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Cruz Compares FCC Chair to "Mafioso"; Poland and Allies Scramble Jets amid Massive Strikes on Ukraine; Israeli Military Advances Ground Offensive in Gaza City; Former U.S. Attorney Defends Epstein 2008 Plea Deal; Prosecutors Seek Death Penalty in Kirk Murder; Four Decades Later, "Farm Aid" Benefit Concert Returns. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired September 20, 2025 - 04:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

President Trump is doubling down on his rhetoric about network broadcasts that are critical of him, as a prominent Republican senator speaks out about the Jimmy Kimmel suspension.

The Trump administration looks to crack down on a program that accepts highly-skilled foreign workers. We'll have details on the industry that could be impacted the most.

Plus, growing concerns in Europe after NATO says it intercepted three Russian jets violating its airspace.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: Critics are raising concerns about free speech in the U.S. in the wake of Disney pulling Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show. The reaction from Capitol Hill has mostly been split along party lines.

But now Republican senator Ted Cruz is slamming the head of the Federal Communications Commission for his threats against the ABC television network.

Brendan Carr pressured the broadcaster to take action against Kimmel following his comments about reactions to Charlie Kirk's murder. Senator Cruz called Carr's rhetoric "unbelievably dangerous" and likened it to that of a mob boss. President Trump says he disagreed with Cruz; instead, escalating attacks on American media. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They'll take a great story and they'll make it bad. See, I think that's really illegal personally. You can't take -- you can't have a free airwave. You're getting free airwaves from the United States government.

When somebody is given 97 percent of the stories are bad about a person, that's no longer free speech, that's no longer anything, that's just cheating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Protesters gathered outside Disney offices on Friday to defend Jimmy Kimmel and his right to free speech. A source tells CNN Kimmel sat down Thursday with ABC network executives. But they didn't come to an agreement about the potential return of his show. CNN's Brian Stelter has more.

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BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Hey, there. Yes, this whole week has been one long stress test of free speech rights in the United States. There has been a roiling debate about polarizing political commentary in the wake of Charlie Kirk's murder.

And now ABC's ongoing suspension of Jimmy Kimmel is a key part of that discussion. But this free speech debate is happening on other fronts as well. You know, free speech groups, free expression advocates are also raising concerns about the Trump White House's warnings that it wants to target opposition groups.

And there are also alarm bells ringing about Trump's latest audacious lawsuit against a news outlet. This week, it was "The New York Times" that Trump sued, charging defamation.

On Friday, however, a judge threw out the suit, saying the complaint was way too long and promotional. Trump's legal team indicated that they will refile the lawsuit and try again.

But the main flashpoint right now involves Trump, ABC and the FCC. That's the federal agency that oversees local TV station licensing.

Trump keeps floating his ideas about pulling TV station licenses if they air coverage or content that he doesn't like. He has been clear that he wants some station licenses to be revoked.

In practice, it would be very difficult for the government to go ahead and do that. But Trump keeps saying that networks like ABC are too critical of him. And he had a telling exchange with ABC's Jon Karl about this on Friday. Watch what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I mean your network wrote very badly about me and they had to pay me $16 million.

(CROSSTALK)

JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: -- Brendan Carr has a right to take away the license?

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TRUMP: -- I think Brendan Carr is a courageous person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: So there's two things to note there.

Number one, Trump gives a strong endorsement to his hand-picked FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, the man who publicly urged ABC to take action against Kimmel hours before ABC did just that.

Number two, it's revealing that Trump said ABC had to pay him $16 million because ABC did not have to pay Trump a single penny. ABC chose to settle a lawsuit with Trump last December when he was president-elect. ABC chose to settle that lawsuit to make it go away. It was a practical business decision but one that was widely criticized at the time.

And now many media critics have been making the argument that that act of capitulation last December set the stage for other media companies to reach settlements with Trump.

We've seen that happen at Paramount, also at Meta and X. It also perhaps emboldened Trump to turn the heat up even higher.

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Resulting in the moment we're now in, with Kimmel benched.

So on Friday, there were further protests outside Disney's offices, both in New York and in California. And around the edges, at least, those protests and possible boycotts, they are a concern because Disney tries to have a squeaky-clean, all-American brand.

