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Piecing the Puzzle Together; Rubio Arrives in Israel; Pope Leo Turns LXX. Aired 3-3.30a ET

Aired September 14, 2025 - 03:00   ET

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

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BEN HUNTE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, wherever you are in the world. You are now in the CNN Newsroom with me, Ben Hunt Atlanta, and it is so good to have you with me.

Coming up on the show, piecing the puzzle together. Investigators are taking a close look at what led to the arrest of the suspect in the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Arriving in Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio walked down the steps about an hour ago. He's there to find out more about Israel's military campaign against Hamas.

And a papal party, as Pope Leo turns 70 today. How the pontiff is spending his birthday weekend.

Welcome. Investigators from Utah to Washington, D.C., are working to piece together exactly what happened last Wednesday when conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on a college campus. The New York Times is reporting that the suspect in a case 22-year-old Tyler Robinson joked in an online chat on Discord that his, quote, doppelganger carried out the crime. They say the chat took place just hours before he was arrested. Robinson is reportedly still refusing to cooperate with investigators ahead of his first court appearance on Tuesday.

Kirk supporters around the country are holding vigils to remember him. The group that Kirk founded, Turning Point USA, says it will hold a memorial one week from today in Glendale, Arizona.

Senior U.S. National Correspondent Ed Lavandera is in Orem, Utah, with the latest on the investigation.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Utah Valley University campus remains closed and will do so into next week, although university officials are now saying that classes will resume here next Wednesday. And that will be the day after the suspect, the man accused of shooting and killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson, is scheduled to make his first court appearance that is supposed to happen next Tuesday afternoon here in Utah.

Prosecutors tell us that they are planning to formally file their criminal charges against him and there are already a number of charges preliminarily filed against him, holding him in jail without bond. And that will continue to hold him there for the foreseeable future. Very unlikely that he will be able to get any kind of bond and be out of jail while he awaits the trial, but, clearly, murder charges and other charges coming against him, also perhaps federal charges as well. So, we are looking toward that, this as investigators continue to try to figure out the motive behind this deadly attack here on this campus that happened last Wednesday afternoon.

So far, investigators say that this 22-year-old suspect had expressed to family members that he had a dislike for Charlie Kirk. But there's a lot of context still missing that has not really been hammered out in specific details exactly what it was about Charlie Kirk that the suspect did not like that much.

And so here on the campus, we're still seeing an outpouring of support and people coming here, a makeshift memorial that has popped up just on the edge of the campus, family members or families from across Utah coming here to pay their respects. And we've seen a steady stream of people coming to visit this small vigil just here on the side of the road, on the edge of this campus.

And we've seen this, as I mentioned for several days now, and now being the weekend we're seeing, you know, more of it as the impact of all of this continues to really hurt and inflict a great deal of sadness among Charlie Kirk supporters across the country.

Charlie Kirk's wife spoke out Friday evening for the first time saying that she vows to continue on her husband's legacy, making Turning Point USA the political group that Kirk founded as a teenager. And he still vowed the family vows to continue to make that bigger and bigger. And she described Charlie Kirk as a martyr for his beliefs.

So, this is something that we will continue to see in the months and years ahead. Is Charlie Kirk's wife getting involved in that Turning Point USA political program?

[03:05:00]

But right now the focus and the attention here in Utah is the criminal investigation that continues and the court appearance slated for Tuesday of next week.

Ed Lavandera, CNN in Orem, Utah.

HUNTE: U.S. President Donald Trump is pressuring NATO allies with an ultimatum that he says will quickly end Russia's war in Ukraine. In a post on social media, he quoted a letter that he sent his NATO counterparts. The president said he's willing to slap major sanctions on Moscow, but only if NATO countries agree to do the same and stop buying oil from Russia. He also called on NATO to significantly ramp up tariffs on China, the largest purchaser of Russian oil.

This all comes as Russian drones potentially breached a NATO airspace for a second time this week, Romania's Defense Ministry said it intercepted a drone that entered its airspace on Saturday while Russia attacked Ukraine. F-16 fighter jets tracked the drone until it dropped off the radar. Romania says the drone did not fly over populated areas or pose an imminent threat.

