizes it accomplishes nothing. It solves nothing. It only aggravates situations. The fact that Donald Trump wants to encourage blame and point fingers is really, as Corey said, very unpresidential. Presidents are there, and we look to them to bring calm and order and make sense out of things. And that's not happening here. I'm not surprised, but it's the way we

are, and I don't think it will help the situation at all if this continues.

DEAN: All right. John Dean and Corey Brettschneider, our thanks to both of you. Really nice to have you. Thank you so much.

And tonight, right after this, Anderson Cooper's "WHOLE STORY" will take a look at this. So stay tuned for that.

Also tonight here on our show, President Trump is warning Israel to, quote, "be careful" after last week's airstrike in Qatar, a key U.S. ally. Those new comments coming as Secretary of State Marco Rubio prepares to meet with Israel's prime minister about that attack and Israel's plans for Gaza.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:18:17]

DEAN: New tonight, CNN is learning Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will discuss possibilities of Israel annexing parts of the West Bank in his meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio tomorrow.

That news coming as two Israeli officials tell CNN an Israeli military ground action will start in Gaza City in the coming days, potentially as early as tomorrow. As you see in this video, Israel has already started hitting high rise buildings there. Secretary of State Rubio visiting Jerusalem just days after Israel targeted Hamas leaders with the deadly strike inside Qatar.

CNN's Nada Bashir picks it up from there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NADA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as tensions remain high following Israel's deadly strike on Doha last week, targeting Hamas's negotiating team in Qatar, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has traveled to Israel, where he joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a visit to the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem on Sunday. The two are expected to hold official talks on Monday, with the Doha attack likely to be key on the agenda.

Ahead of his trip, Rubio told reporters that while U.S.-Israel relations remain unshaken, President Donald Trump, quote, "didn't like the way it went down," adding that the purpose of his visit to Israel is to get more clarity on what Israel's strategy will be going forward.

Qatar has long been a key regional ally to the U.S., hosting the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, and officials there working closely alongside both the Biden and Trump administrations to try to mediate a peace deal between Israel and Hamas.

Qatar's prime minister has accused his Israeli counterpart of undermining those peace efforts, and has said he hopes for a collective regional response to Israel's attack on Doha, adding that this response is under consultation and discussion with other regional partners, with a decision expected to be announced following the conclusion of the Arab-Islamic summit on Monday.

[20:20:16]

But beyond diplomacy, pressure is mounting on the Israeli government, both at home and internationally. On Saturday, thousands demonstrated in Tel Aviv once again calling on Netanyahu's government to secure a hostage and ceasefire deal with some family members of hostages held captive in Gaza accusing the government of sabotaging those peace efforts.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israel's deadly assault continues. More than 70 people are reported to have been killed on Saturday alone, with the death toll still rising as civilians in Gaza City are once again forced to evacuate with no guarantees of safety.

Nada Bashir, CNN, in London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Nada, thank you.

And earlier I spoke with CNN global affairs analyst Brett McGurk, who was a senior adviser to the last four presidents and the White House coordinator for the Middle East under President Biden. Here's what Brett had to say about Netanyahu's possible plan to annex the West Bank, and what potential ramifications might be around that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think it's very good that Secretary Rubio is in Israel, where he should be. I've done a number of trips like that. I've met with Prime Minister Netanyahu at critical moments. I don't envy that job he has tomorrow. That's going to be an important meeting. But yes, let's be very clear that it was when Prime Minister Netanyahu, in the first Trump administration, threatened to annex the West Bank, meaning basically declaring it Israeli territory and foreclosing any possibility of a two-state outcome.

That actually led the UAE to say, hey, if you put that on hold, if you don't do that, we might be willing to actually recognize Israel. And that led to the Abraham Accords. So the UAE has now made very clear that if Prime Minister Netanyahu here five years later thinks he's going to annex the West Bank, that could actually jeopardize that agreement with UAE, and that would just be a catastrophic strategic setback. So I really hope the prime minister can put this on hold.