You know, the company doesn't even like to have a single piece of trash lingering on the ground at Disneyland. And now they have protesters outside the Disneyland gates, having a rally for free speech.

So I think the reality is Disney has an incredibly sticky brand. It has tens of millions of subscribers to its streaming service. It's unlikely for the company to have a big hit to its financial bottom line because of this controversy. But the network does have a perception problem.

If you take a look at Trump's approval ratings, he does not have a majority of Americans behind him. It is very clear the average American does not agree with Trump on numerous issues and doesn't want the government to be bullying the American press into submission.

So the appearance of caving to the president can do long-term reputational harm, both for Disney and for other media companies that are criticized for allegedly bending the knee -- Brian Stelter, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: Major changes are coming to how the U.S. handles visas for highly-skilled foreign workers and it's going to hit the tech industry hard.

President Trump signed an executive action on Friday. It will impose a $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas. Now this is all part of his immigration crackdown and is meant to prioritize the hiring of Americans.

But then, in a separate order, he called for the creation of a gold card that would fast-track visas for wealthy foreigners. CNN's Kristen Holmes explains.

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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: President Trump taking a number of executive actions on immigration today, including imposing a new fee on H-1B visas, as well as creating what they are calling a gold card immigration program or pathway.

So starting with those H-1B visas, which are essentially visas that allow companies to hire foreign workers for a minimal -- or used to be a minimal fee -- that have specialty skillsets that they couldn't potentially get in the United States.

Now that fee is going to be, for an application waiver, $100,000. Now this is an enormous increase in what these applications are going to cost for these employers. So there's two things going on here.

One, we had heard from a number of employers who said it was growing increasingly hard to actually get these H-1B visas. This likely will make it harder.

But two, you see the administration here trying to do two things. One of them is get companies to essentially say that the person that they're hiring is so good and so unique they could not be found in the United States and they're willing to pay $100,000 for that person to come into the country.

The other thing to keep in mind here is the companies that generally use these H-1B visas, they're likely to be able to pay that kind of fee. It's usually tech companies or computer companies, who have said that they need this kind of foreign skillset. That is not necessarily something they can find in a U.S. job pool.

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HOWARD LUTNICK, U.S. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: The whole idea is no more will these Big Tech companies or other big companies train foreign workers. They have to pay the government $100,000. Then they have to pay the employee.

So it's just not economic. If you're going to train somebody, you're going to train one of the recent graduates from one of the great universities across our land, train Americans. Stop bringing in people to take our jobs. That's the policy here; $100,000 a year for H-1B visas. And all of the big companies are on board.

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HOLMES: Now when it comes to this gold card program, this is something that president Trump has talked about before. So, again, essentially an expedited visa process for those who are willing to invest in America $1 million.

And some of the thinking behind this from administration officials is this idea that, if you're willing to put that much into the United States, you're going to grow roots here, you might build a company here, you might then hire and create new jobs here if you are putting that kind of investment into the United States.

Of course, though, as we hear from these administration officials saying that it's only going to bring the top of the top into the country, it's also clearly only going to bring those who can afford it, so the wealthiest foreign workers into the country -- Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

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BRUNHUBER: We're getting word of a new wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine involving nearly 600 drones and 40 missiles. The attack across Ukraine prompted NATO to scramble fighter jets over Poland for a second time since last week. CNN's Barbie Nadeau is monitoring those developments and joins us from Rome.

So Barbie, what more can you tell us about these strikes?

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, these strikes overnight were really, really dangerous.

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We don't have the number of casualties or injuries yet but there were 579 attack drones, some dummy drones, eight ballistic missiles, 32 cruise missiles. Really quite an attack.

And what's really worrying here across Europe is how close all of this fighting is getting to the European borders, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. And as a result of it being so close to Poland's borders, we're seeing NATO scrambling jets. And that's following those reported incursions by Russian fighters in Estonian airspace.

So what's been the reaction to all of that?