CNN's Betsy Klein has more for us.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Trump issuing an ultimatum to NATO countries. In a letter issued Saturday, the president says that he will enact major sanctions on Russia if and when NATO countries do the same, and also stop purchasing Russian oil and gas.

Now, in that same letter, the president is also calling on NATO countries to significantly ramp up tariffs on China up to 50 to 100 percent in a show of force.

But meeting the President's demands is really going to mark a significant policy change for many of these NATO member countries, and it remains to be seen whether there is enough collective interest to take those steps. But the president laying out his rationale in his letter, he writes, quote, NATO's commitment to win has been far less than 100 percent, and the purchase of Russian oil by some has been shocking. It greatly weakens your negotiation position and bargaining power over Russia.

Now, many of these countries still import Russian fossil fuels as well as liquefied natural gas. And Turkey, which is a NATO member country, is a major purchaser of Russian oil. This is generally also not how European countries conduct their tariff policy. So, it remains to be seen whether President Trump can influence his counterparts on this issue.

And all of this comes, of course, as momentum toward ending Russia's war in Ukraine has largely stalled in recent weeks. Russia has shown very little sign of de-escalation, particularly as we've seen that incursion into Polish airspace with Russian drones in the past days.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked about that on Saturday and he weighed in.

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MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: I don't think anybody's happy about it, seeing it happen. You saw NATO respond to it appropriately. We don't want to see it happen again. We think it's unacceptable and unfortunate and dangerous development in this regard. I think it'll take a few more days for everybody to fully -- the drones were intentionally launched. There's no doubt about the drones were intentionally launched. The question is whether the drones were targeted to go into Poland specifically. If that's the case, that if the evidence leads us there, then, obviously, that will be a highly escalatory move.

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KLEIN: President Trump meanwhile says that his patience with Russian President Putin is running out and running out fast. But his latest demands risk prolonging this conflict.

Betsy Klein, CNN, traveling with the president in New Jersey.

HUNTE: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Vladimir Putin got what he wanted out of his recent summit with President Trump. Zelenskyy sat down with CNN's Fareed Zakaria in Kyiv.

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I think that for Putin, it was successful meeting, first, with president of the United States, second, on the territory of the United States Authority. He got images with the president of the United States. And he didn't promise for ceasefire, but, again, maybe he promised something to President Trump. I don't know, but he didn't. And he postponed sanctions and postponed any strong pressure.

What really Putin understands that Trump can do, and he showed it not on Russia, on other countries, he showed what he can. So, that's why I said that I think that it was mostly more successful for Putin.

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HUNTE: You can watch Fareed's full interview with President Zelenskyy at 3:00 P.M. in London, and that is 10:00 P.M. in Hong Kong.

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Israel a short time ago. He's there to meet with Israeli officials and he says to gain clarity on Israel's strategy and its military campaign against Hamas.

Before leaving the U.S., Rubio said President Trump wasn't happy about Israel's recent attack on Hamas negotiators in Doha, but he insists that the U.S. is still committed to Israel.

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RUBIO: It's not going to shake our relationship with Israel. It's going to remain strong. And sometimes, you know, things happen or come up in those relationships that perhaps are not 100 percent aligned with or what have you, but it's not going to change the nature of our relationship with the Israelis, but we are going to have to talk about it primarily what impact does this have, what happened, what impact does that have moving forward on what comes next.

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HUNTE: Some Israelis are pushing back on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's justification for his strike on Hamas officials in Qatar earlier this week. Thousands of protesters descended upon Tel Aviv's Hostage Square on Saturday. They were demanding an end to the war and the release of hostages. One banner read, quote, Netanyahu, stop deceiving. President Trump.

A major group of relatives of the remaining hostages, is accusing Mr. Netanyahu of, quote, sabotage and being a, quote, obstacle to ending the war in Gaza.

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ITZIK HORN, FATHER OF HOSTAGE EITAN HORN: Whoever truly wants to bring the hostages home does not bomb the Hamas negotiation team while they're discussing the release of my son and the other hostages.

Prime Minister, I'm calling on you, let's sit down, face-to-face, father-to-father, no media, no spin, no leaks, and answer me just one question. If your children were among the hostages, would they also be rotting in tunnels for over 700 days? So, why our children?

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HUNTE: Qatar announced they will host an emergency Arab Islamic summit on Monday in the wake of Israel's airstrikes on Doha.