Look, Israel is threatening this. They are reacting to, as you just mentioned, next week, a number of countries are going to recognize a Palestinian state again, with borders, sovereignty, everything future to be determined. But this is kind of an Israeli reaction to that. But it's really self-defeating. And I really hope the Israelis put this -- put this on the back burner for good.

DEAN: How much influence do you think the United States will have in that potential decision?

MCGURK: Oh, massive, massive. No question. If President Trump says -- I don't think he'd say it publicly. You heard Secretary Rubio there at Andrews Air Force Base just before he got on the plane, making clear ironclad relationship partnership. But look, it's my understanding the administration is not happy at all about this strike into Doha last week and that strike, Jessica, it seems now that we have -- we're about six days out from a tactical failure, it seems that they failed to hit the Hamas leader they were looking for, Khalil al-Hayya, but also a strategic blunder.

If you step back this summer, Jessica, I wrote a piece for CNN.com, an analyst piece saying, you know, after that 12-day war with Iran, it's really time now for diplomacy and to bridge from war to peace, consolidate these gains, really work towards that hostage and ceasefire deal in Gaza, and get back to that agenda of Israel's integration in the region. And where we are now, and actually after that 12-day war, the Arab League, for the first time since October 7th of 2023, said it is time for Hamas to give up and lay down its arms. A very significant moment.

Here we are today, the Arab League is in Doha, together with Iran, condemning Israel. So that is a -- is a strategic setback for Israel. I really hope this meeting with the secretary tomorrow, with the prime minister and the Israelis is a strategic meeting. You know, where are we going? Where do we want to be in a month, and how are we going to get there?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Netanyahu and Marco Rubio expected to meet tomorrow to discuss that possibility of any annexation.

Still to come tonight, a House Republican with decades in Congress says he's leaving after his term ends next year. The latest in what's becoming a string of retirements on Capitol Hill. What that could mean for both parties, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:28:41]

DEAN: New tonight, New York Governor Kathy Hochul is endorsing Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani. She's now the highest profile Democrat to back Mamdani's campaign. And her endorsement published tonight in a "New York Times" op-ed, she wrote in part, quote, "In the past few months, I've had frank conversations with him. We've had our disagreements. But in our conversations, I heard a leader who shares my commitment to a New York where children can grow up safe in their neighborhoods and where opportunity is within reach for every family."

Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, is competing against current Mayor Eric Adams, former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa.

With the combative political climate comes news about members of the House deciding to retire rather than run again.

Let's bring in CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten to run the numbers on this.

Hello, Harry. Where do we stand with retirements in the House?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: OK. There was another one that was announced earlier today, so we put it right up on the tally board. I think Mike McCaul out in the great state of Texas.

Look, who wants to stay in the U.S. House of Representatives is the question. And the answer is apparently far fewer than normal want to stay in the U.S. House of Representatives. House retirements at this point, you know, you go to the 2005, 2024 average at 16. Look at where we are in this cycle so far. It's 27. Eleven more than usual.

[20:30:02]

I calculated it out. I even went further back than 2005. This is the highest at this point in a cycle. This entire century. People aren't just walking towards the exit, Jessica Dean, they are running towards the exit. And of course, this comes as the GOP holds the smallest House majority for either party at this point, dating back 90 plus years. So a lot of folks going for the exits, they don't exactly like a U.S. House of Representatives that is basically tied and knotted right down the middle.

DEAN: Yes. As they've shown, it makes it hard to, you know, legislate there. What about when we break it down by party? What does this look like compared to other cycles?

ENTEN: Yes. OK. So you see the 27 there. But the question is who's staying and who is going. So let's break it down by party. OK. House retirements at this point. You know what this looks a lot like? This looks a lot like the 2018 cycle. Because look, in 2017 it was 18 Republicans, eight Democrats. Look at where we are now. It's basically the same. It's basically the same.