NADEAU: Yes. You know, here in Italy, those were Italian jets that were scrambled over Estonia and the jets overnight, early this morning, over Poland really is something that Europeans have been worried about since the invasion, you know, in February 2022, that this war would spread even further. NATO earlier this month actually shot down some Russian drones. And

there's growing concern here in Europe. But let's listen to what president Trump had to say about it.

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QUESTION: Jets entered Estonia's airspace today for 12 minutes.

Do you see that as a threat to NATO?

TRUMP: Well, I'm going to have to look at it. They're going to be briefing me in a short while.

Well, I don't love it. I don't love it. I don't love it when that happens. It could be big trouble.

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NADEAU: And you know, Kim, when you listen to him, you listen to the European leaders, it really is just, you know, kind of a drumbeat of concern. And if NATO starts to get really more involved in these European countries get involved, then, of course, this war has spread far beyond Ukraine. Kim.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, that's the worry, Barbie Latza Nadeau, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

And for more on all this, we're joined by Max Seddon, the Moscow bureau chief for the "Financial Times."

Thank you so much for being here with us. Really appreciate it.

So yet again, we're seeing NATO jets being scrambled. And that's following the incursion reportedly into Estonian airspace earlier.

So how significant was that incident compared to the drone incursions that we saw earlier in Poland and Romania?

MAX SEDDON, MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF, "FINANCIAL TIMES": Well, I think it's pretty clear at this point that Putin thinks that it's time not just to, you know, that he can pressure NATO and get away with it.

Really, the peace talks with Ukraine are going absolutely nowhere. The Kremlin said as much the other day. And they feel basically that this is a war, not just with Ukraine but with the wider West. And they have shown an increasing willingness recently to test the West's readiness and show them that Russia will remain a threat to them.

BRUNHUBER: So in terms of, you say it's to pressure NATO, what exactly is the aim here?

Is it to test NATO's response capabilities or test their diplomatic resolve?

What's the end game? SEDDON: Well, I think, firstly, for the sake of fairness, the Russian

military did put out a statement last night, saying that they didn't actually violate Estonian airspace. This is something we have to take with a grain of salt, because it's the fourth time this year that they have done that, according to NATO countries.

But for Russia, this is a war that isn't just taking place on the battlefield. And Putin has been very clear about this. This is something that goes beyond the front in Ukraine. There are diplomatic fronts. There is the hybrid campaign of sabotage going on in Europe.

And this testing of NATO's preparedness and defensive is very much another element of that, of that all-out conflict. Not all of it is all-out war. Not all of it is taking place in Ukraine.

But this is very much in terms of that kind of posture. And it and it mirrors things that we saw under, under the Soviet Union at the highest points of tension with, with the West in the in the early 1980s for example.

BRUNHUBER: Before we get to the U.S. reaction, I want to talk about the reaction there in Europe. Here's Romania's foreign minister. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OANA TOLU, ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We perceived it as being intentional and we are clear on the fact that it is unacceptable. Russia is trying to undermine the NATO coherence. But I think they're achieving the exact opposite.

We are in closer contact with each other. We see more clearly that the decisions we have taken in The Hague summit to increase our budgets to 5 percent are the right decision. And we are accelerating our sanctions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: So is she right here?

Instead of dividing NATO, is all this uniting the alliance?

SEDDON: Well, I think from the Russian perspective, if you look at it in the longer term, there are innumerable ways where this war in Ukraine has been completely disastrous for Russia. And one of them is NATO.

It accelerated the acceptance of Sweden and Finland into NATO, something that quite possibly never would have happened if Putin hadn't done the war.

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It's forced NATO, which was an alliance really searching for its raison d'etre, to focus a lot more and to do a lot more to combat Russian preparedness. But Vladimir Putin is not a guy who, even if he thinks in these great historical terms, he is not really much of a strategist in that way.

He is a tactician. And these overflights, these are these provocative statements that they're doing because, screw you, that's why, from the Russian perspective. This is something that helps them stake out their claim in the here and now.

Because from the Russian perspective, whatever is happening in Ukraine, they retain escalation, dominance. Anything that the West can do to try to counter and stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia can raise the temperature.

And they're very confident that they can do that to points where NATO countries are just not very, really prepared to go that far.

BRUNHUBER: Is some of this confidence, due to the shrug, I guess we've seen, from president Trump?