CNN's Oren Liebermann explains how Israel's operation to kill Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital all unfolded.

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: We broke down the timeline of the brazen Israeli strike in Qatar targeting senior Hamas leaders. At 3:46 P.M. local time on Tuesday, September 9th, more than ten Israeli munitions slam into a residential building in Central Doha.

The previous evening, Hamas' chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, had been meeting with the Qatari prime minister. They were discussing the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal that had been put on the table by President Donald Trump just days earlier. That meeting wraps up at 9:30 in the evening.

The Qatari negotiators then called their Israeli counterparts to update them. That call lasts for hours. It goes until 5:00 in the morning. It's now Tuesday, September 9th. Hamas promised to get back to Qatar 12 hours later by 5:00 in the evening. In the hours before that happens, Israeli fighter jets take off. Israel hasn't said which jets they used or what route they took, but the Israeli military says more than ten fighter jets took part in the operation.

Around this time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hunkered down in the special operations command center of the Shin Bet Security Agency. The Shin Bet later releases this photo.

Israel waits until the last-minute to notify the U.S. That's because there's a massive U.S. military presence in Qatar, and the country is a major non-NATO U.S. ally. In the end, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff tells President Donald Trump tells U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff, and then U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff tells the Qataris.

It's about 3:56 P.M. ten minutes after the strike. A short time after that, at 5:08 P.M., Netanyahu puts out a statement saying, Israel acted wholly independently. It's a message that comes at the request of the U.S. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of London on Saturday as part of the Unite the Kingdom rally that was organized by far right political activists Tommy Robinson. Some of the protesters paid their respects to the murdered U.S. activist Charlie Kirk by chanting his name and carrying his photo.

The huge crowds became unruly with protestors throwing projectiles and clashing with police. 26 officers were injured and 25 people were arrested. This all follows a wave of anti-immigrant protests that have turned violent in the U.K. as Britain deals of a surge of asylum seekers who've crossed the English Channel.

Protesters who attended Saturday's events say they're frustrated with the current labor government.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the current government is a disgrace, is taking away our liberties and making up things as they go along. I've never seen a government so disorganized.

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HUNTE: Meanwhile, large crowds also turned out for counter-protests, coming signs that said, fight against the far right. One counter- protester said, people are too quick to blame migrants for the problems that face the U.K.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a fear that the far right are trying to take over. So, it's a fear of a rise of that sort of thing. But also the way immigrants and the asylum seekers are blamed for what's wrong here. It's totally wrong. It's totally wrong, and I think it's racist.

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HUNTE: A little earlier, I spoke of Natasha Lindstaedt, the professor of government at the University of Essex, all about the rally in London. I asked her to explain how significant this is for British politics and how right wing parties are driving the political agenda in the U.K.

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NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: The Reform U.K. party is growing in popularity. And then I'm going to point to a recent YouGov survey from early September that showed that 44 percent of those surveyed in Britain believe that the U.K. Reform Party is setting the agenda. And it's growing in popularity with conservatives as well with support from about 63 percent of conservatives and 37 percent of those polled overall. At the same time though, in the same poll, only 24 percent believe that it would do a good job running the country. So, it's not yet a mainstream party or mainstream movement. But when it -- as it has been growing in popularity, this affects the current Labor government. We've seen Labor, its policies been affected by this and it affects the discourse as well. We're having conversations about what constitutes hate speech, what constitutes free speech. And there are clear disagreements about this, as Tommy Robinson, the leader of this big protest, called this the biggest free speech festival, and others might say that this was some sort of hate speech March.

HUNTE: Well, let's dig into some of that. You have studied the rise of populism globally. In what ways do you think that what we're seeing in the U.K. is similar to the current U.S. experience?

LINDSTAEDT: Well, it's definitely very similar in that the roots of what is driving this seems to be connected to those feeling disenfranchised from the major parties and the idea that the democratic institutions are not working properly. The political parties are not representing properly, and people are feeling left behind and in particular feeling upset about globalization and the rise in movement -- free movement of people and feeling that it has gotten out of control and they feel that they are losing their identity.