Republicans are the ones who are heading more towards the exit than Democrats are at 17 Republicans, 10 Democrats. And why is that so important? Because if you go back to 2018, you can recall that by the end of that cycle, of course, it was Democrats who retook the House of Representatives. While my mind isn't what it once was. Jessica, I believe it was something like a net gain of 40 seats for the Democrats.

I'm not sure we're lining up for that necessarily, but at this particular point, this cycle is looking a lot like 2017, 2018 in terms of retirements. And that, of course, is a very welcome sign for Democrats because, as I said, the Republican majority at this point very, very thin.

DEAN: Yes. And I think I know the answer to this one. But let's see what Harry says. What happens when a side has fewer retirements?

ENTEN: Yes. You know, maybe a leading question there, Jessica. Maybe a leading question, especially because I kind of gave it away a little bit here. But we'll expand the data, set out a little bit. We'll look at all the midterms since the 2005, 2006 cycle. The party with fewer House retirements went on to win the U.S. House the following year. Get this, seven out of nine times. Now that is not perfect. There's obviously margins of error here. Room for error. But you would much rather be the side with fewer retirements at this point than more retirements because at least at this point in the cycle, that has been quite telling. That party with fewer retirements have gone on to win seven out of nine times, which of course, at this particular point would in fact be the Democratic Party. If in fact they are able to go back, go on and take on the House, it will be eight of 10 times.

DEAN: And it is Sunday. Sorry, Harry.

ENTEN: Yes.

DEAN: And --

ENTEN: Sorry, Harry, whatever.

DEAN: Whatever. You know. This is when -- I know you, it is now football season officially.

ENTEN: Yes.

DEAN: But did you have a good day today?

ENTEN: Did I have a good day today? You know what, I'm going to take off --

DEAN: Oh, he's taking his jacket off.

ENTEN: We're taking off this jacket and we're going to put on this jacket. Here we go. I'm making a mid-game substitution here.

DEAN: Yes.

ENTEN: Here we go. I got my Buffalo Bills jacket on here. And what do we got for the 2025 Buffalo Bills, two and O, so far so good. After an easy 30 to 10 victory over the New Jersey Jetropolitans, out at the meadowlands earlier today. Of course remember the Bills are the only team from the wonderful state of New York. And since I'm a New Yorker, I root for my Bills. I feel like this could finally be the year in which we go all the way.

DEAN: Maybe. You did say that last year, but we'll see.

ENTEN: Well, look, confidence springs every autumn. It will be the question as to whether or not winter allows the confidence to thrive. But two and O, and we already beat the Ravens. And the Chiefs are looking quite mediocre, I dare say, because they lost earlier today to the Philadelphia Eagles. If we can get that home field, I feel like we might finally be able to do it. From my mouth up to God's ears.

DEAN: And wearing the parka, indeed. All right, Harry Enten, thanks so much. Appreciate it. ENTEN: Thank you. See you.

DEAN: Straight ahead, the second largest public school district in the country taking on ICE. How one superintendent is working to protect students against immigration raids at his schools, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:39:03]

DEAN: With immigration raids happening around the country, some parents are afraid to take their children to school, and the uneasiness intensified last month after a special needs teenager was pulled from a car and handcuffed by ICE agents in California. Now the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District is leading efforts to keep ICE off of his campuses.

And CNN's correspondent Julia Vargas Jones asked him how he plans to do that.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica. The superintendent told me that that teen was 15 years old. He was inside the car with his mother while his sister was registering for classes at this high school behind me. He said that wasn't the only incident. There was a second incident also involving a Latino teenager near high school. And he said both of them are contributing to a climate of fear in the nation's second largest school district, but also its most diverse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONES (voice-over): Los Angeles, a recent target of aggressive immigration enforcement actions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, ho, ho.

[20:40:00]

JONES: After protests and a week's long legal battle, the Supreme Court allowed so-called roving patrols to continue in the city, just as L.A. kids went back to school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bienvenidos. Bienvenidos.

JONES: Los Angeles Unified superintendent has drawn a line in the sand. Schools, he says, should be off limits to ICE. And he's asking for an expansion of protections.