I mean, we played the clip earlier; when asked about it, president Trump said, you know, this could be big trouble.

What do you make of his response and what it signals to Moscow?

SEDDON: Oh, I think absolutely. If remember, the real design of NATO is that America extends the security umbrella to Europe -- and that has never been more in question than now. Trump, already in his first term, he came quite close to taking the U.S. out of NATO.

And throughout the whole first year of his second term, we've seen this real reluctance, not just to increase sanctions against Moscow but really to take any kind of action, even as he said himself that Putin has let him down. Putin is not really engaged seriously on peace talks on Ukraine in the way that he hoped that Putin might do.

And there hasn't really been any response. And this is an alliance that relies on the U.S. Many of the European countries, for their own capabilities, just going down to really basic things like transport. It's still the U.S. that plays a huge role.

And you're already seeing a lot of steps taken by the U.S. to start to roll back, going all the way back to the beginning of the year, when Pete Hegseth made his first trip, the Secretary of War now, at the time, to a NATO ministerial.

And he said, basically, you guys, we are not going to be protecting you in the same way. And that and that's something that Putin very much knows because you can demonstrate that NATO is for all of the tough talk coming out of Romania in this case, that this alliance is really a paper tiger.

And if you don't have the U.S. really, really holding it all together like you have in the past.

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BRUNHUBER: Yes, a lot, a lot of worries about the consequences and where this is all heading. We'll have to leave it there. Always appreciate your analysis, Max Seddon. Thank you so much.

SEDDON: Thanks for having me.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Still ahead, displaced Palestinians are fleeing Gaza City. Israel's ground offensive advances from the outskirts toward the city center. We'll have details in a report from the region after the break. Please stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: In Gaza, Israel's military is getting closer to capturing Gaza City with tanks and ground forces moving in from the outskirts. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Israeli military is slowly but decisively moving forward with its planned invasion of Gaza City as Israeli tanks and troops have been spotted getting closer to the center of Gaza City, although for the moment they do remain around the city's outskirts.

We know that the Israeli military is now warning that they will operate with, quote, "unprecedented force" against Hamas inside of Gaza City, where there are still hundreds of thousands of civilians who are sheltering there.

Many of them unable to leave, even as the Israeli military is calling for them to immediately evacuate that city. We know that some 450,000 Palestinians are estimated to have fled the city so far but many more still remain.

And either lacking the resources, the financial means to leave the city or unwell enough, not sufficiently able to make the hours-long journey by foot in order to get out of Gaza City.

And then they know that what awaits them in southern and central Gaza is an area that is already overcrowded with displaced Palestinians, as the entire population of the Gaza Strip is being pushed into a smaller and smaller area of Gaza.

Now meanwhile, Hamas is also issuing a dire threat about the state of the hostages and the potential for them to be killed as the Israeli military moves into Gaza City. Hamas' al Qassam brigades, its military wing, says that it has now spread out the remaining hostages throughout different neighborhoods of Gaza City.

And saying that, effectively, the blood will be on the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hands if they are killed as Israeli forces advance. The Israeli military, for its part, has said that it is keeping the

hostages in mind as it advances; will proceed with caution, do everything that they can to avoid harming them in cooperation with Israeli intelligence.

But this latest, very dire warning from Hamas really goes directly to so many of the fears that we have heard from the families of those Israeli hostages, which they have been voicing very loudly over the course of the last few weeks in almost daily protests in front of the prime minister's residence, for example.

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Calling for a halt to this Gaza City offensive, an end to the war, fearing that their loved ones could be killed if Israeli forces continue to advance.

Meanwhile, at the U.N. Security Council, we saw on Thursday this latest effort to put a resolution forward, calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, failing once again as the United States vetoed the resolution, claiming it didn't sufficiently condemn Hamas.

And for now, there is no real progress in terms of getting those ceasefire and hostage deal negotiations between Israel and Hamas back on track -- Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The Palestinian president will address the U.N. General Assembly next week by video, as the U.S. said it wouldn't give him a visa to travel to New York.