And we saw this when Elon Musk was speaking to the public there at this protest that you have to fight or you're going to die, essentially. They feel that they are dealing with an existential threat. That is their view of the situation, and that's why they're turning to alternative -- either alternative parties or alternative leaders or wanting to completely shake up the system. And that's basically what Elon Musk was saying. We have to break the government down. It's not working for you. You have to do something completely different.

And we're seeing groups and opinions that were more on the fringe that are becoming more and more mainstream. Of course, this is propelled by social media, which exacerbates this, which puts people in these echo chambers.

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HUNTE: At least 1 person has died and more than 20 others injured in an explosion at a cafe in Madrid. Three of the victims suffered serious injuries, according to local officials. A neighboring residents said the blast felt like an earthquake. Emergency services have begun removing debris from that area, and the cause of the explosion remains unclear at the moment.

The Venezuelan government says, U.S. troops intercepted and boarded a tuna fishing boat on Friday. Venezuela says the troops occupied the ship for eight hours. A U.S. military buildup in the region has increased tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela.

Just last week, the U.S. destroyed a boat it said, without evidence, was carrying illegal drugs, and that strike killed 11 people. Venezuela's foreign minister is calling on the U.S. to stop all of these operations.

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EVAN GILL, VENEZUELAN FOREIGN MINISTER: The Venezuelan government demands the United States immediately ceases these actions that put the security and peace in the Caribbean at risk.

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HUNTE: Venezuelan citizens who signed up for the country's militia program learned how to use firearms on Saturday. The lessons are part of President Nicolas Maduro's defense strategy during tensions with the U.S.

All right, Pope Leo is celebrating his birthday and a wide mix of musicians and thinkers joined him to look to the future. We're going to have a look at who was there when we come back.

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See you in a bit.

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HUNTE: Welcome back. Pope Leo turns 70 today. And, coincidentally, the Vatican brought together some famous musicians and thinkers in St. Peter's Square over the weekend. They were there not just to enjoy an unprecedented pop concert, but also to think about how to influence humanity's future in a positive way.

CNN Vatican Correspondent Christopher Lamb was there.

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this has been the first concert of its kind in St. Peter's. There's been a huge crowd here to see an all star lineup directed by Pharrell Williams and Andrea Bocelli. There've been performances from John Legend, Karol G., Jennifer Hudson. It's all part of the Vatican's attempt to build a more humane and peaceful world. And it's the culmination of a summit on human fraternity, which has brought together thinkers and Nobel laureates to discuss a whole range of topics, including artificial intelligence.

Now, among those who come to the Vatican to talk about that topic was Will.I.Am the front man of Black Eyed Peas, and he spoke to me earlier about why he had come to the Vatican for these discussions.

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WILL.I.AM, BLACK EYED PEAS: It demands that people center themselves around what's good for humanity. It demands that folks are stakeholders and not only care about their shareholders. It demands that they build systems that are for community and the improvement of society, right. That's the pieces of why they come to the Vatican. And it's beautiful. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LAMB: Now, the celebratory atmosphere in Rome was appropriate, given that on Sunday, Pope Leo is due to celebrate his 70th birthday. Now, that's quite young for a pope, and it's not clear how Leo will celebrate, but he did receive a cake on Saturday from the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy Sea, Brian Burch. Ambassador Burch was making his first visit to meet with Pope Leo, and he bought him a chocolate cake from Portillo's, a restaurant chain headquartered in Chicago, of course, the hometown of Pope Leo.

Christopher Lamb, CNN Rome.

HUNTE: Dogs and their owners in England are making a splash as the beloved Dogtember fundraiser return to East Sussex on Saturday. It is one of the largest canine swimming events of its kind in the U.K. as people and canines get into the swim of things together.

Dogtember runs for four weekends at the art deco-style, Saltdean Lido. It was built in 1938 as a fashionable resort. Proceeds from the event help fund the venue's multimillion dollar restoration. Officials say they're looking forward to the most fun and chaotic days of the year.

Yes, more of that. Thousands of Jane Austen fans slipped into early 19th century costume on Saturday to celebrate the Pride and Prejudice author's 250th birthday in bonnets, breaches and empire line dresses, they paraded around the historic British city of Bath where Austin lived from 1801 to 1806. It was the official start of the annual Jane Austen Festival, which has taken place in the city until September 21st. How exciting.

Thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. Like a Local is next. I'll see you tomorrow at slightly earlier time than usual. Have a good day.

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