ALBERTO M. CARVALHO, SUPERINTENDENT, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: Can we not establish zones of exclusion two blocks away from any school across the country where one hour before the start of the school day, one hour after the school day is over, that no action would take place within those two blocks?

JONES: You asked how would a first, second, third, fourth, or sixth grader pose any type of risk to the national security of our nation that would require Homeland Security to deploy its agents to two elementary schools? Have you gotten an answer?

CARVALHO: Not yet, but I will ask the question again. Our children are not a threat. Our children are a promise. They've always been, immigrant or not.

JONES: You've said recently that you would be a hypocrite if you did not defend students that are now going through what you went through as an undocumented teenager. You said that you would put your job on the line if necessary for that. I'm curious as to where that line is right now.

CARVALHO: Why I feel I have both a professional, but also a moral responsibility to stand in defense of those who today are experiencing the same journey I lived through over four decades ago. Agents have come into our community. They've tried to have access to our kids in elementary schools, and we've done what I believe is right.

JONES: Are you concerned that at some point that will mean that you have crossed a line with federal agents, that you would be obstructing federal operations like we've seen other officials in Los Angeles be accused of?

CARVALHO: So we are informed by our own legal entities in terms of everything we do. We do not think that we are crossing the line. We are enforcing the law. Do I have institutional concerns? I do. I'm concerned that somehow our protective policies and practices may invite a challenge that may compromise or threaten the federal funding we get from Washington, D.C. funding like Title One that supports kids in poverty, or IDA, which supports students with disabilities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Back up, back up. You're in my way.

JONES (voice-over): As the Trump administration ramps up raids in other cities, Carvalho has a message for his counterparts.

CARVALHO: Know the law. Know your legal rights. Ensure that your institution is prepared to protect your kids and your workforce, but don't fail to maintain a dialogue, because I do believe that it is at the table of conversation, respectful way that you actually craft policies of protection for our kids.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES (on-camera): And Jessica, in a statement earlier this week, the Department of Homeland Security did not address directly Los Angeles schools, but they did say that ICE is, quote, "not raiding campuses or arresting children." They said that instead, DHS' directive that allows ICE into schools would be used in extremely rare cases, and only with supervisor approval -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much for that.

Ahead, four brave volunteers are about to spend a whole year on Mars. Not the real Mars, but their 12-month simulation will still give NASA valuable data about humanity's future on the red planet and beyond.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:48:17]

DEAN: We are following some big news about the red planet. First, NASA scientists think leopard spots on a rock sampled by the Perseverance Rover on Mars last year may potentially have been made by ancient life. They're calling it the clearest sign yet that life could have existed on Mars. So there's that.

Also, the agency has revealed the names of a second crew that will spend more than a year inside a habitat simulating life on Mars.

Let's bring in CNN aerospace analyst Miles O'Brien.

Miles, there's some good information to chew on here. Let's start first with that simulation. The first mission lasted about a year. It just wrapped up in July of 2024. So what will researchers look for now as they send this second group in?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AEROSPACE ANALYST: Well, Jessica, they're trying to learn as much as they can about how the human body would endure the rigors of being on a long Mars mission. And that includes being resource limited. That includes eating kind of lousy meals, ready-to- eat style food. That includes also a 20-minute trip between transmitting a message and its receipt. So 40 minutes round trip if you have to ask a question from mission control.

So the isolation is pretty severe and the crew will attempt to live through all that, husband their resources, conduct a simulated Mars walks, and try to do almost everything that a crew member who might one day find themselves on the surface of the red planet would do except that they're right there on NASA Road One in Houston.

DEAN: It's so crazy, how close to the real deal is this? We're watching video of them making it.

[20:50:01]

O'BRIEN: Well, they're doing the best they can, but there are some things you cannot simulate. Mars has about one-third the gravity of what we have. So that's something they can't do. There's no room at NASA that does that, although people ask me that all the time. There is no anti-gravity room there.