Mahmoud Abbas is expected to seek support for a two-state solution at the annual gathering of world leaders. Several countries are expected to officially recognize a Palestinian state at the meeting, despite objections from Israel.

A group of U.S. Democratic senators introduced a resolution this week, calling on president Trump to recognize a Palestinian state. The resolution has practically no chance of passing the Republican- controlled Congress. Some critics say recognizing a Palestinian state would reward Hamas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL WEGLER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, THE BOARD OF DEPUTIES OF BRITISH JEWS: The objection is not the concept of a Palestinian state at all. It's an objection to it being done in this context, whereby Hamas are not being given conditions for ending their rule of terror and for the release of the Israeli hostages.

This is being seen by us as a reward for the awful events of October the 7th.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: All right. Coming up next for our international viewers, "INTELLIGENT FUTURE" is up next. For our viewers here in the United States and Canada, I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM after a short break. Please stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States and Canada. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz is denouncing the head of the Federal Communications Commission for his threats against the ABC television network.

Brendan Carr pressured the broadcaster to take action against late- night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, following his comments about reactions to Charlie Kirk's murder.

Senator Cruz has become the most prominent Republican to criticize the Trump administration's attacks on American broadcasters. Speaking on his podcast, Cruz likened Carr's comments to those of a mob boss. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): But look, I like Brendan Carr. He's a good guy. He's the chairman of the FCC. I work closely with him.

But what he said there is dangerous as hell.

He says, "We can do this the easy way but we could do this the hard way."

And I got to say that's right out of "Goodfellas." That's right out of a Mafioso coming into a bar, going, "Nice bar you have here. It'd be a shame if something happened to it."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: President Trump pushed back against Cruz's remarks, calling the FCC chair "a great American patriot."

A source tells CNN a U.S. attorney that's been under pressure from president Trump is resigning. Erik Siebert told his staff Friday he will be stepping down after facing calls from the U.S. president to charge New York attorney general Letitia James with mortgage fraud.

But Trump claims that he withdrew Siebert's nomination, writing on Truth Social, quote, "He didn't quit. I fired him." James has been a target of the president ever since she won a business

fraud case against him and his company. But federal prosecutors don't believe they have enough evidence to indict James for mortgage fraud.

Well, dawn approaches in Washington, D.C., and so does a government shutdown. House Speaker Mike Johnson garnered enough support to pass a stopgap bill that would fund the government through to November. But that bill was defeated in the Senate, as was a different proposal from the Democrats'.

So it leaves lawmakers with a week to find a solution before the deadline. And president Trump admitted that a government shutdown is a possibility. Here he is.

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TRUMP: We'll continue to talk to the Democrats but I think you could very well end up with a closed country for a period of time.

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BRUNHUBER: All right. Joining me now to talk about all of this is Natasha Lindstaedt, professor of government at the University of Essex.

Good to see you again. So much to talk about here. Let's start with the continuing fallout from the Kimmel suspension. I mean, it was interesting to see Trump loyalist Ted Cruz calling the FCCs move "dangerous," calling them like mob tactics that could backfire on conservatives.

And he, you know, he's in the minority. But he's not the only conservative to say this.

What do you make of the political response to this from the Right?

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: So there have been a few of those on the Right, a few notable people on the Right, that have been concerned about this; Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro on their podcast.

They were worried that, if the Democrats ever take power, that they could use their power over the FCC to suppress free speech as well. And actually, Tucker Carlson was concerned that they were using Charlie Kirk's death as a pretext to suppress free speech.

But these are really the minority on the Right. Most people on the Right have been saying that what Jimmy Kimmel said was really offensive, that this was more of a financial decision.

And more alarmingly, they were saying something to the effect of that, well, he wasn't imprisoned. He was just fired. So free speech has been upheld.

But I think that's a fundamental misunderstanding of the way democracy works. And we have a 1963 Supreme Court ruling that basically states that the government can't use its power to threaten action to suppress free speech. And so true. We're not like Russia. We're not imprisoning people for speaking freely.

But we are acting like Hungary, where we're using the power over government licenses to try to force people to engage in either self- censorship or to speak more nicely about the current administration.

And this is really a dangerous territory for us. And even FCC chair, Brendan Carr, who was responsible for all of this -- and back in 2020, he had said that free speech is the bedrock of democracy. So we're not seeing enough on the Right really understanding how important free speech is to democracy in this particular case.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. And I mean, Democrats have been loudly denouncing this in keeping, I guess, with what they would call Trump's autocratic tendencies.

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But for Democrats talking about Trump's threat to democracy, I mean, it didn't seem to be a winning issue in the last election.

Do you think it will resonate more in this -- in this cultural context?

LINDSTAEDT: It definitely wasn't a winning issue in the last election, as you mentioned, because it wasn't really real. It was just a hypothetical. And it looked as if the Democrats were fearmongering and talking about something that wasn't going to happen.

But we're here now. We're seeing that Trump hasn't been just acting as dictator for a day; he is really accelerating the autocratization process and threatening real civil liberties and freedoms and so forth.

So it may be different this time around. Now the Democrats don't have a great approval rating, either, but neither does Trump. And so that's something else that they can capitalize on.

He's still popular amongst Republicans. He still has somewhere, almost 90 percent support among Republicans. But what the Democrats should look to is that there's somewhere around two-thirds of independents -- and that was critical to him winning in 2024. Two-thirds of independents disapprove of him.

And so they're going to have to tap into this frustration that people have, not just with the fact that democracy is decaying but other factors that he's unpopular, such as running the economy.

BRUNHUBER: Well, one issue that might make either party more unpopular is that possible government shutdown that I mentioned. I mean, we see these shutdown showdowns all the time these days.

And keeping in mind the backlash that we saw, Democrats saw, I guess, from their base last time that they voted to keep the government funded, I mean, who has more to lose here politically, do you think?

LINDSTAEDT: So I think, in this case, the Democrats ended up getting punished more from their base, as you mentioned, by averting a shutdown.

And by doing so, there are members of the base that feel that the Democrats are not doing enough as a resistance party to try to stop some of the policies that Donald Trump and the Republicans are putting forth, which will have detrimental effects on their constituents. So we may see different tactics from the Democrats.

I mean, the Democrats have been always criticized for not being well organized enough and not really putting up much of a fight against the Republican tactic. So they may decide to go with the shutdown, though it's unpopular with many Americans for obvious reasons.

They're going to be under pressure to fight more. And that would be one way of fighting.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. We'll have to leave it there. Thank you so much, Natasha Lindstaedt. Really appreciate it.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Still ahead, what the former U.S. attorney general, who oversaw Jeffrey Epstein's 2008 plea deal, told Congress about the controversial negotiations. That story and more coming up. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The former U.S attorney, who negotiated a controversial plea deal for Jeffrey Epstein, testified before the House Oversight Committee on Friday. Epstein avoided a federal trial at the time and served just 13 months in prison for state prostitution charges over his involvement with underage girls.

CNN's Annie Grayer has more on the testimony from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT: The former U.S. attorney Alex Acosta testified behind closed doors for hours with the House Oversight Committee on Friday as he tried to defend his 2008 plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein, where Epstein avoided a federal trial and only served 13 months in jail.

Then in 2019, Epstein was federally charged and sent to prison for participating in a sex trafficking ring. And that is when Acosta's role really came into question for the first time.

At the time in 2019, Acosta was serving as President Trump's labor secretary in his first term and ended up resigning after the controversy surrounding his handling of the Epstein case came to light.

So Acosta's role in all this is now back in the spotlight as House Democrats and Republicans on the Oversight Committee are investigating the entire Epstein case, how it was handled, all of the documents there.

So Acosta testified behind closed doors for hours trying to defend his case. Democrats came out quickly during that interview on Friday to discredit Acosta and saying that he was not credible in his comments to investigators. But this is just one step in a much larger investigation.

The Oversight Committee has received documents from the Department of Justice from the Jeffrey Epstein estate and they also are starting to receive bank records from the Treasury Department.

But Alex Acosta sitting for hours on Friday on Capitol Hill was a big step in a very high profile investigation on Capitol Hill -- Annie Grayer, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Students at Utah Valley University gathered on Friday to pay tribute to Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist assassinated during an event on their campus 10 days ago.