The other thing that is not simulated is the radiation exposure that a crew is going to face on Mars. It's one of the big problems that NASA has to conquer before it starts sending crews on these long duration missions to the red planet. The radiation exposure over the course of a mission like that is something that would be of great concern.

DEAN: And then tell us about this Martian rock. Why is this -- this is fascinating to me. Why is this the best piece of evidence we have so far to prove that there's been life on Mars at some point? O'BRIEN: Well, you know, there's -- the story of Mars and its previous

evidence of life has just gotten thicker and richer and deeper over time. We know with great certainty now the planet was once warm and wet, with canals and rivers. Everywhere we look here on earth, where there is liquid water, we find life. No matter where we go, no matter how cold, how hot, there's life there. So that, it was a very strong piece of circumstantial evidence.

Over the course of the years, everybody has been hoping to find, you know, the quintessential fossil, which proves that life was, in fact, there at one time. And a couple of things that are interesting about this. If, in fact, upon further analysis, we can determine the, you know, sort of the history of that life, the big question is, is it a second genesis of life, or is the life on earth from the same source?

In other words, could the life have been transmitted from some sort of meteorite, from our planet to Mars, or vice versa, which, Jessica, means we might all be Martians, but what's kind of sad about this is that NASA right now has just canceled the Mars sample return mission, which would help answer some of these questions. So hopefully we can get that on back on the books.

DEAN: Yes, we need to know, are we Martians? It's a good -- it's a good question to have an answer to.

Miles O'Brien, thank you so much. Good to see you.

And still ahead, what President Trump is saying about the future of TikTok tonight as the app faces yet another deadline this week.

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[20:57:18]

DEAN: Here's a look at five stories we'll be tracking this week.

President Trump and the first lady traveled to the U.K. for an official state visit. King Charles and Queen Camilla will host the Trumps at Windsor Castle, where they will be treated to all the pomp and circumstance of a state banquet Wednesday night. While other presidents have made return visits to the -- return visits to the U.K. in their second terms, President Trump will be the first to have a second official state visit.

Catherine, Princess of Wales, will also host Melania Trump in a special joint appearance. This week's trip underscores a broader diplomatic effort by the U.K. to cultivate close ties with the Trump administration.

Congress is back in session tomorrow, and a pressing item on its agenda. The looming threat of a government shutdown. CNN has learned House GOP leaders plan to push a vote this week on a stopgap funding bill through late November, but Democrats say they are totally united in their plans to fight Republicans over health care legislation.

The deadline is September 30th, but GOP leaders hope to move sooner because the House is off the week of September 22nd for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

The Federal Reserve is holding its two-day meeting on interest rates, and the big money is betting on a quarter point interest rate cut Wednesday. This is a hard time for the Fed, which is always monitoring the tug of war between guarding against inflation and protecting the job market. And lately, we've seen rough readings on both sides, and despite the weak news for the economy, the stock market though taking that in stride, rallying near records this week on hopes for that very rate cut.

Video obtained by the Associated Press shows accused killer Tyler Robinson walking through the Utah neighborhood on the day he allegedly shot and killed conservative political activist Charlie Kirk. Robinson is expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday, when prosecutors will reveal their list of charges. Authorities continuing to investigate a possible motive, including a note he reportedly left behind Utah's governor confirming to CNN that Robinson was living with a romantic transgender partner. Robinson is being held without bail in a special housing unit at the Utah County Jail pending a mental health evaluation.

Wednesday is the day TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, must sell the social media platform to a U.S. company or face a congressionally approved bipartisan ban. President Trump set that September 17th deadline, but he is also extended the deadline three times so far in his second term. He says he's working toward an agreement with China for that popular app.

Next on CNN, it is a whole new episode of "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER." This one "Political Violence, America's Bloody History." It is an important conversation about how the country moves forward after this latest tragedy. It airs next only here on CNN.

Thank you so much for joining me this evening. I'm Jessica Dean. I'll see you right back here next week and have a great night.