The vigil comes ahead of Kirk's funeral on Sunday, which is expected to draw thousands of mourners, as well as president Trump. At the end of the ceremony, the community lit candles as quotes from Kirk and others appeared on the screen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CALEB CHLICUTT, CHAPTER PRESIDENT, TURNING POINT USA: In times of loss and hardship, it can be easy to focus on differences. But Charlie reminded us that our true strength is found in what brings us together. He also reminds us about courage. Charlie said, if you believe in something, you need to have the courage to fight for those ideas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Kirk's accused killer, Tyler Robinson, is charged with aggravated murder and other offenses and prosecutors announced they'll seek the death penalty. But if there's a guilty verdict, it's not clear how the execution would be carried out. CNN's Danny Freeman explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As countless questions continue to surround the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk, perhaps one looms largest: life or death. From day one, the death penalty has been front and center in this case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah.

JEFF GRAY, UTAH COUNTY ATTORNEY: I am filing a notice of intent to seek the death penalty. I do not take this decision lightly and it is a decision I have made independently.

FREEMAN (voice-over): That intention to seek the death penalty for 22-year old Tyler Robinson made official with this filing.

GRAY: I am charged with bringing justice for Charlie Kirk.

FREEMAN (voice-over): Utah is one of 27 states that currently allows the death penalty. The most recent execution here took place last year. It was the first since 2010.

And while lethal injection is the primary method of execution in Utah, it's one of only five states that allows a firing squad also as an option but typically only if the drug used for lethal injection is unavailable, making it possible but unlikely.

[04:45:07]

The last time it was used in Utah was 15 years ago. Since 1976, there have been just five executions by firing squad in the U.S., Three in Utah and two this year in South Carolina.

In his Provo office, criminal defense attorney Randall Spencer says he wasn't surprised prosecutors intended to try this as a capital murder case.

RANDALL SPENCER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: But I did question the probability of a conviction of capital murder in this case.

FREEMAN (voice-over): Spencer explained. If someone kills, say, a police officer or an elected official, Utah law is crystal clear. That would be a capital case. But he argues Kirk's killing isn't as cut and dry.

SPENCER: You have to prove an aggravating factor, which is separate from proving that one killed another person. And the aggravating factor which the county attorney's office chose in this case is that the defendant acted in a way that would pose a great risk of death to someone other than the defendant himself or the victim, Charlie Kirk.

FREEMAN (voice-over): But Spencer thinks proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Robinson's alleged clear targeting of Kirk truly threatened other people's lives could be an uphill climb for prosecutors.

SPENCER: The decision that I believe a jury will have to make is, under those very precise circumstances, with a precision shot, did that really create a great risk or a substantial and unjustifiable risk, such that it was highly likely that someone else would have been killed, too?

And obviously no one else was.

FREEMAN: Now, of course, Robinson is innocent until proven guilty. But if he is ultimately convicted of killing Charlie Kirk, the larger fight may end up being whether or not a Utah jury wants to sentence him to death.

And although a judge has said that an attorney must be appointed for Robinson by his next court appearance, which is scheduled for September 29th -- Danny Freeman, CNN, Spanish Fork, Utah.

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BRUNHUBER: A protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Illinois turned violent on Friday. The mayor of a Chicago suburb who is running for Congress says he was hit with tear gas. He said he was scared as ICE officers drove a van into the protesters.

A former journalist, who is also a candidate for Congress, says one officer picked her up and threw her to the ground. The federal agents blamed the protesters, accusing them of assaulting law enforcement, throwing tear gas canisters, slashing car tires and blocking the entrance to the building. Three people were arrested.

President Trump says he's made progress on a TikTok deal with Chinese president Xi. The two leaders spoke on the phone on Friday. On social media, Trump said they discussed trade, fentanyl and, quote, the "approval of the TikTok deal."

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The TikTok deal is well on its way, as you know and the investors are getting ready. And I think China wanted to see it stay open, too. They wanted to see it. And I can tell you the young people in our country wanted to see it stay open very badly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: But China had a very different take. Chinese state media didn't mention the word "approval" in their recap of the call.

Earlier this week, the U.S. and China agreed on a framework to sell TikTok's U.S. assets to American investors. But key questions remain about control over TikTok's proprietary algorithm, widely seen as the key to the app's success.

Willie Nelson is still at it. The former cotton picker turned music legend helped create a way to help struggling family farmers in the U.S. Just ahead, a special report as the Farm Aid benefit concert takes to the stage again. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Later today, music royalty Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Dave Matthews and others will gather in Minneapolis to perform at Farm Aid. The almost annual concert series has been around for decades and, this year, CNN is the exclusive broadcast partner.

As CNN's Bill Weir explains, the event benefits family farmers in the U.S. who have been struggling with old, familiar financial problems and new challenges.

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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a debt crisis that inspired the first Farm Aid when foreclosures and suicides inspired Willie Nelson and friends to raise money and awareness.

WILLIE NELSON, MUSICIAN: As long as there's one family farmer out there who wants to stay on the land, we'll be here.

WEIR: Forty years later, there is still plenty of farm debts, along with plenty of worry about immigration raids, trade wars and climate change.

Earth is hotter by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since Farm Aid one, bringing more drought, flood and pestilence.

PENNY JORDAN, FARMER: Our big harvest at this point in time is tomatoes.

WEIR: Penny Jordan recently lost tens of thousands of worth of strawberries to fruit flies that now survive Maine winters. And now she's dealing with historic drought. Scrambling for irrigation gear never needed before.

JORDAN: Farming has never gets easier. It always gets harder. And all of the inputs cost more. Everything is expensive.

And so, you're looking at a season that you always hope has promise and every time you have more money going into your inputs and then you want your product to be affordable for people. WEIR: Meanwhile, in Minnesota, Angela Dawson says she's losing her

dream of a 40-acre co-op to grow hemp and train a new generation of Black farmers to grow the kind of biodiversity we saw in Penny's farm in Maine, where variety helps feed the surrounding ecosystem.

ANGELA DAWSON, FARMER: It's really a simple saying but like if you ate today, thank a farmer, is like the reality hasn't hit I think most of us yet.

WEIR: First, she says, epic storms destroyed her hoop houses and then a Biden era grant she was counting on to buy a tractor was killed amid cuts by the EPA.

DAWSON: I think when we just commoditize everything and try to put it into a stock market tick --

[04:55:05] WEIR: Right.

DAWSON: -- it just might not. It doesn't work that way. And so I feel like if we just had more of a holistic and comprehensive approach to agriculture, including all the diverse aspects that makes things grow --

WEIR: Yes.

DAWSON: -- you know, farming can't just be a monoculture.

WEIR: Ironically, it is monoculture commodity crops like corn that get the most federal subsidy help, while those growing the veggies at your farm stand often struggle to stay in business.

REP. CHELLIE PINGREE (D-ME): I ended up becoming a hippie back to the lander and coming to Maine in the 1970s.

WEIR: Chellie Pingree was one of those organic farmers before joining Congress and is now trying to pass her Agricultural Resilience Act.

PINGREE: Some of the parts of the bill talk about things like keeping farmland, because a lot of farmers are just worried about losing their farm and what protection programs can help keep it. And then when you have your farm, how do we make it more viable?

Is it a value-added producer grant that allows you to turn your goat milk into cheese or your raspberries into jam?

You know, what is it?

WEIR: Farm aid is helping promote her bill but she's up against an administration that is openly hostile to climate science.

TRUMP: And windmills. We're just not going to allow them. They ruin our. They're ruining our country. They're ruining everyone.

PINGREE: I mean, one of the goals is to make agriculture net zero. But you know, today, climate change isn't such a popular item with this president.

But on the other hand, keeping farms viable should be. And this USDA should be all about how do we serve our farmers. So this bill is really to talk about those things that would make it more viable to be on the land, how to reduce your energy costs.

What kind of research do you need to deal with the weeks and weeks we've had of drought this year?

What do you need to do more irrigating?

How do you do all these things?

WEIR (voice-over): Bill Weir, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: And be sure to stay with CNN for our special presentation of Farm Aid 40. It airs live today at 7 pm Eastern time.

All right. That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll be back with more news in just a moment.